Page 35 of Late Nights

But what did I know about relationships?

Nothing. I knew nothing.

Come to think of it, I didn’t know much about friendships either.

Yeah, I had no room to have any opinions about Jax and Kate and their situation.

Except thinking about them was a heck of a lot easier than thinking about my situation with Demi. We had bigger obstacles than friendship between us. Mainly me not wanting to serve her my screwed-up way of thinking, with a side of her overprotective older brother. West knew I was incapable of having a real relationship, and then the high expectations of her father sprinkled on top, resulting in what I liked to call a recipe for disaster.

Despite the knowledge I had about needing to keep my distance from Demi, I’d already proven less than an hour ago that I couldn’t trust myself when I was around her. She was all-consuming, and I seemed to forget all the logical, well thought out reasons to stay away from her.

Like the idiot I was, I chanced a glance at Demi and found her looking at me with an expression that seemed to be asking if I was okay. See? She’d only gotten a glimpse of how messed up I was, and she was already worried about me.

I gave her a subtle nod, her shoulders relaxing at my answer.

The doorbell rang, and we all looked around surprised we had a visitor—except for West.

He hopped off the couch and made his way to the front door. “Hey, Gavin. Come on in.”

I tried to hide my dislike for Gavin, pulling out my phone to help distract me.

“Hey, it’s good to see you,” Gavin said, his voice annoying.

Okay, so maybe it was only annoying to me.

“Is everyone here this trip?” he asked.

Cue my eye roll at his not-so-subtle way to find out if Demi had come with West.

“My parents aren’t here,” West answered, walking into the living room with Gavin. “But Demi and Cannon are here,” he gestured to us both, then turned to the rest of our group. “Along with my girlfriend, Halle, and our friends Kate and Jax.”

“Nice to meet you,” Gavin said with a smile, making the rounds to shake hands. “Cannon,” he nodded at me before quickly moving on to Demi, his face lighting up. “Demi,” he said, holding his arms out for a hug.

A look of surprise flashed across her face before she stood and gave him a hug. “Hey, Gavin.”

I ground my teeth at his presumptuous and forced hug. What else was she supposed to do when he stood in front of her with his arms out wide?

“I’m so glad you came up this weekend,” Gavin said, releasing her from the hug way too slowly for my liking.

“Yeah, we thought it would be fun to hang out and enjoy what Lake Tahoe has to offer in the winter. We have a few first-timers.” She glanced over at Halle, Kate, and Jax.

“Well, West told me you guys wanted to have some fun while you’re up here and had me plan a few things,” he said. “Over the next few days, I have scheduled skiing, snowmobiling, and snowshoeing. I’ll be your guide, so we’ll get to spend some time together.”

“That will be great,” she said, smiling politely.

Would it be great? It sounded like the opposite of great to me. It sounded like Gavin was hoping to spend time with Demi at all these activities that he had planned. And it definitely sounded like he was hoping for something to happen between the two of them. That sounded awful. Jealousy bubbled to the surface, and I worked to push it down.

The rest of our group didn’t seem to be paying attention to the conversation between Gavin and Demi, which I hoped meant they hadn’t noticed how annoyed I was by it either.

But then Halle caught my eye and raised an eyebrow at me.

Of course she had noticed. But I didn’t rise to her bait. Instead, I raised an eyebrow back at her as if to say, ‘there’s nothing to see here.’

She gave me a ‘yeah, right’ look before joining back in the conversation she had been having with Kate, Jax, and West.

Hiding my real feelings for Demi was going to be even harder with Halle around.

Gavin and Demi were now having their own private conversation, and as much as I tried to not narrow my eyes at him, I didn’t think I was doing a very good job of it.

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