Page 60 of Never Will I Ever

As the rest of the week passes, thankfully, so does most of the awkwardness and strife with my co-counselor. There are moments of lingering discord when I slip back into my habit of acting as the “sole leader” of this group, and Avery’s stubbornness still has its way of sneaking into the equation, but overall, things have become relatively peaceful between us.

And thank God for that.

We actually managed to survive the rest of the week without incident, bringing us to another blissful, kid-free Sunday. Well, after getting the heathens to breakfast, then we have all the freedom in the world.

My brothers are bouncing off the walls this morning, acting a fool and pelting one another with pine cones while I attempt to herd them, Elijah, and my remaining half of kids to the dining hall.

I’m all for getting the rambunctious energy out now, especially if it means their listening ears are firmly in place once I hand them off to the other counselors in charge of wrangling them for the day. But the second I get nailed in the back of the head with a pine cone, all the fun and games are over.

“You might be my brothers, but I’m not above making the two of you sit in Colin’s office all day if you don’t cut it out,” I threaten, turning to them and arching a brow. “And seeing as I know what they’ve got planned for you today, you really don’twant that to happen.”

The twins share anoh shitlook before promptly dropping the projectiles and pretending like they’ve been angels this entire time.

“What are you gonna do today?” Day asks while he fiddles with the baseball cap on his head.

Colton snorts. “Probably spend it up on the mountain, like the weirdo he is.”

Dayton nods before tacking on, “Or getting far away from Avery.”

I actually hadn’t given much thought to how I’d spend my day off. Normally, I’d only take a half day to do my laundry or maybe go into town for lunch if I was feeling something different, especially if the kids had been trying the day before.

But the mention of Avery has my thoughts shifting to unexpected places. Ones thatincludehim, rather than entertain ways to put as much distance between us as I possibly can.

“I don’t know why you guys don’t like Avery.”

This comes from Elijah, and I glance over my shoulder to find the kid trailing just behind the twins.

Colton scoffs. “Maybe because he’s a complete d—”

“You better quit while you’re ahead, Colton,” I cut him off, aiming my harshestdon’t fuck with meglare his way. Lord knows he wouldn’t get away with that language with Mom or Dad around.

“Okay, but if the boat shoes fit…” Dayton says with one of thosewhat can you do?shrugs.

“He’s actually really nice,” Elijah pipes up, and when I glance over at the kid, I find him staring at his hands like they’re the most interesting things in the world before he speaks again. “You guys just don’t really give him much of a chance to be.”

Colton and Dayton share a look—one that speaks louder than actual words of disbelief actually could—and shrug it off.

In Elijah’s eyes, he and Avery are friends. He might even look up to the guy in somewhat of an older brother fashion, and there’s no part of me that wants to soil that image of Avery for him. As it is, I’m starting to find myself agreeing with the kid.

The Avery that’s slowly creeping to the surface—managing to shine through some of the assholery I’ve seen over the past year—is the same one I met freshman year. The one I wanted to be friends with. The one that, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, had my stomach in knots whenever I’d hear him laugh or catch him grinning at me after a good play on the field.

And as I’ve started getting more and more glimpses of that version of him, all those feelings are rushing back in. Especially after what happened last week.

“Elijah’s right,” I finally confirm, eyeing the kid before shooting him a knowing smirk. “There’s more to him than meets the eye.”

When my attention moves to my brothers, I find them both staring at me like I’ve grown two extra heads.

Dayton is the first to speak, cocking his head to the side in confusion. “Who are you, and what have you done with our brother?”

“Yeah,” Cole says slowly. “Did you hit your head and suddenly forget that he—”

“No.” I cut him off before he can bring up what happened back at Foltyn. The last thing I need is one of the other kids catching wind and repeating it to another counselor, or worse, their parents.

Ironic, considering it wasn’t that long ago I was looking to get him kicked out myself.

Colenarrows his eyes ever so slightly. “And now you’re defending him.”

Shit. Am I?

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