Page 12 of Searching for Love

“Who?” he joked, earning a nudge from him.

“Is she the reason you chose Pride?” he asked.

Lucas glanced over at Avery. “No, just a bonus.” He watched Avery laugh at something his sister said.

The pair of them had their heads bent over his sister’s phone. When Avery glanced up at him with a grin on her lips, he frowned.

“What is she showing you?” He reached for his sister’s phone and gasped at the image of him at twelve, holding Sophia, who was a toddler at the time, with chocolate cake all over his head.

Then, seeing the happiness on both his and his sister’s faces, he laughed.

“That’s a stupid picture.” He handed his sister’s phone back.

“You’re stupid.” Sophia stuck her tongue out at him and then went back to showing Avery pictures. Thankfully, they were images of the family cats dressed up as pumpkins the previous Halloween.

“Well, we’d better head back. I have work,” his mother said when everyone was finished eating their lunch.

He and Avery walked his family out to their car. He kissed his mother’s cheek and hugged his grandpa and sister.

“I like your family,” Avery said as he drove them back to his place.

“They seem to like you. Then again, my sister can get along with anyone.” He laughed. “She’s the most popular kid in school.”

“I figured. I was pretty popular as well.” Avery beamed.

“I can see that about you.” He glanced at her as he parked in front of the building.

“What about you?” Avery asked as he turned off the car.

“Nope, I was a geek. I was below a geek. A nerd.” He laughed when she gasped.

“I can’t see that.” She shook her head. “No one who looks the way you do could be a nerd.”

“You saw pictures of when I was a teenager. I weighed one-twenty, soaking wet.” He smiled. “Had acne, spent more time in cooking classes than the gym, and worked a nighttime job at a Chinese restaurant instead of playing sports. I was also helping raise my much younger sister, so my studies suffered.” He shifted towards her.

“You didn’t play any sports?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Not during school. I picked up basketball and football later.” He smiled, remembering the football game they’d played on the beach. “I’m not as skilled as you are, but I can toss a ball without embarrassing myself.”

She chuckled, and the rich sound warmed him and had his smile growing.

“You did pretty well. No one is as good as I am,” she joked. “I wanted to play in high school.”

“Why didn’t you?”

She shook her head. “Let’s just say that the coach was too old-fashioned to allow it, even after everyone fought for my spot on the team.” She shrugged. “It ruined it for me. I don’t like being where I’m not wanted.”

His eyebrows shot up. “I think it would make me fight even harder to prove that I had a right to be there.”

“By the time the coach relented, it was baseball season. The next year I wasn’t into it that much.” She looked at his store. “I suppose my entire life I’ve been searching for what I want. Where I fit in. It’s probably the main reason I have half a dozen jobs at the moment.”

“Really? Half a dozen?” To his surprise, she rattled off six or seven business names in Pride.

“You must have a ton of skills,” he thought aloud.

She laughed. “That’s what you took away from that?”

Smiling, he turned fully towards her. “So quit.” She laughed even harder at him. “Do it. Come work for me, full time.”