Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Chapter Seventeen
WEST
“What happened to you?” I asked after I’d tracked Avery down in her office after work, trying to mop herself off with a fistful of rags. From the shoulders down, she was soaked, and from the smell, I was guessing it was beer. Not a surprise, considering, but the quantity was unexpected. “Did you stand under an open keg or something?”
“No,” Avery said with a laugh and a rueful shake of her head, her dark ponytail swinging. “I wasn’t looking where I was going. I came around the corner of the bar, Dave called my name, and I turned but kept walking right into Cammie, who was holding a full tray of beer.”
“I was going to see if you wanted to go get some barbecue, but maybe we’ll swing by Heartstone first.”
“Definitely,” Avery agreed. “Yes, on the barbecue after a pit stop for a change of clothes. I love my beer, but I don’t want to wear it.”
A knot in my chest unraveled at her easy agreement to dinner. I hadn’t realized how much it had mattered that she wanted to go get barbecue with me. I’d had her over the night before, all night, waking with her curled in my arms, her head on my chest.
I didn’t date a ton. It could get complicated for a small-town police chief who left too many relationships behind. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d woken up with a woman, and never like this—comfortable, satisfied, resenting the alarm that would pull us apart.
I was trying not to overthink this thing. I wasn’t going to treat Avery like an afterthought or a hook-up, but I wasn’t ring shopping either. We were just feeling things out, seeing how it went, enjoying each other while it worked. All of that made it seem easy and casual, and maybe, on the surface, it was. But underneath, there was my reluctance to let her slide from my arms, that knot in my chest that she might not want to eat dinner with me or come back to my bed. It surprised me how much I wanted her with me.
At least for the moment, I didn’t have to worry about it.
Avery grabbed her bag from the back of her chair, started to pull on her coat, then threw it over her arm and headed out, waving at her two bartenders. As far as I could tell, Cammie and Dave tended the bar at night when it was busy, helped in the brewery in the afternoons, and basically did whatever needed to be done. Avery managed them like she did everything else, with ease and empathy. I thought again, as I had many times since seeing her earlier, about how much of a dick Matthew Holt was. Avery was a far better manager than he’d ever be, but it only took a few stray comments to completely fuck up her business. It was bullshit.
Matt had always been on my radar as someone to keep an eye on, but now he was on my shit list.
I hooked her arm through mine, and we left out the side door.
“So, Heartstone and then barbecue?” Avery asked as she fastened her seatbelt. “It won’t take me long to change.”
I hesitated about bringing up the thing on my mind—but this was Avery. I didn’t need to waste time beating around the bush. Not with her. So, I jumped in. I reached across the center console and slid my hand over hers, taking my eyes off the road for a second to shoot her a quick look. She was smiling, her fingers twining with mine.
“I want to ask you to come home with me after dinner,” I said. “But I know there’s a limit on how many nights you can spend away from Heartstone.”
Avery let out a breath. “Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass. My fucking father and his stupid will.” She was quiet for a second, looking out the window, then sucked in a breath and said, “It’s not as if staying at your place is more discreet, considering everybody knows I didn’t come home and can guess who I’m with.”
“Kind of what I was thinking,” I said, relieved we were on the same page.
“How do you feel about staying at Heartstone with me?” She asked, the hint of hesitance in her voice telling me I wasn’t the only one trying to feel this out.
“I’m up for that,” I said, slowly. “It might be a little weird at first. But we have to get over the weird eventually if we’re going to do this. Assuming we’re doing this.” I didn’t think I had to define what this was.
The side of Avery’s mouth curled up. “After last night,” she said, “I vote that we are absolutely doing this.”
“Agreed,” I said, more relieved than I was prepared to be. “For more of you, I’ll happily put up with weird.”