I felt a smile curl at the ends of my lips.
“But I’m not going to talk about my brother like that without his permission. Just, safe to say, the man isn’t hung up on that girl anymore. But when I mentioned the date? He got pissed,” he said.
When I mentioned the date, he got pissed.
• • •
It was now Wednesday. I was back from my semi-date with Laric, who ended up being kind of a great guy, and I was starving.
Not because Laric didn’t feed me, mind you—he did—but because my training was ramping up this week and my calorie intake had fallen to the wayside thanks to my nervousness.
I shouldn’t have been nervous. Laric was a great guy.
He was funny, attentive, and sweet.
Oh, and he was hot as hell.
But what he wasn’t was who I truly wanted.
And that was the surly, pissed off doctor that’d given me my stitches that wouldn’t give me the time of day anymore.
I wasn’t sure if it was because of what had happened on the day of the impromptu party with his ex-girlfriend, or because he was mad about something else. But I’d seriously missed seeing him this week.
After texting my sister and brother that I was home, and that if they needed me, they could call, I went to my office and started sorting through bills.
Once I paid a few, there was a knock on the door that had me frowning.
When I opened the door, it was to find a bag of takeout on my porch and nothing else.
I looked at the car that was now driving away, then at the bag, and then bent down to peer inside.
That’s when excitement hit me hard.
Tacos!
Oh, my sister was seriously the best.
I’d texted her on the way home and told her how hungry I was, and she’d laughed.
But obviously she’d realized that my bad day needed a pick-me-up and had sent me a surprise.
Grinning like the fool that I was, I picked up the bag and headed for my steps. After depositing my ass onto the top step, I watched as Zach’s front door opened, and then he came outside, looking pissed.
I took my first bite of the taco in front of me and moaned.
His eyes lifted from the porch step where he was looking around it for something, then moved up to meet mine.
Then they narrowed even more when he saw what I was doing.
Which was taking another bite of taco.
Tacos that were a little on the bland side, but still pretty good.
He put his hands on his hips and stared at me, his eyes going from the taco in my hand, to the bag resting beside my hip.
I dropped my hand and stared at him.
“What?”
That’s when he exploded. “You stole my order!”
Anger surged through me. After the day I had…
My eyes lifted to the sky, and I studied all the stars before answering.
“I didn’t steal shit,” I declared before taking another vicious bite of taco.
He started marching across the road. “Those are my tacos. I just ordered them twenty minutes ago from a place in town.”
I shook my head. “No, they’re not. They’re mine.”
He studied the taco that I was almost finished consuming.
“Yes, they are,” he declared. “They’re barbocoa and salsa. No cheese. Right?”
I finished chewing, tasting the meat that he spoke about—something that I usually didn’t order because I preferred taco meat, as did my sister.
I then pulled back and stared at the last bite and a half of taco that didn’t have cheese on it.
Guilt and doubt started to creep in.
“My sister delivered them,” I tried.
I couldn’t finish the last bite.
Not when I knew that they were his.
“Why would she deliver that specifically?” he asked.
I licked the taco juice off my lips and said, “Because I had a really bad day, and she was trying to make it better with tacos.”
Except, then my sister’s ‘question mark’ Bitmoji started to make more sense.
I’d thanked her for the food before sitting down, and I’d received her reply on my watch just as Zach had been walking toward me with purpose in his steps.
“I…” I started, but then my shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry, Zach. They were delivered to my front door and I just assumed.”
He held out his hand for the bag, and I gave it to him, along with offering him the last bite of taco.
He shook his head.
“Keep it,” he grumbled, then paused just as he was half-turned away. “Why did you have a bad day now?”
I was tired of telling him my life story.
Honestly, I just wanted to pretend that my parents and family weren’t as bad as they actually were.
So instead of answering honestly, I shrugged and said, “Just was.”
He studied me, then looked at the taco still in his hand, and then the way I was dressed for my not-so-date tonight, and his eyes narrowed.