Page 16 of Whirlwind
“Touché.” Tyson shrugs.
“I can’t help it; you have better form than I do. It’s like a free lesson every morning.”
“Well, you’ll have to find a different teacher for the week. We leave early tomorrow for a six-day road trip.”
“You’ll come back to find me so stiff I won’t be able to bend over to scoop up Nightmare’s poop, I guess,” I say with a shrug.
Tyson laughs. Willa looks at me as curiously as I feel.
“I’ll help clean up when I get back,” he says, as he turns toward his house. “It’s the least I can do.”
“Assuming you have time between visitors,” I blurt before I can stop myself.
“What was that?” he asks, turning around, brow raised but smiling.
“Men between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine are at the highest risk of gonorrhea,” I say, to which Willa cracks up laughing.
“I have never had a sexually transmitted anything,” he says, grinning wider. “And thank fuck I’m getting close to aging out of that demographic.”
“Stay safe,” I say, shrugging.
“I will, thank you for your concern,” he says, bowing formally before walking across the street.
“Have a good trip,” Willa calls after him. She waits until we’re in her car before she addresses me. “You were flirting. With Tyson Murphy, no less.”
“I was not,” I protest.
“You were too!”
“That wasn’t flirting.”
“For you…that was absolutely flirting. Which you don’t do often.”
“It’s nothing,” I dismiss. “Neighborly banter, is all.”
“With some voyeurism sprinkled on top?”
“You have eyes, you’d watch, too.”
“Truth,” she says with a grin. “It’s okay if you’re interested in him. You know that, right?”
“It’s not, and I’m not.”
“Why isn’t it okay to be interested?”
“He’s your sister’s ex-whatever they were.”
“Isla wouldn’t care.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s over her. Besides, you know me well enough to know this too shall pass.”
“I also know you well enough to know this isn’t a normal reaction.”
“If it stays abnormal, we’ll discuss it. For now, it’s not worth conversation.”
“Okay,” she says, accepting my lack of interest. “Let’s go shopping, then.”
“Can we get food, first? I’m starving.”
