Avra's God Read Online Free Page B

Avra's God
Book: Avra's God Read Online Free
Author: Ann Lee Miller
Tags: Romance, college, Florida, beach, rock band, forgiveness, Jealousy, sexual temptation
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scuffed across the kitchen floor. Cisco followed her
brother into the dining room. Kurt sailed through the room and
flopped onto the living room couch. Cisco pulled out a dining room
chair and straddled it backwards. He lifted his eyebrows at her.
“Hey kid, what’s with the shy girl thing? Red face, looking down,
the whole bit.”
    He’d shoved her out of her comfort zone by
walking into the room. She scraped the shavings into a pile and
glared at him. “I’m sharpening a pencil.” She knocked the sharpener
against the table, trying to dislodge the lead.
    “I meant at dinner the other night.”
    “I embarrass easily, okay?”
    “Hey—” He held up his hands. “I’m not dissing
you. I’m all about being embarrassed.” He reached across the table
and took the pencil sharpener from her. He pried the lead out with
the paper clip from her report and handed it back. “Homework?” He
jutted his chin toward her papers.
    Breathe in. Breathe out. They were
just having conversation. She relaxed her shoulders, softened her
tone. “Report on Y2K.”
    He raked his fingers through his hair. “You
wanna hear embarrassing? My pop holed up with some dude in an
underground house—stockpiled food, water—then Y2K was a bust.”
    “Everybody’s dad has idiosyncrasies.” She
shrugged. “Mine alphabetizes cans in the pantry.”
    “My dad ditched his family.”
    “My dad counts things.”
    “My dad lives on a sailboat behind the
boatyard.”
    “When I was a baby, Dad counted all the hairs
on my head. He said God does it, and he wanted to see if he could
do it.”
    He stretched across the table and fingered
her hair. “Sounds reasonable. I could get into that.” He tugged and
released the tendril as he stood.
    Her scalp tingled. She didn’t want him to
leave. “Lots of people are left by their fathers.”
    He flipped his chair around to push it under
the table. “Easy for you to say. Things function at your house. At
mine, they dysfunction.”
    “You do have a perfect Dad.” Her voice was
quiet.
    Cisco grunted. “You’ve never met him.”
    “I’m talking about God.”
    “Man, Avra, you’re hitting me out of left
field. What’s God got to do with this conversation?”
    Make him understand . She bit her lip,
staring into the deep brown of his eyes. “God will never ditch
us.”
    “Listen, I know you’re sincere, but it just
sounds so out there. Not where I live.”
    “Check out church sometime.”
    He shrugged noncommittally. “Your dad invited
me.” He moved toward the door. “I think he likes me.”
    “What’s not to like?”
    Cisco’s eyes swerved to hers. He lifted his
brows.
    Her face heated under his gaze. “That’s not
what I meant—”
    “See ya, Avra.” He pushed through the
swinging door into the kitchen. The screen door squeaked open, then
shut.
     
     
    Jesse’s gut clenched as he slid into his seat
one second before Professor Marquez cleared her throat to begin
class.
    In the flurry of notebooks popping and paper
shuffling, Kallie dropped a folded sheet of paper on his desk. He
covered it with his Lit book and grinned when she returned from the
waste basket. Her face gave nothing away. What did Kallie think
about You’re Callin’ My Name? Did she guess he’d written it
for her?
    He scanned the paper. Promise ... delves
below the superficial ... melody brings out the pathos— what the
heck was pathos? He thumbed to the glossary of his Lit book. Pathos—expression of strong or deep feeling.
    He rubbed his thumb across his chin, reading
the rest of her comments. She liked the song. His jaw relaxed.
    Kallie’s affirmation rubbed salve into the
part of him Dad rejected. Dad would never hear his songs. Creating
music, or any art form, was pretty much loafing in Dad’s mind. A
man labored hard with his hands or his intellect. That much he’d
absorbed from his father. He worked hard at his music. Not that he
ever expected to see any appreciation from Dad.
    After class, Jesse stood

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