Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
I snort. Uh, yeah. “So, what do you like to do? I know you like to dance at the clubs, and if Beau’s stories are anything to go by, I know you like Starbucks. What else do you like?”
“I like fashion. High-end stuff, obviously, but I’ve seen some really unique pieces coming out of the U of M fashion program, and I tend to keep up with that.”
“That’s cool. Why don’t you try to do something with that?”
She scoffs, shaking her head. “Yeah, okay. Because Avery Banks trying to be serious about anything wouldn’t be the biggest joke in Miami.”
I frown. “Why would it be a joke?”
She lets out a short laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “Come on, Henry. My entire life, Beau has been the successful one, the overachiever, the one everyone expects to do great things. Me? I play my part. I’m the fun one. The wild one. The one people invite to parties, not boardrooms.” She shrugs like it’s no big deal, but something about the way her voice tightens tells me otherwise. “No one’s ever expected me to do anything, so I never bothered pretending like I would.”
I study her for a second, catching the way she won’t meet my eyes. “That’s a load of shit.”
Her head snaps up. “Excuse me?”
“You’re smart as hell, Avery. You could do anything you wanted. And you know it.”
She scoffs again, but this time, it’s weaker. “Even if that were true, no one would take me seriously.”
I shake my head. “You ever think maybe you don’t take yourself seriously first?”
She flinches—barely, but I catch it.
For a second, she looks like she might say something. That maybe I’ve hit a nerve too deep for her to ignore. But then she plasters on that effortless smirk, the one she’s perfected over the years, and flicks her wrist like she’s brushing the whole conversation away. “Well, lucky for me, I don’t need a job, right? Daddy’s money and all.”
I don’t let her get away with it, though. “Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something for yourself.”
Avery rolls her eyes, but I see the flicker of something else beneath the surface. Something unsure. Something that tells me maybe, just maybe, she’s thought about this more than she lets on.
“We’re going to get out of here,” I say softly, finding her hazel eyes and holding them even when she seems like she wants to fight it. “I know sometimes it doesn’t seem like it, and that it feels like we’ve been here forever, but I’m confident this isn’t our eternity. We sure as hell shouldn’t plan like it is.”
She chews her lip, her eyes turning shiny with unshed tears. “I really hope you’re right.”
“I am,” I say and try to make myself feel as confident as my words sound. “I mean, hell, you’ve got the boyfriend to go back to, right?”
“The boyfriend,” she says slowly, hiding her eyes from me by looking at her lap. “Yeah. And I mean, you have someone too. What’s her name?”
My chest feels tight with discomfort as I think about Ashley—my girlfriend whom I’ve only been with a short time and have thought about exactly zero times since we got on this island. She’s a nice girl, but I know if I’m honest with myself, I’m only with her because all my friends have someone, and I don’t want to be the odd man out.
Being the only single guy of the whole group was starting to grate.
“Ashley.”
“Well…there you go. I’ll go back to Justin and you’ll go back to Ashley, and…we’ll carry on. One day. I guess.” She groans. “All right, enough of this. I’m going to go for a swim. Want to come?”
I shake my head. “Think I’ll go ahead and cook this other fish.”
She nods, shucking her sweater to reveal her bikini, and wades into the water, diving into the incoming wave when it hits.
And I find myself exhaling, scrubbing a hand down my face and wiping at my eyes to keep from staring at her perfect body in her bikini.
She’s so fucking beautiful.
And I really shouldn’t be thinking about that. Or the fact that I’m finding out that Avery is so much more than beauty.
But every day we’re here, I feel it creeping in—this thing between us. This pull.
I know she’s worried about being stuck here forever, but I’m starting to think about the opposite. Every day we’re here together, I feel more and more like I might not know what to do without her when we leave.
Avery
Henry cradles my head against him, my cheek pressed to the solid warmth of his chest as I trace lazy circles along his abdomen. The fire crackles beside us, its glow casting flickering shadows across his chiseled features, and for the first time since we crash-landed here, my stomach isn’t clawing at my spine with hunger. The two fish he caught this morning, along with the breadfruit he gathered, have left us as full as we can get in a situation like this. And though the night air holds a noticeable chill, Henry’s body heat is more than enough to keep me warm.