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Taylor patted her on the shoulder.

“Oh, I do realize. I’m very proud.”

Avery knew that Taylor was mostly joking about being proud of her, but she still felt a swell of happiness when she said it, as well as at the lingering feeling of Taylor’s hand on her bare shoulder.

“Good,” Avery said. “Tonight had better be worth this leap of faith.”

“It will be,” Taylor said. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.”

Avery giggled at that, as did Taylor.

“My pretty little head? Seriously?”

Taylor drove off as she shook her head at herself.

“Well, youarevery pretty, but yes, I probably could have worded that a little better. I’m not trying to emulate the Wicked Witch of the West. Whatever, you got what I meant.”

Avery felt herself flush at the compliment. Taylor said things like this all the time, in such a casual, direct way. She knew Taylor didn’tmeananything by it—if she hadn’t already known that, Liz and Dani and Callie had made that very clear—but she also knew Taylor wasn’t bullshitting her. Avery looked out the side window and tried not to show how pleased she was.

Wait, why was she doing that? She did that all the time—she hid her emotions from people. Not just the bad emotions, the good ones, too. Why?

Because showing her emotions made her vulnerable. Because then people knew how to hurt you. Ouch.

But it’s not like that had prevented her from getting hurt in the past.

She’d think about that more later. For now, she tried to let herself bask in Taylor’s compliment.

She didn’t even bother to ask Taylor where they were going, but she definitely wondered. Where would Taylor take her that prompted her to tell her to dress “a little slutty”? And why had she wanted to go out tonight, instead of waiting until their regular Tuesday?

“You’re dying to know where we’re going, aren’t you?” Taylor asked, looking at her sideways as she drove.

“Me?” Avery said in an outraged tone. “Nope, not at all, not even thinking about it. I’d honestly forgotten that I was in the car with you, as a matter of fact. Just thinking about a fascinating thing that happened at work today.”

“Mm-hmm,” Taylor said. “And what would that fascinating thing be?”

Avery racked her brain for something slightly believable.

“Uh, tonight’s event was for an ophthalmologist conference, you see, and did you know that when they operate on people’s eyes, they have to stay awake? Because of—”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Taylor said, and they both burst out laughing.

A few minutes later, Taylor pulled into a parking spot, despite the many tourists out that night in Downtown Napa.

“How do you always manage to do that?” Avery asked as they got out of the car.

“Do what?” Taylor was in her typical uniform of jeans and a tank top, but tonight’s jeans were ones that hugged her waist and butt very well, and her black tank top was snug in a way that Avery hadn’t quite noticed in the car. Now that she did, though, she knew it was going to distract her all night. Well, depending on what tonight ended up being.

“Find a parking place wherever we go. You barely even have to circle.”

Taylor put her hand on Avery’s back and turned her in the opposite direction.

“What can I say, we all have gifts, that’s mine.” Avery looked at her, and Taylor grinned. “Fine, that’soneof mine.”

Avery shook her head.

“You have an unfair number of gifts, you know.”

Before too long, Taylor guided her into a packed restaurant, and over to the bar. Miraculously, there were two seats together, right at the back. As they slid into them, Taylor leaned close to her.