Tristan: Finding Hope (Nova #3.5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

She points a finger at me, her smile still there. “And I never do it. Ever.”
    “So you’re saying that my blond hair, pretty blue eyes,” I wink at her, “and hotness aren’t affecting you at all.”
    She shakes her head, eyes locked on me. “I don’t do pretty boys.”
    “Who said I was a pretty boy? What if I’m a bad boy underneath it all?”
    “I don’t do bad boys either.”
    I lean in, catching her scent. It’s nice, some sort of perfume mixed with vanilla. “Then what do you do?”
    She shakes her head, biting her lip again. “Nothing. Work. Go to school. Go home. That’s all.”
    “So no guys?”
    “Nope, no guys.” She seems pretty adamant about it.
    I’m not sure what to do with this information. On the one hand it means she doesn’t have a boyfriend, but on the other hand it also means she doesn’t want one or any guy for that matter. Maybe she likes girls.
    “I’m not a lesbian,” she says as if she can read my thoughts for the second time tonight. “I’m just not interested in dating, having a relationship, or fucking around for many, many different reasons.” All her humor vanishes and all I can see is pain. It’s almost overwhelming to look at and I want to look away but I can’t seem to bring myself to do so. So we end up just staring at each other, unable to look away, yet unable to find anything to say.
    Thankfully, the bartender comes over and interrupts us. “So what are you doing here tonight on your night off?” he asks, leaning over the counter toward Avery.
    Avery nonchalantly shrugs, tearing her gaze off me and fixes it on him. “I was bored. Thought I’d get out of the house for a while.”
    “Good. You need to,” he says and I catch him glancing down the top of her dress. In the middle of it, he notices me noticing his not so discreet checking out. “Who are you?” he asks Avery, and I can tell right away that he must have a thing for her or something by the coldness in his tone.
    “This is Tristan,” Avery tells him. “He’s one of the people helping build my house.”
    “Oh.” He relaxes and gives me a chin nod. “It’s nice to meet you, man.”
    “Likewise,” I say, deciding maybe it’s time to make that trip to the bathroom so I can get on with my night plans.
    “So what do you guys want to drink?” he asks. “First round on the house, for giving this beautiful and very deserving girl over here a roof over her head.”
    “I’ll just have a Coke,” I tell him, wishing I could say
with a bit of Jack Daniel’s in it.
    “All right.” He looks at Avery. “And I’m guessing just the usual diet Coke for you.”
    “Two actually. And one water.” She points over her shoulder at where Quinton and Nova are sitting with a menu opened up in front of them, but their focused on each other, not picking something out to eat. “I’m here with a few more people.”
    “All right. Be back in a sec.” He leaves to get our drinks.
    “So you don’t drink either, huh?” Avery asks me, fixing her attention back on me.
    I shake my head. “Not really.”
    “And neither does Nova and Quinton, I take it.”
    “Yeah, are you getting excited? You get to spend the night with a bunch of boring, sober people,” I joke with a forced smile.
    “I’m glad,” she says. “It makes it easier to keep my own sobriety.”
    That shocks me a little. “For how long?”
    She touches her collarbone, where there’s another tattoo. “Two years, three months, and fifteen days,” she tells me as I read the black ink on her smooth, flawless skin.
Never forget the strength it took to free yourself.
“How long has it been for you?”
    “I’m not a recovering alcoholic,” I say, my eyes flicking back to hers.
    “Then what are you?” she asks with her head angled to the side, strands of her hair framing her face; strands I want to brush back and tuck behind her ear, but I won’t.
    I’m not sure whether to tell her the truth. It’s hard to say how she’ll react.