Page 122 of Anyone But Her

"Are you okay?" she asks.

"I am now that you're here."

"I wanted to call you but I wasn't sure if you were spending the morning with Cal."

"He had to do stuff with Alecia."

"I thought they broke up."

"He hasn't been able to do it so as of now, they're still dating." I pull back to see her face. "I love you."

She smiles. "I love you too."

I lean down and kiss her.

"Hey Luke, any news about—"

It's Cal. He's standing at the door. I could've swore we closed it but I guess not.

I quickly let Taylor go. "Cal, it's not what you think."

"Really?" I hear the anger in his voice. "And what exactly should I think when I see you kissing my sister? Because to me, it seems pretty damn obvious."

"Cal." Taylor runs up to him and grabs his arm. "Please don't tell Mom and Dad, especially Dad."

Cal crosses his arms over his chest. "How long has this been going on?"

Taylor answers. "I'll tell you if you promise to keep quiet."

"I'm not making any promises. In fact I'm about ready to punch Luke in the face if you don't start explaining what the hell's going on here." He looks at me. "I fucking told you she's off limits!"

"I know. And I totally understand if you want to hit me. In fact, go ahead." I motion to my face.

"No, don't!" Taylor says, looking between Cal and me. "This isn't Luke's fault. It isn't anyone's fault. Neither one of us thought this would happen. But it did and now we're in love and—"

"You're in love?" Cal throws his hands up. "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me." He glares at me, his face getting red.

"Cal, I'm sorry, okay? I wanted to tell you but I couldn't because I knew you'd react this way."

He storms up to me, stopping just inches from my face. "One rule. One fuckin' rule for you living here and you couldn't follow it."

"It was before that," Taylor says, coming up beside me. "This happened before he moved in."

Cal steps back, his eyes moving between Taylor and me. "What are you talking about? How could it start before he moved in? You guys didn't even know each other."

"Something happened." Taylor glances at me. "On spring break."

Cal narrows his eyes at me. "What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything," Taylor says, even though I actually am the one who made the first move. But I couldn't help myself. She was right there, looking so damn beautiful, that I couldn't help but kiss her.

"You're saying YOU did?" Cal asks Taylor.

"We both did. It happened when we were golfing. Luke and I went to find our balls in the trees and...it just happened. We kissed."

Cal shakes his head. "I had a feeling something was going on over there. You guys were taking way too long. I just didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to believe Luke would betray my trust that way."

"I didn't," I say. "Or I didn't mean to. I didn't plan for it to happen that day. It just did."

---