Pivotal Moments (In Time #1) (16 page)

“And as for her sleeping with him?” she continued. “He’s twenty-two, Ash. What did you expect? That he’d been a monk all this time? The world ain’t like that nowadays.”

You’d think that after all of this time, I’d have learned to keep my mouth shut. But no, I had no filter when I needed it the most. “No! Really? I’d have never guessed,” I said. “Thanks for pointing that out to me. I’d have never figured it out on my own.”

“I just thought since you’re holding all of this against him, you might not be aware of how things really are,” she said calmly.

I scowled. “I’m not holding it against him. Far from it. I never thought he was an angel.”

Penny sighed. “Then I don’t see what the damn problem is here. His ex was there. Big whoop. Did he invite her?”

“No.”

“Did he know she was going to be there?”

“No,” I sighed.

“Okay. Did he introduce you as his girlfriend?”

“Yes,” I said in a small voice.

“Then I don’t freaking get it, Ash!” she exploded. “It was out of his control. He had nothing to do with it. He stated he was no longer single and was with you. He stood up for the two of you. What the hell is your damn problem?”

“You just don’t get it, Penny!” I shouted. “His exes? They’re everything I’m not. I can’t compete with them.”

Silence met my outburst. I sat there shaking, hurt and angry. I was almost in a state of shock. How had we gotten here? We were best friends; we didn’t do this sort of thing.

“No, Aislinn Margaret Munroe, you’re everything they aren’t. Did it ever occur to you that Teeg doesn’t want or need you to compete against anyone? That he likes you the way you are?” Her tone was harsh and cold. “If you can’t see that, I don’t know what to tell you. No one can work you through this, only you…maybe Teeg. In the meantime, I need to take a step back from this.” Her tone softened to sadness.

My eyes widened. “Wait. What? What are you doing?”

“I’ll always be your cheerleader, but this is a trip you need to take on your own. I’m sorry, hon.”

I was speechless. My best friend was abandoning me? She was my rock, always had been. Without her, my world was tilting on its axis, leaving me floundering.

“I’m going to go back to bed,” she said. “Call me when you figure it out. I’ll be waiting for it all to sink in.” Her voice was muffled as she lay back down in her bed. I could hear her covers rustle through the phone.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I swallowed hard against the knot in my throat. “What’re you talking about?”

She heaved a deep sigh. “You’re a big girl, sweetie. Figure it out. It might happen quicker if you actually let Teeg help you.”

“Penny, I—” I didn’t know what to say.

“Goodnight, hon. Love you. Hopefully I’ll talk to you soon.” Then she hung up.

I dropped my phone. All around the room were reminders of our friendship…then just like that…I sniffled, a few tears escaping. Zver nuzzled my hand with a whine, and I gave him a sad smile and stroked him slowly, allowing my tears to fall unhindered.

Patting the dog one last time, I lay down on my bed and grabbed a pillow, wrapping my arms around it tightly. As the pain increased, I buried my face in my blankets in an effort to quiet my sobs. I hadn’t cried myself to sleep since the nights immediately following my father’s death, but that night, I did.

Chapter 13

I awoke to something brushing my cheek. I opened my eyes; my room was lit by the beautiful muted pinks and oranges of the early morning sun, the beauty completed by the clear gray eyes gazing at me. He crouched beside my bed, stroking the hair away from my cheek, then tucking the strands behind my ear.

“You’ve been crying,” he murmured.

Penny. Sadness swept over me, the burning behind my eyes returning. I blinked before they could start watering. Teagan shifted closer, and the light fell on the left side of his face—swollen and discolored. I pushed up onto my elbow and ran my fingers over the mark.

He pulled my hand away from the bruising and pressed a tender kiss into my palm with a sigh. “Connor has some issues to work out. Since I’m dating his baby sister, I figured he deserved one free shot.”

I gave him a wan smile. “Only one, right?” 

He gave a soft laugh and nodded.

“Is he okay now?”

“No, but he will be. Once he sees how I treat you, he’ll come around,” he said softly.

“Oh, yeah?” I grinned. “How are you going to treat me?”

“Like the princess that you are,” he deadpanned.

I rolled my eyes. “God, could you be any cheesier?” 

“Definitely.”

“You’re going to be good to me,” I said. At the sincerity in his eyes, I knew I was right.

He shrugged. “You have doubts?”

I looked away with a smile. 

He stroked my hair, letting his fingers tangle in my curls. “Aislinn, it’s a fact.” I nodded, but before I could respond, he started speaking again. “What happened between you and Penny?”

My chest tightened. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Sweetheart, I’m never going to keep things from you. It doesn’t matter if they’re good, bad, or indifferent. I’m going to let you know what’s going on. I hope you’ll do the same,” he said, his voice earnest.

How had I managed to find someone like him? This was the kind of guy girls complained their boyfriends weren’t. I smiled at him, getting one of those gorgeous Teagan grins in response. 

“You’re right.” I nodded. “We shouldn’t keep things from each other.”

With a thoughtful look, he studied me for a moment, and then moved to sit on the bed beside me. Settling himself with his back to the headboard, he reached over and pulled me closer so I squashed against his side. I froze. What was I supposed to do next?

“You really need to relax,” he said with a chuckle. “I won’t bite. At least, I won’t unless you ask me to.” He gave me a wink, and I blushed. 

He got the desired effect, though. His teasing calmed me enough that I sank into his side, resting my head in the hollow of his shoulder and letting his warm presence wash over me. Last night’s chaos quieted and peace began to settle in. I took a deep breath, inhaling the scent that was unique to Teagan. I suspected by now I could identify him by it alone. I couldn’t contain a small grin at the thought. 

He raised an eyebrow. “What’s so funny? 

I blushed. “I love how you smell. I don’t know if it’s your soap, your cologne, or what—but you always smell amazing. I could probably tell who you were just by smelling you.”

“Really?” 

I nodded with a slight flush. 

“That’s interesting. No one’s ever told me that before,” he said, a pleased smile on his face.

He picked up my hand and began to play with my fingers. As his tanned fingers laced with my paler ones, a thrill went through me at the feeling of belonging his small gesture caused.

“You ever gonna tell me about you and Penny?” He nudged me with his shoulder.

I frowned. “How do you even know I talked to her last night?”

He was silent for a moment as his thumb stroked over my knuckles. He was deep in thought and I could tell he was debating something. Finally, he heaved a sigh and dropped his head back against the headboard with a solid thunk.

“I promised I would tell you everything, so I’m going to let you in on a few things. The problem is, you can’t let on that you know anything about it. Okay?”

I nodded.

“Penny and Connor are sort of dating. Well…I don’t know what the hell you call what they’re doing. There’s something going on between them—there has been since we went to the lake.” 

I blinked. It made sense. The looks from Connor last night, the fact that he’d called Penny and told her about me and Teagan…Connor and Penny had both pretty much disappeared over the past week, leaving Teagan and me to ourselves. I’d been so wrapped up in the Teagan part that it hadn’t dawned on me to wonder about them.

“Why didn’t they say anything?” My voice must’ve betrayed my hurt, because Teagan pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head.

“I’m sorry, baby. I don’t know why. I only know that much because I overheard the two of them at the lake before I left to find you,” he said quietly.

Connor and Teagan’s hallway argument came to mind. “That was what you meant that night, when you told him not to mess anything up either, wasn’t it?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Not that it did much good.”

“You mean the party, don’t you?”

He exhaled, tightening his grasp on my hand. “You sure you wanna hear this?”

A weary sadness washed over me. “He did hook up with a girl that night, didn’t he?”

Teagan nodded. “He called me up yesterday morning to brag about it. Guy stuff, you know? I told him he’d royally fucked up, but he claimed Penny wouldn’t care.” The last was said with patent disbelief.

I snorted. “Trust me. She doesn’t know about it yet.” I gave Teagan a sad smile. “She’s been in love with Connor for years. If things were advancing and he pulled this, Penny’s going to make devastated look like a happy place.”

Teagan began to gently stroke my shoulder. “Last night, she called him a little while after things had calmed down. He wouldn’t tell me what she said, just that I should come and check on you.”

I nodded and blinked, clearing my throat. I didn’t want to cry anymore. Tightening my grip on his fingers, I said, “She, uh…” I paused and bit my lip. “Well, she said I was way too insecure—basically that I was going to lose you if I didn’t get my head out of my ass. I told her I couldn’t compete with your exes.”

Teagan tensed, but I rushed on, heading him off. “She said you didn’t want or need me to compete with anyone, that all of my fears were crap and there must be something special about me if you want me.” I held my breath. 

When only silence met my spillage of secrets, I lifted my head. Teagan was gazing down at me, a thoughtful expression on his face. Our eyes met, and he flashed me a small smile. 

“What?” I said.

He shook his head, still smiling. “I know which part you got stuck on, sweetheart.” 

I blushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I was a terrible liar, though—it sounded pathetic to me.

Teagan raised an eyebrow, and I ducked my head. The pattern on my bedspread was quite interesting, now that I examined it in-depth.

“I bet,” he said, the smile evident in his voice, “the part you really heard was the bit about me bailing, huh?”

I flushed, fidgeting. It was disconcerting how well he knew me already.

He gave me a gentle nudge. “Aislinn?”

I shrugged with a sigh. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

He gave a quiet chuckle. “Most girls would zero in on the something special part, you know that, right?”

I nodded, miserable. Yeah—I also knew Penny probably wasn’t too far off the mark about him getting tired of my insecurities. The thought of him being gone upset me more than it should have. I’d known I’d get attached, but the thought of him leaving was almost painful. I needed to move on, believe in myself. None of my baggage was fair to Teagan, patient as he was with me. It probably didn’t hurt that he had a teenaged sister. He was more than likely used to female insecurities.

“I know,” I said, meeting his gaze. I brought my hand up and let my fingers lightly trail over his face. His eyes widened, then slowly drifted closed, a smile of contentment ghosting across his mouth. 

I reveled in the sensation of my fingers drifting across his jaw and the prickle of stubble beneath my skin. His eyes opened, bright gray like a foggy morning, and Teagan gave me a tender smile, turning his head and pressing a kiss to each of my fingers.

A shiver weaseled its way through my body as his lips touched each sensitive fingertip. I flushed when that knowing smile returned. “You okay, baby?” he asked, his expression amused.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“I mean, I thought you might be cold or something.”

My look hardened to a glare.

“Seriously, if you’re cold, I can get you a blanket or whatever,” he said, his grin widening.

I looked away. I wasn’t falling for it. No way, no how.

“Ah, all right. You’re not cold.” He was barely holding back laughter. “I guess I just have that effect on you, huh?” He poked my side.

I bit back a squeak and whipped my head around. He didn’t bother hiding his amusement. “Oh, just shut up,” I said, rolling my eyes.

With a low laugh, he leaned forward and pressed his lips firmly to mine, molding his to mine. Not surprising, I soon forgot what had annoyed me.

***

I must have dozed off, because I awoke to a soft knock on my door. I sat up, stretching, and froze when Teagan sighed and shifted beside me, still sound asleep. A sappy grin stretched across my face as I took in the slice of goodness stretched out on my bed. His shirt had ridden up a couple of inches to reveal a narrow strip of his stomach.

“Care to explain, Miss Aislinn Margaret?”

I couldn’t help the guilty gasp. My mother stood just inside my room, this looked bad, and I didn’t have to look to know she was steaming mad. Her silence was the most disturbing. I finally mustered the courage to peek at her, and then wished I hadn’t. She had an eyebrow raised, hands on hips. She was waiting for an explanation, but I didn’t have one. That distinct Mom look had me gulping and nudging Teagan.

He groaned and pulled me back to his side, mumbling something incoherent as he buried his face in my neck. I wanted to melt in bliss and die in embarrassment at the same time.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” she said. “Wake up, Teagan.”

Teagan bolted upright, blinking and glancing between me and Mom. As confident as he always seemed to be, his fidgeting and flushed face threw me for a second.

Mom stepped farther into the room until she stood at the foot of the bed. Then she gave us both The Look. Her golden stare had us squirming. Teagan was running his hand through his hair, and as Mom raised an eyebrow, he gulped.

“Ms. Munroe, I…I can explain,” he stuttered.

Mom nodded, “I have no doubt about that. Let’s hear it,” she said in a calm tone. It was too calm. It was worse than if she were yelling at us.

I had to give the man credit. While Mom was making him nervous, he didn’t look ready to bolt on me. I found enough comfort in that to face Mom. “We were just talking. It was a long night, a lot going on, and we must have dozed off. That’s all.”

Mom studied me for a long moment, and then turned her attention to Teagan. Her eyes narrowed as she regarded him intently. I had to bite back a smile as he squirmed.

“You two are together? You’re a couple?” Honesty would definitely be the best way to go at this point.

He nodded in response.

“I’m sure you’ve realized she’s young, that this is all new to her.”

I went scarlet. It didn’t matter that she was right, or that he already knew. It was the principle of the matter.

“Ms. Munroe, I would never pressure Aislinn into something she’s not ready for.” He glanced at me with an affectionate smile. I returned the smile with a blush.

Mom watched the exchange, and then nodded as if she’d just had a question answered. She ran a hand over her face before returning her attention to us.

“Connor told me the whole sordid tale of you running off with Teeg, Ash,” she said, her tone one of bored annoyance. “I let him know you had my permission to go to Gainesville. He then proceeded to tell me all about your extracurricular activities, Teeg.”

Teagan started to say something, but Mom held up a hand. “I’m taking a huge leap and trusting you. You’re older than her, and I won’t lie, it does make me nervous. I also know that someone her age would never work for her—it’d be a disaster. I’m going to allow this, but there are some things that need to be out in the open.”

She took a deep breath. “One is that while I expect you both to be responsible, I’m expecting more out of you.” She pointed at Teagan. “I’m not stupid.” She flashed a wry grin. “I know Connor is no angel, and I know you aren’t, either.”

He flushed.

“All I’m going to say is you’d better let my daughter set the pace, okay?” Mom eyed him, daring him to challenge her judgment.