Page 2 of Be With Me

Chapter 1

Tyler

Iwas going to see Ailee again. After almost a year, I was finally going to see her again. And honestly, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it.

Excited, for sure. Scared? Yeah, a little. Hungry?

Fuck, yes.

But not in a cannibalistic kind of way. I’m not psycho. However, Ailee Walsh was—hands down—one of the most delicious women I’d ever had the honor of meeting. She was…everything. Just fucking everything. Her sparkling eyes were as blue as a cloudless sky, and the way they danced when she laughed made me think of warm, carefree summer days I’d seen in movies, but I’d never had the opportunity to experience in my own youth.

She also had a smile that made my heart pound in my chest. And a voluptuous, old Hollywood figure that girls these days just didn’t appreciate. It wasn’t their fault. Every fucking media outlet out there told them the only way they’d be attractive was to be as thin as possible.

But me? I was a man who liked a woman that filled up the space between my arms. A woman I could sink into and lose myself in.

God, I sounded like a fucking Hallmark commercial. And I probably looked like I belonged in one as I stared out my kitchen window, the perfect picture of one of the characters in those movies my mom was always watching. But as cheesy as I sounded, even to myself, it was all true, what I thought about her. Hell, I was getting hard just thinking about it.

And, I’d just heard she’d recently gotten divorced.

Something cold and wet hit the back of my knee, bringing my thoughts back to my modeling appointment with Ailee, the only photographer I’ve ever felt self-conscience around. With a shaking hand, I set down my cell phone and found Snickers sitting behind me. I gave him a smile, and leaned over to rub his long, soft ears. “Hey, buddy. Where ya been?” My dog licked my hand as I tried to brush dirt from his creamy white muzzle.

My phone lit up with a text from Stefanie, the author who’d just booked me for her new cover. She said she’d heard back from Ailee and we were good to go for the date she’d told me, exactly two weeks from now. I texted her back, thanking her for thinking of me and assuring her I had it on my calendar and I would be there.

There was no fucking way I would miss it. And not just because I desperately needed the money.

Phone still in my hand, I sat down hard, nearly missing the chair I’d yanked out from beneath the kitchen table. A shiver ran over me, and it had nothing to do with the fact that I was wearing nothing but blue boxer briefs. My first-floor apartment was warm, but I refused to turn on the A/C. It was nearly fall, the weather should be cooling down by now, and I wasn’t about to blow money I didn’t have on a high electric bill.

Glancing at the time on the microwave, I took a steadying breath and got my ass in gear. I was supposed to be at that new restaurant near Pike Place in thirty minutes, and I didn’t think the restaurant would let Willow hold our table if I wasn’t there. I threw on a nice shirt and a pair of jeans, tugged my cleanest pair of sneakers on, and searched frantically for my wallet. I found it on the counter and shoved it and my phone into my back pocket. I wasn’t worried about leaving Snickers, he was already curled up in his favorite spot on the couch by the time I’d left. I closed the patio door that I normally left open for him so he could go muck around in the courtyard at will, smiling at the sound of his soft snores, and then I locked him in and went to go meet my foster sister.

She was already there when I arrived, standing near the door. Tall and slender, she reminded me very much of her namesake with her pale skin and her light-colored hair that rose from her scalp and dangled in wispy strands just past her shoulders. “Hey.” I greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry, the bus was running late.”

My excuse was met with the “arched brow of disbelief” and blank stare I’d been receiving since we were kids. “More like you forgot about our date until the last minute, then you threw on the first shirt you found in your closet, grabbed a pair of jeans from the semi-clean pile, and ran out the door.”

I grinned at her.

“Did you at least feed Snickers before you left?”

“Nah,” I told her. “He was snoring on the couch when I left. I’ll feed him when I get home.”

“Don’t forget you still need to get me a key,” she reminded me as the hostess led us to our table.

I had forgotten. But it was no big deal. We always had keys to each other’s place, ever since we’d both moved to Seattle. I’d agreed it was a good idea. It was just easier if either one of us had to pet sit or whatever, even though her damn cat still didn’t like me. “I’ve only been in the new apartment a few weeks. I’ll get one made this weekend.”

I opened the menu the girl had given us and started checking out what was there. The place looked like a fusion between Mexican food and Thai food. Interesting. The waiter came over and I ordered an iced tea, then went back to studying the menu.

“All right. What’s up with you?”

I looked at Willow over the top of my menu. “Me?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you. Either your leg is possessed, or you’ve suddenly got some kind of major nervous tick. You’re jostling the whole table, Ty, and you haven’t sat still for two seconds since you got here. So, what’s up?”

I hid behind my menu again. We’d known each other most of our lives. There was no way I’d be able to look her in the eye and deny I was nervous. And I could say for certain that it wasn’t going to get any better as the day I was going to see Ailee again got closer and closer. And that right there was ammunition my sister did NOT need to know. “Nothin’. I got a call for a shoot right before I came here. I’m just a little nervous.”

My menu was yanked from my hands and slapped down flat onto the table. “Bullshit. You never get nervous about shoots. And this is how I know you’re lying to me. Which you also can’t do well. So, you might as well fess up now.”

I grinned at her. I couldn’t help it. “Or, what? You’ll call Mom and tell on me?”

She smiled sweetly for a brief second, right before she whipped out her cell phone from her purse and made like she was doing exactly that.

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