Page 24 of The Art of Falling in Love with Your Enemy
Honestly, I can only compare the thought of her kiss to a shadow at the end of a summer’s day and how it slips away as darkness falls. I know—a little cheesy, a little over the top, but man. This woman is really doing a number to me.
I want to know if she feels like I do…not that I’m even sure what I’m feeling, but I know it’s close to crazy. Did she tell Riley, or has she kept it to herself? I imagine if she tells Riley, then next time I see her she’ll tease me…or what if she doesn’t?
Shaking my head, I want to grab myself by the shoulders and tell me to get ahold of myself. It’s like I’m in a trance and it’s caused by one woman and her hypnotic lips. For the love of…
I’m still chiding myself when my phone rings. “Hello, Mother, have you had a good weekend?”
“Now that I get to talk to my favorite—”
Another voice pipes in. Seems Mom’s on speakerphone.
“Hey,” Tuck calls out. “I’m right here. Let’s not forget when I showed up at your door with croissants this morning, I was the favorite.”
“Oh, sweetie.” I can see my mother placating him as if they were sitting here right beside me. Tuck will roll his eyes, and Mom will pat his head lovingly and remind him how smart he is. We obviously have issues and need to be told we’re good by our mommy and all the time. “Shut up so I can talk to your brother.”
We all laugh as my dad announces himself, too. “Hey, Zac, your mom wants to know if we can crash at your place when we come up for the fundraiser or do we need to book a hotel room?”
I squint, trying to focus on the calendar hanging on the wall across the room. “No, you don’t have to get a room. Reid won’t be back yet. I’ll give you guys my bed, and I’ll crash in his.”
“What about your brother?” Tuck quizzes me. “I’m wondering where my fiancée and I are going to stay?”
“You can stay—wait.” I stand up, kicking my chair back. “Did you say what I think you said?”
“He did!” Mom squeals at an epic pitch in my ear. I think the front glass window on Mr. Payne’s house across the street just broke. “We’re having a wedding!”
“Tuck, that’s awesome, congrats.”
“You know there’s only one person who can be my best man.”
“Have I met him?”
There’s a clamor and some commotion as Tuck takes me off speakerphone and presses the phone to his ear. “Okay, you’re off speaker. Are you going to do it or what?”
“Be your best man? Of course. It’s an honor.”
“No, I mean…” His tone is hushed. “Are you bringing Etta?”
“What? I don’t know, Tuck.” What I do know is that I almost kissed that feral cat yesterday, and I liked it. I can’t tell him I don’t have a plan. At least not yet. “I plan on asking her out, but you just have to wait and see when it’s going to be.”
“I told them about her.”
“What do you mean, you told ‘them?’” A shock blasts through my system. Mom’s already in mother-hen-marry-her-kids-off mode, and I’m sure that’s heightened now that Tuck’s asked Bethany to marry him. “What did you tell them?”
“That there’s a girl that lives in the ‘crick’ who you really like.”
“Quit calling it the crick.” I sigh. “Someone that lives here, like me, could take offense.”
“Stop changing the subject.” He drops his voice another octave and whispers, “Are you going to ask Etta or not?”
There’s a weird feeling that comes over me when Tuck starts pressuring me like this, and I owe it to that competitive streak we have. I can hear the dare in his voice, taunting me to bring someone, especially now that he’s engaged and has someone as his forever. I’d probably feel different about this if I knew he was rooting for me, but I know he isn’t. He wants me to show up, alone, explaining to my parents why this woman wouldn’t come to the dance with me. It’s starting to feel like high school.
There’s also the perspective where he doesn’t want to part with that baseball card as much as I don’t want to lose it. So. Yeah. There’s that.
Tuck clears his throat. “If you don’t ask, no baseball card.”
I stare at the calendar on the wall. Do I want to ask her to the fundraiser? Yes, but it’s in less than two weeks. I’m questioning my skills to win Etta over. “You realize we sound like little kids, right?”
“Spoiled ones at that,” my mother sings out. Great, I’m back on speakerphone. Would have been nice to have been warned. “Fighting over a baseball card. But, Tuck says this woman you’re bringing is very nice.”
