Straight Up Love (Boys of Jackson Harbor 2)

“I don’t know how to start.”

“Tell him what you’re feeling. He knows you, Ava. He loves you.”

I nod. “I will. I love him too, and I’m done waiting.”

“Good.” When she pulls back, her eyes are full of tears. “Is there any chance you have another test?”

I wave her off. “There’s no need. I’m sure the first one was right.”

She bites her bottom lip. “I meant for me.”

Jake

“Where is she?” I left Cindy and the idiot new kid to cover the bar and rushed to my childhood home after Ava sent me a text. The old hideout is smaller than I remember. And it’s pretty lonely without you.

Brayden points his thumb toward the backyard. “Tree fort,” he says. He laughs. “She actually knocked on the door and said she wanted to sit up there for a while. She asked if I’d mind. You two u

sed to hang out there when you were kids, didn’t you?”

I nod, but I’m not interested in giving Brayden a history lesson right now. Ava’s here. In our place.

That’s where she always went when she was upset and needed me.

I run into the backyard and climb the rope ladder, making a mental note to thank Ethan for replacing it last summer. It’s been thirty minutes since I got her text, and I’m afraid I’ve missed her. I pull myself into the fort.

She’s here.

Thank God.

She’s sitting in the corner in jean shorts and a Jackson Brews T-shirt, her hair in a ponytail, and her knees tucked into her chest.

“Are you okay?” I gulp in air. I think I’ve been holding my breath since I got here.

“I got the job in Florida,” she says.

I nod slowly. Fuck. This isn’t what I was hoping for.

I sit next to her—close enough that I could reach her hand if she let me, but not too close. “Congratulations.”

She exhales slowly. “Yeah, but I don’t want it. I don’t actually want to leave Jackson Harbor.”

Relief makes me limp, and I lean my head back against the plywood wall. “I don’t want you to leave either, but I do want you to be happy. I’m just a little selfish and want you with me.”

She rolls her head to the side and scans my face. “Why?” The word is so heavy with emotion that it cracks. “Why do you want me?”

I might laugh if she didn’t look so damn vulnerable. “Because I love you, Ava.”

“Is that enough?”

I cup her face in my hand, half expecting her to pull away. She doesn’t. “It’s enough for me.”

“I blamed Harrison for my failed marriage, but the truth is, I was just as at fault. I wanted him to leave me because that was easier than facing the fact that I couldn’t give him children. If he left me, I wouldn’t have to confront my own failure every day. I pushed him away, and he cheated on me with a woman who could give him the family he planned for.”

I don’t want to talk about her ex-husband right now, but I understand why she thinks it’s relevant. “Harrison was a fool, but dammit, Ava, I’m glad he left.” I roll to my knees so I’m in front of her, holding her face in both hands. “I’m glad you aren’t his anymore, because if you were, you couldn’t ever be mine. Not the way I need you.”

She swallows and searches my face. “When I thought Molly might have had your baby, I saw it all in a flash. A future where I was trying to give you a child and failing. A future where I pushed you away because I was so miserable about my body’s failure.”

I shake my head. She’s ripping out my heart, and she doesn’t even know it. After all this time and all my screw-ups, she still believes she’s not enough for me. “I’m not in any rush for the future. Tomorrow can wait, as long as I get to have today with you.”