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Maybe that was why she’d pushed so hard about hanging out this afternoon after church.
“You better start talking. Something’s up, and I’m not letting you off the hook until you spill.” Megan shifted, eliciting an annoyed noise from Ada. Megan quickly resumed scratching behind the cat’s ears. “Sorry, baby. Your mom is being silly.”
I groaned. “Fine. You know what? Fine. Maybe you can explain the whole situation to me, and I can figure out exactly what’s going on.”
“Ooh. A situation? I love those. They’re so often juicy.” Megan tapped her toe against my leg. “Don’t skimp on details.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the teasing tone. “There are no details. Yet. Maybe never.”
“Because?”
“You have to promise me you’re going to listen as my friend, not Austin’s sister.”
“Uh-oh.” Megan’s hand stilled, and Ada meowed imperiously. “All right. I’ll do my best. No name calling though, okay? He’s my brother. Even if he’s a bonehead.”
“You can name call? That doesn’t seem fair.” I pressed my fingers to my eyes and collected my thoughts. “Okay. You know I’ve been out with Luke twice.”
“Right. I also cleverly notice you’re not calling them dates.”
“Who’s telling this story?” I glared at her. “But also, no, I’m not. I don’t think they qualify as such. We’re just getting to know each other.”
“Which normal people call dates. But okay. Go on.” Megan sent me a saccharine grin.
“That apparently made your brother, the aforementioned bonehead, jealous. So when he and I went to dinner, he wanted it to qualify as a date, but I didn’t know that, because we go to dinner all the time. Then the whole youth center thing started, and we were talking about that and the property across the street being an ideal location, except what’s built there already isn’t what’s needed, so it’s better to tear it all down and start over, and there was this whole undercurrent where I knew he was talking about more than the buildings.”
“Mmm. I love a good, tense undercurrent.” Megan leaned forward. “Were lips involved?”
“No. Stop.” I paused as the idea of kissing Austin wormed its way into my head. Mmm. How would that be? It would have to be amazing.
“I don’t believe you.” Megan’s voice was a sing-song.
I yanked myself back to reality, tucking that little fantasy away for later. “Tough. There has been no kissing. Yet.”
“Ooh. Yay!” Megan clapped her hands, startling Ada enough that she leapt off Megan’s lap and dashed out of the room.
I laughed.
Megan looked stricken.
“Don’t worry. She’ll come back.”
“She better.” Megan folded her hands in her lap. “So. No kissing yet, but you two are a couple?”
“Also not yet?” I imagined my smile was more of a wince, because Megan looked furious.
“What are you doing? This is my brother. The man you’ve been in love with for at least two years that I know of.”
“Wait. I never said—”
“Please. What am I, stupid?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I guess it probably seems dumb to you. But hear me out, okay? I’m tired of doing all the heavy lifting. And I explained it to him. We’re friends because I sought him out. He’s finally doing more than justthinkingabout the youth center because I pushed him.”
“And you don’t want to be a couple because you dragged him kicking and screaming.” Megan sighed. “I guess I get that. So where does that leave things?”
“I told him I’m open to dating him. But that I’m also not going to commit to exclusivity.”
“What? That’s dumb.” Megan shook her head. “Austin’s not built like that. If he thinks you want someone else, he’s going to step out of the way. He’s a gentleman.”
