“We’re high-fiving this?”
“Hell yeah! Anything that makes her speechless is high-fivable in my book.”
She giggled, slapping her hand against his.
They walked further into the aquarium, testing out how things were going before they’d fully show Addie what there was to see. It seemed like the more colorful the fish, the more she loved it. At one point, Tyler walked up close enough so she could touch the glass. When a school of brightly colored fish swam by, she squealed and slapped her hand against the glass, trying to catch one.
“I guess she likes it.” He smiled over at Meredith, who at that moment took a picture. It promised to be one of her favorites from this trip.
There was something about the way Addie could make Tyler smile. Not even she was able to make him smile so wide. Something about pleasing their daughter pleased him on such a different level than anything else did. She loved it and was happy they’d been blessed with the chance to experience this. Above anyone, she knew that it had almost never happened, and wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been meant to be.
“She does. Let’s go check out the sharks and see how she does with that,” Meredith suggested.
As they made their way to the conveyer belt that would take them through the glass enclosure, Tyler switched her over to his other hip.
“You okay carrying her? We can go get a stroller if she’s getting heavy.”
“Nah, just had to readjust. She don’t weigh anything.”
They stepped onto the conveyer belt and pointed out the animals to Addie. As a shark came towards them, her eyes got big, and she shrieked, burying her face in Tyler’s shoulder. “You okay?” he asked her, trying to bite back a laugh.
Moving her face from his shoulder, she looked again as another one came towards them.
“He ain’t gonna hurt ya,” he said, close to the little girls ear. “I got ya.”
This time, she didn’t look away until the very end, and there was no shriek.
“She’s getting brave.”
“She’s not getting there, she is brave. Watch,” he told his wife.
Again, another shark came at them. This time, she didn’t even flinch. She followed it with her eyes as it swam above them.
“Look at her. She gets that from you,” Meredith told him, as she, herself, watched one of the larger sharks swimming above their heads.
“Nah, babe.” He reached out for her hand. “That is definitely all you. I’ve never known anyone in the world braver than you are.”
Again, she felt emotional and had to blink back tears. Those words meant more to her than he could ever know, and she appreciated them more than he would ever know.
*
“You hungry?” Tyler asked her a few hours later as they walked along the shops that Gatlinburg had to offer. They’d already been in a few of them and bought touristy souvenirs to take back to their friends.
“I’m getting there.” She shielded her eyes and looked for a spot for them to eat where they could sit.
Addie had been walking on her own for a little while, and they could both tell she was getting tired. They were tired too; the heat of the afternoon was beginning to take its toll on them.
“How about over there?” Tyler pointed to a place that had seats on a covered patio. The sign promised corn dogs, French fries, and fresh-squeezed lemonade.
“Sounds amazing,” she told him as they went to the next crosswalk and crossed the street.
As he situated the two of them at a table that was completely covered by the shade, he leaned over on the table. “What do you want? I’ll grab it and you can stay here with her.”
“I’ll take all of the above that was on that sign. I’m starving.”
That sounded good to him too. “What should I get her?” He was never sure what he should feed Addie. It was the one thing that he questioned, besides fixing her hair. He always deferred to Meredith on that subject.
“Grab her a corndog too. If she doesn’t finish it, then you can. She’s never had lemonade, so get a kid-sized one to see if she likes it. Grab a bottle of water though, in case she doesn’t. I wanna save the juice I have in here for later, in case she gets hot. She’s drunk way more than I thought she would.”
“Alright, be back.” He leaned down, kissing first one and then the other on the forehead, before making his way over to place their orders.
Addie waved as he walked away.
“He’ll be right back, baby girl,” Meredith told her as she used a baby wipe to wipe off Addie’s face and hands. “Before we go back to walking around, we need to put some more sunscreen on you. You’re getting a little pink.”
Addie nodded, like she understood exactly what Meredith said. When she finished, Meredith balled up the baby wipe and set it aside for trash before leaning back against the chair. It’d been a long morning, but as she glanced at Tyler, who stood at the counter like he owned the place, she knew there was no other place she’d rather be.
‡
Chapter Fifteen
“Welcome back from vacay,” Christine greeted Meredith with a huge hug as she walked into CRISIS a few days later.
“Thanks.” She smiled ruefully. She already wished she was right back there. “Go ahead and fill me in. What have I missed?”
“Nothing huge. We didn’t really have any excitement while you were gone. We took in a couple of girls, a couple of girls left. Same old, same old.”
There was something that nagged at the back of Meredith’s mind. Nobody had mentioned Stephanie to her, there hadn’t even been a text from Travis when she’d turned her phone on and started to wade through the things she’d ignored while on vacation. “What about Stephanie?”
“She packed her stuff and left.” The way Christine said it was no-nonsense. She didn’t need to tell Meredith that the girl had made one hell of a scene and threatened everyone from the Pope to the President of the United States.
“There was no issue with her?” She wasn’t sure if she believed that or not, there was something in the way Christine had mentioned it.
“No issue at all.” Christine just knew God was going to strike her dead for being a liar.
For a long minute, Meredith held her gaze and studied her, much like she’d seen Tyler study people. Finally, she dropped her gaze.
“Okay, if you say so. What do we need to do today? Where do I need to start?”
*
Travis stood at Walker’s Wheels and watched Tyler pull into the parking lot. His heart beat double-time. He was going to keep a secret from the big man, and he just wasn’t sure he could do it. Tyler had already texted him three times since he’d been back from vacation.
“Stay strong, cuz,” Rooster told him as he came up beside him and slung an arm around his shoulders. “Don’t let him intimidate you into telling him something you don’t want him to know.”
“That’s easy for you to say. When he stands in front of you, you’re not in his shadow,” Travis mumbled.
Rooster chuckled—Travis had gotten the shorter end of the stick in the family genes, so to speak. “Remember, this is for the good of a young family, it has nothing to do with keeping secrets from people. It’s a need to know thing, and right now, Tyler doesn’t need to know. We’ve got the okay from Liam. This is going to be all good.”
This most definitely was not going to be all good and Travis knew it, but he was feeling the pressure from everyone else to make it seem as if it were. The information he’d managed to dig up on Stephanie was damning, and he wanted nothing more than to let the Blackfoot family know, but Stephanie had disappeared without a trace the night Christine and another worker at CRISIS had confronted her about the drug use. It was then that they’d all decided to let it go. “Whatever you say, but when this goes to shit, I’m going to be sure and let him know that I wanted to tell him the truth,” Travis hissed as Tyler made his way into the bays that housed the cars they were working on.
“Mornin’,” he called out
as he approached the two men.
“Hey, my man, you look refreshed.” Rooster stepped forward, offering his hand to the man who had become a close friend. There was one thing that was a given about Tyler. You couldn’t know him and not come to care for him deeply. He wormed his way into everyone’s hearts, and that was exactly why all of them wanted to keep him happy.
“I am.” He nodded, a small smile covering his face. “It’s amazing what a little mountain air can do for your soul.”
“Did Addie have a good time?” It was important to keep him talking, to give Travis a chance to get his shit together; otherwise Rooster knew his little cousin would talk like a parrot.
“Oh man, she loved it.” Tyler became animated as he told them about taking her to the aquarium and taking her in the Ferris wheel. One night they had done the lazy river at the condo, and she’d had her first taste of funnel cake.
“I’m gonna have to see what Roni thinks about us going and taking Carter when he gets a little older.”
“Yeah, I can’t wait to take her back in a year. She’ll be able to talk more and tell us more of what she wants to do, but I know she had a good time, and that’s all that matters. Hell, I had a great time, and so did Mer. It was exactly what we needed.” He ran a hand through his hair.
Anyone looking at him could tell that he had used the time to refresh and recover from the daily things he did for the club. His face didn’t hold any lines of fatigue, and there were no dark circles there.
“It looks good on ya,” Rooster complimented. “I’m gonna go see what I need to do.” He hitched his head, indicating a car that sat in a bay. “C’mon, Trav, you can help me.”
“No wait.” Tyler held out his hands. “I meant to ask, actually I texted you a few times, but you never answered. Did you find anything out about that license plate that Meredith had you run?”
“No,” Travis answered, but his voice was weak, even to his own ears. He hated lying to Tyler. Man up, he told himself. Clearing his throat, he answered again. “No, she was just being safe. Better to be safe than sorry and all of that.” He nodded before turning around and following Rooster over to the car. The faster he got away from the probing look of the big VP of the club, the better off he would be.
*
Thirty minutes later, another bike pulled into the parking lot and Jagger got off, scowling as he tossed his helmet onto the back of the bike. “Traffic fucking sucks,” he yelled, obviously frustrated. “I would have been here forty-five minutes ago, had it not been for traffic. Sorry I’m late.”
They all looked around at one another, amused. Jagger wasn’t one to normally get his man panties in a bunch about anything, but obviously traffic had pissed him off this morning.
“School started,” Travis said, slowly, as if he were talking to Addie.
Jagger leveled a glare in his direction. “I know, dipshit. My wife is a teacher,” he said in the same tone that Travis had used with him. “I’m just saying it bites ass, and if any of you want to get across town in the morning, you should probably leave way earlier than I did.”
Everyone gave him a wide berth as he walked towards the coffee pot that sat in the garage bay. “Maybe he’s not had his coffee yet,” Rooster whispered to Travis.
“I hope that cup helps then, because I like to try and remain civil with him, you know because of Christine and all.” Jagger and Christine were brother and sister, and for a while, Jagger had not been okay with her and Travis having a relationship.
They were all quiet, looking at Jagger, wondering if he was going to explode. He seemed in a very pissy mood when the door to the office opened and Liam came walking out.
“What the fuck are y’all doing just standing around?” he barked, talking around a cigarette in his mouth. In his hand, he held his own cup of coffee. “Get to work! We do have a business to run here, and if you want paychecks on Friday, I better hear less girlie gossiping and more pounding on cars. You got me?”
Everyone quickly stopped what they were doing and went to work. No matter how much of a family man he was, pres still packed a punch when he needed to.
‡
Chapter Sixteen
First day of senior year and Mandy was ready for it to be over. “Are you two even gonna walk in with us?” she questioned Drew and Dalton. She and Charity had been trying to walk in for more than fifteen minutes. It was now fifteen minutes before the bell would ring signaling the pep rally to welcome them back to school.
“I ain’t in a hurry,” Drew told her. “We’re seniors; we can do what we want.”
The two girls exchanged a look. That attitude was going to get them nowhere but in detention, and they both knew it. Charity grabbed her stuff out of the front of Drew’s truck and glanced at Mandy. “I don’t know about you, but I want to start this year off on a good foot. B’s my homeroom teacher, and I don’t know about any of you all, but I don’t wanna be pissin’ off Mrs. Stone. Let’s go.” She grabbed hold of Mandy’s arm and dragged her toward one of the entrances.
“I don’t know why they have to act like they’re the hottest things at this school. I miss when they didn’t think so highly of themselves,” Mandy grumbled. She missed when things weren’t so serious, when it wasn’t all about feelings and stolen kisses and sex. There was something to be said for being able to be friends and have a good time.
“I know, I do too.”
“You should never have had sex with my brother.” Mandy clapped her hand over her mouth. She couldn’t believe she’d said that out loud, and looking at Charity’s face, it was obvious that she couldn’t either.
“What I do with your brother is really none of your business.” She shook her head. “Damn, Mandy, I thought you and I were friends.”
How the hell did she get herself out of this? “We are, you’re my best friend besides Layla.”
“Oh, and Layla’s perfect, just like you, because she hasn’t slept with Dalton’s brother yet, I’m sure. Just like you haven’t given it up to Dalton.”
People were too involved in who she was giving it up to, and it was really beginning to annoy her. “No,” she hissed. “I haven’t given it up to anybody, and that’s the problem.” Her cheeks burned a hot red.
That was it, then. Something was wrong. “C’mon.” Charity directed her towards the bathrooms in the back of the school. “Fuck the pep rally; you obviously need some girl talk with people who aren’t older than you and aren’t connected to your parents.”
Mandy wasn’t sure what she wanted, but she let Charity lead her down the hallway. Once they got to the back bathrooms, Charity grinned at her and pulled a key from her pocket, locking the gate that shut them off for cleaning.
“Where did you get that? And you’re a cheerleader, aren’t they gonna notice you aren’t at the pep rally?”
“Don’t ask questions, this gives us a little time by ourselves.”
They spread their backpacks out on the ground and had a seat. Since it was the first day, the bathrooms were probably the cleanest they were going to be.
“So what did you want to talk to me about?” Mandy asked, playing with a string on her blue jeans.
“I don’t want to talk to you about anything, but obviously you have a problem with me hanging out with Drew, so go ahead and get it out. You’re his sister and he loves you deeply. I don’t want there to be drama.”
Mandy inhaled and then exhaled. “I feel like I’m being left behind,” she whispered. “People want me to do things, and then other people don’t want me to do things. I want to make the right decision, but I don’t know what decision that is. Should I sleep with Dalton, should I not sleep with Dalton? I’m so damn confused.”
“Let me ask you this, and it’s a serious question. What do you want to do? Whatever we talk about, I will not tell Drew, I won’t tell your mom, I won’t tell Dalton. What do you want?”
Running her tongue along her bottom lip, she raised her head and looked at Charity. “How was it? I mean forget
the fact that you’re sleeping with my brother. How is it?”
It was Charity’s turn for her face to turn red, and she squirmed, but she also knew she had to see this through; she was the one who’d started it. “Honestly, to begin with, it sucked. Drew said it was the best thing ever, like he bragged to everybody. He shouldn’t have bragged.” She rolled her eyes.
That made Mandy grin before a full giggle rumbled up inside of her chest and came pouring out. “Oh, I know, it’s all I heard about, and I didn’t even want to hear about it.”
“But I’m not gonna lie,” Charity continued. “It’s gotten really good. I can understand the things I’ve heard women who work with my mom talk about now. There’s a lot to be said for the pleasure it can bring you. I know from talking to other people that not everyone feels that pleasure, but I do. I think it’s because I truly love Drew. I know I’m leaving next summer, but I whole-heartedly love everything about him. He’s much different around me than he is with everybody else. When we’re by ourselves, I can’t believe he’s the same person.”
Mandy saw the dreamy look in her friend’s eyes and wondered if she got that look herself when she talked about Dalton. She wondered if people could tell that she did want to be with him in that way. Sometimes when they were alone and he was kissing her like he never wanted to stop, she badly wanted to know what all the fuss was about. “Did it hurt?”
“Remember me saying it wasn’t that great to begin with? Yeah, it did, but you get over it, and if you have a good partner, you learn what the other person likes. Be aware though, when people say that it changes everything, it does. It’s like the moment you decide to cross that line; your whole life is different. I know what Drew looks like naked; I know what he feels like inside of me. I don’t know that about anyone else in this world. He’s touched a place in me that no one else has. He held me when I cried the first time, and he’s right there with me when I tell him how much I like it now. It’s intimate and it’s not a joke. It means something. He tells me he loves me and I believe him.” She stopped, blinking back tears. “Make sure what you feel for Dalton is worth it, because once you give it away, Mandy…you can’t take it back. And it should be given to someone who will cherish it. I made Drew work for it, so I know exactly where you’re coming from.”
Beginning of Forever (Heaven Hill #7) Page 8
