Page 57 of Silver Lining Love

The floorplan was the mirror image layout of Harmony’s room, but hers was filled with a bean bag, a vanity, two dressers, a trunk at the end of the bed, and a sitting chair.

Wyatt’s room was much barer. A twin bed sat beneath the window and a dark wood dresser stood next to a door that I assumed was the closet. There was a desk in the corner with books piled on it and a bookshelf lined the far wall filled with books.

“You did a lot of reading, huh?” I walked over and read some of the spines. These were not your typical teenage boy books. These were some heavy hitters.

There were books of poetry, classic novels, and books on mathematics, computer programming, algorithms, cryptology, and codebreaking.

“Were you always interested in… what exactly do you do?” I’d asked him several times before, but he always skirted the question. I knew that he’d gone to MIT and worked as a contractor for the government, but I had no clue what he actually did. From the private plane we’d flown on today, it had to be pretty important.

“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” he said flatly.

I smiled and sat on the edge of his bed.

He stayed standing a few feet away and crossed his arms over his chest, highlighting his bulging biceps. My mouth watered but I swallowed down the excess saliva, refusing to drool a third time.

“I work in cyber security.”

“Were you always interested in that sort of work? In cyber security?”

He lifted a shoulder. “As a kid I loved math, solving puzzles, cracking codes. Then, my third year at MIT I got recruited and just sort of fell into it.”

“You’re like a real-life Will Hunting?”

His brow furrowed in confusion.

“Matt Damon. Good Will Hunting. Minus the whole janitor from Boston part.”

He grinned.

“Have you read all of these?” I asked as I took in the sheer number of books he owned.

“Yeah, most of them more than once.”

It was so strange to get this insight into Wyatt’s life. I’d only been in his house next door to mine a few times, and I’d never noticed an excess of books. I would have never guessed he was such an avid reader.

“Your family is amazing.” I took a detour in our conversation trying to work up the nerve to ask why in the name of God and all that is holy he wouldn’t want a family when his was so amazing. “Your mom is…thebest. I want to be her when I grow up.”

“She is pretty amazing,” he agreed, his face softening affectionately.

“Don’t you miss—” I was right in the middle of asking my question when I heard Benji crying.

I jumped up and rushed to the door. I didn’t want him to wake Alice up, then I’d have two kids to try and get back to sleep.

“Do you want some help?” Wyatt followed behind me. “I can make him a bottle.”

“That would be great. Thanks.”

As I picked Benji up and comforted him, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that my mission had been such a huge failure.

“Shh, shh, shh,” I hushed Benji as I patted his back and walked him back and forth.

Maybe it wasn’t a total crash and burn. I’d gotten a glimpse as to who Wyatt was, how his brain worked. I’d always known that he was smart, but finding out just how smart he was did explain some of his behavior.

He was analytical and methodical. He’d have to be to excel at math and codebreaking. That sort of brain probably didn’t like things that were unpredictable. It probably didn’t like to be interrupted. It probably worked best in a quiet, controlled environment. Even from the short time I’d been here, I could safely say that this family, this home, was a lot of things, but quiet and controlled it was not.

Add to that a propensity to compartmentalize, and I could see how he could move away from this “organized chaos,” as Dolly herself had described her household, and never look back.

I’d never be able to do that. In the short time I’d been here, I’d fallen in love with Wyatt’s family and this town. I was already wondering if they’d mind if the kids and I came back to visit them soon. But that was a normal reaction for me because I operated off of emotions. I was a creative.

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