Page 20 of The Thief
Did I want him to notice me?
Would he remember me?
Would he remember what I said to him all those years ago?
I wasn’t sure, and part of me hoped he’d forgotten. Our last meeting hadn’t shown me in my best light. And I still felt a hint of shame whenever I thought about it, even fourteen years later.
You see, back then, Tyler didn’t have the best reputation where we lived. At school, he was known as a thief. He got thrown out for stealing from the computer department. But sometimes, things weren’t always black and white. I found that out when I got home after arguing with him in the street, accusing him of stealing from my dad after his wallet had mysteriously fallen into Tyler’s hands and he'd turned up in his office to return it. I’d called him all sorts of names and swore to myself that I’d make his life hell. How, I had no idea, but I wasn’t big on thinking things through before blurting them out back then.
When I returned home, I found my dad sitting at the kitchen table later that night, staring at his wallet in disbelief. I’d asked what was wrong, fully expecting him to tell me there was money missing, but it was the opposite. He said there was a fifty-pound note in there. Then he laughed to himself, shaking his head, saying, “I’ve never even seen a fifty-pound note in real life, let alone owned one.”
He knew what’d happened.
I did too.
Tyler had put it there.
We didn’t know how, but the look he’d put on my father’s face that day by doing that was priceless. I’d never seen him so happy.
After that, my dad talked non-stop about Tyler, the golden boy of the unit. He told us all about the charity work he did for the school. How helpful he always was to my dad, carrying stuff, doingjobs to help him out. He even bought my dad a poster to hang in his office, some beach scene with golden sands and clear blue skies. He told him the bare walls were too depressing and he deserved something better to look at, seeing as he always worked so hard. An escape to dream of, to work towards.
Yeah, I felt guilty as hell for labelling him as the villain.
So why didn’t I apologise all those years ago?
Because back then, I let my pride get in the way. I hadn’t wanted to admit I was wrong. And then, as time went on, it became too hard to go back and address it. Life moved on, and so did we.
Until now.
Ava, my little ballerina, couldn’t keep still, and when she bumped into Tyler a second time, he turned around, and so did my stomach, twisting until I felt physically sick.
As discreetly as I could, I looked at him, hoping he wouldn’t notice me staring as he grinned down at my Ava. His dark hair was cut short, and he had a sexy dusting of stubble over his face. And that twinkle in his eye, as he smiled at my girl, did things to me I wasn’t ready to address. I’d been single since Ava’s dad had left us three months before she was born. I couldn’t trust myself around a man like him. I wouldn’t even know what to say, I’d been out of the game for so long.
I knew Tyler ran a nightclub now. I’d heard all about it from some of my girlfriends. But I’d never been. Since having Ava, clubbing was the last thing I’d felt like doing. But I had to admit, that club had always intrigued me. That and the man who ran it.
Had his skin always been this flawless and tanned?
And those eyelashes of his... they were longer than any man’s I’d ever seen.
Damn, he was so... pretty.
Could you call a guy like him pretty?
Shit, I needed to stop staring at him.
I needed to get a grip.
As Tyler and Ava started to chat, I listened, chastising my little girl when she needed it, and apologising for disturbing him. He didn’t seem to mind though, and he had this surprisingly warm way of talking to her that made me bristle with pride and affection. Like little goosebumps were prickling all over my body, and a wave of warmth that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I loved that feeling. I wanted to savour it, bottle it... I never wanted it to end. I knew Ava was becoming a little smitten by how she blushed and tried to hide against me.
This interaction wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined when I’d first walked in. It was surprisingly... satisfying.
Was that the right word?
Wholesome maybe?
Hell, whatever word I used, it was certainly unexpected.
Tyler and Ava had a few cute moments that I managed to stay on the periphery for, but then, as Tyler became more engaged with us, he asked if he’d met me before, and I felt my throat constrict and go dry at the lie I told as I said no. He believed me, and the disappointment at that fact was a little more intense than I thought it would be. I didn’t even factor as a footnote in his history, but he’d taken up whole chapters of mine, and he never knew.
