“Because I want you and Sweet Potato to be happy.”
He was. Maybe. A tiny ember had caught the first time Avery tumbled down his front steps in a blur of red hair and fast words. “But that doesn’t give you the right to—”
“He’ll want to be real boyfriends.” She at least dropped her voice so no one else could hear him. “Think about it. The look on his face every time he sees you. He won’t be okay waiting for a booty call while you sort your shit out.”
He white-knuckled his broom. “Fourteen hours ago, you were practically throwing us together. Now you want me to back off?”
“I threw him at Quinn. You’re the one who decided to be brave and jump off the ledge.”
He wanted to scream. But she wasn’t wrong. Real boyfriends.
“Hey. Why am I the only one working?” Brian called from the other side of the bay. They both swung their heads to glare at him, and he took a step back, lifting both hands up in surrender. “Sorry. Didn’t realize I was interrupting anything.”
Vasquez sighed and turned her attention back to Linc. “Look, I don’t mean to push.”
“Yes, you do,” he snapped.
“Yeah, I do. But I’m pushing as your friend, and as Avery’s. I don’t want to see either of you hurting.”
“That’s really considerate of you.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Okay, fine. I’m a selfish bitch. You know he’s trying to get a job with Wanda, right? If you break each other’s hearts, it’s going to be unbearable for the two of us.”
“You and me?”
She snorted. “No. Me and Wanda.”
“Youarea selfish bitch.”
She patted his shoulder. “That doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Will you be able to stand up with him when it counts?”
He glared at her, but all his protests died on his tongue. He wanted to say yes. No, heneededto say yes. Because if he couldn’t, what hope did he and Avery have?
But when Mickey needed him, he’d run. And when his sisters asked him over and over again to come home, he stayed away.
His day ruined after an amazing start, Linc grabbed his broom and swept away from Vasquez and her opinions.
* * *
The following evening, Avery would much rather have had Linc over, but he went to his aunt and uncle’s for supper. As he entered the front hall, he would have normally shouted hello, but the silence was so thick he stopped before the word formed in his throat. He strained, listening for any indication of where they were.
As he came up the hallway, voices filtered from the back of the house. Avery crept toward them, through the kitchen, and down the hall that led to Aunt Brenda’s studio.
The sound of crying stopped him just before he rounded the last corner.
“Brenda.” Uncle Theo’s voice was firm but patient.
“No. No.” Aunt Brenda was the one crying. “You fix this. He is our son, the only one we have ever had, and if you are too stubborn to see how much you’ve hurt him, then you’re not the man I thought you were.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It is. I won’t let whatever spat is going on between you tear up this family.”
Avery slipped back the way he’d come, trying not to make a sound. So, of course, he banged his elbow on the kitchen counter, hitting the funny bone and sending numbing pain radiating from his shoulder to his fingertips. He opened his mouth on a silent scream and kept moving away.
This wasn’t right. His aunt and uncle gave him everything. They couldn’t be fighting about him. They couldn’t be tearing themselves apart, as she had put it, over him.
He’d call Wanda as soon as he got home and tell her something had come up, so he couldn’t do the interview after all.
