“I… I mean…” I can’t give this guy my number. “I’m probably not staying in California much longer.”
Probably? Why did that word leave my mouth? I amnot. One hundred percent not staying in California.
"Okay well, then we'll have to go on a date sooner rather than later," he replies and walks over to the refrigerator in the kitchen. There's a magnetic whiteboard on the side. It's got a dry-erase pen hanging on a string. Tate uses it to leave notes for the cleaner. Fisher grabs the pen and scrawls a number on it. "Now you have my number so you can think about it. Text or call if you want to take me up on it."
And then he grabs his camera, a bag, and some cords and walks out the front door. I sit there staring at the number and watching everyone pack up and go until I get an alert on my phone Dylan is moving in his crib.
I quickly rush upstairs. When I get back down the crew of film students is gone and it’s just Tenley texting madly on her phone. I freeze with Dylan on my hip. “Please say you aren’t telling anyone about this.”
“No,” Tenley says and her blue eyes lift off her screen briefly. “I think Tate’s in enough of a clusterfuck. I don’t need to add to it by outing this situation to the rest of the fam. Especially not my parents.”
“How do you think they’ll take it?” I ask because I’m curious and I’ve never had the courage to ask Tate. And he’s not offering his opinions or predictions to me.
Tenley sighs and drops her phone on the couch beside her. I place Dylan on the floor in front of her with his blocks, which he immediately grabs. Tenley leans down and cups the back of his little head. He looks up at her with a slobbery smile. "He's teething right now, so he's slobbering worse than a Saint Bernard."
I toss Tenley one of the facecloths I keep handy and she wipes his face. He gurgles and goes back to his blocks. Watching Tenley watch Dylan is surreal. Her pretty face is awash with emotion. She looks both in awe and in fear. “Tate is not on anyone’s bingo card as the first offspring to produce offspring, you know? If you polled every single member of the family, they’d probably have him tied for last with me. So, obviously, my parents will be a bit shocked. But they’ll just melt when they meet Dylan. It’ll be instant love. And joy.”
“I don’t think Tate believes that,” I tell her, sitting at the other end of the sofa. “I think that’s why he’s so reluctant to tell anyone.”
“I’ll try to reassure him,” Tenley tells me and leans back. Grabbing a pillow and hugging it to herself, she sighs. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m…” My eyes prick with tears. “I’ll deal with me later.”
“That’s not a healthy attitude,” Tenley says softly. “She was your best friend for years.”
“Since third grade.”
Tenley reaches over, takes my hand, and squeezes it. “I can’t imagine how devastating it must be.”
“I was… I was with her. In the car. When we crashed,” I tell Tenley and I wish I could shut up, but suddenly I need to spill all of this onto someone and she’s the only one here. “It was horrible weather, but Diana was managing. We’d come from a bridal fitting. She was engaged you know.”
Tenley shakes her head. “I didn’t know.”
"She was engaged to this guy named Felix. He was rich and charming and she thought she'd won the jackpot. She didn't want to miss the fitting or cancel it because of rain." I shake my head. "Felix agreed to stay with Dylan so I could go with her. Anyway, the accident wasn't her fault. We were driving along on the freeway… they call them motorways, and then suddenly some car a few cars in front of us slammed on their brakes, and that caused the car in front of us to slam into him and we just didn't have enough time to stop. She slammed on the brakes. I remember that, but we slid, I guess."
I take a shuddering breath. “I don’t remember much except waking up, upside down, hanging from my seat belt. My head was crushed against the passenger window that was covered in mud. I couldn’t move my head so I couldn’t see her.
“I think that’s probably for the best,” Tenley whispered. “Rumors at home say it was ugly.”
“I could hear her.” I sniffle and that’s when I realize tears are sliding down my cheeks. I take my hand out of Tenley’s and wipe at my cheeks. “Her chest had been crushed and she was choking on her own blood. And all she kept saying was ‘Dylan’. And ‘Help’. She wanted me to help him. It was her only thought as she died.”
“Oh my God, Mallory.”
The next thing I know Tenley is right beside me, almost on top of me, and I’m in a bear hug. Luckily her arms are across the top of my shoulders and neck, so she isn’t squishing my ribs. I close my eyes and cry. Sob. And cling to her the way Dylan does me when he has a meltdown.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper through the hiccups and tears.
“Don’t be. Jesus, Mal, you haven’t told anyone about this, have you?” Tenley rubs my back gently.
"No. I mean, I haven't seen anyone but your brother and Diana's ex-fiancé," I swallow and sniff. My head is pounding now, with all the emotion I've just expunged. "Felix didn't want to know anything. I thought he was in shock. Maybe he was. All he cared about was getting me and Dylan on the first plane out. And Tate… I mean he has enough to deal with. He doesn't need to add my sob story to his list of emotional trauma and he would take it on. He's that guy."
“I know,” Tenley agrees. “Our parents think he’s aloof and avoids commitment like the plague because he’s in his selfish era. I think he thinks that too. But I know it’s because when he has feelings, he only has big ones. And he is terrified of them. A kid… well he has no choice but to feel all the big feels. It must be fucking with him so bad. That explains why his game has struggled.”
“He’s trying harder than I give him credit for, I think” I pull out of her hug and see Tenley nod as she takes off her baseball hat and drops it on the couch beside her. Dylan automatically reaches for it and she lets him have it. “I wish Di had told him sooner. I wish I didn’t have to come here and ruin his season.”
She waves a hand dismissively. “Forget about that. Tate will figure it out on the ice. He’s a Garrison. Let’s focus on the important stuff, which is you and this perfect new Garrison. How can I help?”
"I have to meet Tate at a medical clinic tomorrow morning," I explain. "He's going straight there from the airport when the team lands. It's in downtown Los Angeles and I'm stressing about taking a freeway there. I've only done short runs to Target or the grocery store in his fancy car. Lord knows we don't have five-lane freeways in Silver Bay and after the accident…"
