Page 15 of Can't Help Falling

“Hey, man. Getting ready for the move?”

Tyler glanced at the ceiling. “Maybe? Who knows? Who knows how much it’ll cost me to get her to the airport. With school, some days she’d go willingly and some days I paid her fifty bucks.”

“If you were anyone else, I’d think you were kidding.”

“The kid is cleaning me out.”

Besides the cash bribes it took to get her to do almost anything, Tyler had taken a brief sabbatical from work in order to give this matter his entire attention. Tyler’s father had left a considerable sum of money to both Tyler and Kylie, but a few more weeks in Columbus and Ty would be officially dipping into his savings to pay the mortgage on his condo. Not to mention the fact that he’d just won his petition to the state of Ohio for the legal right to start paying for everything Kylie-related. He didn’t even know what that meant. What did fourteen-year-old girls need? Beanie Babies? Posters of hot guys? Those fancy desks where princesses in movies sat and brushed their hair at night? Some kind of mirror that opened up a direct line to Satan? How much did those cost?

Whose life was this again? Oh, yeah. It was supposed to be his freaking stepmother’s life.

“Today’s the big day.”

“Yap.” Tyler attempted to get excited for the right reasons. It was an incredible relief to be headed back to BK. And it should also feel like an incredible relief to take Kylie with him, simply to pluck her from this soupy mess of abandonment. But the taking-Kylie aspect of returning to Brooklyn was kind of scaring Tyler shitless. “We get off the plane at nineish tonight.”

“Cool. You’ve got everything you need to put her up for at least the night?”

“Shit.” The blood drained out of Tyler’s face. “No. I’ve got a fridge full of rotten food from a month and a half ago and sheets for a pull-out couch.”

“Okay. No worries. Look, let me and Via take care of it. We have twelve hours to put something together. We’ll put food in your fridge and get some furniture for her.”

“Furniture. Right. She’ll need a room at my place.”

“Your office will be perfect for that.”

“Yeah.”

He’d spent years tweaking his home office into a writer’s haven. The armchair tilted just enough so that he could have his feet in the sun in the morning. The desk was tidy so that any afternoon writing he did would remain clear and concise. The blue on the walls was somehow both serious and whimsical, his best articles framed and lining the far wall. He loved that office.

“Do you know what kind of decorations Kylie would want?”

Tyler laughed humorlessly. “Slayer posters? My Little Pony bedspread? Orange shag carpet and a disco ball?”

“Well, let’s just leave it up to Via, shall we?” Sebastian said, laughing. “It won’t take long to get the room set up. Concentrate on getting back to BK. We’ll take care of her bedroom.”

“Right. God. Thanks, man. I don’t know how I’d do this without you.”

“It’s not a problem, dude. We’ve got you.”

We’ve got you.Via and Seb and Matty. Their little family.

They were a we. Just like Tyler was now. He wouldn’t be returning to Brooklyn as a one and only. He was returning as a guardian. Tyler glanced at the clock over the stove. “Look, I gotta get a move on.”

“Okay, buddy. See you soon.”

“I’MSORRY. WHAT?”

“The California PD. They found her. Lorraine. She was at a...friend’s house just outside of LA.”

When Tyler had been summoned to Myra King’s office after his phone call with Seb, he’d expected her to have some residual paperwork for him to sign. Maybe a few pamphlets on how to cart a kid back to Brooklyn. He genuinely hadn’t thought about Lorraine.

He sure was thinking about her now.

“Where is she?”

“En route, back to Columbus, where she’ll be in police custody until she can make bail.”

“Make bail? She can’t come back to the house tonight!”

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