Authors: Delia Delaney
There was silence for a few seconds before he said, “She has a crush on me, why can’t you?”
I smiled at his humor but shook my head to myself. Was I really going to answer that truthfully?
“Maybe I
do
have a crush on you, but it means nothing at this point. I have a boyfriend.”
“
‘
At this point
.’
Yeah, I’m only hearing ‘Yes Jared, you have a chance.’ ”
With a
laugh I said, “You can ask Zack and he’ll tell you that I’m really a bit commitment-phobic right now. I’m not ready for anything serious, and he agreed to take it easy on me.”
“Does that mean seeing other people?”
“No,” I scoffed. “I can’t even manage one at a time.”
He chuckled
and I wasn’t sure what it meant. But he did say, “Okay, fine. I understand. But just so you know…I’d l
ove to spend some time with you—even as friends, if that’s okay.
If you change your mind let me know. And I hope
you don’t turn down
a
ny future business propositions
because
of me since
you’ve earned them on your own. I’ll leave it up to management to schedule you and I’ll stay out of it.”
“Is that your wounded retreat?” I teased.
“
Yes
,
and
I’m gonna cry as soon as we hang up.”
“Aw, don’t do that.”
“You’ve given me no choice.”
“Just write a song.”
“I think I will.”
“Just don’t make me sound evil.”
He
laughed
. “Okay, I won’t.”
“And don’t use my real name.”
“
I can’t make any promises.”
Chapter Nine
“How can you like two guys the same?” Lexi scowled as she tied another balloon. “Why can’t you just pass one along to me? Besides, who is this Jared guy and how can he be cuter than hot soccer dad?”
I smiled because she still kept calling Zack “hot soccer dad.” But I didn’t want to get into who Jared was because Lexi was the type of person that celebrities tried to avoid.
“He’s the guy from my sister’s PR banquet, remember?”
“A suit? Aw come on, Taryn. That’s not you.”
“He’s not like that. He’s totally not like that,” I added
, mostly to myself
.
She looked at me carefully and then shrugged. “Okay, fine. So what is
it
about him that you like?”
I thought about that as I blew up another balloon. After letting the dizziness wear off I answered, “I just like how
easygoing
he is.”
“You said that about Zack.”
“I know.”
“Okay, so what else?”
“Uh, well, he just seems to like me for me.”
“Zack does too.”
I sighed. “See?”
“Okay, I get it. So they’re a lot alike. Then it’s
gotta
come down to two things: looks and careers. Who’s
better
looking, and who’s got the best career.”
“That’s not so easy either.”
“Let me guess, they’re both
equally
hot, and they’re both happy with their jobs.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Okay, then what else is important to you? What is something that you could use to find out
who tips the scale? Oh I got it.
Maggie,” she smiled. “Not all guys are comfortable around kids—”
“They’re both great with her,” I replied almost sullenly. “And she adores both of
them
, too, even though she’s been only been around Jared one time.”
“Well there you go. Zack is around and he’s committed to you. He sounds more consistent.”
“Yeah, but that’s because I told Jared I had a boyfriend and I wasn’t interested in seeing anyone else.”
She stared at me with
an open
mouth.
“What?” I asked.
“You’re honestly confused? You’re dating
a
great guy and you’re still thinking about the other one all the time? Doesn’t that tell you something, Taryn?”
“That I’m stupid?”
“That you’ve got to spend time with Jared,” she laughed. “Come on, you know it’s the only solution right now. What’s it going to hurt? You either realize that he’s not that great of
a
guy and you appreciate that you have Zack, or you find out that he’s better than Zack, and you’re glad you had the sense to find out. I mean you say that things with you and Zack are pretty
casual
—which is what you wanted. You owe it to yourself to
find out, Taryn. Especially if you’re not really that invested in your current relationship.
”
I wanted to argue the last part, but I knew it was true. Zack and I were on pretty casual terms, and even though we spent time together like a couple, we both agreed to keep it simple by putting our other priorities first. If he had work to do, he did it. If I had work to do, I did it. If Maggie needed me, I always put her first. If getting together wasn’t an option, we didn’t make a big deal about it. I never regretted any time that I spent with Zack, and I believed he felt the same way, but I was so set on keeping my life trouble-free that I was really comfortable without the pressure.
But now this thing with Jared… I was bothered with myself for letting it affect me. I guess it had been the same thing when Zack first started to pursue me, so obviously it was a pattern, right?
I was just not good
at
dealing with the stress of dating.
By noon the house looked pretty festive. Maggie was with her mom for the morning (thank goodness
Rachel
actually took that Saturday off), and while they were shopping and doing girl stuff, I agreed to get the house ready for the party that afternoon.
Zack had called that morning from Canada to wish her a happ
y birthday, but Maggie
had already left. I spent thirty minutes talking to him while I finished up the cake, and
that’s when
Lexi had arrived to help me decorate
the house
.
When
we’d been hanging
up streamers, my phone rang again, and I was shocked that it was Jared. Apparently he’d seen his dad earlier that day and somehow it came up that it was
Maggie’s
birthday.
“I won’t
invite myself to the party,” he
said, “but I did get her a gift. It’s not every day that I
get to shop for a little girl
.”
I felt obligated to invite him after that, but he said he couldn’t
make it
anyways.
“
It’s okay,
I can just have it sent over.”
I didn’t argue the matter. For one I didn’t want that kind of stress on me by having him there, and another, I really didn’t want to subject him to anyone that might recognize who he was.
Rachel
was aware of it—and to her he was just
John’s son
—but other than that I chose to keep things
simple
.
Maggie loved her birthday party and I was glad. I took lots of photos in between trying to organize games for her and her little friends. I actually had to ask
Rachel
to do this or that—like it wasn’t her job to begin with—but I was glad that she was at least there.
But I guess that didn’t last long when an important client was in town and wanted
Rachel
to
entertain
her
that night
. My sister spent an hour of Maggie’s party getting ready to go out to dinner, and then cut out before the presents were even opened. Lexi took over the party for a few minutes while I argued with
Rachel
in the bedroom, but it didn’t do any good when she decided to leave anyways.
I was furious.
I guess the only good thing was that Maggie wasn’t really affected by her mom’s departure. She had presents to keep her happy when her friends left, and while I cleaned up the house, she
was content dressing up in her new dress up clothes.
Around seven there was a knock at the door. I guess I was surprised that it was Jared, but in a way I wasn’t. At the same time, just seeing him bothered me.
Besides earlier that morning,
I’d only talked to him one time since
he ate dinner with us
, and that was
when he called
to compliment me on the concert photos
from
the
WaMu
theatre. I’ll admit that I was glad he’d called that day, and it really did make me reco
nsider him all over again.
N
ow I was face to face with him. Now I couldn’t help but stare at him while my pulse picked up speed.
I thought that he looked pretty hot in a pair of worn jeans, a button-up shirt, and a slim-fitting jacket.
His hair was spiked into a little fauxhawk—
that
was trademark Jared Miller, and for some reason made him more recognizable. Had he looked like that when I first met him, maybe I would have had a clue.
“I just wanted to drop off Maggie’s present,” he said with a partial smile. He handed the small gift to me and asked, “How’d the party go?”
“Uh, pretty good,” I nodded. “I think she had fun.”
I glanced back at her and she looked up; then she saw it was Jared at the door and she hopped up from the floor. Jared didn’t notice from the porch, and I could tell he was just about to say departing words, but Maggie was at the door saying hello just as I said, “You can come in.”
“Hey Maggie,” he said, acknowledging her first. Then he quietly said to me, “You don’t have to invite me in…”
But it was kind of pointless since Maggie was dragging him into the house to show him her new stuff, and I was still trying to recover my nerves from having him near me again.
I could barely smell him as he walked by me and it made my stomach feel all tingly.
Maggie went through every gift that she could, and Jared attentively acknowledged each one. But I couldn’t help but notice that he’d look at me every so often, and even though I was one of three people in the room and it was expected, I just seemed to read into it a little more.
Especially when Maggie wasn’t looking at him while she was yammering away. He was staring at me with that smug look on his face, like he knew how much he
was killing
me with those eyes.
Since that was making me uncomfortable, I finally
said, “Maggie, Jared brought you a gift.”
I’d been holding it for a few minutes, waiting for the chance to present it
to her
.
I actually handed it to Jared so he could give it to her, and she climbed up on the couch to sit by him.
“It’s not very big,” she
stated
.
There was
n’t
really
any
meaning to it since it was just an observation coming from a
five
-year-old. But Jared only smiled and watched her open it.
It was a spoon.
“Huh?” Maggie asked, looking it over.
Even though she didn’t get
it at first, I did, and I was amused
. Who would have thought of a
stupid spoon
for a birthday present?
Jared only took the spoon from her—
which by the way
was a very artsy looking thing, and it even had Maggie’s name on it—and he hung it on her nose.
“It sticks!” she exclaimed,
but
her movement made it drop. She stuck it back on by herself and smiled bigger than life. She came to me so I could get a closer look, and when the spoon fell again from her excitement, I couldn’t help but look it over for a second
when I picked it up
. Yep, it was mad
e especially for nose hanging—l
ightweight and
shaped
to stick.
“What do you tell Jared?” I asked her quietly.
She turned around and said a very happy, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Maggie frowned and
said, “I wanna show Abigail.”
“Oh.
Well, we’ll have
Abby
over again.”
“Okay,” she nodded, and then she hung the spoon back on her nose and went back to her other toys.
So only Jared could hear I
murmured
, “Give me time to recover from today first.”