Page 227 of Faking the Goal

"You're both disgusting," Cody tells us.

"You'll survive," Taylor says.

Liam shakes his head at me. "So this is what did it, huh?"

"What?"

He gestures toward the woman sitting on my lap like the answer should be obvious. "All of... that. Is this how you fell in love with her?"

Taylor turns an offended look on him. "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means."

I shrug, tightening my arm around her waist. "More or less."

"Asshole," she mutters, but I can hear the smile in her voice.

"I still can't believe you two ended up together," Luke says. "You're fucking opposites."

"That's putting it mildly," Cody adds. "Kent barely says ten words unless somebody pisses him off, and Taylor could hold an entire conversation by herself."

"I can and I have," she says.

"Exactly."

Luke laughs. "You guys used to clash over everything too. I don't think anybody saw this coming."

"Which is why I want to know how it happened," Liam says, looking at me with sudden interest. "Seriously, Kent. How the hell did you fall for her?"

Taylor's fingers stop playing with the hair at the back of my neck.

I feel the change in her immediately, and when I look at her, the confidence she's been wearing since she walked into the cafeteria has slipped just enough for me to catch the worry underneath it.

Fuck.

We never talked about this.

Somehow, with everything else we've discussed, neither of us ever considered what we'd say if someone asked how I fell for her. Judging by the way her eyes search mine, she's realizing the same thing, and she knows better than anyone that I'm probably the last person she should trust to invent some romantic story on the spot. I can practically see her mind working as she tries to come up with something before the silence stretches long enough for everyone else to notice.

She draws in a breath, clearly about to save us both.

But before she can say anything, I look back at Liam and speak.

"At first, I didn't know why I was attracted to her." I glance at Taylor. "And that was probably the part that pissed me off the most. Probably explains why I had a permanent fucking scowl on my face every time I saw her too."

A few of the guys laugh.

"From the moment I met her, she should've been exactly the kind of woman I stayed away from. She was loud where I was quiet. Impulsive where I was careful. She treated life like a match that needed to be burned at both ends while I spent most of mine trying to keep everything under control."

Taylor's smile slowly disappears.

"I hated the way she dressed. Too provocative. Too much skin. Everywhere she went, men noticed her. She partied too much, drank too much, and there always seemed to be some new guy hanging around her." I shake my head. "She was too much of everything I thought I could handle and the exact opposite of everything I thought I wanted."

Taylor's eyes drop, and even though she's heard every version of those opinions from me before, I hate seeing the effect they still have on her.

I slip my fingers beneath her chin and gently tip her face back toward mine. I want her to see what I can't exactly stop and explain in front of everyone—that I'm not looking at her through those same judgmental eyes anymore. She has nothing to be ashamed of. If anyone should be ashamed of the way I saw her back then, it's me.

I hold her gaze long enough to give her a small, reassuring smile before looking back at the guys.