Just Good Friends (13 page)

Tyler slapped his forehead and slouched
down in his chair. He hated this. As soon as Nathan got an idea,
there was no stopping him, no matter what was happening or who
suffered for it.

“
It’s no problem at all,”
Nathan said then paused. “If I can’t give my friend’s family
preferential treatment, then who can I give it to?” He paused
again. “Yes, Tyler and I have known each other since college. We
started out as roommates. I think of him as a brother.” He laughed.
“You’re right. That would make me an uncle to their children. And
when they have them, that’s exactly how I’ll think of them.” When
Nathan hung up, he turned to Tyler. “Her parents are
great.”

“
You’re killing me, Nathan,”
Tyler muttered, glaring at him.

“
Oh come on. They just want
to see their little girl with someone who deserves her, and I can’t
think of anyone more deserving than you. You’ll be perfect for
her.”

“
Why did you do
that?”

“
Do what?”

“
Get them
tickets.”

“
Because they wanted
them.”

Tyler got up and followed him out of
the room. “You’re impossible. You barge into people’s lives and
take over.”

“
I have no idea what you’re
talking about.” Nathan entered his office and waved at his
daughter, who was playing in the playpen.

“
It’s not enough you tricked
your wife into marrying you? Must you control everyone else,
too?”

“
I don’t control anyone. I
merely guide them in the direction that will make them happy.” He
picked his daughter up and kissed her forehead. “Someday, you’ll
see this is for the best.”

“
I doubt it.”

“
Amy doubted it, too, at
first, but she’s happy, and she wants to try for another child
soon.”

Tyler threw his hands up in the air and
left Nathan’s office. Why did he even try? There was no getting
through to Nathan. The man was a brick wall. The only thing he
could do now was warn Tiffany about this latest disaster…and hope
she’d still talk to him.

Chapter
Eleven

Tiffany was finishing up getting
tickets for a family of four when Tyler entered the building. She
noted the concern on his face, and her stomach clenched. Whatever
happened, it couldn’t be good.

Forcing her attention back to the
family, she smiled. “Let me print out your itinerary, and we’ll be
done.”

She stood up and indicated that she’d
talk to him in a moment. He nodded and sat in one of the chairs.
She hoped—no, she prayed—it had nothing at all to do with her
parents.

Danielle came over to her as soon as
the printer was done printing the papers out and asked, “You want
me to give it to that family, so you can see what Tyler
wants?”

“
No, it’ll only take a
minute. Thanks, though.” After Tiffany folded the papers and
slipped them into a folder, she thanked them for choosing Rudolph
Vacation Enterprises then hurried over to Tyler. “What’s
wrong?”

“
You don’t want to know,” he
told her.

“
Then why did you come
here?” She tried to make light of the situation, but he only let
out a mournful sigh that let her know this was worse than she
imagined. And she could imagine a lot of horrible
things.

He stood up and gestured to the door.
“We should probably talk in private.”

“
This must be good,”
Danielle said, coming over to them.

“
Danielle!” Amy called
out.

“
What?” Danielle asked, her
eyes wide. “They don’t mind if I participate. I’m their friend,
after all, and friends share everything.”

“
He asked to speak to her in
private,” Amy replied.

“
My inclusion was implied.”
Danielle turned back to them, ignoring the way Amy rolled her eyes.
“So, what’s up?”

“
Well,” Tyler glanced at
Danielle then sighed. “Oh, what does it matter? Everyone will know
soon anyway.” Directing his gaze at Tiffany, he said, “Your parents
are coming for a visit.”

“
My parents are coming
here?” Tiffany shrieked. “To Omaha?” When he nodded, she said, “But
they’ve never come here before.”

“
Wow,” Danielle commented.
“Hold on. I got to grab the popcorn.”

“
This isn’t a movie moment,”
Tiffany called out after her.

But Danielle was running to the
kitchen.

“
You’ll have to forgive
her,” Amy spoke up on her behalf. “She has no life, and she can’t
watch her soap operas because her DVR is busted.”

“
Ha, ha,” Danielle said as
she returned to them, holding a bag of freshly popped popcorn.
“Want some?”

Ignoring her, Tiffany turned to Tyler.
“When did this happen?”

“
About ten minutes ago. Your
dad called, and I was going to tell him he couldn’t get tickets and
that we weren’t really married, but I froze up and Nathan took the
phone. After that, the whole thing was a blur. All I know is that
your parents have tickets and...” He gulped. “Maybe you should sit
down.”

“
Why?”

“
Because I don’t want you to
pass out.”

“
Are they coming
today?”

“
No.”

She released her breath. Okay. So if
they were coming for Christmas, which made the most sense, there
was still time to tell them the truth.

“
They’re coming tomorrow,”
Tyler blurted out then winced.

“
Tomorrow?”

He nodded. “And they won’t leave until
December 16.”

“
That long?”

“
It’s only two weeks,”
Danielle commented as she munched on her popcorn.

“
Danielle,” Amy called out,
“why can’t you do something else with your time, like fill out the
inventory sheet?”

Danielle rolled her eyes. “Because the
inventory sheet is not this interesting.” She turned back to them.
“Sorry for Amy’s rude interruption. Go on.”

“
I tried to stop Nathan,”
Tyler continued. “I tried to grab the phone. I told him not to do
it.” He ran his hands through his hair then dropped them at his
sides. “I did everything I could think of, but I was in shock, you
know? The secretary even tried to get him to take another call, but
he ignored her. I’m sorry, Tiffany. I know this only makes
everything worse.”

“
Everything is exploding in
our faces,” Tiffany said.

“
I really did try to stop
him, but he’s relentless once he sets his mind to
something.”

“
He does get that way,” Amy
muttered then placed her hand over her mouth when the three turned
to look at her. “Sorry. I’m not going to listen to any more of
this.” She picked up the papers she was filling out and hurried to
the back room.

“
Anyway, I wanted to come by
and warn you,” Tyler said. “They want it to be a surprise, so they
won’t be telling you. They just plan to show up.”

“
Show up? Here?”

“
I think so. Or maybe I’m
supposed to pick them up at the airport. I don’t know. I never
finished the call with them.”

She groaned and rubbed her forehead.
This was going to give her such a headache.

“
Will you please forgive
me?” he asked.

By his tone, she knew he felt as if the
whole thing was his fault, but it wasn’t. “If I had any idea one
simple white lie could blow up in our faces like this, I never
would have suggested it.”

“
Yeah, well, Nathan lies and
gets away with it all the time. Nothing bad ever happens to
him.”

“
Well, we’re not Nathan.”
Tiffany bit her lower lip. “What do you think we should
do?”

“
They already paid for the
tickets.”

“
Maybe, but I could pay them
back and explain why they can’t come.”

“
Or we could go along with
it and let them believe everything’s okay,” Tyler suggested, though
he winced at the idea.

“
I like Tyler’s idea,”
Danielle spoke up, still munching on her popcorn. “This is right
before Christmas. They’re obviously excited. Why not let them
believe this for a little bit longer?”

“
Because it’s only going to
get worse,” Tiffany said.

Tyler’s smartphone rang, so he pulled
it out of his pocket.

Danielle led Tiffany away from Tyler
and lowered her voice. “I know this isn’t the most ideal way things
have happened, but,” she glanced at Tyler then turned her attention
back to Tiffany, “he’s pretty hot.”

Not sure she heard her right, Tiffany
asked, “What?”

“
Take away the glasses and
the nerd suit, and I bet you’d find a gorgeous hunk under
there.”

“
There’s nothing wrong with
his glasses or his business suit.”

“
I know, but it makes it
harder to see just how hot he is.” She glanced at him again. “Trust
me. He’s hot.”

Tyler got off his phone and came over
to them. “That was Nathan. He suggested that you and I take the
rest of the day off to decorate one of our places so it looks like
we live together. He says if we don’t, we’ll look like a,” he
rolled his eyes, “weird couple.”

“
I agree,” Danielle said
then turned to Tiffany. “It would look weird if none of your things
were in his place or vice versa.”

Amy came over to them and wrapped her
arm around Danielle’s shoulders. “Danielle, why don’t you do
something else?”

“
I can do something
later.”

“
No, you can do something
now,” Amy insisted and led her back to her desk.

Tyler sighed and turned to Tiffany. “I
don’t know what to do.”

Tiffany was just as clueless as he was.
And it was all because she didn’t want to send an email. A physical
letter would have bought her an extra couple days of peace, a peace
that just wasn’t worth it now that all this was happening. “I
haven’t been able to think clearly for the past couple days.
Everything’s happening so fast.”

“
I know. It doesn’t help
that Nathan’s only compounding the problem. Believe me, I never
thought in a million years he would go this far. I explained
everything to him, and I thought he wouldn’t make things
worse.”

“
I know you did everything
you could, Tyler.” He’d never done anything to betray her in the
past, nor would he in the future. As far as dependable friends
went, he was the best. “We just need to figure out what we should
do from this point forward.”

“
Right now all I can think
of is going along with it and pretending we’re still
married.”

“
Do it!” Danielle called
out.

When Tiffany and Tyler glanced at her,
Danielle quickly apologized and turned back to her work—or at
least, she pretended to turn back to her work. But really, Danielle
hearing their conversation was the least of her problems. She had
much bigger things to worry about, and she had the nagging
suspicion this wasn’t going to be easy to resolve.

“
I should call my parents
right now and explain everything,” Tiffany finally said as she went
over to her purse and dug out her cell phone.

“
No,” Danielle pleaded,
looking up from the paper she’d been filling out. Then she mouthed,
“Tyler is hot,” to Tiffany.

Tiffany quickly looked over at Tyler to
see if he’d seen what Danielle just mouthed, but he had his back
turned to them as he stared out the window. “We aren’t married,”
Tiffany mouthed back.

“
But you could be if you
play your cards right,” Danielle mouthed in return.

“
We are just
friends.”

“
Which could make sex even
better. You’re comfortable enough with him to tell him what you
like and don’t like.”

Groaning, Tiffany ignored Danielle and
called her parents. But instead of getting them to pick up the
phone, it went to their voicemail, and in the voicemail, they said
they were busy getting ready to go on a very exciting trip that was
‘top secret’ and couldn’t answer the phone.

She thought about leaving a message
telling them not to come because she wasn’t really married, but
then she glanced over at Tyler and caught sight of him as he took
off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was good
looking. She’d always known he was good looking, of course. But she
hadn’t really taken the time to seriously think about it until that
moment.

She shook her head. No, she wasn’t
going to go through with the pretense of acting like his wife just
because her friend was attractive. The whole notion was
ridiculous.

Turning her attention back to her mom’s
message, she said, “Mom, this is Tiffany. Give me a call. I have
something very important to tell you.” Then she hung up and noticed
the disappointment on Danielle’s face.

“
Please don’t do it,”
Danielle whispered. “At least not until you give it a chance.” She
pointed to Tyler then clasped her hands in a pleading
gesture.