“Maybe you ought to figure that out before you go getting her hopes up about what you want.” He sent me a steely glare that told me to tread lightly. “She’s still my sister, Cal.”
“Like I could forget that.”
“Good, because even though I would feel bad for kicking your ass, I would make you food afterwards.” He flashed a bright, white smile and slid a plate of magic beef topped with capers and lemon juice and peppers towards me. “Figure out why Teddy. Why you’re so focused on her. Start there, and you should be good.”
“Thanks, Antonio.” Now it was time for a guy like me, who had committed his life to a permanent state of bachelorhood, to figure out why I was willing to change that state for a particular woman. “I have a lot of thinking to do.”
“Good. Think. And eat.”
Teddy
“You can’t avoid Cal forever, you know that right?”
Hannah’s eyes met mine through one of the three sided mirrors inside the third dress shop of the day. Her gaze sharpened as if she could see my innermost thoughts, trying to get me to see things her way.
I merely shrugged and checked my reflection in each of the mirrors, wondering why in the hell I had to go to a fundraiser when my company had bought a table and I’d donated a stage and silent auction booths.
“Maybe not, but I can try.” And I fully intended to avoid Cal as much as possible. We had a proven track record of fighting or fucking with no middle ground. That wasn’t healthy for either of us. “We have no reason to talk anymore, Hannah. His home renovations are complete and whatever friendship we were trying to forge, is over.”
Hannah let out a long suffering sigh that left no confusion about where she fell on this subject and disappeared into her fitting room. “Can’t you just forgive him?”
“For standing me up sophomore year? Yeah, and I have.” It was ancient history, and I could concede that Cal wasn’t that same selfish teenage kid anymore, but that didn’t change the present.
“Teddy,” she whined and her neutral expression turned to a frown.
“Seriously, Hannah, it’s nothing that requires forgiveness. There is nothing to forgive. We had a little bit of a fling and now it’s over and we return to our lives as usual.” If I could get used to it, so could Hannah. And Antonio.
Hannah let out a low, frustrated growl and yanked the curtain open, shooting an angry glare at me. “I don’t know why I let you convince me that last minute shopping for the fundraiser ball was a good idea. We’ve looked through half the inventory already.”
“Because it got us out of town for a few hours,” I held up one finger with a smile. “Because you get to buy a buttload of those donuts you love before we head home,” I laughed and held up another finger when she rolled her eyes. “Oh, and you were hoping to convince me to forgive or talk to your brother.”
Hannah perked up and nodded. “Oh yeah, that’s right. Well, I guess I these dresses aren’t gonna try themselves on, are they?”
“Nope.” I took my time with the next dress, it was royal blue with spaghetti straps and a low neckline that showed off my cleavage. The dress was gorgeous on the rack, but aside from my chest, I didn’t have the same curves as the mannequin, but surprisingly it fit. Nicely. I turned to examine myself in the mirror and sighed. “What do you think of this one?”
It took her a minute, but eventually she took her time sliding the curtain back to give me a long, slow—incredibly slow—onceover. Her smile came much quicker though, but it didn’t stop me from squirming as her gaze traveled from head to toe, back up and back down again before she spoke. “Damn girl, you are stunning!” She laughed. “No wonder you’ve got my brother behaving like a crazy person. He’s going to swallow his tongue when he gets a look at you in that thing.” Hannah smiled and shook her head, looking far too amused for my own comfort.
I’d like to say that her words didn’t factor into my decision to buy the dress, but it did. It totally did. “I’m not buying this dress to get a reaction from your brother. It’s pretty and it fits, and I’m tired of looking at dresses. I want some chowmein, and I want it now.”
I didn’t mind a few hours of looking at pretty clothes or even retail therapy, but three hours in and I was ready to kick my own ass for suggesting a trip to the mall.
“You can’t run from this, Teddy. No more than you can run from Cal in a town the size of Jackson’s Ridge. But I applaud your efforts.” She rolled her eyes and gave me a hip bump. “Scooch. If you want Chinese food, I have to find a dress too, so step aside sister.”