I felt so embarrassed. If all these people here knew about the baby, maybe my paranoia had some basis on reality.
After another second, I flushed the toilet and then left the bathroom. I walked quickly past Cathy, not even bothering to look at her. I walked downstairs and found Harper as fast as I could.
“Hey!” Harper said. “I’m kicking ass as always.”
“Listen, I want to leave.”
She nodded. “Okay, sure. Did you tell Gibson?”
“No, and I’m not going to.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s go.”
Harper and I left the room and then headed for the front door. I loved that Harper was willing to drop whatever she was doing just to leave with me.
Just as we walked out the front door and got down the steps, someone called my name.
I looked back. “Hey, Avery,” Gibson said again.
“What?” I asked him.
“I’ll wait for you over there,” Harper said softly. I nodded gratefully as she walked down to the sidewalk.
Gibson came over to me. “Leaving so soon?”
“Yeah. I just have to get going.”
“Okay. Whatever you want to do.”
“Who’s Cathy?” I blurted out.
He looked confused. “Cathy? Blond girl, bow in her hair?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He laughed. “Well, I didn’t think we’d be having this conversation anytime soon, but she’s my ex-girlfriend.”
Shit. Of course she was. Cathy was thin and blond and pretty. Of course Gibson dated girls like her.
“Oh. Okay. Yeah, we definitely don’t have to talk about this.”
“You brought it up, so you should tell me why you asked.”
“She came up to me in the line for the bathroom, said something about not causing drama.”
He shook his head, annoyed. “She can be pretty fucking unpleasant sometimes,” he said.
“Why did she do that?”
“Cathy doesn’t like new people,” he said. “Just ignore her.”
I nodded and looked away, unsure. He seemed like he was telling the truth, but I doubted he’d just come out and admit to telling people about the baby.
This was just so crazy. I could barely trust the father of my own child. We were still strangers, and that wasn’t getting any better.
Which was exactly why I needed to try with him. It didn’t matter what Cathy said or didn’t say. If this man was going to be in my life, I had to at least give it some effort.
“Is your offer still on the table?” I asked him.
“What, you want to go for another ride right now?” He grinned at me. “Let me get my keys.”
“No. I mean the study.”
He shrugged. “Sure. I’m down for that.”
“Okay. I don’t know how it’ll work, but let’s do it.”
His grin got bigger. “Okay then. I’m looking forward to being in your capable hands.”
“Bye, Gibson.”
He smirked as I walked away, joining Harper on the sidewalk.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
I nodded, looking back at Gibson. He smirked at me again before turning and walking back into the house. He was so damn handsome, and my heart was beating like crazy in my chest.
I didn’t trust him. I didn’t know him. But I was going to have to try at least.
“It will be, I hope,” I said, and we started heading back home.
9
Gibson
The night after the party, I had a dream about Avery. I could taste her lips, feel her body pressed against mine. She moaned my name in my ear, and just as I was about to come, Cathy appeared out of nowhere with a baseball bat.
I woke up before she could start beating the shit out of me with it.
I rolled onto my back, groaning. I glanced at the clock. It was five forty-five in the morning, fifteen minutes before my alarm would go off. Fifteen minutes before I had to get up and start my damn day.
Unfortunately, my cock was hard as fuck from that dream, and the only thing I wanted to do was go back to sleep and dream about Avery some more.
That girl had no fucking clue. Clearly Cathy had said something to her at the party, which pissed me off to no end. But Avery, she was something fucking else. Cathy was a catty, bratty ex-girlfriend who felt like the world owed her absolutely everything. We dated for two months before I saw through her bullshit, but even after we broke up she was still around all the time.
I already knew Avery wasn’t anything like Cathy. Avery was intelligent, driven, beautiful, and funny. I barely knew her, but I already was positive I wanted to get to know her more.
I resisted rolling back over and going to sleep. No use in it, not anymore. I needed to get up and face the fucking day.
I climbed out of bed. Time to fucking practice. Time to sweat and run and work my ass into the ground.