Why Not Now? (The Blue Vista Crew #2)

14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Derek

I don’t call or text Ava the next day. A friends-with-benefits arrangement is not the same thing as a relationship. And I am already far too close to diving headfirst into a full-on relationship with this woman. I tell my friends what’s going on, partly because they should know that I’m fucking around with someone who works for us, but mostly because they’re my best friends and we tell each other pretty close to everything. Not the details, obviously, but the major life events.

Me deciding to only sleep with one woman for the foreseeable future is a bit of a major life event. Ava and I haven’t discussed not sleeping with anyone else—that’s also not really part of a friends-with-benefits arrangement—but I also know I can’t.

On Monday, Adalie and I agree to meet up at her place after I pick up Ava, since she’s coming to the Vancouver Christmas Market with us. Ava knows we’re meeting Adalie, but doesn’t know where we’re going.

When she’s done work, I go to her house where Lacey answers the door. I smile and say, “Hey, Ace. How did that math test go today?”

“Aced it,” she says with a grin, letting me inside. “He marked them all before the end of class and I got 98%.”

I hold up my hand and she high-fives me.

“I wish I could come with you guys today, but I have gymnastics.”

I sit on the couch, and she perches in the opposite corner.

“Ava mentioned you were still doing that. You still like it?”

She shrugs. “Not as much as I did when I was a kid. It gets really competitive when you get older, and I just like to have fun with it.”

“Then have fun. Don’t worry about the competition.”

“I guess.”

I can tell she’s not sure about my suggestion, so I explain further. “Listen, when I was young, my mom always said I could be a doctor. I got it in my head that she was telling me I had to be a doctor. What she was really saying was I could do anything I wanted. It took me a long time to figure out I didn’t want to do anything in the sciences. When I went to her and told her I wanted to switch majors, she said something I’ll never forget. She said, Life is too short to be doing things we don’t want to do. If it’s not fun, don’t do it. ”

Lacey pulls her knees up, wrapping her arms around them. “You make it sound so easy.”

“There’s a big difference between simple and easy, Ace.”

Ava clears her throat behind us, and I stand, taking in her outfit. She looks hot in her forest-green sweater dress, dark leggings, and brown boots. She has a green scarf wrapped around her neck and is pulling on that jacket. The one that isn’t waterproof. Her dark hair is braided and hangs over her shoulder.

I stare at her for a long minute, caught in my desire to forget taking her out and take her to bed instead. Then I shake myself out of those thoughts.

“The one and only Ava Calligan,” I say. “Ready to go?”

“Yes.” She zips up the jacket. “Do you mind if we give Lacey a ride to gymnastics?”

“Of course not.” I turn toward her. “You ready as well, Ace?”

“Just gotta grab my bag.”

She runs into her room next to the kitchen and Ava comes toward me. I want to take her in my arms and kiss her hello. But Lacey is going to come out any second and I have a feeling Ava doesn’t want her sister to know about us.

“You don’t have to worry about Lacey,” she says. “I’ve got everything under control.”

“You mean our conversation?” I shrug. “I was just offering a bit of advice from my mom. It helped me. I remember being sixteen and having no clue what I was doing.”

“You seemed to know what you were doing to me.”

I give her a skeptical look. “When I was sixteen, I spent half the year with a massive crush on you and no idea what to do about it.”

She doesn’t get a chance to respond because Lacey rushes out of her room. “Ready.”

We head to the car, and I open Ava’s door, then Lacey’s.

I go around to the driver’s side and hand Ava my phone for song selection. She chooses “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO and we drop Lacey off at her gymnastics club before driving to Carter’s mechanic shop.

“This is the guy who owes you a favour?” Ava asks as I pull into the parking area.

“Yeah. He and Nessa got married this past summer at Blue Vista. I got them a few deals. They have a pretty cool story, actually. Together for a few years, then she left to chase her dreams. He waited for her for six years. Now they’re living their happily ever after.”

“He waited? How did he know she’d come back?”

I shrug. “I asked him the same thing. He just said he knew she would. And she did.”

I get out of the car, and we head inside. Carter meets us, shaking my hand, then Ava’s.

“I have some good news and some bad news,” he says, leading us into the shop where her car is up on a lift. “The good news is, I figured out what was wrong. The bad news is, I would not recommend fixing it.”

“Not…” Ava looks between me, Carter, and the car. “Why not?”

He grimaces. “It’s an old car. You have coolant leaking onto your alternator, which is what caused it to die this time, and probably last time. I could replace the alternator and the hose that’s leaking, but at this point, you’re plugging holes in a dam. It’s going to break.”

“So what do you suggest?” Ava asks, an edge of panic in her voice. “I still need to get to and from work.”

“I would say, sell this one to me. I can give you a bit for it for parts. Put that toward a new car.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t have the money for a new car.” She’s shaking and I wrap an arm around her shoulders, tugging her into my side.

Carter and I exchange a look, and he says, “I’ve got a few contacts. Let me see what I can find for sale. Give me your max budget and I’ll find you something for a good price that’ll be reliable.”

Ava leans into me for a second before she straightens and nods. “Do you mind if I sit in your office for a minute? I’ll move some money around and figure out my budget.”

“Go ahead.”

She goes in and I watch through the glass as she takes a seat, pulling out her phone.

“Sorry it wasn’t better news, man,” Carter says, watching her as well.

I sigh. “You’re a mechanic, not a miracle worker. But…” I hesitate for a second. “When you find something, tell me first, okay? If it’s a little over her budget, I’ll pay the difference.”

Carter lifts his eyebrows. “You sure you’re not dating this woman?”

I think about the other night, the way we laughed together, the heat between us. Then I remind myself that we’re friends-with-benefits. She didn’t ask me for a relationship. She asked me for sex. “We’re not dating.”

“It’s complicated,” he says.

I nod. “Yeah. Complicated.”

After she gives Carter a much lower budget than I think he’ll be able to do anything with, we return to my car and I take us toward Adalie’s place. Ava turns on a Maren Morris album and leans her head back against the headrest.

“This is awful,” she says. “I need a car for my housekeeping job. I got a ride today, but that won’t work every day.”

“Borrow mine.” The words are out before I can think of what I’m saying.

“You’re already doing so much,” she says. “I can’t take your car as well. How are you going to get to and from work?”

“There’s loads of ways. In the summer, I run to work fairly often. I could take transit, and if I do, I could meet up and go with Adalie. Or I could ask to borrow Lis or Adalie’s car. They don’t use them often.”

“I can’t—”

“Ava,” I say, cutting off her denial of my help. “Is it going to be a problem if you don’t have a car for a while?”

“Yes,” she answers, her voice small.

“Then borrow mine until Carter finds you a new one.”

She’s quiet for a long time and I’m certain she’s fighting with herself, trying to decide whether she should accept my offer or not. I pull into Adalie’s underground parkade and turn off my car, cutting the song about music being her church in the middle of the chorus.

I slide my fingers into Ava’s hair at the nape of her neck, where it’s caught in a loose braid.

“Let me help you,” I say. “Please.”

She searches my eyes and finally nods. I pull her closer so I can kiss her. Her hands grip the edges of my jacket where I haven’t zipped it up yet, holding on as though she needs to so as not to fall. Our lips caress, my tongue dipping into her mouth the way I want other parts of my body to dip into other parts of hers. She makes a sound, half whimper, half sigh, when I sit back a little.

“Hi,” I say.

“Hi,” she says, her eyes still closed.

“Can’t do that in front of Lacey, right?”

She nods. “Right.”

“Okay.” I kiss her again. Her lips are already parted, so I’m right back where I’d been before, my tongue dancing along hers. “You look beautiful tonight,” I tell her between kisses.

“I’m wearing the same thing I always wear.”

“And you’re always beautiful.”

We should probably go upstairs—Adalie will be waiting for us—but I can’t bring myself to leave the heaven that is her lips.

Until my phone rings.

I back away from Ava as Dad flashes across the screen and I hit the side button to shut off the ringer.

“Who is it?” Ava asks.

“No one,” I say. I give her the fakest smile I can muster. “Ready to go?”