“I guess so.”
I rested my head on his shoulder as I thought back to how it all began. The moment I knew I would never love another man the way I loved the boy who was supposed to be my brother.
Chapter Two
Past- 6 Years ago
“So, who’s this Hunter guy?” Blake grumbled while I continued to twirl the curling iron through my hair, making sure every dark strand was properly styled. Through the mirror, I could see him behind me, resting across my bed, his head propped against his hand while he picked at the ruffle trim of one of my pillows. He was home from the automotive technology school he’d been attending in Charleston, and it was his first visit since school began earlier that fall. The first thing he did as soon as he walked in the door the night before was find me and give me a great big hug. I must have smiled for an hour straight.
“Hunter is just a guy in my pre-calculus class. I’m sure you would recognize him if you saw him,” I responded nonc
halantly, but inside I was freaking out because I had never been on a date. I may have hung out with boys during group outings to the movies or trips to the beach, but none that I could call my boyfriend.
When I was fourteen, Marco Ellis kissed me once behind a bookshelf in the library, but we were caught by a group of his friends. The jerks teased us relentlessly for the rest of the day, and after that, Marco pretty much ignored me—the very reason I decided to stay away from boys. They had all proven to be rude and immature. I was shy and some people perceived it as me being distant and cold. Besides, I preferred spending time with the characters in my books than real people, anyway.
Hunter Knight seemed different. He was a year older than me and we shared the same advanced math class. I thought he was charming and funny. Every day he would pass notes to me that always made me laugh. One day, I’d caught him with his arms folded on my desktop, chin resting on his hands as he stared at me in admiration. Feeling uncomfortable, I tucked a loose lock of hair behind my ear and gave him an awkward smile.
“What are you doing Friday night, Tayia?” he asked. My gaze immediately went to the tiny mole above his eyebrow. It was the first thing on his face that always grabbed my attention, and I had to constantly resist the urge to wipe it away.
“Nothing.” I feigned a yawn then started flipping through my binder for yesterday’s notes.
“You know, there’s a football game on Friday if you want to go.”
“No way,” I scoffed. “I hate football.” Hunter’s face fell with disappointment, and suddenly, I was confused. Without saying anything more, he sat up and turned in his seat as the teacher started the lesson.
Later at lunch, I told Jonna about my conversation with Hunter, and she nearly strangled me.
“You idiot! He was asking you out and you totally blew it!”
“What? No way. He was just telling me there was a football game.”
“No, he was asking you to go to the game with him. God, how are you that clueless?”
“He wasn’t asking me out!” I persisted.
“Sure, whatever you say.” Jonna shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Oh, there’s Dylan. I think we’re going to skip classes this afternoon. Shh.” She put a finger to her lips and winked at me before adding, “I’ll call you later.”
I stared after her for a while, contemplating what she’d said. Had Hunter asked me out? I guess I was so used to being ignored by guys that I’d completely missed it, and I felt like a jerk.
I didn’t have any other classes with Hunter, so I didn’t see him again until the next day. When he greeted me with his usual smile and random joke, I was relieved. I told him I’d changed my mind about the football game and was wondering if he was still planning to go. His face lit up, and I knew then that Jonna had been right. He had asked me out.
“Actually, I was thinking since you don’t like football maybe you would rather go to the homecoming dance together instead.” His grin was so infectious that I found myself nodding my head and smiling.
And that was the reason I was standing in front of the mirror wearing my stepmother Maggie’s green satin, tea-length dress, and curling my hair for my first official date while Blake played twenty questions.
“So, what do you know about him?” Blake pushed up into a sitting position.
“Um, well, he’s nice to me.” I ticked off each attribute with my finger. “He’s a senior. He’s good at math. He’s funny. He—”
“Okay, fine. I get it. If he’s who I think he is, just don’t go anywhere with him afterward, okay?”
“What do you mean? Like an after party?”
“Yeah, especially if there’s going to be drinking. Also, don’t go anywhere alone with him like a hotel room or someplace like that.” I giggled a little at the nonsense he was suggesting. I would never go to a hotel room with Hunter Knight, but I wanted to give Blake a hard time.
“I don’t know, what if I’m really impressed with his dance moves and he—”
“Promise me, Tay,” Blake cut me off, his expression so intensely serious it scared me a little.