Page 57 of The Mistakes I've Made
I’m a distraction?
Fuck that.
If anything, she was a distraction to me.
No, not a distraction. A damn nuclear bomb that had just detonated right in the center of my perfectly okay little world.
I didn’t need this. I didn’t need her.
But here she was all the same, all the time.
Right next door.
“Taylor?” Dean’s voice slipped through my internal dialogue.
“What?”
There was that sly grin again, like he knew a secret I wasn’t privy to.
“You were telling me about your progress.”
“Oh, right,” I answered. “She’s hired an architect.”
His brow lifted. “That doesn’t sound like compromise at all.”
My hands rose in an attempt to calm his nerves. “I know,” I said. “But I think I’ve possibly chipped away at that rock-hard armor of hers.”
His brow lifted further. “How so?”
“I’m trying to get her interested in the island,” I explained, finishing off my cup of coffee and going for more. “She seems impressed with my historical trivia.”
“Oh God, not that scheme again! How many poor tourists fell for that back in the day?”
“Hey!” I grinned. “This time, it’s genuine. And for a good cause.”
He chuckled. “You mean, other than chasing tail.”
“Right,” I halfheartedly agreed, hoping my brother wouldn’t notice my hesitancy.
Because if there was one thing I wasn’t sure about, it was my motives regarding Leilani Hart, and that kiss had made my indecisiveness even murkier.
Did I want her to destroy our town with her overly indulgent hotel? No.
But did I still want to run her out of town the first chance I got?
I wasn’t so sure.
The thought of watching her walking away and never returning?
It made my chest tighten in a way I’d never thought I’d feel.
“Man, you’ve got it bad.” Dean chuckled.
“What? Why do you say that?” I wrenched my head around to face him.
“Well, you can’t keep a conversation going,” he began. “And your eyes glaze over every time she’s mentioned. And then there’s the daydreaming.”
“What the fuck?! I don’t daydream!”
