Page 8 of Wild About You
“We could work on it after school if that works for your schedule,” I say to him and Everly, keeping my eyes on her.
“Seems fair,” Tyler says. “Everly?”
Her tone doesn’t sound like she thinks it’s fair, but she agrees.
“Okay. It’s settled.” Mrs. Best stands, as does Tyler. She extends a hand to him. “Thank you for your time.”
“Likewise,” he says, drops her hand, and places it at Everly’s elbow.
I wait for them to leave first and then shuffle out behind them into the hallway.
“I’ll meet you outside,” Tyler says to his sister.
She doesn’t need any more encouragement. She takes off out the front of the school without so much as a thank you.
He’s taller. Broader too. His face has less of the boyish softness than it did when I knew him. It feels like a lifetime ago.
“I had no idea she was…” My voice trails off. “I didn’t realize your family had moved here too.”
Too. Meaning, I knew he was here. I did. I’d have to be completely oblivious not to know. Wildcat Hockey is everything in this city, and Tyler has been getting a lot of attention as a rookie with star potential.
“They didn’t. Just Ev. She’s staying with me.”
“Oh.” I have a whole host of questions that I no longer feel close enough to him to ask, but still wonder. I never met his sister while we were dating, but I saw pictures. She was thirteen, then, and I never would have put it together without him showing up here.
“It’s good to see you, Piper,” he says. “I hoped I might run into you someday. I didn’t imagine it like this.”
My heart beats wildly, but anger flashes too. This boy broke my heart in a million pieces. We dated for the most amazing eight months. We lived in different cities, so we were mostly long-distance, but somehow it felt like he was with me every second of the day: texts, all-night phone calls, weekend visits cramming in hours of making out and kissing until my lips hurt. I loved him so much. I thought he was my forever. Maybe that’s dumb at eighteen, but I’ve never met anyone that made me feel like he did. Not before him and not since.
He broke up with me the night of my high school’s big spring dance. He was supposed to be my date, but he got held up because of hockey. That happened quite a bit, honestly. His schedule was intense for a high school kid. I got it. Like I said, I felt a connection to him without needing to be with him every day and I was fine with being the one who had to make concessions like traveling to visit him on weekends instead of him coming to see me. I loved him so much. None of that mattered.
But when he called that night to tell me he wasn’t going to make it, he said he couldn’t keep disappointing me. He said, ‘I love you, Pipes, but right now this just isn’t meant to be.’ He left me standing alone at a high school dance, dateless, in the rain. Okay, fine, it wasn’t raining, but I cried so much that it looked like I’d walked through a storm.
It took me a really long time to move on. Then five months ago he moved tomycity where I have had to see his face plastered everywhere I go.
And now he’s right in front of me.
“You too,” I say, but don’t quite meet his gaze.
“Thank you for what you did in there.”
“I didn’t do it for you.”
His mouth lifts on one side but it isn’t quite a smile. “I figured, but I’m still grateful.”
“She seems like a good kid.”
“Does she?” he asks with a bitter laugh as he runs his hand through his dark hair.
Since I don’t know how to respond to that, I just nod.
“Is your number still the same?” He pulls his phone from his pocket. When I don’t answer, he looks up from the screen at me. “In case I need to get in contact with you about Everly.”
“Oh, uh, if you need anything you should contact Mrs. Best or Kim in the office.”
He taps out something and my phone buzzes in my pocket. I’m sure he can hear it, but I don’t make any move for it.
Tyler wraps his long fingers around his phone and finally smiles at me. Really smiles. With all that teenage Tyler charm I fell in love with four years ago. But there’s something else in it too. Regret? Pain?
