Chapter Text
He did not care for Avery Kylie Grambs. Over the past month, she had wreaked havoc on this household and on their family dynamic. It wasn't only the unexplained inheritance plot that had thrown their lives into chaos. No, things had rarely been stable for the Hawthornes, not since their grandfather died nor prior. The Hawthrone household wasn't too familiar with tranquility. Nothing was ever to be assumed, and life was always changing, shifting, and moving in that house. You couldn't get too comfortable or too sure that things were solid. But something had changed, and he couldn't help but notice that there was something about Avery that twisted their lives again into a new mystery. She was a puzzle with pieces spilled everywhere. Just as he thought he figured her out, he'd find another piece that fits.
Avery herself was a paradox.
She wasn't passive or too quiet. She wasn't too loud or confident, but she wasn't timid. She seemed almost too naive to be a threat but too smart to go unchallenged. From the moment she arrived, Grayson knew that life as they knew it wouldn't be the same. Their grandfather had known this, probably since the beginning. He had known that, since Emily, the Hawthrone brothers finally had another diversion. But Avery wasn't Emily. He often repeated those words to himself, over and over in his mind. When he thought of her, he desperately tried not to think of Emily. Because whenever he did, it just hurt. He did an exercise where he thought of their differences. It would help him, he thought, ignoring that it went against his plan not to think too much about her. Seeing them as the same did them both a disservice.
Avery was beautiful and bold, calculated and brilliant, but not like Emily. She wasn't impulsive or thrill-seeking. She was considerate. Avery cared about her sister, and the homeless man she'd played chess with. She looked out for other people, she really cared, and she wasn't reckless.
She knew how to take a calculated risk. And unlike Emily, she wasn't pulling them into their demise. She wasn't leading the show. If anything, she was the victim of all this. If anything, she needed protection, his protection. From all their lies, from all the mistakes that hung over that house--from all the brokenness inside of him--in all of them. She didn't know it, but they were messed up--maybe she knew it now, that she'd learned of Emily. She faced so much danger, just being there, just being in the same house with them, with him. She needed someone to be there, to keep any of it from hurting her. Someone had to do it. And Jameson and the others sure as hell wasn't going to protect her.
He tried not to think about the way that Jameson looked at Avery. Like she challenged his core, like she was a puzzle to be solved, a riddle to untangle. Jameson didn't look at too many people like that. No other girl had, not since Emily. She brought out his outward intensity, his curiosity, his passion, and his obsession for the game like Grayson had never seen before. It was enjoyable the watch him like that. It was almost dangerous. And as well as he liked to think he had his brother figured out, Grayson hadn't a guess at what Jameson wanted with her.
But after what had happened with Emily, Grayson wasn't going to let anything come between them. Not again. He couldn't handle any more heartbreak, any more pain. Jameson could pursue her if he pleased. But by God, if he did hurt her...
But for the sake of the family, of maintaining the stability of his relationship with his brother, Jameson could go after her. It was the right thing. Let it go, keep a straight face. Hold it in. It was a responsible older brother thing. Keep it together. Don't get swept up. Don't let it drag you down. Keep it together. Don't let her know how much it hurts. It would be better in the long run; it was doing what would keep her safe. It was what he had to do, what he did. It was Grayson.
His jaw tightened and Grayson took a deep breath before stepping into the elevator.