Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,137

fast…”

It was what Taylor felt as well, that the path she’d been on was vanishing beneath her with no real way forward and no way back either.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Yoli asked.

“Yeah. I’m great.” Taylor took a long breath. “I don’t think I’ve ever been better.”

Chapter 19

It had to be the stress from everything. Whatever it was, Greg was done-for by the time he got home. He felt like he could go to sleep standing up.

“Oh, hey,” Taylor said from the couch when he came in. She was sitting there with his laptop on her lap. Yeah, that wasn’t weird at all. The rest of the apartment was dark and quiet.

“Hey,” he said, glancing down the hall. “Where is everybody?”

“Clara left a little while ago. The guys haven’t been home,” Taylor said.

“Oh.” He didn’t move, unsure of just how to handle this.

“Oh, hey,” she said again, seeming to come to life as she set the laptop on the coffee table and stood. She went past him to the kitchen where she flipped on the light. “Clara and I made roasted chicken and vegetables.” Taylor laughed. “Okay, Clara made it. I mostly just worked on my paper, but it’s really good.”

Following her into the kitchen, Greg leaned on the cabinet, watching her warily. He folded his arms, never letting himself come off of high alert. She retrieved the dish from the refrigerator and put it on the counter next to him. No wonder it smelled so good in here. The meal looked like heaven.

“You want some?” she asked, already getting a plate out for him. “It’s really good. Clara’s going to give me the recipe. Not that I can cook like she can, but…”

Although he’d never said anything, she made a plate for him and put it in the microwave.

“We got milk too,” Taylor said as she put the pan back in the refrigerator. “I noticed y’all were low. Oh, and Clara made some bread pudding. I swear that girl could cook anything you could think of.” She got out a small bowl and dished out some pudding at the other cabinet before going to the microwave when it dinged.

Greg could not account for the easy way she did any of it. “Uh. I kind of need to take a shower?” It came out as a question because he wasn’t at all sure what was going on.

“Oh, yeah. Sure. Of course. That’s cool. I’ll just leave this in here to keep it warm then.”

When Greg left, Taylor went back to quickly finish her paper on his laptop. After her talk with Yoli, she had a new sense of gratefulness for the guys. She had wanted to say something about it, had even been practicing what to say and how to say it, but when Greg showed up, it came out as worry over the food until he had gone down the hallway to take a shower.

“Tay,” she said to herself softly. “You are going to have to get this together. They are going to think you’ve lost your ever-loving mind here.” She let out a breath and went to put the bread pudding back. “Just be cool about this.”

Cleaned to glistening, Greg came back from the shower only to find Taylor back on the couch. She was in lounge pants and a loose-fitting T-shirt with her hair wound up on the top of her head. She hadn’t heard him when he came in. Something, however, had gotten her attention because she half-turned and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw him standing there. Just like that, she jumped up and headed for the kitchen.

Weird. He would never have pegged the word nervous to her, but she sure seemed it now.

“Do you want anything with this?” she asked, dinging the microwave on once more. “We got some strawberries, but I wasn’t sure if any of you ate strawberries.” She retrieved them from the refrigerator. “Got some apples too if you want that.”

“I can get my own dinner,” Greg said, feeling bad for her busying herself on his behalf.

“I know. I just…” She pulled the food out of the microwave, added the strawberries and turned to him with the plate and bowl. When she’d handed it to him, she turned back for the silverware drawer. “Do you want water or milk or Dr. Pepper? There’s only one left. I didn’t think about it, but I can get you some more tomorrow if you want.”

Greg stood there at the corner of