I Want It That Way, стр. 20

“You’re hired.”

“Glad you like it. If 1B can resist you tonight, then I’m afraid you’re destined for his friend-zone forever.”

When I walked into the living room, Max dropped the remote. “I don’t think I can let you go out looking like that.”

I grinned. “Your compliment is noted.”

“Look at those legs,” Angus said. “If you had more of a boy bum, I could be persuaded to get drunk and do bad things with you.”

Obviously, he was joking, though our freshman year before he came out, Angus had a girlfriend, and nobody knew how far that had gone. It wasn’t the kind of thing you could ask politely. From what I recalled, she had been thin to the point of boyishness. He didn’t talk about Chelsea, and after their breakup, she didn’t stay in our friend circle. The grapevine suggested she was pretty wrecked, though, and she had all kinds of self-doubt, like she should’ve noticed before he surprised her with the confession.

“You can’t make Josh jealous with me,” I pointed out.

He acknowledged that with a sigh. “Turn, show me the rest.”

I pivoted, showing off the arch of my calves. Hmm. How tall is Ty? The sandals put me over six feet, and some guys got testy if you loomed; I’d dated a depressing number of them. In fact, my high school boyfriend’s height had more to do with the duration of our relationship than chemistry or personality. Then I reminded myself that it didn’t matter how tall Ty was.

This isn’t a date.

“Fabulous. Should I be hurt that you two managed without me?”

That was a joke since Angus had never frolicked into our closets to do spontaneous consultations. Sometimes he told me my shoes were terrible, but that was the limit of our personal fashion bonding. Since I loved my Chucks, I didn’t usually care what he thought of them. But it was a good sign that he felt well enough to tease me.

“Definitely not. Lauren would’ve been sad if you had stolen her glory.”

“Maybe I should become a celebrity stylist if I drop PoliSci,” she said, thoughtful.

That started a whole different conversation, one that lasted fifteen minutes. I sat down to watch TV while Max tried to get inside Lauren’s head. Like everyone else, she rebuffed him with witty banter. I’d never seen her connect with a guy, though she used to spy on my brother with hardcore dedication. That was years ago, though. Most of us had an embarrassing crush we’d rather not discuss—for me, it was Matt Pomerico, the dude I stalked through junior high.

“What time is your chariot leaving?” Max glanced over at me, raising a dark brow.

“Seven.”

Angus observed, “You’re half an hour early. That says you’re anxious.”

“Thanks for that,” I mumbled. “What happened to shopping?”

“We’re waiting for you to leave,” Lauren informed me. “How else can I judge his reaction to my kick-ass cosmetology?”

I sighed, tempted to make a break for it, but in these shoes, they’d catch me. There was no help for it but to endure. At ten to seven, I stood up, brushed my teeth and came back to the living room with my purse. All three of them were waiting by the door.

“Please tell me you’re not walking me to his apartment.”

Max laughed. “She’s screwing with you. We’re going to dinner.”

“Thank God.”

Though we all left together, they went straight out the front while I continued to Ty’s apartment. Maybe some of Lauren’s teasing had taken root, though, because I fantasized about him taking one look at me then shoving me against the wall. I needed that kiss, to dig my fingers into his shoulders and wrap my legs around his hips. The reasonable me would never press him, never ask for more than he was willing to give, but I wanted him so bad it hurt. His words. My pulse thundered in my ears.

At my knock, Ty threw the door open and literally froze. His eyes locked on mine, then they swept lower, skimming my breasts, the flare of my hips, and the line of my legs. Usually, I hated when guys did that instead of maintaining eye contact, but with him, I craved it. His gaze lingered on my thighs, and his hands curled into fists at his sides. A shuddering breath escaped him, a more visceral response than I’d dared expect.

“Wow.” He sighed, shaking his head. “From this I can only extrapolate that you hate and want to kill me.”

Not exactly the reaction I was expecting. “Excuse me?”

“I told you how I feel about your legs. Now you’re showing them off, fully aware I’ll be thinking about them all night.”

Put that way, it did sound diabolical. I struggled not to reveal how much he turned me on, just with words. The fact that he was so honest about what he wanted and why he couldn’t have it—Ty was perfect. How good would it be if we ever touched, if he ever lost control? Heat worked through me as I considered it even as I battled my longing, because if we fucked and he regretted it—not worth considering. In that scenario, our friendship went down in flames and didn’t rise from the ashes like a phoenix. Afterward, there would be only awkward silence and endless remorse.

“My outfit was not, in fact, selected from homicidal design. Don’t I look like a flapper?”

“You look like heaven. Let me get my keys.”

CHAPTER TEN

We walked out of the building in silence.

Ty opened the passenger door for me, a gesture that shot holes in my platonic pretense. I slid into the Focus and then looked for the lever to slide the seat back a few inches. He shook his head at me, grinning.

“Must everything you do be orchestrated to remind me?”

I cut him a look, smiling with my eyes. “Is it my fault you only give rides to hobbits?”

“My mother resembles that remark.”

That surprised a laugh out of me. “Don’t you mean resents?”

He winked. “You haven’t seen her feet.”

“If I ever meet her, I’m telling her you said that.”

“She’ll laugh,” he predicted. “Plus, you were the one who mentioned hobbits. You can’t implicate me without revealing your own complicity.”

“Crap. Foiled again by logic.”

“Feel free to mess with the radio or you can connect my iPod, if you want.”

“That could be interesting.” Taking that as an invitation, I opened the storage arm between us and plugged in his music player, then I set it on shuffle. “Let’s see what your musical taste says about you.”

“You already know more than most anyone.”

Not everything. Not about Sam or his mom, why she left or where you work. The National came on first, but he’d already told me he liked them. No secrets there. I set the volume so we could talk.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s never been this easy with anyone else.”

The way my heart crimped, it actually hurt. “I know what you mean.”

Before he could answer, his cell phone rang. Ty glanced at the screen and shook his head. “Nope. This is my only weekend off. Sam is the best kid ever, but he’s not restful.”

“Work?” I guessed.

“Yeah. Whenever a project hits a snag, the foreman calls me to sort it out. I didn’t even know we had any crews working tonight.” He sighed faintly. “I’ll hear about ignoring the call on Monday. ‘I took a chance on you, Tyler, but you have to pull your weight.’”

“Took a chance? Weren’t you qualified?”

“Not really. My dad’s buddy runs a construction company, and he needed an office manager. I didn’t have any experience, and only general studies classes behind me, but my dad convinced him I was smart enough to learn on the job. So Bill hired me on the cheap with the understanding he’d only keep me if I made good on Dad’s claims.”

“How did that go?”

“The first year, I was exhausted and screwed up all the time. I had to learn so much shit, it’s a wonder Bill didn’t fire me. So I took some online management classes while going quietly insane. I’ve got a handle on things now, but...it was a long haul.”