“Easy,” Brenda huffs. She takes several more gulps of her beer before waving the bartender down and asking for another. “You fly to his place, knock on his door, and then shoot him in the balls when he answers.”
I cringe at the thought, but Avery claps and looks up at me. “Do your parents have a plane?”
“No,” I say, clearing my throat and trying like hell not to cup my own balls. “But even if they did, there’d be no family jewels assaults.”
“But he so deserves it,” Ivy hisses.
Brenda toasts Avery to it, and Avery downs her shot. Avery then holds out her shot glass to the bartender. “It doesn’t burn like it used to.”
I take the shot glass from her and stare the bartender down. He holds up his hands and walks down the way to fill someone else’s demands. “I think that’s enough for tonight,” I whisper in her ear.
Her bottom lip sticks out. “But Brenda, Ivy, and I are having so much fun.”
I turn her on the stool and settle between her legs. I then tip her head up to mine and kiss her tequila-tasting lips. “You can have fun.”
“Oh yeah?” There’s hope in her eyes.
“Yes. In bed.”
A smirk crosses her face. “With you?”
I laugh under my breath. “Not tonight. I won’t take advantage of your state.”
She twirls her finger in front of my face. “It wouldn’t be taking advantage if I asked for it.”
I press another kiss to her lips and help her off the stool. She wobbles a little bit, but I have ahold of her arm. She giggles as Isay, “Not happening, baby girl.” I glance back at Ivy to make sure she’s following us out the door.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she says, her shoes in one hand and her cell phone in the other.
I guide the girls through the smoke and back to my car. Opening the passenger side, I help Avery inside and shut the door. Ivy climbs into the back seat, and I head to the driver’s side, climb in, make sure everyone has their seatbelts on, and start the car.
They spend the entire time back giggling about their night and the friends they made, but me? My mind slips into what that Brenda lady said. Avery told her what happened with her ex. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sting that she hadn’t told me yet. I want to know everything about Avery. The things that make her laugh. The tragedies that make her cry. And everything in between.
By the time we get home, Avery is passed out in the driver’s seat, and Ivy is nearly there as well. I park the car and sit there for a minute, gazing at Avery and her soft sleeping sounds. I reach out and brush my knuckles down the side of her face, savoring the moment where, just for a minute, I pretend like she can tell me anything. Like there are no obstacles we have to hurdle and we can just be…normal.Us.
“Are we home?” Ivy asks sleepily in the back.
I nod. “Do you need help in?”
She shakes her head and starts to get out of the car. I exit as well and head to Avery’s side. Once the door is open, Ivy asks, “Want me to wake her?”
I shake my head and scoop her up into my arms. Ivy shuts the door, and we head inside where she also opens every door for me. Avery remains completely unaware that she’s being carried. She’d probably take issue with it if she did. I know she has issues with her weight, but it doesn’t bother me one bit.
Once we’re inside the apartment, I head to her room and lay her on the bed, head on the pillow. Next, I remove her shoes, set them aside, and kiss her on the forehead.
When I’m done, I head back out into the living room. Ivy is gulping down water in the kitchen, and I’m just about to leave, but I pause. She looks at me over her glass before she sets it down. “What?”
“Avery won’t give me her number.”
Her nose scrunches. “I know. She’s enjoying it too much without that added bonus.”
I purse my lips, trying to think of how to ask this. When no sly way comes to me, I ask, “You wouldn’t be willing to give it to me, would you?”
I expect an immediate protest, but instead, her face brightens. She snatches her phone off the counter, and her fingers fly quickly across the screen. A few seconds later, my phone dings with an incoming text. I open it up to the shared contact and quickly save it to my phone before pocketing it.
“Thanks.”
She waves me off. “She doesn’t know what’s good for her sometimes.”
