How To Win (Back) a Wife (Harlequin Silhouette Desire)

by Lass Small

  That meant Tyler ought to look behind him and be sure nobody was catching up to him...or to Kayla.

  And another of the team told Tyler seriously, “That Tom Keeper will keep her. His family is thataway... and so’s he. As you can tell by the name they have, their habit goes a long way back in time. You watch out for him. He’ll lure her with all that money.”

  “Yeah.” That was said by about three or four others in an unpracticed and therefore nonsynchronized, vocal agreement.

  So Tyler looked up in the stands. He wasn’t looking for Kayla, he knew where she was. He was looking for that sneaky Tom Keeper.

  Tom wasn’t anywhere around Kayla. If he was there, he was hiding. That would be smart. And Tyler wondered, if it came to fisticuffs, could he beat Tom?

  Tom was in pretty good condition.

  One of the guys asked, “How did you let Kayla get away from you?”

  And Tyler replied thoughtfully, “I don’t rightly know. It just happened. I filed for divorce to panic her. I thought that would make her come running back home t—”

  The hilarity cut him off. The guys exclaimed how stupid he was, and they agreed among themselves they needed to restructure his stupidity. They had no hope—at all—of him being anywhere near to intelligence, but they might could make a dent in his stupidity.

  They about came apart with their laughter when Tyler replied seriously, “Maybe so.”

  One of the team, watching the game said, “I heard you was watching around some other woman. I don’t recall her name.”

  Tyler responsed, “Well, that was before we got married. I did look around. I did need to say goodbye to independence.”

  And another one of the team, standing, watching the game closely, interrupted, “Her name wasn’t Independence, it was Iowna.”

  Tyler said, “I’d forgotten about her!”

  Another inquired with subtle knowledge, “Who in hell could forget Iowna?”

  Someone else commented, “Well, when a guy’s married to Kayla, other women just sorta fade away.”

  But George mentioned, “Kayla must be lonesome and needy, I’ll call her for a date.”

  Tyler looked up at George and said, “I wouldn’t do that if I was you.”

  And George slid his sleepy eyes over to Tyler and said. “If I was you—forty pounds lighter and six inches shorter—I wouldn’t, either.”

  That was a sobering reality. George was indeed forty pounds heavier and six inches taller. Tyler told George, “Behave and don’t be so snide or I’ll get my mama to chastise you.”

  They loved it.

  At the end of the game, Kayla. waited in a group, each of whom she’d threatened with death if they left her there alone. She laughed and talked to them until Tyler came up by her. Then she flipped a dismissive hand at the others and said, “’bye.”

  The guys didn’t leave. The women were honest and were willing to leave the two alone, but men tend to really irritate another man when he’s courting. Especially, if the guy’s courting Kayla. The women fooled the men. “I have the car keys, let’s go.”

  “Uhhh,” said George. “Hold it a minute.”

  And the sassy woman just glanced over her shoulder and swished her body in a shocking manner as she went on off... with George following willingly.

  Women never pay any attention to the vital details of living. Nor will they allow a man to go ahead with what he’s doing when she wants something else. They tend to control.

  With the rest gone, Tyler asked the smile-licking, eye-catching woman in front of him, his ex-wife, “You going home with me?”

  She looked surprised, as if she hadn’t considered any such thing. She exclaimed, “That would be a good idea! I’ve been so curious if you’ve kept ah—the place tidy.”

  He watched her with a slight smile and was so engrossed that he didn’t hear the calls from others who passed them.

  Kayla did. She wiggled fingers and smiled. But she blushed and her body was restless.

  Then her Davie parents came by, and stopped in the way of watchful parents. They exclaimed, “Well, hello, Tyler.” They said it as if they were surprised to see the actual him...and had not realized until then the fact that he had played in the game.

  They all spoke kindly. And they visited for a while. Then they said to Kayla, “You take Jim and Henrietta. They’re on your way. Nice to see you, Tyler. That home run was perfect!”

  Her daddy gave Tyler a friendly pat on his shoulder and smiled. Fathers love to louse up a daughtercourting male.

  And with that brief encounter, the Davies and their friends went on off.

  Tyler looked with some enduring patience at Jim and Kayla’s apartment mate Henrietta.

  Jim smiled at Tyler with twinkling eyes.

  Hennie just smiled with lowered eyelids. She was so amused. Parents of daughters have a way of sundering the plans of any male. Even divorced couples.

  The four went to Tyler’s car. Then Tyler had to wait, holding the car door until Jim got out of the front seat and into the back. In his hesitation to change seats, Jim explained logically, “The girls’ll want to talk.”

  Standing there, holding the car door open, Tyler replied with rigidly harnessed patience, “They share an apartment, they don’t need to talk together in the car. They can talk anytime. Get in back.”

  “Oh,” Jim said as if assimilating the fact the two women were apartment mates. And he got out and changed seats with Kayla. Then Jim complained and bounced up and down because the seat he’d taken from Kayla was too hot for him to sit on.

  While Hennie laughed, and so did Jim, Kayla only smiled with female patience of an immature male. But Tyler looked off to the distance as if inquiring of God why other humans were so stupid? He received no reply, but Tyler thought he heard a compassionate sigh.

  It could have been the wind.

  So Tyler drove the three to the girls’ apartment. Jim got out. So did Tyler. Jim started Hennie up to the door and they talked comfortably.

  However, not leaving the side of the car, Kayla turned to Tyler and said, “The home run was great! You’re the best of the team.”

  Hennie heard and commented, “I love prejudice.”

  Jim told them, “This is the first season Tyler’s hit a home run. It must be that he’s free of the burden of a wife. Kayla, don’t allow him—”

  Tyler put in, “Go home. Walk. Or sit in the car.”

  Jim exclaimed, “Not escort my woman to the front door? Allow her to find her own way?”

  Tyler said flatly, “I’ll be with Kayla, we’ll watch out for Henrietta.”

  Hennie gasped in comment, “The entire name! He’s being formal.”

  Jim exclaimed, “So that’s it! I knew there was some—”

  Rather forcefully, Tyler said, “Hush!”

  “Uh-oh,” Jim told Hennie, “he’s serious.”

  And Hennie directed, “Come along and leave them be.”

  Jim complained, “I didn’t know if you’d feed me so I bought all those cold hot dogs and all that beer. You drank most of the beer. Are you excited and pliant?”

  “No.”

  “Oh.” Jim put his hands in his pockets and strolled along with Hennie to the apartment door.

  With them far enough away, Kayla again said, “We have the picnic on Saturday.”

  And Tyler told her, “Knowing that is all that’s keeping me going.”

  “I didn’t know you liked picnics that much.”

  “Just recently.”

  And she said, “I see.”

  “Probably not yet, but you will. Good night, princess in the tower. I’ll see you about ten on Saturday?”

  “That’ll be just right.”

  He reminded her, “I’m taking the food.”

  “Okay.”

  “You just get yourself ready—to eat, of course.”

  She smiled a little as she watched him with serious eyes. “Your home run won the game.”

  “It was for you.”

>   “The time was thrilling. You did it all perfectly, again. Good night.”

  “If I kiss you—”

  She pulled her head back a whole inch and said earnestly, “Don’t. If you did, Hennie would spend the entire night vocally evaluating the kiss and our relationship. Just shake hands.”

  “I want to kiss you.”

  “Saturday. I will have a kiss for you on Saturday.”

  “Put your mind to it.”

  “I shall.”

  He smiled for the first time inside the forever vacuum in which he’d been clogged. It was a fragile, tentative, beginning smile.

  She said, “I’ve never stopped loving you.”

  “You can tell me that and then turn around and go into Hennie’s apartment and leave me out here all by myself?”

  Very seriously, she told him, “Having Hennie and Jim here is the only way I could tell you such a thing and not have you attack me. You tend to be triggered.”

  “I promise I’ll be a gentleman until you give me permission not to withhold myself from you.”

  “Glory be.”

  “Don’t be snotty. I’ve had one hell of a time without you around, listening, advising, defying and correcting me.”

  “I sound like a harpie.”

  “Well, not all the time.” He grinned at her.

  She lifted her nose quite sassily, so of course, he kissed her. He held her body close to his. He did a double-whammy serious, just-about-fatal kiss. It ruined them both.

  His shaking hands let her go and then they had to stabilize her. She gasped, and her eyes were closed. She was uncoordinated and loose. He had to mold her back into a steady human being, female, and see to it that she surfaced again.

  She said, “You dirty rat. You did it again.”

  And he replied, “I only meant to kiss you good-night, you’re the vampire that turned it into chaos.”

  She struggled to get out the words, “I—did—not.”

  He told her with some intensity, “That was only a See You Tomorrow kiss. You still have to kiss me good-night.”

  While he was hyper, her words were slow. She said, “Not this time.” She was intensely serious. She turned and sought the path to the door.

  It was a sidewalk for which she searched. Tyler found it for her and directed her. He took her arm into his hand, then he found he needed to put the hand on her other side. It was dark and therefore he couldn’t see exactly what he was doing, and the hand slid over her breast.

  “Cut it out.”

  He mumbled, “I won’t cut it out,’ I like it the way it is.”

  They came up to the laughing, chatting Hennie, and Jim, who turned and observed the approach of the divorced couple.

  Jim asked, ‘Good heavens, man, what did you do to her?”

  Tyler gave Jim a dismissive glance, but Kayla formed the words carefully. She said with some concentration and finally managed the words, “He... kissed...me.”

  Hennie said, “Wow!”

  Caught up by it all and very serious, Jim urged, “How did he do it? Was he aggressive or kind or what, and did he hold you formally or did—”

  Tyler said, “Hush.” Just the word was said, but Tyler’s look at Jim was so deadly that Jim did hush.

  However, Jim’s attention was riveted, his eyes were opened wide and busily watched. His body was tensed.

  So was Tyler’s Wimp.

  It was the first time that Jim had ever actually witnessed such a phenomenon. It was one of those rare times when there was the opportunity for Jim to understand how a man could handle a woman.

  Jim needed the information. What had Tyler done to wreck Kayla in that way? She was so malleable and her responses were so unreliable that a man could have free reign!

  In some agitation, Jim started urgently, “Tyler, you have—”

  And Tyler speared Jim with one deadly look and again said, “Hush.”

  Jim realized how triggered Tyler was and therefore how dangerous he was. If he stepped one step too far, Tyler would do something really rough. Was the knowing of handling a woman worth the risk? Probably.

  But without Jim even saying one word, Tyler’s deadly look came back to him and he just watched Jim for one endless second before his attention returned to the ruined Kayla.

  She was learning to swallow with some intense concentration. Think of that! She was so mesmerized by Tyler she’d forgotten how to swallow!

  Jim almost pleaded, “Tyler—”

  But Tyler came over to Jim and took hold of his shirtfront in a controlled bunch. His hand was a fist and he jolted Jim just the very least bit possible but it was a soft, deadly threat. Tyler said for the third time, “You...hush.”

  Probably the thing that really convinced Jim was the fact that Tyler’s teeth were clenched, and his eyes were squinted almost closed. Tyler was serious. Jim was to be quiet.

  So Jim subsided and paid closer attention to Tyler and to Kayla. By then, Hennie could have been abducted by aliens and Jim would never have noticed.

  Kayla was pawing at Tyler! She was! No woman had ever pawed at Jim. What had caused Kayla to do that?

  And Tyler was antsy and kind and soothing. He said to Kayla, “Go take a cold shower. You’ll be okay.”

  Think of that. That slender man was driving his ex-wife crazy, and he told her to take a cold shower! What had he done to get her into such a tizzy? The woman was body hungry, and Tyler was telling her to take a cold shower!

  Tyler said to Jim, “Why don’t you go on home?”

  With indignation, Jim straightened to object, but he looked at a very unstable man. Tyler didn’t move, and his face wasn’t nasty, but his eyes were slits and his teeth did not part. He was serious.

  Jim said, “I have to see Henrietta to the door.”

  Tyler replied, “She’s already inside. Go home.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Okay.” He turned and took another, serious look at the malleable Kayla. He said, “G—”

  And Tyler said, “No. Go home!”

  It was not a suggestion. Tyler was serious. Tyler was two inches shorter and probably fifty pounds lighter. Those facts made Jim pause, but Tyler moved toward him in a very unkind manner.

  Jim faced the fact that he was almost thirty, Tyler was younger than he and he knew how to make a woman a zombie. What had Tyler done?

  Tyler moved one foot slightly. It was not a hesitation. It was a threat. He wanted Jim to shut up and leave.

  Jim staid, “Good night.”

  Neither Tyler nor Kayla replied.

  Watching Jim, Tyler chose to be silent. Kayla wasn’t in touch.

  At the corner, Jim turned to look back. Tyler was watching him. He said in a undertoned way, “Keep going.”

  Just being male, Jim felt the need to hesitate. The challenge was urgent to go back and just hang around. But Tyler was serious and in a very dangerous mood. Jim lifted his hand in a friendly goodbye.

  He got no response from Tyler, at all. Tyler only watched. And Jim turned to walk on off. He wondered if he would ever know all that Tyler knew about women. How had Tyler learned? How could he even find that out?

  Jim gave up. He walked on back to his own apartment. He was somewhat depressed.

  Alone at last... well, there were the two of them left by the front door of Hennie’s apartment. Tyler considered Kayla. She was a zombie. She stood there, looking at him... waiting. He could take the zombie and she’d let him. He wanted the woman. He told her, “Go inside and get to bed. I’ll see you at the picnic on Saturday.”

  She nodded.

  He said, “Kayla. I love you.”

  She nodded again.

  He waited while she managed the steps and opened the door. She turned and looked at him quite seriously. His own regard for her was equally serious.

  Kayla went inside slowly, and she gently shut the door.

  Tyler was alone. Outside in the dark, he was alone.

  He went to his car and got into the driver’s seat. He sat and considered Hennie�
�s apartment door, which stayed closed.

  After a time, Tyler started his car and drove slowly to his apartment—the one which once was their shared apartment. It was pristinely clean and orderly. It did not hold Kayla.

  He took off his clothes and pitched them at the wicker basket. They missed, and in his new, tidy personality, he went over and picked them up. He took off the lid and put the sweaty baseball clothing into the basket. Then he went in to the shower.

  Tyler stood under the warm stream and thought of the day, the game, but he mostly thought of Kayla. He looked down and the Wimp had the same idea.

  He showered for some time. And he finally turned off the water and stood, drying his hair, and his body, and he brushed his teeth. He hadn’t realized how tired he was. The game...and Kayla had zonked him. And that damned Jim. What the hell had Jim thought he was doing? All those stupid questions like he knew something Jim didn’t!

  Tyler looked at his face in the mirror and saw just how tired and ragged he was. He drank a glass of water, turned out the lights and went into the dark bedroom.

  Hadn’t he left the light on? He remembered the light being on. The bulb had burned out. He went into the kitchen and got a new bulb. He took it back to the bedroom and, as he turned out the hall light, he saw a lump in his bed that wasn’t bunched covers.

  He turned on the light with some indignation which quickly vanished. It was Kayla—there—in his bed!

  She was there. She was there!

  His lips parted and he looked very young and vulnerable. He put his hand to his chin. He had not shaved.

  How like a man to think of basics.

  He said, “I’ll shave.”

  From the bed, Kayla replied, “I like whiskers.”

  He went carefully over to the bed and gently, carefully sat down beside her hip. He asked, “Who’s that sleeping in my bed?”

  “Godzilla”

  “Naw. I call him the Wimp.”

  She laughed as she reached out from under the covers and lay her hand on him. She heard him gasp. “Did I hurt you? I barely touched you.”

  “That was a thrilled gasp... not a shocked or hurt one.”

  “Godzilla seems very similar to being the threatening giant he was. How can you call him Wimp?”