Forbidden Kiss (Carson Cove Scandals 1)

“Uh…” She looked down. “I have plans.”

“Is that so?” I couldn’t help but smile. “Do you want to talk about those plans?”

“No.” She shook her head back and forth.

“Just be careful, Anna—please.” I wanted to say more, but I didn’t want her to know that I saw her with Bolt—especially if she wasn’t ready to talk about it.

“I’m always careful.” She rolled her eyes. “Mom won’t be home either—she got called into work, and she’s going out with some of the girls from the office tonight.”

“Great…” I sighed. “I guess it’s Netflix for me.”

“You could always paint me something…” She raised an eyebrow.

“So you can tell me that you hate it?” I looked down and laughed. “Nah, I don?

??t think I’m in the mood.”

I walked into my room and changed into my pajamas. If I was spending Saturday night at home, I preferred to be comfortable. There was also no reason for me to watch a movie in my room if nobody was home—the television downstairs was much bigger and had surround sound. I found a movie that sounded interesting but decided to play on my phone for a little while before I started it. I couldn’t help but notice that Anna was actually wearing makeup and some jeans that were rather tight when she finally did come downstairs. I pretended not to notice. I still hadn’t gotten used to the idea of my little sister hanging out with the privileged, and if Bolt was a star football player at Carson Cove High, he was an honorary one, even if he didn’t have the bank account to back it up.

Maybe she’ll have more fun in high school than I did—not that I had any interest in mingling with the privileged back then.

After Anna left, I made a frozen pizza and fixed a glass of wine—it wasn’t the best combination in the world, but it was what we had in the house. My mother usually bought groceries on Sunday, so it was pretty barren by the weekend. I carried my dinner into the living room and started my movie. It was slow in the beginning, and the wine put me in a different mood, so I didn’t make it very far—I decided to find something with more humor than drama. My second movie was kind of raunchy, but rather funny, and I found myself laughing at jokes that would have normally gotten little more than a roll of my eyes. I was about midway through the movie and considering a third glass of wine when my phone lit up—I had a message from Bryant.

Bryant: Have you forgiven me yet?

Taylor: I told you I wasn’t mad…

Bryant: I know but I still feel bad about it.

Taylor: Is Dylan still there?

Bryant: No, he went out with friends. I don’t know when he’ll be back. I wish you were here…

Taylor: Maybe next weekend.

Bryant: You’re really going to make me wait an entire week?

Taylor: When does Dylan leave?

Bryant: If it’s like most of his visits, he’ll stay until Monday, and get up early so he can drive back to school before his first class.

Taylor: Then I guess you have to wait. :(

Bryant: You can’t sneak in a visit during the week?

Taylor: I’ll have to see how things go with school.

Bryant: Okay.

I might have been convinced to squeeze in a visit to Bryant on Sunday night if Dylan was leaving—even though I was still wracked with a fair amount of guilt over almost being caught. I was dancing on a razor blade, and one false step would cut me in two but didn’t know how to shut off the part of me that was falling for him. We kept texting back and forth—I had another glass of wine, but left my movie paused because talking to him was a lot more interesting than the comedy on the screen in front of me.

Bryant: Send me a picture…

Taylor: No way, I’m already in my pajamas and my hair is a mess.

Bryant: So? You can take your pajamas off it makes you feel better…

Taylor: You’d like that, wouldn’t you?