Page 25 of His North Star
“Hmm, that’s not what Ty said.”
I jerked back. What?
We found a fallen log and sat facing the calm lake before us. “What exactly did Ty say?” I asked.
“He told me about the date you had last week with him. And that you’ve been texting each other nonstop.”
Not a date. A makeup dinner between friends that got ruined by James’s tardiness. We’d texted here and there since then, but nothing serious. I hadn’t even mentioned it to Ty because there wasn’t a point. How did she know?
I narrowed my eyes. “Is this information he’s getting from James? Because I haven’t told Ty anything.”
“I assumed it was information he’d gotten from you.”
So James told Ty? Great. Now I would have to ask Ty what James had said about me. Welcome back to high school.
“No,” I defended. “Ty was uptight when James and I met, so I’ve said nothing to him. Besides, we don’t sit around sipping cider and dishing about dates.”
Not that James and I were dating. I doubted Lys cared about that detail. In her mind, I bet we were together.
She huffed. “Sometimes I wish you did.”
An unexpected laugh bubbled out of me. “Why would you want us to?” No other girlfriend of Ty’s did.
She rested her cheek on her palm. “Because then maybe you could tell me what’s going on in his head lately.”
“Normally I can read him like an open book,” I said. “I have no idea why he’s been more tense and snappy the last few weeks.”
Well, I had one clue. I could tell Lys that Ty struggled with the idea of marriage because of how his parents had ended. But I couldn’t betray my best friend like that. He had to be the one to confide in her.
“Snappy is a good way to phrase it,” she said. “He’s never been like this before. Maybe it’s the house a few doors down from you. It’s been on the market for a while now and he’s stressed he won’t make a sale.”
“Possibly.” I nodded. “If he’s going to make his goal of being one of the top five real estate agents this year, he can’t afford to have it sit too long.”
“I wish there was something I could do to help him.”
Me too, Lys. Me too.
“Be patient with him,” I suggested. “Maybe you could convince him to go away for a weekend?”
“I’ll try.”
I squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t give up on him. He’s one of the best guys I know.” Which was why I would rather have him as a friend than not at all, even if he never loved me like I wanted him to.
She turned to face me. Her jaw tensed. “I’ve asked Ty this before and he didn’t really answer. But I’ve always wondered: why aren’t you two a thing?”
Easy.
Ty and I were never single at the same time.
Ty only liked me as a sister.
How do I know about reason number two? My feelings toward Ty started to change in my early teens, and they grew to full-blown beingin lovewith him when we were in high school. I came up with a plan on how to tell him, which would lead us to attending the sweethearts’ dance together. Except, I never got a chance to tell Ty because on the day I left the lunchroom to go find him in the common area he usually ate in with his friends, I’d overheard him speaking with his friend Justin.
“Hey, man, who are you going to the dance with?” Justin had asked.
“Melanie Vincent. She’s smokin’.”
Justin quickly agreed. “Yeah, she is. Hey, uh, I’d heard Maren was going to ask you. Did you know about that?”
