Page 112 of Flirting Lessons

Taylor opened her mouth to tell Avery everything she’d just overheard, when a few guests walked out of the party toward the parking lot. Shit, she couldn’t do this here, now.

“Oh. Um, I had to run inside to go to the bathroom, sorry.” She grabbed Avery’s hand and walked back into the garden and forced a grin onto her face.

“What did we miss?” she asked. She was pleased to see that Erica didn’t meet her eyes, but that didn’t really make her feel better.

Taylor got through the rest of the shower by mostly keeping herself busy cleaning up and helping Sloane with the presents, but every time she looked at Erica, she got angrier and more hurt. No, betrayed. Erica should be on her side.Shewas always on Erica’s side. And she’d thought Erica had always been on hers—had she been lying to herself about this over the years?

It hurt that Erica thought of Taylor’s dating life as fodder for gossip, as something to bet about with other people, to laugh about with other people. It hurt that Erica thought of Taylor and her lifeas so juvenile that she would make fun of her and her relationship like that. It hurt that Erica had so little respect for her.

She didn’t say anything to anyone about the conversation she’d overheard; this was Erica’s fucking baby shower after all. She didn’t want to make a scene in the middle of it. But once the guests left and it was just her, Sloane, Avery, and Erica, she felt like she was going to snap.

“Sloane, why don’t you take Erica home,” Avery said. “Taylor and I can handle the rest of the cleanup. The guest of honor should probably get some rest.”

Bless Avery. If Taylor had said that herself, she absolutely would not have been able to keep an edge out of her voice.

“Yeah, we can take it from here,” Taylor said, and was relieved that her voice sounded normal. “It’s hot out here, get yourself back inside in some air-conditioning and unpack all of your presents.”

Sloane looked uncertain.

“You’re right, I should get her home, but I don’t want to leave you two to do all the cleanup! I can come back after I’ve dropped her off.”

Taylor draped an arm around Sloane.

“Sloane, you’ve already done so much for this shower. Go home and relax, really. Thank you so much for everything.” She pulled Sloane into a side hug. She meant that far more than Sloane would ever know.

Sloane looked down at her, a hesitant smile on her face.

“It’s been great doing this with you, Taylor. And you, too, Avery. Thanks for being so welcoming.” Oh great, now Taylor felt guilty for how not at all welcoming she’d been to Sloane.

“It’s been great, Sloane,” Avery said. “I’ve had so much fun, and everything went so well.” Taylor took a step back so Avery and Sloane could hug. It would have been natural for her to turn toErica at this point to give her a hug, but she just couldn’t do it. Instead, she grabbed a box from underneath one of the food tables and started stacking dirty dishes in it.

“And don’t worry about the cleanup, Sloane,” Taylor said. “Callie had a hookup with a rental agency for these dishes, so we only have to pack them all up as is and drop them off. And the rest of this stuff, we can clean up easy.”

Please, just let them leave.She wanted to be able to clean up and get out of here before she exploded.

“I’m going to run inside and get another box,” she said. She waved in the general direction of Erica and Sloane. “Bye, guys! Great party, see you both soon!” And then she fled toward the winery building before she’d have to give Erica a hug.

By the time she got back to the garden, Erica and Sloane and all the presents were gone, and Avery was busy stacking chairs together.

“They got everything?” Taylor asked Avery as she filled up another box with dishes and wineglasses.

“I think so,” Avery said, “though I’m sure we’ll find something left behind; it happens at every party.” Avery finished stacking chairs and came over to help her with the dishes. “I hope it’s okay that I sent them home, but you looked like you’d had enough, and even though you seem to have softened toward Sloane, I thought it might be easier if we did this part ourselves.”

Taylor smiled at Avery. She was deeply grateful for her in that moment, which made her rage at Erica even more acute.

“I can’t even tell you how okay it is that you sent them home,” she said. She dropped a quick kiss on her cheek. “Actually, yes, I can and I will, but that’ll wait until after we’ve gotten out of here.”

Avery grinned, with a little raise of her eyebrows. Oh, Avery thought she’d meant something sexual, when she was beingcompletely literal. Did Avery think she only ever thought about sex? Wait. She forced herself to calm down. She was prone to innuendo like that; it wasn’t Avery’s fault for thinking that. And Avery had no idea what had just happened.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s finish cleaning this up so we can get out of here.”

Sloane had done a good job cleaning up the wrapping paper and ribbons and gift bags. For what felt like the thousandth time that day, Taylor mentally blessed Sloane and then laughed at herself. If someone had told her a week ago that she’d send countless blessings to Sloane on the day of the shower, she absolutely wouldn’t have believed them.

“Oh!” Avery picked something up. “Here’s an unopened card for Erica and Sam; it must have fallen behind the table without anyone seeing it.”

“That’s not like Sloane to have missed it,” Taylor said. Avery made a face at her, and Taylor laughed. “No, I wasn’t being sarcastic, I swear!”

Avery slipped the card in Taylor’s back pocket.

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