silences and avoiding all eye contact, because you know there is no way our moms will let you hide out in this room all night. I heard them discussing removal strategies not two minutes ago.”
I actually hadn’t, but I was sure that’s what they were doing.
Avery knew it was true too, because she threw the covers off her face and glared at me.
“Come on, Aves. Let’s go before they make us do the dishes.”
Slowly her glare faded into a wary look. “I don’t really have anything to wear to a party.”
I’d seen Avery in everything from jeans to pajamas to dresses to swimsuits, but as I let my eyes slide over her then, it was as if I was seeing her for the first time.
Avery’s never going to win the award for hottest girl in school, but she’s definitely cute. She seems tiny compared to my hulking six-foot-four, hundred-and-eighty-five-pound self, but I think standing next to each other, we have the same effect that a big old golden retriever and a kitten would. Somehow it just works.
She has decent hair—light brown and straight. It goes nicely with her pale skin and light smattering of freckles. She also has a cute little button nose, but her most attractive feature, aside from the amazing rack I’d just discovered, was definitely her big, expressive eyes. They were a vibrant blue very similar to my own, but she never guarded them. You could always see right into her soul. That was the one thing I had always noticed about her before. She was always so honest. All you had to do was look closely and her eyes would tell you everything you wanted to know. That’s a rare thing in girls. At least it is in all the ones I’ve ever dated.
“Just put on whatever you have that’s warm,” I said.
I started to leave the room, but she stopped me at the door. “Grayson?” Her tone tugged at something inside me. “You really want to take me with you tonight?”
She sounded so small and unsure of herself. It was how she always sounded at school and around strangers but never when she was at home with us. I think my brother had really broken her. I was seriously going to have to beat him sometime.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I know I really freaked out on you earlier, but I promise I’ll be fine. Aiden’s right.” She swallowed back a lump in her throat. “I’ll manage without him somehow.”
“Aiden’s a tool. You can learn how to manage tomorrow. Tonight’s New Year’s Eve, and for once in your life, you’re going to spend it without Aiden or The Discovery Channel.”
I knew I was making progress when she cracked a smile and asked, “What about Whootylicious in 7B?”
I thought of the luscious booty I’d originally planned on seeing tonight and sighed. “That will be an unfortunate loss, but, like you, I will just have to deal.”
I winked and then decided I’d give her ten minutes before I came back and physically dragged her out of bed.
She didn’t make me wait that long. She emerged after only five minutes dressed in a pretty dark-blue sweater dress, skinny jeans, and knee-high black boots. The belt she wore over the sweater showed off her tiny waist and called just the right amount of attention to that glorious chest of hers. Seriously, how had I never noticed that before?
“You look really nice,” I blurted, unable to hide my surprise.
The compliment startled her. She blushed and looked at her feet as she mumbled, “I need to blow my hair dry.”
I grinned. “Don’t want to have to explain to anyone how it got wet, eh?”
She turned even brighter red but then glared at me. “I just don’t want my hair to freeze.”
I laughed as I threw my hands up in surrender and then laughed even harder when she stalked past me into the bathroom.
I leaned against the door and watched, curiously, as she dried her hair. There was something oddly fascinating about watching Little Avery Shaw primp. She’d never seemed like such a real girl to me before. She wasn’t so little anymore, either.
She caught me staring at her in the mirror, so I quickly said, “I thought dorks were supposed to have bad hair and horrible, frumpy fashion senses.”
“Just because I enjoy learning doesn’t mean I’m a dork,” she said, insulted.
“Two words for you Aves: science club.”
Avery sucked in a breath, and I realized that the science