Next Man Up (Making the Score #2) - Tawdra Kandle Page 0,111
missed her.
Before I could ease my way over to sit closer to her, Leo came into the room. He paused in the doorway, his attention instantly on Quinn. The way he looked at her . . . I was pretty sure everyone felt the pull between the two of them.
“Hey.” I snapped my fingers by his ear. “Leo, you okay, man?”
“Yeah.” He straightened. “Just was thinking of something. Remembering something. I got distracted.”
He flashed me a quick smile of gratitude and moved to sit between Quinn and Gia on the sofa. I only half paid attention to their conversation because I couldn’t get myself to look away from Zelda.
She was, I realized, my sun. I didn’t want anything more than to be in her orbit, to know that she was mine. It was nearly killing me that we were so close to each other right now, sitting mere feet apart, and yet at the same time we were separated by a distance I didn’t know how to bridge. Because I didn’t know what had created the gap, I couldn’t cross it. And that was torture.
I re-focused on the conversation, which had turned to the just-passed holidays, with everyone playing a twisted game of mine was worse than yours.
Gia was describing the aftermath of her trip to New York to stay with her father and his new girlfriend. “I took the train home the next morning and drank a bottle of Scotch. That, my friends, was the highlight of my holiday. Ten hours of blissful oblivion.”
Gia snorted. “Oh, sure, because your Christmas was so much better, Quinn? Come on. Let’s just face facts. This was the suckiest of sucky holidays for both of us.”
“Yeah,” Quinn agreed. “It was pretty surreal. I don’t want a repeat performance. Maybe we should make a pact to spend next Christmas together. If we make plans, just us, you’d have a good excuse to avoid your crazy family.”
“Hey, what about me?” I winked at Quinn. “Don’t the rest of us get to join in on this Yuletide fun? My Christmas was fairly dismal.” I didn’t have to say why. Everyone in the room could probably guess that it had something to do with Zelda.
Quinn shifted in her seat. “I don’t know, Tuck. You and Leo and Zelda have whole, intact families. You guys have places to go. Gia and I are the broken ones.”
Zelda rolled her eyes. “You aren’t broken. And as for my family—there are a lot of them, so it seems normal, but I wouldn’t say no to getting away from them next year. I’d be totally down for celebrating with my best buds. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing, now that we’re officially carefree college graduate adults?”
“I don’t know about the carefree part, but I think I like this idea. Should we go someplace tropical or seasonal? St. Thomas or Aspen?” Quinn tilted her head, considering, and in the way of good friends, the conversation took off again, twisting and turning through a dizzying array of subjects. I attempted to follow along, but it was difficult when I couldn’t keep my eyes off Zelda.
I did know, though, that as the discussion turned to Quinn and her future, Leo was growing increasingly uncomfortable. It could have been because Quinn was clearly waiting for some kind of signal from Leo, something to indicate he wanted to be part of that future. And it was just as apparent that Leo wasn’t biting.
Possibly out of desperation to change the subject, Leo addressed Zelda.
“Zelda, what’re you doing again? I know you mentioned it the last time I saw you, but I don’t think you said much about it.”
Zelda crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. How in the hell did even that goofy face manage to turn me on? I shifted in my chair, wishing I could escape the room. Or kiss her. Either way.
Zelda’s voice was sharp as she answered Leo. “Oh, I totally sold out, didn’t you hear? I was supposed to be living in genteel poverty, interning at a farm-to-table co-op. But instead, I’m working for a political action committee, advocating for increased funding for farmers who are growing food using sustainable practices.”
Leo shook his head. “You lost me right after ‘committee’. What is it, exactly?”
Zelda smiled, though she looked slightly pained. “Basically, I spend a lot of time talking to and meeting with politicians to try to get more