Page 21 of Can't Help Falling

“Yeah.” That sounded like heaven. But then a thought struck him. “But only if you’re having one.”

He didn’t want to be the only one with a beer in front of Kylie.

They stepped into the kitchen and Tyler took in the scene. Matty sat at the kitchen table, shyly showing Kylie the puzzle he’d been working on. The put-together parts were assembled on one cookie sheet while the mixed-up parts were on another. More evidence of Via’s genius, he was certain, so that when dinnertime came around, the puzzle could be removed without destroying it.

This was the kind of thing that experienced guardians and caretakers thought of. Cookie sheet ideas. He could do that. Give him a few days to get on his feet and he could cookie sheet the crap out of his life for Kylie.

Muriel and Art, Seb’s in-laws, rose to greet him, Muriel’s hug smelling of Chanel No. 5 as she always did and Art’s handshake bone-crackingly assertive as it always was.

And then there—yup, music meet Tyler, Tyler meet music—was Fin, standing with her back to the sliding glass door. She had one hand tucked up under her chin and a thoughtful expression on her face as she watched Tyler. When their gazes clashed, absolutely none of her demeanor changed. She didn’t acknowledge that she’d been staring at him or that now the two of them were looking into one another’s eyes. Most people’s faces would either have brightened or fallen at the sudden eye contact. Hers was as impassive as always.

Why had he never noticed before that the woman was like a brick wall? Oh, yeah. Probably because he’d been too busy hubba-hubba-ing. But with his crush on her firmly mummified, he saw that she could be both unnerving and disconcerting.

It was a freeing feeling, to be able to pass a quick judgment on the woman who’d fishnetted him so soundly when he’d first met her. He was no longer under whatever spell she’d cast and it made him feel like dancing, just to test the freedom of it.

“Hi, Fin,” he said, dipping his chin to her from halfway across the room. He was over his crush, sure, but he wasn’t about to go on the suicide mission of a casual hug.

“Tyler,” she said with that same impassive expression.

He turned his back and rubbed his palms together. “All right. Somebody gimme a job.”

Via rushed in, perhaps sensing his sudden, all-consuming need for something to do. “I set up two TV trays in the other room for you and Art to chop stuff for the salad while you watch the football game. Is that all right?”

For what felt like the twentieth time, he felt overwhelming gratitude rise up in his gut for Via. He strode up to her and took the tray of salad veggies she was handing over.

“If you weren’t my best friend’s girl, I’d tip you over and give you a movie-star kiss right now.”

“Just trying to make this a little easier on everybody, Ty,” she said, giving his shoulder a quick squeeze.

Without waiting for a response, Via walked quickly to Kylie. “Kylie, would you prefer to help me with the cranberry relish or Muriel with the pumpkin pie?”

“I wanna do the pumpkin pie,” Matty said immediately, glancing quickly at Kylie. “I always do the pumpkin pie.”

Kylie shrugged. “Relish sounds fine to me.”

Knowing for sure that he was leaving his sister in Via’s capable hands, Tyler ducked into the next room, where he had vegetables to chop and Art, who wouldn’t talk through a single play of football. This was as close to perfection as his life was liable to get for quite some time. All he had to do was ignore Fin’s eyes on his back.

FINTRIEDVERYhard not to watch Tyler leave the room, but her eyes were glued to the back of his neatly ironed button-down. For the first time since she’d met him, his blondish hair was a bit too long and there was a thick layer of short stubble on his face. Normally, he’d be immaculately shaved and groomed. It had always added to his preppy, boyish appeal.

He still looked preppy, with his pressed slacks and mint-colored shirt. But he didn’t look boyish at all. He looked tired and sad and every day of his forty-odd years. He looked like an actual human instead of an animatronic J.Crew mannequin, which is how she used to think of him.

She frowned. The uncomfortable chill she always got when she thought of Tyler was intensifying, and she didn’t like it one bit.

Just now, she’d felt the walls of protection and ice that he’d put up between them where there used to be rivers of nervous desire.

His lust had made her plenty skittish. But now that it was gone, it only intensified the chill of her own guilt.

She couldn’t ignore this forever. Regardless of her reasons for rejecting Tyler so intensely last summer, she felt bad about it. If she didn’t apologize, her eyes were just going to keep getting stuck on him, like a dam in a river. She’d tried, at Matty’s basketball game. It was the whole reason she’d gone. But then he’d gotten that phone call.

And this situation wasn’t any better. A crowded Thanksgiving dinner where there was so much funky juju flying around, Fin had taken her place at the very edge of the room to avoid the superhighway of emotions that ran through the house.

Especially from the newest member of the group.

Kylie.

In all of Serafine’s years reading people’s energy, she’d rarely met someone as guarded as the young girl was. For just a moment, Serafine got the image of the magic rose in Beauty and the Beast. Beautiful and fragile, and encased on all sides by thick glass. Serafine didn’t even know how someone could go about hiding themselves so thoroughly. Secretive, guarded people generally let their true selves show in some way or another. But there were almost no cracks in Kylie’s guard. Which made Serafine think that hiding herself was pretty much effortless at this point. She’d probably been doing it for a very long time.

Even so, Kylie was polite to Via and Muriel. She laughed when Via convinced Matty to try a raw cranberry and Matty made a face like a betrayed gremlin.

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