Audrey shrugged. “Yeah, so?”
“What, do you have a lot of them or something?” he asked, his eyes not leaving hers. She took a deep breath. She was nervous, and that made no damn sense! Why did she care if this guy thought she was even more crazy?
“Um, yeah. She has a whole room,” Aiden scoffed. “It’s crazy.”
“It is not!” Audrey countered, while Piper giggled.
“Yes, it is. And the shoes are all high ones, not flat ones like I wear. Ones with high sticks and glitter and stuff.”
Audrey glared at Aiden. “Wow, anything else you want to say, bud?”
He gave her a wide grin. “No, ma’am.”
Audrey shook her head while stealing a glance at Tate. He was still watching her, a smile tugging at his lips. But then Piper started to talk, taking his attention.
“It’s really intense, Tate,” Piper said. She took a huge bite of her s’more, making everyone wait while she chewed and swallowed. “She has this massive closet and I swear there is no room for anything in there but her heels. I bet she only has two pairs of sneakers.”
Was it pick-on-Audrey night or something?
Still staring down at her s’more, Audrey said, “It’s really not that bad.”
Piper giggled. “Sure it isn’t.”
“Isn’t Lucas working on your closet?”
Audrey looked up from her s’more. Tate was making another s’more for Aiden but still had his eyes on her. She nodded and said, “Yeah.”
“Yeah, he asked me to help him. I guess you really do have a lot of shoes.”
Audrey shrugged her shoulders, embarrassed. “I guess.”
“So, Tate, are you dating anyone?”
Both Tate and Audrey whipped their heads around to stare at Piper in response to her question. She, of course, was grinning her cute little gappy smile.
“Hey, you have a gap too,” Tate said.
Audrey whipped her head back to Tate to see that he was grinning as wide as Piper, and that they were giving each other googly eyes!
What the hell!
“I do and I love it. We gap folks need to stick together,” Piper flirted.
Tate smiled, and by the grace of God, before he could say anything, Aiden asked, “Hey, Tate, wanna help me and Will get a soda?”
“Aiden, I can get you a water,” Audrey said.
“I want Tate to,” Aiden said.
Before she could get up, Tate was already standing with a laughing Aiden over his shoulders.
“Is it okay?” he asked.
Audrey nodded. “Sure, but a water, please.”
“Will do.”
Audrey and Piper watched as Tate carried Aiden into the house. Once they were out of earshot, Audrey reached over, smacking Piper on the arm.
“Ow!”
“What the hell! I slept with him!” Audrey stressed.
“So? He’s hot, and you said you didn’t want him. I’m not on a Guy Break, but I would love to go on a break with Tate. He has a gap, Audrey. I love gaps.”
“You don’t love gaps! I love gaps! Back off!”
Piper’s face twisted in a grin. She reminded Audrey of a cat that just ate the canary. She actually scared Audrey a bit. “Why would I back off, Audrey?”
When she didn’t answer, Piper’s grin grew. “The only reason I could think of would be if my BFF was trying to holler at the gorgeous Tate? Are you?”
Thankfully, Tate and Aiden chose that moment to come back outside. Audrey looked down at her sticky fingers and couldn’t help but wonder why she was telling Piper to back off. She didn’t want to date Tate, so why did it matter if Piper did?
She looked up then and caught Tate staring at her. Her eyes drifted shut a little as his mouth curved in a naughty little grin. When his tongue pressed the back of his gap, she knew the reason why she couldn’t let Piper and Tate hook up.
She wanted him.
Well, fuck.
At the end of the night, Audrey turned her attention to Piper as she got up to leave.
“ ’Bye, Tate, thanks for the tasty treats,” Piper said, and winked as she strode into Audrey’s condo.