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“Not too long ago,” she said, hoping her aunts wouldn’t notice how evasive she was being.
Fortunately, they just seemed happy for her. “Tell me everything,” Jenn insisted. “And how did Cameron take it?”
“You knew Cam’s cousin, right?” Avery said instead. Jenn was twelve years younger than Avery’s dad, which meant she was almost exactly halfway between Avery and Jeremy in age.
“Ugh. Yeah. Randy.” Jenn made a face. “Rich and mean. It’s a bad combo.”
Faith looked thoughtful. “You punched him once, didn’t you?”
“Twice, if we’re being technical. But he only told the principal about the first one. Probably to avoid having to admit a girl beat him up. And trust me, Avery, he deserved it.”
“Cameron isn’t as bad as Randy,” Avery felt obliged to protest. Randy was, quite frankly, a garbage human. He had run for mayor more than once on a “I’m the world’s biggest bigot” platform, and to his credit, Cameron didn’t seem to spend much time with him. “He even refused to babysit for Randy’s kids once.”
Aunt Jenn didn’t seem very impressed by that, and Aunt Faith less so, but they let it go. “Don’t worry about your dad, by the way. He just wants what’s best for you, but that doesn’t mean he knows what’s best for you. And Cameron being from the Finstad family makes Jeremy’s life better, not necessarily yours.”
Just then her phone buzzed with a text, and when she checked it, Avery couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face. “Oh my God, you guys are so cute,” Faith said. “We’ll give you some privacy.” She grabbed Jenn by the elbow and towed her out of the room, leaving Avery to read the text alone.
She had thought it would just be more from the group text about tonight—MarioKart at Tommy’s—but Theo had messaged her separately. It was something that had happened probably ten times a day for four straight years, but for some reason now her heart rate picked up noticeably.
Theo: Evelyn is once again asking me to call her Gran Gran
Does she think I’m four????
Please tell me you guys are having dessert soon and I can escape
Avery snorted to herself and typed out a quick response.
Avery: Sorry, haven’t eaten yet. But you should ask if you can call her Gammy instead
Theo: Oh no, now she wants me to call her G-ma
That’s worse, I take it back, I’ll call her Gran Gran
I never imagined I would have a step-grandma who wants to sound like she’s a DJ
Avery laughed, and then her mother knocked on the door, letting her know that it was time for dinner. “Be right there,” she said, tapping out one last text, telling him to come on over in about an hour for dessert.
For the hundredth time in the last eighteen hours, she flashed back to the kiss at Grace’s party. She should be able to think about other stuff, or at least not be constantly reliving her time with him. But more importantly, she needed to remember that Theo had made it very clear last year where they stood, and she didn’t want to risk their friendship for something she couldn’t even bring herself to name.
Avery pocketed her phone and went back out into the crush of people making their way to the formal dining room, telling herself she was being ridiculous. If she thought it often enough, eventually she might even believe it.
Chapter Fifteen
Theo
Theo shifted from foot to foot at the Nielson front door. He had walked over, mostly to give Avery an excuse to leave her parents early so they could walk back to his place before driving to Tommy’s later that night. Avery opened the door, looking oddly manic, like she was one wrong move away from flying off the handle.
“You okay?” he whispered as he stepped inside. He could hear the soft hum of conversation from the Nielsons’ formal dining room and the formal living room—yes, Avery’s family had a living room and a family room, and the former seemed to be mostly for decoration and as a place for two more tables during Thanksgiving—but nobody seemed to be paying much attention to them yet.
“Ha, yes,” she said in a dull tone. “I really, really love being asked why I’m not with Cameron, by everyone, all the time.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Worse than I thought it’d be, honestly. Don’t grown-ups have better things to do than care about a teenager’s love life?”
“You’d think,” Theo said. He paused, halfway through untying his shoes. “Do people know?”
“About us? Some do, yeah. My parents, and Aunt Jenn and Aunt Faith. But I sort of need you here to, you know, rip that Band-Aid off.”
