Ashley smiled and put her arms around his neck. "I've missed you too Tay."

He gently put his head on hers. "Are you ever going to grow?" he asked playfully. "The last time I saw you, you were about five-foot-three. Now you're only five-six. Wow, three inches. Haven't been eating your Wheaties, huh?"

Ashley punched his arm playfully and pulled away. "Like I can help it."

He laughed. "I know. I need to stop growing or you're going to get whiplash from kissing me."

She looked at him slyly. "Who said I wanted to kiss you?"

Taylor pouted and began to climb the latter of the three house.

Ashley followed him up the latter slowly.

They crawled to their favorite place, the very back.

Taylor leaned against the wall and pulled her to him and setting her on his lap. He put his arms around her waist and buried his face in her neck and slowly started kissing it. "Well, it's not going to be much fun when we make love if you don't want to kiss me."

"Okay Zac," Dawn instructed. "I have to answer the phone."

He groaned and reluctantly rolled off of her, catching his breath.

She reached over and grabbed the ringing phone. "Hello?"

"Hey beautiful. Is you also beautiful twin home?" a male voice asked on the other end.

Dawn sat up on her elbows. "Oh. Hi Jamie. No Ash isn't here. I think she went for a walk," she said nervously.

Zac looked over at her curiously and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, okay. Tell her to call me when she gets in. Okay?" Jamie asked.

"Okay. Later. Tell David I said hello."

"Okay. Will do. Bye."

"Bye."

Dawn sat the receiver down and turned back to Zac. "Okay, where were we?" She reached over for him.

Zac sat up out of her reach. "Who the hell is David? And who's Jamie?"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Jamie is a friend of Ashley's and...Dave...he's...her little brother."

Zac took a deep breath. "Okay. Good. I almost lost it there. I thought you were cheating on me."

Dawn's breath caught in her throat as she felt the blood rush to her face. Thank God he turned the light off. "Hell no. I wouldn't cheat on you Zac. I love you."

Through the darkness, Dawn saw Zac smile. "I love you, too."

Ashley laid on her stomach on the floor of the tree house, flipping through a magazine while Taylor lightly ran his fingers over her back when her pager suddenly went off.

Taylor pulled the blue pager out of her pocket and looked at it. "It's your mom. She wants you home for dinner," he started fiddling with it. "This one is better than your old one. I want one of these where the words run across it. That way you won't have to figure out the little codes." He put the pager back in her pocket.

She sighed and shut the magazine and tossed it to the corner. She used her arms as a pillow. "I don't want to leave."

He lifted her shirt up slightly and ran his fingers up and down along her spine. His hand went higher and higher until he reached the back of her bra clasp. He trembled. Taylor found himself beginning to mess with it.

"Taylor..." Ashley warned. She sat up and pulled her shirt back down. "Not here. Not now."

Taylor took a deep breath. "Then where? And when?"

She sighed. "I don't know, Tay. But I want it to be right."

He nodded and smiled at her. He stood up and took her hands, helping her up with him. "Okay."

They began to make the climb down the latter. Taylor took her hand as they made their way back to the Smith house.

Dawn helped her mother set the table. "Mom, can Zac come over for dinner tomorrow night?" she asked.

Mrs. Smith thought a minute. "You'll have to ask your father when he gets home. But it's okay with me. Will Ashley want Taylor here too?"

"Probably."

They heard the front door open and shut. Ashley walked into the kitchen a few seconds later. "Mmm. It smells good in here. What are we having?'

"Spaghetti" her mother answered with a smile. "But thank your sister for it. She made it."

"Yummy. Her specialty." Ashley smiled at her sister.

Dawn blushed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Mrs. Smith laughed. "Okay girls. Go wash up."

Dawn and Ashley quickly washed up and gathered in Ashley's room to wait for their father to come home so they could have dinner.

"So what did you and Taylor do today?" Dawn asked, grinning. "Or do I want to know?"

Ashley smiled. "We chilled out in the tree house all day mainly," she paused. "But he did say something that surprised me."

Dawn's ears perked up. "Do tell!"

"Okay see, he was saying I was short, like always, and he was like 'when are you going to grow' and stuff and he said something about me getting whiplash from kissing him if he didn't stop growing. And I was like 'Who said I wanted to kiss you?' And..."

Dawn sat on her elbows. "And..."

Ashley took a deep breath. "And he said well it's not going to be much fun when we make love if I don't want to kiss him."

"Oooh!" Dawn exclaimed. "What did you say?"

Ashley was about to respond when the phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hey beautiful."

"Taylor?" Ashley asked, confused.

"Who's Taylor?" the voice asked.

"Oh! Jamie! Hi! I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else."

Jamie laughed. "No problem. So do you wanna go to the mall with me tomorrow? I'll buy you that shirt you wanted. I just got paid."

Ashley hesitated. "Uhh, I don't know Jamie. I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow."

"Okay, well, when you find out, let me know."

She heard their mother call up to them to let them know their father was home and it was time to eat. "Okay, I'll call you. I have to go now though. Dinner's ready."

"Okay. Talk to you later sweetie."

"Okay, bye Jamie."

"Bye."

Ashley hung up the phone slowly and looked at her sister. "Dawnie, what are we going to do?"