Page 27 of A Constant Surprise

The next morning, I opened my eyes to the gorgeous man lying next to me. I still couldn’t believe that a plain girl from Kansas could get in bed with Tyler Wendell. Most of the girls in school would hate me if they knew I had slept with him. Well, most of them hated me anyway because since I’d been living with him, he hadn’t brought any of them to bed.

I wondered why Tyler hadn’t brought any girls home. I mean it’s not like I was giving him sex regularly. Maybe he was just going out to get it somewhere else. Unlikely though since he was always when he didn’t have class.

Last night, I had come into his bed and poured out my soul about my mom as he held me. He didn’t judge. He didn’t question. Maybe if I opened up about the other reasons why I was so broken, he would do the same. Maybe he wouldn’t think that I past the point of salvation.

Never had I wanted to tell anyone my deep, dark secret. Despite Emily and I being close, I never even considered telling her, but with Tyler, I wanted to tell him. If I wanted to know everything about him, it was only fair that he knew everything about me.

In that moment, I knew that I was falling for this man. He had warmed his way into my heart in such an unexpected way, and everything about him slowly started to break all of my walls down.

I thought maybe, just maybe, he and I could make a go of things. After the deeply intimate night we had just shared, I didn’t see how anything else could stand in our way.

I made the decision that if I told Tyler my past, and he was able to accept me, nothing else could break us apart. My secret could be the bond that brought us together.

Usually, I was not a girl to confess her feelings for men. To be honest, I hadn’t really had feelings for a man in quite some time. And even then, they were nothing like this. These felt strong and rooted in something other than lust. There was passion and intimacy yet a sense of comfort and ease.

I reached for my phone and looked at my calendar. All I had going on today was a tutoring appointment this morning. After that was finished, my mind was made up that I would tell Tyler I needed to talk to him, and I would lay all my cards out on the table. It was time to stop hiding. It wasn’t fair to either one of us.

I went to roll out of bed, but Tyler grabbed me and pulled me close. “Where are you going, Kansas?”

“Coffee, Trust Fund,” I said kissing his hand. “I’ll bring you a cup.”

Reluctantly, he let me go, and I pulled back on my t-shirt before heading downstairs. I was surprised I hadn’t been more self-conscious sleeping naked next to him all night, but I relished in his warm firm body pressed against mine.

A few minutes later, I was back upstairs, and Tyler was on his phone reading a news article.

I handed him a steaming cup. “What are you reading?”

He took the cup and without looking up said, “Apparently, turkey prices are going up this year for Thanksgiving due to some kind of new Bird Flu or something.”

“Hmm.” I took a sip of the liquid that soothed my soul. “What does your family usually do for Thanksgiving?”

He shrugged. “Usually, nothing. My parents usually take a vacation around that time, and if Tess is busy with friends, I just stay home.”

My eyes widened. “So, how do you gorge yourself on amazing food all day until you feel like you could burst?”

He shrugged again like it was no big deal. “Guess I usually don’t.”

“Nope. No. No way. This year, you are coming home with me to eat a proper Thanksgiving meal. Turkey with all the fixings. We may not have much money, but we do Thanksgiving right.”

He looked at me for a second, and I wondered if maybe I had overstepped some sort of boundary. My fears were eased though when a giant smile crossed his face. “You want to take me home to Kansas?”

“Yeah. It’ll be fun. You can meet my dad and my brothers. And see how the other 98% live.” I shot him a wink.

“Okay, deal. But one weekend, you have to promise to let me take you to New York and show you around.”

“Deal!” I said both of us now beaming from ear to ear.

We sat for a few minutes drinking our coffee before I said, “Hey Ty, do you have any plans today?”

“No, I don’t think so. Why? What’s up?” He looked at me with those baby blues.

“Well, I have a tutoring appointment this morning, but I was hoping maybe afterwards, we could talk. I have some things that I need to get off my chest.”

“Okay sure. Just let me know whenever you’re ready. I might try to get some work done.”

I knew he was referring to an app he’d been working on. Once he graduated, he wanted to go into software development and was already getting a head start on his first project.

I smiled and excused myself to go take a shower and try to figure out what the hell I was going to say. How would I even begin this story?

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