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Chapter Fourteen
Silas
Present Day
Wednesday
My shift was ending in a few minutes and James had arrived early to relieve me. “Hey, man,” he said, logging in to the system.
Despite Teagan’s insistence that it was not a big deal, her revelation the day before had stuck with me. “Hey,” I said, finishing what I’d been working on. My tie felt too tight and I wanted to hit the gym when I left, needing to burn off some energy. I briefed him on the few issues he might end up dealing with during his shift and caught his gaze wandering across the hall, where Teagan was getting ready to close the shop. “Uh, hey. So, you asked Teagan out?”
James didn’t look up from the computer. “Yeah. Why?” He froze. “Oh shit. That’s okay, isn’t it? I know you two are...”
“We’re not together or anything. Just didn’t know you’d asked her out.”
James shrugged. “She shot me down, if that makes you feel better.” His gaze still lingered on where she had bent over near the counter, and I clenched my fist to stop from smacking his arm. “What’s up with you two, anyway? I know you’re with Erin. You’ve never...”
“Just friends.” I made sure my phone, wallet, and keys were in my pockets. “She’s leaving the country in a few days.”
James didn’t respond, and when I looked up, his face held a bit of amusement. “You sure you’re just friends?”
“Yes,” I said, wondering what had changed that everyone was doubting this all of a sudden. Well, rightfully doubting it, but still.
Before she had to drop out of school to help her family, Teagan had visited me one weekend during our sophomore year. I was freshly dumped by my first girlfriend, who had been my best friend through high school, and I was basically a storm cloud in a hoodie. In retrospect, that relationship was doomed to fail—we were young and inexperienced—but we weren’t friends after the breakup, which was the hardest thing to deal with. When Teagan arrived, she took one look at me and made me change out of the hoodie, shower, and go to a party. It was my campus and not hers, so I didn’t know how she even found the party, but hours later we were a little drunk on the porch of some random house. “Here’s the thing,” she said, all of a sudden, breaking the combination of the silence of the evening and the party behind us. “You’re going to find someone new because you’re amazing.” She slurred her words a little and I studied her face. I’d always known Teagan was pretty, but I’d never thought about it much since I had a girlfriend. She was actually beautiful.
“I might not find someone new,” I said, my own words slurring as I leaned against the nearby wall. “What if that was my one chance at love and it’s over?”
She leaned against me, so I felt the sharp angle of her elbow until she shifted and fit with me like a puzzle piece. “You’re nineteen. Highly unlikely.” Teagan smelled like oranges and beer and my arm fell around her. “But if it’s true, then sadly you’ll be alone forever,” she said sweetly. It took a second for me to register her playful tone. “Which is a shame because I think you would have liked sex.”
“You’re mean.” Her sarcasm was really the furthest thing from my mind. I was nineteen and her saying the word “sex” coupled with her snuggled against me was all it took to send my mind down a dangerous path. Her hand rested on my stomach and her head was against my shoulder and I couldn’t remember what my ex felt like against me in that moment. It was all Teagan. That random house party, her hair tickling my chin, was when I first knew I wanted Teagan and that I’d never have her. We’d fallen back into drunken silence until she spoke again.
“But now you have me, so you might be a virgin forever, but at least you’ll never lose your best friend again.”
I pushed the memory out of my mind and answered James. “Yeah. Just friends. Since college, so it’s kind of like you asking out my sister.”
James’s smirk fell. “I got it, man. Like I said, she turned me down, so, no harm, no foul.”
“You ready?” Teagan strode toward the counter with a smile as he finished. “Hey, James.”
“Hey,” he said without looking up, and I caught Teagan’s confused expression, shrugging. She’d murder me twice if she knew I was going all alpha male on someone interested in her.
“See ya, James,” I said with a wave, and we headed toward the exit. I was giving her a ride home since she’d lent her mom her car to use while she was in France, and she let me guide her away from the counter without saying anything else to James.
“Is he mad I turned him down?” She sounded concerned, and my guilt returned.
“I don’t think so. Just had an angry customer,” I lied, hoping she hadn’t been watching the counter too closely.
“Oh, because—” She paused and stopped abruptly. Her voice was a hiss and she nudged me against the nearby wall. “Look!”
I followed the direction of her nod and saw Jess from the dog-grooming place glance left and right and then step into the luggage store at the other end of the concourse. “Teag...” When I looked back, I could see on her face that she was already plotting. “No.”
“Yes,” she said. “We’ll just walk by and maybe... pop in. I’m about to be traveling, after all,” she said.
“Yes, every college student is bargain hunting in a high-end airport luggage shop.”
“They don’t know I don’t have any money.” She took my hand; her soft palm fit perfectly against mine, and she linked our fingers. It was so she could drag me toward the shop, but I got lost in the feel of her hand on mine for a moment. “C’mon!”
I eventually slowed my pace and pulled her back. “It will take us a few minutes to even get down there, and she might not even be there anymore.”
