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She waved a hand, a sneer of displeasure on her face. “I’m out.”
Georgia moved first. She zipped behind Taylor and stood in the kitchen doorway. She half expected to cop a punch. She got, “What’re you doing?”
“Neither of you leave here till you’ve had this out.” She looked over Taylor’s head to Jamie. He wore the same expression Taylor did, anger, but under it fear held together by destitute hope. She focused on Taylor.
“I’ve got nothing to say.”
“Jamie?”
“This is Taylor’s issue.”
Georgia sighed. Neither of them was Jeffrey and there’d already been punching and now that Damon was home, no one was physically in danger. “It’s time to fix this. It’s enough that Damon is in trouble and we don’t know how to help him. Start talking.”
The only sound was the fridge motor. No one moved. “It can’t be that bad,” she said.
Taylor folded her arms, she tapped a foot. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“You’re right. I don’t. And you know the last time I tried this you told me I made things worse. I sure didn’t make them any better. I have a history of making things worse, but I can’t stand here and do nothing. Whatever this is, it’s hurting you both.”
Taylor shook her head and stepped forward. Georgia braced.
Jamie gave. “We were both drunk. You left my bed so fast I figured you were sorry it’d happened, that you had a terminal case of regret.”
Back still to Jamie but surprised eyes on Georgia, Taylor said, “I wasn’t drunk. I’d had one vodka. I left your bed because it shouldn’t have happened and it meant nothing.”
“I wasn’t drunk either, two beers. You know how I remember that, because it was the best night of my life.”
Taylor’s eyes were saucers of shock. She stopped breathing. All of Jamie’s hurt was in the softening of his expression and the fall of his shoulders.
“But you took off, Taylor, you ran so fast, left me nothing to hold on to, and when I got home you didn’t want to know me.”
Taylor turned her head but she wouldn’t face around to Jamie. Georgia didn’t trust her enough to leave her post by the door.
“You were drunk. You were, you had to be, and you were leaving the next day so what did it matter.”
“It mattered to me. It’s about time you tell me why it still matters to you.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Then why do you punish me? You can’t even look at me. Angus knows and he won’t tell me. I gave up trying to get it out of him, but I’m not giving up now.”
Taylor turned. Georgia could see the tension in her from the way her elbows bunched in close to her ribs and her collar blades lifted.
“You
’re wasting your time. I’m out.”
Taylor wasn’t getting past her without a fight. She was ready, both arms out to form a barrier in the doorway. “No, you’re not.”
Taylor fumed. “What do you want from me?”
Jamie answered. “The truth.” He was watching out the kitchen window to the darkening yard beyond. He looked beaten.
Taylor turned again. She was anything but beaten, she was on the attack.
“What version of the truth do you want? How about the one where we’re best friends forever, why don’t we go with that one? The one where I grow up worshipping you, and you barely know I exist unless I have a mic and you have a guitar. The one where you sleep with any woman who has a mouth.” Jamie closed his eyes but otherwise stood immaculately still under the onslaught. “You want that truth. How sad. Poor little Taylor thinks she’s in love with her best friend, but happily she grows up and gets over him. There’s the truth for you.” She’d fair hurled it at Jamie. “Happy?”
“You kill me. If you’d have stayed in my bed, I’d have stayed in the country. I’d never have gotten on that plane.”
