Free The Avery Shaw Experiment by Kelly Oram Page A

it was my turn. “She’s only five feet away. You’ve got to relax a little.”
    “Yeah, no, I’m relaxed. I know she’s fine.” I took a deep breath and stretched. “It’s just that dress . . .” I turned back around and focused on the pool table. “Two in the corner pocket.”
    “She does look good tonight,” Owen admitted. “Makes me want to go check out the rest of the nerds at school, see who else is hiding out in the science lab.”
    I laughed. “Seven. Side pocket.”
    I missed my shot and immediately my eyes drifted back to Avery. She looked up, smiled, gave me a thumbs-up, and then laughed at something Pam said.
    “I never thought I’d see the day Grayson Kennedy was off the market, but you, bro, are a player no longer.” Owen sidled up next to me and joined me in watching the girls. Chloe was trying to get Pam and Avery to dance with her, and Avery was vehemently refusing to do so. “You are completely hung up on that girl . . . like I’ve never seen you hung up before.”
    “Yeah.” I didn’t bother denying it. “It would seem so.”
    “So what’s up with that? You spend all this time with her, but you don’t make a move.”
    I sighed. “It’s complicated. She just got dumped hardcore.”
    “She doesn’t seem all that broken up over it.”
    It was true. Aves had seemed a lot happier lately, but I’d seen her right when it happened. She was getting better, but her pain ran deep.
    “It was my little brother who hurt her. How can I move in on that?”
    Owen shrugged and went back to the game. “Eleven in the corner. You said they were never together.”
    “Not technically, but they were like . . . I don’t know how to describe it.”
    “Yeah, but there was nothing going on. For seventeen years ? You weren’t with her five minutes before you couldn’t stop picturing her naked. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Fourteen in the corner.”
    Owen missed his shot, and as I lined up my next he said, “Sometimes it just works. It obviously does for you guys. She may think she’s in love with your brother, but I’ve seen her look at you too. Trust me, the spark is there.”
    I missed my shot, definitely not on my game tonight. This conversation wasn’t helping any. Then again, I was pretty sure that was part of Owen’s strategy.
    “Even if it is,” I argued. “It won’t happen until she lets go of the idea of my brother. That’s what I’m trying to get her to do.”
    Owen sunk the last stripe on the table. “So try harder. You’re Grayson Kennedy. You’re the guy who upon turning eighteen got a personal invite to the Playboy mansion after spending less than twenty minutes in your first club.”
    I laughed. Some stories about me were exaggerated. That one wasn’t.
    “She’s still trying to think of you as Aiden’s older brother. Lay some serious mojo on the girl, and make her see you for you. Guarantee you she’ll be like, ‘Aiden who?’ Eight ball, side pocket.”
    Owen went to line up his shot, and suddenly Avery was there. “Wait! Stop!”
    Owen leaned up, startled.
    Avery blushed but then forced herself to go stand next to Owen.
    I watched, curious, as she assessed the table and then pointed to the corner pocket furthest from Owen—a different one than he’d called. “That one,” she said. “The angle’s wrong over here. Aim directly at the three ball. Give it a little bit of force, and it will bounce right off and straight into that pocket. It’s a much clearer shot that way, I promise.”
    Owen raised a brow and Avery backed right off, turning a deep shade of red. “I mean, if you want to,” she said quietly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
    “You’re sure?” Owen asked her.
    She looked mortified that she’d said anything, but she nodded.
    Owen looked back at the table and shrugged. “Why not?”
    He lined up his shot, and it did exactly as Avery said it would. He sunk the eight ball with ease, and everyone around who’d witnessed the