by Amy Knupp
She tossed her notebook on the kitchen table and went to the front door, relieved to see Vienna out the peephole.
“Hey, stranger,” she said, letting her in.
“Long time no talk.” Vienna smiled and breezed inside, as always, full of tangible energy. “Alex said I should check in with you. Not that I wouldn’t have anyway. What’s new?”
Between Alex and Joel, Taylor had managed to do quite a number on her love life in a mere twenty-four hours. None of it good. Then it hit her exactly what Vienna had said.
“What did Alex say?” Her stomach nosedived and the walls seemed to close in on her.
“Just that you might need a friend. So. Here I am. What’s going on?”
Taylor turned away and escaped into the kitchen. Opened the refrigerator so Vienna wouldn’t see her squeezing her eyes closed. She randomly grabbed two bottles of water, trying to regain control.
He sneaked out and then sent his sister to comfort me? He must think I’m terribly pathetic.
Vienna entered the kitchen as Taylor shut the fridge door. Taylor spun around wordlessly and handed her friend one of the bottles. She spotted her letter-perfect script, the precise columns of her to-do list sitting on the table. Vintage, tangible signs of her troubled mind-set this afternoon.
Alex knows me and my weaknesses well.
For some reason, that ticked her off even more.
She marched into the living room on her way to the front door then realized Vienna must think she’d lost her mind, or at least her manners.
“I was just going to take a walk,” she called over her shoulder.
Vienna followed her, taking a drink from her bottle. As she replaced the lid, she tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Let’s go, then.”
The words were barely out before Taylor shoved the screen door open and stormed outside, attempting to reel in her crazy, out-of-control emotions.
“Do you have a key?” Vienna asked.
Taylor shook her head. “Just leave it unlocked.” She forced herself to wait while Vienna pulled the heavy door closed and let the screen door spring shut.
They set off down the sidewalk at a quick pace. Half a block later, Vienna jogged a few paces to catch up. “Tay, short legs here. Is this a walk or a drill?”
Taylor forced herself to slow down. “Sorry.”
There was a small park up ahead that Taylor usually forgot about. She headed for it now, knowing if she kept walking, she would again inadvertently zoom off without Vienna. She went straight for the swings. Choosing the higher of the two, she sat in it, noticing these things weren’t as wide as she remembered. She straightened and pushed herself backward, then pumped her legs to gain altitude. Vienna jumped on the swing next to hers.
You couldn’t talk very well when you were swinging.
They slipped into an unspoken contest of who could go higher, and Taylor gradually breathed easier, released the emotional tension that had balled up inside her throat. Flying back and forth through the air, stomach dipping at each crest, had a way of changing a girl’s perspective, even if only temporarily.
Ten minutes must have passed, the only sound between them a sporadic laugh or holler. Taylor was taken back to another time, a simpler time when a swing in the park was the objective, not an escape. A time when supporting her body weight hadn’t made her arm muscles ache or her butt feel like it had been wedged into a too-small harness. Instead of letting herself slow down gradually, she went for the instant dismount and jumped off as she’d always done when she was six.
The landing was harder than she remembered and she ended up on her side, momentarily stunned into silence.
“Are you okay?” Vienna hollered from midair.
Taylor rolled onto her back, soaking up the sun and the smell of the recently cut grass…and started laughing. When Vienna landed with a clumsy thud and an “Oof” nearby, she laughed until her stomach started hurting. She heard Vienna do the same. Tears filled her eyes and Taylor gasped for air. When she finally looked at Vienna, that set them off even more.
At last Vienna let out a long, loud sigh. “The landing isn’t quite the same as when you weigh fifty pounds.”
“I think I have bruises,” Taylor said, cracking up again. “But I haven’t laughed so hard in ages. I needed that.” She rose to her elbows, glancing around, relieved to see the park was still deserted. She pushed up to a sitting position, supporting her weight on her hands behind her. “That’s it, Vienna. Your ticket to the big time.”
Vienna sat up next to her with a questioning look.
“You need to market swinging in the park as therapy. Trademark it, give it a fancy name. You’ll make millions.”
“You’re a genius.” Vienna crossed her legs and pointed her face at the clear sky. “Speaking of career stuff, I have news.”
Taylor sat up straighter.
“Well, are you going to tell me or just sit there smugly?”
“I had an interview!”
“Yesss! Where? With whom? When?”
Vienna practically bounced. “With Hugh Samuels.”
“My Hugh Samuels? You had an interview with one of the VPs of my company and you didn’t warn me?”
“Your Hugh Samuels? Is there something I should know?” Vienna giggled wickedly. “And more important, do you have any influence over this man?”
“You don’t need any outside influence. I’m sure you did well on your own merits. And my relationship with him is purely professional. The last thing I need is more male drama in my personal life.” She sobered at the reminder.
“It happened pretty fast, otherwise I would’ve told you. Or given you the third degree, more accurately. He called Wednesday afternoon and wanted to meet Friday. My Thursday was nuts and I remembered you were going out.”
With Joel. My, how quickly things could change.
“How did it go? I want details.” Taylor knew her company was on Vienna’s list of dream jobs—with good reason. It was consistently ranked one of the top places to work, both locally and on national lists.
Vienna smiled widely. “Really well. I think that man gets me—we’re on the same wavelength marketing-wise.”
Taylor relaxed as Vienna went on and on about the interview. She let herself forget about her own misery for a few minutes.
“He said they expect to fill this position quickly so I hope to know more within a couple of weeks.”
It was a new position. One of the assistant marketing managers. Not entry level, but there was no question Vienna was ideal for it. Taylor would have to see if she could get any inside information on Hugh’s impression of Vienna. Put in another good word for her.
“So that’s that, for now,” Vienna said. “I noted that mention of male drama. Are you going to spill?”
Drat. The interview was a much better topic. Taylor closed her eyes.
“Alex hinted that Joel was in the doghouse.”
Taylor lay back on the grass again and rolled to her stomach.
“Doghouse makes it sound like there’s a chance he could redeem himself.”
“That doesn’t sound good.” Vienna stretched out on her side, propping herself up on her elbow.
Taylor shook her head. “It’s too embarrassing.”
“Embarrassing, my butt. This is me. We’re friends. It goes without saying that whatever happened was the guy’s fault one thousand percent.”
That almost made Taylor smile. She’d spent so many years keeping things to herself that this opening-up business was hard to get used to. Especially when it concerned her disastrous dating life.
“What did Alex tell you?” she said. A stall? More than likely.
“Absolutely nothing. Infuriating man.”
Taylor chewed on the inside of her cheek, gathering her courage. “We were supposed to go to a wedding together.”
“I remember. We picked out the blue dress.”
“Friday afternoon he called to cancel. He said he was going out of town for the we
ekend, last-minute. Something about his dad needing him.”
“No,” Vienna said. “You were so looking forward to going with a date.”
One of her many mistakes.
She recounted what had happened at the hardware store Saturday morning in painful detail, including the suspicion that the only reason he’d asked her out in the first place was so his ex would see them together.
“Unbelievable,” Vienna said when she’d finished the story. “I don’t care if he was using you to get his ex’s attention or not, he’s a creep. You deserve so much better, Tay.”
Taylor pulled the grass up by the roots, one blade at a time.
“So did you go to the wedding anyway?”
Drat. It’d been hard enough to talk about Joel. No way could she bring herself to confide about Alex. “Yes. I had to. I had the dress.” Maybe humor would sidetrack Vienna from further questions.
“Wait a second.” Vienna sat up quickly. “Alex was wearing a suit last night. He took you, didn’t he?”
“He was with me at the hardware store and felt sorry for me,” Taylor explained quickly. “What else could he do? The wedding was beautiful. They had the reception at the botanical gardens.”
Vienna wasn’t so easily distracted. “Alex was out late last night, Taylor. Was he with you?”
“No.” The lie came out before she could consider it, but it was just as well. No way could she admit what happened. None of it.
“Hmm,” was all Vienna said, though Taylor knew her brain was spinning, probably trying to figure out who Alex had picked up at the wedding and how he’d managed to ditch her. Let her puzzle over it. It was preferable to having her figure out the truth. “So…are you done with Joel? Moving on?”
Did sleeping with your brother’s best friend constitute moving on?
Taylor chuckled sarcastically. “I don’t appear to have any say in that. Joel’s done. But yes…my illusions have been suitably shattered. I wouldn’t go out with him again if he got down on his knees and begged.”
“Amen, sister.” Vienna watched a large black ant crawl up her arm and they were both quiet for several minutes. “You’ll find your guy soon, Taylor. I’m sure the right one is out there somewhere.”
Though Taylor’s confidence was lagging, she was sure he was, too. The only question in her mind was: Did she need to find the right guy so that she could stop thinking about Alex, or did she need to stop thinking about Alex so she could find the right guy?
CHAPTER TWENTY
ONE THING BEING IN THE ARMY had taught Alex was that if you had to do something you dreaded, the best way to handle it was to jump right in and get it over with.
Seeing Taylor again was not that big of a deal, not when you put it in army terms and compared it with some of the hellacious situations he’d found himself out there. No big deal at all.
So why the hell were his palms sweating and his heart beating erratically as he parked Vienna’s shit-mobile at the curb and walked around to Taylor’s back door?
Because Taylor was sensitive. It’d be too easy to damage her self-esteem if he didn’t handle this just right, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. He needed to say the right things about Saturday night without saying too much or too little.
No pressure whatsoever.
He cared what she thought, about herself and about him. Cared how their night together had affected her. That was most important now.
His footsteps on her deck seemed loud, exaggerated against the background bird symphony at this butt-early hour. He’d had to hustle to get to the grocery store for donuts to make up for the coffee cake he’d devoured a couple weeks back. Then he’d rushed to her house to try to catch her before she left for work. Though he wasn’t sure what insane hour that was, knowing her knack for being early everywhere she went, he figured he’d be lucky to see her if he got here as soon after dawn as possible.
He knocked on the door and scanned the surrounding backyards for signs of life. No one on the block seemed to be stirring yet. By the third knock, he was sure he’d missed Taylor. Crazy woman must start her work day before seven o’clock. Maybe he was going to get off easier than he’d expected—for now, anyway.
The pastries wouldn’t be as fresh by tomorrow morning, so he would just let himself in and leave them on the counter before heading to Chicago for his PT appointment. After he unlocked the door, he listened for any sign of her, but the house was silent, obviously empty.
As he set the box down near the sink, one of the furballs sauntered in and rubbed up against his legs. It gazed up at him eagerly. He sidestepped it, shaking his head and searching for a piece of paper to leave a note. He was almost to the living room when he heard the sudden blare of pop music from the back of the house. An alarm clock? Taylor must have forgotten to turn it off. He followed the sound to her bedroom and nearly pissed himself when he saw her.
She was stretched out on her stomach, the covers thrown aside, giving him one hell of a view of her slender, sexy body. It was barely hidden by the shortest pajama bottoms he’d ever been lucky enough to see on a woman and a loose, matching peach-colored camisole top that had worked its way halfway up her back. Her hair splayed wildly on both sides of the pillow, hiding her face. The wide swath of creamy skin between shorts and top begged him to touch it.
Images of the other night, of her naked, on top of him, beneath him, in the moonlight, bombarded him. Kicked his pulse up to double speed. All the blood in his body seemed to head south.
Before he could move from his spot in the doorway—whether to approach the tempting woman in front of him or to back away and respect her privacy, he couldn’t say—she stirred. Slowly rolled to her back and groaned sleepily as she flung her arm toward the still-blasting alarm on the nightstand. Her eyes remained closed as she felt around for it, hitting it several times until the music stopped.
Alex swallowed hard, unsure how to avoid scaring the daylights out of her. Unable to keep from feasting his eyes on this new, even more revealing view of her.
Her scream made him jump guiltily and he moved toward her. “Taylor, it’s me.”
She whipped her extra pillow against her body and clung to it as she sat up, two pink spots appearing on her cheeks beneath eyes that shot fire at him.
“What are you doing in here, Alex?” Her tone left no doubt that she was less happy to see him than he was to see so much of her.
To prevent her from noticing his blatant arousal, he took two large steps to the foot of her bed and sat down.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Sorry I startled you.”
She scooted toward the head of the bed, leaning against one pillow and still covering her body with the other. “Startled? You’re lucky I didn’t go into cardiac arrest! Why are you here?”
Without thinking, he reached out and touched her ankle. “I brought you donuts to pay you back for the coffee cake I owed you. I tried to get here before you left and then thought I’d missed you when you didn’t answer your door.”
Her mouth hung open as she stared at him. “Did it not occur to you to check for my car?”
He stared back and fought a sheepish grin at his own stupidity. “In my defense, it’s early.”
She threw the pillow she’d been hugging at him, catching him in the head. He could tell she regretted getting rid of her cover as soon as she realized what she’d done, but instead of being chivalrous, he held on to the pillow and checked his watch.
“It’s five after seven, Taylor. Aren’t you late?”
“I start work at eight.” She crossed her arms over her chest and raised her chin. “I’m not much of a morning person.”
“Miss Early-for-everything? Not a morning person?” He couldn’t wrap his head around it.
“Well, technically we don’t have to be at work until eight-thirty, so…”
“That’s more like it. Your late is their early.”
“Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“Could you get out of
my room so I can get up and shower?”
He studied her, allowed himself three seconds to consider what he’d rather do. Getting out of here was a wise idea.
He stood, tossing the pillow back to the bed and trying to hide how affected he was by the intimacy of being here with her first thing in the morning, with her all tousled and sexy.
“For the record, I’ve already seen everything,” he said, nodding to her body. Before she could nail him with the pillow again, he escaped and shut the door behind him. Then he went to the kitchen to figure out how to reel himself in and establish some boundaries in his head.
ONCE HER BEDROOM DOOR CLOSED, Taylor grabbed the pillow again and squeezed it to her, burying her face in it.
She was burning up. Had she forgotten to turn the air conditioner on last night? But no, it had nothing to do with room temperature. She couldn’t say whether it was embarrassment and self-consciousness or…
She lowered the pillow and exhaled loudly. Yeah, that. It was impossible to deny that a part of her had wanted him to crawl into bed and spend the day with her. A big part of her. Close to ninety-five percent of her if she had to quantify.
In the four years she’d worked at Halverson Systems, she’d taken exactly one sick day, two years ago when she’d gotten food poisoning so severe she’d been sure she was going to die. Today, if Alex had stripped down and joined her, she wouldn’t have blinked an eye at playing hooky to be with him.
Which was pathetic. Their one night was over.
Equally pathetic was the way she was still sitting here pining over him instead of getting ready for work.
She hopped out of bed and headed to her bathroom. Locked the door because she wouldn’t be surprised if he was still lurking out there, waiting for her, and turned on the water. Avoided catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror as she slid her pajamas off, all too conscious of how her body had reacted to having Alex in her bedroom again.
