Page 38 of Taming You

“Yes.”

“Did you enjoy conversation? Laugh?”

I roll my eyes. “A meal and conversation do not make a date, Gi. I’ve done that with Josh and the rest of the guys. Those weren’t dates.”

She nods, taking another bite of her ice cream. “True, but did you ever want anything more from them?”

“No, of course not.”

“Okay, and did you want something more with Zoey?”

I open my mouth to say my usual no, but I close it, because I don’t think I can lie about this anymore. As much as I know I shouldn’t be pining after Zoey Williams and wanting more, I do.

Gi points her spoon at me. “See, date.”

“Not if she doesn’t think it was,” I say, defeat and disappointment filling my voice.

“Do you know what she thought it was? Have you talked to her about it?”

I steal the spoon and take a bite of ice cream. “No, she kind of ran away near the end of the meal and I had to chase her down. I convinced her to let me drive her home, but it wasn’t exactly an ideal end to the night.”

We get into a routine of passing the spoon back and forth.

“Sounds like there was a reason she decided to make a run for it,” Gi says.

“Yeah,” I say, not wanting to go into detail about past trysts with my little sister.

She raises a brow at me, holding the spoon hostage until I give her more.

I sigh. “A girl I know showed up, talked about catching up.”

Gi throws her head back with a laugh, and I shush her.

“Jayden’s asleep in the next room,” I say.

“Sorry.”

We listen for a minute, and when we don’t hear any noises, she continues.

“Men can be so obtuse,” she muses.

“Really?” My tone is both frustrated and annoyed.

“Do you really think if Zoey was just your sister’s best friend, or just your friend, she’d want to bail as soon as a woman, whom you’ve presumably slept with, shows up and starts talking about catching up?” When I say nothing, she shakes her head. “She obviously has some sort of feelings for you. She probably hasn’t figured them all out yet, but she doesn’t see you as just a friend.”

Gianna’s words give me hope. I know I have to approach all of this cautiously, though, because the last thing I want to do is hurt Zoey. She means too much to me for me to be the cause of any hurt she experiences. Zoey is first and foremost Liv’sandmy friend.

I need time to think about all of this, so I ask Gi, “How was Jayden tonight?”

She lights up at the question. “He was an absolute doll. My nephew is the cutest little thing! We played for a bit, and he took his bottle well. He was a little fussy when you first left and when I tried to put him down, but he eventually calmed down.”

I’m not surprised about him being a bit fussy. Mom said the same thing when she had him, and it’s probably because I spend so much time with him and if it’s not me, it’s usually Zo.

“You ate?” I ask.

She nods. “Yeah, I stole some of the KD you had in the cupboard.”

Of course she did. The girls could live off KD mac and cheese if Mom let them when we were kids, and not much has changed as they’ve grown up. “You know KD here is so much better than the stuff in the States. It never hit the same when I made it at school.”

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