Page 144 of Scores Of The Heart

“He loves you,” he says. “And in this day and age, that’s pretty special to find in a short space of time. Trust me, I know.” He smiles ruefully and I give him a quick hug goodbye.

“Thanks again,” I holler.

“See you later.”

“Goodnight, Jay.”

I wave him off and step back into the house. Tyler is still in the same position, with Henry snoozing next to him. I let them be and make dinner. Maybe he’ll come around later and let me know how everything went.

* * *

Tyler

I stir and immediately feel something wet on my face. I sit up a little and realize it’s Henry licking me. “Hey, fella.” I swipe my hand over my face, realizing I must’ve fallen asleep on the couch. Cindy laid a blanket over me at some point, and everything is quiet. I glance at the clock on the wall. It’s just after one in the morning. She’ll be well and truly in bed by now.

I make my way to my bedroom with Henry tucked under my arm. I see the outline of her body as I place Henry down on the bed.

I pull my shirt over my head and lose my sweatpants. Pulling back the duvet, I slide in behind her as she stirs.

“Ty?” she whispers as I feel Henry on top of the duvet, making himself comfortable beside Cindy.

“Shhh. Go back to sleep,” I whisper. “Everything is okay.”

She sighs as I snuggle my chest towards her back. I love her warmth and feeling her close. I don’t know what I would have done without her through all of this.

I didn’t mean to throw down those shots in close succession. In fact, I was heading home when Jay called and I was close by to his place.

I guess it wasn’t the smartest thing to do. I still haven’t wrapped my head around everything with Stacey. It’s all still too raw and unbelievable. I don’t even know what I’d say if I saw her. What is there to say?

She lied. Full stop. She can spin any shit she wants, but she should have told me she’d been with another guy first. At least then I would have not gotten too invested until I knew the truth. But she couldn’t even be honest about that.

I know it’s going to take some time for me to get past all of this. And hopefully I can find some energy to put into Cindy’s family coming around to the fact we’re together. We didn’t leave her dad’s place on great terms, so we need to rectify that.

I wake up with her in my arms, but we don’t make love that morning. She just holds me for a long time and it feels really nice and intimate. I like that she doesn’t bombard me with questions straight up. I make her coffee and toast in bed before we get ready for the day and I tell her everything that happened over the phone with Stacey. She’s in just as much shock as I am.

We head out to pick up my car after that. Cindy drives my four-wheel-drive back from Jay’s to my place. I follow her back in the Maserati. She’s been a god-send in all of this. I don’t know what I would have done without her here while this has all been going on.

“I’m going to call Dad later,” she says when we’re home again. Jay wasn’t home, but I had my keys in my pocket from last night. “He called me yesterday, but it was late by the time I could get back to him.”

We’ve both agreed to hibernate here for a little while longer while I get my head around everything, and Cindy has the time off work.

It reminds me I need to talk to my folks about everything, and introduce them to Cindy at the same time. They’ve been bugging me about meeting her, and I’ve been making excuses since this whole thing went down. I guess it’s been kind of nice being in our own little bubble for a few days.

“I’m sorry about that,” I say. “That’s probably my fault.”

“I don’t blame you, Ty. I’m sure the shock of it all…” she shakes her head. “I can’t believe any of it.”

“Me either. But one thing is for sure, it does make life a little less complicated going forward. I just wish that she hadn’t lied about it. I feel like an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot, and it’s not your fault.”

“I need to make it right with your dad, too,” I say.

“He’ll come around,” she says. “He’s just protective. It’ll be fine, you’ll see.”

And she’s right about that. A few days later, after Cind has told them what happened, he invites us to have dinner with him and Angelique to clear the air. I’m surprised he even wants to do that after the less than flattering newspaper article about me. I am grateful to Caitlin for giving us the heads up before the newspaper article was published. Meeting her and Liam is something I’m looking forward to.

We all agree instead of going out to a restaurant that they come out to Mercer Island and we eat at my place instead. It’s not just because it’s more private, Cindy really wanted to cook for us all.

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