Chapter Eight #6
They sat beside each other, the only sounds the soft whoosh of the wind and the distant chirp of the night cicadas.
Confusion, blended with very annoying desire, somersaulted in her gut.
She had come on this trip to prove that she could do something different, something out of her control.
And the last thing she wanted to do was open her heart up just to get trounced on by some guy who was a known player and, need she even mention, already taken.
No. It would take more than a few kind words and gestures to pull her off course.
The breeze picked up, bringing along a fresh scent, bright and sweet.
“Do you smell that?” Tyler asked, sniffing the air.
“That’s night-blooming jasmine.” She turned her head toward him, a brow arching.
“I’m not flirting.” He put a hand to his chest to emphasize his sincerity.
“Just talking. About the jasmine. Alejandro pointed it out while you were…not at dinner…yet.” He trailed off.
They were quiet again, breathing the smell woven into the air.
The sky was dark and inky save for a dim glittering of starlight.
Lulu stared straight up, half of her mind pondering hightailing it homeward, and the other part considering Tyler’s presence and the conflicting push-pull he instigated in her.
Deliberating, her brain turned over the stars like she was looking for crabs below sea stones.
“Stick around one more day, will you?” Tyler urged, his words braiding together with the scent of jasmine.
“I know you, Lu. Once you get started on a challenge, you see it through. Look at it this way. You’re already invested, so give it one more chance.
” His index finger stroked at the blades of grass beside her wrist. “And…it’s been a lot of years apart, Lu.
I don’t want you to go when we’ve barely had a chance to catch up. ”
Being wanted. By Tyler Demming. It was both familiar and unfamiliar.
And it frustrated her how appealing that felt.
She considered her situation—her loneliness, her near-firing, the strain and rewards of single parenting.
And then she turned her gaze on Tyler, this guy who had been kicked off the pro tour and who was asking for a shot at regaining her friendship. She sighed.
Then they both jumped, startled when the pack beneath Lulu’s head began to ring. Lulu bolted upright and yanked open the front pocket to dig out Tyler’s phone. Relief surged through her when she saw Laverne’s number.
“Aunt Laverne!”
Tyler stood. He brushed off his shorts and gestured that he was heading back to the cave. “No. Everything’s fine,” Lulu said, and lifted a hand to Tyler in acknowledgment. “I had to borrow a phone ’cause I couldn’t get a signal.”
Lulu didn’t know if she had ever been so happy to simply hear Laverne’s voice.
Cradling the phone to her ear, she found a spot on one of the boulders to sit and listened as Laverne enthused about the beach and in the background, Rooster yelled, “Tell her about that cake we had!” She gazed out at the dark shape of the valley and laughed at the description of the “best coconut cheesecake that ever graced the planet.”
“There’s someone here who would like to say hello,” Laverne mentioned, and Lulu was glad she didn’t immediately retort, “She’s not asleep yet?
!” because it was barely 9:15. And Lulu felt a good lump build in her throat as Zoe chattered on about the stepping- stones in the shallow end of the swimming pool and about eating mango and about seeing a yellow-and-black-striped fish that she called a Mr. Mayor, and Rooster in the background saying, “a sergeant major!”
And soon it really was Zoe’s bedtime, and Lulu decided it would be okay not to delve into her story about the bat cluster or tripping while blindfolded or the embarrassing pseudo-rappel.
Instead, she described the fun she had playing pickleball with the enthusiastic teenagers, and eating rice and beans for breakfast, and the beauty of the waterfall and the valley.
She even told a rapt Zoe about the incredible setup inside an honest-to-goodness stalactite cave, which was pretty awesome if you didn’t focus on the bat poo.
Zoe yawned, and Lulu finished up her story. She wasn’t so sure anymore about heading home tomorrow. Her adventures had, in fact, sounded pretty cool. Even to her own ears.
She hung up feeling like she’d eaten a good meal: satisfied, and a lot less grumpy than before she’d started.
Using the phone’s flashlight to guide her path, she smiled to herself as she headed back to her patch of grass, the crunching of her footsteps amplified in the quiet night air.
Her heart halted a beat when she saw something big lying on the ground and then calmed when she recognized the Tyler-shaped lump.
He had dragged his sleeping bag out to the grassy area and was sound asleep a short distance away from her bedding.
Lulu’s lip hitched up and she felt a tug of something familiar in her chest. Nostalgia? Affection?
Comfort. That was what it was. Tonight, Lulu was glad Tyler was there with her in the wide-open darkness. She shook out her sleeping bag once more and arranged it on the ground. She was about to power down Tyler’s phone when it vibrated. Her eyes flicked to the message.
You up?
Another text came through. She should definitely not read it.
Guess not. Miss you lots.
Lulu bristled. The sender was not Sapphire but Olivia, the same woman who had called Tyler on the Tres Equis pickleball courts. Yep. Another woman? How did Lulu continue to let her guard down with this guy?
He must have a bucket of pickleballs at the ready, just waiting to plink his dink into the net and then third shot drop them when he got what he wanted. And at that moment, her sisterhood kinship kicked in for Sapphire Roe. She wondered if Tyler’s wife knew how regularly she was being played.
Lulu held the phone like it was a bomb and slowly, slowly, as if she were defusing it, slid the power button to off.
It still felt hot in her palm when she dumped it into the bottom of her pack.
This was better, anyway, she reminded herself, putting the kibosh on her undesirable desires.
She was not going to add her name to Tyler’s standby list. He was an old friend, nothing more, and the sooner she subdued any feelings that told her otherwise, the better.
Then why did it feel like she was a kid again, jumping from chair to couch to avoid the lava on the floor?
She scooted into her bedding and stared up at the sky. She touched the spot on her arm where he had rested his hand and skimmed her skin just as he had. For the life of her, she couldn’t fathom why it felt like the weight of the sleeping bag was absolutely crushing her chest.