Chapter 23
Tyler
“Tyler, I heard you’re bringing someone.” Maggie sidles up to me as I’m helping Jack hang a banner. There’s a group of us at my mom and stepdad’s house, helping set up for the party.
I glance down at her from where I’m perched on a ladder. “Uh, yeah, I am. Her name’s Audrey. I’m going to go pick her up in a few hours.”
Maggie claps her hands together. “This is so exciting.”
“You haven’t heard the best part,” Ian says as he slips an arm around her waist and pulls her into his side. She looks up at him with so much love and joy that I almost have to look away. “He met her at your coffee shop.”
The gasp that leaves Maggie as she whips her head back in my direction makes me laugh. “You met her there, and you didn’t tell me? I thought we were friends, Tyler.”
“Pretty sure you were working the day I first saw her. I think she said she was a regular there, so you might actually recognize her.”
Maggie’s jaw drops. “I was there? Oh my goodness, okay, describe her to me. I need to know if I know who she is.”
My brow furrows. “You could just wait to see her in a few hours.”
She jams her hands onto her hips. “Tyler, indulge me.”
I sigh as I climb down the ladder. “Fine, she has reddish-brown wavy hair, about your height and build. She said she goes there to read a lot.”
Maggie taps her forefinger to her chin in thought. “Reads a lot… I don’t really remember anyone who fits that description who comes in and reads.”
I shrug. “Maybe you just never noticed her. But it’s not a big deal; you’ll meet her in a few hours.”
Ignoring her skeptical look, I pick up the next decoration I need to hang.
In a stage whisper, Maggie says to Ian, “Are we sure she’s real? Have you actually met her?”
Ian’s deep chuckle follows me back up the ladder. “I don’t know, beautiful. I haven’t met her, but he seems pretty crazy about her.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Maggie,” I call out over my shoulder.
“Well, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see if she actually shows up or if she has to move to Canada immediately or something.”
I roll my eyes and focus back on hanging the excessive number of decorations that my mom bought.
My mom is so excited to have this party for Tim.
She’s been losing her mind all week prepping.
Tim doesn’t really ask for a lot, and if I asked him, he’d probably say a quiet dinner at home would be a perfectly fine way to celebrate his fiftieth birthday.
But whenever my mom brings up the party, he just smiles at her because there’s one thing I know about Tim, and that’s whatever makes my mom happy is what he wants to do.
So we’re having a party.
That I’m bringing Audrey to.
I haven’t brought someone to meet my family since high school, so to say I’m pretty nervous. Meeting everyone important in another person’s life really is a make-or-break moment for a relationship. All I can do now is hope it’s the former.
Audrey tugs on my arm to slow our progress toward the front door. The grip on the crook of my arm and hand is tense.
“Tyler, are you sure your family is good with me coming? Does your mom know I’m older than you? Do you want to just say we are friends instead of…whatever this is?” All her questions rush from her perfect mouth.
I stop completely and turn to her. With my finger, I tilt her chin up so I can see the apprehension swimming in her dark orbs.
“No, she doesn’t know you’re older, because it’s not a big deal to me, and it won’t be to her when she does find out.
” I kiss her forehead. “And we’re not saying we’re just friends. ”
She huffs out an adorable breath, and I kiss her lips this time.
“Okay, well, if you’re sure…” she grumbles as we resume our walk to the house.
The anticipation was building on the drive over to her house to pick her up, but now that we’re here, I feel relaxed and ecstatic that she’s with me.
The house is quiet, with just the muffled commotion of the party from the backyard greeting us.
To give us a few more minutes before we’re swarmed the second we walk outside, I divert us to the kitchen and grab a couple of beers from the fridge.
“Is beer okay? I think there’s wine and some sort of mixed thing that one of the wives brought outside. ”
Audrey reaches out for the beer I’m holding up and shakes her head. “Beer’s good for me.”
I intertwine our fingers and lead her out back. Just as suspected, the second we step outside, my mom makes a beeline across the yard to us.
“Here we go,” I mutter under my breath, and Audrey’s grip on my hand tightens.
“You must be Audrey. I’m Becky, Tyler’s mom,” my mom calls out as she approaches us, arms raised.
Audrey pulls away from me a little but doesn’t let go of my hand as my mom comes in for a hug. “I am. It’s so nice to meet you.”
My mom releases her and steps back with a warm smile on her face. She squeezes my arm before turning back to Audrey. “You’re even prettier than Tyler said.”
As embarrassing as this is, I love seeing the pink come to Audrey’s cheeks at her comment. And my mom isn’t wrong. It’d be hard to adequately describe how beautiful Audrey is.
“Thank you so much,” Audrey replies with a sweet smile as she settles back at my side.
Mom gestures to the yard with about thirty or so people milling about and some kids playing in the pool. “Please, make yourself at home. We’ll be grilling up the hamburgers and hot dogs soon. But there are plenty of snacks to hold everyone over.”
I reach over and pull my mom into a hug. “Thanks, Mom. You did great putting this all together. I know Tim’s happy.”
With a light laugh, she pats my chest affectionately. “Oh, you know he would’ve preferred something much more low-key, but how could we not celebrate such a milestone birthday?”
After telling my mom we’ll catch up with her later, Audrey and I walk farther into the party.
The guys are standing off to the side with their wives, so I pull her in that direction.
I delight in the fact that I don’t have to be the odd man out with the group today, and the fact that it’s Audrey on my arm makes it even better.
Ella turns, and when she spots us, the wide grin that splits her face warms me further. “Tyler! Oh my god, who’s this?”
I wrap my arm around Audrey’s shoulder and pull her to me. “Everyone, this is Audrey.” Going around the circle, I introduce each person.
“Hi, Audrey, I work at the coffee shop you met at,” Maggie gushes.
Audrey smiles. “Oh yes, I recognize you.”
“Was I working the day you asked her out?” Maggie asks me.
“Actually, I saw her at the gym also. And figured since we kept running into each other, I should ask her out,” I explain.
“Wow, the coffee shop and the gym. The universe was working hard,” Olive jokes.
Audrey’s smile looks strained, and the concern that she’s overwhelmed makes my chest tight.
“At least you have someone who’s your age, so you aren’t the only youngin’ around here.” Ian slaps me good-naturedly on the shoulder.
The look on Audrey’s face makes me chuckle. “Audrey’s a little older than me.”
Everyone laughs in surprise at that admission.
“I guess it actually makes sense that Tyler would pick someone older than him.” Ella gestures around the group. “He hangs out with a bunch of old people, so Audrey will fit right in.”
I shrug because Ella isn’t wrong. Olive’s the next youngest besides me, and she’s about the same age as Audrey. I actually don’t have any friends who are my age.
We continue chatting until Chris Rivers joins the group, beer in hand. Chris is an attorney who’s a good friend of Jack, Nate, and Ian. I’ve hung out with him a few times, but we aren’t close.
“Hey, Chris. How are ya? You ditched us the other night when we asked you to meet up for some drinks,” Nate says with a scowl.
Chris sighs. “Yeah, man. Shit’s been busy.”
Ian smirks. “I heard something this morning.”
With narrowed eyes, Chris asks, “You talk to Carlos?”
Carlos Martinez is another friend of the guys who’s a detective in Nashville. I know him better than Chris, but still not that well.
Ian nods, still smirking. “He said that you might be stepping back into defense work.”
I’d heard that a few years ago, Chris stopped practicing as a criminal defense attorney and started practicing some other kind of law, but no one really knows why.
Chris’s face hardens, and his jaw muscles tic. His words are clipped when he replies, “I’m considering it.”
“Well, shit.” Ian laughs. “I guess the retainer I paid you won’t go to waste. Not that I ever doubted you’d come through if I needed you.”
“Wait,” Maggie pipes up. “Why would you need Chris? And when did you pay him a retainer?”
Ian hugs Maggie to his side and kisses the top of her head. “Don’t worry about it, Mags.”
Maggie tries to push away from him as she argues that he needs to tell her.
Chris takes a sip of his beer, looking uninterested. “Well, this has been super fun catching up. I’ll see all of you later.” He starts to turn, but stops and looks my way. “Tyler, if you’re ever in trouble, don’t be like your friends here. Call someone else who isn’t me, got it?”
I stare at him in confusion. “Uh, okay. No problem.”
Without another word or glance in our direction, Chris walks away from the group to find someone else to talk to.
I shake my head. “I have no idea what just happened.”
Jack sighs. “Don’t mind him. Chris has some shit he needs to work through.”
“Has he ever told you what happened?” Nate asks.
“No,” Jack says with a frown. “I’m pretty sure Carlos knows, but he won’t say.”
Nate opens his mouth to say something when a shout from the other side of the yard draws our attention.
Tim’s stomping across the yard toward the side of the house, my mom jogging behind him, calling his name. My eyes move from Tim to the place he’s heading when he yells, “What the fuck are you doing at my house?”
My biological father’s forward movement halts mid-step. Audrey tenses against my side, and I hug her to me, planting a quick kiss on the top of her head. “Stay here, please.”
After she murmurs a confirmation that she will, I take off in the direction of what I have no doubt will be a heated confrontation. I hear heavy footsteps behind me, and when I steal a quick glance over my shoulder, Jack, Nate, and Ian aren’t far behind.
The realization that I have exactly the family I need right here, regardless of whether my dad never viewed me as worth taking the time to know, hits me hard.
I should actually be grateful because had he come back into our lives back then, we might not be exactly where we are.
And I like this life a hell of a lot better than the one I’m sure we would’ve had with him in it.