Page 14 of Oops, I Fell For The Town Bad Boy!

The bat clattered to the ground and Taylor stared at him in shock.

CHAPTER 8

TAYLOR

Ishould have known this was coming. I did know this was coming. Why did I let him take me by surprise?

It was galling to be invited into her own house to talk, but then, if anyone had the right to issue that invitation, it was Kane McCormick. Taylor tried to keep that in mind as she put away the groceries on the counter. She’d abandoned them there when she had seen the car parked in her driveway and realized there was an intruder on the premises.

Kind of. He wasn’t exactly an intruder, and she knew that was something she needed to remember. This needed to be handled delicately.

She finished putting the groceries away. “Can I get you something to drink?” she asked. “I’ve got water, soda, tea…”

“Do you have a beer?”

“Right.”

“What?”

“Nothing, I just should have guessed that’s what you would want.”

He stared at her. “Are you serious?”

“Shouldn’t I be?”

“You’re giving me a hard time because I partied in high school?”

She sighed. In a way, she supposed he was right — she shouldn’t have been hard on him now. They didn’t even know each other anymore.

But it wasn’t just about high school, was it?

“Where have you been?” she asked him.

“I’ve been lots of places. Do you mean in the last decade?”

“Why don’t we start with the last six weeks.”

“Detroit, mainly.”

“That’s the best you can do?”

“I don’t know what you’re looking for, Taylor. That’s where I was.”

“And your father was here dying,” she said. “You didn’t even think of coming to see him during that time? Don’t you care at all?”

He stared at her. “Why do you care? He’s not your father.”

“I was his nurse,” she said, folding her arms across her chest and staring right back at him. The stubborn set of his jaw was so familiar that for a moment it felt as if she was right back in high school. “I was his home care nurse. I’ve been with him for the last five years.”

“Oh,” he said. “Well, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know anything about his health, because he never bothered to get in touch with me. He didn’t tell me.”

“He didn’t know how to get in touch with you,” Taylor said. “It’s not like you gave him your contact information when you left. It’s not like you called or kept in touch. What was he supposed to do when he got the news that he didn’t have much time left? How was he supposed to let you know? It was your responsibility to get in touch with him. To give him a way of reaching you.”

“Maybe I didn’t want to be reached.”

“Well then, you can’t exactly blame me for calling you selfish now,” she told him. “You didn’t care. Or if you did, you cared more about yourself. About your own needs. I mean, that’s obvious.”

“I don’t know why you’re sticking your nose in any of this at all,” Kane said. “You made it pretty clear years ago that you didn’t give a damn what happened to me.”

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