Tyler sighed. He knew this was one battle he wasn’t going to win.
“Alright. Let me go get cleaned up. I’m covered in mud and grime from digging around the basement all morning.” He pushed back his chair reluctantly. “Come in for lunch and get ambushed with this,” he muttered under his breath.
“You’re doing the right thing,” Sue Ellen beamed at him as she wrapped up the pie.
“Right,” Tyler said as he stormed off to his room to change. Halfway there he caught himself.
There was no way he was going to put on better clothing. He would go over to the Springer’s the way he was. Work stained, sweat soaked shirt and tattered, stained jeans. He wasn’t going to go out of his way to do anything special for Helene Springer.
He was only going over there because his mother was pretty much forcing him to, and he wanted to keep the peace for his parent’s sake. The town was already buzzing. He didn’t live there any longer, but his parents did. He didn’t want it to be unbearable for them.
He was being forced. That was all there was to it. He definitely wouldn’t make an effort to seek Helene out. He didn’t care one whit what went on with her life.
Pie in hand, Tyler was halfway to the Springer household, six streets over and one block down, when he cursed himself for the liar he was.
Chapter 3
“Ugh, I found another cocoon.” Helene picked the mummified critter off the tomato plant with a shudder.
“Damn things. They’re taking over my garden,” Janice complained. She stooped to inspect another set of tomato plants.
“Why don’t you just powder them or something?”
Janice rolled her eyes. “Sacrilege! I’ll pick them off before I kill us with pesticides.”
“I’m sure there are natural ones you can use.”
“Yes. There are. It’s called our hands and our sweat.”
“And my broken back.”
Janice actually cracked a smile. “You know Helene; it’s good to have you home.”
Helene stared at her mother in dumbfounded surprise. The two of them hadn’t exactly got along in high school. In fact, Helene got along much better with Sue Ellen, Tyler’s mother.
At that moment the doorbell sounded through the house. Because the house was so small, the two women could hear it all the way outside.
Janice straightened. “I wonder who that is.”
“Probably prying neighbors,” Helene muttered under her breath. She knew full well the rumor mill was at the height of its glory.
Janice stripped off her soiled garden gloves. “I’ll go answer it. You can stay out here.”
“Thanks mom.” Helene didn’t have to say she wanted to hide out. It was totally clear.
She stooped and went back to pulling the disgusting worm cocoons off the plants. She was hard at it when she heard the back door slam. She glanced towards the house, expecting to find her mother standing there.
Instead, a tall stranger stood on the deck. His frame was huge, over six feet. A tight fitting black t-shirt, stained with paint and grease was stretched over massive shoulders. They tapered into a barrel chest and a hard, athletic waist. His legs looked just as muscular as the rest of him, even in stained, dirty jeans. Long, blonde hair was pulled back at his neck. A fresh crop of blonde stubble dotted his chiseled cheeks and chin.
She almost wouldn’t have recognized him had it not been for his blue eyes. They were the same color as the sky on a hot summer day, the kind of blue when the sky is perfectly cloudless, extending into infinity.
“Tyler,” she whispered.
Helene stood frozen in the rows of tomato plants. Bugs buzzed around her and a mosquito landed on her arm and bit. She didn’t move. He didn’t move either. He didn’t even blink.
Finally, Helene cleared her throat. She forced her feet to take her to the garden’s edge. She worried about whether she had smears of dirt on her face or her clothing. She dropped her garden gloves in a forced gesture of casualness that she didn’t feel. Her insides raced with a strange wild excitement. They warred all the while with the acrid bite of regret and the heady memories of an entire childhood filled with the man before her.
The boy he had once been was long gone, replaced with this hard, granite, massive man before her. He must have grown a foot since she’d seen him last. He used to wear glasses, but they were long gone as well, likely replaced by contacts.
“You used to be a bean pole,” Helene choked out. She winced at her ill-chosen words. They just kind of tumbled out.
Tyler actually allowed the smallest smile to crack his rock hard features but his eyes remained guarded. “Yes. I grew half a foot and gained fifty odd pounds of muscle. Working in the construction industry will do that.”
“Oh.” Helene folded her hands in front of her waist and stared at them. Construction? Tyler always wanted to work with computers. He’d vowed he’d make a good software programmer.
“My mom baked you a pie. She made me bring it over.”
“Oh,” she mumbled again. Damn it, why couldn’t she say anything else?
“Yah… look Helene. I know you’re back in town. I’m back for the summer helping my parents fix their place up. I didn’t know you would be here otherwise I wouldn’t have come.”
Her eyes flew to his face. “Wouldn’t you?”
“Of course not.”
“Why not?”
Tyler hesitated. “You know why not.”
“I don’t. It’s me who is to blame for how things went, not you. I was the one who left. Don’t let me chase you out of town now. It’s easy to avoid each other.”
Tyler’s eyes sparked with some wild emotion. He blinked and it was gone too quickly to define. “Is it?”
“I don’t know. I guess it is a small town. I’m going to try and find work in Cincinnati though, so I won’t be around much.”
“Lucky for me then.”
“Yes, lucky for you.”
Tyler tensed. “Do you really mean that?”
“Not at all,” Helene admitted.
She had longed, over the past four years, to see Tyler again and apologize for everything including her anger. He shouldn’t have called her a whore, but he had been right about Rick. She’d been young and stupid. She had an inkling about how he felt, and she’d ignored it. She knew she had wounded him, but she could only guess how deeply.
Tyler sighed. He shifted back and forth on the deck as though his shoes were hurting him. Helene sensed that his pain had nothing to do with his footwear.
“I guess we should just try and be civil then. I’m sorry for what I said and for everything. I want you to know that. I just… maybe the past can be the past. We’re adults now. We’ve changed. Even if we see each other we can get along.”
“We always got along so well. It’s weird to know your back and I’m back and not be able to- well see each other again.”
“You can’t pick up the pieces where we left off. Too much time has passed. We don’t even know each other anymore.”
Helene nodded. An indescribable sadness took root in her heat. No, the roots had always been there. Tyler’s words were like water to a weed of destruction that she wanted to pull out and banish. She didn’t like the pain even the mere thought of his face caused.
“Allow me to introduce myself then.” Helene stepped forward and extended her hand. “Helene Springer. Newly divorced. Shitty friend. Stupid girl who might have learned a thing or two. Or at least I hope so. Once best friend of Tyler Frost. That girl back then didn’t deserve your friendship or your loyalty, but I hope that, at the very least, we could be friendly now, even as half strangers.”
Tyler hesitated. His eyes darted around the yard as though some wild animal would spring out and bite him at any second. He stared at her outstretched palm like it was the very animal that could wound him. Finally, he extended a hand that was much larger, and far more work roughened than she remembered.
&nbs
p; “Tyler Frost,” he said evenly.
A lightning bolt of pure, wicked desire snaked up Helene’s arm at the contact. She didn’t pull away even though the slow burn spread to her shoulder and warmed the rest of her body.
Tyler released her hand and Helene tucked it carefully against her side. She was shocked at her reaction to his touch. This was Tyler here. The same Tyler she’d grown up with. She’d seen him cry when his dog died. She’d also literally watched him pee his pants in grade two. She’d seen him puke on his shoes the first time he was drunk. He’d been Helene’s first kiss when they were twelve just because they wanted to see what it felt like. She’d picked food out of his braces for him and he’d gone and hunted down feminine products for her on their youth camping trip when she’d forgotten her bag at home. He’d seen her cry more times than he could count. He was the bearer of most of her deepest secrets.
He stood before her as a stranger. Gone were the braces, the glasses, the gangly body he had yet to grow into. In place was this man who took Helene’s breath away.
“Pleased to- to meet you again,” Helene stammered.
Tyler turned to leave but she just couldn’t let him go like that. She impulsively reached out and touched his arm. He spun around, surprising her with his quick agility. His eyes blazed with an unmistakable fire and Helene shrank back. It couldn’t be. Not after all these years. Surely, he couldn’t feel the same way…
She’d never been sure. She’d had just an inkling of his true feelings. Her stomach clenched hard in response. Her insides twisted into a writhing, aching mass. Her throat burned with sudden unshed tears and regret choked off any words she might have uttered.
Tyler waited. He sensed that she was struggling, and she could tell he took compassion on her even if he didn’t really want to. He’d never been cruel, even when she’d announced that she was leaving. He’d driven her to the damn bus station so she could get on and travel all the way to Cleveland to meet another man.
“Tyler…” Her eyes implored him even though she couldn’t find the right words to express everything she wanted to say.
“I have to get back now. My dad probably needs my help. We’re digging out part of the foundation to install vapor- oh. Never mind. You probably aren’t interested in that.”
Helene nodded. Her tongue was still tied in a thousand knots. She still couldn’t quite believe that this man was Tyler and he was standing right in front of her.
“Alright. It was good seeing you again.” Helene finally was able to force words past her closed throat.
“See you around.”
Tyler turned and this time she let him go. He knew where the gate in the fence was surrounding the yard and he let himself out.
Helene remained rooted to the spot. Her brain felt like it was going to implode, not to mention her heart. A thousand memories, no, far more than a thousand, raced through her head.
She had everything under control until she saw Tyler again. He brought back every single emotion, every memory, every sweet moment and acrid regret. He’d spent a lifetime building memories with her. She could have put a lid on her emotions if he hadn’t just walked into her life, startling her at her most vulnerable time.
She had to see him again.
Helene knew it as a certainty. He’d made it pretty clear that he didn’t welcome it, but he hadn’t exactly told her not to come around either. She racked her brain for something, anything, that would give her an excuse to speak to him again.
An apology. She could give him a real apology and really talk about what had happened. That should come later. It wasn’t something she could just walk right up to the front door and blurt out.
His grandfather’s pocket watch.
Tyler had given it to her as a grad gift. She couldn’t even remember what she’d purchased for him. Something small and meaningless. She’d been too infatuated with Rick and the thought of leaving to even care. He’d given her his grandfather’s pocket watch. Of course, he hadn’t known that all along she was planning to escape.
As far as she knew his grandparents were still alive. They owned a small farm not far away. At least, they used to. She really didn’t know anymore. It wounded her that she was no longer his friend and as such, the people who had once meant something to her, Tyler’s parents and grandparents, were no longer a part of her life.
She would find the watch and give it back to Tyler. It was the least she could do. He’d given her one of his most precious possessions in the world and she announced she was leaving to date someone else. How stupid could she have been?
She’d known Tyler’s heart. She’d always known. For the sake of their friendship and her own stupid immaturity, she’d ignored it. She’d been careless and hurtful. She realized now just how crushed Tyler truly had been.
Even if Tyler never wanted to see her again, she had to leave him with her confession and her heartfelt apology. Maybe then they could both move on.
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