A Man for All Seasons (12 page)

“She's not right for you and you both know it.”

“She
is
right for me.”

So stubborn. “Why? Because she's tall and boney and cultured?”

Ty stared hard at her, breathing shallowly, visibly fighting for control of his emotions. “There's a lot more to it than that.”

Marlie wanted him to give in to his emotions. “You're right. There is. So tell me, Ty, when you kiss her, do you feel one-tenth of what you just felt with me?”

No.
Marlie briefly saw the answer in his face until denial chased it away.

“What I felt is not the point.”

“It's
exactly
the point.”

He shook his head. “This was…I don't know what it was. A fluke. We got carried away. It didn't mean anything.”

“Oh.” Why didn't he just stab her in the heart and get it over with?

After a couple of seconds, he continued, “And luckily, nothing happened, so we can just…”

“Forget about it?”

“Yes,” he said on a relieved exhale.

Relieved that she understood. Oh, Marlie understood, all right. She understood that Ty was exactly like Eric, her ex—willing to trade away what he had, no matter how wonderful, in case he missed a chance at something better. Not actually something better, for the
chance
there
might
be something better.

But it wasn't Axelle, no matter what he said. Axelle's appeal was that she was wrong for Ty, guaranteeing their relationship would fail so he could move on to someone else. Someone who wasn't Marlie.

That was the part she had to remember—the not-Marlie part. At some point in the past, Ty had decided she wasn't his type and nothing was going to change his mind.

No matter how wrong he was, Marlie was not going to try to change it. And she wasn't waiting around for him to come to his senses, either.

He was looking at her, his expression a combination of dread, guilt, maybe even a little panic. But most of all, he looked as though he wished the last few minutes had never happened. She, however, was glad those minutes had happened. At least she knew that there would never be anything but friendship—make that a frosty friendship—between them.

“It's forgotten,” she told him, pushing herself to her feet. “Never happened.”

Ty was still on his knees. Yeah. He should stay there. “So…we're good then?”

We could have been.
“Same as always.” Marlie forced a smile and headed for the stairs.

 

E
XCEPT THEY WEREN'T
the same as always, and there was no way either of them was going to forget what happened, he knew.

So tell me, Ty, when you kiss her, do you feel one-tenth of what you just felt with me?

No. And the knowledge had Ty shivering and burning up at the same time, as if he were coming down with a fever. A Marlie fever.

Kissing her had shattered Ty's ideas about himself and what he wanted in life, and he needed to let the pieces settle before he could fit everything back together.

Maybe that's what he should have told her instead of insisting that even though they'd been so hot for each other that
they'd been about to do it
on the kitchen floor,
it hadn't meant anything. Instead of letting her walk up the stairs.

That kind of blind lust just did not happen to Tyler. Oh, he wanted it to, but he wanted it with someone else. Once he found that kind of mindless passion, he wanted it to last, and from what he'd seen among his friends, kids and suburbia pretty much killed it.

He looked up the stairs and briefly considered following her to explain, except he couldn't tell Marlie he believed settling down killed passion. He didn't even like admitting it to himself. Besides, it was late, he was tired, and his knee hurt. He'd talk to her tomorrow.

Ty got off the floor, reached down to brush at his slacks, and saw a silver glint. He'd been kneeling on Marlie's charm.

Three French hens with ruby eyes. He checked for damage and it seemed to have survived. As he used the pliers to attach it to the bracelet Marlie'd left on the counter, he hoped their friendship survived, too.

T
YLER MISSED SEEING
Marlie the next morning—by the time he got up, she was in her office with the door closed.

When he arrived home from work, Marlie and her date were just leaving. Instead of driving around the corner into the alley garage entrance, Ty pulled up to the front curb behind a black muscle car and intercepted them.

The two were already holding hands, presumably because Marlie needed help walking in the high-heeled boots she wore with a pair of skin-tight jeans.

Ty was willing to bet she could walk by herself just fine. He was also willing to bet that she hadn't owned those jeans yesterday. Probably not the boots, either.

Her date looked as though he'd hit the jackpot.

Tyler got out of his car. “Hi.”

Marlie gave him a cool look. “Hi.” She said something to her date and he laughed and slung his arm around her. They both looked at Ty.

“So…colly birds?” Ty said, trying not to notice the way Marlie had kind of melted against the guy.

Marlie shook her head. “This is Ben, the gymnast. Five Golden Rings.”

He and Ben nodded at each other. Ty tried to give the guy
an “I'm-watching-you” look, but Ben barely made eye contact before refocusing on Marlie.

“Colly birds isn't free until the weekend and Ben has tickets to Cirque du Soleil tonight. Three ring circus, get it?” Marlie giggled and touched Ben's arm. His eyes gleamed.

Ty didn't point out that Cirque wasn't a three-ring circus and there were supposed to be five golden rings, anyway. He knew what Marlie was doing. She was trying to get to him.

Ben was not the guy to toy with. They'd met, what? Five minutes ago? And his overly-muscled arm was already hanging off her, his hand dangling way too close to certain parts of Marlie Ty was trying to forget.

“I need to borrow Marlie for a minute,” he said.

Marlie narrowed her eyes but extricated herself from Ben and walked over to Ty. Behind her, Ben checked out her backside.

“Marlie, I know you're mad at me—”

“I'm not mad at you.”

He didn't believe her. “Good. That's good, because I wouldn't want you to do something really stupid to get back at me and get hurt in the process.”

She gave him the old Marlie blank expression surrounded by the new Marlie hair, which somehow made it worse. “Tyler. It was a kiss and a little groping. I realize guys have massive egos, but it wasn't that big a deal.”

Which is essentially what he'd said. Except he didn't like hearing Marlie say it. “Fair enough. But I still don't like the way that guy is looking at you.”

“And how is that?” She glanced over her shoulder and waggled her fingers at Mr. Golden Rings.

“He's going to make a play for you and he'll come on strong. Be careful.”

She widened her eyes. “Oh, you mean a man might actually
want
to sleep with me? And here I've been thinking I'm such a troll you had to
buy
me dates.”

“You know that's not true.” Ty looked over her shoulder at Ben, who had the face of a man making very specific plans for the night
after
the date. “I'm telling you, right now, that guy intends to end up either at your place or his.”

She gave a short laugh. “Well, we know it can't be here. Thanks for the heads up.” She spun around and walked—no, sashayed—back to Ben.

Ty stared after her swaying hips. Okay, he was done. Marlie Waters could do whatever she wanted to do. Not his concern. Not his responsibility.

Raising his hand in farewell, not that they noticed, Ty got back in his car and drove around to the garage. He only looked in the rearview mirror three times.

 

T
Y WAS AN IDIOT
, Marlie thought as she and Ben made their way back to their seats after intermission.

How could he ignore their potential? He'd been stunned; they both had. Last night, Marlie had looked into his eyes and had seen the hot desire and felt the connection that had always been there, waiting for them to acknowledge it. That kiss had certainly acknowledged it; his hands roaming her body had acknowledged it—until Ty remembered he was with Marlie and the connection broke, replaced by shock.

And then came concern and dismay and panic.

Coward. She'd wanted to shake him and tell him to just go with it. And she might have, except she knew all he could see was Marlie with a minivan and a wedding ring. He was totally ignoring all the fun they'd have making kids to put in the minivan.

Speaking of rings… After they sat, she snuggled closer to Ben in the uncomfortable folding chairs inside the Cirque du Soleil tent. Who needed Ty, anyway? He'd slammed the
door on their connection, so Marlie would just connect with somebody else.

Like Ben. She'd bet Ben would like to connect. They'd just returned from an interview with Alicia, the reporter, and Ben had stood with his arm around Marlie the entire time. Alicia and her cameraman were still in the tent, talking with the kids down at the front of the stage and the performers who were entertaining them during the break.

Marlie saw the camera pan their way. Ben looked down at her. Oh, why not give Ty something to watch on the news? She smiled an invitation and he accepted immediately. Leaning in, he kissed her softly and then put a little more into it. Good first kiss. Nice. Pleasant. Warm. And totally tingleless.

She was an idiot.

 

T
Y LOOKED IN THE FRIDGE
and frowned. Marlie must not have had a chance to go grocery shopping. Even the lettuce in the vegetable bin was wilted and slimy.

Ty picked it up to throw it away and discovered an overflowing trash can beneath the sink—a sink that held his coffee cup and cereal bowl from this morning when he'd used the last of the milk. The empty carton was still on the counter where he'd left it so Marlie would see that they were out of milk.

Ty bagged the trash and took it to the can outside. He opened the lid and was surprised to see last week's trash. Wasn't today garbage pick-up day? Marlie must have forgotten to put out the can.

Back inside, Ty looked around, noticing for the first time that the remotes on the coffee table were exactly where he'd left them the last time he'd watched TV, and not in the caddy. Yesterday's mail was scattered there, too, instead of neatly stacked on the kitchen bar. Just for grins, he slid back the folding doors hiding the washer and dryer. His towels were still in
the dryer. Ty did his own laundry, but he never remembered his towels. Marlie would fold them and leave them on top of the dryer, or sometimes even carry them upstairs and leave them on the hall table. He didn't
ask
her to do it, just as he hadn't asked her to arrange the remotes or gather his mail. And she'd
offered
to grocery shop; he gave her money for his share. If she didn't want to do that anymore, she should have said something.

Would it kill you to get out the mop?

That probably counted as saying something. Ty looked down. The kitchen floor
was
grungy.

He didn't like thinking about kneeling on the kitchen floor with Marlie and kissing her until he forgot where he was. And who he was with. That was the kicker. He shouldn't have forgotten he was kissing Marlie because she was his friend and technically his landlady, as well.

So fine. It
wouldn't
kill him to mop the floor, since she was so busy.

And after mopping the floor, he vacuumed, and straightened the coffee table, and gathered his mail,
and
folded his towels. He even walked a couple of blocks to the convenience store for milk, and on the way back, he picked up the mail from the cluster box, since Marlie hadn't done that, either.

He microwaved the burrito he'd picked up from the store for dinner, checked his email, did a little online Christmas shopping, and sent both sets of his grandparents fruit and cheese baskets.

And then he couldn't stand it any longer and flipped on the TV. He didn't care whether Marlie would be on the news, he told himself. He was just curious to see if the reporter was continuing her series.

He sat through all the commercials and news teasers and didn't hear anything about the date, so he turned off the TV.
He should go to bed and get some extra sleep to make up for last night.

Ty cleared off the coffee table and pointedly replaced the remotes in their stupid caddy.

Then he got the sheets and pillow from the dining table where Marlie had left them instead of hiding them wherever she'd been hiding them. He piled the bedding at the end of the couch instead of making it for her. The stuff was there if she needed it, and if not…

Ty grabbed the remote and clicked on the TV.

“…will it lead to a golden ring?” Alicia Hartson asked from inside the Cirque du Soleil tent. The camera zoomed past her shoulder and focused on a couple making out as acrobats somersaulted through rings and landed on a human pyramid.

Marlie and Ben. Kissing. In front of everyone. In front of Ty. As though to rub it in, the TV station superimposed a pink heart frame around them.

So his plan had worked, Ty told himself. Marlie had found someone. It's what he wanted. And Axelle was going to let the apprentice hostess handle Friday night so she could be with Ty while Marlie was on her colly bird date. He'd wanted that, too. And when he and Axelle were together, he
would
feel a tenth of what he'd felt with Marlie.

Wait—that wasn't what he meant. He meant he'd feel more than he had with Marlie. Then he remembered just how much he'd felt with Marlie and knew he couldn't survive more.

Ty turned off the TV and stared at the blank screen. “Stop thinking about her,” he ordered himself out loud.

He should be happy that everything was working out just the way he'd planned. No more worrying about Marlie. He could go to sleep with a clear conscience.

 

T
HREE AND A HALF HOURS LATER
, Marlie walked upstairs and found Ty eating junk food and watching TV.

“Ty! What are you doing?”

“Clint Eastwood marathon.” Crunch. Crunch.

“I didn't realize you were such a fan. Don't you have to get up in, like, four hours?”

He checked his phone for the time and shrugged. The bag crackled as his hand dived back inside.

This was ridiculous. “Did you wait up for me?” Marlie walked around the sofa to confront him.

“Couldn't sleep,” he said without looking at her.

She waited, but that seemed to be all he had to say. Leaning forward, he wiped his fingers on a paper towel and held out his hand. “Charm?”

She got the tiny envelope out of her purse and emptied the charm into his palm before sitting next to him.

“It doesn't match.” He reached for the pliers he had waiting on the coffee table. So he
had
stayed up for her—just like a big brother. “It's a gold ring. It shouldn't match.” Marlie had never thought of him as a brother and she wasn't about to start now. “Leave a space for the colly bird charm.” She took off the bracelet and handed it to him so he could attach the charm without putting her hand on his thigh. It was safer that way.

She gazed at his profile as he opened the jump ring on the charm. Strong jaw. Great mouth. Better before he ate all the onion snacks, though. Maybe that was the point. “We got to meet the performers backstage after the show,” Marlie told him to fill the silence. “That's where I've been.”

“I'm sure you enjoyed yourself,” he said neutrally.

Marlie put a little oomph into her voice. “Oh, I did! It was so much fun! I loved seeing the sets up close and talking to the acrobats. They come from all over the world. And Ben
was great. What a clever date idea for five golden rings. You'd think it would be hard to come up with something.”

“Not really.” Ty handed her the bracelet and picked up the snack bag. He withdrew a handful of crispy yellow onion rings and arranged them on the table in a pyramid. “There. Five golden rings. Done.”

“I like Ben's idea better.”

“I know. You made the news again.” He looked grumpy.

“Alicia says the ratings have been really good, so she plans to keep showing up on the dates.”

Ty shifted on the couch and brushed crumbs off the dark, brown fabric. “Does she ask you to do things that will boost the ratings, then?”

Marlie eyed him. “Judging by your thin, disapproving lips, the camera must have caught us kissing.” As if she didn't know.

“Yeah.”

“That naughty Alicia.” Marlie shook her head. “No, the kiss was spontaneous,” she said, enjoying telling him. “We'd finished the interview and were talking and, well, you know how it goes.” Truthfully, she enjoyed needling Ty more than she'd enjoyed kissing Ben. This was not good.

Ty blew out his breath and reached for an onion ring. “If you like the guy so much, you don't have to go out on the rest of the dates.” He didn't meet her eyes.

“I like Ben fine, but we're not going out again.” Although she'd had a difficult time convincing Ben. She probably shouldn't have kissed him like that, but she'd been trying to erase the memory of Ty's kiss.

“Why not?” Ty asked.

“He's a high school coach and very athletic. I'm very unathletic. Besides, he shaves his arms.”

Ty snapped his head toward her. “How do you know that?”

“Because the stubble felt scratchy against my tongue when I licked him.”

The onion ring crumbled between Ty's fingers.

“Ty, for pity's sake!” Marlie stood, snatched up the snack bag and rolled down the top. She was going to have to air out the place tomorrow. Pointing to her forearm she said, “Here. He shaves this part of his arm. Stop hovering. I swear, my parents didn't wait up and worry as much as you do. Maybe because they trusted my judgment. What a concept.”