Page 15 of Faking it With the Player Next Door

I smiled when I saw she was wearing a Los Angeles Stars hat.

“What?” She grinned. “Hunter gave it to me.” She replied when she saw me smirking.

“Hmm,” I continued smiling.

“Let’s go,” she practically skipped the steps, and I followed.

We strode behind my house, where the trail passed by to the north, and walked in silence for about thirty yards. Walking this close to Taylor and being unable to touch her was at the forefront of my mind.

She was all I could think about for the last day and a half. When she landed on my lap, I was in heaven for that briefmoment when we kissed. I’ve had such a crush on her for as long as I can remember, and sharing the kiss the other day was perfect.

That is until Hunter arrived. Not that he ruined anything, but I would have liked to have finished the kiss on my terms.

“So…” Taylor began. “Talk.”

She swung her hands as we strolled down the path, and I snuck a peek at her. She hadn’t changed her clothes, or anything from when I arrived, and I appreciated her natural beauty and casual appearance. Taylor had a way about her, whether it was her minimal makeup, and hairstyles, or her casual attire always ceased to amaze me at how attractive she was with so little effort.

I’ve dated many women over the years who were what people called high maintenance, glamorous, and not a hair out of place when we were in public. Their makeup is professionally applied, always with sultry eyes.

Glancing at Taylor, you’d be blind to not see she didn’t have an ounce of makeup on her face. No shimmering eyeshadow. No dangling earrings hanging down to her shoulders. No essence of an over-perfumed body.

Taylor was just Taylor.

“Van?” She raised her eyebrows, and I realized I’d been staring at her.

“Sorry,” I cleared my throat. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you the other day…”

“I know,” she nodded. “You were only trying to help.”

“I was,” I smiled. “I didn’t want Hunter to get all up in your face about what he and Pastor Pierce witnessed.”

“While I appreciate that, Van,” she sighed and stopped walking. She was fingering the tall, soft leaves of a mullein plant. “I think you may have made things worse.”

“How so?” I frowned and stopped a few feet from her.

“Well, take last night for instance,” she sighed. “Hunter kept texting me…non-stop.”

“Same here,” I grimaced, recalling Hunter texting all day long yesterday. He had questions that I really couldn’t answer, hence why I needed to speak with Taylor today. We needed to be on the same page with our answers.

“Half the things he was asking about, I had no idea how to respond,” she mumbled.

“Yeah, same for me,” I nodded. “Which is why we need this conversation.”

“Agreed,” she picked a few leaves off the plant, rubbing the soft leaves in her hands.

“So, what was he asking you?”

“He asked….” She paused, and while facing me, I couldn’t tell if she was watching me “He wanted to know how it all started…”

“And?” I shifted on my feet, waiting to hear what she had told her brother.

“I had no idea what to say,” she exclaimed. “I told him I had a crush on you forever, and that we were finally old enough to act on the feelings.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I just kind of went with what I had said the other day,” she shrugged. “I had no idea what else to say.”

“Makes sense,” I cocked my head.

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