Searching for Neverland Read online

  “Hey you!” Allison shouted as she got up from the bed and ran to where Josh was standing, her long dark hair flying out behind her.

  I caught a glimpse of what looked like visible pain on his face as her voice reached an octave that was much higher than usual. She stuck her left hand out to show him her engagement ring. She was bouncing on her toes in front of him as he took in her ring.

  “Congratulations, little sis,” Josh said, as he reached out to hug her.

  He glanced at me over her shoulder to most likely gauge how I was holding up. I smiled to show him that I was fine. His return smile told me that he was glad, but it also let me know that my little meltdown the night before after I’d heard Allison was engaged was not going to be mentioned again.

  “Why do you look like shit and smell like a brewery?” she asked, as she pulled back and appraised Josh with just the slightest bit of detest in her voice.

  Allison was fully dressed, unlike her two roommates who were partial to undergarments so early in the morning. And she wasn’t a big drinker.

  Josh groaned. “I drank way too much last night.”

  I gave him a questioning look. “You weren’t that drunk when I went to bed.”

  “Yes, but after you went to bed, Beerfest came on, so I stayed up to watch it. You cannot watch that movie without pounding back a serious quantity of alcohol,” he explained, like it was the most logical explanation in the world.

  “What time did you actually go to bed?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Four-thirty or so?”

  “Well, that explains why you look so bad,” Allison said. “Go back to sleep.”

  She gave him a light push on the chest, as if to urge him toward his room.

  “I was trying to sleep, but I couldn’t help but wake up when I heard all the screeching,” he said sarcastically.

  Allison rolled her eyes at her big brother. “Whatever. We’re leaving anyway, so we won’t bother you anymore.”

  “We are?” I questioned, thinking that all I really wanted to do was take Josh’s lead and go back to bed. Where did Allison think we were going?

  “Get dressed,” she said, turning to me. “We’re going to brunch.”

  I groaned.

  “Come on, Tay. I’m starving,” she half-whined. “It’s my engagement brunch. You have to celebrate with me.”

  I raised my eyebrows at her. “Engagement brunch? What the hell is that? And when did you have time to plan an engagement brunch?”

  She wrinkled her nose up like she always did when she realized that she needed to persuade someone to do something they didn’t want to do. And I realized there was no engagement brunch.

  “Come on, Taylor. You’re my best friend. Corey has a baseball game, so I don’t have anyone to celebrate with.” She pouted for emphasis. “Spend the day with me. We can shop.”

  Dammit, that worked. I totally caved. Shopping was my weakness, and she knew it.

  “Fine,” I said, as I started to get up from my bed that was oh so comfortable. “You win.”

  “Yea!” She jumped up and down as she clapped her hands together. “Do you want to come, J?” she asked, turning to Josh.

  Josh looked at her in surprise. “No thanks. Brunch and shopping are not on my agenda for today. Sleep is, however.”

  She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Fine, go sleep.”

  I looked at him in an envious sort of way. I wanted to sleep, too. Okay, no, celebrating with Allison and shopping was what I should be doing. I was a good friend. And, I could find something to wear to the barbeque we were having that night. Bonus.

  “Are you guys going to be back in time to help me set up?” Josh asked.

  Allison looked over at me. I nodded.

  “Sure,” she said. “We’ll be back at like four. No one’s coming over until five, so we’ll be fine.”

  “Don’t forget that you have to buy the meat for the hamburgers,” I reminded Josh. “And apparently more beer. Are we out?”

  He nodded and grimaced. “Yeah, I finished it off. I’ll shop later,” he grumbled, before turning to head back to his room.

  Allison turned to me as soon as he was gone.

  “Okay, time for you to get ready to go to brunch with me,” she sing-songed.

  Blah, I thought, as I climbed off my bed. I had a slight headache. Maybe coffee and pancakes would be just what I needed.

  “Only if you stop singing your words,” I threatened in my most sarcastically sweet voice.

  “Fine,” she said, scowling. “I need to call my mom anyway. Come to my room when you’re ready.”

  I nodded, as I walked past her to my bathroom.

  Forty-five minutes later, I was dressed in one of my favorite sundresses and looked mostly presentable. I honestly looked like I could use some more sleep, but with the make-up I’d added, no one but me would be able to tell.

  I walked down the hallway past Josh’s closed door to Allison’s open one. She was still on the phone but looked up at me when I walked in and sat on her bed. I noticed that she had left some newly purchased bridal magazines on her nightstand.

  I picked one up and started to flip through it. It wasn’t too early to get an idea of what the bridesmaids should wear. She hung up the phone a few minutes later and we were off to brunch.

  The weather hit me as soon as we were outside and reminded me of how much I hated the summer in Florida. Even at ten in the morning, it was already over eighty degrees outside, and the humidity was probably close to a hundred percent. It was gross. But at least there was a light breeze blowing off the bay.

  “So how was your date last night?” Allison asked as we climbed into her black Acura SUV. “Paul was his name, right?”

  “Yeah,” I groaned, not really wanting to rehash the suckiness of the date I’d been on with garlic boy.

  “Oh, that good, huh?”

  Allison gave me a knowing look. She also thought I was too picky, but I felt like I had every right to be choosey when it came to a potential future husband. It wasn’t like shopping for a new pair of shoes that I could discard after six months if they gave me blisters.

  But Allison didn’t understand. She’d met Corey in college and started dating him a few years later. They were such good friends, and she was so infatuated with him by the time they finally slept together, that she overlooked all his little flaws.

  “I don’t know why I even try, Al,” I sighed.

  She put her hand on my knee as she navigated through the streets of our South Tampa neighborhood.

  “Because you know that there is some amazing guy out there just waiting to meet you,” she assured me. I wasn’t convinced.

  “I hope so.”

  “I know so. So, what was wrong with this guy?”

  I launched into the same story I’d told Josh the night before.

  “So what are you going to do when he calls you?”

  I shrugged. “Same thing I always do. I’m not going to call him back.”

  “Taylor! You can’t not call him back,” she chastised me.

  “I can too,” I said vehemently. “I don’t want to talk to him. It’ll be much easier this way.”

  “You are so mean to the poor guys you date and dismiss,” she said, looking at me in disbelief.

  “I know, but I’m also a chicken-shit when it comes to letting guys down, so I opt out of having the tough conversations. No one wants to hear that you’re not interested in them, so I just don’t tell them.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “Yeah, I know I am. It’s a sickness, and it’s why I ended up drinking beers with Josh last night instead of having sex.”

  Allison made a face. I knew she wasn’t a fan of sex on the first date, and I didn’t do it often – especially lately – but sometimes a girl needed a one night stand to ease the tension in her life.

  “You could have had sex with Josh,” she teased.

  I made a face. “That’s gross.”

  “Hey,
my brother is a good looking guy, and you get along great with him. Why wouldn’t you sleep with him?”

  I raised my eyebrows at her. “Because I like our friendship and don’t want to ruin it.”

  Sure, I found Josh to be insanely attractive, and I was sure he was good in bed, but it was too dangerous to go there with him. It would be awkward afterward, and things were really good between us. We were better as friends.

  Allison gave me a look as she turned left onto Bay-to-Bay Boulevard. “Corey and I were best friends when we got together,” she said, as she turned into the parking lot of our favorite breakfast place and slid easily into a space.

  I gave her a funny look as I walked next to her into the restaurant. After we gave our name to the hostess, I turned to her and said, “You have never once in my adult life encouraged me to date your brother. Why are you doing it now?”

  She sighed. “I hate his new girlfriend. She’s a bitch, and Josh needs to stop messing around with girls who aren’t right for him. I think you guys would be perfect together.”

  I wanted to laugh, but she was serious. “So you’ve met Kimmy?” I asked instead.

  She nodded. “Corey and I were in O’Donnell’s last Sunday, and she was perched at the bar drinking wine and openly flirting with Josh. We talked for a few minutes, and I have absolutely no idea what he sees in her.”

  “Is she pretty?”

  Allison raised her eyebrows at me. “Yeah, but her personality just made her ugly. You’ll see. She’s coming over tonight.”

  “She is?” I questioned, wondering why Josh hadn’t mentioned that to me when we’d talked about Kimmy the night before.

  “Yes, she is, so brace yourself,” Allison whispered, as the hostess came back to escort us to our table.

  Chapter 3

  “Um, Al, it’s three forty-five,” I called into the dressing room. “We probably need to think about heading out. We promised Josh we’d be home in fifteen minutes.”

  “Fine. I’ll be out in a second. I just need to buy these jeans.”

  Allison had spent the day shopping for what she called her new ‘I’m Engaged’ wardrobe, and I’d had fun helping her spend a shitload of money on things she didn’t need. I figured it was my role as her best friend to do that for her.

  Of course, I’d bought my share of new things too, so I couldn’t really talk. I was calling it my ‘Taylor’s Going To Be Single Forever, So She’d Better Look Hot’ wardrobe.

  “So, is there anyone new coming tonight?” I asked, trying to sound casual, as we walked to the register.

  I was really hoping that there might be a cute guy or two coming over that night, but I didn’t want to give myself away. I really didn’t count on it, because out of our normal group of friends, there weren’t any prospects for me to date. It was rare that newcomers came into the mix, but I could hope.

  “Um, let me think,” she said, as she set her bags down and laid her jeans on the counter.

  “Corey invited some guys from work that I don’t think you’ve met. They’re coaching with him this summer. Matt and Chris are their names, I think.”

  Okay, good. Corey was a high school math teacher and an assistant baseball coach during the school year. During the summer, he coached a little league team. If those guys were coaches with him, then there was a chance that they would be good-looking and tall. It wasn’t common to find unattractive guys that played sports – although they were out there. Trust me.

  “Are they cute?”

  “Sure,” she said, as she handed the sales associate her credit card, but she didn’t sound very convincing.

  “Are they single?”

  “I think so. Why, do you want Corey to set you up?” she asked excitedly. I knew she hadn’t thought of it before.

  “Maybe. Let me meet them first, and I’ll let you know.

  “Okay,” she said, grinning at me, as she took the bag from the sales associate and we left the store. “I think you’ll like Matt the best. He’s definitely the cuter of the two.”

  “Alright, then Matt it is,” I agreed.

  Allison was quiet as we drove back home. I stared out the window and watched the scenery go by, but out of the corner of my eye, I could see her staring at her ring and smiling at her left hand resting on top of the steering wheel.

  We were going to be late, and I hoped Josh wouldn’t be too upset. It was inching up on four-fifteen when we got to the intersection of Kennedy and Dale Mabry, so I dug out my cell phone and dialed his number.

  He picked up on the third ring, and I thought I heard water running in the background.

  “Hey Swift,” he said, and I heard the water shut off.

  He’d been calling me Swift for a few years, as a play on my first name. It wasn’t the most original of nicknames, but I humored him.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “I was doing the dishes,” he said, and I sensed a note of triumph in his voice.

  “Shut up, you were not!”

  That was a huge deal. Josh was the worst about cleaning up after himself. I was constantly throwing his socks into his room after he’d left them in the living room or putting his dishes in the dishwasher. He was kind of a mess.

  “I was. I made mac and cheese for lunch and needed to wash the pot. Why is that such a surprise to you?”

  “It’s not,” I lied, not wanting to be a nagging roommate. “Anyway, I was just calling to let you know we’ll be there by four-thirty at the latest. Allison got caught up with a pair of jeans.”

  “Okay, that makes no sense to me, but I’ll take your word for it. No biggie with ya’ll being late. I’m going to start making the hamburgers. You can set up the deck when you get here.”

  I loved when he said ‘ya’ll’. Growing up Josh didn’t use words like that. He’d picked his southern vernacular and his slight drawl during the ten years he’d spent in Georgia, and in the three years he’d been back, he hadn’t lost it. It was slightly adorable.

  “Oh, so you’re banishing us to the porch?”

  “Hey now, I don’t need you sneaking a peak at my secret ingredients for the world’s best hamburgers.”

  I laughed. Josh prided himself on his hamburgers – one of the few foods he could actually cook. He would never let Allison or me know what he put in them. He was all CIA-like whenever he cooked them. Truthfully, we didn’t really care, as long as we got to eat them. They were amazing.

  “So, I heard Kimmy’s coming tonight,” I said with a slight giggle to my tone.

  “Yes, she is,” he said, with absolutely no humor in his voice.

  “Okay, fine,” I said, getting the message from his tone. “I promise not to make fun of her name anymore. Allison won’t either.” I elbowed Allison, so she would chime in.

  I knew she’d given him shit after meeting Kimmy for the first time, and he hadn’t taken it well.

  “No teasing whatsoever,” Allison said loud enough so Josh could hear her.

  “It’s the least you can do,” he said sarcastically.

  “Aww, don’t feel bad, J,” I said, feeling sympathetic for him.

  “Whatever. I’ll see you girls in a few minutes.”

  “See ya.”

  “Bye J,” Allison called out.

  I hung up the phone and dropped it back into my bag.

  “I won’t make fun of her name, but I might punch her if she’s a snotty bitch to me again,” Allison muttered, and I knew I couldn’t wait to meet Josh’s new girlfriend.

  Allison pulled into the driveway behind Josh’s stripped down black Jeep Wrangler with the orange ‘Watch Out for Motorcycles’ sticker on the back bumper. He’d had been a motorcycle lover for years, but he’d sold the bike he’d bought at eighteen when Jeremy died. And since then he’d been a huge advocate for motorcycle safety since Jeremy had been killed because someone hadn’t been paying attention and pulled out in front of him.

  As we scooted between his jeep and my convertible Toyota Solara and made our way through th
e garage, I could hear a song by All Time Low playing from the stereo in the living room at a decibel that was sure to piss off our neighbors. But it was early, so they probably wouldn’t say anything. And it was a nice change from the country music Josh sometimes liked to blare.

  Josh was just closing the refrigerator door when we walked in. He smiled at us. “Successful day, I assume,” he said, taking in the bags we were both carrying.

  “Yes, it was,” I said, as we walked past him, just waiting for the onslaught of teasing to begin. I shopped a lot, and he liked to make fun of me for it. “I got an adorable new bathing suit.”

  “Ooh, model it for me later,” he called, as Allison and I walked up the stairs.

  “In your dreams,” I said, leaning over the railing to look back at him.

  “Only my really dirty ones,” he shot back. Then he smirked at me and turned back to his hamburgers.

  “Jesus,” Allison muttered, from behind me on the stairs.

  “What?” I asked, confused at what had her muttering under her breath.

  “You and my brother. I don’t think you could flirt more if you tried.”

  “We’ve always been like this,” I said, waving her off.

  She shook her head. “No you haven’t. Yeah, you’ve always flirted, sure, but now you’re just downright talking dirty to each other. The sexual tension must be killing you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  She threw her hands up in surrender. “Maybe it’s because I haven’t been around you guys a lot lately, but come on Taylor, there’s something there.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re nuts. I’m going to change,” I said, as I walked down the hall into my room.