Ava's Prize

by Cari Lynn Webb

  “You will not be standing around and watching everyone else eat.” Ava touched the small purse at her waist and frowned as if she’d never seen it before.

  “It’ll be fine,” Kyle said.

  “It’s not fine.” Ava waved the beaded purse between them. “If Iris let me bring a useful-sized bag and not this play purse, I’d have been more prepared.”

  “The silver coordinates with your shoes nicely,” he said.

  Ava twisted in her heels. “I know. It’s really quite great. But I couldn’t shove a single cracker in here, let alone a protein bar.”

  “You don’t need to carry around food for me.” He took care of himself. He didn’t need someone to look after him.

  “I carry around food for myself. That you can eat it, too, is a bonus.” Ava typed on her phone again. “I know where we’re going.”

  “To the Glass Violet,” he said.

  “First, we’re eating.” She grinned at him.

  “There’s an entire buffet table waiting for you,” he said. For anyone with food allergies like him, buffets were to be avoided and never to be trusted.

  She walked down the sidewalk and searched the street. “Then we’ll call this an appetizer.”

  “I’ll be fine.” He slowed his steps. He never wanted anyone to be forced to go out of their way for him and his food allergies. Why wasn’t she listening?

  “This is better, trust me. I always overeat at a buffet. Always.” She ignored his look of disbelief. “If I’m already full when I arrive, I won’t stuff myself at the Glass Violet.”

  “I haven’t seen you overeat once.” He crossed his arms over his chest and planted his feet on the sidewalk. Now she was making things up to appease him.

  “You haven’t seen me at a buffet.” She glanced up and down the empty street. “I always feel like I need to keep eating to get my money’s worth.”

  “You aren’t paying tonight.” He had her there. She had to back down.

  “It’s still a buffet.” She double downed instead of relenting. “Just take one for the team and have an appetizer with me first.”

  There was that word again. Team. Something about the way she stressed the word and the implication that they were a team settled inside him like a plant taking root. “What if Nikki James is there? What about the all-in policy?”

  “She won’t be.” Ava grimaced. “This is definitely not her kind of place.”

  “What kind of place is it?” he asked.

  “The kind with really good food made by really good people.” Ava tapped on her phone screen and twisted the phone toward him. “Best part is that it’s on your restaurant approval list.”

  He swayed as if a sinkhole suddenly shifted beneath his feet. “Why do you have a copy of my list?”

  “I took a screenshot so I’d know.” Ava shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”

  It was a very big deal. No one outside his family ever took that extra step. They relied on him to know his own weaknesses. She wasn’t going out of her way or being put out. She genuinely wanted him to eat safely. Suddenly, he no longer cared about any contest rules. He only wanted to go wherever Ava took him. Kyle smiled and rubbed his stomach. “I hope they have more than appetizers where you’re taking us. I’m really hungry.”

  “We need to get a cab.” Ava grinned. Her shoulders relaxed as he matched his steps with hers. Then she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk as if an invisible wall blocked her path.

  They were never going to get anywhere if they kept stopping every block. He glanced at her and moved back to her side. She chewed the corner of her lip, as was her habit, and stared down the street. He asked, “What?”

  “We could take a cable car.” She let the hope linger in her voice.

  Kyle glanced at the cable car tracks running down the cross street toward the waterfront. “You want to take a cable car on the most tourist-filled line in the city?”

  Ava nodded slowly as if unable to fully commit.

  “Why?” he asked. He didn’t bother to keep the bewilderment from his voice. “They are slow and packed with tourists.”

  She stiffened and stepped closer to him. “I sit on a street corner almost every night in an ambulance. I can tell you the exact number of stoplights on any route to most emergency rooms in the city. It’s sixteen from this spot to the Bay View Medical ER.” She paused and ran her hand over her dress. “I wear boots, cargo pants with pockets for supplies and carry a jump bag with oxygen, an IV starter and a cardiac monitor.” Her chin tipped up, her gaze latched on to his. “I don’t have opportunities to dress like this. Or to sit in a cable car and just watch the city slowly pass by.”

  She wanted that chance. Now. With him. He held his hand out to her. “Let’s take the cable car.”

  “Really?” She set her hand in his. The pleasure in her voice spiraled through him, lightened his steps and made him smile.

  He squeezed her fingers and pulled her closer into his side. “Do you have your city bus pass? It works on the cable cars, too.”

  “I’m lucky I got my driver’s license into this thing.” She frowned. “Are you telling me I could’ve been using the cable car all this time?”

  “I’m glad you haven’t,” he said. “We can make it a night of firsts.”

  “What’s your first?” she asked.

  “Not sure yet,” he said. “I’ll let you know when I experience it.”

  Three blocks later, they joined a handful of people at the cable car stop and climbed aboard. Kyle paid the conductor and guided Ava to the front of the cable car with the open spot on the bench. Then he stood in front of her on the footboard.

  “You aren’t going to stand, are you?” Ava asked.

  “The best views are on this side.” Kyle nudged Ava back onto the end of the bench. He grabbed the outer pole and steadied himself. “We have to do this right. It’s your first time.”

  “Then I should stand,” she said.

  He glanced at her high heels. “Do you trust those shoes?”

  She settled back onto the bench. “I don’t trust myself in these shoes.”

  He wasn’t sure he trusted himself with her. More often than he liked, his gaze tracked back to Ava as if she was the perfect attraction and the only one that mattered. Kyle tightened his grip on the pole and forced himself to watch the city glide by.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “THAT WAS THE BEST.” Ava stepped onto the sidewalk and watched the cable car continue down the road. She grabbed Kyle’s arm and slid her fingers down until she linked her hand with his. As if Kyle was her anchor. And if she let go too long, she’d lose the thrill of the moment. “Now we eat.”

  “Lead the way.” His grip firmed as if he intended to remain in the moment, too.

  Several blocks later, the Market Food Park, with dozens of the best food trucks in the city, came into view.

  Ava pulled Kyle along faster, weaving around the long line at the Haute Fusion Food Truck. “Do you know where we’re going now?”

  “I already know I’m ordering the Bacon-and-Bourbon Mac and Cheese.”

  Ava laughed. “Make that two orders.”

  Ava and Kyle stepped up to Charlotte’s Cheddar Chariot.

  A woman leaned over the edge and grinned, her smile stretching from cheek to cheek. “Kyle Quinn, it’s been too long.”

  Nothing about Charlotte reflected a middle-aged mom of four. The shimmer on her eyeshadow blended with the glitter on her polished fingernails. Her white-blond pixie cut was streaked with lavender. Charlotte was a retro-cool mom with serious cooking skills.

  “Charlotte, we had a craving for mac and cheese with a side order of cheese puffs,” Kyle said.

  Charlotte took in their joined hands and dress attire. “Are you coming or going to your event?”

  “Going,” he said.

&n
bsp; “Then we better fill you up. Can’t ever trust those big events to keep things clean and uncontaminated.” Charlotte slipped on a new pair of clear plastic gloves and called to Poppy to take orders. She smiled at them. “I’ll cook your orders myself.”

  “Appreciate it, Charlotte,” Kyle took the drinks Charlotte’s assistant handed him.

  “I thought Charlotte didn’t have any kind of tree nut on her truck,” Ava said.

  “She doesn’t.” He handed one of the drinks to Ava. “Which is why I first came here.”

  “The food brought you back,” Ava guessed.

  “That and Charlotte’s hospitality,” he said. “No request is ever too much for her. She reminds me of my grandmother.”

  “You still miss her,” Ava said.

  “Every day.”

  “Then you should eat here more,” Ava suggested. “It’s good to remember the ones we loved.”

  “It’s also painful,” Kyle said.

  “But your grandmother’s love lives on inside you,” Ava said. “It’s worth remembering and sharing.”

  His pinched eyebrows made him look unconvinced. Yet he nodded as if considering her advice.

  Charlotte leaned over the counter to give them their order. Straightening, she tapped her ear. “Love the new colors, Kyle. Now I can coordinate my Medi-Spy with my outfit and my truck.”

  “That’s terrific,” Kyle said. His words were as forced as his smile.

  “You don’t like the new color palette for the Medi-Spy.” Ava nudged her elbow into his side.

  “I don’t like any of the new options.” His voice was deep and disgruntled, his face set into a stubborn frown.

  Ava thanked Charlotte and followed Kyle to an empty picnic table. “But you invented the Medi-Spy.”

  He handed her several napkins. His voice felt just as scratchy. “I invented an earbud for my grandfather and people like him.”

  “What do you mean?” Ava had never considered what had inspired him. She’d assumed the opportunity to make money had motivated him.

  “My grandfather was an ironworker. He suffered heatstroke on the job and never survived the ambulance ride to the ER.” Kyle studied the crowd. “My device was meant to save other people working in extreme environments, like road crews, factory workers and soldiers in the desert.”

  He never shifted his attention to her and kept his gaze on the crowd. Ava wondered if Kyle was counting the number of people wearing a Medi-Spy. His voice and gaze were too distant, as if he’d stepped into an uncomfortable memory. Ava wanted him back with her in the present. She asked, “What happened?”

  “The market wasn’t big enough for Tech Realized, Inc.” He poked at his mac and cheese with his plastic spoon. “The execs at Tech Realized, Inc. had a different direction in mind.”

  “Why didn’t you stop them?” Ava asked.

  “I liked the money too much.” The blue in his gaze was bleak. Even his shrug lacked conviction.

  She didn’t believe him. There was more to this than the money. He bankrolled his sister and supported Penny’s Place. Iris had told her how Kyle had saved the women’s shelter with his donations. He was an invisible philanthropist and not a man motivated solely by financial greed. But that was exactly what he wanted her to believe. Good thing she prided herself on making up her own mind. “What’s next for you?”

  “Another idea and more money.” The finality in his voice ended the conversation. As if that was all there was to say.

  She’d drop the subject for now. But they’d talked about his invention more later.

  * * *

  KYLE STACKED HER empty bowl on his and stood. “Now, we have a group to meet up with and you have a buffet to attack.”

  “My dinner was perfect.” Ava walked next to Kyle out of the food truck park. “I don’t want another bite of anything.”

  “The desserts have their own buffet table at the Glass Violet.” His voice dipped back into the easy and lighthearted.

  “I might have to try a few samples.” Ava ran her hands over the sides of her dress. “I think I might have room in here. You have to promise to stop me if I overindulge.”

  “How would you like me to do that?” he asked.

  “Distract me.” Dance with me. Kiss me. Ava should yank back her words. Tell him she was kidding. She was an adult and could control herself. The gleam in his blue gaze made her suddenly want to know exactly how he planned to distract her.

  “I can do that.” He took her hand, tugged her closer into his side.

  Right where she preferred to be. There was something about how her hand fit in his. Ava stepped onto the empty sidewalk beside Kyle and let the night embrace them.

  “Can you jog in those shoes?” Kyle asked.

  “Why?”

  “If we hurry, we can catch the cable car.” Kyle pointed down the street.

  Ava slipped off her heels and picked them up. She gladly accepted one more chance to extend the evening with Kyle. “Let’s go.”

  Five minutes and no stubbed toes later, Ava dropped onto the bench and tugged Kyle down beside her. She adjusted the straps of her shoes around her ankles and sat back. “That’s another first. Running barefoot in a dress to hop on a cable car.”

  “I need to catch up.” Kyle set his arm on the back of the bench behind her.

  Ava curled into his side and watched the high-rises and apartment buildings scroll by like a movie backdrop. “I need to do this more often. Thanks.”

  “I was happy to be here for your first and second cable car rides,” he said.

  The smile in his voice encouraged her to lean in closer. His hand dropped onto her shoulder. His fingers brushed against her skin; his touch brushed against her heart. For the first time in too long, contentment washed through her. Staying on the cable car with Kyle seemed like the only logical option. Falling asleep in the security of his arm seemed only natural.

  Too soon Kyle nudged her awake, stood and checked for traffic on the street. He helped Ava off the cable car and guided her around a group waiting to board. Stepping onto the sidewalk, he turned. Ava walked into his arms.

  He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him. “That’s the first time I’ve had someone fall asleep on me.”

  Ava stared at the buttons on his dress shirt, thankful the night concealed the blush she knew extended from her chest to her forehead. “Sorry about that.”

  “Don’t apologize.” He tipped her chin up with the back of his hand. “It might be the best part of my night.”

  “Might be?” she whispered. The warmth in his gaze drained her voice. Anticipation roared through her. She was fully awake now. Fully present.

  “This might be better.” Kyle tipped his head down.

  Ava lifted toward him until her mouth settled on his. And she found exactly where she wanted to be. Curving her arms around his neck, Ava lost herself in the kiss and all the emotions Kyle stirred inside her.

  Too soon, Kyle pulled away and pressed a soft kiss to her mouth. His gaze roamed her face. “I’d call that a successful night of firsts. Cable cars and cat naps.”

  And their first kiss on a crowded city sidewalk at a cable car stop.

  “We have to go, don’t we?” Ava let her hands slowly glide down the front of Kyle’s jacket, unable to let go yet. “We could jump on the cable car. One should be coming any minute.”

  “We agreed to that all-in policy.” Kyle took her hands and stepped out of her embrace. “We can’t leave them waiting outside the bank.”

  “Stupid policy.” Or not. Ava touched her mouth as if that would lock in the memory of their kiss. They stood out in the open view of anyone. She searched the sidewalk, looking for a reporter or camera. What if someone had witnessed their kiss? What had she been thinking? “I’m usually the sensible one.”

  “We’
ll keep it sensible from here on out.” Kyle motioned her forward. “After you.”

  They turned the corner and blended into the contest group already gathered outside the bank. Ava hugged Barbra, complimented Chad on his dapper bow tie and Grant on his sleek business suit. Kyle welcomed Glenda and Sam. They strolled toward the Glass Violet, separated by the group and too much cement sidewalk. Ava concentrated on the conversation around her, laughed on cue and responded appropriately. She avoided looking at Kyle. Worried someone might accuse her of sharing more than a casual kiss with him. Worried that someone might realize she desperately wanted to share another one with him.

  Ava so wanted to grab Kyle’s hand. To know what else he hadn’t done. She wanted to share her own list of “Someday, I’d like to...”

  She wanted to discover more firsts with Kyle. Even more, she wanted her hand tucked inside his again.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  KYLE FELL ASLEEP and woke up that morning thinking about one thing: kissing Ava.

  Last night, he’d only wanted to kiss her again. He’d fallen asleep considering the many possibilities of where they might share another kiss.

  Now, coffee mug in hand and caffeine pumping him to full alert mode, he only wanted to forget. Another kiss with Ava could not happen. He’d been distracted by Charlotte’s food truck euphoria and Ava’s endless appeal. That was a mistake he wouldn’t repeat.

  Except, everything about holding Ava in his arms had felt right. Nothing about that moment on the sidewalk or the entire evening seemed like a mistake. Still, he had to forget. Because recalling their kiss made him want another one. And that only made him consider what more could be between them.

  He already knew the answer: nothing.

  The contest ended in less than two weeks and they’d no longer be required to share the same space. Lives would return to normal or whatever they’d looked like before the contest had interrupted everything. His life before the contest had not included the complication of a relationship. Or risking his heart.