Page 9 of The Note
Chapter Two
~Gus~
I staredacross the tent at Tyler, watching him gulp down his eighth glass of wine with the desperation of a marathon runner who wasn’t sure he’d make it to the finish. His blond hair was a little longer on top than it had been the last time I saw him in person, and the selfies he sent me all the damn time hadn’t prepared me for the real thing. A photograph couldn’t convey just how soft and touchable it looked, for example.
And from a comfortable distance of three thousand miles, it was much easier to restrain the impulse to go and feel it for myself. To push it away from his forehead and out of his gray-blue eyes. To make him look at something besides Alex and Marissa.
I snorted softly into my Diet Coke.
Marissa? Who was I kidding? He wasn’t watchingMarissaat all, just like he hadn’t once glanced across the tent atme, or even looked down at his phone to see that I’d replied to his text.It was only Alex for him. Still. Even after all these years.
As if it wasn’t bad enough to realize I was still as nauseatingly jealous of Alex as I’d been at twenty-one, when he and Tyler had started dating, I was also realizing that I was as much a sucker for Tyler Turnbull as ever. The force of the man’s hurt and confusion right now was enough to make me want to maim every single person responsible for putting that look on his face.
Starting with my brother.
Tyler was smart and insightful andhilarious. He had a will of iron, when he chose to employ it, and the loyalty of a whole pride of lions. But his heart was soft and sweet as marshmallow, and anyone who didn’t recognize it was an idiot, including Alex. If Tyler had ever looked at me that way, I would’ve held onto him forever.
Instead, we were friends, like I’d promised him we always would be.
Friends, friends, friends.
“Gus! Why are you hiding over here?” My mother, perpetually beautiful and elegant in a charcoal dress, fell into the empty chair beside me and leaned over to press a kiss to my cheek. “I didn’t even know you’d arrived until Elise Banford pointed it out to me and…” She frowned. “Is everything alright? You look… flushed.”
“I’m fine, Mom.” I kissed her cheek in return. “I got here so late, I figured it’d be better for me to just hang out over here rather than disturb anyone.” Better for me to stay across the room from Tyler and his stupid, touchable hair.
Her frown deepened. “August Monkton Fletcher, that’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard!”
“Hey!” I narrowed my eyes in mock-outrage, glanced at the empty seats around me, and stage-whispered, “Iwasfine until you said my middle name loud enough for everyone to hear. I thought we had an agreement — I don’t get a neck tattoo, you forget all about theOnkton-Maything you saddled me with at birth.”
She laughed out loud. “I don’t recall this agreement. You’re gonna have to refresh my memory. Did it involve Pig Latin?”
“It may have been more of anunspokenagreement,” I said, waving one hand in a dismissive gesture. “Where the obligations are so obvious they don’t even need to be discussed. But, I’ve held up my end of the bargain. See?” I tilted my head, showing her the pale skin of my neck beneath my blue dress shirt. “Only fair that you uphold yours.”
“Uh huh.” She poked her tongue into her cheek. “Is this like the time that you informed your father and I that we’d entered into an unspoken agreement, where if you aced your SATs, we’d eliminate your curfew?”
I feigned surprise. “You make it sound like that wasn’t a real thing. I knew you’d say yes if I asked you. I just eliminated the whole back-and-forth discussion.”
“The wholeagreementpart of the agreement, you mean? So thoughtful.”
“And efficient.”
“You should have gone into law instead of medicine.”
“Uh, no. I’ll leave the law to Alex. I prefer being Dr. Fletcher.”
“Probably for the best.” She smiled softly. “Do you know, I haven’t entered into a single unspoken parental agreement since you left for California?”
“Not a single one?” I shook my head and made atsking noise. “I trusted Alex to keep you on your toes after I left.”
“Oh, he’s kept us on our toes, alright.” She snorted. “Him and Marissa. They’re fun.” Her smile went a little wistful. “Though, between you and I, I’d sort of been hoping to have Tyler as a son-in-law.”
“Yeah?” I kept my tone light and sipped at my drink. “Huh.”
My mom didn’t seem to realize thatsomeof us had been waiting fucking ages for Tyler and Alex to call time of death on their relationship.Someof us had taken residencies in San Diego, just so we could be an entire continent away from them, and privatelyrejoicedat the news that they were done after five years of dating long-distance all through college.Someof us had looked forward to hanging with Tyler, on our visits home, without having him perpetually looking at Alex.
Sadly, the first time I’d come home after their breakup had been two Christmases ago…also known as the Christmas when Alex had proposed to Marissa, and Tyler had spent an entire afternoon staring at Alex like he was a math problem Tyler didn’t know how to solve. A super fun time hadnotbeen had by all. And shockingly enough, I hadn’t made another effort to go back home when I knew Tyler would be there.
I loved Tyler. I missed him badly. But it was better for all concerned if Tyler and I limited our relationship to daily calls and texts. It was too hard not to grab him and try to shake sense into him when I was in close proximity.
