Page 29 of Relief Pitcher

“I haven’t made a profile yet. Still debating my app options.”

Danita rolled her eyes. “Sure you are. More like debating between options for the next excuse you’ll give me.”

“Ididpick out a photo for my profile.”

Her hair bounced as she whipped her head back and studied me. “The one of you on the boat?”

“No. A recent one.” I didn’t tell her it was one Tyler had taken of me while cutting up the fallen tree.

“Hmm,” she said. Thathmmmeant trouble.

She’d made the sound several times in the past few weeks. Each time, it had something to do with Tyler.

As though she’d sensed an upset in my equilibrium, she’d shown up out of the blue hours after I’d returned from dropping Tyler off at his place several weeks ago. She’d found me watching Hallmark movies and eating the cheese he’d left in my fridge. Understandably, she’d pestered me until I told her about the weekend. I left out the more salacious details, to her disappointment, and didn’t tell her he was an owner of Tap That Brewery. I didn’t need her meddling. Danita was a meddler. Aleck had been too. A Papadakis family trait.

I’d opened up to her about how I’d really liked Tyler. But with some distance, I’d begun to question whether it was him I’d really liked or more having someone there. Nah, that was bullshit. It was Tyler. With the texting we’d been doing, it was clear we’d clicked.

She sighed. “You should text him and ask him out. It doesn’t have to be a date. Clearly, you guys got along. Why not be friends?” She’d suggested I invite him out several times already. Easy for her to say when she hadn’t heard how earnest he’d been when he’d explained to me how he didn’t date people, let alone have fuck buddies. I knew he’d stretched his rules even for that weekend, and I didn’t want to push.

“Wehavebeen texting.”

Danita gripped the end of the shopping cart and stopped us in our tracks in the middle of the aisle, which nearly caused a collision with two other customers. “You’ve been texting him andyou didn’t tell me?Do you not comprehend how best friend privileges work?”

“It’s not a big deal. We’re not having real conversations. Just talking about movies we like and stuff.” The conversations had started as commentary over the Hallmark movies we both watched, and it’d mostly stuck to that. But occasionally, we moved beyond the safe box we’d created. I hadn’t told her about it because she would push for details, and what could I say? That we were texting about silly stuff to ride out our chemistry until it fizzled?

Though random texts with Tyler about television had awoken something in me. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach anytime my phone buzzed. I hadn’t thought I could get that rush anymore.

“Texting about movies? Seriously?” Danita cocked her head like there was a piece of the puzzle missing, like a damn bloodhound with a whiff of their target.

One of her employees approached. “Sorry to interrupt, Danita. There’s someone here hoping to meet you. I think it’s a sales visit. Would you like to talk to them, or should I tell them you’re busy?”

“I’ll talk to them. Thank you.” She turned to me and grinned. “Saved by the bell. We’ll talk more later.” She tossed a bag of jalapeño-cheddar popcorn into my cart before following the employee.

I waved her off and finished grabbing the few things I’dactuallyplanned to buy.

Sure, part of me had hoped Dom would call and ask me to check out his trees and maybe Tyler would be there. God, but what if Dom called and asked for a different arborist from the company, or it was obvious Tyler made a pointnotto be there? My gut told me Tyler wanted to keep our budding friendship light and restricted to the phone, which was fine with me. With each text we swapped, I became a tiny bit more confident that I might be able to try dating again.

Once I finished my shopping, I made my way to the checkout. I stopped dead when I saw the man himself, as though my thoughts had conjured him. He looked great in a light-blue button-up with the sleeves rolled to reveal forearms I’d seen flex as he’d jerked me off. He held a drink tray with one coffee cup left on it.

Danita glanced at me and smiled—a casual acknowledgment of my presence—before she turned back to him and continued their conversation. Why was he there? And bringing coffee? Did they know each other? Then I remembered something he’d said about trying to expand to small markets to carry the beer. Of course Danita’s market would be a target for them.

Tyler followed where she’d looked and stopped talking mid-sentence when he saw me. He stared, mouth gaping open.

“Coop?” Tyler finally said.

“Ty? Hi.”

She looked between us. “You two know each other?”

Tyler shook off the shock and donned his charm. It was obvious why he excelled at his job. The charm wasn’t false—just different from the charm I’d seen. A new one to categorize and add to the mental file I’d been unintentionally building about him. I’d collected bits here and there while we’d texted. Innocuous things I didn’t think he realized he’d let slip, but I’d hoarded like treasure.

Tyler’s smile disarmed me. “This man saved me from certain death during a storm a few weeks back.”

Her head whipped toward me, and she mouthedoh my god!Then she turned back to Tyler. “You’re the guy who stayed with Coop?”

It was Tyler’s turn to look shocked as his eyes volleyed back and forth between us. “Wait,you twoknow each other?”

“Best friends.”

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