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Theo’s lips quirked and he nodded in thanks. He didn’t like coffee much, honestly, but he had admitted to Avery on their drive home from the Cities that he was now relying on it to keep him awake during his 8:00 a.m. class. It was only tolerable for him with a metric ton of sugar and almond milk, which Avery had clearly remembered. He tried to remind himself that she would have always done this, no matter what was happening between them, but his stupid, hopeful heart gave a little leap anyway.

“You really didn’t have to do this,” Avery said, pulling her hat down more securely over her ears. Last night, as they were getting their coats at the country club, her mother had reminded Avery that she had agreed to set up some Christmas decorations the next day, and Theo had impulsively said he would come over and help. He couldn’t articulate why, exactly, he had said it, but it was somewhere between this is what a real boyfriend would offer and some faint, ridiculous desire to make her parents like him a little more. He had never once aspired to that, and he was more than a little worried about what it meant.

“I wasn’t doing anything,” he shrugged. “What are we starting with?” The big pine tree that reached higher than the power lines down near the road was always professionally decorated, although “professionally” in Itasca usually meant someone’s brother or cousin who worked a seasonal summer job and needed wintertime cash. But Theo and Avery were going to be handling the smaller decorations.

“The porch. Garland and white lights on all the pillars.” He followed her into the garage, where there was an entire shelf of neatly labeled bins. Avery pulled down one marked “Garlands” and he grabbed the one that said “White Lights (Porch).” It was a little terrifying how well organized Avery’s parents house was. Everything was always tucked away in a prescribed spot, in a matching set of containers that coordinated perfectly with the surroundings, even if those surroundings were grey walls and black metal shelves. Theo’s house wasn’t a dumpster or anything, but Tiffany and Karl were far more likely to use whatever random cardboard box was handy to put away Christmas decorations.

Avery was busy unpacking the garland, so Theo pulled out the lights, expecting to find the massive tangle that irritated the daylights out of Karl every December. But of course Avery’s parents wouldn’t just shove a pile of lights into a labeled box. They were neatly wrapped, with nary a tangle to be seen.

“Is it hard? Living up to this perfection?” he asked, holding up the lights. They had talked around this subject before, but he realized he’d never actually asked—they usually just talked around it, alluding to the pressure she felt.

“Living up to . . . Christmas lights?”

Theo chuckled. “No. I meant your parents’ standards. You guys don’t even let your lights tangle, you know?”

Avery handed him one end of the fake pine garland and he climbed onto the porch railing. “It’s all I really know,” she shrugged, glancing back at the house like she was worried they might hear her. When she seemed satisfied her parents weren’t lurking at the windows, she looked up at him. “Why do you think I wanted to be your friend anyway?”

Theo had been busy tying the garland in place and paused. “Wait, what?”

“You don’t give a fuck, and never have, not even when we were fourteen and we all gave a fuck about everything. I’d never met anyone like that,” she said. He couldn’t see her face, because it was buried in the box as she fished out another garland for the next post. Theo had never heard her say anything like this before, and he studied her for a second.

“You saw me as that different?” It wasn’t that he didn’t think they had any differences, but the way she put it, it was like he was on a totally different level from her, and that wasn’t how he saw it. Aesthetically, yes, but inside? Where it counted? Not at all.

“Don’t you? I mean, you’re—you, and I’m basically the opposite.”

Theo narrowed his eyes and hopped down from the railing. “Uh, what? Since when?”

“Since—forever? As long as you’ve known me? Why are you acting like this is a surprise? I cared about homecoming, remember?” Avery said, looking honestly puzzled at his reaction.

“And Tommy cares more about reality television than one human being ever should, and I would rather get a root canal,” Theo countered. “He’s still my friend.” He stumbled a little on saying friend, since he wasn’t really sure that was the best way to describe Avery now, but he wanted to make the comparison anyway.

“Yeah, but it’s different with us. You’ve always been so much more willing to do what you want, where I just—I dunno, sometimes I just care too much about what other people are thinking.”

“Do you care, or do you think you should care?”

“Those are the same, aren’t they?”

“No.” Theo put his hands on her shoulders, making sure she couldn’t look away. “What’s going on, Aves?” he asked. Part of him was worried that her strange mood was about last night, but he didn’t think it was—it felt separate from him, even if it was about him.

“It’s nothing,” she insisted, finally making eye contact. “Sometimes I just think about how different we are and I wonder if—if you’ll just get tired of me, you know?”

“No, I don’t,” he said firmly. “And I never will, okay?”

Avery looked at him solemnly and then smiled, although it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Jeez, I was just pointing out we’re a little different,” she said in a lighter tone. “It’s not that serious.” At his raised eyebrow, she laughed. “I swear, okay? But we do have to get this all done soon, because I promised the girls we’d do something this morning.”

She handed him another garland, and he took her point. The conversation was over, at least for now.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Avery

Grace stopped walking and waited for Avery and Harper to catch up. “Where to first?” she asked, all business as she checked her phone.

“I want to grab something for my mom,” Harper said. “Maybe Hearth and Home Gifts first?”

“Good idea. I have to get something for Aunt Kathy,” Grace said. She consulted her list for a minute. “Then we could go to—the Owl’s Roost?”

“I wanted to get Theo a book, so yeah,” Avery said.