Page 21 of A Date with Fate

“Yes, but you didn’t. It was your first time, I wouldn’t let anything bad happen.”

Taylor’s chest was heaving as she stared at me. “You really believe that.”

“I do.” I puffed out my chest. “Of course I do. Taylor, I wouldn’t lie to you. You are entirely capable.”

There was a long silence between us, only broken by the soft babble of the creek. “I’m sorry, Scott. I just…I thought I screwed it up.”

I stared at her, dressed in my giant hoodie, beautiful face tortured as she stared at me. I reached for her, and the feeling of her easily coming into my hug made my heart throb a little harder. “Taylor, it’s okay. I can take a little verbal volley. And besides, you did great. You just need to believe in yourself.”

Taylor sniffled then pulled back a little to stare at the camper. “I guess I did okay.”

“Do you want to know what happened the first time I pulled the camper to Colorado?”

She sniffed again, tucking into my chest. “What?”

“We drove the whole way with the door open. Mom had packed all our things in there, and basically I scattered our luggage up and down the highway.”

Taylor gasped and then let out a tiny laugh. My heart lightened.

“So we spent the whole first day of our vacation walking up and down the roadway, collecting things. My brothers didn’t let me live it down for years.”

“I’m just impressed they let it go at all.”

I pressed my nose into her hair. “Well, it helped that Jesse got caught streaking two years after that. Way better material for teasing than a simple luggage issue.”

Taylor sighed. “I can’t wait to see your brothers again.”

“Really?”

Taylor wrinkled her nose. “As long as they all play nice.”

“They will,” I said, probably more forcibly than I needed to.

“Good.” She tucked in close. “I think I’d like to try setting up the camper again.”

My brows flew up, and I was glad she couldn't’ see my face. But she must’ve sensed my surprise, because she quickly moved on. “But maybe another time. Okay?”

“You’ve got yourself a deal.” Because regardless of what she thought, she’d just admitted that she was thinking about camping with me another time.

After we constructed our little setup, crashed a cute restaurant in town for dinner, and made our way “home,” I was thoroughly obsessed with how she had just taken it upon herself to hold my hand. Between dinner and bed, there were only a few moments she wasn’t attached to me, and it both cooled and fanned the heat burning in my chest.

When she blinked up at me, her face sleepy and quiet, “Can we please just start in bed this time?”

I eyed her closely. “Both of us?”

Taylor aggressively fluffed a pillow. “Well yeah. If you still hog the blankets, I will absolutely kick you out though.”

“Good to know. If you snore, I will roll you over.”

That got her attention. “I don’t snore!”

I shrugged, smiling a little as I moved across the camper to stand at the other side of the bed. “We’ll see, I guess.”

“Rude,” Taylor said under her breath.

“Woman, you stole half my burger and ate the last of the guacamole. And you call me rude?” I teased, dragging my T-shirt over my head.

Taylor huffed a laugh and then gestured at my bare chest. “Are you sleeping like that?”

---