She’s doing it for me.
I see that truth in her gaze when we finish the last drawer and stand back to look at our completed job. What I see in her eyes humbles me. It staggers me.
Makes me love her more than I had even before.
“Look at what you’ve done, Nick.” Her warm smile reaches deep inside me, to a place no one has ever touched before. Not before her. “It’s incredible, all of it. I know how much the rec center means to you. I remember how important it was to you to see this vision come to life and you did it.”
My chest tightens inexplicably at her praise because she understands this isn’t just another construction project to me. Not another business I could consume and reinvent in an effort to turn an easy profit. This is different.
This is a piece of me.
“You created something that’s going to have a lasting influence on this entire community and on every child who comes through its doors.”
I nod, but the movement feels tight.
This is more than an altruistic gesture for this community that’s many miles away from the dirt roads and swamps of my youth. I built this for myself too.
This building is the place I longed for when I was a troubled boy with problems too big for me to handle. It’s the sanctuary where I wished I could have gone when every other part of my life was spiraling horrifically out of control. When I felt I had no one to turn to and nowhere to go.
Avery doesn’t understand everything I was running from as a kid—the monsters I’ve buried deep in my past—but when I look into her searching eyes right now, I know that she can see the fissures in my veneer. She sees past the suits and the cars and the wealth.
Hell, I think she always has, right from the start.
Her hands are tender when she reaches up to hold my face. Her gaze captures mine, refusing to let go. Pleading with me to let her in.
“Thank you for bringing me here. For letting me share this with you.?
?? She smiles, those gentle eyes killing me with the depth of emotion I see in them. “I’m happy for you, that this all came together the way you dreamed it would. But it’s more than that, Nick. I’m proud of you.”
The words hit me hard. I can’t recall the last time I heard someone say them to me.
And never the way Avery is saying them now.
I’ve never seen the kind of love that’s shining at me from the light in her eyes.
Suddenly I can’t find my voice, not that I even know how to respond. On a growl, I pull her into my arms, hoping my kiss will tell her all the things I’m unable to articulate right now.
The good and the bad.
Even the sickening things no one else knows—no one who ever cared about me, that is.
Like a wave gaining strength as it races toward the shore, the impulse to let her in—to open the door just a crack and see if she’ll stand fast or run away—nearly overwhelms me.
I’m not sure if I’m ready to test her like that.
I can’t imagine a day that I ever will be.
When I lift my head from our kiss, my breath is sawing out of me, my heart hammering in my temples.
Her brow furrows as she holds my gaze. “What’s wrong?”
I shake my head, unwilling to ruin the day we just shared by inviting her sympathy. Or, Christ, her pity. That’s something I never want to see in her eyes.
But I already am ruining it all. My silence is making her anxious.
She takes a step back, out of my arms. “Where did you go just now, Nick?” She studies me, uncertainty creeping into her quiet voice. “You got so quiet. Was it something I said?”
“What?” My response comes out harsh, incredulous. “No. You didn’t say anything wrong.”