Wreck Me (Nova #4)

by Jessica Sorensen

  “Hey, you’re not a waste.” This time I kick his foot in a very serious manner. “I hate when people do that—feel sorry for themselves.”

  “I’m not feeling sorry for myself.” He gazes out at the road in front of the house. “It’s just the truth.”

  “No, it’s not,” I argue persistently. “And whoever told you that is a fucking liar.”

  He glances at me from the corner of his eye. “Who said anyone told me that? Maybe I arrived at that conclusion all by myself.”

  “Someone had to have helped,” I say, thinking of my mother and Conner and how they helped rip my self-esteem away for a while there, to the point that I sunk so low I gave up. “Yeah, maybe you came to the conclusion yourself, but there’s usually outside help that pushes you in that direction… beats you down…” I trail off as my past flashes through my mind, bright and agonizing.

  Everything.

  Was.

  Taken.

  Away.

  Bit.

  By.

  Bit.

  And then I got it back.

  I blink from my thoughts, overlooking the look he’s giving me, the one that asks: what’s your story? You saw a glimpse of mine and I want to see a glimpse of yours.

  I’m not sure what I’m doing but suddenly I’m offering him another chance into my life. “You know what. Come with me. I’m getting you a job.”

  “And how the hell are you going to do that?” he wonders in puzzlement.

  “Hey, I have connections my friend.” I wait for him to take my hand, but he just stares at me, waiting for further explanation. “Okay, fine. I’m going to get you the carder job.”

  He wavers with reluctance. “At the bar? With you?”

  I nod, realizing I just gave him more time in my life and he’ll get to witness a side of me no one close to me ever sees. Yet I continue, because I want to help him—need to help him. “It’s a super easy job, and temporary so it should work out.”

  “At a bar?” he repeats, astounded.

  “Well, it’s not technically in the bar, right?” I tuck my hands into the pocket of my red cut-offs. “Just the front door. And besides, I’ll keep an eye on you.”

  “Is that what friends do? Keep an eye on each other?” he asks dubiously.

  “I’m not sure, since I don’t have a ton of friends.” I’m still offering him my hand like I did in the motel. It’s beginning to become our thing and I wonder how many times I’ll do it. Just like I wonder if he’ll ever offer me his hand and if I’ll take it. “All I know is that I want to help you.”

  His gaze deliberately glides up my body and rests on my eyes then he slips his fingers through mine. “Thanks, Avery. And I really mean that. Thank you. For everything. If you only knew how much this was helping me, well… I’m going to pay you back one day. I promise.” An abundance of emotions reflect from his blue eyes. Intensity. Gratitude. Confusion. Lust. Fear. Vulnerability. I swear it’s like getting some insight into his soul. In return I should be showing him a glimpse of mine, shouldn’t I?

  But if he really knew stuff about me then he probably wouldn’t be looking at me like that to begin with.

  Chapter 24

  I’m pretty sure I’m fucked.

  Tristan

  The Vibe appears vacant when we arrive that afternoon. The open sign is off, the parking lot is bare, and sagebrush blows around the side of the brick building.

  “Is anyone even here?” I ask Avery as I hop out of the Jeep, the warm air dusting my skin.

  She nods as her feet hit the ground, then she slams the car door. “Benny actually pretty much lives in his office. He even has an air mattress in it.”

  “And how do you know that?” I ask as we veer around the side of the building and toward the front door.

  “Because I hang out in his office while I do his books.” Her fingers wrap around the door handle and she opens the door.

  I follow her inside. “Does he pay you extra for doing that?”

  The interior lights are off in the bar, the chairs are turned up on the table, and the cool breeze of the air conditioning feels fantastic.

  We actually had to swing by the motel before we came here so I could change out of my sweaty clothes and look presentable.

  “No, but it’ll help me in the future when I look for a job in accounting,” Avery explains as she crosses the bar and winds around the back of the counter, heading toward a hallway with me at her heels.

  “That seems pretty unfair for you to do the work and not get paid,” I comment as we trot up a slender stairway.

  “Well, life really isn’t fair, is it?” When she arrives at a shut door at the top of the stairs, she faces me. “You ready for this?”

  I shrug, realizing how nervous I feel. My first job interview. Weird. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  She offers me an encouraging smile. “Just be your charming self and you’ll do fine.”

  “I’m only charming with the female population.” I wink at her. “Dudes don’t like me.”

  “See, charming right there.” Then she knocks as she cracks open the door. “Benny, I found you a temporary carder.”

  “Yeah, bring him in,” he calls out, and then Avery inches the door open. She winks at me before she enters the small, disorderly room.

  Leaving the door ajar, she takes a seat behind a desk piled with papers and soda cans. Next to her is a guy about a half a decade older than me, give or take a year. He’s wearing a nice collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and he has an impressive silver watch on his wrist. I remember seeing him at The Vibe three months ago and how he checked out Avery the entire time he was chatting with her.

  “Hey, have a seat,” he says, motioning me inside the office.

  From the fake politeness in his tone, I can tell right away he doesn’t like me. Probably because I’m a guy and Avery brought me here. I figure there’s no way I’m going to get the job, but I still sit down and answer his questions about my past jobs—none—and my skills—I only have a few. When he’s finished, I wait for him to kick me out the door, but instead he turns to Avery.

  “So, what do you think?” he asks her, discreetly checking out her tits when she glances over at me.

  “Well, my opinion is kind of biased considering I like him.” She immediately pulls a whoops face, like she didn’t mean to reveal that. “But, yeah, I think you should give him the job.” She looks at me again with a twinkle in her hazel eyes. “It’ll bring the ladies in.”

  I softly chuckle. “Yeah, I don’t know about that.”

  “Oh, whatever.” As she beams at me, I grin back, unable to help it. “You know it will.”

  Our little flirting moment is bugging Benny, and I’m sure I’m getting more negative marks with each smile Avery easily throws in my direction.

  “So, here’s what I’m proposing.” She rotates in the chair to look at Benny and crosses her legs. “Hire him. See how he does. If he messes up, it’s all on me. In fact, you can fire me.”

  Shit. I don’t like her vouching for me at the risk of her job. It makes the pressure to do well intense, and considering my past, I’m more likely to fuck up than excel.

  But Benny actually considers her offer and then sticks out his hand to shake on it. “All right, you’re in charge of him. If he messes up, it’s on you.”

  I’m so glad they had this conversation in front of me. Jesus. And the lustful look he gives Avery is enough for me to want to clock him in the face. But I keep my composure, knowing Avery is risking a lot on me right now, and the last thing I should do is pay her back by punching her boss in the face.

  “Thanks, Benny.” She stands, and Benny checks out her ass when she’s not looking.

  “Ready to get started?” Avery asks me, scooping up a few pieces of candy from a dish on the desk on her way out.

  I nod then say thank you to Benny for the opportunity before following Avery out of the office. She tosses a candy at me while we’re heading down the stairw
ay. I catch it, unwrap it, and pop it into my mouth, watching as she does the same. We don’t say anything until we reach the bottom floor again. Then I snag her arm and stop her before she continues down the hall. Her back presses against my chest and the vanilla scent of her immediately overwhelms me.

  “Why did you do that?” I ask, fleetingly shutting my eyes as I bask in the suppleness of her skin beneath my fingers. “Vouch for me like that and risk getting fired?”

  She shivers, but then quickly slips her arm from my hold. “I don’t really think Benny is going to fire me—he likes me too much.”

  “Yeah, clearly,” I reply dryly as I open my eyelids. “He was practically undressing you the entire time you were in there.”

  She shudders, repulsed. “And, also, I know you’re going to do well, so I don’t have to worry.”

  I laugh sardonically. “Do you not remember how only a couple of days ago I had a bag of”—I lower my voice as I lean in—“meth in my pocket?”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t do it, so I’m not worried. You’re doing awesome.” When she sticks out her hand for a fist bump, I tap my knuckles against hers. “Just like you’re going to do awesome with this job.”

  I want to tell her about the neighbor and his threats just to prove how wrong she is about me, but then I realize that, in doing so, I would make myself look bad. I don’t want to look bad to her anymore, not when she just got me a job. So I keep my lips sealed and let my training for my first legal job begin.

  ***

  The training continues for the next three weekdays. Sometimes I’m paired with another waitress, including Charissa, the woman who coaxed Avery into going out back with me the night we kissed. It’s a fairly easy job, and the pay is good enough that I should be able to give my neighbor his hundred bucks with my first paycheck. However, when Friday rolls around, Avery warns me that the easiness of the job is about to get intense.

  “Are you sure you’re ready for this? Because I can ask Benny if I can help you,” Avery says as we hike down the dirt driveway toward her Jeep parked on the road with several other vehicles. She’s getting ready to go home, leaving a few hours earlier than when I have to leave. Each day we part, I find myself missing her more even though I get to see her at work.

  “I’ll be fine,” I reassure her. “I’m a natural, remember?”

  She smiles yet still seems apprehensive. “But it’s going to be a super intense night, and I just don’t want you to feel… I don’t know, overwhelmed.”

  “Of course I’ll be fine.” When we reach the Jeep, I open the door for her. “I’ve been doing well the last three days. The job is actually pretty simple.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “No buts,” I interject. “But it is super cute that you’re concerned about me.”

  “You’re such a dorky flirt.” Strands of her long, brown and purple hair come loose from her ponytail as the wind gusts from behind her. The sight makes me stupidly breathless.

  We’re supposed to be friends. Just friends. So stop. She doesn’t want you like that.

  “Dorky flirt?” I press my hand to my chest, my dank T-shirt sticking to my skin. “How your words wound me.”

  “Oh, whatever. You totally get off on stuff like that.” She combs her fingers through her hair then puts it back into a ponytail. What I wouldn’t give to touch her hair, to be allowed to touch her… for her to want to touch me… the things we could touch… But she doesn’t want you like that.

  I shake the dirty images from my head. “That I do. Although, I get off more when you say stuff like that to me.”

  She grips the edge of the door and peers up at me through her eyelashes. Whether the move is on purpose or not, I have no idea, but it’s sexy as hell and fills me with the all-consuming urge to jerk her against me and devour her with my mouth.

  My dirty mind has been running wild lately and only increases when I’m near Avery, like now. She doesn’t have a drop of makeup on, her skin bare, eyes flawless, lips utterly perfect. God, what I would give to kiss her again, this time without her stopping me. These thoughts make the friend thing complicated because she’s made kissing completely forbidden.

  I’m drawn to Avery for so many reasons. The magnetic pull I felt with her in the beginning grows more powerful each time she smiles at me, does something nice for me, or just simply laughs at one of my jokes. I keep telling myself it’s a good thing, though, that she has her rules since the last thing I could ever be is a good boyfriend, no matter how much I wish I could be. It’s not like learning a job. I can’t simply learn to become a guy who loves a woman unconditionally and gives up everything to be with her. That’s not the way it works. Well, except for maybe with Nova and Quinton, but those two are weird.

  “Tristan, did you hear what I said?” Avery angles her head to the side, her expression tinged with concern.

  I dazedly rip my attention away from her mouth. “Nope, not a clue.”

  Her fingers skim across her lips, as if she knows what I was just imagining doing to her. “I asked you if you were doing anything next Sunday.”

  “Why? Are you going to ask me out on a date?” I laugh at my joke, the noise getting caught in my throat when she doesn’t join in. “Oh, my God, you were, weren’t you?” I’m struck speechless.

  “Not a date,” she hastily says. “Just friends hanging out for my birthday. Well, my birthday’s actually this Saturday, but the only day that would work for everyone to get together is next Sunday. It’ll just be me, Charissa, and a handful of other people who work at the bar. We’re going to the beach. I honestly don’t want to go, because I’m not a fan of some of the people who are attending, but Charissa is insisting I need a break from…” She trails off, her eyes widening like she was about to say something she didn’t mean. “But anyway, I could really use a friend there with me. Someone who is actually my friend and doesn’t know me by association through Charissa and who won’t want to get trashed and… Yeah, it’ll be later that day. I have a few things I have to do in the morning.” She stops rambling and laughs at herself. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m so nervous asking you this.”

  I would die to find out why she’s nervous asking me. I’m not going to push her to tell me, though.

  “So, let me get this straight,” I say carefully. “You want me to go to the beach with you for a late birthday party. Hangout with you for a non-work thing, so we’ll be hanging out somewhere else besides work?”

  She shrugs then nods. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

  “Okay,” I say breezily. “I’ll go.”

  “Okay,” she echoes me then sputters, “But just as friends. You know that, right?”

  “Yeah, you said that twice already, so I get the picture.” I kind of enjoy this nervous side of her because it makes her easier to read. Usually, I have no idea what the fuck’s going on in her head.

  “Okay, then.” She releases her grip on the door and swings her leg up to get in the car. “I’ll see you next Sunday.”

  Her nervousness might seriously be the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. “Well, you’ll see me tonight and almost every other day, too, since we’ll be at work together.”

  “Right, yeah, duh.” Her laugh is off-pitch as she hoists herself into the vehicle and plops her ass into the seat. “See you tonight then.”

  I close the door for her then scoot back as she revs up the engine. She waves at me before she buckles her seatbelt. Then I watch her as she shakes her head and mutters something under her breath, like she’s giving herself a stern lecture.

  I’m smiling like a stupid, high motherfucker by the time I return to work, despite the voice in the back of my head whispering that I’m not good enough for her. The voice can go fuck itself right now because I don’t want to listen to it.

  The rest of the day goes by with ease as I continue to think about Avery. It seemed like her nervousness was because she wanted to spend time with me. It’s nice to be wanted and really nice to be wanted by Avery, eve
n if it’s just as friends.

  By the time I get back to the motel and get cleaned up for work, I feel content and confused, so much so that I’m pretty sure Nova thinks I’m stoned.

  “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” she asks as I walk out of the bathroom, towel drying my hair.

  “Yeah. Why?” I slide my phone out of my pocket then frown at the one missed call and a text message from my mother.

  Mom: That Dylan guy came looking for you again. I tried to call you, but apparently you’re too good to answer your phone.