Chapter Fourteen #2
Faint voices from the backyard drifted in. Helen lifted the curtain to look out the small bathroom window and saw Tyler and
his dad talking by the barbecue. Tyler tilted his head back, laughing at something his dad said. It tugged at her heart to
see Tyler enjoying himself. When he spoke of his childhood, his stories about his dad were always fondly recounted. The post-divorce
years had been bumpy though, and now he didn’t see his family enough. The main issue was Evelyn.
Sighing, Helen let the curtain fall back across the window.
She stared into the mirror, thinking deeply for several moments. Then she turned off the water and returned to the kitchen.
Evelyn was arranging flowers in a vase and didn’t look up when she entered.
“Evelyn,” Helen said. “I’m so sorry I upset you. I’m so embarrassed.”
Evelyn stopped fussing with the flowers and peered at Helen curiously.
Helen was surprised to feel the pressure behind her eyes. She blinked to keep the tears from springing into them. She didn’t
know why she suddenly felt emotional. The words she was saying weren’t even entirely real. The whole thing was a performance
of sorts, and she was no actress—she couldn’t call up tears on cue—so why was this speech making her feel this way?
“The thing is,” Helen continued, “I was just so nervous to come here. I just want you to like me so much, because you’re the
center of this family.”
She felt the tears threatening again, but this time she didn’t blink them back, because maybe she wasn’t going to out-bitch
this bitch anymore, but she just might outsmart her. As Helen’s eyes turned shiny, Evelyn’s face softened.
“You looked so elegant when you answered the door,” Helen said, “so I got even more nervous, and when I get nervous, I never know quite what to say . . .”
Evelyn came around the kitchen counter, opening her arms. “It’s okay, darling. Come here. I’m sorry.” She pulled Helen into
a hug and said, “I get nervous too.”
As Helen inhaled the smell of Evelyn’s floral shampoo, her mind raced. What the hell was happening? Her goal had been apology accepted, not this.
“Don’t be upset.” Evelyn rubbed Helen’s back. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Sometimes Gary says I drink too much wine,
but there’s no way you could have known that. And you might think I’m the center of this family, but I’m not. The kids barely
tolerate me.”
“That’s not how Tyler talks about you at all,” Helen said. Lies, all lies.
Evelyn pulled back so she could see Helen’s face. Evelyn’s own expression was a mixture of doubt and hope. “Really?”
“Really. He told me how hard it was when the divorce first happened, but not anymore,” Helen said. “Tyler always says how
crazy his dad is about you.” That part, at least, was more or less true.
Evelyn cleared her throat and stepped back, turning away. “Well, that’s nice to hear.”
Her voice sounded funny, and Helen realized that Evelyn was trying not to cry. She waited quietly until Evelyn finally turned
back around and said, “Heavens. I thought there for a moment I was going to start crying. Of all things!” Evelyn exclaimed,
as if crying was on par with joining the circus. “I never cry.”
“Never?”
“Not since my mother died when I was thirteen.”
“I’m sorry.” And Helen truly was. Beneath Evelyn’s prickly surface, there were sad layers.
“It is what it is, and tears don’t solve anything.” Evelyn nodded briskly as if everything was now settled. “I like you, Helen.
I’m so glad Tyler is with you.” She smiled.
Helen smiled back at her, and then the slider to the backyard opened, and Tyler stepped inside.
A smile was pasted on his face too, but Helen could see the uneasy expectation beneath it, the sense of How is it going in here?
And suddenly she was swept into a wave of the same emotions she’d felt when she’d started her preplanned speech to win over
Evelyn.
“Hey!” Helen said. “We were having a good conversation.”
Tyler brightened. “That’s great.”
As soon as Evelyn turned back to the flower arrangement, Tyler raised his eyebrows and mouthed “Lumberjack?” at Helen.
She pressed her lips together to keep from giggling and shook her head faintly, just enough so he’d know everything truly
was good. He cleared his throat and looked down at the kitchen tiles, trying not to laugh. When he finally looked back up
at her, his eyes were sparkling.
Seeing the joy in Tyler’s face, Helen knew then that he was the whole reason she’d felt so emotional, and she knew with certainty
she’d find a way to get along with his stepmother if it helped him have a better relationship with his father and siblings.
This was a small thing, really.
She would happily do this, and so much more, for him.
The treehouse seemed like a good hiding spot, nestled among the branches of the mighty oak in the corner of the backyard.
The ladder leading up the thick tree trunk was partially covered in moss, and Tyler kept watch while Helen quickly ascended
it.
“Hurry,” he called softly from below. “They’re coming back.”
Gary and Evelyn had gone inside the house, and Tyler wanted a moment alone. His brother and sister still hadn’t arrived.
Helen reached the top of the ladder and her head poked through a hole in the wooden floor of the small platform room.
It smelled like sweet greenery and mildew.
She climbed inside and unfolded her body, careful to keep her head bent down to avoid hitting the low roof.
Branches stole through cracks in the ceiling and the walls, reclaiming the space.
The interior of the treehouse was empty except for a bench seat and a few cardboard boxes, but Helen felt the ghosts of a charmed childhood.
As Tyler deftly climbed into the room, she lifted the flap of one of the boxes and pulled out a hardback, its pages curled
and yellowed, the cover dotted in black specks.
“Tyler!” she said. “You can’t store books up here!”
He raised his palms in contrition. “I was a kid, and I thought keeping my books in my treehouse made perfect sense. No adults
allowed. Just my friends and my cat and my stories.” He took the book from her and dropped it back in the box. “I didn’t understand
humidity or mold.”
“Where’s your cat now?”
“Dead. He died nine years ago.”
“This is really depressing.” Helen plunked herself onto the bench seat and hung her head, letting her hair fall into a veil
over her face. “I thought you were bringing me into your treehouse to ravage me, and instead you show me ruined books and
tell me your cat is dead.”
He knelt in front of her. “I know. I’m terrible.” He rested his head in her lap. “Can you ever forgive me?”
“No. Never. This will scar me forever.” She gently ran her hand through his hair.
Tyler lifted his head. “Was Evelyn actually okay to you?”
Helen paused. She planned to tell him about her exchange with Evelyn at some point, but not right away. “She was okay. I think
she means well.”
“That doesn’t sound like Evelyn. She must be running a fever.” Tyler picked up Helen’s hand and turned it so he could kiss
the inside of her wrist. “Or maybe even she can’t be mean to someone as sweet as you.” He placed his hands on the bench on either side of her and raised himself to meet her height. He kissed her delicately
on her neck first. And then her ear. “Are you this soft everywhere?”
Helen felt Tyler was wiser than the world would ever know, sillier than the world would ever see, and kinder than the world would ever feel. Because some moments he saved just for her. Dating him was like having a secret treehouse with you everywhere you went.
She felt his lips move down to her collarbone. And then her jaw, followed by her cheek and her forehead. She shivered.
The treehouse was a place where nothing more could happen, and yet she wished she could leave an imprint on this space that
used to be so special in Tyler’s life.
Suddenly, a male voice boomed from below the treehouse. “Tyler! Get your ass down here!”
Tyler snorted. “That would be Leo.”
Moving to the opening in the floor, Helen looked down and saw a younger, more disheveled version of Tyler standing by the
mossy ladder, peering up at them. Same almond-shaped eyes, except green.
“How’d you find us?” Tyler called down.
“How did I find you?” Leo crumpled in laughter. “You aren’t in Witness Protection. You’re in the treehouse forty feet from the back deck.”
Introductions were called out through the hole in the floor, and minutes later, Helen found herself alone with Leo beneath
the tree while Tyler went to grab them ciders from the cooler on the deck.
Pulling a flask from the pocket of his baggy jeans, Leo said, “Let’s do shots.”
Helen glanced over at Tyler. He was reading the labels on the cider. “Let’s wait for Tyler.”
“He won’t want to. He thinks I drink too much.”
“Do you?”
Leo grinned and pushed his floppy hair out of his eyes. “Of course. I just turned twenty-one. Now I can do it legally though.”
When Tyler returned, both Helen and Leo were laughing.
Tyler smiled. “Did I miss something good?”
“Leo wants to do shots.”
Leo shot Helen a look: That was supposed to be a secret.
Tyler groaned.
Leo gave her another look: See? And she shrugged.
Tyler saw the exchange and said, “Are you seriously already conspiring with her? You just met her.”
“I’m a fast mover,” Leo said.
“We’re aware,” Tyler said dryly.
“I had to make my move while you were over there. It was my in.”
Tyler turned to Helen, and she could tell he was trying not to smile. “He made his move on you?”
“I wasn’t aware it was a move.”
Tyler turned back to Leo. “It sounds like it didn’t work out too well.”
“Too soon to tell. First you lay the groundwork. Then you sit back and wait.”
Tyler looked at Helen again. This time, she could tell he was checking to see if she found his brother’s jokes funny or distasteful.