Page 20 of Can't Help Falling

She’d brought very little with her to Brooklyn. Just two suitcases, and Tyler had been really surprised when Kylie had emerged from her bedroom that afternoon, a scowl on her fox-like face but her red hair straightened and braided. She’d worn a jean dress with plaid tights and boots.

He was as confused by it as he was impressed. He’d thought for a minute that maybe they had more in common than he’d thought, as he liked to dress up for nice occasions too, but he’d started to wonder if maybe her nice clothes were something more akin to a tiger’s stripes. Camouflage. Armor. War paint, of sorts.

Her frown intensified as she looked over his shoulder down the hall and suddenly there were Sebastian and Via standing there, holding hands and smiling.

“Via, Sebastian, this is Kylie.”

Kylie looked nervous and uncomfortable and shy. “You’re the one who set up the room for me?”

Via nodded. “Yup. I hope you like it. I guessed on pretty much everything.”

“I was just glad it wasn’t pink and purple.”

For some mystifying reason, that made both Via and Kylie laugh. Tyler didn’t get the joke. Especially because he’d been surprised to see that Via had left his former office the same deep blue he’d painted it a few years ago. He definitely would have repainted it to a light color. Maybe not pink. But most likely lavender or something.

“If there’s anything you don’t like in your room, we can change it,” Tyler cut in. And then, for another completely mystifying reason, his words made Kylie abruptly stop laughing, her sullen look immediately returning.

Via cleared her throat. “I suppose you’re wondering who the spy is?” she said to Kylie.

“The spy?”

Via widened her eyes in a conspiratorial look and tipped her head in the direction of the living room. Sure enough, peeking around the corner was Matty in a Sherlock Holmes hat, using a pair of binoculars to spy on the newcomers, one in particular.

Kylie laughed again.

“Come on out, Matty, and meet our guest.” Sebastian’s voice was firm, the way it always was when he was insisting on manners.

Matty ducked away for a moment and when he came back, the hat was gone, as were the binoculars, and there was quite the look of blushing chagrin on his face. “I met her at the door, Dad,” Matty said in an exasperated voice that made Tyler’s blood freeze to hear.

One attitudinally challenged kid at a time, Universe.

“Well, we’re very glad you’re here with us, Kylie. There’s more people in the kitchen. This is a new kind of Thanksgiving for all of us because Sebastian and Matty usually drive up to White Plains to spend it with Matty’s grandparents. And Fin, my foster sister, and I usually spend ours together. But this year we decided to combine everybody, and every recipe, and see how it all goes. So, I’m glad you’re here to see the beginning of a new tradition.”

Tyler could have kissed Via when he saw a bit of tension leave Kylie’s shoulders. The woman was pure genius. Making sure Kylie knew that she wasn’t plunking down into the middle of a years-long tradition. That they were all as new to this as she was. Genius.

“How’s it going?” Sebastian asked in a low voice as Via led Kylie into the kitchen, a shy Matty scampering along after them.

Tyler waited until they were definitely out of earshot. “Seb, I didn’t understand teenage girls when I was a high-schooler. I certainly don’t understand them as a forty-two-year-old man. I—I have no idea how to do this.”

“She seems...all right,” Seb said. “I mean, a little shell-shocked. But she’s not like you described her, all mad at the world.”

“Yeah, she only saves that for me. When we’re alone together I swear she’d melt me into scrap metal with her eyes if she could.”

Sebastian hummed thoughtfully. “Well, this whole transition was never going to be smooth.”

Tyler said nothing. He’d kind of thought that if he got her to Brooklyn, everything would just sort of smooth out.

Oh, you sweet, naive little idiot.

“All you have to do is get through this weekend, Ty.”

Tyler narrowed his eyes at Sebastian. “Actually, all I have to do is get through the next four years, until she’s eighteen.”

“I mean that after this weekend, she’ll start school and you’ll both start to get into the swing of a schedule. Things will normalize a little bit. The problems you’ll have to fix will be normal problems. Math homework, cliques at school, that kind of thing. Normal problems.”

“Normal problems,” Tyler repeated. Though, to a man who hadn’t thought about math homework or high school politics since he’d been in high school himself, those problems seemed just as unsolvable. But still, he could see Sebastian’s point. Right now, Kylie’s issues were that her entire life was on its head and she felt completely abandoned and lost. Algebra was apple pie compared to that.

“Beer?” Sebastian asked, gently shoving Tyler toward the kitchen.

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