Page 93 of Wild About You
“Why so many?”
“His contract is up at the end of the season. She’s trying to make him seem indispensable to the team and the community. If the guys don’t make it to the playoffs, he’s afraid he’ll be traded.”
I wonder about Tyler. Is that true for him? I never asked about the terms of his contract or thought about how he could be sent somewhere else. Then what would we do? Sure, we’ve done long-distance but look at how that ended.
I’m still worrying about it forty-five minutes later when we leave, hand in hand. Leo and Scarlett took the car back, but Tyler wanted to take me to dinner and make the most of our night out.
“What do you feel like having for dinner?” he asks, scanning the street. There are several restaurants on the blocks surrounding the arena, but most are likely busy, and I don’t feel like sitting across from him in a nice restaurant. I want to kiss him and touch him and enjoy this night out. Who knows when we’ll have the chance again?
“Do you remember that time when I came to visit you in Green Bay, and we went downtown to explore and got caught in that crazy rainstorm?”
“Yeah,” he says, mouth tipping up on one side. “I had a whole day planned around the city and we didn’t get to do any of it.”
“We sat in your car talking and eating gas station food for hours.”
He nods. “Not the day I imagined for us.”
“It was perfect. I loved that day.”
“Me too.” He squeezes my hand. “You want to walk around downtown?”
“Not in these heels.”
His gaze drops to my feet, and he gives them an appreciative brow lift. “They’re worth the pain.”
“Easy for you to say when you’re not the one they’re inflicting pain on.”
“Oh, trust me. Looking at you in those shoes is painful. My dick has been trying to wrestle through my pants all freaking night.”
I laugh at the visual, and then lean in under the guise of hugging him and cop a feel. “Oh, you weren’t kidding.”
He groans. “You’re killing me, woman.”
Peering up at him, still plastered to his front, I say, “Let’s get food and take it somewhere where we can sit and talk with no one else around. I want to be able to kiss you and talk all night long. Just the two of us.”
I start to pull back, and his arms circle my waist and hold me there. “I know the perfect place.”
30
THIS SHACK IS BEAUTIFUL
TYLER
We grab burgers and fries,and I drive us away from downtown in the general direction of home. Except I turn off onto a different road where the houses aren’t quite as extravagant.
Piper doesn’t seem to notice we aren’t going toward Ash’s house, or maybe she just doesn’t care. She’s had as few nights out as I have recently, and she hasn’t stopped smiling all night.
She was always the social butterfly in the relationship. I prefer quiet nights with the guys, hanging out at home, chill stuff, but Piper loves a big get together or dinners out. I couldn’t give a lot of those to her the last time because of the distance, and now when I’d love nothing more than to whisk her away on a tropical vacation with all our friends or even a weekend away with just the two of us, I still can’t do that. At least not in the same way.
Everly is my priority. She’s doing so much better. I just need to stay the course for a little longer. She’ll graduate soon and, fingers crossed, get into college. Even if she decides she still wants to live with me, I won’t need to look out for her in the same way I do now. Or hopefully not, anyway.
When I pull into the driveway of a large gray house with a stone front, Piper finally looks around at the surroundings.
“Where are we?”
I cut the engine and open my door. “You’ll see. Come on.”
She smiles and undoes her seat belt as I jog around the front of the car and help her out.
