Searching for Neverland (6 page)

“No, they have silent quickies so the kids won’t hear,” Josh chuckled.

Allison just glared at both of us, as she got up to answer the door. “You two are not normal.”

“Thank you,” Josh and I called back to her, and then he grinned at me. “If that’s normal, she can have it.”

“Amen to that,”
I said, raising my beer
so he could clink it against his.

I watched Kyle and Corey walk through the house behind Allison. 

“Hey guys,” I said, leaning back in my chair as they all came outside. I stood up to hug Corey and noticed the grin on his face. “It’s about time you got up the nerve to propose.”

“I was afraid she’d say no,” he said, and Allison just shook her h
ead
as she looked at him adoringly.

“Hey Corey, what are your thoughts on kids?” Josh called out to him as he tossed him a beer.

Corey caught it and looked over at Allison. “Can’t wait to have them.”

Josh shivered, and I sighed. All around me my friends were growing up, and I was just stagnant. At least Josh was right there with me.

“Josh, man, you’re great with the kids when you come out to help us coach,” Corey said. “And they love you.”

“Yeah,” Josh said, pointing at him with the spatula he was wielding, “but that’s because they’re other people’s kids. I like kids. I just don’t want any of my own. I used to hang out with Jeremy’s kids all the ti
me, but I also know what a full-
time job being a parent is, and I’m perfectly content with the way my life is right now.”

“So you’ll babysit your little niece or nephew, right?” Allison asked, as she went to stand beside him.

Josh grinned. “Yeah, I will – as long as I can give him or her back to you when it needs to be changed.”

“Can I sign up for that too?” Corey asked.

Allison laughed
and shook her head at her fiancé. “Not a chance.”

“Damn, man,” Kyle piped in. “Don’t have kids too soon. If you do that, who will I go out drinking with?”

“Taylor,” Allison said, winking at me.

“Nice,” Kyle said, giving me a knowing look.

“Pig,” I said to him, turning away in mock disgust, as Allison reached over and squeezed Corey against her side and looked up at him adoringly.

I couldn’t help smiling at them. It was really very sweet that they were all happy and in love with each other. I looked over at Josh. He was smiling at his sister and his future brother-in-law. When he caught me looking at him, he turned to smile at me, and I knew what was behind that smile, and in that moment, I was so grateful to have him in my life.

“All joking aside, congratulations, man. Welcome to the family,” Josh said, as he walked over to hug Corey.

“Where are his cute baseball friends?” I whispered to Allison who sat back down beside me.

“They couldn’t come, but they’re meeting us later at O’Donnell’s.”

Then Josh turned to me, interrupting our conversation. “Swift, help me with the burgers, will you?”

“Sure,” I said, heaving myself out of my seat.

“You okay?” he asked quietly, as we ventured into the house.

I nodded. “I’m fine. They look so happy.”

I looked back at Allison, who had perched herself on Corey’s lap. She was talking to him and smiling.

“They are,” Josh said, and he looked as if he wanted to say something more, but he held back. “Here take these. I’ll meet you back outside.”

He handed me the plate of cheese and buns and turned away from me as he shook something onto the burgers. I watched how tense his shoulders were and wondered if he was okay. I was about to ask when the doorbell rang.

“That’s probably Kimmy,” he said quickly. “I’ll get it.”

He rushed past me, and I took that as my cue to head back to the porch. A few minutes later, Josh came back outside with the plate of burgers and a pretty, very petite blond. She was tentatively holding his free hand and hanging back as he introduced her to everyone.

She seemed nice, and I wasn’t sure what Allison’s problem with her was. When she took the seat closest to where Josh was loading the burgers onto the grill, I reached into the cooler to hand her a beer, but she politely waved me off. 

“I don’t drink beer,” she said
,
in a voice that would have been more fitting on an eight year-old
,
with just a hin
t of disdain behind her words. But the expression on her face made it seem liked I’d offered her arsenic.

I gave her what I can only imagine was a funny look
in return
. All I could think was, who doesn’t drink beer? Actually, who dates Josh and doesn’t drink beer? That was the bigger question. He was a bartender at an Irish pub for God’s sake
, and beer was one of his four major food groups
.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, putting the beer back in the cooler. “I’m not sure we have anything else.”

I instantly wished Josh would have told us that his girlfriend didn’t drink beer, but maybe he didn’t know.

“Josh baby, I’d like a glass of wine,” she said abruptly, as she tossed her hair back over her shoulder and set her oversized Gucci tote on the ground. “And can you turn the fan on. It’s really hot out here.”

My eyebrows shot up into my hairline, and I looked over at Allison to see if I’d heard Kimmy correctly. Allison gave me a look that said, I told you so.

“Sure, babe,” he said. “Just give me a minute to get these going. I bought the kind of wine you said you liked. Kyle, flip that fan on, will you?”

This caused my eyebrows to rise yet again. Did he just do whatever she told him to do? And had he actually purchased wine for her? Did we even have wine glasses, or would he serve it to her in a Solo cup?

A minute later, he went inside and came back out with the answers to my questions. Apparently we now owned wine glasses.

“Thanks, Josh baby,” Kimmy said, taking the glass and flashing her too white teeth at him.

My eyes went wide, and Allison started elbowing my upper arm. I looked over at her and made a face. She shook her head and rolled her eyes at Kimmy who sat prissily on the end of her chair in a pink halter top, white capri’s, and four inch sandals, while Josh stood next to her in a black t-shirt, cargo shorts and a backwards baseball hat. He’d foregone shoes altogether.
T
they
even looked
wrong for each other.

A
few
minute
s
later, I was thankfully distracted when Sean and Cole came outside, because I probably could have continued staring at Kimmy like she was a science experiment all night.
She had yet to acknowledge any of us
, only talked to Josh,
and
she just looked uncomfortable. I knew she didn’t want to be there.

My stomach did a little flip when I caught sight of
Cole
, and he flashed his winning smile at all of us. He had that sexy surfer look down pat. His longish, blond hair was streaked by the sun, and his eyes were a sexy, hazel color. Add that to his amazing body, and you had a pretty perfect specimen to gaze at. 

I was getting hot just looking at him. I wanted to fan myself, but instead, I took off my scarf and laid it on the table.

“Thank God,” Josh said, as he took a seat next to Kimmy and took a big swig of his beer. “You finally took that neck brace off.”

“Oh, ha, ha
.
You are the funniest person I’ve ever met, Josh Nolan. You can feel free to bite me at any time.”

“Like I said, come over here, and I will,” he said, as he raised his eyebrows at me suggestively, and then his expression froze and fell as he realized what he’d just said in front of his girlfriend.

I snuck a glance a
t Kimmy to see if she’d noticed
and saw that her eyebrows had shot up at his comment, but as soon as my gaze met hers, she eyed me warily for a few seconds before looking back at Josh. It was almost as if she was keeping an eye on him, and I couldn’t
really
blame her.

In general, girls always had a hard time dealing with the relationship that Josh and I had, but it sure didn’t help when he openly flirted in front of them. Even if there was nothing behind the flirting, they didn’t know that, and I’d been glared at more times than I cared to count. But it wasn’t the right time to try to explain all that to Kimmy, so I decided I’d just let Josh handle it later. She was his girlfriend, after all.

Instead
of saying anything to her
, I turned to Cole and attempted to flirt with him.
“Hey Cole,” I squeaked out. 

Yeah, not my best effort, but the fact that he was single was making me tongue-tied. I took a sip of my beer in an effort to level my voice out.

“How are you?” I tried again, as he reached forward for a handful of Doritos from the bowl in the center of the table.

“I’m good,” he said, in his sexy, gravelly voice. “How’s everything with you?”

He popped a chip into his mouth, and I watched his chiseled jaw and smooth throat, mesmerized by the simple act of chewing and swallowing.

“I’m great,” I finally breathed, as I shifted my gaze to his eyes and his beyond long eyelashes. 

“That’s good to hear,” he said and smiled at me.

He was a sweet guy to the outside world, but I knew he had a raunchy side that most people didn’t know about, and a part of me really just wanted to drag him upstairs and see just how much fun I could have with him – which was totally out of character for me – but something about Cole made me want to do dark and dangerous things. And I’d heard a variety of stories about him from Josh that had, let’s say, intrigued me.

I opened my mouth to start flirting again, but before I could say anything, I noticed Casey walking in the front door. I got up to greet my friend and asked Cole to save my seat. No way
was I letting anyone else claim my prime real estate for the evening. Maybe I’d subtly start flirting with him and see what happened.

“You got it, cutie,” he said, and I blushed scarlet.

I quickly turned away from him and strode into the house, hoping the color would fade from my face. I didn’t want him to see how he made me blush. 

“Hey girl,” I greeted my friend.

A huge grin lit up Casey’s face. “What’s up, chica?” she asked, as she reached out to hug me.

I loved Casey. She was such a bad girl, but in a really fun way – sort of like the female version of Cole. She was tall and super-skinny with a hardly any curves, and she had long light brown hair that hung down her back in beachy waves. I hated her when I first met her, because she was so intimidating, but then we bonded over martinis one night after we both got yelled at by our boss and became instant friends.

“I have got to tell you about the ridiculously hot guy I slept with last night,” Casey
said, linking her arm with mine
as we started to walk outside.

“Is it going to make me jealous tha
t I haven’t gotten laid in several
months?”

“Oh yes,” she said in that naughty girl tone of hers.

“Tell me later,” I grumbled, not wanting to hear about her sexual escapades when my sex life was non-existent.

When we walked back outside, Sean instantly sat up straight when he saw Casey. “Hey Case,” he said, smirking at her and patting the seat next to him. She paused, shrugged, and then flopped down in the chair, grabbing his beer and taking a long sip.

I noticed that Cole was engaged in a conversation with Kimmy, and it sounded like it wasn’t the first time he’d met her. She was telling him some story about work that he was laughing at. I caught the tail end of it, so the punch line didn’t make any sense to me.

I turned to Allison who was on my right and raised my eyebrows at her. 

“Let’s go get the other food, Taylor,” she said, and I knew it was her way of telling me she wanted to dish on Kimmy.

“Sure,” I said, getting up and following her into the house.

As soon as we were in the kitchen, she turned around and put her hands on her hips, as I started to pull the food out of the refrigerator.

“So,” she prompted, “what do you think?”

“
First impression – s
he’s a total bitch,” I said, as I pulled out the potato salad and coleslaw. “And I think she hates me.”

“Well, you and Josh do have that weird, sexual chemistry thing going on, so I can see why.”

“Allison!”

“Whatever. You do.” Then Allison threw her hands up in frustration. “She’s awful!” she practically shrieked, and my eyes darted to the porch to see if anyone had heard her, but no one seemed to be paying us any attention.

“Al, calm down,” I said, trying to pacify her.  “Sure, we don’t like her, but Josh seems really into her, so we have to be nice.”

“Why? Why does he like her? She sucks! It doesn’t make any sense.”
Allison’s hands flew back to her hips, and she started tapping her foot. “
And
I disagree
with you
. He’s my brother, and he is not bringing that bitch into our family. We
have
to
do
something! You didn’t hear what she muttered about Casey when she saw her. Ugh, I can’t stand that my brother is actually dating
a judgmental bitch
like her.”