“Tyler? What the hell are you doing here?” Jalissa threw at him with savage bite, regarding him as if he was something unpleasant that just crawled out from under a rock.
“Good to see you again, Jalissa, I’m looking for Kaiya.” He was determined not to be bothered by the animosity that the woman was exuding in waves.
“Why don’t you leave, Tyler? You’re not wanted here!”
Tyler sighed inwardly. After so many years, he didn’t know whether to be pleased or pissed that Jalissa was still as loyal as ever to her best friend. She was still the watchdog, the bodyguard he had nicknamed the wilding because of her carefree ways.
He was forestalled from replying to the furious woman when he caught a movement from the corner of his eye. Kaiya strode into the room with a girl toddler propped on her hip. The phone she had been talking into fell from her hand. Her jaw dropped, and she froze at the sight of Tyler.
Tyler also became immobilized as he gaped at the woman who used to be his girlfriend when she was much younger. Her beauty seemed to have grown more over the years. She was more beautiful as an adult than she was as a teenager. Even though she still favored leggings and a sweatshirt, her figure had ripened, fleshing out at her hips.
For a long moment, they stared at each other with no words, forgetting that there were others in the room but the two of them. But under the beauty, he could see the underlying sadness in her eyes, and her expression strained. For some reason, he was compelled to fix that sadness, but then he remembered how selfish and heartless she was. His heart hardened.
Snapping out her numbness when the child on her hip called for her mom, she had exclaimed, “Tyler!”
As if her voice broke the invisible hand holding him bound, he called her name too and strolled forward to meet her. She handed the child to the pregnant woman he presumed was her sister, who he had never met before now.
With her eyes shooting icicles at him, she had asked, “What are you doing here?” just as Jalissa came to stand beside her with the same stony glare on her face.
Finn also stepped closer to them to probably protect Kaiya since she was his sister-in-law.
Ignoring the hostility the women were sending his way, he wondered why Kaiya didn’t follow her dreams of becoming a professional ballet. Before he could stop himself, he said, “I’m curious why you didn’t become a professional ballet as you’d always wanted. Why is that?”
His lips ran dry when a pained look crossed her face. The hollowness in her eyes left him regretting why he asked.
Thrusting out her chin and folding her arms across her chest, she remarked, “That’s none of your business. Now, for the last time, why are you here?”
Jerking his head back as if she physically hit him, his gray eyes darkened with anger.How dare she talk to him this way?He was no longer the poor boy who lived in a group home. Now, they were more than equals. So where did she get off treating him like he was still some social outcast?
Straightening himself to his full height, he nodded at the audience they had and said, “I’d love to speak with you in private. We need to talk about an important matter.”
Sizing him up from head to toe as if he were a bug she’d like to squash under her feet, she re-joined with a freezing tone, “Go to hell!”
With that, she left him standing there with a face like a storm cloud and fisted hands. In solidarity, everyone moved out of the place and left him to stew.
Coming back to the present, Tyler wondered why Kaiya was upset with him when she was the one who not only ended their relationship but betrayed him as well.
Snickering, he resolved to make her pay for what she did to him.
Chapter 2
Two days later, Kaiya carefully planned her day as she stepped into her dance studio. She thought of the various dance classes they were scheduled to have. There were bilingual dance programs like mini ballet jazz, ballet jazz, mini hip hop, and hip hop for kids ages 2 to 12 years old, in addition to a prenatal yoga class that Kalilah talked her into developing. She generally stayed away from that section for the sake of her sanity. On weeknights, she led a pole fitness class for different skill levels.
As she strode toward her office, her phone rang. She rummaged through her purse for the device, hoping she would find it before it stopped ringing. Her purse was usually filled with stuff that she didn’t need at the end of the day but always felt she had to carry. Consequently, it was typically hard for her to find her phone in it.
Sighing with relief when she at last located it, she saw that it was her mother calling.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hi, Kaiya. How are you?”
“I’m good.”
“I’m going on a European cruise, don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“What? When?”
“I leave in two days.”
