her. “But it’s November. Figured it would be more cozy in here.”
Taylor turned her awed gaze on me. “It’s amazing.”
“Happy birthday,” I said, but my eyes darted away when her eyes seemed to melt.
“Thank you, Cary.”
“It’s just a quick surprise brunch I whipped up. I didn’t exactly know I’d be waking up in bed next to you again this morning.” I pulled out her chair and she sat down.
I sat down across the corner of the table from her. Close enough to touch her. I also didn’t know she’d be spending most of yesterday, other than the interview at my sister’s place, in my bed. But I wasn’t complaining. Figured I could at least feed her before we ended up back there again.
I watched her fawn over the food. “Almond stuffed olives! My favorite.”
“I know. You left them behind when you moved out.”
She looked at me. Her eyes softened again.
I started filling my plate and she did the same.
“Your hair looks nice.” I wasn’t sure if I’d actually mentioned that yet, during the many hours of telling her how beautiful she was and how much I’d missed her and what an asshole I’d been while we made out.
“Thank you. I got tired of upkeeping the pink.” She ran her fingers through the blonde strands.
“This is your natural color?”
“Not exactly. This is lighter than my natural. I’ll let it grow out now, maybe, let the natural take over. I don’t know. I figure at some point I’ll start going gray anyway, so I should get used to going lighter. I want to make sure I can pull off silver fox.” She waggled her eyebrows at me and popped an olive in her mouth.
“I think you’ve got a long time to go before the silver fox years kick in.”
“Not that long. I found a gray hair just the other day. I named it Cary.” She took a sip of her wine and smiled at me. “Then I plucked it out.”
“Funny.”
“The flowers are gorgeous,” she said, sounding suspicious. “Since when do you have flowers in your house?”
“They’re for you.”
“You picked them from the neighbor’s garden this morning?” she teased.
“I bought them at a florist. Yesterday.” I darted a glance at her. “Well, Liam did. I wasn’t sure what to get you. I wasn’t really sure if I should get you anything. So I went with flowers. The black lilies are kinda rare, I guess. I thought you might like them.”
“I love them.”
“And I wanted to thank you again for coming with me to the interview.”
“Of course,” she said gently. “Anytime.”
“I guess that was pretty fucking self-centered of me. Some birthday present, huh?”
She smiled a little. “It was a good present.”
“I guess it was my way of trying to let you in on some of the stuff that’s hard for me to tell you directly.”
“I get that.”
“And I know the flowers and meal aren’t much. I just didn’t want to do anything over the top. I didn’t want you to think I was trying to buy you back or something.”
“Cary… There’s something you need to understand,” she said.
“Uh-oh. I know that tone. Is this another one of your confessions coming?” I was teasing, but half-scared that it was.
“Maybe?” she said.
“Did you make out with Matt again?”
“Actually… no, but I made out with Johnny O’Reilly. That’s not what I was gonna say, though.”
I stared at her.
“Uh, it was nothing. It was drunk. It was brief. It’ll never happen again.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath, knowing I deserved much worse than a brief, drunken moment with Johnny O. Much, much worse.
And anyway, I’d asked.
“Anyone else?”
“No,” she said. “You?”
“No.”
“Bliss?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I was too busy with the album. And… I’m in love with you.”
Her shoulders softened as she gazed at me. Then she cringed. “Did I mention I was really, really drunk when that thing happened with Johnny O…?”
“Let’s forget it.”
“Okay. Let’s.” She sipped her wine.
“You didn’t tell me your confession yet. Should I lie down?”
She smiled a little. “No. I promise it doesn’t involve another man.”
“Good.”
“I just wanted you to know… All that money you paid me? It’s still sitting in my bank account. I haven’t touched any of it. I actually want to give some of it back to you. I didn’t work for you for the full six months.”
“You don’t have to give it back, Taylor. It was my fault. If I hadn’t freaked out on you like I did—”
“It doesn’t matter. I didn’t finish the job, so I’m not taking all the money. I’ll accept pay