“You’re not going to threaten me?” I asked.
He barked out a laugh, but even that was warm instead of sharp. “Should I?”
“I don’t know. You’re the brother.”
He shrugged. “If I thought you were an asshole, you would’ve been at the bottom of the lake already.”
Why does that feel suspiciously close to him giving me the stamp of approval?
I honestly wasn’t sure what to think, but since we were apparently being amicable and honest about this, I decided to just ask. “What are you doing here, Avery?”
“What do you mean?”
I gestured vaguely between us. “The meddling. Asking me to walk her home last night and tying our tubes together yesterday. Now this. I get back and you’re just, what, cool with it?”
“Oh,” he said, a slight smirk on his lips as he offered me another shrug. “That.”
“Yeah. That.” I scoffed down a laugh. “I know my big brothers and there’s no way you actually want to be having this conversation.”
He paused for a beat as his expression slowly started growing more contemplative than teasing. “You’re right. I don’t want to be having it. Lord knows, I never thought I would be, but I knowmy sister and she’d be alone forever if nobody gave her a little push once in a while.”
“How’s that?”
“Hunter really did a fucking number on her, but I think Farrah hurt her more. The fact that it was both of them? Together? That was rough, man.”
“Yeah. It must’ve hurt like a bitch. I’d have killed the guy if I was you.”
He snorted. “You think I didn’t consider it?”
“Maybe.”
“Nah, I did, but then he moved, and I decided neither him nor Farrah was worth her losing me too, so I let it go.” His jaw ticked as he stared out over the water, his black hair still mussed and sticking up in all directions after what looked to have been a pretty rough night. “I just want Raquel to be happy and she’ll never admit it, but she likes you.”
My heart did a profoundly stupid flip-twist thing, so I kept my mouth shut, seriously not trusting myself to speak for once in my life. Avery turned to look at me then, his lighter gray eyes serious but also a little crinkled at the corners.
“And after last night, I think you like her too,” he said. “So, yeah. That’s what I’m doing, I guess. I’m trying to make sure she’s happy.”
I drew in a deep breath. “I think she is happy, so you can stop worrying now.”
“Thanks.”
I pointed a finger at him. “Don’t mention this conversation to her.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” He placed a hand over his heart, but then winked, which immediately negated the promise he’d just made. “She’d pulverize us both if she knew we were talking about her. Better to keep this between us.”
As we talked, the campsite had slowly been coming back to life behind us, tent zippers opening and coffee being made with the urgency of a medical emergency. Considering how hungover some of them looked, caffeine probably did qualify as one of those.
Avery finally stood up, dusting off his ass before he turned back to me. “Help me put up the canopy. Then we’ll go find some coffee.”
I nodded, getting up and tightening the last of the straps before I headed up to the camp with him. After grabbing a shower and working my way through two cups of coffee, I finally saw Raquel heading over to us.
She was carrying a small cooler, sunglasses perched over her eyes and her loose hair damp, cascading over her shoulders. Her pale blue crop-top showed off a sliver of tanned stomach. A pair of faded, cut-off denim shorts rode way too high up on her thighs to do my sanity any favors.
“Good morning, party animals,” she said cheerfully, her voice loud and sing-song. Several people winced or flipped her off, but she just laughed. “I see we drank away the heat, huh?”
She barely even glanced at me, clearly choosing to pretend that nothing had happened. Surprisingly, Avery played it cool too, so I decided to go along with all the pretending. All along, I’d known it would be her decision how today would play out, and if this was what she’d chosen, I respected her enough to fall in line.
As she walked further into the camp though, she came right over to me, a shy smile on her lips as she handed over a travel mug. “I brought you some coffee.”
