Chapter 7 Avery
CHAPTER SEVEN
Avery
Levi was still holding my hand before god, the whole town, and even worse—my brother.
Or maybe I was still holding his.
Regardless, I didn’t shake free until my asshole of an older brother was upon us. I forced a smile as Austin pulled Levi into a bear hug.
“Holy hell,” Austin said. He cast me a side glance before he drew back. “Where in the hell have you been, Rayburn?”
“Oh, you know,” Levi chuckled. “Everywhere but here.”
Austin took his denim Whynot, Texas ballcap off, raking his fingers through his short, dark brown hair before putting it back on.
He’d shaved recently, which was a good sign that he wasn’t completely overworking himself.
He was dressed in jeans and a blue T-shirt, his boots the same ones he’d been wearing for nearly a decade.
They used to be Dad’s, and at this point, I felt like he was going to be buried with them.
Between the four of us, Levi was still the tallest, but Austin wasn’t too much shorter than him. Both of my brothers were taller than they should have been, in my opinion. At least two inches from each of them should have been mine, but instead, I was stuck at a solid five foot four.
Austin cracked a wide grin. “It’s great to see you. It’s been way too long. Never thought you’d come back here.”
“Me neither, if I’m being honest.” Levi took a step back and shoved his hands in his pockets. “How’s everything going? Haven’t heard much from you this last month.”
Austin snorted, studying him closely. “I’ve been around. But what about you?”
The insinuation was there. The little tidbits I’d heard about why Levi was here . . .
“You could say I’ve also been around,” Levi said.
I glanced down the sidewalk, but aside from a couple of regulars, it was just our little group.
Even with it being Friday, the town wasn’t too busy yet.
This evening would be a different story, though.
All the restaurants would be hopping and all hotels booked up as tourists came in for the weekend.
Mateo watched me closely as Austin and Levi talked. I raised a brow, met his gaze briefly, and then redirected my attention to Evie’s pie shop across the street so I could pretend I was drooling over the baked goods instead of him.
It wasn’t fair. Mateo was the problem. Because of him, I dreamed about sexy firefighters more often than I cared to admit. Mateo was on my mind all the time, and I had to just pretend like he wasn’t.
“So, you’re really back?” Austin asked, glancing from Levi to Mateo and then back to me. “And you’ve met my best friend and Avery again.”
“He didn’t recognize me at first,” I chimed.
Levi shrugged his burly shoulders. “Last time I saw you, you had pigtails, pimples, and a sunburn.”
Great. So that’s how he remembered me. “Wow, Levi, you are so good for my ego,” I sighed.
Mateo snorted, but didn’t say anything.
“I’m back for now. I’ve actually been here for a week, I’ve just been getting settled,” Levi said. “I forgot how fucking hot this place is. And dry.”
Austin nodded. “I heard. I texted, but when I never heard back, I thought people were making things up. You’re staying over on Armadillo?”
Wait, what?
Levi nodded. “Yup. It’s a cute little house. Way too small for me, but fine for now.”
Surely fucking not.
“Yeah, the couple who redid that did a good job. They really spruced it up. I helped out with a couple of things when they first started the project. It’s pretty popular with tourists.”
Levi was my new neighbor? How in the hell had I not seen him over the last week? An entire fucking week? Had he even left the house?
“Are there even many tourists here?” Levi laughed.
“More than you’d think. A lot of outdoorsy folks roll through here.”
I narrowed my gaze on Levi as the two of them chatted, thinking about the sports car I’d seen. Levi was driving that thing?
Austin chuckled as he slid his arm around my shoulders to give me that overprotective brotherly hug I knew all too well. Oh boy. I pressed my lips into a thin line, wondering what was about to come out of his mouth.
“Well, you can keep an eye on my baby sister then. She’s across the street from you.”
Levi’s expression didn’t change, but as his gaze met mine, everything inside me melted into a pool of panic. It was just my luck that he was my new neighbor. I didn’t need to be thinking about the fact that he’d be right across the street from me.
“And you’re just a couple blocks from Mateo,” Austin said casually. “His house is over there too. You’d have to drive to mine, though. And you should, assuming you got a car.”
Mateo’s mustache twitched. “Oh, he’s got a car,”
Levi let out a deep hum, but smiled. “Maybe not anymore. It’s currently on top of a cactus outside of town.”
“I’ll call Dallas and have him tow it,” Austin offered.
“I think it just needs a tire changed,” Mateo said. “Should be easy.”
“That’s good. What kind of car?”
“A little sports car.” Levi sighed and ran his fingers through his beard. My gaze lingered on the motion a little too long. “Should have rented a truck. Mateo rescued me.”
“Sounds like Mateo. He keeps us all from falling apart.”
Well, that was the truth. I glanced up at my brother and narrowed my eyes on him. The circles under his eyes were a little darker than usual, and that haunted look he’d worn since Dad died lingered beneath the happy mask he always put on.
I poked him in the ribs. “You look fucking tired.”
“Hey.” His smile slipped slightly “Nice to see you too. Why have you been a stranger lately?”
“Because you annoy the shit out of me. You keep scaring all the good men off.”
“Hey,” Austin quipped.
Mateo smiled, but it didn’t make his eyes crinkle like normal. Levi raised a brow, watching me closely. I leaned into Austin a little more despite the fact I was telling the truth. He did annoy me, but I also loved him.
I just wished he’d stay out of my love life.
And stop making his friends feel like they had to babysit a full adult.
When I’d gone to UT, he’d been less of a menace for four years.
I’d dated whoever I wanted without any sort of oversight and it’d been great.
It’d been normal. Then, Kevin moved from Whynot to Austin, and we started hooking up.
Then we started dating. Then he suddenly wanted me to quit being an artist, settle down, have his children, and become his trophy trad-wife stay-at-home mom.
We started fighting, and those fights spun out of control.
When Dallas and Austin found out what Kevin had been saying and doing to me, they drove across Texas and showed up at my apartment. When they saw the bruises on my arms that he gave me during our breakup, Austin damn near put Kevin in the hospital.
My entire apartment was packed in a few hours. Austin paid for movers to drive my stuff all the way to Whynot and never said anything else—just that I was coming home.
The phone call about Dad happened on our drive back.
I’d blocked out those few hours. Everything was a blur.
My therapist said that trauma did that sometimes, and then would try to prod me about it. It was like pressing a thumb into a partially healed scab and asking if it hurt. It always hurt.
To top it all off, ever since the situation with Kevin, Austin and Dallas had been cockblocking me like two cowboy nuns.
“If I wasn’t annoying you or scaring guys off, I wouldn’t be doing my job.” Austin looked directly at Levi. “I gotta protect you from jerks and guys just passing through town.”
The message was loud and fucking clear, but Levi didn’t seem affected. If anything, he just smiled a little broader. “Don’t tell me you’re still trying to keep your sister from dating. She’s an adult, isn’t she?”
Austin narrowed his eyes, his body stiffening. “Yeah, and?”
“I’m just saying.”
“Well, I’m just saying my sister isn’t up for dating anyone. She’s got enough on her plate. She’s busy being a strong, independent woman.”
Jesus fucking Christ. Surely that wasn’t where he was going to go with this.
“A strong independent woman can make her own dating decisions,” Levi countered.
“Or, a strong independent woman has brothers to beat the shit out of anyone who bothers her.”
Oh my god. “Hi, hello. You both sound stupid and I’m standing right here?” I argued. Was this really happening? Austin wasn’t usually so blunt out of the gate. I thought after not seeing each other for so long, this would be the last conversation to come up.
Mateo cleared his throat. “This is getting a little out of hand. You’re overstepping, Austin.”
Austin ignored him. I met Mateo’s gaze again as Levi and Austin had a dick measuring contest right out here in the open on Main Street.
Levi crossed his arms. His muscles popped, the sunlight lapping at them the way I briefly imagined—before scolding myself. He was a wall of beard and muscles and had no right to be hotter in real life than he was on TV.
Had I spent the last forty-eight hours scrolling video compilations of Levi Rayburn’s Hottest Moments? Possibly.
“I’m just saying it seems like Avery can hold her own,” Levi said casually.
My heart did that stupid little somersault again. I liked that he was standing up for me, even if it meant nothing but trouble.
Mateo cleared his throat. “Maybe we should go get some lunch? Or go get a coffee? A beer even?”
Austin released me and crossed his arms, going boot to boot with the hot hockey player. “You show up in my town after how many years, and our first conversation is about my sister’s dating life?”
“Once again,” I said loudly. “I am standing right fucking here. My dating life is no one’s business. I can date who I want.”
“When you come walking up like a fucking bodyguard, I sure do,” Levi growled.
“From my point of view, it looked like you were holding her hand.”
“Well, I was, dipshit. Because we were shaking hands,” Levi said. “Apologizing for our interaction yesterday. Got off on the wrong foot, you see.”
“Seems like you haven’t changed in that regard.”
Levi and Austin stared at each other for three seconds . . . five . . . ten.
Fuck, this was unbearable. I was teetering between anger and bursting out laughing. Mateo met my gaze this time and shook his head.
Levi’s jaw flexed. “We’re a little too old to settle things how we used to.”
“You just don’t want to get your ass beat.”
Levi’s biceps flexed and my mind made a static noise. “Austin Whynot, are you going to break your hand trying to punch me or are you going to buy me a beer?”
“The verdict is still out.”
“All right,” Mateo interjected. “This has been great, but some of us want to get on with the rest of our day. Austin, you’re being a dick. Levi is right about Avery, she can make her own choices. Also, aren’t the two of you friends? What kind of greeting is this?”
“The kind you get when Austin is acting like an ass,” I said. I held up my hands. “I’m done. I’m going back inside to paint. Have a good lunch, or whatever the fuck you’re going to do while you discuss my sex life.”
“We’re not discussing that,” Austin hissed. The horror on his face was enough to shake his resolve. “What the fuck, Avery?”
“You fucking started it,” I growled.
I couldn’t stand this anymore. I opened the door to the gallery, embracing the wave of cool AC. There was a presence right behind me as I started down the hallway. I turned, expecting it to be Austin.
But, it wasn’t my brother.
It was Mateo.