“It’s a siblingcheck in,” he amends. “Piper said she already tried talking to you, but I’ve known you for much longer. I might have some advice she doesn’t.”
I look away from him and fix my attention on an empty fast-food cup that floats along on the wind across the gravel of the back parking lot.
“I’ve just been worried about the cats more,” I admit. “Sometimes the worries get loud.”
Silence.
The cup continues to roll along, carried by the breeze.
“Avery,come on,” I huff. “I’m fine.”
“Do you remember how it used to be?” my brother asks. “When you were a kid, and you would worry that something would happen to me? Is it like that?”
When it was just him and me against the world. When he was my protector.
If something happened to him, I would be all alone.
The worries I had as a child would keep me up at night, and I would cry about imaginary scenarios in my head.
“That’s a good question,” I admit begrudgingly. “I don’t know. What Idoknow, however, is that I keep embarrassing myself around people, and now?—”
“It’s not embarrassing, Maeve.”
“It is. Even Ivan looked at me like I was crazy today,” I murmur.
Avery frowns, a deep crease forming between his eyebrows. “What does Ivan have to do with it?”
I snap my mouth shut.
Oops.
I’m not too keen on sharing my love life with my brother, or lack thereof.
I don’t need him to activate Big Brother Mode.
He’s kind and sweet, but the last time I dated an Alpha, he gave them the nth degree with questioning.
At least Piper hasn’t blabbed about Ivan to Avery.
I just shrug and shovel my mouth full of salmon and rice.
“Anyway, I didn’t come here for an intervention,” my brother says. “I wanted to talk to you about something. I have an idea.”
“What’s that?” I ask over a mouthful of food.
“Take a class at the college. Something you like. I can enroll you for free.”
I swallow and make a face. “Why?I hated college.”
I dropped out a year into my studies, vowing to never set foot on a campus again.
“You hated your classes,” Avery corrects me. “You picked a major in business, which I told you was a bad idea. And you were nineteen at the time.”
“I’m not taking your photography class, Avery.”
He rolls his eyes and sighs. “No,Maeve. Like I said, pick something you like. LCC has everything. Painting, writing, dancing, acting, music?—”
“Music,” I interrupt. “Like guitar?”
