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There went another choked-off laugh. “Fine. You can get mad, but you can’t tell me I’m stupid, because I already know that, okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed, conceding the point.

“I have this problem. With Cameron.”

“You probably have several problems with him, but carry on.”

Avery tossed a narrow-eyed glare at him. “He’s good. In bed.”

Theo briefly saw red, and gritted his teeth. He realized that he probably shouldn’t be piloting a vehicle that weighed over a ton if they were going to talk about Cameron’s sex skills. He pulled into the Piggly Wiggly parking lot, which was utterly deserted at this time of night. He shifted into park, and looked at Avery. “I guess that seems like less of a problem and more like the only perk in being with him,” he made himself say, as if he didn’t care. Because he didn’t; Cameron’s prowess in bed or lack thereof didn’t matter to him. What mattered was that he treated Avery like someone he could toss aside and then pick back up whenever it was convenient.

“I don’t want to argue about him with you,” Avery said. “But yes, it is a perk. And to be super blunt, I have not found anyone anywhere near as good as him.”

“It’s been, what, six weeks? How hard did you look?”

“Let’s just say I’m feeling a little . . . frustrated.”

Jesus Christ. Theo didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded. He and Avery were unflinchingly honest with each other, but things like this—sex things, mostly—had always been strictly off-limits. Not because of any agreement they’d ever made, but rather some sort of unspoken covenant that neither of them had ever broken until just now. They’d joke about it, but never discuss it. That was out of bounds. “And?” he said, teeth clenched so tightly a muscle was jumping in his jaw.

“And I get stupid when I’m horny, okay?” The words burst from her, seemingly against her will. “Like Grace said. And I didn’t tell you this before, but when I was outside with Cameron the other day, he was being all—Cameron, and suddenly, I wasn’t thinking with my head, you know?”

Theo swallowed hard. “Did it work?”

“Did what work?”

“Me kissing you that night. Did it work?” Now that she’d spelled out the problem, he wasn’t sure his solution had done anything. It had made Cameron mad, but that was Theo’s goal, not Avery’s.

“I, uh, I don’t know,” she said with yet another awkward laugh. He’d never seen her like this—nervous almost. He didn’t like it. “It probably made him back off then, I guess. But the bigger problem, you know . . . remains. And earlier—” she broke off, but he knew what she was going to say. Earlier we almost kissed again.

Part of Theo wondered whether this was a nightmare of some sort or maybe the best dream he’d ever had. It was one of the two, that was for sure. “Yeah. I’m glad I won’t be stupid with Cameron, because everyone thinks I’m with you, but that also means, you know—waiting.”

“There’s me.” The words came out without conscious thought, and Theo immediately wanted to take them back, but something had flashed in Avery’s eyes, and suddenly he couldn’t.

“You.” It wasn’t a question, more of a thought, spoken aloud. He watched her throat work as she swallowed. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, I could help you. With that. Since you’re helping me with Izzy.”

“Help me. You mean . . . ?”

“Yeah. Like that.” Technically, neither of them had said it out loud, but he could read Avery like a book. She knew what he was offering and he knew she was considering it.

“Are you sure?”

Theo shrugged, like it didn’t matter to him. Like his heart wasn’t thundering so hard tornado sirens could be blaring and he wouldn’t hear them.

“We’re best friends. We’ve got chemistry,” he said, stumbling over his words a little. “And it’s not like we’ve got feelings for each other now, so the risk of that happening in just a few days feels pretty small,” he added, recalling her words from the diner back. They tasted like ash on his tongue, but if he wanted to help her—and that’s what it was, really, it wasn’t self-serving, because this was a lot more dangerous for him than for her—then he knew that’s what she needed to hear.

“You felt it too?”

Theo had thought his heart couldn’t pound any harder, but he’d been wrong. It gave one painful thump and then stopped completely. “It’s—I’ve thought about it, yeah. And it makes sense. We’re good friends, so we, you know, know each other. What we . . . need. And lots of people have, you know, a friends-with-benefits thing happening.”

“You’re up for it? You’re sure?”

“Of course. Like I said, you’re helping me with my problem, so I’ll help you with yours.”

Avery looked at her hands clasped in her lap. “And we don’t have feelings for each other,” she said, but it wasn’t a question. More of a statement, a reassurance.

Theo swallowed hard. “Right. And if one of us wants out, we stop.” Theo didn’t actually think that was much of a risk. He’d felt her under his hands, the way she responded to his lips. He suspected a bigger problem would be—no, he wasn’t going to let his brain go there.