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Did I?
I wasn’t brave enough yet to commit either way.
8
KAYLA
“You’re back.” Megan greeted me with a grin and held open her arms.
I gave her a quick, tight hug before stepping back to look around the bookstore. “You’re quiet this morning.”
“Saturday morning.” Megan shrugged. “We’ll get busier when the lunch crowds for the restaurants around here get going. People who didn’t make reservations and don’t want to sit and wait while their names tick up the list. If the weather’s good, at least.”
“Supposed to be.” It might be nearing the end of January, but in the DC area, that could mean anything from the low sixties and sunny to three feet of snow. My weather app had put it closer to the first one.
Megan cocked her head to the side and studied me. “You’re not okay.”
I shrugged. “I’m fine.”
“Nope. You were subdued last night when we hung out with Whitney and Beckett, and you’re bordering on morose this morning. What’s going on?”
I laughed. “Morose? What are you reading?”
Megan clutched a paperback to her chest and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I stand by my word choice.”
“You’re reading Jane Austen again, aren’t you?”
“Even if I am, it’s not like that’s a crime. Plenty of people enjoy the classics.”
I rolled my eyes. “They do. It’s a sad truth. And then they start using words like ‘morose.’ I will admit I am not my usual, what was it you called me? Excessively perky self.”
Megan winced. “I never would have said it if I’d known you were going to throw it in my face for the rest of my days.”
I fluttered my eyelashes at her. “Maybe you’ll learn to think twice before you start pigeonholing people for their personalities.”
“Whatever. My point stands: something’s wrong.”
I sighed and made my way over to the reading-slash-lounging area of the bookstore. I dropped into one of the chairs and shifted so my legs dangled over the arm. “I miss Austin.”
Megan pointed at me. “Because you’ve been avoiding him all week.”
“I had to. I’ve got to break my reliance on him. He acts like I’m a nagging grandma who’s going to drag him on a service project whether he wants to come or not.” I crossed my arms. I didn’t care if he didn’t want to go to Mexico. He could do what he wanted with his time and money. He didn’t owe me anything.
“Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that. You’re in love with him.”
I blew out a breath. She wasn’t wrong, but did I have to admit it? He didn’t feel the same way, so what was the point? “I can get over it.”
“Why would you? He’s a great guy. And let me tell you, it’s a rare man whose sister is willing to admit that out loud.”
My lips twitched. “Well, you’re a rare catch yourself.”
“See? Austin and I should both be snapped up by someone who adores us. At least my brother, lucky turkey that he is, has someone who meets that definition already in the wings.” Megan came and perched on the edge of the chair across from me. “I really don’t understand why you won’t ask him out.”
“Because I shouldn’t have to!” I tossed my hands in the air. “Is it really wrong for me to want a guy who wants me enough to risk disappointment and ask me out?”
Megan sighed. “No. Of course it’s not wrong. It just might mean my brother is a bigger doofus than I thought.”
Maybe I should have sucked it up and realized this was the twenty-first century. Women asked men out all the time. In fact, it kind of seemed like everyone thought I was an idiot because I didn’t. Never had. Never planned to. Was this going to be the hill I chose to die on?
