The Good Luck Charm(33)

“It’ll be casual? I don’t need to dress up?”

“Not unless you want to. Maybe I can help you study after dinner.”

“I’m not taking human anatomy, FYI.” Back when we were young, half the time studying was a euphemism.

“I’ll pick you up in an hour.” He ends the call before I can come up with a sassy retort.

I slip my phone in my purse and head toward my car, both excited and nervous about this date with Ethan. As I’m loading groceries into my trunk, I note movement in my peripheral vision. I adjust the cart so it’s not in the way but freeze when I look up to find my ex-husband standing in front of me, holding hands with a girl—I’m not sure she’s old enough to actually be classified as a woman.

“Delilah.” He looks me over while my gaze bounces between him and his new girlfriend, or maybe he’s become a Big Brother recently.

“Hi.” The word draws out, the i extending so long it becomes awkward.

A pang makes my chest ache momentarily, sadness over the failure of our relationship, maybe a hint of jealousy over being traded in for a coed. I’m pretty sure she’s not wearing a bra. Her bright yellow tank top screams YOLO across her chest. It’s paired with cutoffs so short the pockets hang out of the bottom.

“Angelica, this is Delilah, my ex-wife. Delilah, this is my girlfriend, Angelica.” Avery gives me a tight, questioning smile.

I can be pleasant. Civil in the face of this awkwardness. Conversation between Avery and me had been limited to ironing out the legal aspects of the divorce and nothing else. Papers have been signed, assets were long ago divided. It’s not this girl’s fault that any of this has happened.

I drop the final bag into my trunk and extend a hand. Angelica takes it, smiling uncertainly. “It’s uh … I’ve heard lots about you.”

“I’m sure you have.” I smile wryly. I wonder what awful things Avery has said about me.

“Why don’t you go on inside. I’ll be in in a minute.” Avery gives her hand a reassuring squeeze and presses his lips to her temple, whispering something that dissolves the worry on Angelica’s face.

“Okay. It was nice meeting you.” She still sounds a little uncertain as to whether that’s true or not, but she lifts her hand in a wave and flounces to the entrance.

I glance over my shoulder, noting that her shorts barely cover her butt, before I turn back to Avery with one brow raised. “Can she vote?”

“Be nice, Delilah.” Avery’s smile is dry, though.

“It’s a legitimate question. How old is she?”

“She’s of legal drinking age.”

“So you can do body shots at the night club—that’s fun.”

His lips flatten in a thin line. “She’s sweet and uncomplicated, which is what I need right now.”

I feel the sharpness of that statement cut across my heart. Our relationship was a huge, difficult complication in both of our lives near the end—and maybe before that. “I’m sorry—that was petty and uncalled for.”

“It is, especially considering.” He looks away, maybe to hide his own hurt.

“Considering what?”

“Come on, Delilah—it’s all over the local papers.” Avery’s exasperation is something I’m all too familiar with.

“What’re you talking about?”

“You and Ethan Kase. It’s not like there’s any real news in this town for people to focus on. There’ve been all kinds of pictures of the two of you together since he moved back.”

“I’ve been helping him with his father. Martin had a stroke.” I’d forgotten how little there is to pay attention to in this town.

Avery gives me a sad smile. “I don’t know why you think you need to lie to me about this, but I hope whatever is going on between you works out this time, because Christ knows no matter what I did, I couldn’t ever compete with him.”

I shake my head. “Compete? It wasn’t—”

“I thought with time you’d get over him, that I could love you enough to make up for him leaving, but that never happened.”

“That’s not why we didn’t work.” As I say it, I have to question if it’s true.

He sighs. “You never let him go, Delilah. Not him, not his family.”

“They were my family, too. They were there for me when mine fell apart.”

“I would’ve been there, if you would’ve let me.” Avery rubs his chin on a sigh. “You don’t need to defend your relationship with Jeannie and Martin, who I’m very sorry about, by the way. I know how important they are to you and that they always have been. But they took precedence over me. It was hard not to be jealous of that. And it was impossible to compete with a memory. So for now I need something simple. Angelica doesn’t have the baggage we do. She’s happy to make me the center of her world, and that’s what I want to be. I hope this time around you won’t hold back with Ethan the way you always held back with me.”

“Avery, I—”

“I’m not saying this to be hurtful. Just try to allow yourself to be loved the way I wanted to love you.”

I see so clearly, as I look at this man I spent all those years with, how I broke his heart. Maybe the same way Ethan broke mine. “I’m so sorry.”