Anyone But Her

by Everhart, Allie

  "I guess that explains it," she says.

  "Explains what?"

  "Why I felt something for you right away. It was because I'd seen you before. You were familiar but I didn't know why until now."

  I think it's more than that. I think Taylor and I felt something right away because we share some kind of connection. It's not something that's tangible or makes sense. It's just a feeling that happens when you know something's right. When you feel like maybe this could be your person. The one you're meant to be with. It's too soon to say if Taylor's that person but it feels that way whenever I'm around her. When I'm not around her I can't imagine being with anyone else. There's no one like Taylor. No girl has ever made me feel like she does.

  "Guess we were meant to meet," I say, "just not until later."

  "How weird is that? We both liked each other back then and thought about each other all those years and now here we are, with you living in my parents' guest house."

  "Unable to act on how we feel."

  "I was thinking about that."

  "And?"

  "Maybe if we're really careful we could meet somewhere."

  "Where could we go that would be private?"

  "I don't know. That's the problem. My dad's well known, especially here in Phoenix, and because of that, people know me too. And anyone who follows golf knows who you are. If they saw us together it could end up online and then my dad would know. So on second thought, maybe we can't meet."

  "Why don't we postpone that idea until later? For now, we should probably focus on convincing your family there's nothing going on between us."

  "Good idea. We should practice being just friends." She smiles. "Although I really want to kiss you right now."

  "Oh, yeah?" I lean over to kiss her but stop when I hear a voice.

  "What are you guys doing out here?"

  I quickly sit back in my chair and see Cal heading this way.

  "Hey, Cal," I say. "Taylor and I were just talking about coaches. I was telling her about the guy I worked with in San Diego."

  "Harris?" Cal picks up a patio chair and sets it across from Taylor and me, then says to her, "We call him Mustache Man. The guy has this thick furry mustache and refuses to shave it off."

  Laughing, I say to Taylor, "Only time he did was when I got a hole in one. He didn't think I could do it so he said if I did he'd shave his mustache off. A week later the thing was gone." I look back at Cal. "What are you doing up? I thought you went to bed."

  "I did but I couldn't sleep. Thought I'd hang out by the pool and get some fresh air."

  Cal hasn't slept well since before his attempt to play professional golf. The pressure to win had him so stressed he couldn't sleep. Now he can't sleep because he's no longer on the pro tour and feels like he failed both himself and his dad. He hasn't told me this. I just know. I've tried talking to him about it but he shuts down if I even try. He doesn't want to talk about what happened. He gets pissed if I even bring it up.

  "I'm going to bed." Taylor gets up from her chair. She attempts to put her flip flops on but struggles to get her feet in them.

  "Need some help there?" Cal laughs as she almost trips.

  She's nervous because we almost got caught kissing. She needs to act normal or she's going to clue Cal in that there's something going on.

  "I got it. I'm fine." She hurries off.

  "Does she seem off to you?" Cal asks as he watches her go in the house.

  "Off how?"

  "Like distracted or something."

  "Not really, but I don't really know her that well so it's hard to say."

  "I wonder if she's seeing someone."

  Now I'm the one feeling nervous but I do my best to hide it.

  "Why do you think she's seeing someone?"

  "She's been quieter than normal. She usually talks a lot but since we picked her up at college she hasn't said much."

  "If she had a boyfriend, wouldn't she tell you?"

  "No. She thinks my dad and I would kill the guy so she tries to keep her dating life a secret."

  "Would you? Kill the guy? I mean, obviously you wouldn't kill him but what exactly would you do to the guy? Assuming she's dating someone."

  "Take him aside. Tell him if he hurts my sister I'll bash his face in." Cal extends his legs and puts his hands behind his head, staring out at the pool.

  "That's kind of extreme, isn't it?"

  "Dude, she's my sister. I gotta watch out for her. It's my job. If you had a sister you'd do the same."

  "But as long as he treats her well, you're good with him dating her?"

  "I don't want her dating anyone. Guys are assholes."

  "She's nineteen. She's going to date. And who knows? Maybe you'll like the guy."

  "I guarantee I won't."

  Does he really mean that? If he knew about Taylor and me, would it end our friendship? I'd like to think it wouldn't but I'm pretty sure it would.

  But I can't help how I feel. Taylor's the girl I want. The girl I can see a future with. The more time I spend with her, the more I know that's true.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Taylor

  "I'll be there in a minute," I yell over the staircase to Birdie.

  She just got here. I'm taking her to dinner to make up for cancelling on her three nights in a row. It's my new conditioning coach's fault. He's been making me work out with him at the gym every night but I finally told him I need a night off. I want to improve my golf game but I also want a social life. It's summer. I want to have at least a little fun.

  Luke and I have been avoiding each other since the other night when Cal almost caught us kissing. The next day I told Luke we couldn't take risks like that at the house. We'd have to meet somewhere private. So far we haven't done that but we text each other all the time.

  Like right now. A text pops up from Katy, which is the fake name I assigned to Luke's number in case anyone in my family ever saw my phone when Luke was texting me.

  I miss you, he texts.

  I miss him too. The past few days he hasn't been around to eat meals with us. He's been too busy playing golf and working on his swing, preparing for the tournament next week.

  "Okay, I'm ready." I hurry down the stairs and see Birdie standing in the living room looking at her phone. She's wearing a cute white sundress and wedge sandals. She has a much curvier figure than I do so she looks better in clothes than me. I like my lean athletic body but sometimes I wish I had more curves and more of a bust like Birdie.

  "Just a minute." She smiles as she types something into her phone.

  "Who are you texting?"

  "Liam. The guy I met at work the other day."

  Birdie works at a coffeehouse near her soon-to-be college. She recently decided to transfer to Arizona State so she could save money by living at home. It's the same college Cal goes to but it's so huge I doubt they'll ever see each other.

  "That's a stupid name," I hear Cal say. He walks into the living room holding a bowl of ice cream and sits down on the couch.

  "What's a stupid name?" I ask.

  "Liam," he mutters. "It's stupid."

  Birdie whips around to face him. "And Cal is so much better?" She rolls her eyes. "Liam is unique. Sophisticated. So much cooler than Cal."

  "You're actually dating that idiot?" Cal asks before shoving a big spoonful of ice cream in his mouth.

  "Not that it's any of your business, but yes. And he's not an idiot. He's very smart. And refined. He asked me to go to the opera on Sunday."

  "The opera?" Cal chokes on his ice cream and spits some of it back in his bowl.

  "You're so disgusting," Birdie says, shaking her head.

  Cal wipes ice cream off the side of his lip. "You actually told this guy you'd go to the opera?"

  "Of course I'm going. Why wouldn't I?"

  "Well, for one, you're more of a monster truck show girl. Or did you forget to tell him that?"

  She folds her arms tightly over her chest, which pushes her boobs
up and shows more of her cleavage. "I'm no longer going to monster truck shows. Well, I went last week but that was only because a friend asked me to. I no longer choose to go to them."

  She's lying. Birdie loves monster truck shows and always will.

  I wait for Cal's retort and when I don't hear it I glance at him and see him staring at her chest. At her boobs! What the hell? He can't look at my friend that way. I guess she does kind of have them on display in that low-cut dress but he still shouldn't be staring.

  "Cal!"

  His eyes dart over to me. "What?"

  "Can't you go eat in the kitchen?"

  "I can eat wherever I want and I'm choosing to eat here."

  "Then we're going." Birdie looks down at her phone and smiles. "He just texted me. He said he can't wait for our date."

  Cal huffs. "Every guy says that. That's nothin' special."

  "Like you're Mr. Romantic?" Birdie scoffs.

  "As a matter of fact I am."

  "Yeah, right. Your idea of romantic is taking a girl to that barbecue place where the waiters dress as pigs."

  "I've actually never taken a girl there." He scoops up another big spoonful of ice cream.

  "I hate to admit it," I say to Birdie, "but Cal can be romantic when he wants to be. For the right girl."

  "And who's the right girl? Some skinny chick with fake boobs?" She rolls her eyes.

  "I prefer au natural when it comes to breasts." He licks the ice cream off his spoon. "And as for body size, I like a curvier girl. A girl who has something to hold onto."

  "Then why don't you ever date girls like that?" I ask, because he typically dates girls like Birdie described; tall and skinny with big boobs that may or may not be fake. I can't always tell.

  "Haven't found the right one," he says. "For now, I'm just playing the field."

  "Meaning using hot girls for sex," Birdie says.

  "Like you don't use guys?" he asks. "I bet Opera Boy's rich."

  She narrows her eyes at him. "That's not why I'm dating him. And for the record, I have no idea what his financial status is."

  "So why are you dating him?"

  "Because he's cute and he asked me out."

  "That's all it takes? A guy asks you out and you say yes? You might want to work on coming up with some better standards."

  "He's nice, okay? And he said I had pretty eyes and a pretty smile, which is more than I get out of most guys."

  "And you're going out with these losers?" Cal scrapes up the last of his ice cream with his spoon.

  Birdie looks at me. "Why are we wasting time talking to him?"

  "I've been ready to go this whole time," I say. "I've just been waiting for you two to finish."

  "We're done," Birdie says. "Let's go."

  As we're leaving I look back and see Cal staring at Birdie's ass. My brother is such a pervert. I guess he's just being a guy, which makes me wonder if Luke looks at my ass when I walk away. I kind of hope he does.

  "Your brother is such an idiot," Birdie says as she pulls out of the driveway. We're taking her car tonight, which is a bright yellow Jeep that used to be her dad's.

  "I don't know why you even talk to him. You guys always end up fighting."

  "I can't just stand there and listen to him say stuff about me that isn't true."

  "Well, to be fair, he was right about the opera. That's totally not your thing. Why didn't you ask that guy to take you somewhere else?"

  "Because I'm trying to broaden my interests. I'm in college now and college is the time to try new things. Be open to new experiences." She slams on the brakes as a guy cuts in front of us on his bike. She rolls down her window and yells at him, "I could've killed you, asshole!"

  He glances back at her, then looks around like he's not sure the comment came from her. Birdie has a sweet innocent face with rose-shaped lips, big blue eyes, and naturally thick eyelashes. If you saw her, you'd think she never swears or raises her voice. But when she gets angry, the swear words fly and she can get pretty loud. Luckily she doesn't get angry very often. Usually the only time she does is when she's around my brother.

  She rolls her window back up. "Are we still going to the sushi place?"

  "Yeah. Cal said they just remodeled it. He and Luke went there last night after golfing."

  "Cal still doesn't suspect anything, right?"

  "About Luke and me? No. But I really haven't seen Luke since that night we were sitting by the pool."

  After I came in the house that night I ran up to my room and called Birdie and told her what happened. She agreed I needed to cool things down between Luke and me, at least when we're at the house.

  My phone dings with a text. It's from Luke. I need to see you.

  I smile and text back, When?

  Could you meet me in a half hour?

  "What does he want?" Birdie asks.

  I look at her. "Who?"

  "Luke."

  "How'd you know it was him?"

  "From that smile on your face. You've really fallen for this guy."

  It's true. I have, and it started that day I saw him at camp. I didn't even know his name and yet I couldn't forget him. When I saw him last year at parents' weekend with my family I was immediately drawn to him. I couldn't stop thinking about him after he left, which was good because it meant I could finally stop thinking about that guy I saw at camp and focus on this new guy. Except they were the same person!

  "I forgot to tell you, I just found out I met Luke years ago when Cal went to that golf camp."

  She huffs. "You mean the one where I met that asshole who gave me a fake name?"

  All these years later Birdie's still angry about Fake Steve, mainly because she doesn't understand why he did it. He could've just told her he wasn't interested but instead he makes up a fake name. When she found that out she immediately blocked his number from her phone so he couldn't call her.

  "I didn't realize it at the time but the other day when Luke was talking about that camp I finally put it together. He was the hot guy I saw driving by when we were talking in the parking lot."

  She glances at me. "Hot Car Guy? Luke is Hot Car Guy?"

  That's what we called him because we didn't know his name.

  "You were obsessed with that guy! For years!" She slows down as we approach a stop sign. "And this whole time it was Luke? Are you sure?"

  "Positive. I just never put it together. But now when I think back I know it was Luke. I didn't get it at first because he looks so much different now. He's a lot more muscular, and he doesn't have that boy face anymore. He has a man's face and a man's body."

  I feel a tingle run down my core just thinking about Luke and how he looks now that's he older. He lifts weights a lot and did physical labor during his teen years which has given him a hard, lean, muscular body.

  "You okay over there?" Birdie teases. "You need me to pull over? Give you some alone time?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "You're all hot and bothered from just thinking about Luke. I can only imagine what it's like when you two are in the same room. I see why it's so hard to live with him."

  "I'm not hot and bothered. I just spaced out for a minute."

  "Because you're thinking about having sex with Luke."

  "I wasn't thinking about that," I insist, although truthfully I was totally thinking about that. I've only had sex with one guy, my high school boyfriend, and it wasn't that great. I have a feeling sex with Luke would be a lot better. If the way he kisses me is any indication, sex with him would be amazing.

  "So what did he want?" she asks, and I realize I never responded to his text.

  "Oh, um, he wants to meet." I unlock my phone screen and read his text again.

  "When? Tonight?"

  "Yeah." I check the time. "Like in twenty minutes."

  "Taylor! You're cancelling on me AGAIN?"

  "No! Our plans haven't changed. We're still going to dinner."

  She sighs. "But you're going to make it quick so you can go
see Luke."

  "Dinner can be as long as you want. But I do have a favor to ask."

  "What?" she snaps, obviously not believing I won't rush us through dinner.

  "After we eat could you drop me off to meet Luke? And then pick me up later so my parents will think I was only with you tonight and not Luke?"

  "That depends. How late am I picking you up and where?"

  "I don't know yet. Still have to figure that out."

  "My shift at the coffee shop starts at six tomorrow. I can't be out too late. Could you be done by ten?"

  "Sure. I'll let Luke know." I text Luke as Birdie pulls into the sushi place.

  I can meet but only until ten. And I can't meet you until I'm done with dinner. I'm out with Birdie. We just got to the restaurant.

  He texts back. Sounds good. I'm going home to change. Text me when you're ready.

  Where are we meeting?

  At a park on the other side of town. I'll text you the address.

  This is kind of exciting. Sneaking around? Secretly meeting Luke? Not sure what's going to happen?

  Okay, I text back. See you soon!

  "There's that smile again," Birdie says as she turns the car off. "You're gonna end up in trouble."

  "My parents will never know. We're meeting on the other side of town."

  "That's not the kind of trouble I meant. I was talking about your heart."

  "What about it?"

  "You're already totally into this guy after being with him for just a week. So what happens later, when you've fallen in love with him and then your dad finds out?"

  "Maybe he never will."

  "He will. You can't hide it. Look at your face right now."

  I glance in the side mirror and see the huge smile on my face. I force my lips down to neutral but then feel that giddiness that happens whenever I think of Luke and my lips pop right back to a smile.

  "So I'm smiling," I say. "Big deal. I smile all the time. My family knows that. They won't think that's strange."

  "But this is a different smile, and when you make it your eyes get that dreamy faraway look people get when they're in love."

  I glance at the mirror again. "My eyes look totally normal. Now can we go in and eat instead of sitting here in the parking lot?"

  "See?" She opens her door. "You're already rushing me so you can go see your boyfriend."