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He slipped his fingers between her thighs and started stroking, pulling her to the edge just moments after his finished, her walls clenching around him, once again sending him into a near-blackout.

It was perfect.

She was perfect.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Avery

“Aves, hey, time to wake up.” Theo’s voice filtered through her dream, and it took Avery a full minute to completely wake up and remember where she was.

In Theo’s bed, happier than she’d ever been. “What time is it?” she asked sleepily. She lifted her head from his chest and found him looking down tenderly at her.

“Too early, but Mom will be back from the hospital in an hour, and Karl will probably be up sooner than that.”

Avery made a noise that was half whine, half groan, and all displeased. His bed was soft, his arms were warm, and the sheets smelled like him. She wanted to spend the rest of the day there, but that wasn’t quite possible. Maybe once they went back to school, they could spend weekends together. It would involve negotiating with roommates, but she figured Savannah would probably be okay with spending a night or two in a friend’s room. Sawyer, from what she knew, would be less amenable.

But still, it made her hopeful. And all at once, it hit her—this was real. She was with Theo, a thing that hadn’t ever really occurred to her might not just be possible, but an option, until less than twenty-four hours ago. Avery smiled broadly up at him and leaned up to kiss him, unable to stop smiling as she did.

“What’s that for?” he asked in a voice so sweet and gentle it almost didn’t sound like him.

“I just can’t believe it worked out like this.”

“Meaning?”

“You and me. I mean, what are the odds? I know the whole arrangement—or arrangements, I guess—we had probably sped things along, but it still seems almost destined, you know? That we both found each other at the exact right time, even though we’ve been in each other’s lives for so long. I just—how lucky are we?”

An odd look crossed his face, but then he smiled. He carded the hair back from her face, and the next kiss was languid, unhurried. She had spent the night with Cameron before, but if she was honest with herself, it had never felt like this. This was a moment she wanted to stay in forever, wrapped up in a bubble where the rest of the world had faded into mist. All that mattered was Theo and his bed, and the way his chest felt under hers. There was a vulnerability to it she’d never felt with Cameron, too, but her heart felt too tender to handle that directly, so she shoved it away.

“So lucky,” Theo agreed, but then glanced at the clock near his bed and groaned. “But you should go before Karl wakes up.”

Karl was a teddy bear, but Avery also knew he would definitely feel like he had to tell her parents, whether or not she and Theo were legal adults. She didn’t want to leave, but she knew she had to. Reluctantly, she rolled out of his bed and started pulling her clothes back on.

“Are you coming to brunch?” she asked as she buttoned her jeans. The rest of the gang was meeting for breakfast at ten, once they’d all pulled themselves out of bed. Avery and Theo were the only ones unfortunate enough to be awake this early, and she would bet good money that the rest of them would be arriving incredibly hungover.

Theo was in sweatpants and a worn-looking shirt, his hair so adorably rumpled that her heart lurched. “Jacob has rehearsal this morning, and I said I’d take him.”

“Choir or play?” Itasca had a surprisingly thriving local arts scene, led primarily by the Itasca River Theater Company.

“This is the play. They’re doing Once Upon a Mattress. But I have no idea which character he is, because he said he wants it to be a surprise.” The pride on his face made her heart stumble again, and Avery decided she needed to get out of there before she did something incredibly stupid, like fall completely in love with him.

Avery walked in the door of the Pancake King, the humid warmth of the diner washing over her like a wave. “Heyyyyy,” her friends singsonged from their usual corner booth. Harper was gripping a mug of coffee like it was a life jacket and she was a passenger on the Titanic, and Grace drained a glass of water in an impressive series of chugs just as Avery sat down. Tommy alone looked unaffected, but he’d always managed to have milder hangovers than the rest of them, no matter how much he drank. It was, quite frankly, wildly unfair.

Avery tossed her purse and coat onto the booth next to her. “How was the rest of last night?”

“Bartender started looking the other way shortly after you guys left,” Tommy explained. “Hence these two doing their best impression of extras on The Last of Us.”

“It’s not fair you never get hungover,” Harper moaned at him.

Tommy smirked. “I know, but it’s hard to keep someone this amazing down, and I think it’s just my natural joie de vivre, you know?”

“Oh my God, shut up,” Harper replied.

“But enough about us, how are you?” Grace said, looking greenish but interested in Avery.

“Yeah, you two were so cute last night,” Harper said, pouring more coffee from the carafe left on the table.

Avery had planned on playing it cool, but she couldn’t help it. “Last night was good,” she grinned, and everyone broke into wild cheers that earned them dirty looks from several of the tables around them. She blushed and ducked her head. “Theo had to take Jake to something, but he says hi.”