“I promise.” I give her hand a squeeze. “I don’t know if you noticed, but Tucker really likes you.”
I regret saying that the second the words leave my mouth.
“I like him too.”
Maybe I should rethink my plans to kiss Taryn when I take her home. If she likes Tucker, I would be the shittiest friend in the world to make a move on a girl I know he likes just as much as I do while he’s incapacitated.
Fuck. This thing about competing for Taryn’s attention was way more fun when Tucker wasn’t out of commission.
I let go of her hand reluctantly, putting the car into drive and backing out of the parking lot.
“Should we get him buckled up?” Taryn shifts in the passenger seat to check on Tucker. “That doesn’t look safe.”
“I’ll drive really slowly. I know it isn’t ideal, but even if we managed to get him to sit up long enough to strap him in, he’d probably find a way to lie down and undo the seatbelt the second we take our eyes off him.”
The only soundtrack to the rest of our drive is Tucker’s snoring.
The silence between me and Taryn isn’t uncomfortable, however.
My eyes drift to look at her from time to time while she seems lost in her thoughts, as she watches the busier downtown streets give way to the quieter area where our new training center is located.
Star Cove is a pretty, well-maintained town. Flowers are blooming everywhere, and the air is fragrant with their scent mixed with the sea breeze that cools down this summer night.
The stars that give this small coastal town its name are more visible the further we get away from the light pollution of the town center.
On the outside, I look calm and relaxed as I drive us toward the end of town.
But in my head, it’s a whole different story.
I want to kiss Taryn. Unless she sends me a signal that she isn’t into me. Does that really make me a shitty friend?
How would Tucker act if the roles were reversed? We did agree that we would both pursue Taryn, but is it fair to make my move while Tucker is unable to make one of his own?
She just said that she likes him. Maybe I’ve lost this battle even before it began.
Or maybe not.
“What if you both got a goodnight kiss?”
Taryn’s words right before she tried the shooting game echo in my ears.
She likes me too. Tucker said he was ok to both pursue her and to see where things went from there. So there’s nothing wrong with doing just that.
TARYN
Getting Tucker out of the backseat of Colsen’s car and waking him enough to get some kind of cooperation to get him home is definitely a two-man job.
The athletes’ quarters are a little way behind the main training center building.
Colsen uses a key-card to open the main door of one of two modern high-rise buildings.
There’s a lobby at the entrance with a sitting area and coffee making facilities and a couple of elevators at the far end of it.
Rather than going toward the elevator, Colsen opens a door on the far end of the lobby.
We enter a hallway with a few doors facing each other. Motion sensor lights come on as we walk toward the last door on the left.
“Thank goodness we were assigned to an apartment on the ground floor.” Colsen pants, struggling to lift his keycard to the reader without losing his grip on Tucker.
