“Yeah?” she replied, turning.

My lips curved up as a bolt of nervous energy rolled through me. “See you tonight.”

“You’re spending a lot of time with this girl.”

“Whoa!” I stepped out of the shower, buck-ass naked, finding Ollie standing in the doorway of the bathroom. “What the hell, man?”

“What?” He shrugged. “Not like I haven’t seen your junk before.”

Shaking my head, I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my hips. “What in the hell are you yapping about? And can it wait? Kind of have stuff to do.” Namely dinner and movies to acquire.

Ollie followed me into my bedroom. “I was asking about Avery. You’ve been spending a lot of time with her.”

I didn’t respond as I pulled on a pair of jeans, buttoning them up and then dropping the towel.

“Free balling it tonight?” Ollie grinned as he smacked his hands on the upper frame of the door. “Planning on getting laid?”

I shot him a dark look as I turned and grabbed a shirt. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

He leaned forward, stretching out his arms. His hair fell forward, shielding most of his face. “Nope. Not at this moment.”

“Great.” I pulled the shirt on.

“Steve’s having a party tonight. You going?”

“No.”

“Of course not.”

I arched a brow as I brushed him out the way, heading into the living room to find my sneakers. “If you’re not surprised, why did you ask?”

Ollie shrugged. “You used to go to all the parties.”

Sighing, I pulled my shoes on and straightened. That part was true. So was the fact that my face had been absent from all of them since late August. “I’ll go to the Halloween one. I won’t miss that.”

“Uh-huh.” Ollie plopped down on the couch.

I looked at him a moment, then shook my head as I grabbed some movies off the rack. Sometimes I wondered if Ollie even knew what he was talking about or doing.

“Cam?”

“Yeah?”

He tipped his head back and grinned. “I think it’s pretty cool that you’re spending time with Avery. I like her. She’s nice.”

“Thank you.” The moment those words came out of my mouth, I had no idea why I said them. My cheeks heated when Ollie laughed. “Fuck you.”

Ollie’s laughter followed me out to the hall and down to my truck. Thank you? That didn’t even make any sense. What the hell was I thanking him for? But as I headed down to the nearby Chinese restaurant and ordered Avery’s favorite—shrimp stir-fry—I realized I felt thankful. Strangest damn thing, because all Shortcake had done was say yes to hanging out, but I knew she didn’t allow people to get very close to her. This . . . this was a big step she was taking.