“Not at all. I don’t want to get killed.”
She couldn’t help but giggle as the guy looked around the room. Probably to see if Lucas was in earshot. Ever since Fallon finally decided to stop being an idiot, she and Lucas had become close. Lucas was the brother she never had, and she loved him dearly. She couldn’t count how many times Lucas had yelled at Levi for dating her. He hated it and said that Levi wasn’t good enough for her.
Maybe she should have listened sooner.
Even though she knew she shouldn’t, she asked, “So what is your name?”
She needed to know. There was something about him. Maybe his eyes. They were mesmerizing. Or maybe his swagger. He was confident. He really looked at her like he was taking in everything about her, and she liked that, but knew that nothing could ever happen between them. She just needed to get him to promise never to mention that night and everything would be fine. She needed to make sure that Lucas and Fallon never found out about them. They would freak.
“Tate. Tate Odder,” he said. He flashed her a winning grin, taking her breath away. He had beautiful white teeth with a sweet little gap between the two in front. When her eyes took in his gap, her breath caught. Man, that had to be the hottest thing ever on a guy. It was the simple imperfections that always made Audrey’s heart race.
“Otter?” she said. By the way he kept grinning, she had said it wrong.
“Ooo-der,” he said, breaking down the sounds for her.
“Oooooooooder?” she asked.
Tate smiled.
“Works for me.”
They shared an intimate grin before Audrey looked away. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too. Thank you for the cupcakes.”
Whoa!
“You’re my neighbor? Lucas’s best friend?” Oh God, how did it not click? Fallon had said countless times that Tate was young and that he was gorgeous! Was she that distracted by the gap and his eyes that she didn’t even realize he was her neighbor?!
“Yup, that’s me.”
Oh God, she couldn’t breathe. The guy who she slept with was not only her neighbor but also her brother-in-law’s best friend and the guy for whom she sat up for hours just to listen to him play the piano. No wonder he was good with his hands and fingers. Ack! Don’t think about sex with him, Audrey! she told herself. Dumb girl! Ah!
“Oh my God,” she gasped out.
“What?”
“Oh nothing, I just fucked up royally.”
Tate’s face twisted in confusion. “Royally?”
“Yeah. I got drunk and slept with my brother-in-law’s best friend, who is also my neighbor, who probably isn’t over the age of eighteen. I am a winner.”
“I am twenty-one,” he said sternly, and she could tell he was irritated.
“Well, thank God, you can drink! Oh my God, I am sick,” she muttered, before taking a long pull of her own drink. She needed to get away from him. She was pretty sure she couldn’t embarrass herself anymore, and really, who sleeps with a kid? He was seven years younger than her! When he was being born, she was in first grade, begging Bryan Richards to hold her hand! When he was seven, she had sex for the first time with Bryan Richards! And when he was fourteen, she was getting an abortion! No, it wasn’t Bryan Richards’s baby, wouldn’t that have been something, but still! She was eons older than this kid!
“So, I take asking you to dance would be a waste of my time?”