Second Opinion (26 page)

CHAPTER 30

“Sweet Jesus, it’s hot out here,” Avery complained. It was unseasonably hot for early November in Tucson.

“Get back in the water,” I said, chuckling at her. I was far from complaining as I took in her black bikini. My mouth was watering and I couldn’t stop sneaking glances at her tits.

“Come with me,” she said.

I would be a fool to pass up the opportunity to hang with her in the pool. Getting her wet seemed like a good idea. Solid plan.

“Want another drink?” I asked noticing her beer was empty.

She nodded as she stood. I stared.

“What?” she asked, looking down at her body as if she had spilled something.

I grinned lasciviously when her eyes met mine.

“God, you’re a pervert.” She rolled her eyes.

“Just another thing you love about me.”

She shrugged. “True. We are kind of a perfect match.”

I watched her walk away toward the water, giving myself a minute before standing because if I stood, everyone would see just how much of a pervert I was.

All it took was Avery’s perfect body in that very revealing bikini. I didn’t have eyes for any other woman.

I watched as she climbed down the steps into the water, and I realized my giant erection wasn’t about to go away if I kept my eyes on her. So instead I stared up at the sky, willing myself to focus on baseball instead of Avery’s breasts.

I finally stood and headed toward the bar. I ordered two more beers. As I waited for the bartender to fill my order, I felt wet arms snake around my waist.

“Jesus, that’s cold,” I complained, and I heard the musical sound of Avery’s giggle behind me as she wrapped herself around me and rested her cheek on my back.

I struggled out of her hold and turned around, drawing her into me and placing a gentle kiss on her lips.

It was as I pressed my lips to hers that our world shifted.

I heard her before I saw her.

“Are you fucking serious?” I heard Quinn screech as I was lost in Avery’s soft lips.

The uncontrollable tornado otherwise known as my baby sister.

I felt Avery freeze beneath me.

Shit, even I froze for a second.

But then I realized I had nothing to hide. Maybe we did have something to hide before, but that was back when we didn’t know how serious this was. That was back before I knew I wanted to be with Avery for the rest of my life.

I relaxed, but the woman I was grasping to my chest didn’t.

She backed away slowly, and I turned to face Hurricane Quinn.

“What are you doing here?” I asked stupidly.

Stupid because our company gave out tons of these weekend staycations. I should’ve figured I’d run into Reed at some point.

We’d both been busy at work, and I’d been busy in my free time with Avery while he spent time with his new wife.

And he and his
wife
were apparently in Tucson for the weekend, too.

“Reed won a trip. What are
you
doing here?” she asked, her eyes focused on Avery.

Avery jumped immediately to the defensive. “Quinn, it’s not what it looks like.”

I shot her a look at that boldfaced lie. “Ave, let’s just tell her.”

Avery’s eyes were wide with fear, but I felt a sudden peace. “It’s exactly what it looks like, Quinn,” I said.

“Is this like a thing? Or are you two just fucking?”

My sister. Always such a peach.

“It’s a thing,” I said, looking over at Avery. Her eyes wouldn’t meet mine. They were focused on Quinn.

Reed walked up beside Quinn, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Hey, Grant,” he said as if everything were totally normal. “Hey, Avery.” He nodded in her direction. He headed toward the bar, and then he stopped mid stride and looked back at us. A look of total confusion passed across his face. “Wait. What?”

I chuckled.

“Are you two—” Reed stopped himself.

“Yes,” I confirmed.

“Since when?” he asked.

“I’d rather not get into that,” I said, knowing this had to be making Avery uncomfortable.

“This is disgusting. And after what you did to Kaylee, I don’t think I can get on board with this,” Quinn said.

“Sorry, Curley Q, but it’s not your call.”

Finally Avery spoke up. “I know this is weird, but I don’t want to hide it anymore. Quinn, I’m in love with your brother.”

“Oh my God,” Quinn said, a look of pure disgust crossing her features. “Love?”

I wrapped an arm around Avery’s waist and pulled her back into me. “And I love her, too,” I said, leaning my forehead down to hers. “I’ve never been in love like this.”

I pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Quinn said. She covered her mouth with her hand and ran off toward the bathroom.

“Well that wasn’t exactly the reaction I’d been expecting,” I said as Avery looked toward the bathrooms in horror.

“I’ll go talk to her,” she said, taking off after Quinn.

I signed for my beers and handed one to Reed. We toasted and both drank down half before sitting on the stools at the bar.

“So how long?” he asked.

“I first really noticed her at the engagement party. The first time we hooked up was your wedding night.”

“At least you won’t forget the date.”

We both chuckled.

“Shit, this is why you looked different at our house last weekend.”

“Because of Avery?”

“Love,” he said, taking a sip of his beer as if that one word was the answer to everything.

In a way, it was. Actually, in many ways it was.

I nodded. “It’s funny,” I said. “I didn’t want to fall for her. I didn’t want to fall for anybody. It was like she was always there, but I never really saw her. As soon as I noticed her, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. We were both worried about Quinn’s reaction, but I honestly didn’t think it would make her sick.”

He laughed. “It’s not you.”

“Is she okay?”

“She’s been getting sick a lot the past few days. It must be food poisoning.”

“So why did you bring her here?”

“Didn’t want to pass up a free weekend at a great resort with my wife. I figured it would pass.”

“Sorry for causing the relapse.”

He shrugged. “She’ll be okay. She’ll be happy for both of you once she sees what’s so obvious.”

“Thanks, man,” I said, finishing my beer and signaling the bartender for another round.

Avery appeared a short while later. “She went up to your room,” she said to Reed.

He nodded. “Excuse me,” he said, standing. “I’ll text you and maybe we can get together for dinner or something.”

“Send her my best,” I said, worried about my sister. “Is she okay?” I asked Avery as Reed retreated into the hotel.

She nodded. “She said she’s been getting sick a lot lately. It wasn’t us. She thinks she ate some bad food a few days ago.”

“That’s what Reed said. But food poisoning usually gets out after a day or two.”

“That’s the same thought I had.”

“You don’t think…” I stopped my train of thought.

Avery’s eyes met mine. “That was my first thought.”

“You think I’m going to be an uncle?”

Avery laughed. “Maybe. Uncle Grant.”

“God, Quinn as a mother. I can’t even imagine.”

Avery laughed. “It might just be the most perfect happy ending I could imagine for her and Reed.”

“Agreed. Maybe not the sickness, but the happiness at least.”

Avery laughed, and we both drank our beers, glad our secret was finally out in the open.

CHAPTER 31

“So how’s married life?” I asked the blushing couple in front of me.

“Except for this stomach bug, it’s been great so far,” Quinn said, taking a sip of water. She felt good enough to emerge from their hotel room to meet us for dinner. Conversation thus far had been fairly awkward. Quinn kept staring at Avery and me, especially anytime we showed each other any type of affection.

Which, I realized, was nearly constant. I was always touching her or throwing my arm around her or kissing her. And if I wasn’t touching her, she was touching me. We were just pulled to each other as if we were each one half of the other’s magnet.

“So I’ll address the elephant in the room,” Quinn started. “What the fuck is going on between you two?”

My eyes met Avery’s. “You want to talk?” I asked.

“You know I’ve always thought he was hot,” she started, turning toward Quinn. My sister nodded. “Well I made a comment to him at your engagement party. That’s kind of where things started. He finally noticed me there, I think.” She looked to me for confirmation. I nodded and grinned as I remembered her words, something that would always stay between the two of us.

“We started flirting, and then there was softball. We eventually started texting, and then things sort of just took off on your wedding day.”

“You’ve been together since our wedding?” Quinn asked, true shock in her voice.

We both nodded.

“How was I so oblivious to this fact?” she wondered aloud.

“You were a little busy, you know, getting
married
,” I teased. “And then you were on your honeymoon, and then you came back and had a life to start with each other. The longer we waited to tell you, the bigger deal it became. I didn’t want you to think this was another Kaylee situation.”

I glanced over at Avery, and I saw love shining back at me.

I’d known for a pretty short amount of time that this was the girl I wanted to spend my life with. I wanted a future with her. I wanted to have children with her and grow old with her. Histories be damned, we were in this together and we were looking toward the future. We were ready to bury the past and start living for the present.

And I knew just from the look in her eyes that she was in it with me one hundred percent.

“I just can’t believe it,” Quinn said. She looked at me. “You’ve been a player forever.” Her eyes shifted to Avery. “And so have you. So how did you two decide this was right?”

“I can’t explain it,” Avery said. “It just feels right.”

My arm was draped across the back of her chair, and she leaned in toward me, pressing a gentle kiss to my cheek. “And somehow I managed to tame this beast.”

I laughed.

“TMI,” Quinn said, looking at us with disgust.

“Get used to it, Quinn,” I teased my sister. “You’re going to have to deal with this at holidays, birthdays, family barbeques, weekly Saturday brunches...” I trailed off.

“I’m invited to all of that shit?” Avery asked.

I grinned. “You’re invited to every event in my future, Ave. I want you there for everything.”

“Oh gross,” Quinn said across the table, but I barely heard her because my mind was on the fact that I had just told Avery I wanted to spend my life with her.

“Nothing would make me happier.” She leaned in and pressed her lips to mine.

I knew before the weekend was over, we’d have a bigger promise to each other. I wanted her to know how committed I was to her and to our future together.

I just had to find the right time to do it.

I wasn’t planning anything huge; I just wanted her to know how serious I was.

That time managed to present itself to me later that evening. Quinn was tired, so she and Reed headed to their room. Avery and I took a stroll around the pool. Tiki torches reflected light off of the water, and the moon lit up the dark night sky. It was quiet by the pool. Soft instrumental music played from some hidden speakers. The music was the only sound breaking the silence of night. Avery and I stopped under some palm trees for a soft and sensual kiss.

She shivered in a cool nighttime desert breeze, and I rubbed her arms as I pulled her against me. “I love you, Ave.”

“I love you, too,” she said softly. She pulled back to look up at me. “You’ve done more for me in the past month than anyone has ever done for me. I’ve never been able to open up to anybody, to reveal the scars of my past, to show sides of myself I’ve kept hidden.”

“You’ve done the same for me. And I don’t want to live without you. Ever. I want you to know you are the only woman for me. I want you to feel confident you are it for me and you always will be.”

“I hope you know I feel the same way.”

“Then marry me.”

She froze.

Oh fuck.

The words slipped out impulsively.

They were words that should have been planned, words that should have been said carefully.

It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t formal. It wasn’t careful.

But it was honest.

The only other time I had said those words to a woman, I’d been shot down.

A piece of me had broken after that rejection, and it was something I was only now starting to get back.

And it had taken this woman standing in front of me with a look of shock on her face to start healing that brokenness.

“Are you serious?” she asked.

I took a moment to think it through.

Even though the words had slipped out unplanned, much like when I’d told her I was falling for her, and the first time I’d told her I loved her, maybe it wasn’t so bad. Maybe the words were meant to slip out. And now that they were out there, I really didn’t want to take them back.

I wanted her to say yes.

I wanted to marry her and to spend the rest of my life showing her how much I loved her.

We’d wasted too much time, and it was time to move forward and start our future together.

“Yes, I’m serious. I don’t have a plan or a ring but I know I want a future with you.”

She pressed her lips to mine, and when she pulled back, her eyes glistened with fresh tears. “Grant, yes. Of course I will marry you,” she whispered. 

I grinned. “Yeah?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she smiled.

My mouth crashed down to hers, to this woman who was beautiful to me both inside and out.

Just a few short months earlier, I never would have imagined this was my future. I never would have thought Avery Peterson—one of my sister’s best friends, a girl I’d known for years but who stood in my periphery while I blindly went on with my life—would be my future.

But now that I could see clearly, I couldn’t wait for our future together to begin.