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“I didn’t mean—” Cameron seemed to switch tactics, his eyes suddenly becoming pleading. “I miss you, Avy. That’s all.”

“That’s all, huh?” she replied dangerously.

“It is,” he said. “And if you were with Theo, you could have told me.”

“Like you told her about whoever the fuck you dumped her for?” Theo countered, earning another dirty look from Avery for his trouble.

“You’re not helping,” she muttered under her breath.

“Wasn’t trying to,” he tossed back.

“I screwed up, okay? She was a mistake,” Cameron said.

“You seem to make a lot of those,” Theo observed.

“Theo,” Avery warned.

“Theo,” Cameron repeated mockingly. He stopped when Theo took a step toward him, because Cameron, at heart, was a coward.

Avery shoved her way between them again. “Knock it off, both of you.”

Theo held up his hands in surrender, but in addition to being a coward, Cameron was a fucking idiot. “He’s always wanted you, you know. Always,” Cameron said desperately. “The whole time we were together.”

Avery blinked at him. “So? We’re just—dating,” she said, but the way she stumbled over her words made Theo wonder if she had been about to let the truth slip, fall back on we’re just friends like they used to always insist. He didn’t like that thought, but not because he cared all that much whether or not Cameron knew they were lying.

“That’s not the point,” Cameron insisted.

“Then what is?”

“Did he tell you? That he’s always liked you? Or is he pretending like this is something new? Because everyone knows ever since—”

“Cam, stop.” Avery narrowed her eyes while Theo’s stomach dropped into his shoes. “I’m texting your cousin,” she said, and pulled her phone out of her clutch.

“The hell are you calling him for?” Cameron asked, eyes glassy.

“You’re drunk. You need to go home and sleep this”—she waved her hand in a circular motion at him—“off. It’s him or we go find your parents.” She finished tapping at her phone, waited a second, and then nodded. “He’ll pick you up out front.”

“Avy—”

“Not now, Cameron,” she said flatly.

He glared at them, and Theo took half a step forward. Cameron flinched, and Theo smirked. Avery sent yet another dark look Theo’s way, but he kept his eyes on Cameron until the other man looked down.

“I just wanted to talk, that’s all,” he said plaintively.

“Danny is on his way. You should go up front,” Avery said. Danny Finstad was the least objectionable of Cameron’s relatives, despite having a total jackass of an older brother and an idiot for a cousin, and he had been on Avery’s student government leadership council two years ago, so he was probably the only Finstad cousin whose number she had.

Cameron looked like he was going to protest, but a quick glance at Theo kept his mouth shut. “Fine,” he muttered eventually. “But we could have just talked,” he added, turning and walking away.

Theo thought that was it—he was starting to feel the cold wind knifing through his dress shirt—but Avery waited until Cameron was out of sight and rounded on him instead. “What the hell was that?”

“What was what?”

“Why were you antagonizing him?”

“I wasn’t—”

“Yes, you were.” Avery narrowed her eyes further. “And why did you get so weird when he said you’ve always wanted me?”