11
Logan
We all come back from the Thirsty Turtle around midnight, a rowdy bunch still drunk on the Trivia Night revelry, except for Aiden, who stopped drinking around ten p.m. to drive us all home.
The night is a deep blue, the silhouette of the tree line black against the sky.
And although the moon is only a little over halfway full, it reminds me a bit of coming home from the brewery, exhausted in the early hours of the morning, when my transformation had finally relented, how good it felt to shake out all of the restless energy with Shawn and Aiden until the sun started peeking up over the mountains.
Except, this time, Ava’s here.
I never thought I’d bring her home. Not with the chance that any of the nosey people I live with and call my family might be here. The moment they spotted us, I thought the night was about to take a very different turn, one that might end with Ava never speaking to me again.
It still might, after whatever Laura says to her. Clearly, Laura was taking the scenic route back.
I wait on the porch steps, wondering just how many side roads they’re detouring through to take this long to get here. Laura specifically has some really incriminating photos of me from when we were younger.
I turn to reading a couple of emails on my phone to avoid thinking about it. Out of habit, I forward Celine an estimate from one of our contractors, and a minute later she calls me.
I almost roll my eyes. I should have just started with that.
“That is not aligned with market prices,” Celine tells me breathlessly instead of a hello. “There’s other contractors around Mystic Falls that would give you a better quote.”
“You think you’re gonna get to talk about the brewery before what happened Sunday?”
“Fine, fine,” she huffs, and I can feel her contemplating just hanging up, before she asks, “How are you doing?”
It stops me for a moment, catches me off guard. How long has it been since we just talked?
“Alright, I guess. There’s, uh,” I start to say, and I’m surprised by how much I just want to tell her about Ava. Not that long ago, we used to tell each other everything.
Before I can finish my thought, Aiden steps outside and takes the phone out of my hand, says into it, “Stop calling this number, Celine.”
I can hear Celine’s tiny, irritated voice through the phone. “Aiden, you are not nearly as funny as you think you are—”I blink at him, as he hangs up and pockets my phone, and scoffs at me, “What are you doing? You don’t need to go back there.”
Shawn is still loudly complaining about how he would have won tonight’s trivia game if Sophie didn’t still hate him from high school further inside the house, when Laura’s car finally pulls in the driveway behind us.
The moment Ava steps out of Laura’s car, I think about stealing her away, taking her up to my room, and finally, finally, having Ava in an actual bed that facilitates any kind of cuddling after.
I don’t care if it’s too obvious, the jeers from my brothers tomorrow will be the same regardless.
It seems almost pointless to pretend that we’re not sleeping together, the way all of them exchanged looks whenever Ava leaned against my side, her eyes lingered on mine, anything.
“—Because Shawn’s the kind of person who would be on The Bachelor, get dumped on national TV,” Laura is explaining to Ava as she slams the driver’s side door. “Back Logan into that kind of corner, I think he’d kill himself first.”
“Laura!” Elise exclaims, giving her a shocked look. Laura just rolls her eyes.
“No, she’s right,” I sigh. Death would be preferable.
Laura’s made me watch enough of that show with her that I don’t need more context for whatever their conversation was.
Ignoring having to date someone with everyone watching, there’s just too many people there.
Compete for affection, and let everyone see the fool you are? I’d sooner disqualify myself.
“Logan’s the kind of animal that decides very quickly to chew off his own leg,” Laura continues, ego stroked by my agreeing with her, which leaves my soul feeling just a little bit ickier.
“You don’t only have to say rude things about me when I’m around. You can wait till I’m gone too.”
“Believe me, I do,” Laura says a little too convincingly, and I’m not sure I want to know what else was said on the ride over.
Ava catches my eye, sauntering over to my side.
I watch her attention slide over the expanse of the house warily.
I’ve heard plenty of people call it “The Hayes House” as some kind of landmark, usually for telling people they’ve gone too far when trying to get to the brewery, but the thing she said about vampires has me start wondering if there’s more to it than that.
She looks a little apprehensive at the thought of going inside, so I offer her an out. “Do you need a ride home?”
“Yes, buuuuut . . . the minimart near me closed at ten,” she complains. “I’m totally starving.”
Elise throws her hands up in the air with way more excitement than that comment deserves, catching our attention.
“I’ve got an extra quiche in the fridge, I’ll heat it up,” she volunteers, and before I know it, I’ve lost my opportunity to disappear anywhere with Ava. The next hour or so at least is going to be dedicated to this quiche.
Shawn has the same thought, apparently, because he moans, “You don’t know what you’ve unleashed. I’m not gonna get my wife home before three a.m.”
At that, Aiden leans back and catches my eye, holding up a finger at me. In the brief moment I hold his gaze, I hold up six fingers back at him, before I turn and step into Ava.
Her body collides with mine briefly, a simple bump that a quick apology would cover.
Somehow, I feel it reverberate down to my soul.
I grab hold of her as she stumbles back a step, I can’t help it.
It’s as much to pull her close to me as it is to make sure she doesn’t fall back.
I always feel like I’m on the verge of forgetting we’re in public.
A heartbeat passes, and I release my grip on her. We stand a normal, not too close, distance apart. “Sorry about that.”
She shakes her head and immediately mirrors the six fingers I had been holding up before. “What’s that about?”
“It’s, uh, how many times Shawn’s said, ‘my wife,’ tonight,” I admit sheepishly. I’m a little embarrassed to admit I’m participating in this childish game.
Ava nods, and her eyes light with amusement. “Oh, he said it to me earlier when we were grabbing another round from the bar, add three more on.”
She looks around me at Aiden, who’s only partially paying attention to the conversation he’s in with Elise and Laura. Ava holds up three fingers. He grins and nods and then does some quick math on his fingers, as Elise pushes past him to open the front door.
“Shh, Aunt Deanna’s probably sleeping,” Laura hisses, as she ducks inside. As soon as the light is on, spilling out onto the porch, we all start drifting indoors, our voices dropping to half-assed whispers.
“Nah, Mom said she was going somewhere with Aunt Jenny before we left,” Shawn says in a hushed voice, nonetheless. Ava throws me a smile, waving briefly before Elise tugs her along toward the kitchen, disappearing in an instant.
The smile fades off my face the second she’s out of sight, and I cut Shawn off when he inhales to make a comment. “I don’t want to hear it, man.”
“I said absolutely nothing,” Shawn protests, his voice cracking a little as he pivots from whatever comment he was going to make about me and Ava.
“I heard it anyway,” I insist, and Aiden nods.
“Me too. You need to think quieter, dude.”
“You guys can’t convince me that you can hear my thoughts,” Shawn scowls, because it’s not the first time we’ve tried.
“It’s not our fault you weren’t born with the wolf-telepathy gene,” Laura hums. She catches my eye and grins, possessed by the same itch to fuck with Shawn.
It’s only a moment that Laura, Aiden, and I pretend to hold an entirely silent conversation, raising our brows at each other, taking turns frowning contemplatively and throwing in a gesture here and there.
Aiden gets a little dramatic about it, miming getting up on a soapbox and giving a grand speech. Laura and I politely applaud.
Shawn tries to wait it out, rolling his eyes and huffing, before he snaps, “Real mature.”
“Hey, you need to not interrupt,” Aiden chides.
Shawn opens his mouth to protest, but the faint sound of Elise and Ava laughing in the kitchen snags the attention of all four of us.
Ava’s giggle is just barely there as Elise continues, “. . . I mean, yeah, of course Shawn thinks we’re soulmates, but literally he’s also the guy who said my tit-jobs were a cosmic experience. He just talks like that—”
Laura, Aiden, and I share a collective grimace.
“THIN WALLS,” Shawn calls out, a bit of panic in his voice, but unfortunately the walls in this house are actually pretty thick, and both Ava and Elise have very human hearing.
Instead of any kind of answer, there’s just the faint peel of giggles while Shawn stares down the hall to the kitchen in disbelief.
“God, she will really just tell anybody about that,” Shawn mutters, then he gives me a look, raising his brows.
“You think it’s my job to stop them?”
“I am not going in there.”
“Neither am I.”
There’s a tentative silence as my brothers and I glance to Laura, who looks utterly unimpressed with all of us.
“I’m not doing you a favor,” Laura says to Shawn. “That’s a conversation I have to sit out now, or see my lunch a second time. And that’s the worst part of you coming back, actually.”
Her tone isn’t overly hostile, even if the words are. It’s somewhat gratifying that I’m not the only one still pissed at Shawn, even if I do feel for the way his expression drops.
“Yeah, but she’s family now,” Shawn says, a quiet surprise in voice.
Laura gives him a brief side-eye but says nothing.