Novak Raven (Harper's Mountains #4)(36)

“Do you ride the trails, too?” Lexi asked.

“No, but I want to really bad. I’ve never ridden an ATV.”

“And you work for an ATV tour company?” Harper asked, her dark, delicate brows arched up high.

Avery shrugged one shoulder and tried to smile. “Pretty crazy, huh?” Nope, she didn’t want to explain that Weston hadn’t trusted her for the first week and would’ve rather cut off his own nards than taken her up on a trail. Things were different now.

“You can borrow my Jeep,” Lexi offered.

“Are you sure?” Avery couldn’t help the hope in her voice.

“Hell yeah, I owe you.”

“For what?”

“We’ll just call this an apology for what my mate pulled this morning.”

“What did Ryder do?” Harper asked, the joking tone gone from her voice.

“Uh, he interviewed me.”

Lexi snickered and shook her head. “Avery’s being too nice. He’s mad about Weston keeping his pen pal a secret when they were kids. Ryder was a little monster to her first thing this morning.”

“You mean Ryder was a big monster,” Avery murmured. “He’s got a lot of muscles. I shit you not, he had to walk sideways through the bedroom door.” More heat in her cheeks when the girls laughed. She wished she had a better filter. At least they didn’t seem to be laughing at her like the people from Raven’s Hollow had done, so there was that.

Lexi handed her a set of keys with a little wooden owl dangling from them. Ryder’s animal. “Thanks, Lexi,” she said softly, then stood to leave.

“Do you want to come to the wedding?” Alana blurted out. “I mean, you and Weston are a thing…right?”

Avery didn’t know how to answer. Yes? At least, they’d slept together last night. More heat in her cheeks, and she couldn’t meet their gazes. It was still too soon to put a label on them, but… “I hope we’re a thing. And yes, I would be honored to come to your wedding.” Determined not to ruin the moment with her running mouth, she turned to flee to the black Jeep Wrangler parked by her Civic.

“Avery?” Harper asked.

Avery hunched under the seriousness of her tone and turned slowly. “Yes?”

“I have a crew to protect—one that means the entire world to me. Should I expect trouble from your people?”

Avery mulled that over for a few moments. She understood Harper’s desire to keep her friends safe. This place, these mountains, were a paradise, and they housed important and good people. “I don’t think so. The ravens are scared of you.”

Harper stood to her full height and locked her oddly-colored gaze on Avery. “Are you in trouble from your people?”

“No.” Avery tried and failed to smile. “I don’t have any people.”





Chapter Sixteen


Ryder glared at her from the porch of Big Flight’s main building and slurped hard on a swirly straw hanging from his lemonade. Or margarita?

“Please tell me you aren’t drinking an hour before a tour,” she said, shutting the door to Lexi’s Jeep.

“Please tell me you didn’t steal my lover’s car.”

Okay, they were starting off on the wrong foot again. “I got you a present.”

He narrowed his bright blue eyes suspiciously. “Is it boudoir pictures of Lexi or beer?”

Avery frowned. “No.”

Ryder blinked slowly and slurped loudly on his straw, showing his absolute disinterest in her present.

Weston came out of the front door looking like a tall drink of water in a Texas summer with his holey jeans and white T-shirt. He grinned when he saw her, but behind that smile, something was off. He looked…tired.

He jogged over to her and shocked her silly when he picked her up and squeezed her. He kissed her lips hard enough to knock their teeth together. “Who am I?” he teased.

Oh, she got it. He was making fun of her first kiss. With a firm swat on the arm, she muttered, “Stop.”

“Barf,” Ryder drawled. “I’m going to barf my margarita.”

She knew he was drinking.

Ignoring Ryder like a pro, Weston said, “You’re here early.”

“Not as early as I wanted to be.”

“I was going to come pick you up in a few minutes.”

“Well, I didn’t want to wait any longer to see you.”

“Still barfing,” Ryder called. “And now you’re blocking my view of beautiful mother nature. Can you move to the right by like, seven miles?”

Unable to help herself, she cupped the scruff on his cheeks and grinned. “Happy birthday, Weston.”

He buried his face against her neck and chuckled warmly. “Thank you.”

“I got you a present.”

“I thought you got me a present,” Ryder called.

Avery sighed as Wes settled her on her feet, then pulled him by the hand up onto the porch. Carefully, she tugged two small, newspaper-wrapped presents from her purse and handed them to the guys.

Ryder set his empty glass down with a clunk and tore into the wrapping.

“It’s not much,” she warned them, suddenly feeling self-conscious. What if this had been a terrible idea, and they hated it?