Page 12 of Smitten With My Brother's Best Friend
“Can you cook?” I ask.
“What?” she says, confused.
“I’m hungry, and my mom has been gone all morning.”
Taylor smiles. “How old are you?”
“What has that got to do with anything?” I grumble.
“You’re a full-grown man that still needs his mom to cook breakfast for him. It’s kind of cute.”
“Can you cook or not?” I ask.
“I can try,” she says with a shrug.
“Try? How do you survive in New York?”
“Terry’s a great cook, and he prepared most all our meals,” she states sadly.
Great. I would prefer not to hear that bastard’s name for the rest of my life. Much less see him.
“Come on, between the both of us, I’m sure we can whip up something edible,” I say, taking a hold of her wrist and leading her to the kitchen.
It turns out I’m wrong, and edible is a wildly inaccurate description for what we end up cooking. We both stare at what should have been mac and cheese then we start laughing at how terrible it turned out.
“I need to take some cooking classes,” Taylor says, groaning.
“I’ll join you,” I tell her with a laugh.
There’s a mark on her cheek, so I step forward to help her clean it off. I really should have minded my business because the simple touch makes me feel things that are definitely notnormal. Taylor shivers, and her breath hitches. Our eyes meet, and I can’t look away. We’re standing so close, and my hand is still on her face. I imagine what it would feel like if I leaned forward and kissed her. I see the look on her face, and I know that she’s feeling it too. This insane attraction can’t be explained. She pushes up on her toes and wraps an arm around my neck, bringing us impossibly closer.
I’m not sure when my head begins lowering. Until our lips are inches apart, she’s standing frozen, waiting for me to make the first move, and I’m about to. Just before our lips meet, we hear footsteps and immediately jump apart.
I turn to the doorway of the kitchen just as my mom appears.
“Maverick! You’ll never guess what I found at the back of the house!” my mom says excitedly. She pauses when she takes in the scene in front of her.
“What’s wrong? You both look like I caught you while you were doing something bad,” she says, her eyes roaming the kitchen.
She just stopped Taylor and me from making a mistake we would have regretted.
“Taylor, what’s going on?” My mom asks.
Taylor looks like she’s incapable of forming a coherent sentence.
“Nothing mom. We were trying to cook, but we ended up making a mess,” I explain.
My heart is beating extremely fast, and it’s a little disconcerting.
Mom chuckles. “The both of you couldn’t handle making mac and cheese?”
I nod while Taylor continues to stare at a spot on the wall.
“Donna, I have to go. I think my mom needs me back home,” she says before rushing out like someone is hot on her heels.
I inwardly sigh. Her actions just made my mom even more suspicious, and she’s going to be questioning me about what happened.
“What did you find?” I ask, hoping to distract her.
