Twisted Up (Taking Chances #1) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,77
house with his mom.
It was pathetic now. Avery realized that as a teenager, she’d chosen a woman twenty-some years older than she was as a best friend and had preferred mani-pedi–and–milkshake nights over doing things with girls her age. Avery had learned at a young age that people who wanted her around, who liked her, especially those who loved her, were rare. So when Heidi—someone so sweet and kind and talented and smart and classy—had wanted her, Avery had clung to her.
It was why she’d do anything to protect the friendships she had with Bree and Kit and Liza. They didn’t have a long, deep history like Jake and the guys, but the girls had worked at having a relationship with Avery, and that meant everything to her.
Whether it was gossip or a girls’ trip out of town for the weekend, Avery was, for the first time in forever, part of a relationship that wasn’t going to end in heartbreak.
But speaking of heartbreak . . .
Jake crossed the street, wiping his face with a bandanna he’d pulled from his back pocket.
“Hey,” he greeted as he got close.
His smile said he truly was glad to see her, and her stomach flipped.
“Hi.” She tried to keep her face and voice from seeming that she was too excited to see him.
“What’s up?”
“I just wanted to . . . stop by.” Why had she stopped by? Because she wanted to see him. She wasn’t sure she was quite ready to admit that.
Now that he was up close, she was having a hard time keeping her concentration anyway. All that skin and those muscles were even more devastating up close. The glistening on his chest had combined into a few drops that were snaking their way from his pecs to his abs, and she couldn’t have kept her gaze from following for all the money in the world.
“A?”
His voice was rough, and when she looked up, she saw his gaze was even hotter than his sun-kissed skin.
“Yeah?” She sounded funny even to her own ears.
“You know I’m willing and able to throw you over my shoulder. If you keep looking at me like that, it’s going to happen again.”
She wanted him to do it. So much.
“You’re working,” she said, because she felt like she should.
“I can take a break.”
“Well . . .” Another drop of sweat ran past his left nipple, and she had to stop and swallow to keep from following it with her tongue.
“You’re killing me.” He said it softly as he stepped forward, backing her up against the side of the Jeep.
The hot metal of her vehicle was no match for the heat pouring off his hard body.
She looked up into his face. God, she wanted him. And she was sure he knew it.
“Come to my place. I’ll shower and we can . . . do a bunch of stuff that will require another shower.” He grinned down at her.
He wasn’t touching her, but she felt as if he was. Her whole body was humming.
A shower. Things that would require another shower. His place.
His place.
She frowned. His place was in Kansas City. He was staying at his parents’ house.
She couldn’t have sex in Heidi and Wes’s house.
“I brought you a sandwich.” She remembered it suddenly and stuck it up between them, almost hitting him in the chin.
His gaze was knowing as he took it from her. “Thanks.”
“Speaking of your parents’ house.” She wished he’d step back so she could think more clearly. “I got a voice message from your mom saying dinner Friday night was at six.”
Jake pulled the sandwich from the plastic bag. “Good. I was wondering.”
“About dinner,” she clarified.
“The time.”
“Tomorrow is Friday night.”
“Right.” He took a huge bite of the sandwich, then grimaced. But he covered it quickly and started chewing.
Avery narrowed her eyes. “You don’t like ham salad.”
He swallowed and took another bite.
“Jake.”
“It’s not my favorite,” he said after he’d swallowed again. “But it’s fine.”
“You gave me ham salad the other day.”
“I did,” he said with a smile. “One of the ladies at the church was passing out sandwiches. I grabbed two because you hadn’t eaten; I realized one was ham salad and one was turkey, so I kept the turkey.” Jake was watching her closely as he ate. “That sandwich the other day got me some points, didn’t it?”
What was the point in denying it? She wanted him to understand why she’d brought him one today. She nodded. “I kissed you because of that sandwich.”