Chapter 24
On the walk from the car to the front door, Tyler reached out to take Dmitrii’s hand. There would not be any doubt about whether he and Dmitrii were together, not if he could help it. He opened the door, gingerly walking into the house. “Mom?”
“You’re early.” The answer came from the kitchen, so he led Dmitrii in that direction.
“Yeah. I wanted to make sure there was plenty of time.” Tyler didn’t say it was because he didn’t want to risk being late after last night. It was very clear that that was what he was thinking.
As both young men entered the kitchen, she looked over at them from where she was stirring soup on the stove. “Dmitrii.”
Tyler almost froze, uncertain if there was hostility in his mom’s tone. He hadn’t expected her to be anything but kind after how the cookout with everyone had gone the other day.
Dmitrii stiffened. “Hello, Mrs. Garrett. Thank you for the invitation to lunch.” The formality of that response wasn’t lost on anyone.
She sighed as she looked over at them both. “Oh, no. Don’t you go looking all nervous. Dmitrii, you are not the one who screwed up. You are not the one who worried me so much that I didn’t get any sleep last night.”
Tyler let out a sigh. “I’m really sorry, Mom. I should have called or at least texted when we went back to watch TV for a while.”
She sighed, shaking her head. “Oh, baby. No, you are nineteen. You don’t need to check in with me constantly like you’re in middle school.
Yes, I am still upset. I understand that sometimes things happen.
Why don’t you go get cleaned up, because those are the same clothes you wore to go on your date.
” She looked over at Dmitrii. “Why don’t you sit at the kitchen table and wait? ”
“Of course.” A quick glance at Tyler made it very clear that Dmitrii had had no intention of remaining in the kitchen alone. He had intended to follow Tyler to his bedroom, but everyone knew that was what was being avoided by the invitation to sit.
Tyler gave Dmitrii a quick reassuring smile to make sure that he was okay with being left alone with his mom before he rushed off to go upstairs and get cleaned up.
As he reached his room, he was suddenly relieved that his mom had not had Dmitrii come up with him.
It wasn’t that his room was a mess. It was a mess, though.
The issue was with the posters and photos.
All the top skaters were on his walls, his inspiration.
His own medals hung from hooks on the wall.
He paused for a moment, pulling down some posters, especially the one showing Dmitrii on the podium at Rostelecom.
They were carefully put away, safe just not on the walls.
Tyler rushed as he grabbed some jogging pants and a T-shirt from his closet.
He hurried through a shower and brushed his teeth, even if that would make lunch taste weird.
He really didn’t want to think about his breath.
Between the coffee and the morning, kissing him probably hadn’t been the best thing.
When he rushed downstairs, Dmitrii was sitting at the table with a cup of tea as Tyler’s mom was making sandwiches.
He had rushed in, but it seemed there hadn’t been a need.
Dmitrii seemed fine. “Hey!” He smiled as grabbed a glass of water before sitting down.
If his mom was going to serve lunch, he was not going to expect her to also get him something to drink.
“I have Dmitrii’s phone number now, so if this happens again, I have a second phone that I can call.” She brought over the plate of sandwiches before she turned back to get a bowl of soup for each of them. “Grace and one of her friends took Molly for a walk.”
“So if you needed to yell, you wouldn’t have to worry about her hearing?” Maybe Tyler shouldn’t have asked, but he did.
“Never mind that. Eat. Both of you have a busy day. I want to ground you, but I am not going to. You’re in college.
You’re taking your training seriously. I am going to let you make your own decisions.
” It was clear that she was still worried about Tyler, maybe more than would make sense given his age.
Tyler was under no illusion that his trouble had magically gone away, but maybe things were less bad than he had thought. Lunch was actually nice, and they were able to get back to the rink in plenty of time. He just had to make some decisions about tonight.