Page 60 of From Fling to Ring

“Well, thank you,” I say, excusing myself for the restroom before anyone sees me choke up.

My God, have I ever met such nice people? Pretty sure I haven’t.

When I return to the table, I help clear it in spite of everyone’s protests, and when it’s time for dessert, Tyler pulls a bag of cookies from his backpack and sets them on a plate.

Oh, right. The cookie mystery. I need to get to the bottom of this. How many men have a freezer stuffed top to bottom with cookies?

“Yum,” Ruby says, grabbing two snickerdoodles.

I sink my teeth into one, and the chewy deliciousness nearly makes me swoon. “My God, these are good. Tyler, I’ve been meaning to ask you. What’s with the cookies in your freezer?”

Everyone stops what they’re doing, and I have a horrible feeling I’ve done something wrong.

“How did you… oh, whatever. The cookies are… my mom’s recipes. I make them for fun.”

Ruby and Mr. Brooks look at each other, then go back to chowing like nothing ever happened.

Okay, there is definitely something going on here. But for now, I drop it.

As we’re leaving, Mr. Brooks pulls me into a big hug goodbye. “Next game, Lucy, you’ll sit in the family box with me and my buddies.”

“Really? I’d love to.”

Ruby hugs me too. “What Dad hasn’t told you is that they burp and fart all night long. So you might want to think hard about that invitation.”

Tyler shakes his head and we say goodnight. He throws an arm around my shoulder as we walk to the car.

“Holy crap, Tyler, you have the most normal family in the history of normal families. Do you think they might adopt me? Please?”

He laughs. “I’m sure they’d love to. But then you’d be my sister, and that would be weird.”

We’re at a stoplight and he leans over to kiss me. “See. I can’t do stuff like this if we’re related. So I’d prefer you remain a family friend rather than a family member.”

“I’ll take that. Family friend. It sounds great.”

Much better than I ever thought. And that’s beginning to be a problem.

29

LUCY

“I’d like you to meet Tyler Brooks,” I say to a Sarge and a couple other coworkers.

We’re having an after work happy hour and Tyler has a moment to swing by before he catches a flight… somewhere. I am having trouble keeping up.

“Good to meet you,” Tyler says to everyone with a big smile.

It’s amazing how comfortable he is with new people. Guess he’s used to it.

Everyone is friendly but because I know these people really well, I also know they’re taking their time deciding whether they like him or not. A free weekly newspaper attracts a lot of ‘alt’ people, the kind who, when growing up, were definitely not part of any kind of ‘jock crowd,’ and to this day have little or no interest in sports. But Tyler can be hard to resist.

Ask me how I know.

“I’ll get us a couple beers,” I call to him, leaving him chatting with the one person on our staff who seems to know what the sport of hockey is.

Sarge is standing next to the keg, where he hangs out at every work gathering. I don’t know how many beers he’s had, but they’ve definitely loosened his lips.

“Is that the guy you’re writing the book about? How big of a douchebag is he turning out to be?”

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