“I know.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
He let out a frustrated breath. “Because she asked me to. Matthew, you of all people know that a woman’s tears is probably my biggest weakness. I couldn’t say no. Besides, it’s just for two or three days and you’re more than capable of running things while I’m gone.”
Walking to his closet, he began chucking random items of clothing into his suitcase. This was still feeling very surreal. He was packing his bags to fly to Montana with Jordan. He was going to meet her family, be with her through this difficult time. It was all so…personal.
“You do know she has four brothers, right?” Matthew said. “Four brothers, Ty. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. If you look at the size of Jordan…her brothers are only gonna be bigger. It’s suicide! They’re gonna think you’re dating her and why wouldn’t they? She is taking youhometo herfamily.”
He knew Matthew was right. No one brought their boss home for a funeral, but there wasn’t really anything he could do about it now. He’d agreed and he wasn’t going to back out. Jordan wasn’t the type to wear her heart on her sleeve. She hid herfeelings beneath witty remarks, but now he’d seen a completely different side of her. Hurt and vulnerable. It was impossible to say no to her, but Matt just didn’t seem to get that.
“Why did she even ask you?” Matthew asked after some time. “I mean, you kissed her once and she feels cozy enough for you to meet her family.”
Tyler shut his eyes and released another weighted breath. “It may have been more than one kiss.”
His friend went silent, not even breathing for a few beats.
Oh, crap. This is gonna get ugly.
“What?! That wasn’t part of the plan!” He shook his head and sneered. “Okay…okay, you’ve had your fun and now it’s over. There’s nothing more going on between you and Jordan.”
It was supposed to be a statement of fact, but the doubt in Matt’s voice made it sound like a question. Tyler remained quiet and continued packing.
Matthew looked up and fixed livid brown eyes on him. “Ty, this is going overboard. You know…you know for a fact that I would never have sent Trisha over here if I thought for one second…No. No, I know you. I know that if Jordan spent the night, you would’ve given her the bed and you would’ve slept on the couch.”
Tyler ignored him, walked to his chest of drawers and took out a few T-shirts.
“You slept on the couch, right? You had to have slept on the couch. Please tell me you slept on the couch.”
Matthew was officially ticking and he decided to embrace the inevitable explosion. “I didn’t sleep on the couch.”
“Tyler, what are you doing?!” The shout echoed through the small space. Matthew rarely lost his temper and that was even more confirmation that this whole situation was snowballing.
“I don’t know,” he responded softly. “But I promise you, figuring it out is on my to-do list as soon as I get back.”
“You’re gonna end up hurting her.”
“You know I would never do that.”
Matthew threw his hands up, fed up and annoyed. “It’s bound to happen. You want to get back together with your ex-girlfriend and you’re using Jordan to do it. Fake dates and a little jealousy, that’s all fun and games, but this is real. You are going to meet her family. I want you to think about what that means to her. You gotta end this. You can’t string her along if she’s not the person you want to be with. So before things get—”
“I like her,” Tyler cut in. He generally didn’t open up about his feelings and that sort of shocked Matthew into silence. It shocked him too, because it made him realize the real reason why he was about to hop on a plane to Montana. “There. I said it. Okay? I like her. I like her eyes. I like her laugh. I like her silliness and her sarcasm. I like her foul mouth. I pretty much like everything about her…enough for me to question whether I should continue pursuing the relationship I was in forthreeyears, enough to push me to a point where I don’t know what I want anymore. I can’t justify my actions to you because I don’t understand them either. That’s a discussion for another day. Right now…” He shut his suitcase and clicked the lid shut on both sides. “…she asked me to go and I’m going.”
Matthew exhaled a deep sigh. There might have been a slight flicker of a smile but it didn’t get past his annoyance. “Alright,” he relented. “You do what you need to do.”
Tyler picked up his suitcase and headed down the stairs.
“But, Ty…”
He stopped halfway to the door and turned back to his friend. “Yeah.”
“Four brothers?”
“I know. What the hell was I thinking?”
*****
It was early Friday morning when the cab turned down the street and Jordan had to shut her eyes to familiarity of it all. She didn’t want to see Perry’s house. She didn’t want to see the spot where he’d once been sprawled on the ground, drenched in milk. Right now all she wanted was to be absorbed into the lovingness of her family. Each of them offered something different to ease the pain. A big hug from Dom. A bad joke from Shane. And a pointless chat with Max over a cup of coffee. Max had the ability to drown out sorrow with silly conversation. He also made the best cup of coffee and she needed that, to forget for a few moments. The only person she couldn’t bear to see was Kevin.
