Page 36 of Double Dared
“Rude.”
“It’s your cologne. I like it.”
I noticed Jason’s head spin around to look at Taylor, but Taylor didn’t seem to pay it any attention. “I see Kate’s around,” I said, my voice only a little testy because I was a child, and I couldn’t keep this ridiculous, possessive jealousy down forever. “Are you planning to take that somewhere?”
That was bro talk, right? That was what friends and wingmen would ask.
But Taylor’s eyebrows curved, and he looked at me like I was crazy. “Kate? And me?”
“Yeah,” I said, finding a casual register of my voice. “You seemed to hit it off well at the market.”
Taylor’s eyes narrowed in suspicion before he relaxed and smiled. “We did, didn’t we? Yeah, she’s sweet. And really smart. She makes me laugh. I’d evengo as far as to say she makes me feel good about myself.”
My heart snapped in half. Were those not the words he’d used for me? How dare he?
My face must have betrayed me because Taylor punched my shoulder so hard my arm went numb. “Look at her,” he said.
I didn’t. “She’s pretty.”
“Look,” he said, lowering his voice as Bennet and Jason began talking to one another not so far from us.
I looked. Then I looked harder because I didn’t see Kate anywhere. My gaze moved over the heads of strangers until hers finally appeared. Well, only one part of it appeared, because most of it was pressed against another face, and there was a hand on the back of her neck, and oh my God, Kate was kissing the friend she’d come here with. “She’s gay?”
“She makes figurines, works with clay, and does woodworking. What did you think?” he asked.
“I…” I looked at Taylor. He knew exactly what I’d thought, and it amused him to death.
“Oh ye of little faith,” he said. “You were jealous. Admit it.”
“No,” I said, but my voice betrayed me.
“You thought I invited my fake ex here to watch me flirt with a girl,” he said, loving every moment of it. I wished he would stop joking about this. He didn’t know, and I couldn’t tell him just how touchy that particular spot was.
“Stop,” I said.
“Nah, I’m never letting you live this down.”
“Come on.” I nudged him, shoulder to shoulder. “It made sense in my head.”
Taylor’s gaze lingered on my face like he wanted to tell me something, but he decided against it. He lifted one corner of his lips into a crooked smile, then drank from the beer bottle.
I drank, too.
The day went on seemingly forever. Taylor was the soul of it, though he loudly advertised the fact that he’d done none of the planning or organizing. He found time for everyone, found a way to make them laugh, and found something in common with them. As he moved through the groups, making sure everyone’s drinks were topped and everyone had had a bite, I stood with Jason and observed.
Jason was safe company. He didn’t pry too much, and he knew how to let a silence go on without having to interrupt it. He also knew how to ask a pointed question that tipped you off-balance, but he didn’t abuse that power.
I watched Taylor as he laughed so hard at something Kate had said that my heart clenched. Not out of jealousy, this time, but such sudden, unexpected joy that I couldn’t contain it.
And he laughed harder still, tilting his beer the wrong way and spilling it all over his shirt. Kate yelped, her girlfriend taking control of the situation and grabbing a napkin from the nearest table, while Taylor simply wore a resigned expression on his face, shakinghis head and dabbing the beer from the soaked fabric. He muttered something to himself, wiping the beer, then undoing a couple of buttons of his shirt and revealing a wet, glistening middle of his torso that made me stop.
Fuck, I thought.I’m not quitting you soon.
As if he could feel my thought, or my gaze, Taylor looked at me, made awhatcha-gonna-dogesture with his arms, then laughed at himself.
People were already leaving, and I made my way over to Taylor, watching him do his buttons again. Kate and her girlfriend looked like they were saying goodbye, and I reached the spot just after they’d left Taylor alone. “Do you want to go to my place?” I asked. I didn’t know where I was going with this. If all we did was listen to records on my sofa, that would be a night to remember.
“I’m soaked in beer,” Taylor said. It wasn’t a no.
