A Taylor-Made Life (17 page)

Gavin shot her a glare.
Et
tu?

Taylor held open the box for everyone
to see. Gavin lifted his chin and tried to glance disinterestedly
at the silver charm bracelet.

“Oh, Matt, I love it.” She threw her
arms around him for the second time since he’d walked in the damn
door.

Get a room.

He rolled his eyes as she pulled the
tinkling mess from the box and held it up like a long, slithering
earthworm with tiny bangles.

She studied the two charms. One was a
single daisy designed with bright enamel, and the other was a cat.
Taylor didn’t even have a cat. She fingered the little
feline.

Daisy Plucker
smiled and
fastened the bracelet around her wrist. How could a big jock be
dexterous enough to latch a delicate piece of jewelry?

“You got me a kitten charm?” She gazed
up at him.

He stared into her eyes. “I knew you’d
remember.” He smiled slyly.

Gavin blurted out, “Well, do tell us
the significance.”

Taylor blushed a deep crimson and
wouldn’t look at him.
Daisy Fucker.

Matt cleared his throat. “It’s just a
nickname I used to call Taylor.”

Kitten?
He’d called her
kitten
.

Zelda summoned everyone to the dining
room. They sat at the china-and-linen-clad table adorned with fresh
flowers and confetti. Taylor sat opposite him next to the
Daisy
Plucker
. Gavin picked at the food on his plate in between
glaring at the lovebirds or throwing barbs back and forth with
Matt, who admittedly was holding his own.

After the meal, Maureen stood. “We
have a special treat in the kitchen.”

They followed her in and gathered
around the granite-topped island filled with Taylor’s birthday
desserts. She filled her plate with chocolate pie and banana
pudding, as did Gavin. Matt took a large piece of pie and stood
next to her whispering, laughing and smiling. Always
smiling.

Taylor studied his plate. “You didn’t
get any pudding.”

“Not yet. I’ll eat some after I finish
my pie.”

The memory of her delicately balanced
bite filled Gavin’s senses, and his heart pounded against his
ribcage. Sensory bliss. He took a bite and savored it, tasting the
mixed dessert and desiring nothing more than to savor her in the
same way.

He was so busy chewing he almost
missed it when she said, “Oh, you have to try them together. It’s
amazing.”

He blinked in utter disbelief as he
watched her fill her fork and hold it up in offering to Matt. Gavin
shook his head, a dangerous pressure building in his chest and
exploding at the speed of sound.

The world narrowed and flipped as his
priorities realigned. To hell with morals and societal conventions.
The dam of reserve and decorum restraining his emotions shattered.
All he could think was
“Hell no!”
And he might have said it
out loud because Maureen and John froze wide-eyed.

Engulfed in a tidal wave, Gavin
grasped Taylor’s arm right before the bite touched Matt’s lips. He
spun her around to face him and poked the fork into his own
mouth.

* * * *

I gasped as a tight grip encircled my
arm. Gavin’s wild eyes and abruptness sent fear skittering through
me. What was he doing? He stuck the fork in his mouth and took half
the bite. Never releasing me from his gaze or his hold, he put the
remaining bite to my lips. My lungs huffed for air like I’d
sprinted up Nob Hill.

With his fingers cinched around my arm
and his eyes locked onto mine, time stood in a vacuum. Nothing
existed outside him. I opened my mouth and closed my lips over the
fork. A lusty sigh spilled from Gavin as we ate the bite together,
fixing our eyes on each other.

Perfect in its combination. Cool.
Tasty. Fruity and chocolaty. Creamy sweetness swirled over my
tongue. Rich and yummy, the flavor blended with the churning
emotion I felt and read in Gavin’s eyes. My chest rose and fell in
a flurry. So did his. We swallowed at the same time.

His walls had finally fallen, and he
didn’t seem happy about it. I met him at the fissure. He pulled me
to his chest and released his hold on my arm. Briefly breaking his
gaze from me, he stared pointedly over my shoulder. “You. Out of my
house. Now.”

I couldn’t move, entranced by him. My
brain fogged as I tried to remember who stood behind me receiving
the brunt of his harsh words. I should’ve probably said something
but couldn’t and didn’t want to. I heard Mom, but never allowed my
sights to stray from Gavin.

Her awkward tone barely registered.
“Matt, let John and I walk you out. Thank you so much for
coming.”

Their voices faded as they left the
room. Gavin stroked my cheek with his thumb, sending tingles
rippling over my skin. The anger in his eyes abated, but a fire
still smoldered. I raised my eyebrows in question.

He lifted his chin in defiance. “That
was
my
bite, Taylor.”

I soaked in the feeling of warmth as
his arms encircled me and a smile played at the corners of my lips.
“I had another one I could’ve given you.”

“Didn’t you know? They’re all mine.”
He bent his head and brushed my lips. “And so are you.”

I sighed into his mouth. He captured
my lips and kissed me senseless.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and
leaned in. His mouth moved strong and deliberate. I couldn’t catch
my breath. Thoughts raced randomly through my mind, but wouldn’t
slow down long enough for me to catch one. The only things that
were firmly planted were him, his lips, and this moment. Nothing
else mattered.

His kiss went on, soft and shallow at
times, then deeper and full of passion. He framed my face and
angled my head, deepening the kiss, bruising our tongues and
sending me into some kind of otherworldly orbit. A feeling of
drowning swept over me. I pulled from our connection to suck in
oxygen. He swung me around and pressed me against the island. One
of his hands spread over the small of my back and one cupped my
neck. My chest rested firmly against his. Time altered, and he
could have kissed me for an eternity or for a moment. It was all
the same.

He pulled away from my lips, gulping
in several long breaths of his own. My body trembled and raged with
some unfamiliar thing.

He feathered kisses down my jaw to my
ear and whispered, “Oh Taylor, what’re you doing to me? My life is
slipping away, and now you’ve stolen my heart.” He nuzzled his face
in my neck. I shivered when warm breath skimmed bare
skin.

Oh Wizards.
Was this really
happening? Looping my arms around his waist, I pressed against him
and breathed in his fresh scent. Not spicy like Matt or old like my
dad, but like rain in the woods or the mint that Mom grew in the
backyard and put in iced tea on summer days. His heart thumped hard
and steady against my ear, and I smiled. “Does this mean we’re more
than friends?”

He lifted my chin to gaze into my
face. “We’re whatever you want us to be.”

I widened my eyes and tried to process
what he meant. He was leaving
us
up to me?

He smiled and walked me to the living
room. We sat on the loveseat part of the sectional. “I’ve wasted
too much time already. Time neither of us has to spare.”

Sliding to his knee, he pulled out a
ginormous ring with a honking yellow diamond—
wait
, that was
my ring. The one I’d tried on. A tiny gasp escaped me, and a wave
of waterworks built behind my eyes. I looked from the
sunshine-colored stone back to him.

“I didn’t know at the time why I’d
bought it. At least, that’s what I told myself.” His eyes glinted
with emotion he didn’t even attempt to hide. “I want you to be my
wife. Will you marry me?”

My face tingled as the blood drained
from it, and the pulse in my neck beat out a reggae rhythm. “Marry
you?” Was that squeaky mouse voice mine?

He narrowed his eyes in a devilish
look that caused a chill to scamper over me
.
“Reality is
more unsettling than your imagination? If we had time, I’d wait. We
date, become more accustomed to the idea.”

Panic froze me. Crud
.
In my
mind, I’d imagined marrying Gavin a thousand times a day. I’d
pictured our wedding—and honeymoon—too many times to count. But
when it came right down to it, I felt as prepared to be a wife or a
lover as I did to play Left Tackle for the Forty-Niners.

His face softened, and he took my
hands. “Please marry me. I’ll call the company jet right now to fly
your parents and us to Vegas. I promise it’ll be a beautiful
ceremony.” He raised my hands and kissed each one tenderly. “I know
this is new, and you’re scared. I’m scared, too. But it’s less
frightening than the thought of losing you.”

He put up a good argument, and three
weeks ago, this was exactly what I’d wanted. But now I had to make
sure this wasn’t about him winning. “I thought you said you hadn’t
found what you were looking for with me. That we couldn’t be more
then friends. Why marriage? Why now?”

He reflected a seriousness I hadn’t
seen before. “I’m alone because I’ve been afraid to risk my heart.
But I’ve realized that even if my worst fear comes to pass, you
reject my proposal and walk away, it could never hurt as much as
never letting you in.” He stroked my cheek with his thumb, which
didn’t help in maintaining my calm façade. “Why do I want to marry
you? Because I love you, Taylor Marie Smith, and I want you to be
mine. And why now? Because now is all we have.”

My spirit lifted with the rise of a
thousand helium balloons and I pushed away any doubt about my
ability to fulfill a role I used to imagine taking on much later in
life. I launched myself into his arms, and he caught me like a line
drive at a baseball game. I showered his face with kisses as he
fell back on the carpet. “Yes, Gavin…I’ll marry you.”

He pulled from my outpouring. “Hey, I
want to hear it, too.”

I knew exactly what he was asking for,
and I dimpled at the sweet vulnerability in his eyes. “But you
already know how I feel.”

He frowned.

I smiled teasingly. “Oh, all right.” I
softly kissed his cheek. “I.” Then I kissed his nose. “Love.”
Finally, I hovered right over his lips as I whispered,
“You.”

A wide grin spread over his face as he
pulled me down.

My eyes fluttered as the loud drone of
the jet lulled me into sleepy bliss. The morning sunshine poured in
the windows of the commercial-sized airplane. I roused, stretching
with a grin I hadn’t been able to wipe off since the night before.
We were headed to a Vegas wedding and honeymoon.

Gavin readjusted his arm around my
shoulders and gazed into my face. “Sleep, Sweetness. We have a busy
day.”

Sweetness.
Every time he called
me that, I felt like I was dipped in chocolate, like my life had
been dipped in chocolate. I snuggled back onto his warm chest. My
body felt sluggish after our long night. After we told Mom and Dad
about our engagement, Gavin scheduled the plane and hotel. Mom had
been thrilled, but Dad was at a slight disadvantage since Mom and I
hadn’t ever let him in on our plan. He wasn’t thrilled, but I was
eighteen, and he was cooler than I gave him credit for.

Gavin and I had gone to bed, together,
afterward. I puffed out a breath that caused the brim of my hat to
flutter. Gavin had flat-out refused to make love to me until we
were married. I’d thrown a pretty decent hissy fit, but he hadn’t
budged. In a way, it made me happy, but last night, kissing him in
bed had opened up a need for something I couldn’t identify. And it
kind of pissed me off not getting it. Warmth tingled over me even
now, and I breathed in his scent.

Mom and Dad slept in reclining leather
seats behind us, Dad’s soft snoring barely audible over the plane
engine. My gaze flitted to the shock of yellow that flashed on my
finger.

I still could hardly believe he’d
bought it for me. The ring was an extravagant reminder of all that
came along with my fiancé. Happiness oozed out of my ears and
seeped from underneath my toenails. I was so full of sappy, gooey
love
if anyone got too close, I’d either hug or kiss
them…maybe both. Speaking of kisses…. I hadn’t had one in the last
hour, and that was too long.

Tilting my head up, I pressed my lips
to Gavin’s. He responded by pulling me into his lap and smothering
me. His soft lips and velvet tongue swept over my mouth, and I
leaned in. My body warmed, even parts he was nowhere near touching.
He’d be touching all those parts in a few short hours. A scary,
exciting shiver ran through me.

He broke the kiss. “What’s up with
that shiver?” He reached down and touched my toes poking out of my
sandals. “Not cold feet, is it?”

“No way, Techno Boy. You’re
mine.”

His eyebrows arched. “Techno Boy,
huh?” His fingers flexed against my waist.

I widened my stare and squealed as he
tickled me, waking anyone who might’ve been sleeping. Falling to
the floor with a
thunk
, I flushed and giggled. The attendant
came running.