I get up and collect my clothes from the floor, laughing. “No, I guess I don’t, but I know one thing: tomorrow will be your turn to cook again.” While I put my bra and top on again, I keep looking for my panties, which seem to have vanished.
“Looking for these?” Ave teases, letting the item in question dangle from his finger.
“Dork.” I giggle and grab my panties, quickly putting them back on.
“I know, but at least I’m a sexy dork.” He grins at me like a mischievous kid.
“A very sexy one,” I agree, while tugging at my skirt to straighten it. “Don’t you want to go wash up?”
Ave nods, picks up his boxers, and gets up. He holds them in front of his crotch. “Yeah, I’m gonna take a quick shower. Do you want to watch a movie afterward?”
“In bed?”
“Sure, but I won’t promise to keep my hands off you,” he answers.
“Okay. Then go take a shower while I make us some popcorn. And then I’ll choose a movie,” I suggest merrily before I start cleaning the table.
“See you in a sec,” he murmurs and kisses my cheek before disappearing into the bathroom.
“See you.”
I do the dishes, put the leftovers in a container, and store it in the fridge. We have a lot of leftovers for tomorrow. Then I get the popcorn and a bowl from the cabinet. I watch the bag of popcorn expand behind the glass door of the microwave. I can hear it pop and hiss while I wait. Avery takes his time, as I can hear by the running shower.
Three minutes later, the popcorn is ready. I carefully get the bag out of the microwave, open it, and pour its sweet contents into the bowl, which I take with me to the bedroom. But then I return to the living room to look at Avery’s DVD collection. I’m surprised to see he owns a lot of classic movies, and I pick Grandpa’s favorite. Gone with the Wind. Maybe I ought to have picked a different movie, but today I really feel like spending time with Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler.
I hope Avery is open to watching it with me and won’t recommend a different movie.
Chapter 8
The meeting with the notary is the first time I see my aunts and uncles again. It doesn’t go well. The notary informs us all that I’m the sole heir of my grandpa’s possessions. His last will states that everything he owned will fall to me—not his children—because of the fact that I was the only one who ever cared about him after my grandmother died.
My aunts and uncles aren’t happy that I will inherit everything, because they seem to have been holding out hope of inheriting a few valuable heirlooms themselves. Not sure where they got that notion, for we never owned anything valuable.
When I walk out of the notary’s office, I see Avery leaning against Cami’s car, waiting for me. Before I can say anything to him, I hear my uncle Peter hiss at me. “Great job, you little bastard!”
I flinch and turn to face him. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Didn’t do anything?” Aunt Starla interrupts. “You probably lulled him under your spell just the way your useless mother did when she was still alive. It was always ‘Helen this, Helen that,’ but he never gave us a damn thing.”
“I’ll see you at the funeral,” I say with finality and walk on, happy to have Avery here.
“That is not the last word in this matter!” one of my uncles calls after me.
My only reaction is my raised middle finger, which I flip over my shoulder. It would have been so easy to talk about this peacefully, sensibly, but no, they immediately have to insult me, even though I didn’t do anything. This was Grandpa’s decision, not mine. I didn’t even know anything about the money he had saved. And I find all of it unfair anyway. The two of us lived like paupers for years, and now I find out that we never were as destitute as I thought.
Avery puts an arm around my shoulder. “I can’t believe those greedy Scrooges,” he growls.
“I want to leave,” I reply.
Suddenly, my uncle John, my mother’s younger brother, appears next to us. He smiles at me. “You know you deserve it, so don’t bother getting upset about the two of them, Dahlia.”
I stare at him, dumbfounded, and wait for his words to turn nasty. But they don’t.
“If you need anything or would like to talk, call me, please,” he goes on while handing me a business card. “I’m sorry I never got in touch, but you know I live in England, and Dad broke all the connections when he moved. And I didn’t know how to reach you after Helen died.”
I give a quick nod and put the card in my purse. “Thanks, Uncle John.”
“I’ll see you at the funeral, and I hope you'll accept my invitation to go out for lunch after with me and my family,” he says. “Of course you can bring your young man, too.”
“Maybe. I’d like to wait and see how I feel afterward, though.”
“Sure.” He leans down and kisses my cheek. “See you then, my dear.”
“See you.” I watch him go in confusion, trying to get over the surprise of that interaction.
“It would seem as if at least one of them is a decent person,” Avery says softly.
I look at him, still perplexed. “It seems so.”
“Let’s go home now. We still have to look for furniture for the apartment,” he says with a smile and holds the passenger door open for me.
I get in and buckle up while he walks around the car and gets in on the driver’s side. He starts the car before Aunt Starla and Uncle Peter can continue to berate me. I can feel their hateful stares like arrows in my back, but I try my best to ignore them.
“Do you really want to go to lunch with your uncle?” Avery asks. “For some reason I doubt his sincerity. I’m afraid he’s after part of the inheritance. I mean, considering everything I witnessed today.”
“No, I don’t really want to go, but I didn’t want to be impolite and decline right away,” I say. “I’m going to decline after the funeral.”
“We haven’t talked about whether you want me to go,” Avery says, placing a hand on my leg.
I intertwine my fingers with his. “Would you come? I think it would be good if somebody was there with me … Somebody who … well, who cares about me.” I glance at him.
“Then I’ll go with you, and you can lean on me, Dale.” He gives me a warm smile. There’s no stubble on his face today, and he looks just as good clean-shaven. I think he looks like a model. It still feels kind of unreal that he’s my boyfriend. Maybe it’s more of a temporary affair, this thing we’re doing, because we still don’t know each other all that well, but I know he’s good for me. Avery is my light in these dark times.
***
We change into more comfortable clothes as soon as we get home. I put on a pair of Daisy Dukes and a loose top, while Ave is down to his shorts. He’s lying on the couch, and I’m sitting between his legs, leaning against his chest.
Leafing through the catalog of a discount furniture store, I examine possible pieces to buy for my apartment.
“You don’t need more kitchen supplies, and there’s already a counter and stools in there,” Avery lists, “and I think the living room is mostly still furnished since Delsin bought so many new things for this house.”
“Looks like he can afford it,” I answer dryly.
“Well he is Devin Rough’s son.”
“You mean the skater?” I ask.
“Yeah, that’s the one. Delsin has more money in the bank than anyone else I know, but he never asked for it. And his father gave him this place.”
“Man! I wish my father was that generous,” I mumble.
“Maybe he would be if he knew you,” Ave says, sounding convinced.
“I don’t think so.” I focus on the catalog again. “This bed is awesome.” I point to a king-size bed.
“It is. How much?”
I glance at the price and turn the page. “Too much.” I smile.
“You do know that you have a bunch of money now and can afford something like this, don’t you?”
“I d
o, but I don’t want to throw it out the window with both hands,” I answer with a grin, tilting back my head and looking at him.
Avery places a kiss on the tip of my nose. “But a decent bed is a good investment. You don’t want me to wake up with an aching back when I sleep over,” he teases.
With a giggle, I focus on the catalog again. “Still, $1,000 is too much for a bed.”
“Okay, what else do we have in there?”
I turn a few pages and find a nice looking bed. “This one is cool, even if it isn’t quite as big.”
“What size?”
“Queen,” I answer.
“I think you need a king,” Avery says.
“Do you intend to take up all that space?”
He guffaws. “For your information, I take up a lot of space, which you must have noticed already. Think about it; my bed is a king.”
I look at the available sizes. “Oh, king doesn’t cost much more than queen in this model,” I announce.
“So do you want to get it?”
“I think so. Write down: bed, ‘Madeira,’” I answer cheerfully and dictate the item number.
“Now we have a dresser, the bed, a rocking chair, and we have dishes and pots and cutlery, stuff like that. I think you’re all set,” Avery says.
“You call that all set?”
“Sure, everything else is already in the apartment.”
“Huh?” I tilt back my head again and look at him uncomprehendingly.
He smirks. “It’s partly furnished, Dale. I told you before.”
“Huh?”
“Stop looking at me like a buffoon,” he laughs.
I keep staring at him, probably like a buffoon. “Delsin didn’t tell me anything about that.”
“Why would he? You’ll see it at the viewing.”
“Okay, but what if I already did have a lot of furniture … Well, I do have a few things, stuff I want to keep from Grandpa’s house.”
“What do you want to keep?”
“The old desk, his armchair, and I guess all the kitchen stuff you just mentioned, so I won’t have to buy all that. The small things.” Then I put the catalog aside and turn around to I lie on my stomach, laying my head on his chest.
Avery strokes my long hair. “We can take a look at the apartment tomorrow if you want to. As far as I know, Delsin has already written up a contract that won’t be your financial ruin.”
I look up at him. “You all are being far too nice to me.”
“No, we’re not. We’re simply helping you after everything that’s happened,” he says.
But I haven’t been entirely honest with you, I can’t help thinking. But I can’t tell him the truth about my mother now. He would judge me for it just like I judge myself. I’m nothing but a damn crack baby. When I was born, they had to wean me off the stuff first thing. For a while, my mom stayed clean because she’d been forced into a detoxification program, but when I was a little older, she started doing drugs again.
“Ground control to Dale,” Avery says and waves his hand in front of my eyes.
I blink and try to focus on him again. “What?”
“Where on earth were you just now? Absent, that’s for sure.”
“Absent, yes. I was thinking of my mom,” I answer hoarsely and clear my throat.
He pulls me softly up to him and breathes a kiss onto my lips. “I thought you looked cute staring into space.”
I smile at him. “Thanks, but at my age I don’t want to be ‘cute’ anymore.”
“You’re allowed to be cute at eighteen,” he counters.
“But not at almost twenty-three.”
He laughs softly. “That’s different. I’m not cute, I’m sexy.”
Now I have to laugh as well. “And confident, obviously.”
“Truthfully, I’m not that confident,” he confesses. “I actually think of myself as rather insecure, but I’m good at overriding it and pretending otherwise when necessary.”
My eyebrows travel slowly upward. “Then you’ve been playing a role this whole time?” I feel stupid for sounding accusing. I’m the one who hasn’t been completely honest!
Avery shakes his head. “No. You’re the first woman I’ve been interested in who I can be myself with.”
“That’s wonderful,” I say shyly. “I think I’m very much myself with you, too.”
“You mean scared and shy?” He grins.
“I was shy, and I still am, but I’m not scared,” I correct him cheerfully.
“You ran away from me,” he says, as if that were proof of a fear I never actually felt.
“But only because your ex-girlfriend was so mean to me and … okay, so I was afraid that your friends would behave like Pearl if I went to that beach party,” I admit.
Avery strokes my cheek. “If they bully you, I will bully them. I won’t allow anyone to hurt you.” He whispers the promise to me. “And you have to tell me if someone treats you badly,” he demands.
“I can handle that on my own, Ave.”
“I bet you can, but that’s not going to keep me from reading them the riot act.” He smiles.
Smiling, I place a kiss on the corner of his mouth. “Okay. If anyone bothers me, I’ll tell you. I hope you don’t intend to beat anyone up.”
He laughs at that. “I’m no friend of violence. The only exception being if I have to defend someone, like Cami from Ethan.”
“Who’s Ethan?” I ask.
“Ethan’s a student in some of her classes, and they went on a date that … went wrong, you could say. He tried to force himself on her, and if Delsin and I hadn’t happened upon them at the right moment, worse things might have happened. He was trying to get into her pants, so Delsin beat him up badly the last time they met.”
“And you were there?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t stop him until Ethan was fit for the hospital,” Avery explains. “Cami doesn’t even know about it, and she’s not supposed to.”
I nod slowly. “Okay. But you didn’t beat him up, did you?”
Avery blushes and gives me an innocent grin. “Would it be bad if I did?”
Giggling, I shake my head. “No, it wouldn’t be. If he really is such an asshole, he deserves more than a beating.”
“I agree, but I didn’t want to be expelled from college or have to answer to the cops,” Avery replies.
“What about Delsin? Did he get in trouble?”
“No, because then Ethan would have had to admit that he tried to rape her, and that would get him in trouble.”
“Assholes like that belong behind bars,” I opine.
“True, but what can you do? Cami didn’t want to report him, so Delsin hit him a few times. That’s all we can do.”
“I guess so.” I snuggle up close to Ave.
“You’re very cuddly today,” he says.
“Is that bad?”
He starts stroking my cheek and neck again. “Not at all. I enjoy it.”
I close my eyes, trying to relax. I feel exhausted from the meeting with the notary, the reading of the last will, and the attacks from my family. Now I just want to experience some peace, enjoy this closeness, and forget the rest of the world for a while.
Chapter 9
As I stand in front of the open grave, looking down at the coffin I picked out and the flowers on top, my tears threaten to blind me. Of course it had to rain really hard today. Avery’s at my side, waiting for me to open my hand and let the red roses we bought fall down into the grave. But I can’t. I’m unable to move a muscle. I wasn’t even able to give my speech because I was sobbing so hard. My family kept shaking their heads at me, but I did not and do not care. I’m not hiding my grief the way they do, because only my tears can deliver me from this choked-up feeling. Well, maybe not completely, but the more tears I cry, the sooner I’ll be able to live and think of him without crying.
Grandpa’s death has left a hole, a crater even, in my heart.
“Let go of them, Dale,” Avery whispers
to me, but I hardly hear him because the rain is so loud. It’s a real downpour, and my feet are already soaking wet.
“I can’t,” I answer helplessly.
He grabs my hand, pulls it over the hole, and pries my fingers open. The thorns have pricked the palm of my hand.
“Yes, you can,” he whispers as the roses tumble from my hand and fall into the grave.
“Farewell, Grandpa. Save a spot for me up there,” I whisper and close my eyes.
Avery leads me back to the row of chairs, but we don’t sit down, as the seats have gotten all wet. We simply stand there and watch my relatives throw their flowers into the grave and say their last goodbyes to my grandfather.
I put my head on his shoulder and give room to my grief. I don’t feel ashamed for having loved my grandfather so dearly. His death is hard on me, something that can’t be said about the rest of my family.
One after another, they pass the grave, and when they’re done, the pastor wraps up the funeral with further compassionate words, but nothing registers for me.
Then the others leave, but Avery and I remain.
The pastor approaches us. “Miss Walker, my sincere condolences,” he says once again.
I raise my eyes and look at him. “Thanks, Father Thomas.”
He offers me his hand, and I shake it briefly. “If I can do anything for you, let me know.”
I nod. “Thank you, I will.”
Then he leaves the cemetery, too.
My eyes are fixed on the photograph that has been put up next to the grave. It shows Grandpa on his last birthday. He’s laughing and looks happy.
“Let’s go now, please.” I turn to Avery.
He leads me to the car, struggling to protect us both from the rain with his umbrella. When we were standing together, it wasn’t a problem, but now the wind has changed direction, and we’re getting increasingly wet.
Finally, we get into the car. I don’t say much, because the morning was emotionally exhausting. I didn’t talk to my uncle about lunch, but I hope he realizes I don’t want to come. After all, he saw how I struggled to even remain on my feet.
Avery puts his hand on my leg after he has started the engine. “My place or yours?”
Avery: Sensual Desire: New Adult College Romance (Coral Gables Series Book 2) Page 11