Just Good Friends (17 page)

“
Did Zoe get back to you
yet?” her dad asked her mom.

“
She had to take some phone
calls at work, so she was too busy to tell me anything,” her mom
replied and took another picture of the room.

Tyler snickered, and Tiffany glanced
over at him. Zoe wasn’t fooling him at all. She was upset that her
parents’ nightmare vacation had turned into anything but a
nightmare. Maybe he shouldn’t get a sadistic pleasure out of
upsetting her, but truth be told, she had it coming after all the
crap she put Tiffany through over the years.

“
This is a cute little
place,” Tiffany’s mom said, smiling as she got comfortable in the
chair. “When will you decorate it for Christmas?”

“
Oh, well, I don’t go
through the whole decorating thing,” Tiffany replied. “Christmas is
about what’s in your heart, not what’s hanging on a
tree.”

“
I know that Christmas is
about what’s in here,” her mom pointed to her heart, “but the
decorations are so pretty. They make the season more
festive.”

On this point, Tyler had to agree with
her mom, something that surprised him quite frankly, because he
didn’t think he’d ever agree with her mom on anything after
spending the weekend with her. But who knew? Maybe there was more
to her mom—and her dad—than he realized. First impressions weren’t
always accurate.

“
Even so,” her mom
continued, “I’d like to pay for some things to decorate this place.
We could go together. It’ll be fun.”

Since her mom was looking at Tiffany,
Tyler figured he was off the hook from the shopping trip, which was
a relief since he didn’t enjoy long trips to the mall. He’d much
rather go right in to the store of his choice, pick what he wanted,
and head right on back out.

“
We should take a before and
after picture, so I can post the differences on Facebook,” her mom
said. “It’ll be so much fun. Just like those makeovers we used to
do when you were younger.”

“
You did makeovers?” Tyler
asked Tiffany, thinking it was adorable.

“
Not as often as I wanted,”
her mom teased, shooting Tiffany a mischievous glance, “but she’d
humor me once in a while and do it.”

“
One time my mom had me dye
my hair black,” Tiffany replied.

“
To see what she’d look
like. That’s the whole point in a makeover. To do something
different. And we’ll do that to this room. Just imagine how
wonderful it’ll look with a big green tree, white lights, and red
and gold ornaments. Then we can put some red bows around the place
with candles and little Christmas trinkets. Oh! And we won’t forget
the mistletoe. Every time you and Tyler walk under it together, you
must give each other a kiss.”

“
The mistletoe’s my favorite
tradition,” her dad told Tyler.

“
Wow, Mom,” Tiffany began as
she crossed her arms, “you haven’t been here for five minutes, and
you’re already taking over.”

“
I’m only trying to help,”
her mom playfully replied. “I remember the year it was your turn to
decorate the tree, and that was what you chose to do.”

“
I thought it was a good
look,” her dad spoke up then turned his gaze to Tyler. “Did you
used to decorate your place for Christmas?”

“
I never went all out, but
yes, I’d put up a couple things,” Tyler said. “I usually put out a
small tree and a few lights.”

“
Well, this will be much
better than that,” her mom promised then rose to her feet. “Mind if
I use the little lady’s room?”

“
It’s through the bedroom.”
Tiffany gestured to the bedroom then looked over at Tyler, sending
a secret message that her mom might be going through their
things.

And sure enough, the woman took ten
minutes to return. Meanwhile, her dad asked Tyler more about his
job and what they could expect from the tour.

By the time her mom came back, she was
sorting through more pictures in her phone, and Tyler hoped she had
only taken pictures of the bedroom and bathroom instead of his and
Tiffany’s personal items. Usually, he wouldn’t even question it,
but it was hard to tell what her mother would do.

After an hour of telling them all about
their Las Vegas wedding, Tyler and Tiffany took them back to the
hotel. On the way back to Tiffany’s apartment to drop her off, he
said, “One day down. Thirteen to go.”

Tiffany leaned her head back on the
seat and closed her eyes. “Today was a long day.”

“
It went better than I
thought it would. They seemed to believe everything we said about
our time in Vegas.”

“
Did you realize everything
we said was based off of several TV shows we’ve seen over the
years?”

“
A little mix and match
never hurt anyone. Hey,” he rubbed her shoulder when he realized
she was still tense. “It’s okay. They’re at the hotel. You don’t
have to keep pretending right now.”

“
I know. I just hate lying.
It makes me feel like a scuzzball.”

He chuckled. “At least you’re a cute
scuzzball.”

She laughed. “Just what every woman
wants to be.”

“
If it bothers you that
much, we can get married for real. Then you don’t have to keep
pretending,” he joked.

As he hoped, she relaxed and laughed
again. “What kind of people get married to appease their
parents?”

“
Probably more than you’d
expect.” He patted her shoulder then turned into the parking lot of
her apartment complex. “As long as we can keep this up, everything
will be okay. Remember, go through it one day at a time. Take deep
breaths. Don’t forget to laugh. Have a sense of humor.”

“
I should have told you all
this when you were upset about Zoe.”

“
Yeah, you should have.” He
pulled into a parking spot and turned to face her. “Two weeks isn’t
really a long time. We have the tour thing with Nathan tomorrow.
That’s bound to be the hardest part. After that, we should be able
to get by with showing them around a couple of places and then
we’ll take them to the airport and see them off. Piece of
cake.”

She straightened up and nodded. “You’re
right. It’s very doable. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

After they said goodnight, he watched
her go into the building and wondered just how much he’d really
been joking about getting married for real. At the time it had been
a way to get her to stop being so serious about the whole
thing.

But there had been a part of him—a very
small part—that had hoped she might say they should do it. And that
was crazy. After all, there was nothing between them. They were
just friends. As he backed out of the spot, he reminded himself
once her parents were back on the plane, things would go back to
normal. And once they did, it’d be easy to remember why they were
only friends.

***

“
So, how did it go with your
parents?” Danielle asked the next morning when Tiffany came into
work.

“
Forget how did it go with
her parents,” Amy said as she put her coffee on her desk. “Why are
you at work? Nathan said he gave you the weeks off so you could be
with your parents.”

“
I’m not here to work,”
Tiffany assured them. “I’m here so that when Nathan starts the tour
he’s giving my parents, I’ll be ready. He sent me an email
yesterday explaining the whole thing.”

Danielle glanced at Amy, her eyebrows
raised. “And here I thought your husband told you
everything.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “I don’t keep tabs
on everything he does.”

“
Which is probably a good
thing considering how much he interferes in other people’s lives,”
Tiffany said. “Thanks to him, I wasn’t able to tell my parents the
bad news in a letter like I wanted.”

“
To be fair,” Amy began as
she sat in her chair and turned on her computer, “I can’t be
everywhere. I spent yesterday after work with Danielle who felt the
need to go on a shopping spree. We had a difficult customer who
came in here shortly after you left.”

“
Oh? What did he want?”
Tiffany asked, intrigued.

“
Not a he. It was a she,”
Danielle said. “And she didn’t believe that there’s no direct
flight from Omaha to Great Falls. I wish you had been here. You
used to live in Montana. Maybe you could have convinced
her.”

Amy chuckled and waved her hand
dismissively at Danielle. “The lady wasn’t that bad, but Danielle
will use any excuse to go shopping.”

“
She didn’t come out and
scream at me,” Danielle consented. Then she shot Amy a pointed
look. “But she did fill out a survey on me, insinuating that I
don’t know how to do this job. I’ve been here for ten
years.”

“
No one is going to pay any
attention to that survey. They know she’s being
ridiculous.”

“
Ridiculous isn’t the word
I’d use for her.”

Tiffany caught sight of a car pulling
into the parking lot, and she squinted to see who the passengers
were. “Amy, does Nathan drive a BMW?”

“
Only when he’s trying to
impress someone,” Amy said then sipped her coffee.

“
I think my parents are
here.” Tiffany turned to them and put her hand on her stomach.
“Tell me the truth. Do I look like I’m going to faint?”

“
A little,” Danielle said.
“Maybe you should sit.”

Tiffany groaned. “Yesterday didn’t go
so bad, but then yesterday, it was just me and Tyler with my
parents.”

“
Well, if anyone can charm
parents, it’s Nathan,” Amy assured her. “He won’t do or say
anything to embarrass you.”

“
That is true,” Danielle
added. “When they were first married, he had her parents wrapped
around his finger.”

“
He still does.”

Tiffany nodded and turned her attention
back to the car where Nathan was taking his daughter out of the
backseat. “Well, apparently, he’s decided to bring your daughter
along.”

“
Amber?” Amy got up from her
chair and headed for the window in time to see Tiffany’s parents
step out of the car. “Where’s Tyler?”

“
That’s a good question.”
Tiffany opened the door as they approached the building.

“
Oh good, you got my email,”
Nathan said and wrapped his arm around Amy’s waist so he could give
her a kiss on the cheek. “This is my lovely wife, Amy. She is the
one who gave me this little cutie.” He nodded toward Amber who
reached for Amy. “Looks like someone wants to say hi to her
mother.”

Amy brought the nine-month-old girl
into her arms. “I didn’t realize this tour was going to include a
baby,” she told him.

“
Some day Amber might take
over the company,” he said. “It’s never too early to get her used
to the place.”

Amy rolled her eyes but didn’t argue as
she took the girl over to her desk.

“
Where’s Tyler?” Tiffany
asked.

“
Yeah, where’s that gorgeous
husband of hers?” Danielle chimed in then sipped on her
frappuccino.

“
Tyler has a brief meeting
this morning,” Nathan replied. “Don’t worry. We’ll be meeting him
later. Right now, I thought it’d be best to start at the ground
level and work our way up.”

“
You mean, you went to the
hotel and picked my parents up?” Tiffany asked. “I could have done
that.”

“
Oh, it was no trouble.
Besides, it gave me a chance to learn how you and Tyler surprised
us all with your quick trip to Las Vegas.” He glanced at her
parents and chuckled. “Would you believe Tyler came right back to
work the next day as if nothing even happened?”

“
Now, I do know for a fact
that Omaha has direct flights to Vegas,” Danielle spoke up as if
someone asked her the question.

They all looked over at her, and
Tiffany’s mom asked, “Did you set up their flight?”

“
No,” Danielle said. “Though
I wish I did. It would have been awesome to be a part of something
so romantic.”

“
It was romantic,” her mom
agreed, shooting Tiffany a smile. “Everyone in the family is
talking about it.”

Tiffany just bet they were, and that
made everything much more complicated.

“
Well, part of what we do
here at the travel agency is make dreams come true for those in
love,” Nathan spoke up. “And this is where the magic happens.
Couples of all ages come in here. Some are looking for a romantic
getaway, some to get married, some to take that second honeymoon.
Whatever the reason, these ladies are here to help
them.”

“
There are other people who
come in here,” Tiffany added. “Not just couples.”

“
That’s true,” he consented
with a nod. “Sometimes grandparents come in for a trip to see their
grandchildren. Sadly, my parents are no longer living. But Amy’s
parents are alive, and they are thrilled whenever they get the
chance to see little Amber. I don’t know what could be more
exciting for a grandparent than to hold their
grandchild.”

As if on cue, Amber chose that moment
to giggle while Amy was showing her a pen that lit up when she
scribbled with it.