The Best Mistake - Cookie O'Gorman Page 0,68

and Shawn.

“Y’all know how I was seeing that sorority girl, Claudia,” Shawn said.

“Claudia,” T.J. repeated. “She the one with the nice rack?”

Parker shook his head. “No man, that’s Claudette. Claudia is the one with the fine apple booty.”

“Ahh.”

“Yeah, that’s her.” Shawn sighed. “Anyway, seemed like she was into me. We went to dinner. She let me kiss her. I even called her the next day like she asked me to. We went out again a few days after that. Been seeing or talking to her every day since. For weeks, it was all good, and then, radio silence.”

My ears perked up at this.

“You hook up with her?” Baylor asked.

A shrug. “She may have given me a handy.”

“Ewww,” T.J. said, plugging his ears like a little kid. “TMI, my friend.”

“Sorry.”

“S’okay…but seriously, my last girl Vivi wouldn’t do nothing like that. She said she was waiting for marriage.”

The guys all groaned. Gossip wasn’t something I was typically into, but I found myself paying way more attention to their conversation than I usually would.

Shawn still looked confused. “Well, Claudia’s not waiting for marriage. We talked about it. Like I said, we’ve been talking or texting every day for a month.”

“Sounds like maybe you scared her off,” Parker said.

Shawn frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well, girls don’t like it if you’re too attentive.”

“It’s true,” Baylor said, sitting down at the leg press machine. “In my experience, that’s how most girls are. They say call me tomorrow. But what they’re really doing is testing you, seeing if you’re going to be chill or suffocating.”

Chase was shaking his head, obviously listening, too, but Shawn seemed to be thinking hard.

“So, you’re saying I should just ignore her?” he asked.

Baylor shrugged. “Yeah, let her come to you. Give it a couple more days, and if she texts, wait at least five minutes before responding. If not, move on to the next.”

“Damn, Bay, that’s cold,” T.J. mumbled.

As they started their workout, I moved onto my next exercises. I thought about how I’d texted Honor every day since the weekend. On Monday, I’d asked if she wanted to hang out, but she was studying for an accounting test. Tuesday, she’d been writing a paper for another class. I’d definitely been the one to initiate almost all of our interactions so far. Was that the wrong move?

Chase narrowed his eyes. “I can’t believe you’d listen to Baylor when it comes to advice about women.”

I shook my head. “What? I didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah,” he said, “but I can see what you’re thinking.”

Awesome, my brother was a mind reader now.

“If you want to talk to Honor, why don’t you just call her?”

“Maybe, I don’t want to talk to her,” I said, though the words felt all wrong.

Pretending not to see Chase’s look of disapproval, I made up my mind to let Honor take the lead. It was a hard thing to balance. I didn’t want to scare her off. But I also didn’t want to just let her go. That was why she needed to be the one to set this next part of our relationship in motion.

I pounded out my next series of triceps, lats and was just about to start my treadmill run when there was a knock at the door followed by someone clearing their throat.

My skin prickled, knowing it was her even before I turned.

Like something out of a dream, Honor was standing there dressed in jeans and a long-sleeve tee with her hair in a messy bun. There were at least nine guys from the team working out in here. We were all sweating bullets by now. And dang if she didn’t look like a much needed breath of fresh air.

She looked over all of us, and I was sure my eyes were already doing that smiling thing she talked about, when she spoke not to me…but to Baylor.

Baylor of all people.

“Hi guys,” she said, eyes glancing to me before she refocused on him. “Baylor, can I see you outside for a second?”

Rising smoothly from the bench, Baylor shot me a look, too. “Sure,” he said. “It can’t take too much time, though. I’m in the middle of my workout.”

“Oh, it won’t.”

My eyes weren’t smiling anymore. Here I was having decided to let Honor come to me—and instead, she shows up looking for my brother? This had to be a joke.

As Baylor went to join her in the hall, T.J. came up and gave my shoulder a pat.

“That’s messed up,” he said. When my eyes cut to him, he