She held up the bottle. “Drinking. What are you doing?”

“That’s not what I’m getting at and you know that. What are you doing?”

She made a face that was sort of cute and a bit weird before she sighed. “I’m not doing anything, Cam.”

“You’re not?” I arched a brow. “You’re drunk.”

“Am not!”

“A drunk’s famous last words before they fall flat on their face.”

“That has not happened . . . yet.”

I shook my head as I took ahold of her arm. We needed to talk and the fact that she was here probably meant she wanted to. Or she wanted to hook up with one of the random guys here. I didn’t know what, because who the fuck ever knew what was going on in this girl’s head, but nothing was happening. She was taking her little drunk ass back to her apartment. Any number of those guys in the living room would love to find themselves between her thighs and I didn’t know exactly how far gone she was. I wasn’t her babysitter. Fuck, I wasn’t anything to her.

“Um . . .” she said, frowning when I led her to the stairwell and closed the door behind us. She looked up at me, confused.

I pointed to her door. “You need to go home, Avery.”

Her mouth dropped open as she stared at me. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. I’m fucking serious. You’re drunk and that shit is not going down in front of me.”

“What shit?” She took a step back. “I’m sorry. Ollie invited me—”

“Yeah, and I’m going to kick his ass later.” I took my hat off and ran my hand through my hair. “Just go home, Avery. I’ll talk to you later.”

Avery swallowed heavily. “You’re mad at me—”

“I’m not mad at you, Avery.” I was mad at the fucking world right at the moment.

She looked at me and then quickly glanced away, but not quick enough. I saw the sudden sheen in her eyes. Shit. Shit. Shit.

“I don’t want to go home. There’s no one there and I . . .”

That spot in my chest throbbed. “I’ll come over later and we’ll talk, okay? But go home. Please, just go home.”

Her mouth opened and then snapped shut. “Okay.”

The ache grew. “Avery . . .”

“It’s totally okay.” She smiled, but it wasn’t real and it was full of hurt—hurt I knew I put there. She turned and shuffled to her door, and with a low curse, I went back into my apartment.

“Everything okay?” Jase asked as I headed into the kitchen for another beer. Or three.

“No.” I screwed off the lid and tossed it in the trash.

His dark brows rose. “Are you not okay because she was here or because she left?”

“I made her leave.”

Jase glanced over as Ollie entered the kitchen. I took one look at the pothead. “I should kick you in the balls.”

Ollie didn’t laugh it off. He stared at me with a level look. “Did you just make that poor girl leave?”

“Poor girl?” I sputtered.

“Yeah, you know, the girl you’ve been obsessed with since August? She finally came over and you kick her out of the apartment.”

I stared at him as I took off my hat, tossing it onto the counter. “Are you high? You have no idea what has been going on between us.”

“Ollie,” Jase warned.

“You’re right. I don’t know what’s going on, but—”

“Shut up, Ollie.” I brushed past him and headed for the living room.

The main fight was about to start. I stopped near the door, realizing I’d left my beer in the kitchen. I started to go back, but I didn’t move. I had been serious when I told Avery I would come over and talk to her, but I planned on waiting until tomorrow, when she was sober, for one thing, and I wasn’t so fucking pissed off about everything. But as I stood there, all I could see were the tears building in her eyes. Tomorrow wasn’t too far away, but . . .

“Go,” I heard Jase say from behind me.

I was already out the door.

Twenty

Part of me wasn’t surprised when I opened her apartment door after banging on it and discovered she wasn’t there. Expecting Avery to listen to me just once would obviously be asking too much.

Having no idea where she could’ve gone, I walked over to the living room window and peered down.

“What the fuck?”

There was a slight form sitting on the curb, hunched over in the cold. What in the hell was Shortcake doing? I hurried outside, wincing as the wind lifted my hair right off my forehead.

“Avery!” I shouted. She started, dropping her beer bottle. It rolled under a nearby car as she twisted toward me. The glassy look, which I couldn’t completely blame on the beer, tore up my insides. “What in the fuck are you doing out here?”

She blinked and her damp lashes lifted. “I . . . I’m looking at the stars.”

“What?” I knelt down beside her. “Avery, it’s like thirty degrees outside. You’re going to get sick again.”

One shoulder lifted as she looked away. “What are you doing out here?”

“I was looking for you, you little dumbass.”

She looked at me sharply. “Excuse me? You’re out here, so you’re a dumbass, too, you dumbass.”

I fought a grin. “I told you I was coming over to talk to you. I checked your apartment first. I knocked and you didn’t answer. The door was unlocked and I went inside.”

“You went inside my apartment? That’s kind of rude.”

“Yeah, I saw you sitting down here from your window.”

There was a pause and then she asked, “Is the fight over?”

Since it didn’t look like she was getting up anytime soon, I sat beside her. The cold of the cement froze my ass in a nanosecond. “No. The main fight just began.”

“You’re missing it.”

Running a hand through my hair, I let out a long breath. “God, Avery . . .” I struggled with what to say. The reaction to seeing her was still too raw, too confusing. “Seeing you tonight? I was fucking surprised.”

“Because of Steph?”

“What?” I looked at her. “No. Jase invited her.”

“Looks like she was there for you.”

“Maybe she was, but I don’t give a fuck.” Twisting toward her, I dropped my hands onto my knees. “Avery, I haven’t messed around with Steph since I met you. I haven’t messed around with anyone since I met you.”

She inhaled deeply. “Okay.”

“Okay?” I almost laughed and then the shit just unloaded. “See, you don’t get it. You never fucking got it. You’ve avoided me since Thanksgiving break. Dropped the goddamn class and I know that was because of me, and every time I tried to talk to you, you fucking ran from me.”

“You didn’t want to talk to me the day I thanked you for helping me out.”

I stared at her. “Gee, I don’t know why? Maybe because you made it painfully clear you didn’t want anything to do with me. And then you just show up tonight? Out of the fucking blue and get drunk? You don’t get it.”

She wetted her lips. “I’m sorry. I am drunk, a little, and I am sorry, because you’re right and . . . I’m rambling.”

I let out a short, hoarse laugh. What was I thinking? “All right, it’s not the time for that conversation, obviously. Look, I didn’t mean to be such a dick inside there, making you leave, but—”

“It’s okay. I’m used to people not wanting me at their parties.” She rose to her feet unsteadily. “No big deal.”

My skin pricked with awareness as I stood. “It’s not that I didn’t want you there, Avery.”

“Um . . . really?” She laughed, but there was no humor to it. “You asked me to leave.”

“I—”

“Correction.” She held up her hand. “You told me to leave.”

“I did. It was a dickhead move, but it’s the first time you’re at my place, you come in there, start drinking and then . . .” I took a deep breath. “Henry was all over you and you’re giggling—”

“I’m not interested in him!”

“It didn’t look that way, Avery. You’re drunk and I didn’t want you doing something you’d regret. I don’t know what the hell goes on in your head half the time and I had no idea what you were doing here tonight, but I’ve never seen you drink and I didn’t know what you were going to do. I didn’t want someone taking advantage of you.”