Ava's Prize

by Cari Lynn Webb

  Ava seemed to resent his money. Money was the only thing Kyle could give Ava. His heart had never been part of any prize package. Love was like maneuvering a big rig on a one-lane road over a snow-covered mountain. At some point, ice and poor visibility would force him off the road. He’d skid off the precipice in love and wind up alone.

  He’d heed the warning signs now and take precautions. The road to love he’d leave open to the risk-takers and misinformed.

  Laughter and voices echoed from the arcade area. The group had arrived for their daily work session. He turned on the water in the kitchen sink to rinse out his coffee mug and block his urge to listen for one voice in particular. Kyle dried his hands and reminded himself that reaching for Ava was not part of the day’s agenda. Or any agenda.

  Calling a quick greeting from the conference room door, Kyle pointed to the dry-erase board with the upcoming schedule. He’d written the lengthy list on his second cup of coffee. “We have less than two weeks before the winner is chosen. That means it’s crunch time.”

  Grant whistled and stared at the bullet-point list that filled the dry-erase board. “It’s going to get busy.”

  “Time spent in the design lab is only one part of the process. Now we expand beyond these walls.” Kyle walked to the board, picked up a pen and added another bullet point to the schedule. “There’s a world outside, waiting for your product. Are you ready to present to that world?”

  “I’m not sure how a photo session with Mia is going to prepare us for the outside world,” Ava said. Her eyebrows pulled together as her lips flattened into a frown.

  He wasn’t allowing her to throw up any roadblocks to his schedule. The one he’d created out of sheer self-preservation early this morning. She had never been comfortable in front of a camera. She’d have to get over it. The same way he had to get over her. “Iris and Barbra have agreed to act as stylists for the photo session and consult on appropriate corporate boardroom attire.”

  “Image is everything.” Barbra set her glasses on the table. “If you present the image of success, you find success.”

  “Or you look uncomfortable and they call you out for being a fake,” Ava argued.

  “Iris and I already have a power suit picked out for you, Ava.” Barbra grinned. “You’ll be comfortable and confident in any boardroom, with any executive.”

  Ava shifted her gaze to Kyle. “This is necessary?”

  It was more than necessary. She could blame herself. If she hadn’t fit so perfectly in his arms, if she hadn’t considered his food allergies and taken him to one of his favorite places to eat in the city, if she hadn’t been so much herself, then he wouldn’t have had to run now. “The contest is about creating an invention that can be marketed to the public. This is all part of that plan.”

  Ava nodded and rocked in her chair.

  “The marketing meetings will happen over several days, with a focus on an invention name and a full-scale marketing plan.” Kyle studied the board rather than Ava. Something inside his chest urged him to ease off. He couldn’t. This was best for the success of both finalists. “The marketing group will also handle the mock interviews with the press. Barbra has a professor friend who has agreed to assist with presentation skills and public speaking. Her friend has also agreed to advise on corporate boardroom etiquette and best practices.”

  Chad cleared his throat. “We’ve also scheduled meetings with different material manufacturers for Grant’s phone case for next week.”

  “Ava and I will be working with several fabric vendors this week to discuss the most durable fabric options for her Virtual Vitals Buddy.” Sam took a long sip of his coffee as if he already needed the extra jolt of energy.

  “I’m guessing the fun part might’ve already happened in the design lab.” Grant shook his head, his gaze fixed on the dry-erase board, his voice strained.

  “The final judging panel will be looking for a complete product,” Barbra said. “Don’t forget that a hefty grand prize is at stake.”

  Grant grinned. “The effort will be worth the payout.”

  “For one of you.” Kyle launched that warning like a fire starter in the middle of the conference table.

  Barbra frowned at him and rose. “There’s nothing to keep the runner-up from taking everything they’ve created and conquering the world on their own.”

  Except that Kyle’s company owned the rights to the two finalists’ inventions once working prototypes were built. That had been a last-minute change from his legal team. A backup plan for his backup plan. He expected working prototypes would be ready late next week.

  Chad rose and grabbed a handful of chocolate candy. “We should’ve scheduled a final game night. One last hooray with the group.”

  “There are still two weeks left.” Kyle turned away. He should be pleased. No more game nights. No more dinner debates. That was exactly what he wanted. His usual routine hovered, but he didn’t feel like opening his arms and embracing his old life.

  “Not only do we have meetings and contest work, we’ve committed to helping Sophie with her gala.” Satisfaction was evident in Ava’s voice, as if she enjoyed the fact that she had a few roadblocks of her own to put up.

  He was supposed to be avoiding her. She wasn’t supposed to be throwing out more reasons to keep them apart. Kyle squeezed his forehead, forcing himself to remember that he wanted this.

  “Make sure you have sturdy work gloves, Kyle.” Grant refilled his water bottle. “We’re constructing one of the backdrops tonight with Brad and Wyatt.”

  Kyle glanced at Ava.

  She lifted her hands. “Not me. I’m working with my mom and Iris on color schemes and the best arrangement for the auction tables.”

  “Good thing you didn’t start your job with Brad Harrington yet.” Chad tapped his knuckles against Grant’s shoulder. “You’d need to request an advance on your vacation time to handle all of this.”

  But Ava was working. Kyle stepped toward the table. Barbra intercepted him before he could back down.

  She touched Ava’s shoulder, a warning in her voice. “Despite all this, Ava, you need to sleep sometime. You can’t keep pushing yourself too hard. It won’t do you any good.”

  “You sound like Joann and my mother.” Ava grimaced.

  “Those are very wise women,” Barbra said.

  “What have they been saying?” Grant asked.

  “That I can’t keep surviving on power naps alone. I can handle this.” Ava stood and pushed her chair into the table. Her voice was firm, her smile fixed. “It’s only temporary, right? The contest ends in two weeks and Sophie’s gala happens two weeks later.”

  “The pace is only going to pick up,” Kyle cautioned. He knew, as he was the one picking up the pace for everyone—intentionally and deliberately.

  “I’ve got everything handled.” Ava looked at each one of them. Her gaze challenged as if she dared someone to disagree with her claim.

  “Of course you do.” Grant nudged her in the shoulder, breaking the standoff. “We’re here if you need us.”

  Everyone nodded, except Kyle. He needed Ava too much already. She did not need him, his money and closed-off heart.

  “Let’s get to work.” Barbra led the group out of the conference room.

  “What are you doing while we’re meeting with marketing experts, speech writers and stylists?” Ava caught up to Kyle in the hallway.

  Convincing myself that I don’t need you. His fingers brushed against her arm. Kyle shoved his hands in his pants pockets. “Working on a few new things for Tech Realized.”

  “How’s that going?” she asked.

  “I’m now the high scorer on both Galaxy Defender and Night Racer, if that tells you anything.” He didn’t mention his high score on the blackjack and pinball machines, either. Too bad his contract didn’t rely on his skill with hand-eye coordinati
on and game controllers.

  Ava nodded. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  Kiss me. Convince me what’s between us is worth my letting my family down. “Make sure Sophie doesn’t decide to expand her gala any more in the next few weeks.”

  “It’s my mom we need to watch out for,” Ava said.

  He wanted to watch out for Ava. He touched her arm before he could stop himself. “Barbra wasn’t wrong. You need to remember to sleep.”

  “I could tell you the same thing.” She stepped closer to him, kept his grip on her arm.

  It wasn’t sleep he needed to remember. He needed to remember all the reasons their first kiss had to be their last. Standing in the hall, he lost himself and his common sense in her green gaze.

  “Hurry up, you two,” Grant hollered. “We can’t start off the day already behind schedule.”

  Kyle shifted away from Ava and toward the open door. “After you.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  YOU CAN’T HAVE EVERYTHING, Ava. Don’t ever forget it. Those had been her dad’s parting words. His last words of encouragement and fatherly advice.

  Ava stepped off the bus and glared at the cable car tracks. Her dad had been right. She couldn’t have everything. The kiss she’d shared with Kyle six nights ago at the cable car stop had been a lie. She’d emptied her emergency bank account that same evening to cover the fee for the physician’s assistant application she’d submitted. And why not? That night, she’d ridden home on a cloud of hope.

  But her father had warned her. She knew better than to believe in hope and wishes inside her heart.

  Even worse, she’d told herself she wasn’t like her father. She would never be like her father. Now she was about to follow in his footsteps.

  She was about to walk away.

  She tried to convince herself this wasn’t the same. This was necessary. You don’t make mistakes like these, Ava. We’re counting on you to be above this. Those were the encouraging words from her supervisor. She prided herself on being better. She had to be for her brother’s sake. He’d trusted her to care for their mom while he was in Washington, DC. She couldn’t fail her mom and brother. Just like her father had.

  She’d never wanted to be like her father.

  Still, walking away was walking away.

  She had to do that now to protect everyone she loved.

  Ava pulled her phone out and checked the time. She had fifteen to twenty minutes max. More than enough time to tell Kyle and leave to pick up Ben. Every minute she paced outside Kyle’s building was less time with him. Not that she required a lot of time to explain. Her mind was made up.

  She had to drop out of the contest before she made an even worse mistake on the job—the one job that paid her—and could have cost a patient their life. Lives were at stake and something had to give.

  She pressed the call button for Kyle’s suite and took the stairs to the second floor.

  Kyle’s door swung open and a surprised smile lit his face. “You’re not my ride.”

  “Oh, you’re going out.” Ava fumbled with her sling-back bag in the hallway. The pinstriped navy suit and crisp white dress shirt set off his blue eyes. His unbuttoned collar and the tie hanging around his shoulders set off the urge to fall into his capable arms. “I can come back. Or I’ll just call you later. Tomorrow.”

  She had to stop rambling. Pull herself together. All she really wanted to do was wrap herself in his embrace and tell him to lie to her. Let him tell her that everything would work out.

  The only way to ensure things worked out was to do them herself. Like she always had.

  “I’m not leaving yet.” Kyle motioned her into the suite. Concern shifted along his features as his gaze traveled over her. “Come in, please.”

  He made her feel underdressed. Underprepared. Breathless for no reason. She should’ve called or, better yet, texted. Why couldn’t she stop looking at his tie? Why couldn’t she stop the image of knotting that tie into a neat Windsor and then pulling him to her for... “I should go.”

  She really had to leave. Before she lost her mind. Her legs never moved. Her body never turned to flee. Her traitorous gaze remained fixed on Kyle as if he was everything right in her world.

  “You should come in.” Kyle opened the door wider. The quiet appeal in his voice was hard to ignore.

  Ava remained in the foyer. If she went any farther, she’d probably curl up on his couch and cry. That would be humiliating. She refused to cry over a contest. A contest.

  It was about more than the contest. That much she recognized. The contest was simple compared to the goodbye. Saying goodbye to Kyle hit her in the heart. Her heart was the one place she’d sworn to protect and the one place that guarded her tears. “I’m dropping out of the contest.”

  “Wow. Okay.” His hand settled on her lower back, and a gentle nudge urged her inside. He asked, “Can you tell me why?”

  “It’s too much.” Ava edged toward him, not all the way as if she belonged nestled against his side like a couple, but enough that her shoulder and arm brushed against his suit coat. Enough that she could pretend that was all the contact she craved. “Everything is just too much.”

  “How can I help?” His voice was calm.

  No. She didn’t want his help. Or his compassion. She didn’t know what she wanted. But not that. “You can’t help. This is all on me.”

  “Did something happen?” He guided her through the game room and past the offices, walking with her into his apartment, into his personal space, as if he understood this wasn’t a professional call.

  His hand remained steady and reassuring on her back. His living space was cozy and comforting and reminded her of Kyle. She stopped and finally drew a deep breath. She was safe here. She believed that. Facing Kyle, she decided for full disclosure. “Bad day at work. I messed up. Made a rookie mistake.”

  He nodded and walked into the kitchen as if she’d confessed she’d spilled milk at lunch.

  That was his response: a simple nod. As if he accepted she made mistakes all the time.

  Frustration and weariness surged inside her. “My mistake could’ve cost a woman her life today. Don’t you understand?”

  One sane corner of her mind recognized that she wasn’t being fair. Lashing out at Kyle wasn’t right. But the rest of her didn’t care. She wanted to have a tantrum. “This woman is in her late fifties and still has many years left on her life. A grandmother-to-be. The woman’s only error was calling 9-1-1 and getting my rig. I could’ve changed her entire family’s world in one moment. With one wrong call.” She snapped her fingers. “Just like that.”

  He kept his arms loose at his sides. From his voice to his stance, everything about him was neutral. “But the woman didn’t die.”

  “That was all Dan’s doing.” Ava yanked on her ponytail and tugged her voice out of the rant setting. “That had nothing to do with me.”

  “I’m not going to tell you that mistakes happen.” Kyle poured hot water from the instant-hot-water faucet at his sink into a mug. “I fully understand that, in your job, mistakes can’t happen.”

  He offered no false sympathy or empty platitudes. He understood her work was life or death. There were no in-betweens or redoes. Thanks to the quick work of a dependable, solid partner, mistakes could sometimes be reversed or overwritten, yet not forgotten. She had to be better than that for the people she served. “I have to get my focus back. I need to concentrate on my job and what I’m good at.”

  “The contest is a distraction.” He opened a cabinet and pulled out a selection of teas.

  Including the same tea she drank every morning. Her favorite tea. That meant nothing. She liked a common, well-known brand. It was only a coincidence.

  “Yes. No.” He was the real distraction. He made her want more. He made her wish for the impossible. He tapped on her
heart—the one part of her that she’d always assumed was untouchable. Unmovable. Unreachable. “Without my job, I can’t support my mom.”

  “Would it change things if I told you that the prize money is going to be doubled?” He took a bottle of honey out of the cabinet. “The bonus, too.”

  “Seriously?” He had honey, too. What else did he know about her? She rubbed a hand over her eyes, focused on his words, not his thoughtfulness. “Did you just decide to double the prize money?”

  He shook his head. “I decided to do it the night the finalists were revealed. I wanted to wait until the winner was announced to reveal the change.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  He shrugged and squeezed the perfect amount of honey into the teacup. “Seemed like the right thing to do.”

  “That’s a lot of money.” Money couldn’t be more important than lives. But what if it wasn’t the contest? What if she was losing her edge? Losing the part of her that made her good at her job? What if, buried under the exhaustion and mental fatigue, she discovered her passion for her work had burned out?

  He held the mug out to her. “Both your idea and Grant’s are worth that kind of money.”

  “Do you really believe that?” She curved her hands around the mug, brushed her fingers against his.

  “Yes.” He never hesitated. Nothing broke in his voice or face to hint he might be telling her what she wanted to hear. She saw only resolve and certainty.

  She paced into the living room and turned her back on the glass balcony doors and her reflection. She didn’t want to see the temptation in her gaze. Or the truth that the money tempted her to remain in the contest. Kyle’s support and solid presence tempted her to believe in impossible things. “Money isn’t everything.”

  “No.” He closed the distance between them. “But it can help you now.”

  She stared into the mug as if wisdom could be discovered in the clear liquid if she only looked long enough. “If I win.”

  “I can’t guarantee that.”