Nick answered, looking less than enthused to see me. Still, without a word, he stepped to the side and let me in. I walked into his living room but didn’t sit down as he made his way to the kitchen. He came back with a teapot and sat it on the table beside me, along with a glass.
“Tea?” he asked gruffly.
“No, thank you. I just had lunch,” I said. “I just needed to get a few things off my chest.”
“Is Tyler outside?” he asked.
“No, I came here to speak to you by myself,” I said, anger rising in my voice. “I am an adult. I can do things on my own. Which is precisely why I am here, actually.”
Nick sighed and rolled his eyes, and never before did I want to hit him across the mouth more than in that moment. He was my brother, and I loved him, but he was annoying sometimes. This was one of those times.
“Fine,” he said. “You’re grown. You clearly make terrific life choices, and no one needs to guide you at all.”
I pursed my lips and tried not to snap at him. I just had to keep reminding myself that behind the sarcasm and the ego was someone who genuinely didn’t want to see me get hurt again. Even if he was going about it like a jackass.
“Look, I might not have chosen the right guy before, but that was a mistake I get to make. My love life is my own. I don’t need permission from you or Mom or Dad on who I date anymore. Tyler and I love each other.”
“Oh, Christ,” Nick said, turning away from me and flopping on the couch. “You’ve barely dated, what, a month? Two?”
“That doesn’t matter,” I said. “We’ve known each other all our lives. And when you love someone, you know. You know. I love him, Nick, and he loves me, too. And we are going to have this baby, and have a little family, and you have a choice. You can either choose to be an adult and be part of my life going forward, and part of my baby’s life. Or don’t. Those are your choices. I am going to tell Mom and Dad the same thing. Your approval is neither needed nor warranted.”
Nick didn’t say anything, choosing instead to shake his head, his eyes wide, staring at me as if he couldn’t believe how I was speaking to him. I stomped off and walked out without waiting for a response anyway. I didn’t need it. For once, I wasn’t going to wait around for anyone else to say something about my opinions. They were my opinions, and they could just deal with them without comment.
I got into my car full of fury, but by the time I was halfway back to Tyler’s, I was a sobbing mess. I made it into his house and collapsed onto the couch, eventually falling asleep in a pool of my own tears.
I woke up around midnight to the sound of a car pulling in the driveway. Disoriented due to the sudden darkness, I sat up. I felt extremely woozy, and I called out for the electronic assistant to turn on the lights. They came on just as the key went jangling into the doorknob and Tyler made his way in. He looked at me with concern etched on his face and hurried to my side.
“Babe, are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I just fell asleep on the couch late this afternoon, and I guess I zonked out until just now.”
“That’s a long nap,” Tyler said.
“It is,” I said. “But I feel like I could sleep for hours still.”
“Then let’s get you to bed,” Tyler said, standing and holding out his hand for me to take.
“Wait,” I said. “I have to tell you what happened today.”
“You can tell me that when you are in pajamas,” he said. “Let’s get you comfy and in the bed. Are you hungry?”
“Starving,” I said.
“I’ll make you a sandwich. Go on,” he said, guiding me to the bedroom. I made it inside, still feeling woozy and realizing it was because I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since lunch with Melissa. I got undressed, and Tyler handed me a pair of silk pajamas he had bought me on the little getaway. I put them on and slipped into the bed, sitting up. Tyler returned a few moments later with the sandwich and a large glass of water.
“Thank you,” I said.
“No problem,” he responded. “Now tell me what happened today.”
I told him everything that happened, and he laughed when he heard what Melissa said, noting that he agreed with her wholeheartedly. When I told him what Nick did in reaction to my speech, he grumbled and shook his head.
“I have known Nick a long time,” he said. “I know how he gets when he gets angry. He needs some time to process this, and then he will come around. They will all come around soon, you’ll see.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” I said. “He was pretty dismissive of me.”
“He’s dismissive of anyone who he disagrees with,” Tyler said. “I have been on the other end of that often, trust me. But eventually, he will figure himself out, and it will be okay.”
I didn’t know if I believed him fully, but I chose to try. I was going to hang on to those words and hope that one day things would get better.
37
Tyler
I had a day off and was planning on enjoying it by not doing a damn thing but hanging out with Becca. Vigorous shower sex left her a little worn-out, and I left her to finish the tub on her own while I made us lunch and created a bed on the couch where we could cuddle most of the day watching movies. I had just pulled the weighted blanket I bought her out into the living room and draped it on the couch when my phone rang. Becca was just coming into the room, stark naked and drying her hair, and I was tempted to ignore it and go for round two.
“Who is it?” she asked.
I sighed and looked down at my phone. “Nick,” I said. “I’m going to ignore it.”
“You should take it,” she said. “See what he wants.”
I nodded and swiped to answer the call. Pulling it up to my ear, I realized perhaps Becca shouldn’t hear it. I was about to walk away when she turned and shook her hips perhaps more than absolutely necessary as she made her way to the bedroom.
“Hello?” I answered. I didn’t want to give him too much of a greeting in case I got interrupted with a rant. Instead, he sighed on the other end, and when he spoke, his voice had a defeated quality to it.
“Hey, Tyler,” he said. “Before you hang up on me, I just needed to ask you if you would please hear me out.”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll hear you out. What did you want to say?”
“Not here. Not on the phone. Can we meet up at the bar and have a few drinks?”
“You want me to go to the bar on my day off?” I asked.
“I didn’t know it was your day off,” he said. “A different bar? I just feel like I need alcohol to go along with this talk.”
“Fine,” I said. “We can go to a restaurant or something. Just not my bar.”
“I’m good with that,” Nick said.
“One condition, though,” I said. “You don’t try to punch me again.”
There was a snicker on the other end. “I promise,” he said. “No swinging, as long as you don’t come looking for a revenge shot.”
“We’ll see,” I said.
Nick gave me the name of a restaurant, and I told him I would meet him there. Becca was coming out of the bedroom as I made the plans, and she sat on the couch looking upset. I went to sit next to her, and she pulled her knees to her chest.
“I don’t think you should go,” she said. “What if he just makes this worse?”
“He can’t make it worse,” I said. “I’d beat his ass if he tried something stupid, and he won’t do that anyway. He knows he got lucky when he sucker punched me. But he seems like he might regret that, and I want to give him the chance to apologize.”
“Nick? Apologize?” Becca said sarcastically.
“I know, but it’s worth a shot.”
I drove to the restaurant, wondering why he chose that place specifically. It was an out-of-the-way spot, mostly selling Greek food, which at least interested me. I had only been there a few times before and remembered their gyros being amazing. When I got in the door, I saw Nick at a
table over the hostess’s shoulder and pointed to him.
“I’m with him,” I said.
“Sure,” she said, and went back to fiddling with her phone.
Nick was also fiddling with his phone when I arrived, and he put it down on the table when I sat. The waiter came up immediately, and I ordered a beer and the chicken gyro the way I had it before. Today was not a day for trying new things. Not for me at least.
“Alright,” I said. “I left a perfectly good couch bed, pajamas, and a hot girlfriend to come here. And if you so much as roll your eyes at that comment, I’m gone. What do you want to say?”
“I will, for today, ignore any and all references to my sister being ‘hot,’ alright? We will get that out of the way,” he said.
“Okay. She is and you guys share the same genes so you should be flattered. Continue,” I said.
“Fine. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about how I acted and what’s going on with me. First off, I am sorry. I am sorry for hitting you, and I am sorry for acting like a dick when I found out about the baby. I didn’t know how to handle myself, and I flew into a rage, and it wasn’t okay.”
“No,” I said, “it wasn’t.” The beer arrived just in time, and I gulped down half the mug before the waiter even got a few steps away. I waved to him, and he came back. “I’m going to need another one of these in like thirty seconds.”
“Yes, sir,” he said and walked away.
“Alright, go on,” I said.
Nick sighed and pressed on, taking a sip of his own beer.
“She’s my little sister, Tyler. I’ve been protecting her all my life. I had to get used to the idea she is a grown-up and not a kid anymore once already, and then that rat bastard fucked her over at their wedding,” he said. I nodded.
“I get that,” I said evenly.
“I just didn’t want her to hurt anymore. Not like that. Not if I could stop it. I felt like I should have seen it coming in the first place, you know? Like I should have seen the warning signs and helped her. Or kicked his ass after. Or something.” He took another sip of his beer. “But then you guys hooked up, and I just felt like you were taking advantage of the fact that she was sad.”
“Let me stop you right there,” I said, interrupting.
“No, wait, hear me out,” Nick said, his palm up to stop me.
I didn’t want him to go on. I wanted to tell him how dead wrong he was. But I swallowed the words and nodded. He downed the rest of his beer, and when the waiter came with my second one, he brought one for Nick, too.
“Go on,” I said.
“I felt like you were taking advantage of her, and her situation, but I know now that isn’t what was happening, okay?” he said. “After my divorce and what happened to her, I just have a hard time trusting that people aren’t total bastards. I know you. I know you aren’t like that, but all the same, it hit me. I doubted you, and I shouldn’t have. I am sorry for that, too.”
“Thank you for saying that,” I said. “It doesn’t absolve you but thank you.”
“I know. It doesn’t make up for it. And how I reacted about the news… I’m ashamed, man. You were together for just a month, and it seemed like it was just too soon. Just too soon. It was too much to come to terms with, and then, I hit you. I found out I was going to be an uncle and my first response was to punch you in the face. That isn’t right. I own that. I am so sorry for that.”
I nodded and looked down into my beer. He was saying all the right things, and for Nick, that was big enough as it was. But it was still raw, and I was still pissed.
“I appreciate you saying that,” I said. “You just have to know that this is still really difficult for me and for Becca. You guys hurt her so badly. It’s not even about me, you know? You punched me in the face, and I don’t even care about it. I don’t. What I care about is how Becca looked at you when she saw you do it. She shouldn’t look at you that way. She shouldn’t be worried our kid is going to grow up without one side of their family.”
“I agree,” Nick said, his voice full of sorrow. I believed him. He was hurting just as much as I was. “I can’t stand the idea that I might have thrown away the chance to be the uncle that I should be. To be the brother I should be. To be the best friend I should be. This should be the best of both worlds, right? My best friend is going to become my brother. I should be elated. But I risked all of it because I couldn’t get past the need to protect her.”
“That’s the thing,” I said. “She still needs you to protect her. Just not from me.”
Nick nodded, and we went silent for a few moments as the food arrived. I took a few bites of my gyro and momentarily forgot the reason for the conversation. I was just at a table with my best friend, eating delicious food. Then the pall cast itself back over me, and I put down the sandwich and looked him in the eye. I was about to speak when he interrupted me.
“I want to be friends again,” he said. “I know I probably don’t deserve it, but it’s what I want. If there is a way to get back to that, I want to know what it is. I want to have a relationship with my sister, too, but I know I need to have a conversation like this with her first. She is her own person. You can’t accept my apology for her.”
“Now you’re starting to get it,” I said.
“I’m sorry. Truly, Tyler, I am sorry. Will you forgive me?”
“Yes,” I said, without thinking. “I will. But it might take some time for things to get back to where they were. Becca is really hurt. She didn’t want me to come. But I needed to see if this is where you were going to go before I took the next step.”
“The next step?” he asked. “You’re going to make an honest woman of her?” I cut my eyes at him and let my head hang to one side, and he put his palms up in defense. “I know, I know.”
I reached into my pocket, pulling out the box I wasn’t sure I was going to show him or not. The best-case scenario for our conversation included me doing it, and though I wasn’t sure this was that situation, I decided to show him anyway. I opened the top and showed him the ring.
“Good Lord,” he said. “She’s going to freak.”
“I hope so,” I said. “It might be a little soon, though. We didn’t plan on moving this fast. We were just enjoying taking it day by day, but that’s not really an option now. But I knew I wanted this part of it a week into dating her.”
“That’s awesome,” Nick said, and the tone of his voice said it was true. Nick was a shit liar.
“I think I’m going to wait until she’s six months along. That way it’s between the excitement of finding out, the excitement of the belly showing up, and then the excitement of delivery. There won’t be a dull moment for her if I time it right,” I said.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Nick said. “And deep down, somewhere I was refusing to acknowledge because I was so upset, I always knew you would treat her right. Even if you weren’t meant to last, and clearly you are, but even if you weren’t, somewhere deep down I knew you wouldn’t hurt her.”
“Yet you hit me,” I said and then grinned. Nick looked hurt, but then when he saw me grin, he grinned back.
“Yes, then I hit you. I owe you one,” he said. “Next time I act like a dick, just sock me one.”
“Don’t tempt me,” I said with a laugh. “You just might catch that receipt.”
38
Becca
“You’re sure you’re going to be okay?” Tyler asked as he parked the car in my parents’ driveway.
“I’ll have you,” I said. “And if Nick came around, then Dad came around. They said as much on the voicemail when they invited us over. They want to ‘make amends.’”
“Well, if you feel uncomfortable at any point, you just let me know,” he said.
“How? A code word?” I asked, chuckling.
“Bananas,” he said, seeming serious. “As in, this ish is bananas.”
“Gwen Stefani, fantastic,” I said, nodding and smiling. “Didn’t think you were the type.”
“Hush, you,” he said and climbed out of the car. He came over to my side and opened my door for me, and I waited until he held out his hand. It was something I had to get used to, since no one had ever done that for me before. But Tyler was nothing if not gentlemanly, and he would get visibly upset if I didn’t wait for him to come do his duty of opening the door for me. He said it made him feel like he was treating me like a princess. Because I deserved that.
I wasn’t as sold on my worth in that regard, but it flattered me that he was.
Before we even got up the steps, the door opened, and my mother stood at the doorframe. As mad as I was at my brother and father, my mother had escaped most of it, even though it was her big mouth that started it all. Had she just respected my privacy, I could have told Nick when I felt like I was ready.
“Becca,” she said and held out her arms. Reluctantly, I stood there, not moving. As hard as it was, I needed them to know I wasn’t just going to hug them, forgive them, and move on. She rallied well, though, moving one arm to the doorknob and the other to sweep toward the house, inviting us in.
The smell of tacos filled the air, and I suddenly realized just how hungry I was. Dad came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a dishcloth and taking off an apron. Behind him, I could see the pans on the stove.
“Tacos?” I asked, in spite of myself.
“If you’d like some, absolutely,” Mom said. “You know we always make more than we can eat.”
We followed her into the dining room and took seats there. Dad came out of the kitchen first and took a seat across from us, then Mom followed with glasses and two bottles, one wine and the other sparkling grape juice. She poured them out and gave me the juice.
“Before anyone says anything, I need to say this,” Dad said, clearing his throat. “I apologize for how I acted on my birthday. I apologize for getting upset and for letting Nick get away with what he did, too. I should have been able to see what was going on, and instead, I let my emotions get the better of me.”
His Best Friend's Sister: A Secret Baby Romance Page 20