Chapter 22
He flicked through his missed calls. All of them were his mother.
The longer he put off calling, the worse this was going to be for him.
Tyler hit the dial button as he shut off the car.
He did not want this going through the car speakers.
If he was going to be yelled at, he didn’t need an audience of random people walking by in the parking lot.
His mom answered on the first ring. That was never a good sign. “Tyler Jonathan Garrett.”
“I am so sorry.”
“So, you’re sorry? Do you know how worried I was?”
“I am fine. I promise nothing happened to me.”
He heard his mother sigh over the phone.
“I know you’re fine. Do you know how I know you are fine?
” She didn’t wait for him to say anything to that.
Instead, she continued. “Because I got dressed at two o’clock in the morning when you were not answering your phone, and I drove down to his hotel to see your car in the parking lot.
” She didn’t seem to put any effort into hiding how irritated she was with him.
The irritation shifted to something much more fearful.
“I don’t know what I would have done if your car wasn’t there. ”
“I am really sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.
Things last night didn’t go as planned.” He really did feel bad about having worried her and causing all of that trouble.
He understood the million reasons his mother was so protective of him.
Even though he was more than old enough to be living on his own, he knew he had given his mother so many reasons to worry in the past.
“Are you on your way home?”
“Uhh, no. I drove Dmitrii to his doctor appointment this morning. We both overslept, so he didn’t have time to call for a car.
” Tyler almost paused, but he knew he needed to just get this over with.
“I didn’t plan what happened last night.
I swear I had planned on a nice dinner than going back to his place and ignoring a movie or something and making out for a while.
I had completely intended to be home last night. ”
“Tyler, I know you are an adult, and I can’t tell you what to do and not do.” Tyler could hear how his mom was trying not to sound upset and hurt, but he knew she was.
“Mom, I have given you plenty to worry about in the past. You are my mother. You have every right to be worried about me. I thought I had my phone near me. I accidentally knocked it off the nightstand, and it was still on vibrate, so I didn’t hear it on the carpet.
I should have given you Dmitrii’s number as a backup.
We just – I’m sorry. I love you.” He took a deep breath before saying more.
“Dmitrii and I really need to talk about last night though, and I’d like to do that before I go home.
I’m going to grab coffee because I am serious.
We barely got him to his appointment without being late.
I’ll skip some of the practice with Coach Troskel so I can drive home after that and we can talk? ”
“No. You can skate. I’m not sure about car privileges for extra things like dates for a while. I am not happy.”
Tyler leaned back in the car seat, not trying to hide how exhausted he was. “I know, Mom. I don’t blame you.”
“You’re an adult though. I can’t treat you like your little brother or sister. I just wish you had called me as soon as you woke up.” She wasn’t happy, but she sounded a lot less upset.
“Dmitrii’s phone ran out of battery, and I woke up to him getting ready impossibly fast … oh wait. I need to stop at the house to get my skating stuff. We have his skate bag in the car. It was a really crazy morning, and if we hadn’t had luck with the lights, we would not have been here on time.”
“You sound tired.” Her tone had softened so much now that the worry had been eased.
“It’s been a morning. He finishes up here at ten, so how about I get home by eleven thirty to get my things? Then I don’t have to be at the rink until one?” Tyler was trying to do the mental math to make sure all of his times worked with the driving times included.
“Tye, if anything changes, call me. No texts. Call me.”
“I promise.” He was going to do everything possible to keep his word to his mother.
“Are you going to bring him?” The question was almost hesitant from his mother.
“He doesn’t need to be at the rink for off-ice work until two, so … I could?” Tyler would bet that his mother wanted to talk to both of them.
“You should bring him here for lunch.” There was nothing in her voice that made it sound like she thought it was just a good idea. This was much more of her telling him what she expected him to do.
Tyler very much understood the message that was in his mother’s words.
“I will. If anything changes from us both being there by eleven thirty, I promise I will call and not text.” He was on thin ice, and he was not going to do a single thing to make this situation worse.
However, if Dmitrii said ‘no’, he’d call his mom and tell her it would just be him.
“I love you, baby.”
“I love you too, Mom. See you soon.” He let out a deep breath as he ended the call. He was in trouble, but it wasn’t as much as he had feared.
After the phone call ended, Tyler just sat in the car for a few minutes to process everything.
He had been worried that the phone call would be worse than it had been.
He had known his mom would be worried. The fact she had driven down didn’t surprise him.
He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in and then out.
Before he talked to either his mom or Dmitrii, he needed to take a moment to think of what he actually wanted.
Things had gone so much further than he had intended, but he had no regrets from last night.
He was falling for Dmitrii so hard, but part of him kept reminding himself that this was how he always was.
He was the type of person who fell so fast and hard.
Maybe that was why he had had his heart broken so many times.
Tyler started the car. There were two things he needed to do before Dmitrii got out of his appointment.
The first was to go to the drugstore that was just across the street.
If things went like they had last night again, he wanted to be prepared to be safe.
The second thing was to go to a little local coffee shop that was nearby and pick up two coffees.
He ordered one with all the cream and sugar that he needed.
The second one he ordered black since he didn’t know how Dmitrii took his coffee.
He grabbed some packets of creamer and sugar though, so it could be customized.
He bought two muffins as well since neither of them had had breakfast, and now that he was awake, he was realizing exactly how hungry he was.
Lunch was not only hours away, but it also meant seeing his mother and whatever talking to would come from that.
Some sort of baked good seemed like the only logical choice.
An hour after dropping Dmitrii off for his appointment, Tyler was once again parked back in the parking lot with five minutes to spare.
With both coffees in the center cup holders, the items from the drugstore hidden in the car’s glove box, and the bag of muffins balanced on the center console, he hoped he was actually ready for whatever was going to come next.
His own coffee was in his hands when he saw an exhausted-looking Dmitrii walk out of the main door to make his way over to the car.
“I have muffins in the bag, and I didn’t know how you liked your coffee, so there are things of creamer and packets of sugar in there as well.”
Dmitrii nodded, more collapsing into the passenger seat than just sitting down. “Thank you.” He popped the lid off his coffee and started to dump half of the packets into the liquid before looking over. “You already …”
“Yeah, use as much of that as you want.” Tyler smiled as he watched Dmitrii pour the rest of the cream into his drink. “I wasn’t sure how you liked your coffee.”
“Normally, I just drink whatever is in the hotel room.” Dmitrii laughed a little as he took a sip. “Thank you.” Even with as tired as he was after his time with the doctor, it was impossible to miss the softness of how he looked at Tyler.
“No, it’s nothing.” Tyler relaxed now that he was looking across the car to see how those gorgeous sea-glass green eyes were looking at him. He really never tired of looking at Dmitrii. “You are so handsome. Do you know that?”
“If you keep saying that all the time, I guess I’ll have to believe you?” He reached into the bag for a muffin before saying anything else. “I told Dr. Aubrey about last night. Well, some of last night. I didn’t go into detail.”
“What did she say?” Tyler grabbed the other muffin.
It was kind of nice sitting here in the car and eating like this.
Part of him wished they were actually at the coffee shop so he could flirt better and see Dmitrii more, but this was still nice.
Everything with Dmitrii was nice, though.
He couldn’t think of a single moment with the other man that hadn’t been enjoyable.
Regardless of everything else, he was so happy to be around him.
“She seems to think it’s good for me. That all of this is normal and part of being young …
I don’t remember what she said exactly. It was an hour ago, and I am always exhausted after talking to her.
” Dmitrii smiled more as he twisted more in his seat so he could better look at Tyler.
“I think she was happy. I only panicked a little about how I hoped you felt the same way I do?”
A smile stretched across Tyler’s lips as he watched Dmitrii.
“I have to keep stopping myself from kissing you.” Was it too early to say the word love?
He reached out to cup Dmitrii’s face in the palm of his hand.
As his thumb brushed over the man’s cheek, he so wanted to say that word.
Instead, Tyler’s eyes dropped a little. “I was supposed to call my mom if I was going to be late last night.”
Dmitrii actually winced at that. This was more than ‘late’. This was the next day. “I am sorry. How bad is it?”
“It’s okay. I’m in some trouble, but I don’t think too much.
My mom isn’t thrilled, but she didn’t seem too mad when I called her.
Okay, she was more worried than mad. Still, it could have been a lot worse.
” He reached out to take hold of Dmitrii’s hand.
“I don’t regret anything. I really, really like you.
I enjoyed every minute of last night.” He wished he had taken the risk to say love.
“Now you’re making me nervous, like you’re about to say something bad.”
“No, no … I mean, she kinda wants us both to show up for lunch. If that’s okay?” Tyler tried not to seem nervous as he looked over at Dmitrii.
Almost collapsing back against the seat of the car, Dmitrii relaxed.
“So you are telling me the punishment is that I go with you to your house and your mom makes us lunch?” He said the words slowly, making sure it was very clear that this was in no way what he had expected to be the ‘bad’ thing that happened.
“Exactly.”
“I need to be at the rink at two?”
“I have to be there at one. That’s when my ice time is so no problem getting you there before two. So, we have a little time to talk, then we can be good for my mom?” The smile widened.
Dmitrii closed his eyes. “Okay. Idea. Let’s go back to my place and set a million alarms, and let me charge my phone, and we can talk there? Do I have time for a shower?” His cheeks flushed a bit as Tyler started driving. “Last night … so I really need a shower before we see your mother?”
Tyler could very much fill in the unspoken part.
Last night had been spent cleaning up clothes and skin with a towel.
It had not been the most complete effort at getting rid of any evidence.
“Yeah, a shower would probably be good.” He stopped at a red light, taking the momentary chance to lean over and press a kiss to Dmitrii’s cheek. “But not as good as last night.”