Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
tyler
Stop being such a little bitch.
Tyler stands before the front door of the Rusu mansion, rubs his sweaty palms over his jeans, and straightens his shoulders.
It’s time to come clean. He hasn’t been able to think about anything else all semester, and now it’s leaking into his game.
For the first time in his life, he got benched, all because he couldn’t get McKinny’s words out of his head.
Is that what you told Rusu?
The asshole cornered him in the kitchen while he was warming up a pizza. He wanted to know what was going on with Winnie, because, as he said, It sort of looks like you two have a thing going on. And if you do, that’s cool. But if you don’t, she’s hot. So…
God, the very thought still makes his blood boil.
With jealousy. With fury. But also with fear, because if it’s that obvious to the guys, then it’s only a matter of time before Alex sees it too.
He owes more to his best friend than going behind his back, and that’s what will happen if he doesn’t say something soon.
He can’t count the number of times he almost made a move.
Every time Winnie sat on his bed, he couldn’t think about anything except rolling her over and pinning her against the mattress.
He still doesn’t know how he’s held himself back for so long, but one thing’s for sure.
Eventually, his self-control is going to fail him.
Eventually, he’s not going to be able to stop himself from closing the distance, stealing her mouth with his, and doing every unspeakable thing he’s fantasized about doing for as long as he can remember.
Hell, if he’s being honest, his self-control isn’t what’s been keeping him in check. It’s the fact that he doesn’t know what she wants.
He thinks he does…maybe.
But he’s not sure.
And he sure as fuck isn’t going to take another Shakespeare class to try to find out. He barely survived the first one.
It’s time to tell Alex the truth.
To tell Winnie the truth.
To turn his entire life upside down and pray the pieces fall where he needs them to.
Just knock on the door, you asshole.
He does.
Yetta answers with a bright smile and pulls him in for an immediate hug. “Tyler! I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t plan—”
“Don’t be silly,” she cuts him off and ushers him inside. “Come in. Come in. You know you’re always welcome here. Everyone is in the kitchen. Uldwyna apparently has some big announcement for us. You know how she is.”
A big announcement? He frowns and follows Yetta silently to the kitchen.
Yes, he knows how dramatic Winnie tends to be, but a pit cleaves his stomach.
She was acting strange the entire flight home for Christmas break, barely saying two words to him, hiding behind her sketchbook, jumpy whenever Alex asked a question.
But he’s sort of been the same way, and he’s kind of hoping they both were acting like that for the same reason.
Now he’s not so sure.
Because he would rather die than gather Alexandru and Yetta in the kitchen to announce the unholy thoughts he’s been having about their daughter. So either Winnie’s lost her mind, or he’s been misreading everything this entire time.
“Hey, man.” Alex nods at him when he walks in.
Alexandru slaps him on the back. “Tyler.”
Before anyone can say anything else, Winnie comes sweeping into the room. Her step hitches when she sees him, but then she hardens her expression and closes the distance with a resolute tilt to her chin. “I asked you all to come downstairs because I have an announcement.”
“Yes,” Alex drawls and rolls his eyes. “We know.”
“It’s going to be a bit of a shock, and I never expected it to come together this quickly, but, well, I applied, and they accepted, then I accepted, so it’s done.”
Winnie takes a deep breath and looks up as if waiting for a reaction.
A moment of silence passes. Tyler isn’t sure he’s breathing.
“What, Winnie?” Alex finally asks. “What’s done?”
“Oh, sorry. Didn’t I say?” She smacks her palm to her forehead and shakes her head. “I’m transferring to NYU.”
No one says anything.
He’s pretty sure they’re all waiting to see if it’s some sort of joke, but it becomes clear that it’s not when she quietly adds, “I start next fall.”
“What?” Alexandru erupts.
“NYU!” Yetta gasps. “Isn’t that all the way in New York?”
Alex simply drops his head to the counter and laughs.
Tyler implodes.
Years of pent-up emotions detonate in an instant.
Every chance he didn’t take, every opportunity he missed gets swallowed up in the blast, adding fuel to the fire.
It’s a wonder he doesn’t stumble back from the force.
Instead, he’s eerily still, the only frozen one amid a frenzy of questions and comments.
He doesn’t hear what they’re saying. He’s in the room, but not, lost in the mushroom cloud of his own making, fighting to find a way through the debris.
But there isn’t one. As the emptiness sinks into his bones, three words flash, made somehow clearer by the devastation.
I’m too late.
If there was ever a chance for them, it’s gone now. Maybe if he told her earlier in the semester, or over the summer, or last year, or during any number of the times they’ve hung out together, maybe then it might be different. But he didn’t. So she never knew.
And now she’s leaving.
Maybe I—
He quenches the idea before he even has the chance to really think it.
Because it’s not just that she’s leaving.
It’s that, while he stares at her, completely gobsmacked, feeling as though his world is crumbling, Winnie is elated.
She beams. He’s never seen her so excited in all the years that he’s known her.
She rambles on and on about the art department, the English department, the culture in the city, the internship opportunities, and a million other things he can tell she’s been dreaming about for far longer than this sudden announcement might reveal.
She wants this.
She really, really wants this.
And he won’t be the one to ruin it. To ruin everything.
If she felt the same way he does, she would have never applied to NYU in the first place.
Or maybe she would have, and this has absolutely nothing to do with him, but even in that scenario, there’s no recourse.
She’ll be moving across the country in a few months, starting a new life.
In two years, he’ll be playing professional hockey.
Long distance is one of those things that’s great in theory, but never works out.
Trying something now would be worse than not trying at all.
At least if he stays silent, she’ll still be in his life.
He’ll still have Alex, and the Rusu family.
Yes, he’ll want to die inside every time he sees her, but that’s nothing new.
And it’s better than the alternative—losing them all.
Winnie’s hazel eyes meet his.
That electric charge between them sizzles. He wants to live in that burn, to let it build and buzz and become something so intense she’ll have no chance but to acknowledge it. Instead, he wraps his hand around the wire and unplugs.
“I’m happy for you,” he says, willing his tone to remain neutral.
Disappointment flashes across her features, gone in a blink, so fast he’s sure he imagined it. And he probably did. Maybe that’s all this has ever been—him looking at signs that were never there.
“Thanks,” she murmurs, then turns back to her mother.
He makes a decision.
It’s time to let her go, in every sense of the word.