In the cab, she started to cry, which absolutely ruined him.
Ty couldn’t make any sense of what she was saying and was glad when she fell silent. He carried her across the lobby of the club and up to his place, then laid her on his bed. He took off her jacket and boots, then her trousers, halfway thinking she’d wake up and protest. She didn’t. She was wearing lingerie again, white lace this time, but Tyler removed it all. When he’d coaxed her into one of his clean T-shirts, he tucked her in. He stood watching her sleep, wishing he could fix this one thing.
But he couldn’t.
And he was too nice to take advantage of her when she was down. He would have loved to have gotten into bed with her and held her while she slept, but there was no way he was going to be mistaken for someone else.
Especially a guy like Cole.
He hung up her trousers and jacket, restless to do something and not know what else he could do.
A phone rang, the sound unfamiliar, and it took Ty a moment to realized it was Shannyn’s cell phone. He went back into the living room, scooped up her bag and pulled out the phone in time for its last ring. The displayed caller was S. Hawke, which made absolutely no sense since he was holding her phone in his hand. Was it her mom calling? But he saw that it was a local number before the phone fell silent.
Then Ty remembered that there was a phone in Shannyn’s kitchen. She still had a land line at the house.
The call must have been from Aidan, wondering where she was.
Ty looked up her phone number and found it right away, on the right street in Brooklyn. He called and the phone didn’t even ring once before it was answered.
“Shannyn?” Aidan asked, his concern clear.
“Tyler. She’s here.”
Aidan audibly exhaled. “Good. I just got in and kind of freaked when she wasn’t here.”
“Don’t worry. She’s okay.”
“Did you go to the wedding with her?”
“Yes. She had a drink and it hit her hard. She’s asleep now.”
Aidan swore. “Then that bastard was there. If Shannyn had a drink, he was being an asshole.”
Ty was intrigued by the conclusion. “Why do you say that?”
“Well, two reasons. One, he is an asshole. I mean, it’s a special kind of hell to see your sister married to a jerk, but you can’t say anything because she loves him.”
“I know exactly how that goes,” Ty admitted.
“It nearly finished her when he dumped her, but I wanted to throw a party. He was such a dick, and that can’t have changed much.”
“I hear you. What else?”
“Shannyn never drinks.”
“She had a tequila shooter.”
“Tequila? That would flatten her. I’ve never seen her drink.”
“Sounds like a matter of policy.”
“It is. She said she got drunk at a party in college once and said something mean that wasn’t true. She said it was never going to happen again.”
Ty had a very good idea what that something had been.
“I’m really glad you were there,” Aidan said.
“Me, too.”
“Ouch!” Aidan said suddenly. “All right. I’ll feed you, Fitz,” he said, then spoke to Tyler again. “You wouldn’t believe the mess here. Shannyn must have left out dry kibble for his majesty and he didn’t want it, because it is everywhere. He must have been kicking it around the place ever since she left.”
Ty smiled at that mental image. “You’d better feed him then.”
“I’m on it.” Ty heard the can opener and a familiar yowl. “Hey, thanks for your advice the other day. I got a job at a microbrewery in Portland, starting in two weeks.”
“Good for you.”
“The guy wants an apprentice and he’s going to get one. All right, all right, Fitz. We need to take it out of the can.” Aidan’s voice dropped. “Hey, Tyler, thanks for being there tonight.”
“It’s all good.”
“You’ll hear from me when I have that business plan done, but it sounds like I’ll be seeing your around.” Ty didn’t say anything to that. “Ouch!” Aidan said again, then was gone.
Ty stared at the phone, thinking that maybe one good thing had come out of this.
Shannyn woke up in a bed that wasn’t her own. She heard honking cars at a distance and she smelled a man’s skin on the sheets.
She smiled, knowing exactly where she was.
Tyler’s bedroom.
The sun had risen and was shining through the large windows, flooding the room with light. She was alone in the bed, and there was no other indentation in the pillow beyond her own. There was a throw on the chair in front of the fireplace, but no sign of Tyler.
Shannyn had a headache and her stomach was unsettled. She dropped her face to her hands, remembering the burn of that tequila. She’d been so relieved that Cole’s hold over her was gone. She’d wanted to dance and drink and make love all night long, but instead, the tequila had hit her like a brick wall—and she didn’t remember anything.
Not one thing after that first shooter.
Shit. Shannyn halfway didn’t want to know what she’d said, whatever it might have been. But she was at Tyler’s place, so it couldn’t have been that bad.
Could it?
Her clothes were folded over a chair and she realized she was wearing a man’s T-shirt. She had no doubt who owned it, given that it was black and had the Flatiron Five Fitness logo on it.
He’d stripped her naked, tucked her into bed, and slept elsewhere.
That wasn’t a good sign.
Shannyn went into the bathroom, acknowledged that she looked worse than she felt. She took a deep breath of the scent of cologne and the humidity from the shower, savored the combination, then cleaned up and dressed. She refused to note that the bathrobe was still tied up with its ribbon and high on a shelf, out of her reach.
Just as she had once before, she stepped out of the bathroom and found Tyler in his kitchen. Just like before, he was checking his phone and glanced up at her appearance. He didn’t smile and he didn’t straighten. He was dressed casually, in jeans and a rugby shirt, his hair still damp on his collar.
“Hey,” he said, watchful but unreadable.
“Hey.” Shannyn smiled at him.
“Okay?”
“A lot better, thanks. That tequila really hit me hard.”
“You didn’t eat much dinner.”
“And I didn’t have time at lunch. I should know better than to touch that stuff. Do you have any aspirin?”
He indicated a plate with a bagel on it, two aspirin beside it. He offered her one of the cups of coffee, but she had water instead. Silence filled the room as she ate.
Shannyn knew she had to ask. “What did I say to you this time?”
Tyler glanced up. “Don’t you remember?”
She shook her head and finished her bagel. “I never do. That’s why I don’t drink.”
“When was the last time?”
“You might remember that party.”
He didn’t smile. “I actually do.”
Their gazes locked and held. “What did I say?”
“Nothing I shouldn’t have already known.” He straightened then and put his phone away. “I talked to Aidan last night. He called your phone, wondering where you were, and I called him back on the landline.” He gestured to his laptop. “I just approved the budget request from Cassie, so you should hear from her tomorrow. It’ll probably take a year, if not more, for me to transition over from Fleming Financial, if I can make it happen, so you don’t have to worry about running into me at the club, if you take the position.” He sounded so official that Shannyn feared the worst.
“Why would I worry about that?”
“I’d give you a ride home, but the car is at the shop.” Tyler checked his watch. “I need to go pick it up.”
“Well, I should be going anyway. Thanks for breakfast and for guarding my stuff.”
“No pr
oblem. By the way, if you want to forget the rest of our deal, that’s fine by me.”
Shannyn paused in the act of picking up her messenger bag. “Excuse me?”
“You don’t have to come to Katelyn’s wedding. We don’t have to do the fake date. It’s fine. We’re square.”
What had she said?
Shannyn couldn’t make sense of Tyler’s offer or of her own disappointment. He wasn’t in any mood to talk about it, though. He gestured to the door and grabbed his jacket on the way out. They rode down the elevator in silence, then crossed the lobby of the club, a distance between them that felt infinitely bigger than it was. Once on the street, he thanked her for the day before and hailed a cab. He was headed uptown and she was going to the subway. She stood on the sidewalk, still shaken by the change, as Tyler got into a cab and headed away.
He never looked back.
Her biggest fear had happened. He’d walked away.
And Shannyn’s devastation was infinitely worse than she’d ever thought it would be. She turned and trudged to the subway, reminding herself of all the things that were going right and unable to forget the one big one that had gone wrong.
What could she possibly have said to make Tyler McKay abandon a challenge?
What could she do to fix whatever she’d done wrong?
Shannyn took the job at F5F, but just as Tyler had predicted, she didn’t run into him at the club. She was there repeatedly during the week, making plans with Meesha, setting up the shoot of Kyle who would be featured in the first billboard ad, getting to know the rest of the team a bit better, but she never caught a glimpse of Tyler.
He might have been avoiding her.
Or making sure he didn’t influence her decision about Saturday. With each passing day, Shannyn became more convinced that he was gone for good, that she’d put her foot into it so badly that even their fake date couldn’t be saved.
She arrived home Thursday night to discover that the dress had arrived from her mom. It was in a big box, delivered by courier, that Lisa had left leaning against Shannyn’s door in the foyer.
Shannyn wasn’t sure she was attending a wedding anymore, but she was curious about her mom’s work. She cleared the kitchen table then carefully opened the box, folding back the layers of tissue to reveal the most perfect dress she’d ever seen. At first, she thought it was navy, but then she realized it looked deep purple when the light hit it from another angle. It was full-length, the underdress made of satin, and layers of chiffon on the skirt. Shannyn gasped in wonder as she lifted it out of the box.
She had to try it on immediately, and stood staring at herself in the mirror for long moments. She felt transformed.
The bodice was sleeveless and fitted, the neckline curved to display the tattoo on her back. The layers of fabric were embellished with subtle embroidery and beads, some on the top layer and some on the ones beneath, so that the dress seemed to change as she moved. It was filled with shadows and glitter and mystery, a perfect dress for dancing at night. She spun in front of the mirror and laughed, loving that her mom had gotten it so perfect.
There was a stole in the box, too, made of the same satin and also embroidered and beaded, along with a dark beaded clutch purse. Her mom had tucked in a note, suggesting which shoes Shannyn should wear. She’d need her highest heels, because the skirt was long.
She smiled, remembering that she’d told her mom how tall Tyler was.
She called to thank her, still wearing the dress, and ended up telling her mom everything. Of course, her mom gave her one piece of advice, and it was exactly what Shannyn needed to hear.
Silence.
Ty didn’t hear a thing from Shannyn all week long. Cassie had told them on Wednesday at the meeting that Shannyn had taken the job and brought them all up to date on how the two new hires—Shannyn and Meesha—were setting the club’s social media on fire. Otherwise, Ty heard nothing. He didn’t see her, and he struggled to keep his word not to even try. He stayed late at Fleming Financial each night, and remained in his apartment, working, until it was time to swim.
Not a word.
He also avoided as many of his mom’s calls as possible, telling her how much he was working when they did talk. He wasn’t going to field any questions about Shannyn. He continued as if his life was business as usual, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Shannyn.
It figured that she’d be the one to teach him that he couldn’t have everything he wanted and that he couldn’t fix everything. Ty realized he’d trade everything just to have her in his life, a sure sign of how hard he’d fallen.
By Thursday night, he knew it was time.
Ty believed that nice guys took no for an answer, but he also believed that men fought for what they wanted most. If Shannyn really wanted to ditch him, he’d respect that, but first he’d argue his case.
There had to be a reason why she’d made her rules. By his counting, they’d broken the first three but not the fourth, and he was ready to use poetry, if it was the last weapon available to him.
It was almost midnight on Thursday when he called her, and it was raining, just like the first time he’d talked to her late at night. He stood staring out the window of his bedroom as the rain drummed against the windows, looking across the city to Brooklyn, willing her to answer the phone and at least listen to him.
But his call went straight to voice mail.
He’d halfway expected that and he was ready.
“It’s me and I was hoping that you’d pick up the phone so we could talk. The choice is yours to make and I’ll respect whatever you decide, but you don’t have all the facts, so I want to give them to you.” He took a breath, knowing it would have been easier to make his confession if she’d been listening, or even if he’d known for sure that she’d ever hear his words. “There’s something special between us, something I want to nurture and defend, something I’m willing to fight for. The thing is that you have to want it, too, and if you’re still in love with Cole, then I don’t have a chance. If you’re not, though, I’d like that chance. I love you, Shannyn, and I’d be honored to spend my life with you. That’s not because I want or need something from you, or because I have expectations about the future. It’s not because I think you need fixing. It’s just because I like being with you. I like that you’re unafraid to challenge me or my assumptions. I like that you defy expectations and make people reconsider things, even me. Especially me.” He took a breath. “I like who I am when we’re together. I like this sense of adventure and discovery and I’m pretty sure it’ll never end if you put your hand in mine. I want more of you in my life and I hope that maybe you feel the same way, that maybe you can put Cole behind you the way he’s put you in his past, and that maybe, me saying it out loud will help you to move forward.”
It sounded like a crazy long shot, but Ty wasn’t done.
He opened the book he held to the marked page. “Now, here’s the part where I feel silly, because you’re not there to listen. But I’m going to go for it here, on the off-chance that you remember that day in that course when I had to read this poem aloud and explain it. I did a pretty bad job then, if memory serves, because the words weren’t evocative to me. I couldn’t understand what it was like to want something or someone and have to live without that. The words are powerful now, though, because I understand what it’s like to fall in love and maybe not close the deal. I understand how empty my life feels without you. This is a long shot to try to change your mind and give us a chance.”
Ty cleared his throat, feeling like an ass, and began to read Keats’ poem aloud.
There was a message when Shannyn got off the phone with her mom, and she might not have looked at it if it hadn’t been so late. If it hadn’t been pouring rain. If she hadn’t been thinking about Tyler talking to her that first night.
If her mom hadn’t told her to fight for what she wanted and tell Tyler the truth.
When she saw that it was from Tyler, she had to listen.
&
nbsp; She closed her eyes at the sound of his voice, holding tightly to the phone as she listened, amazed and thrilled by every word. She couldn’t believe that he doubted that she could love him and she shook her head that he imagined for one minute that she still loved Cole. She was shocked that he read Keats’ La Belle Dame sans Merci to her, because she did remember that day. Contrary to Tyler’s memory, the entire lecture hall had been enthralled by his reading.
The beautiful woman without mercy. Did he think that was her?
Shannyn’s heart was in her throat as she listened to his recital, his voice so smooth and low. He lingered over the words, which gave them more weight. Her tears rose by the end of the poem, then she listened again, putting it on speaker.
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look’d at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long;
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.
...
She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sigh’d full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lulled me asleep
And there I dream’d—Ah! Woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream’d
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!’
I saw their starv’d lips in the gloam,
Just One Fake Date: A Contemporary Romance (Flatiron Five Fitness Book 1) Page 32
