Her voice faded as my smile took a hike off my face and landed somewhere between my toes. “Things are still new between us. I’m not sure how either of us truly feels.” That was only a half-truth. I knew exactly how I felt, and while I believed Aric cared for and was passionate about me, his reaction on the porch suggested our feelings weren’t as mutual as I’d wished. “You’re the best thing in my life,” he’d said. But that wasn’t quite love, was it?
Emme walked to my side and squeezed my hand. “Give him time to know you more, Celia. And then he’ll have no choice but to fall in love with you.”
Emme’s soft, encouraging words of hope usually made me smile at her sweetness or gape at her naiveté. This time, they made me a little sad. “I hope so,” I said quietly.
I led her and Shayna to the table where our celebratory Koda-loves-Shayna feast awaited. Taran quietly buttered the zucchini bread Emme had baked. The lack of sarcasm and noise revealed she wasn’t the only Wird sister feeling insecure. Luckily, I had just the ammo to blast her buns back to the planet Bitch-Assness.
I sat next to her and reached for a blueberry muffin. “Any word from Gemini?”
She stopped midbutter spread and clenched the knife in her hand. “No.”
“Really? He hasn’t called?” I took a bite of my muffin.
Taran slowly lowered her bread onto her plate while static shocks of blue and white snapped, crackled, sizzled, and popped above her head. “No. No calls. No texts. And in case you’re wondering, no Pony Express packages, either.”
I nodded. “Mmm. That’s so strange.”
Emme’s mouth popped open. My little sister was evidently shocked by my sudden and very suicidal verbiage. Provoking Taran was like ripping a rabbit out of a dingo’s mouth. Shayna shook her head, fast. When I grinned and winked, she waved her hands like she was landing a lunar jet in our family room.
I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms. “So, any head pats lately?”
I just narrowly missed the bolt of lightning she flung my way. It split the wooden chair down the center and buckled the legs. I landed in a crouch on the table. Taran stood hard enough to tip her seat back, the length of her fingernails streaming with fire. She circled the table, her irises clear as glass from her rising power and the wide-awake, pissed-as-hell, premenstrual Latina within. “Just because you finally got laid doesn’t make it okay to make fun of the head pat. Gemini—”
“Thinks you’re a virgin,” I finished for her.
It was as if we were all in stereo and someone pulled the plug on the surround sound. Emme’s pleas to Taran not to barbecue me and Shayna’s panicked pulls to my arm ceased. Silence, followed more silence, until a nervous “Heh . . . heh-heh-heh” escaped Shayna’s lips.
I leapt off the table and met Taran face-to-face. Her scowl, in addition to her heavy breathing, just sent me into a fit of giggles. You’d have thought I made fun of her footwear. Taran jutted out her chin. “What. The hell. Did you. Just say?” I laughed harder. “Celia. In exactly three seconds I’m going to scorch the living shit out of you. Do you want your ass to burn? Well, do you?”
This was harder than I had thought. I threw my hands in the air. “Taran, Gemini thinks you are, and I quote, ‘untouched.’”
“Untouched where?”
Emme clasped her hands over her mouth to suppress a gasp. Shayna didn’t. Her “heh-hehs” turned into full-out guffaws. She fell to the floor holding her sides, snorting uncontrollably.
Taran paced the room. Her four-inch sandals dug into the hard wood as she marched. “Why the hell would Gemini think I’m a virgin?”
“Because you haven’t responded to his advances.”
Taran rounded on me. “What advances? Oh, I get it. Was it all those brotherly hugs? Oh no, let me guess, it was the head pats because we all damn well know that’s sexy.”
Emme smoothed the skirt of her floral dress. “Goodness, Taran,” she said meekly. “I’m actually surprised you haven’t tried to, you know, entice him.”
Taran turned her glare on Emme. “I’m not used to the shy types, Emme. I’ve only held back because I’m afraid I’ll scare him shitless.” By this point, my eyes watered. “Damn it, Celia, stop laughing. While you’ve been getting it on with Aric, I’ve been taking cold showers.” Bits of flame shot out of her hands like confetti. She gritted her teeth, stopping only to glower at me. “You have no idea how bad I want him.”
“Aric says all the attention Gem’s shown you is a lot for someone as reserved as he is.” I grabbed her shoulders. “He likes you, Taran. Aric flat-out told me. It’s up to you to show him you like him, too.”