Page 16 of Wild About You
I take another sip of wine while I try to decide if I want to ask what he said. Tyler is a pretty private guy so I can’t imagine him oversharing anything beyond what Scarlett and Jade already know. Or I should say, he was. I don’t know him anymore. Either way I’m curious what he might have told Leo and his other teammates about us, and more specifically, me. Curious, but also not sure I want to know. Even after all these years I know he has the ability to hurt me deeply.
Isn’t it weird how hearing something secondhand makes it feel real in a way it doesn’t when the person communicates it directly? It’s like somehow whatever he said to his friends feels like a more authentic version than the few things he said to me. And I guess I do want to know because the next words out of my mouth are, “What’d he say?”
“That he ran into you at his sister’s school. That you were the perfect girlfriend.” Scarlett’s smile softens.
“And that you were the hottest woman alive,” Jade pipes in.
Scarlett’s eyes widen. “Yes! He said that too.”
Heat hits my cheeks and butterflies swoop low in my stomach. “I didn’t know that she was his sister. I should have. Now that I do, I can see the resemblance.”
“Confession.” Scarlett raises her hand and bites the corner of her lip. “I knew Everly was at Park Academy. My mom helped him find a school for her.”
“You knew his sister was here?” I ask.
Scarlett nods. “I don’t know the full story, but yeah. She came to stay with him late last year. I wanted to tell you, but…”
I nod, understanding what she doesn’t say.
In order to be friends with Scarlett, I’ve had to keep a very clear line about what she can share about the team. She talks my ear off about Leo and even her family, but Tyler has been off-limits. I never considered that there were things going on in his life that she was holding back from me. I mean, I assumed she was withholding information about his dating life, which I’d still like to remain happily ignorant about, but not things like he’d suddenly become responsible for his sister.
“What was it like seeing him?” Jade asks.
“Like no time had passed. I felt eighteen and heartbroken all over again. And then angry because even after all this time he still gets under my skin.”
Scarlett reaches over and squeezes my hand. “Sorry, babe. I should have warned you.”
“No, it’s fine. It was a shock, but in a way, I’m glad I got it over with. I knew it was only a matter of time before I bumped into him somewhere.”
“Especially now that he’s basically the guardian of one of your students.”
Tyler as a guardian. Weird.
“He texted me over the weekend and asked me to dinner,” I confess.
Both girls grin so big at me, like this is the best news ever.
“I’m not going.”
“Why not?” Jade asks.
“Well, for starters, I’m still seeing Chris.”
“But this is Tyler,” Scarlett whines.
“Exactly. Another reason that I shouldn’t go. There’s too much history, too much heartache. The only way I’m going to survive teaching his sister all year is to keep my distance.”
Scarlett doesn’t say anything, but I can read her expression loud and clear. She’s happily in love with Leo, engaged, planning their forever. I thought I was going to have all of that with Tyler. I can’t go back to a time where I see him as anything but the boy that shattered that dream I had for us.
“Okay, I get that, but…” She flashes a hesitant smile before continuing, “Now that you’ve seen him, will you come to my engagement party next week?”
“He’s going to be there, isn’t he?”
“Probably.” She nods. “My parents already threw us a little family one so this is just friends. Bring Chris if you want. He can be your buffer.”
Chris and Tyler in the same room? That sounds positively awful, but I really want to be friends with Scarlett. Real friends who show up for each other. I take a large drink of the wine and nod. “Of course, I will be there.”
Why does it suddenly feel like there’s going to be no avoiding Tyler?
