Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Tristan
I turned onto my street, anticipation swirling in my stomach the closer I got to the house. Since Levi and Merritt moved in, I couldn’t wait to get home at the end of the day so I could see them.
Over the past month, the three of us—well, the three of us and Doc—had fallen into an easy rhythm that had honestly become the best part of my day. I’d been a bachelor for so long and enjoyed the privacy that came with that. I’d never really looked at my future and thought about a wife and kids, but things were changing. Rather than going to the bar, I preferred to go home and watch Pay-Per-View wrestling with Levi. Instead of casually dating or looking for a one-night stand, I enjoyed spending my evenings with Merritt, each of us enjoying a drink at the end of the day as we wound down. Getting to know the woman who’d been consuming my thoughts for months was better than the thought of hooking up with anyone else.
I wanted to be with them. I enjoyed their company more than anyone else’s.
I guided the Suburban into my driveway and saw that everyone was outside. Merritt was pacing back and forth along the front porch, while Levi lay in the front yard as Doc jumped around, pouncing on him as the two played.
I climbed out, my gaze bouncing between a giggling Levi and an anxious Merritt.
“Tristan’s home!” Levi shouted exuberantly, like he hadn’t seen me in weeks. It was the same way he greeted me every evening, and I had to admit, it felt damn good to have someone so excited to see me.
I braced for collision. That was a lesson I’d learned a long time ago with my own nieces and nephew that definitely benefited me with Levi. He launched himself at me like one of those wrestlers, and I managed to catch him before he could bust his head open. “Hey, kiddo. You have a good day?”
“Yeah, it was awesome! Matt Bernard fell off the monkey bars durin’ recess and busted his nose. There was blood everywhere !”
I swallowed down my chuckle at his excitement at seeing blood. It was such a little boy thing. Hell, a lot of grown ass men would get a kick out of the gore too.
“Was Matt okay?”
“Yeah, the nurse said he was gonna be okay, but he still got to go home early. Lucky ,” he said on a sulk, even though I was sure poor Matt Bernard wasn’t feeling particularly lucky. But kids didn’t consider stuff like that. At Levi’s age, I’d been convinced I was made of rubber and totally indestructible.
I caught movement from the corner of my eye as I put Levi back on his feet, glancing over to see that Merritt was still pacing, and she’d started chewing on her thumbnail.
“You and Doc keep playin’, buddy, I’m gonna go have a talk with your aunt.”
“Okay.” He picked up a stick in the grass and gave it a heave across the front lawn. “Doc, fetch!”
I moved up the walkway and took the steps that led up to the porch. “Everything okay?”
She stooped and spun around to face me. “We can’t live here anymore.”
My stomach bottomed out. Dread washed through me, reaching down my throat and squeezing my lungs. “What? Why? Look, whatever happened, I’m sure we can work it out.” They couldn’t leave. The thought of not having Levi’s laughter and excitement filling the house scared me. I couldn’t imagine walking around and not having Merritt’s scent lingering in the air. Her intoxicating fragrance was everywhere. In every room. A hint of citrus and a smoky sweetness. Like orange peels and burnt sugar.
“Just talk to me. Tell me what happened.”
“There’s a spider in the house,” Levi called out from the grass, his words bringing me up short and leaving me momentarily speechless.
“I’m sorry. What?”
“Yeah, Aunt Merri’s super scared of spiders. She saw it, screamed really loud, yanked us outside, and locked the door.”
I slowly turned back to face Merritt, arching a single brow.
“It’s not just a spider,” Merritt clipped defensively, crossing her arms over her chest. “It was huge! And it was this weird, milky white color, and kind of translucent. Like a demonic spider straight out of hell or something. I saw a web in that sideboard Blythe and I found at the estate sale. It could have laid eggs.” She sucked in a started gasp. “They could have hatched .”
I swallowed down the laughter desperate to come out. “And locking the door would prevent them from... chasing after you?”
“I don’t know. I freaked out, okay” she declared, throwing her arms out at her sides. “I’m scared to death of spiders, happy now? They aren’t natural. Nothing on this planet should have that many legs. And some of them are fuzzy! I mean, what the hell is that? That’s not right! I saw the thing and reacted. I got everyone out safely and locked the door. The house belongs to the spider now. Way I see it, there are only two choices.”
“And those would be?”
“We either move or burn the house to the ground.” She lifted her chin and gave me an indignant look. “What’s it gonna be?”
I lost it, a deep laugh rolled all the way up from my stomach and burst past my lips like a cannon blast. I couldn’t remember the last time I found something as funny as I did Merritt’s irrational fear of spiders, and I laughed harder than I had in a very long time.
“Great,” she grumped, her expression drooping. “And now you’re laughing at me. Thanks a lot.”
I got a hold of myself, my laughter sputtering out and leaving me breathless. “Ah, I’m sorry, Dandelion.”
She glared viciously. “No you’re not. You’re still smiling.” She jabbed a finger at my mouth.
She was too damn cute sometimes. Like when she pouted over losing at Sorry!. Or when she got testy because someone ate the last blueberry muffin. Now this. Every single thing about her left me intrigued and wanting to know more, and on that thought I realized I didn’t just have feelings for the woman. I was falling for her. Dropping faster than the speed of sound. Only problem was, after everything she’d been through, she wasn’t ready. And for the first time in my life, I wanted something serious. Something real and permanent.
It was just my luck that I wanted it with a woman who was unavailable.
That realization made my chest ache.
“Come here,” I said, making myself feel better by grabbing her hand and pulling her into me. I tucked her against my chest and wrapped my arms around her, holding her close. And damn if it didn’t feel right. I pulled in a deep breath, filling my lungs with that candied orange scent. “I’m sorry, Dandelion. I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings.”
“It was a really big spider,” she defended weakly, her words muffled against my chest, causing me to smile.
“I’m sure it was. Would it help if I went inside and got it out for you?”
She pulled back and looked at me like I just lost my mind. “Get it out? No! You need to kill it, Tristan. Send that thing straight back to hell where it belongs.”
It defied logic, but just then, her little bout of crazy made me desperate to kiss her.
Fuck me . I was so screwed.
Merritt
Tristan had been true to his word. He’d gone inside while the rest of us remained in the front yard, and hunted the spider down. Knowing I wouldn’t have just taken his word for it, he’d showed me its dead, squished body so there was no doubt. Then he took it a step further by spraying the antique sideboard I’d been storing in the sunroom off the back of the house until I could get around to restoring it for Blythe, killing anything that might have still been living in there and wiping all the webs out with a rag.
He'd done that all on his own, without me having to ask, simply because he knew it would give me peace of mind. By now, I’d lost count of all the things he’d done to make life easier for Levi and me, to make it better. I hadn’t had anyone take care of me the way Tristan did since my mom got sick years ago.
It was getting harder and harder to ignore the way he made me feel. The little flutter in my belly that started up when I knew he was on his way home. The way my chest tightened when he called me Dandelion. The tingle beneath my skin whenever he touched me. With every passing day, I wanted more of him any way I could get it. And I could no longer convince myself it was because he was my friend.
He was more than that. I wasn’t sure when it happened exactly. It just happened. So naturally it was almost as if it was meant to. But I couldn’t ignore the tiny voice of doubt in the back of my head that told me it was too soon, that Tristan could still end up hurting me.
I was really starting to hate that voice.
“What are you thinking about so hard over there?”
I was startled out of my thoughts by Tristan’s voice. I blinked and found him watching me from where he’d been sitting on the loveseat across the living room from me.
I’d come downstairs after tucking Levi in and curled up on the couch with one of my books, hoping that focusing on a story would help keep my mind from running wild about Tristan. He’d come down a little while later with his laptop and sat across from me, typing away on something while I attempted to read.
Only problem was that I hadn’t gotten more than two pages into the story before my mind wandered again, and the path it drifted to was Tristan.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been sitting there, staring at the same page, before he noticed. “Huh? Oh. Nothing. I must have spaced out.”
His brows pulled together, his expression filled with concern. “You sure? You’re not still worried about the spider, are you? I swear to you, I got everything. This house is completely spider free.”
I grinned. “No. I’m not worried about the spider. I’m good. I promise. Just getting a little tired, I guess. I should probably head up to?—”
Before I could finish my sentence, a sharp, terrorized scream wrenched through the entire house, turning my blood to ice.
The book I’d been holding fell to the floor when I shot up from the couch and ran to the stairs. Tristan was already in front of me, taking the steps two at a time in his rush to get up to Levi as he continued to scream. The fear I heard coming from my little guy twisted my insides and clenched my lungs in a vise grip.
It felt like an eternity to get to him, but in reality, it was barely a handful of seconds.
Levi was sitting up straight in his bed, his skin deathly pale. His eyes were wide with fear, but his glazed look told me he wasn’t awake, he was trapped in the middle of a nightmare.
Tristan hit his knees right beside the bed as I sat on the edge of the mattress and reached for my nephew. “Levi, honey. Hey. Hey, you’re okay, baby. You’re okay. I’m right here.”
“No! No no no! I don’t wanna go back!”
“Baby, wake up. Everything’s okay. You’re here with me. You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Don’t let him take me! Don’t let him take me!” he screamed with such terror it shredded at my heart. I knew who he meant, and it shattered me that the person he was so scared of, the one who gave him nightmares, was his own father. The very person who was supposed to protect him.
Tears burned in my eyes, breaking free and falling down my cheeks as I tried to get through to him. “You don’t have to go back, Levi. I swear. You’re never going back.”
I still couldn’t reach him, and the longer he stayed trapped, the harder my tears fell. Finally, Tristan pushed closer. I wasn’t sure how, but he was the picture of calm to my utter panic.
“Dandelion, let me try.”
I turned my face to his, his form blurred around the edges thanks to my tears. “Please,” I croaked. “Help him.”
His hand came up and caressed my face. “I’m here, baby. I’ve got you both.” I shifted over on the bed so he could sit beside Levi. He plucked my nephew up like he weighed nothing and pulled him into his lap. He held him close, wrapping Levi in his arms so he couldn’t hurt himself flailing around like he was. “Come on, buddy. Wake up,” he said, his tone gentle and firm at the same time. “We’re here, buddy. We’ve got you. You’re safe, so it’s time to wake up.” Tristan began rocking him side to side in soothing motions, and it didn’t take long for Levi to finally start calming down.
He blinked the haziness from his eyes, but the tears still tracked down his pale cheeks. The nightmare finally lost its grip, and he realized where he was. As soon as he saw me, he launched himself in my direction, and I didn’t hesitate to wrap him up in my arms as his locked around my neck. “Aunt Merri,” he whimpered, his voice scratchy and raw.
“I’m right here, baby. We’re here. Me and Tristan. You’re all right. It was just a bad dream, okay?”
He sniffled and burrowed deeper into me as the tension started melting from his little body. He was only a handful of minutes away from an adrenaline crash, and I wanted to be here for him when it happened.
“You want me to lie down with you until you fall back asleep, little dude?”
“I wanna sleep with you,” he said, his voice already growing sluggish.
“Okay. No problem. Let’s head to my room?—”
He shot straight, pulling back so his eyes could scan the room, “And Tristan,” he said quickly, a tinge of panic in his voice. “I want Tristan too. Can I sleep with you both?”
My eyes went wide as I met Tristan’s gaze over Levi’s head. “Oh, honey. I don’t think?—”
Tristan spoke up. “If that’s what you need to get back to sleep, kiddo, that’s what you’ll get.”
“ Are you sure? ” I mouthed to him. As messy as my head was when it came to my feelings for Tristan, if this was what Levi needed to feel safe again, I’d make sure he got it. Nothing else mattered to me more than him.
Tristan nodded, then reached out and took Levi from me. He stood from the bed with my nephew wrapped around him like a koala. “We’ll crash in my room tonight. I have the biggest bed. It’ll be like a sleepover.”
I made sure Levi was tucked soundly in the very middle of Tristan’s large bed, and as I went through my nightly routine to prepare to go to sleep, I tried to look at it that way, like it was just a fun sleepover.
But my stupid heart refused to get on board.