Chapter 22
Tate
“What’s that noise?”Gabriella looks at me and then back to the window, pulling herself from the foot of my bed.
She spreads the blinds open with two fingers, inspecting.
“Looks like Clay and Levi are drinking out back.That’s weird...Levi hasn’t had a drink with us in over a week.”Her eyes narrow and I wonder what she’s thinking.
“Have you talked to him...since, you know?”
I let out a heavy breath.“No, he’s texted me a couple times, but I’m not sure what to say.”
She turns back, hand on her hip.“Sure you do.Tell him what you just told me.”
I shake my head back and forth a couple times.“I can’t tell him that.He will have a total panic attack thinking I want him to marry me right now.”
“Yeah, but it’s not right now,” she says, coming over and collapsing horizontally on my bed.
“I know, but I don’t think he could handle the pressure.That’s all I’m saying.”I turn over the duvet and walk to where Gabriella was standing by the window, curious what’s about to happen.People are filling the pool area like ants at a picnic and that’s when I see her almost white-blonde hair and sleeve of tattoos.
“She’s back?”
Gabriella leaps from the bed.“Who’s ‘she’!”
I consider not telling her, but I need advice, so I only tell her part of it.“Kim, the bartender from opening night.The blonde with the tattoos.”
“Dang, she’s pretty, Tate.”
I shoot Gabriella a look of disbelief, pushing my chin out.“That’s not helping.”
“I mean, you’re pretty too.She’s just like, I don’t know, hot.”
“Thanks.”
“What does it matter?He likes you,” she says, turning my body from the window to face her.I chew at my bottom lip.
“You think so?Like in the way I want him to?”
“Well, that is something only he knows, and you would know too if you answered his text messages and stopped avoiding him.”
“You’re right.”
“I know I am.”Her smug smile is bright.
“Alright, Miss Know-it-all, what do I do now?”I lift my arms just enough so that when I drop them again, they collide with my thighs, clapping on impact.
Gabriella’s smile curls into something devious before she squeals, “Makeover!”
