“You’re welcome.” I grinned. “Thank you for finally agreeing to let me take you out.”
She sent me a tentative smile, and a comforting silence fell between us, which was good. My thoughts kept going back to the fact she wasn’t doing anything for Thanksgiving. It seemed wrong and lonely and about a hundred other things to spend a holiday alone. An idea formed in my head, one I doubted Avery would go for, but I had to try.
When we got back to University Heights, we stopped in front of her door and the most awkward moment in any date was about to occur. Part of me couldn’t wait to see how she handled this.
Shortcake turned to me, gaze fixed on my chest as she fiddled with the strap on her purse.
“So . . .” I drew the word out, silently praying that she didn’t say good-bye.
“Would you like to come in?” she asked, and I did an internal fist bump. “For something to drink? I have coffee or hot chocolate. I don’t have any beer or anything more—”
“Hot chocolate would be good.” Tap water would be good enough. “Only if you have the kind with those tiny marshmallows.”
Shortcake’s wide smile did something funny to my chest. “I do.”
“Then lead the way, sweetheart.”
While she headed into the kitchen, I went into the living room. She joined me on the couch with two cups of hot chocolate. She’d kicked off her boots and tucked her feet under her. I decided there was no one cuter than her. Ever.
“Thank you.” I took one, watching the steam billow from the top. “Got a question for you.”
“Okay.”
Little marshmallows nudged my lips as I took a sip. “So, based on your first-date experience, would you go out on a second?”
She smiled lightly. “Like a second in general?”
“In general.”
“Well, this was a very good first date. If second dates were like this, then I guess I would.”
“Hmm.” I watched her closely. “With just anyone or . . . ?”
Her lashes lowered. “Not with just anyone.”
“So it would have to be someone in particular?” I asked.
“I think it would have to be.”
“Interesting.” When she lifted her gaze to mine, her eyes were soft and endless. “Is this someone in particular going to have to wait another two months if they ask you out?”
Her grin formed around the rim of her mug. “Depends.”
“On?”
“My mood.”
I laughed. “Get ready.”
“Okay.”
“I’m going to ask you out again—not dinner, because I like to change things up. It’s to the movies.”
She tapped a finger off her cheek. “Movies?”
“But it’s a drive-in movie, one of the last ones around.”
“Outside?” Excitement glimmered in her eyes.
“Yep. Don’t worry. I’d keep you warm.”
She shook her head, grinning. “Okay.”
“Okay to the movies?”
Sucking her bottom lip in between her teeth, she nodded.
Wait. What? It would be that easy? “Seriously, it isn’t going to take me another two months?”
She shook her head no.
I laughed under my breath, knowing the hard part waited. “Okay. How about Wednesday?”
“Next Wednesday?” she asked.
“Nope.”
She settled against the couch. “The following Wednesday?”
“Yep.”
Her brown eyes pinched into a frown. “Wait. That’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.”
“It is.”
“Cam, aren’t you going home?”
“I am.”
“When?” she asked. “After the movies, in the middle of the night, or Thanksgiving morning?”
“See, the drive-in movie theater is just outside of my hometown. About ten miles out.”
Avery stared at me, her eyes widening. “I don’t understand.”
Drinking the rest of the hot chocolate, I set it aside and then scooted over until very little space separated us. “If you go on this date with me, you’re going to have to go home with me.”
“What?” She burst my eardrum as she sat up straight. “Go home with you?”
To keep from laughing, I pressed my lips together and nodded.
“Are you serious?”
“Serious as my pierced eardrum,” I told her. “Come home with me. We’ll have fun.”
“Go home with you—to your parents’ house? Basically for Thanksgiving?” I nodded and she smacked my arm. “Don’t be stupid, Cam.”
“I’m not being stupid. I’m being serious. My parents won’t mind.” I thought about what I had told my father. “Actually, they’d probably be happy to see someone other than me. And my mom likes to cook way too much food. The more mouths, the better.”
She continued to stare at me, mouth agape.
Not looking good. “We can leave whenever you want, but obviously before Wednesday afternoon. You finishing the rest of your hot chocolate?” I took the mug when she shook her head. “And we can come back whenever.”
Avery watched me finish it off. “I can’t go with you.”
“Why not?”
“Because of a hundred obvious reasons, Cam. Your parents are going to think—”
“They’re not going to think anything.” That was probably a lie, but she didn’t need to know that. I sighed. “Okay. Look at it this way. It’s better than you sitting home, by yourself, all week. What are you going to do? Sit around and read? And miss me, because you’re going to miss me. And then I’m going to have spend most of my time texting you and feeling bad that you’re sitting home, all alone, and can’t even eat McDonalds because they’re closed on Thanksgiving.”
“I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. It’s not a big deal. I have no problem staying here.”
“I don’t want you sitting here alone and you’re making this into a big deal. I’m a friend asking a friend to come hang out with me over Thanksgiving break.”
“You’re a friend who just took a friend out on a date!” she protested.
I set the mug next to mine. “Ah, that’s a good point.”
Picking up a pillow, she held it to her chest like a shield. “I can’t do that. Visiting family over the holidays? That’s way too—”
“Fast?”
“Yes.” She nodded furiously. “Way too fast.”
“Well, then I guess it’s a good thing that we’re not seeing each other then, because yes, it would be too fast if that was the case.”
Her head cocked to the side. “What the what?”
I tugged the pillow away from her and slid it behind me. “You and I are two friends who went out on one date. Maybe two if you come with me. We’re not dating each other. We’re just friends who had one date. So we will be going back to my house as friends.”
“You make no sense.”
“I make perfect sense. We haven’t even kissed, Avery. We’re just friends.”
Her jaw hit the couch.
“Come home with me, Avery. I promise you it won’t be uncomfortable. My parents would be happy to have you. You will have a good time and it will be better than what you’d end up doing here. And nothing, absolutely nothing is expected from you. Okay?”
The word no was easily forming on her lips, but she averted her gaze as she turned away, staring at the empty mugs on the coffee table. Several moments passed and then she twisted toward me, her lashes lifting. She swallowed. “Your parents really would be okay with this?”
She wasn’t telling me no now. This was good. “I’ve brought friends home before.”
“Girls?” When I shook my head, she clasped her hands together. “And your parents are really going to think we’re just friends?”
“Why would I have a reason to tell them we weren’t dating if we were? If I say we’re friends, that’s what they’ll think.” I met her stare and held my breath.
“Okay. I’ll go home with you,” she said in a rush. “This is an insane idea.”
For a moment I couldn’t process anything beyond the fact that she had said yes. “It’s a perfect idea.” Since she was in such a wonderfully agreeable mood . . . “Let’s hug on it.”