Page 53 of Summer Reading

“Nothing a comb and some product won’t fix,” she said.

She was trying to divert us from our fears over her biopsy. I knew it. She knew it. And I knew I would have done the exact same thing.

“So, no single ponytail out of the side of my head then?”

“Ha! Watch yourself or I’ll dig out my mom’s old banana clips.”

“Hello, 1980s,” I said.

“Yeah, no, we’ll let them rest in peace,” she said. She crossed herself and I laughed.

My throat was tight, however, and I was worried. Worried about what she wasn’t telling me and full of regret that I hadn’t been here more for her over the past few years. I was going to fix that. I was. I just didn’t know how yet.

Chapter Thirteen

“Are you sure you’ll be all right by yourself?” I asked Tyler for the fifteenth time. “I could cancel and stay.”

“No!” he shouted. He shot a glance at me from the television screen, where he was playing a video game. “Sorry, that was for the idiot I’m playing with. Stop!”

I frowned but then realized he was again yelling at a person on his headset. Suddenly, being out for the evening seemed like more of an escape plan than a date.

A knock sounded on the door, and I started. I was nervous, actually nervous.

Tyler must have registered this, because he dropped his controller on the coffee table and pulled off his headset. He glanced at me and stood up. Then, with a mischievous grin, he said, “I’ll get it.”

Oh no!

“Tyler, don’t you dare embarrass me,” I hissed as I followed him to the door. “I’m warning y—”

“Ben, come on in,” Tyler said.

Ben’s broad shoulders filled the doorway as he entered. He was wearing a pale gray dress shirt, openat the throat, that molded to his muscular frame, and black pants. He was clean-shaven, making him even more handsome, as if that was possible, and I found myself wondering what it would feel like to kiss him without the scruff of a beard. With his square jaw revealed, the man looked positively edible, and I would have bet my favorite whisk that it hadn’t taken him two hours to get ready.

Ben’s eyes went wide at the sight of me, and his gaze swept over me like a lick of fire. I shivered, in a good way, feeling as exposed as a pedestrian in the middle of the crosswalk when the light changed.

I was wearing spiky black sandals and the red dress, and had let Em tease my hair until it was a Texas-sized mass of curls and was only lacking a beauty queen’s tiara. In other words, I looked nothing like my actual self, which was probably a good thing. Or not?

“Okay, kids, there are a couple of ground rules,” Tyler said. He rubbed his hands together, clearly enjoying himself. “Sam needs to be home by ten, and you are to go nowhere except the restaurant and back. Am I clear?”

“Sure.” Ben’s gaze lingered on my body, appreciating my newly painted toes, my shaved legs, the curves of my hips and breasts, before he met and held my gaze with a look of desire that made my body hum. I felt a thrum, like the vibration of a low note, deep in my belly resonating out to my skin.

“Great, you two have a good time and I’ll see you at ten,” Tyler said. He bounded over to his video game and put his headset back on.

“Sure. Wait. What?” Ben asked. He frowned at Tyler as if he was just registering his words.

I laughed. I walked to the couch and hugged Tyler around the shoulders from behind and whispered in his ear, “Nice try. I’ll be home when I get home but Iwillbe home. No shenanigans, and call me if you need me.”

He hugged my arm to his chest and grinned. Then he whispered, “You look amazing, Sis. Try not to break his heart.”

“Uh... thanks,” I said. I was so startled by his use of the nickname Sis and the compliment that I didn’t know what else to say. “See you later.”

“Later.” He gave us a thumbs-up and went back to his game.

“Curfew at ten, huh?” Ben asked as he held the door open for me.

“Tyler enjoys embarrassing me,” I said.

“As any good little brother should,” he said. He paused on the porch and said, “You are devastatingly beautiful, although those words feel really inadequate right now. Honestly, I think I might have lost consciousness for a second when I saw you.”

---