Page 10 of Broken: Taylor

“Pizza or the underwear?” Allison enjoyed teasing him.

“I only allow myself that luxury once or twice a month at the most. I am pretty much a chicken and vegetable guy. Dirty underwear is okay.”

“Really, that’s all you eat?” She scanned his sleek muscular body. “You competing for some sort of body building thing?”

He met her gaze for a long beat until she had to look away. “My stomach is messed up from when I got shot. Had to have my spleen and gall bladder removed and other stuff got rearranged. So I can’t eat a lot of the stuff I really like.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Allison shrugged not wanting to focus on his body any longer. “You need to find your phone. Or, you can use mine to call the guys.”

Taylor walked to the kitchen, looked around and then disappeared down a hall to where she imagined was his bedroom. To keep busy, she went to the recliners and felt around the sides. Coming up empty, she did the same with the couch.

When he returned, she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. At the doorway, his height was emphasized. He was well toned, with muscular arms and a broad chest. It had to be a Hamilton trait how well they filled out their jeans. He wore a simple dark t-shirt and unbuttoned plaid short-sleeved shirt over it.

“Shit. I must have dropped it somewhere.” He scratched his head. “I’ve been out on the four-wheeler two days straight. Don’t remember the last time I used it.”

“I’ll go get mine so you can call Tobias,” Allison said and headed outside. She took her entire tote bag out of the car and went back inside. Taylor was in the kitchen fiddling with a coffee maker. His gaze moved to hers and quickly away.

They were going to have the conversation he was obviously trying very hard to avoid. It didn’t matter what the reason was, Allison needed to know why he high-tailed it every time they ran into each other. So, maybe he’d say because of the ex-wife and his feelings for her or whatever.

It was probably a bad idea to go down that road. But damn it, there was a connection between them. And if she’d gone so far as to move to Laurel Creek to explore what could happen, Allison wasn’t about to give up that easily.

For the first time in her life, she was going to take control and stop being the “go with the flow” girl. This time her sights were set on Taylor Hamilton, and she was bound and determined to pull the trigger.

If she’d missed all the signs and it didn’t work out, then so be it. At least she’d tried.

“Here ya go. Luke’s number is in the recent calls list.” She held out the cell phone and leaned back against the counter. “I’ll have a cup of coffee while you’re at it.”

His lips curved and damn if that wasn’t a total turn on. Allison cleared her throat. “I’ll make coffee,” she repeated.

He took the phone and traded places, standing with his hip against the counter opposite where she stood.

Allison waited for the first cup to fill, keeping her back to him and listening to his end of the conversation.

“I don’t know what I did with it.”

“When are you seeing the guy again?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll go get another phone in the morning.”

“What?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t wait on me to call. I trust your judgment.”

“All right. Yeah, the guys have that covered.”

“Bye.”

He placed the cell on the counter and looked to the coffee maker.

Allison moved closer until they were but a few inches apart. “You’ve been avoiding me. Why?”