Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
Cat dried her hands and then checked her makeup in the bathroom mirror.
Some of her mascara had run slightly from the tears she’d shed during the memorial service, but otherwise she looked presentable.
With a tissue, she quickly cleaned up the stray black marks before tossing it into the small trash can next to the vanity.
Smoothing down her navy blue dress, she opened the bathroom door only to find someone on the other side, their hand raised to knock. It was Tyler’s girlfriend, Alexa, from Seattle, and she looked a wreck, her eyes red and swollen.
“Oh! I wasn’t sure anyone was in here,” she said, her arm dropping to her side. “I just wanted to splash some water on my face.”
“I’m all done,” Cat assured her with a smile. “It’s all yours.”
“You don’t have to hurry?—”
Alexa broke off, more tears sliding down her already wet cheeks. Her shoulder shook with a sob, and she buried her face in her hands.
“I’m so sorry— I just can’t— I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m a mess. Everyone must think I’m a lunatic.”
Instinct took over common sense, and Cat placed her arm around Alexa, guiding her into the bathroom.
“No one thinks you’re a lunatic. Let’s just get you freshened up a bit. You’ll feel better.”
Cat flipped the lid down on the commode so that Alexa could sit down.
It wasn’t her habit to paw through a host’s lined closets and cabinets, but she made a small exception today.
She found a stack of washcloths and hand towels under the sink, and she dampened one with warm water before handing it to the young woman.
Alexa pressed it to her cheeks, sighing softly and closing her eyes.
“We were supposed to get married,” she said, her gaze not on Cat but on the far wall where a picture of a cat in the bathtub was hung.
“We hadn’t really planned anything, but we’d talked about what kind of wedding we wanted, and who we wanted to invite.
Whenever we were out and about, he’d veer us into a jewelry shop and have me point out rings I liked.
He said he wanted the ring and proposal to be just perfect. ”
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Cat said, not sure what to say to the distraught woman. She’d never felt she was good at comforting people, but she’d basically volunteered herself to do it. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”
“What I’m going through,” Alexa mused, her attention back on Cat.
“Such a strange way to put it. I’m not sure that I’m really going through anything at the moment.
It all feels completely surreal. I feel positive that Tyler is going to come bounding through my front door, some takeout and a bottle of wine in hand, telling me what a great day at work he had and asking me about mine.
He was always doing fun surprises like that. He was very spontaneous.”
“He was,” Cat agreed. “I remember him as being a lot of fun in high school.”
“He could always make me laugh,” Alexa said, her smile tremulous. “He could also make me sad, too. We took a break for a little while before getting back together. But we were stronger for it. We both knew what we wanted by then.”
“Relationships are complicated.”
Cat ought to know that fact. She and Tate hadn’t had an easy, drama-free road to the place they were now.
“We argued,” Alexa sighed. “He admitted that he’d almost had an affair.
He ended it before it went too far, but he still felt guilty about it.
I was going through some stuff, too, so I didn’t react well.
But we pulled it together, and we were creating a better future for us.
I really thought we were going to live happily ever after.
You know, holding hands in our rocking chairs while we watched our grandkids play on the lawn.
I know it sounds cheesy, but I truly believed it. God, I loved him so much.”
This poor woman simply needed someone to talk to about Tyler. Cat could have been any willing soul. If it helped Alexa deal with her pain, it wasn’t a lot to ask of Cat. She could be the ear someone needed to listen.
“I’m sure he loved you, too,” Cat replied, patting Alexa on the shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. “I’m sure you would have had a wonderful future together.”
“I can’t tell any of my friends about what Tyler did,” Alexa went on as if Cat hadn’t spoken. “They’d judge him and tell me to dump him. I couldn’t do that. I knew we could work through it, but they would have turned against him. I know they would have. They wouldn’t have been able to understand.”
Alexa dug into her purse, pulling out a cell phone.
“He sent me a message that morning, you know? I was on duty, so I didn’t answer. I’m a nurse, and I was busy. He left me a message. He told me he loved me. I wish I had answered. I wish I could have talked to him just one more time. I keep playing it over and over just to hear his voice.”
Alexa played the short message from that morning.
Tyler told her he loved her and that he wasn’t with anyone he wasn’t supposed to be.
He told her not to worry and that he’d be home soon.
He sounded relaxed and completely normal, not having a clue that he was about to be gunned down at the end of the driveway while doing a favor for Josh and Rachel.
“I have several other voicemails I’ve kept,” Alexa confessed. “He always left me a sweet message when I was at work. He traveled a lot for his job.”
“He did? I didn’t know that.”
“He was gone for one week every month,” Alexa replied. “Sometimes more. But I was fine with it. I loved that he was working hard to help build our future. Tyler was always a hard worker and ambitious.”
“He was like that in high school, too.”
Alexa’s eyes went wide, and she hopped up, a panicked look on her face.
“Shit, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to go on and on like that. I’m sure you didn’t want to hear it. I just can’t seem to stop talking about Tyler. It’s like he’s so real still, right next to me. Greg is going to get a laugh out of this.”
“Greg? He was the one who did part of the eulogy?”
“He did. He’s a good work friend of Tyler’s.
” Alexa pressed the cloth to her face and then turned toward the mirror, patting down her hair.
“I should go find Greg. He’s probably wondering what happened to me.
Thank you for being so kind. Tyler always spoke so fondly of all his friends back in his hometown.
We talked about visiting so many times, but we never seemed to get around to it.
I’m sad to be here under these circumstances. ”
“It was no trouble whatsoever,” Cat assured her. “I was happy that I was here, although I’m not sure that I was that much help.”
“You listened,” Alexa insisted. “That helps. More than you know. I can’t really talk about Tyler with his parents. They’re going through their own loss. He was their only son, and they must be in great pain.”
Put back together, Alexa took a deep breath and tried to smile.
“I think I’m ready to face everyone again. This has turned out to be way harder than I thought it would be. I thought I had already cried out before I even arrived.”
“I don’t think grief works that way,” Cat replied. “I think it comes in waves, perhaps when we least expect it. I’m Cat Townsend, by the way. I don’t think I introduced myself.”
“I think you may be right, Cat, but right now it feels like I’ll never be happy again. And it’s nice to meet you. It’s nice to meet all of Tyler’s friends.”
Alexa opened the door and then hesitated for a moment, looking back over her shoulder at Cat.
“Thank you again. You’re a kind person.”
Cat had never thought of herself that way. But since returning to Winslow Heights, she was beginning to see all sorts of things about herself. Her thoughts had always been self-limiting, as if she were only good for posing in front of a camera wearing pretty clothes.
Maybe…just maybe…there was more to her than that.
“She seems like a lovely person,” Cat said as they pulled into Tate’s driveway later that day. “I feel so badly for her. She’s obviously heartbroken.”
Cat was telling him about her conversation with Tyler’s girlfriend, Alexa. The poor woman had been distraught during the service and then later at the Eckerd home.
“Tyler never mentioned her by name,” Tate said, pushing open the door that led from the garage to the kitchen, transferring Tyler’s suitcase to his other hand. “Not once. He said he was dating a bit, but there wasn’t anyone he was serious with.”
“I wonder why he hid it? I guess some men just can’t admit they’re in a relationship,” Cat observed. “They want everyone to think they’re footloose and free.”
“Footloose?” Tate joked. “That’s an interesting turn of phrase.”
“It’s descriptive.”
“Do you keep a thesaurus next to your bed?”
“No, but I think I might. I’ll pick a new word every day and use it as much as possible,” Cat laughed, but then her smile dropped. “They didn’t want you to open it there?”
“I got the feeling they didn’t want to deal with it,” Tate said, holding up the small suitcase on wheels. It was the kind to be small enough to fit in the overhead bin, but large enough to carry enough for a few days. “They were happy to give it to me along with his wallet and phones.”
“I can’t judge them, but I think I’d want my loved one’s things around me. But then, I’ve never lost a child. That has to be a terrible thing.”
“I don’t know enough about their relationship with Tyler to comment,” Tate replied.
“They seemed close, and he’d visit often, but you never know.
They truly seem broken up by all of this.
It’s probably easier to pretend Tyler’s not dead and simply in Seattle if his suitcase and other belongings aren’t in sight. ”
“Do you think that’s what they’re doing? Pretending he’s not gone?”
“It’s what I did for a long time.”