Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
winnie
The second the front door closes, Winnie launches herself at Alex. Yes, he’s a foot taller than her. Yes, he’s a professional hockey player practically made of muscle. Yes, he’s stronger than she could ever in a million years hope to be.
But she’s got nails, and she’s not afraid to use them.
“Ow!” Alex bucks at the first pinch. “Ow! Fuck, Winnie, Ow! Stop! Ow!”
She uses the couch as a trampoline and jumps on his back as he tries to run away, holding on for dear life with one arm while she continues the attack.
“Jesus! Ow! You’re like a deranged chipmunk. Get the fuck off me!”
“If my boyfriend gets murdered, I will never forgive you,” she shrieks, going for the jugular, literally.
“If my best friend gets murdered, I’ll never forgive you!”
He finally dislodges her and tosses her onto the far couch. She rolls immediately to her feet and charges. This time he’s ready. As she leaps for his back, he steps to the side, twists around, and catches her around the midsection. She kicks and punches, but only hits air.
Goddammit.
His arm is a freaking vise. She’s never been able to get out of this stupid hold, which is probably why it’s always been his go-to countermaneuver. “Alex, so help me god, I—”
“Stop,” her mom cuts in. “Stop it, both of you! You are two grown adults, and you are acting like children.”
Fair point.
“But Mom, he—”
“But Mom, she—”
“I said, stop it!” She yells this time, proving just how annoyed she is, because it takes a lot for Yetta Rusu to lose her cool in public, and an audience of millions is about as public as it gets.
Winnie peeks up at her mom from where she’s dangling like a hooked fish in Alex’s arms.
Yup.
Yetta is eying the camera, and she’s furious.
Crap.
“Sorry, Mom,” they both mumble, coming to a simultaneous realization. Alex cautiously puts her down—with a subtle stink eye. Winnie fixes her shirt—and discreetly sticks out her tongue.
Their mother sighs. “Why do I even bother?”
“Sorry,” they both say again, actually meaning it this time.
But it’s being back in this house. It’s talking about the past. It’s a lifetime of memories.
Winnie walks through the front door, and it’s as if ten years immediately evaporate off her life.
She forgets how to do laundry. She forgets how to cook.
She fights with her brother. In her heart, she’s fifteen again. And—
Wait.
Fifteen again.
Winnie glances at Alex. He looks over at her. Both of them are back to being irresponsible teenagers, caught in some sort of trouble, stuck inside while their parents went outside to talk.
“The laundry room.”
They say it at the same time and take off running. With his longer legs, he’s first to the door, but Winnie is right behind. Alex hops onto the washing machine, his usual position, while Winnie pulls open the dryer and drops to the floor.
“What are you two doing?”
They whip their heads around to where their mother peers skeptically through the door. “Shh!”
“What—”
“SHH!”
Their mother hmphs but quiets down. Almost immediately, two deep voices emerge from the silence. Before Winnie can make anything out, their mother gasps.
“You could hear us!?”
“Yes,” Winnie admits softly, sharing a quick look with Alex, both of them fighting smiles. “I figured it out by accident when I was doing laundry one night.”
“And she obviously told me,” Alex interjects.
“Because you were the one in trouble, as per usual.”
“And you love me.”
“Most of the time.” Winnie rolls her eyes and looks back to her mom.
“The dryer vent is under the bench outside. So yes, we could hear you. Yes, we listened to you talk about us all the time. And yes, it was probably a huge invasion of privacy, so I get it if you’re completely furious with us, but can you just fight that feeling for ten more minutes, because the conversation happening outside is sort of going to determine the rest of my life, and I really, really, REALLY need to hear it. Okay?”
Her mother pauses, torn clearly between loyalty to her husband, whom she loves and trusts and admires more than anyone else in the entire world, and her gossipy little heart. But Alex had to come from somewhere, so it’s no surprise to Winnie which side wins out.
She grins as her mother nods quietly and steps closer.
Those two deep voices rise again.
Tyler is in the middle of speaking. “—mean anything to me.”
“But there are still three other women on the show, correct? You are going to visit three other families. You are going to tell them all the same thing.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to tell them, Alexandru, but I can assure you it won’t be what I’m telling you right now. I love your daughter. I am in love with your daughter. I always have been. And there’s nothing I want more than to be with her, and only her, for the rest of my life.”
Yetta inhales sharply, clutching Winnie’s hand.
Winnie looks over with a giddy smile and nods eagerly. It’s true. Believe him. It’s real.
Happy tears form in her mother’s eyes. Winnie squeezes her fingers, relieved at her obvious approval, but also aware her father won’t be so easy to win over.
“These other women. You kiss these women?”
“Oh, shit.” Alex snickers. “Dad’s not playing.”
Winnie glares at him but bites her tongue, because, honestly, she really wants to hear this answer.
It’s not something she’s brought up with Ty, because what’s the point?
She came on the show knowing there would be other women.
She chose this. It’s not his fault that she waited until they were under these ridiculous circumstances to finally tell him how she feels.
So why confront him? But if her dad wants to do it for her, by all freaking means, go right ahead.
She holds her breath.
Ty’s response is firm. “I have not willingly kissed another soul on this show.”
“Willingly?”
“Some of the women have kissed me,” he admits slowly.
“I shut it down immediately, but I don’t know what any of this is going to look like when it airs on TV.
The producers are putting together a show, and I’ve tried when I can to help them do that without compromising my boundaries.
So things might look different from what I’m telling you.
But it’s creative camera angles and music and cuts and me holding someone a certain way and a thousand other tricks.
I’m not lying to you when I tell you Winnie is the only woman in the world I want to be kissing, and I would never break her trust like that.
I understand how important loyalty is in a relationship, and I’ve been loyal to her.
I will be loyal to her, Alexandru. Always. ”
Her father grunts. “I don’t like it.”
“I don’t either,” Tyler agrees. “If I had my way, I would’ve left with her the second she stepped out of the limo, contract be damned, but there were other factors at play.
Not money. You know I don’t give a shit about money.
But reputations and careers. They threatened to plant stories about us.
Winnie and I agreed to stick it out together.
But in two weeks, all of this will be in the rearview mirror and I won’t spare a single fucking second looking back. ”
“You love her?” her father asks after a minute. “You’re sure?”
“With everything I have.”
“Why didn’t you tell her sooner?”
Winnie swallows. She asked him this question herself, so she knows what’s coming, but she still holds her breath, waiting for his answer.
“Honestly?” Tyler releases a heavy sigh.
“Because I was afraid. You’re like a father to me.
You gave me a home. You taught me hockey.
You practically raised me. I was afraid to lose you.
To lose Alex. To lose Yetta. To lose the little bit of Winnie that I had, even though it wasn’t enough.
And by the time I stopped being afraid, she was gone.
She was in New York chasing her dreams. I know what it’s like to be the cause of someone else’s regret, and I didn’t want to hold her back.
I just— I buried it. I buried my feelings, because I didn’t see a way to make it work. ”
“And now?”
“Now?” Tyler pauses. Winnie closes her eyes, imagining the resolution in his brilliant blue ones. “Now I would do anything, risk anything, give anything to be with her.”
“And if I told you I don’t approve?”
Winnie gasps. She grabs at her mom, who softly murmurs, “Oh, Alexandru, no.”
But it’s too late.
The damage is done.
Her heart thunders in her ears as the silence extends—one second, then two.
“I love you, Alexandru,” Tyler finally responds, emotion thickening his voice.
“And I will always be grateful for everything you’ve done for me.
I would be nowhere without you. I’d be nothing.
But if you told me you don’t approve of my relationship with Winnie, I’m sorry, I would respectfully tell you to fuck off.
” Alex starts wheezing. Winnie can’t breathe.
Even Yetta pulls in a shocked gasp. But Tyler isn’t done.
His voice is hard as iron as he concludes, “We’re grown adults.
These are our lives. And it’s not your decision to make. ”
Crickets. That’s all the world is right now.
Chirping crickets and suffocating stillness.
No one moves.
“Good.”
Winnie blinks, then shakes her head. She can’t possibly have heard that correctly. But then her father continues.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”
It is?
“It is?” Tyler says, voicing her thoughts aloud.
“My Uldwyna is very special to me. And you are like a son, Tyler, so I already know you’re a good man. But I needed to know you’re the right man. Now, I do.”
“Because I told you to fuck off?”
Her father laughs, loud and deep, the sound echoing up the vent and spilling into the laundry room, easing the tension, bringing life back into her lungs. “Because you put her first. Now, come. Let’s go back inside. Yetta will be angry if we don’t eat some of the food she prepared.”