Page 70 of Can't Help Falling

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

TYLERWASINthe best mood he’d been in in over a year. Kylie had gotten her grades back recently for the first semester, all Bs and a lone, glorious A. He’d take it. She’d started studying at the desk he’d set up in the living room. She almost always called him Ty now, she was holding down a job, singing to herself when she folded her laundry and had even started clearing the dishes after dinner.

That wasn’t the only area where Ty’s life was going swimmingly. He had a meeting coming up with his editor next week to convince him to let him take his column in a new direction, which might in turn free up some of his nights and weekends. He was currently on his way to play basketball at the Y with Seb and Matty. And best of all, he’d gotten asked out by the cutie behind the counter at his coffee shop this morning.

He bounced the basketball on the sidewalk as he jogged around the corner toward the Y, earning some dirty looks from a group of older ladies in large hats, stepping out of a church. He picked up the ball and tipped an imaginary hat to them. “Excuse me, ladies.”

Two of them smiled at him, but one just frowned even more, rolling her eyes at the floppy-haired goofball grinning at them. That made Ty grin even harder. When he was far enough away from them, he started dribbling the ball again.

“What are you grinning at?” Sebastian called from where he and Matty were waiting in front of the Y.

“Got asked out by a hottie at the coffee shop this morning.” He held his hand out to Matty. “Slap me some skin.”

Matty gave him a whopping good high five and then jumped in a 180, facing away from Ty, holding one hand in the air. “No-look high five!”

Laughing, Tyler slapped hands with Matty again. That wasn’t exactly what people meant by a no-look high five, but still, the kid had flair.

“So, when’s the date?” Seb asked as he checked in at the front desk, handing over a few bucks to bring Tyler in as a guest.

“What date?” Ty asked, peeking in at the courts on the way to the locker room, seeing if there was enough room for them to just shoot around or if they were going to have to join a pickup game.

“Your date with the coffee shop hottie.”

“Oh. I didn’t say yes.”

Tyler had his coat already locked into a locker by the time he turned around and saw his best friend gaping at him. “You...said no to a date. With a hottie.”

Tyler grimaced. “You make it sound like it’s a sign of terminal illness or something. You know I haven’t been dating for a while.”

“Sure, but things are finally evening out with Ky, I just figured...”

“I’d wanna get back in the saddle?”

“You ride horses, Uncle Ty?”

Tyler looked down at Matty’s blunt face, his innocent expression, and swallowed down his own laughter. “No. I do not. It’s an expression. It means to try something again even if you’re out of practice.”

“Thank you for the PG explanation,” Seb muttered once Matty had scampered forward, out of the locker room and onto the courts.

“Mickey Rooney, think fast!” Tyler launched the ball over to the kid, nearly smacking him in the face with rubber, but Matty dodged at the last second, laughing like a maniac and chasing the ball down. “I’m not going to corrupt your kid by explaining that it’s not horses I ride.”

“Gross. Done. We’re done with that topic.”

Tyler laughed. He’d always known how to push Seb’s buttons.

“So, that’s really it? You said no because you’re just not dating right now?”

“I guess.” She’d asked him out before but had seemed unavailable since he’d gotten back from Columbus. Apparently she was available again. Honestly, Tyler hadn’t really thought twice about saying no to the date. It had just sort of happened and he’d moved on.

“Because of Kylie?”

“Yeah. And—” Tyler cut himself off immediately when, to his confusion and horror, it was Fin’s face that popped into his mind. The image of her laughing and sitting on the closed lid of her toilet while she handed over tools for him to fix the drain in her tub last weekend. He’d been happy to help; he’d done something similar with his own tub a couple years before. And maybe, just maybe, due to the smiley, blushy mood she’d happened to be in, he’d taken a skosh longer with the task than was strictly necessary. Maybe, just maybe, he’d fiddled around for an extra half hour because it had been nice to joke with her about nothing, her sagey smell filling the small bathroom around them, her cute-ass feet perfectly wrapped up in the socks he’d bought for her.

But that wasn’t the reason he’d refused the date.

It couldn’t be. He’d gone down that road before. That feelings-for-Fin road that led to nowhere but humiliated at a baseball game. How many times had she made it clear that she wasn’t interested in him? Hell, the last month she’d obviously been making arrangements so that she could hang with Kylie without having to see him as well. If that wasn’t a hint, then he didn’t know what was. It was extremely dangerous to let himself start this silly crush up again.

“And...” Seb prompted.

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