He was doing this on purpose. He wanted to get back at me for waking him up this morning, for forcing him to do this. Not that he was doing anything. He just moved around from one spot on the floor to the next.
My shirt was glued to my sweaty back. Half my hair had fallen out from the messy bun I had gathered it in hours ago. My hands were dirty and every time I touched my face, I felt like my fingers were leaving a trail of dust on my skin.
“He’s right,” Lucas said. “Let’s have a break. I’ll go get her.”
I slacked down the nearest wall and closed my eyes. I heard Tyler moving around but didn’t bother to take a look at what he was doing. Seconds later, right when my stomach growled, something cool touched my cheek and I jerked to the side, my eyes flying open. Tyler held a bottle of water for me.
I took it but I didn’t thank him. He walked away and sat right across from me, his back pressed on the opposite wall.
Maybe he sensed I was pissed and didn’t want to cause a fight, or he was just satisfied with how the day went, but he didn’t say a word to me.
Clem and Lucas came down. Tyler silently stood up and moved the dining table with Lucas, following Clem’s directions.
I didn’t thank him for that either.
Then he surprised us all by taking Clem’s hand in his.
“We are going to get something for dinner. Any special orders?” I kept my mouth firmly shut.
“I don’t care,” Lucas answered. “Whatever Clem thinks she could eat without puking afterwards.”
“Spencer?” Tyler asked.
“Same.”
My voice sounded like my throat was full of sand. I waited for Clem and Tyler to get out and turned to Lucas.
“What are we going to do with the venue?”
“I don’t really care,” he shrugged. “I am marrying my nemesis with or without a venue. I don’t care if we have two hundred guests or twelve. One way or the other, we will be married by the end of the summer.” I reached over to squeeze his hand.
“That’s so sweet, Lucas.”
“Really? You think it’s sweet? The girl that wanted to turn my proposal into a spectacle.”
I smacked his shoulder.
“In my defense, I have to say I was extremely excited you two got your happy ending after all.”
“Giving the fact that my wife is pregnant, I think it’s obvious I am still getting a regular happy ending.”
I scrunched my nose. I saw Lucas in way too many compromising positions at parties while we were still in high school and it wasn’t hard for me to picture him having sex. That didn’t mean I enjoyed those images floating inside my head.
“Gross. Keep the dirty talking for your fiancée, Cole” I emphasized on the word fiancée. “She is not your wife yet.”
“Of course. We are only having a baby, living together, and have been in love with each other our entire lives. Why would I consider her my wife?”
“Fair point,” I agreed, but the venue situation was still bothering me. “I hate that I will have to leave in a week and I didn’t help at all.”
Lucas rolled his eyes, something I suspected he unintentionally picked up from Clem.
“You managed to drag Tyler here. You did enough.”
“I don’t think he came because of me.”
“You found him. Besides, the evil sister is coming tomorrow. I bet she will have ideas.”
I shivered a little thinking about Madison coming, but I knew she was our best shot at this point.
Later that evening I was ready to leave and had spent the last twenty minutes weighting the pros and cons of offering Tyler to give him a ride, when he put me out of my misery and decided for me.
“Are you ready to go?” He asked in a low voice.
The question sounded intimate. Like he was waiting for me. Like it wasn’t a question of whether we were leaving together or not, but simply of when.
“Yes,” I breathed out the word. “Of course. We can go. We should go. They probably want to spend some time alone anyway. It’s their first night here.”
Tyler shook his head no doubt because of my comment. He disapproved on my habit of constantly thinking about the others, but this time he didn’t say anything.
I was so tired, I practically dragged my feet towards the car. Tyler moved pass me, pulled the car keys out of my hand and sat at the driver’s seat. When I entered the car I kept silent. Tyler reached over to turn the radio on. Lewis Capaldi’s voice filled the air around us. I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes. Tyler tapped his fingers on the stirring wheel in rhythm with every song we listened to, but it was the only sound either of us made for the duration of our drive back.
Chapter Fifteen
Hannah
My boss Amanda agreed for me to take a week off, but I still spent the entire Monday working. I wanted to clear up some things before actually taking a break. By the time I finished my meetings and wrote all the emails I had to write, it was already four in the afternoon.
I tried to call Nick, but he didn’t answer. Big surprise. I shot Clem a text to ask her if she needed help with something. She didn’t answer either.
Then I tried to resist the urge to call Tyler and check on him and what he did during the day.
I failed.
He picked up on the fifth ring, just as I was about to hang up.
“I knew it was too good to be true,” his voice was accompanied by some weird noises I couldn’t identify.
“What was?”
“You. Not breathing down my neck today.” I heard the words that came out of his mouth, but there was something in his tone that suggested he enjoyed hearing from me and that made my skin prickle.
“I had an interesting conversation this morning,” I ignored his remark and my traitorous skin.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Madison called. She is taking us to a dress fitting tomorrow.”
I wanted to ask her why the hell were we buying dresses since we didn’t even have a wedding date. Not to mention that the bride was pregnant. But I didn’t want to be the person to stress everyone out even more. Besides Madison had organized the fitting from New York and it seemed ungrateful to whine about it.
“How nice of her,” he said. I waited for him to tell me he called her and asked her to help.
He didn’t.
Instead, I heard him curse under his breath. Someone chuckled next to him.
“When did you call her?” I asked when it was clear he wasn’t going to say anything and the silence between us became uncomfortable. To me at least. He seemed perfectly fine with it.
“I texted her,” he said and I rolled my eyes at that important clarification. “On Saturday.”
“What’s with you and phone calls?”
“Hey, I picked up when you called. I could have just ignored you.”
“Dude,” someone shouted right next to Tyler. “What the fuck are you doing? Are you blind?” It sounded a lot like Lucas, but not quite.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Tyler asked. I cleared my throat.
“Excuse me? Is that Lucas’s little brother?”
“He’s sixteen.”
“What are you two doing together?”