Her Accidental Husband(29)
He threw her a dubious look. “Kate attended your uppity school?”
“You might have noticed that my best friend is very driven. Brilliant. Hardworking.” Something that Payton had always admired. And the way Kate stood up for herself and anyone else she cared about. “She was awarded one of the few financial scholarships the school handed out every year, something I count my blessings for every day. I can’t imagine what my life would be like if Kate hadn’t come into it.”
A Sheryl Crow song came on but she was barely paying attention as she remembered that day seventeen years ago. She smiled. “You should have seen Kate then. She took herself so seriously—kind of like you. Always had an answer to every question asked, and it wasn’t hard for her to earn a few haters among the other kids. Kids who were ruthless in their taunting, mostly about things like her Payless shoes, since the uniforms eliminated the possibility of much teasing on that score. She had no reason to like any of us.”
“What about you?”
“Me? I wasn’t anywhere as smart as Kate, but I did okay. Academically and socially, since I was able to stay up on the latest fashions, thanks to Emily Vaughn, who actually hired me my own personal stylist. Don’t ask.
“Anyhow, it was probably just a month after she’d transferred. Poor little old me, with my big first world worries, was crying in the bathroom because I’d heard Heather Little bragging about kissing the boy who was supposedly my boyfriend at the dance the Saturday before. Not important in the big scheme of things and, like I said, Kate had no reason to be nice to any of us. But all the same, it was Kate who found me and who tried to comfort me.”
“Yeah. Sounds like her.”
The soft admiration in his tone gave her the oddest twinge of what could only be described as jealousy. Kate was wonderful. But could Cruz ever see her, Payton, in the same light?#p#分页标题#e#
“Kate not only got the tears stopped, but after she told me she’d seen Rob just that morning with a cold sore the size of Mount St. Helens on his upper lip and that Heather may soon have more than a story to share about her special night, I almost bust my gut laughing. And just like that I went from sobbing to laughing on what had felt like, moments before, the worst day of my life.”
“Don’t leave me hanging.”
She looked at him in confusion and he smiled, giving her that squishy feeling again in her belly. Thank goodness she couldn’t see his eyes through those lenses or she might have actually purred.
“Heather’s lip?” he asked in clarification.
She smiled. “It swelled to the size of a small apricot. Kate and I have been best friends ever since. She’s my family. And right now, I’m about all she’s got in this world, which is why it’s so important that I be there at her side on the biggest day of her life.”
“You’ll be there. No worries. And I’m betting right now, with my sisters’, mom’s, and all the aunts’ attention, she’s having second thoughts about having any more family.”
“Not possible. This is everything she’s ever wanted. And I couldn’t be happier for her—” Her voice broke off unexpectedly and she felt tears well in her eyes. She was happy. But all of a sudden, seeing Kate about to be welcomed into this large unknown family, she felt a little lonely. Would Kate still need her as much?
Cruz’s heavy hand settled on her shoulder. So solid. Warm. It felt like he was sending electromagnetic waves through her body. She willed herself not to lean her head against it. “You’re a good friend, Payton. You have every right to feel a little sad that things are changing.”
She wiped a tear away, already done with it. “I am happy for her. Really. Just a little sorry for me is all. What if she doesn’t—doesn’t need me anymore?”
“Never gonna happen. You’re pretty irreplaceable.”
She cracked a grin even as her ovaries squeezed at the raspy way his voice had dropped. “Are you saying that as a compliment?”
“Take it as you will,” he said and smiled back. Something she definitely liked on him, even if it turned her into Ms. Crazypants.
The beginning strain of “I Like Big Butts” flooded the cab and she laughed at Cruz’s pained expression.
She was going to have to work on getting him to smile a lot more often. It really worked for him.
The view outside the passenger window had been spectacular as the freeway curved and looped up and down once they’d began the westward trek away from Guadalajara, and Cruz was glad he’d given in and let Payton have a turn at the wheel again. It was nice to sit back and enjoy things without having to be in control.