“I’m not sure,” he said at last. “But even if I know who she is, one thing Iamsure about is that she’s not ready for me yet. I’m biding my time.”
“Smart guy.” Corey clapped him on the back. “The right one is worth waiting for.” He pinned me with arched scrutiny. “Am I right, Taylor?”
I lifted my beer in a toast of agreement. “It’s what I’ve always said.” I paused. “Now getting the chick on the same page ... that’s not my area of expertise, apparently.”
“Well, while you three pine away for the right ones, I’m here and willing to service all the others. You know, the hordes of women who didn’t make the cut.” Danny grinned lasciviously. “So you go ahead and enjoy your wife, Iverson, and Durham, you keep holding out for the lady who doesn’t know you want her yet. And you, brother ...” His voice trailed off as my phone chimed with an incoming text. “There’s your main squeeze, all the way across the country, getting over the guy she married instead of you. Good luck with that.”
I flipped my brother the bird and read my message.
Quinn:I’m at a wine tasting today with Kara. Thought you might like to see how hard I’m working.
And there she was, gazing out at me, her mouth curved up and a glass of red wine in her hand. I couldn’t help smiling right back at her. She looked better, I thought, as I studied the picture with barely concealed hunger. She’d been in California for a month now, and we’d been texting daily. Sometimes it was me who initiated the conversation, and sometimes it was Quinn. Some days we only exchanged quick hellos, and others we went back and forth for hours.
“Shit.” Corey was staring over my shoulder. “She’s fucking beautiful, Taylor. Why in the hell would a chick like her be interested in you?”
Danny laughed. “We’ve been trying to figure that out for years. He must have something special only Quinn can see.” His eyes met mine, and under the teasing, I saw compassion and understanding. Danny might ride my ass relentlessly, and he might give me tons of shit about football, Quinn and everything else in my life, but I knew when things got real, he was on my side. Plus, he’d loved Quinn like a sister all of our lives.
“I’ll tell her you said hey, Danny.” I began my reply.
“I’ll tell her myself.” Before I could pull back, he’d swiped the phone from my hands, and his fingers flew over the keyboard, all the while he pivoted and evaded my grabs to get it back.
When he finally relinquished the phone to me, I swatted the side of his head. “I’m so telling Mom on you. Your ass is toast, dude.”
Leo (as typed by Danny):Hey, pretty lady! You’re looking damn hot. This is Danny, btw, you know, the Taylor brother you really want. He’s trying to get the phone back from me, so I gotta be fast. Just wanted to say hi, and I hope you’re liking CA. Drink a glass of that for me. I’m keeping my eye on the boy. He’s doing okay, I guess, for a butt face. See ya soon, Q.
It wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it might be. Shooting Danny a snarl, I answered her for real.
Leo:Sorry about that. Danny has a lot of growing up to do, clearly. Love the picture and glad you’re getting a little time for fun.
I wasn’t sure if she’d answer, and I didn’t relax until I saw her reply.
Quinn:LOL OMG, Danny never changes. Is he down visiting you? Or are you up home?
Leo:He and Tate are both down here. They drove down together, and we met up with Corey today to play some football. Because you know we never get a chance to do that. ;)
Quinn:I’m glad you guys are getting to hang out. Please give Danny and Tate hugs from me. Or wait—that might be weird, huh? Just tell them I send hugs. No way I’m compromising your manliness.
Leo:Babe, I could hug them and French-kiss them and I’d still be the most studly dude in the room. Please.
Quinn:LOL Okay, okay. Message received. Gotta go—Kara’s ready to move onto the next winery. I’m just glad they have someone else driving us, because after all this wine, no way I could do it. Plus, there’re hills.
Leo:Be careful and have a good time. Talk to you later.
Quinn:Have fun with the guys.
I looked up from my phone to find all three of them staring at me, their faces wearing different degrees of amusement. Corey looked proud, Danny resigned and Tate ... he appeared to be envious. I knew that had nothing to do with Quinn herself; Tate didn’t want the girl, he just wanted what he saw we had. Or used to have. I sighed and shook my head.
“You can all go back to your own business. That was nothing. Oh, and Quinn says hello to both of you.” I pointed to Danny and Tate.
“What about me?” Corey gave me his sad face. “No hey for me?”
“She doesn’t know you, dude, but I’m sure she’d have something nice to say about you if she did.” I drained the rest of my beer. “So what were we talking about?”
“Durham was telling us about how he kept busy during the season, since they weren’t really playing him up in the Big Apple.”
“I worked with a non-profit,” Tate explained to me. “I was just saying to Danny and Corey that when I first heard about it, I figured they wanted the big names on the team only, but it turned out that they really needed some of the lowly bench warmers to pick up the slack. So I did a shit ton of hospital visits, charity functions and other stuff like that.”
“What kind of organization is it?” I loved the volunteer work I did with Corey and the kids at the elementary schools, but lately I’d been feeling like I could do more. I just wasn’t sure what.
