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“Okay, okay. You’ve got me there. I will admit that our relationship has always had more of a sibling vibe. But the truth of the matter is that you gave me a total hard-on today and—”
“Oh my gosh, Grayson, shut up!” I shrieked in a whisper, burying my face in my hands. “Please don’t ever, ever say something like that again!”
“You’ve got to face the facts, Aves. If you were really my sister and we’d ended up in the shower together, I’d have puked and hired a therapist. Not stared at your chest and wondered if you’d hit me if I took your shirt off.”
“Oh my gosh!” My hands were starting to sweat because my face was so hot, but how was I supposed to remove them? That would require looking at Grayson, and there was no way I’d ever be able to do that again.
Grayson chuckled. “Aves, look at me.”
“No! You were right. You are not nice! You are cruel!”
Grayson reached over the table and peeled my hands away from my flushed face. “I’m not being cruel,” he said. I finally forced my eyes up to his.
He leaned his tall body over the tiny table so that he could look straight into my eyes. There was only a foot of space between us.
“This is most definitely a real date,” he promised so passionately it made me shiver. “I asked you out. I’m paying for your di
I let out a tiny squeak of fear and Grayson upped his intensity. “It’s going to happen, Aves, and you are going to like it.”
Grayson’s focus was interrupted by a small sigh. Thankfully! Because I’d stopped breathing again.
We both looked up to see our waitress standing over us, staring dreamily at Grayson. “Wow!” If she weren’t holding our plates in her hands, she probably would have been fa
Grayson flashed her his biggest smile, and she winked at him as she left.
I’d never been so grateful to see a plate of food in my life—anything to give me an excuse not to look at him and stop this conversation.
Grayson must have seen that he’d pushed me to my limit, because he went to work on his di
Unfortunately, the silence let my thoughts wander back to the reason I was out with Grayson in the first place. I set my fork down, unable to eat another bite.
Grayson set his fork down too. “Avery, I promised your mom you’d eat.”
I could feel tears in my eyes when I looked up at him. “Why you?” I asked. “Why are you the one here with me? Why isn’t it him?”
Grayson’s smile was sad and full of sympathy. “I don’t know, Aves, but maybe it’s for the best. You guys are almost seventeen. If it hasn’t happened by now, maybe it’s not supposed to.”
“I can’t accept that.”
“Denial isn’t good for you.”
“It isn’t denial.”
“Now you’re denying your denial.”
“But look at you,” I said. “You always thought I was like a sister too. If you can change your mind, then he can too. He just needs a wakeup call.”
“Hey now, you can’t just go jumping in the shower with every guy you know. That’s totally our thing.”
“Oh my gosh, Grayson, we do not have a thing!” The torture was never ending. “I wasn’t talking about jumping in the shower with him,” I mumbled. “But maybe if I just tell him how I feel, if I ask him to kiss me—to just give it a chance.”
“And if he doesn’t go for it?”
“He will. Grayson, I know he will. I know it here.” I tapped my heart. “Aiden and I belong together. You’ll see. He just needs to know how I feel. Maybe he believes I think of him like a brother and nothing else, you know? What if he’s been in love with me for years, but he thinks I don’t like him that way.”
Grayson frowned and went back to his di
Now my excitement had been replaced with dread. I didn’t want to hurt Aiden ever. But what else could all this have been about? Nothing else made any sense. “He asked me to talk, and I walked out on him! I’m awful!”
Grayson rolled his eyes. “You are not. He was a jerk. He deserved what you did. Worse even.”
I shook my head. “Thank you for being so nice to me tonight and trying to help me. I’m sorry to ditch you, but I need to go home and talk to Aiden.”
Grayson sat there as if he were giving the whole situation some serious thought. Eventually I saw acceptance wash over his face and he set down his fork. “I suppose you do need to talk to him, don’t you. But if you do this, you can’t hold anything back. You’ve got to give it to him straight. Tell him everything. Just be sure to use small words so he can understand.”
“I will.” I smiled for the first time all evening and jumped up to give Grayson a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for understanding. You are the best big brother I’ve never had!”
Grayson let go a small laugh and shook his head. “Not your brother, Aves.”
“You never know,” I teased. “You could be someday.”
He smiled again, but this time it didn’t quite reach his eyes “Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
I burst through the door to the condo less than five minutes later. The adults had cracked open the wine and were laughing a little loudly, but that stopped the instant they saw me.
For once the attention didn’t paralyze me. Breathless from my run and excited to figure things out with Aiden, I hurried and threw my coat, hat, and scarf haphazardly onto the rack by the door. “Where’s Aiden?”
“Up in the boys’ room,” Cheryl answered cautiously. “Where’s Grayson?”
“If I had to guess? On his way to apartment 7B.”
My mom’s forehead creased, and she set down her glass of wine. “Did you guys have a fight?”
“Oh! No!” Realizing what they were all worried about, I gave them my most reassuring smile. “Grayson is the best! Who knew he could be so sensitive?” I remembered the comment about wanting to take my shirt off and cringed. “Well, sort of sensitive.”
None of the parents seemed to know what to say.
“Grayson and I had a nice time,” I assured them. “I just really need to talk to Aiden now.”
I ran up the stairs without waiting for any responses.
I took a deep breath, and then knocked on Aiden’s bedroom door. Thanks to this afternoon’s shower debacle, I was pretty sure I’d never forget to knock ever again.
“Yeah?”
“Can I come in?”
A split second later the door flew open. Aiden was positively livid. “What happened? Did he make a move on you? I’ll kill him!”
Aiden looked so fu
Aiden looked a lot like his brother, and yet he didn’t. Aiden was a lot shorter, but he had the same coloring as Grayson—same rich golden hair and skin. He had brown eyes and not blue, but he and Grayson shared the same perfect smile. The difference, though, is where Grayson’s smile labeled him as an obvious lady-killer, that same smile made Aiden look like the adorable class clown. Fury just didn’t work well for him.
“I’m fine, Aiden.” I laughed. “Grayson didn’t make a move on me.” Well, not technically. I didn’t think. He hadn’t yet, anyway.
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I just felt bad for walking out on you. You asked me to stay and talk, and you were right. We really need to.”
Aiden sagged in relief and pulled me into a hug. “I’m really sorry, Aves. I totally screwed that up earlier. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”