The Way to Game the Walk of Shame(36)

My face flushed, and I swept my hair up in a ponytail to give myself something to do. “That’s great, Mom. You’d rather believe the dog than your own daughter.”

“Well, Oreo doesn’t know how to lie. And you do. You’re a teenager, after all.” She swept a couple of strands behind my ears. “At least I think you are. I’m not sure how old you are sometimes.”

“Ha-ha.”

Mom gave me a half smile. “Come on, Cole. I’m sure they can handle it. It’s weeding, not rocket science.”

“But it’s very complicated—”

“How complicated could it be? You pull everything but the grass. I think even Taylor might be able to handle that,” she teased, nudging my shoulder with her left elbow. “Come on, Kimmy.”

Dad laughed. “You’re right.” They both moved a few feet away to the big teapot fountain they’d bought in Chinatown, dirt-smeared hand in dirt-smeared hand. Oreo raced over to join them. Kimmy gave us a sad look, but she followed Mom and Dad.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed through my thin smile.

Evan’s grin brightened even more under the sun. “You got to meet my parents, so I thought it would only be fair that I meet yours.”

“I met yours by accident.”

“Technicality.” He patted the patch of grass beside him. “Now, are you going to help me or not?”

I was tempted to, but I shoved that urge down. “I’m busy,” I said, jerking my thumb over my shoulder at the house. “I still have to finish my physics homework.”

“Aw, come on, you can finish that later. If you want, I could tutor you.”

“You?”

Evan raised an eyebrow. “Yes, Ms. Know-It-All, me. I’ll have you know that I have a knack for physics. The A I have in that class is the only thing that’s saving me from my C in Spanish.”

“You have a C in Spanish?”

“Oui. Hard to believe, huh?”

That’s for sure. Stifling a laugh, I shuffled my weight from side to side before giving in. Oh, what the hell. I could use a break. The formulas weren’t sinking in anyway. And it really was a nice day. Sunny, but still cloudy enough to give shade. There was even a light breeze that came by every few minutes. I sank down beside him and pulled at the weeds.

“So…” He scooted closer. “Brian never came over before?”

“No.”

“Funny, he seems like the type of guy you’d want to bring home to your parents.” The smugness in his voice was obvious.

His words rang in my head. I jerked around to look at him, and he had an amused, satisfied look on his face. “You overheard our conversation yesterday?”

Evan rolled his eyes. “Well, it’s not like you guys were whispering.”

Not knowing what to say, I just ducked my head lower and pretended to be absorbed in digging out the roots.

“Don’t get me wrong, Brian would be the better guy to bring home. He’s perfect. Nauseatingly perfect.” His voice grew softer. “Maybe you could start something up when we’re done with ‘our little thing.’”

This wasn’t something that I hadn’t thought of nearly a hundred times over the years. Brian hit every point on my list of the perfect guy. But I always figured that would happen later. “Yeah, maybe.”

His eyes grew a little thoughtful at my answer. He stared at me for another minute or so before a huge grin crossed his face. “But you still won’t work out in the end. You can’t.”

I didn’t want to ask, but my curiosity got the better of me. “Why not?”

“Because you’re both too smart. And I mean, too smart. Like any kid you have would be an evil genius who would end up taking over the world or something.”

I snorted so loud that Mom and Dad looked over at us. I moved closer to Evan so they wouldn’t hear. “I never thought of it that way.”

“It’s true. In fact, you’re saving the world by being with me instead of him.”

“Yeah, well, just call me Wonder Woman, I guess.”

Now it was his turn to snort. “I wouldn’t mind seeing you try on the costume.” He looked me up and down in my oversize sweatshirt and tights and gave me a fake leer. “Definitely something to think about for next Halloween.”

I sat back and pulled my knees up to cover my chest. “You’d just have to come up to New York to visit me at Columbia and see for yourself. Unless you’ll be somewhere nearby anyway?”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

Evan turned away and focused on the weeding, effectively ending the conversation like he always did when I brought up college.

I leaned my chin against my knee and rocked back and forth. Who would have thought that I, Taylor Simmons, would be weeding with Evan McKinley? Wasn’t this what old married couples do?

Even though every girl at school lusted after him, I never did. Okay, I did appreciate the great male specimen that he was, but he was too … burly. My eyes scanned his features. Although there’s no denying that he looked good in his jeans and sweatshirt digging in the dirt.

He looked up and caught me midstare. Crap. I immediately dropped my eyes and attacked the weeds in front of me as though they were Lauren’s hair. Or they had made me fail a class. He laughed under his breath, but he didn’t say anything, Thank god. Still, I didn’t dare look up again until my face stopped burning.