Page 38 of Reckless

Was that the reason for his odd behavior earlier? The keychain?

I looked through the window, contemplating on how much I wanted to share, if I wanted to do that at all, when his phone started ringing.

“Would you?” He pointed at it. “Check who’s calling?”

Relief washed over me. Maybe he didn’t want to know about the keychain that much if he was so easily distracted.

“It’s your mother. Should I answer?”

“Put her on speaker.” I accepted the call and held his phone in the air between us. “I’m listening.”

“Tyler,” Sylvia’s voice filled the car. “You picked up.”

“Why do you call if you assume I won’t pick up?” It was a valid question, but his mother ignored him, something I was beginning to suspect was a habit of hers.

“We are having an engagement party. On Wednesday.”

A what now?

“Good for you. Enjoy,” Tyler said, amusement in his tone.

I cleared my throat and leaned closer to his phone and him for that matter. His scent hit me like a body blow.

“Mrs. Hartley, it’s Hannah. Clem didn’t tell me anything about an engagement party on Wednesday.”

It seemed weird for the bride not to inform the maid of honor about something like that. And knowing Sylvia’s history of twisting people’s arms into all sorts of things that she wanted, I thought she might be organizing something Clem wasn’t on board with.

“Hannah? What are you two doing together?” Sylvia asked with an accusatory tone.

“We are trying to find a venue,” I went into defensive mode. Why was she so upset about us being together?

“Tyler? Why aren’t you on the camping trip?”

Oh. I forgot about that.

“Excuse me, mother, but I think you have mistaken me for Madison,” Tyler said in a calm tone. “I’m not explaining myself to you.”

I wanted the sink into the passenger seat. That seemed like a private conversation I didn’t want to participate in.

“We will talk about this later.” Apparently Sylvia shared my sentiment. “Cancel your flights. Both of you. You are staying for the engagement party.”

“I’m not doing that,” Tyler argued.

“You said you had two weeks off.” I could see on Tyler’s face he regretted sharing that information with his mother. “It’s your sister’s engagement party. You are staying. It will be at my house since it’s empty and we don’t have time for anything better.”

I noticed how she referred to the house asmy houseand notour house.

“It’s not empty. I’m there,” Tyler reminded her.

“You wouldn’t care if I brought an entire circus to live with you,” she brushed him off.

Her words insulted me in a way they shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t stop myself from feeling offended on his behalf. If she treated him like that on the reg, no wonder he never wanted to come home or pick up his phone when she called.

“Hannah, honey, you are staying, right?” She directed her attention to me.

“I will have to talk to my boss,” I said. “But, yes. I think I will stay.” I hadn’t had a vacation since I started working over a year ago, so I didn’t think Amanda would mind. Besides I was the maid of honor and missing the engagement party just wasn’t something I would do.

I felt Tyler’s eyes on me and when I shot him a look, he mouthed the wordpushoverin my face with a cocky grin that made my heart beat faster. Being close to him obviously affected me the wrong way.

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