Page 66 of Feeding Hope
“Ken.” The Carvers’ Coach grinned. “Nothing much on my end, but I have a friend here-”
A friend?
She smiled at that, brighter than she wanted to admit.
“She’s got a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a prob-”
“What’s the address? I can tow her to the shop and look at it right now.”
Right now?
Well, that was quick.
She stood here while Wayne gave an address to the man on the other end of the call. Ken? That was his name.
“This is great, Wayne. Oh, wait. I forgot to ask. What year is the GC?”
Avery saw Wayne lift his head but before he could ask her the question she leaned in and answered it. “It’s a two thousand model.”
“Holy shit! Really?”
Avery wondered if they were trying to punk her. “Yes, really.”
“Oh my god! I can’t wait to get my hands on this car! Bye.”
The call ended.How she knew that, she really didn’t know. Maybe it was the absolute silence of noise from the phone in his hand.Then, it didn’t really matter. He lowered the phone to his side while he looked at her. Directly at her.
“Come with me to drop off the donations, Avery. Come with me to the food bank and then let me take you out to dinner.”
Wow. That was... direct.
As a girl, Avery had felt the weight and disappointment when people around her hand changed the way they said things, trying to soften some of the blows.She’d taken in those words and wondered how weak she was that people had to mince words to make them feel better about speaking to her.
This? This direct request?
“Okay.” She nodded. “I’d like that.”
Then she looked down at her clothes, she looked like she’d rolled out of bed to deliver the food donations to the food bank and... she had.
“I might need to go back to my apartment and change first.”
“Sure.” His comment came quickly on the heels of her own. “That’s not a problem.”
Avery opened her mouth to say something. Maybe to give him an out or change his mind, but she didn’t want to.
The last thing she wanted to do was to give Wayne an out after he’d asked her to dinner with him.
“Great,” she nodded and reached into her pocket for her keys. “As soon as your friend gets here, we can go drop off the food and then head over to my place.”
“It’s a date.”
Wayne’s eyes widened just a hint as soon as he’d said the words, so Avery had a feeling he’d surprised himself.
Which was just fine for her.She was doing a bit of surprising herself and finding out that she liked this kind of crazy.She liked him, too.
“So, tell me,” Wayne leaned a little closer, “what kind of food do you want to eat?”
Avery was used to a lot of home cooking.It was rare to find a mealtime where she felt like going out with her son or have enough extra money that she splurged on take out.
