Page 2 of Searching for Love

ChapterOne

Holding her breath, Avery felt her best friend Hannah Crawford, soon to be Hannah Auston, beside her and pushed her body even faster. There was no way she was going to lose this time. Not again.

Sure, Hannah had a few inches on her, and gosh, her legs seemed to be far longer than her own. But they had both taken swimming classes, and she knew full well that she could beat her to the shoreline.

Breathless, the pair of them surfaced at the same time and raced to the edge of the water. An avid runner, Avery far outshined Hannah on land. Three days a week, Avery woke at dawn and jogged around the small town that had always been her home.

Sure, the town was only three miles wide, but she weaved through the streets to hit her five-mile mark.

When her feet touched dry sand first, she shouted with joy and started jumping up and down, her arms up in the air as she boasted her greatness loudly to the world.

Her long wet red hair flowed around her shoulders as she leapt about in her victory dance.

Then her brother rushed across the sand towards her, holding up a towel as he yelled her name.

“Jesus, Ave!” Wyatt shoved the towel over her shoulders. “You lost your swimsuit top somewhere!” he growled as he held onto her to stop her from bouncing about.

Avery glanced down at herself and, sure enough, her swimsuit top was nowhere to be found. Her shouts of joy turned to giggles, which turned to hysterical laughter.

Scanning the beach, she realized that there were more than two dozen beachgoers within view. Then she spotted a pair of dark eyes watching her from across the sand and froze. Everything except those eyes faded away in her mind.

How many nights since last Christmas had she dreamed of seeing them again?

Lucas.

Lucas Jenkins.

His smile was contagious. His eyes heated as he looked at her from across the beach. His dark hair was wet as if he’d been in the water moments before.

He was wearing a pair of black swim trunks with a blue stripe down the sides of it and nothing else. A god. He was a god.

Tanned. Toned. Muscular. Dangerous.

Then everything caught up with her and she realized that she’d just flashed everyone on the beach. Including Lucas.

A half gasp, half scream escaped her lips, and she turned away and allowed her brother to cover her completely.

“How in the hell did you lose your top?” Wyatt growled in her ear.

“You lost your top?” Hannah asked a little breathless. “How did you lose your top? I tied it myself.”

Hannah’s one-piece suit was still intact. The swimsuit Avery had worn to the beach that day was older. It still fit but the elastic was a little loose. She had plans to replace it, really she did.

She’d taken several trips to the mall in search of another “perfect” bikini. But everything made her look either too big or too small up top. Several even pushed her completely flat.

It wasn’t that she had really big boobs, but what she did have, she wanted to show off with her chosen swimwear. If she had it, she was going to highlight it.

“Here it is,” a deep voice said next to her.

Before she turned, she knew exactly who had found her swimsuit top.

Lucas.

It had been almost six months since she’d last seen him. He’d been working at one of the food trucks for the annual Pride Christmas tree lighting.

They’d flirted. Talked. Exchanged social media contacts. He’d told her he was working at a restaurant in the mall in Edgeview, so she had gone there almost every weekend, hoping to bump into him there. But he hadn’t been working when she’d dropped by.

Nor had he updated his location or status on social media.