“Don’t sound so thrilled about spending more time with me,” he muttered.
“That’s not how I mean it.” She walked over, placing a hand on his waist. “I just don’t want us to get too … comfortable with the situation.”
“Us?” he asked, calling her out. “Or you?” Because for his part, he wasn’t ready to drop her off here and leave her alone.
“Come on, Tyler. Neither one of us is in this for the long haul. You, especially. Isn’t this the longest you’ve been with any one woman? And let’s face it, necessity is driving some of this togetherness.”
He narrowed his gaze. “Really? After this weekend, that’s how you want to play it?”
She exhaled a long breath. “I’m sorry. I am. I’m just on edge,” she said, but he didn’t believe that was the real reason.
She was uptight about them. And he needed to get his shit together completely so he could do something about it.
“I’ll go pack,” she said, and he let her go.
A little while later, she returned, with two suitcases. “I have my laundry too,” she said, placing the rolling bags near the front door.
“There’s a pile of mail here,” he reminded her. “Want to go through it before we go?”
She nodded. “Might as well. I usually catch up on the weekends, and I missed this one.” She stopped by the table and sorted through her mail, tossing the garbage aside. “Oh, look! Wedding invitation.” She looked on the back and smiled. “Your mom.”
He smiled at that. “We all had our doubts when she met Michael, but he’s been nothing but good to her. She deserves to be happy.”
“That she does.” She placed the invitation in her purse and looked through the last few items, freezing when she came to a plain white envelope, then dropping it to the floor as if it were poisoned.
“Ella?”
She didn’t answer, so Tyler knelt down and retrieved the letter, glancing at the return address, a penitentiary in Florida.
“Oh shit.” He rose and met her gaze. “When was the last time you heard from your father?”
“Not for almost ten years.” She swallowed hard. “My aunt used to take me to see him because … well, he was my dad. But the visits were awkward, nobody spoke, and eventually we agreed going to the prison wasn’t something either of us wanted.”
“He hasn’t written to you before?” he asked, because her reaction had been one of true surprise.
She shook her head. “It was like I was orphaned at fourteen,” she whispered, breaking his heart. “What could he want now?” she asked.
He had no idea. He wrapped an arm around her, any lingering anger at her earlier withdrawal gone in a sudden burst of understanding. If she’d felt orphaned at fourteen, there was no way she had any basis of trust or faith in other people, he thought, a lump rising to his throat.
“Come on,” he said, leading her toward the door. “We can talk about it over a drink at my place.”
“Or maybe we can pretend I never received it in the first place,” she muttered.
He’d let her get away with that for just so long. Long enough to process her feelings before he pushed her to resolve her childhood issues. She’d have to in order to have a future. And more and more, he was convinced he wanted that future to be with him.
* * *
Living with Tyler, Ella’s emotions were all over the place, and now she had her father’s letter to add to her worries. It was one thing to endure the knowledge that her father was in jail and they were estranged, another to hear from him, which brought up all sorts of painful memories and feelings of betrayal. Even at twenty-seven years old, she wasn’t past the hurt.
She hadn’t read the note, wasn’t sure she wanted to. She tucked it away in her purse and tried to forget about it. She had other more pressing issues to deal with. Namely, her temporary change in address. Tyler lived in a house in Weston, not far from where his mother resided, one that he was renovating in his spare time and bringing in help when he needed it for bigger, more complicated jobs. He said he enjoyed the downtime and working with his hands. Considering she knew how talented he was with those hands, yeah. She figured he was putting his free time to good use.
He insisted she stay in his room, and since they were already sleeping together, she couldn’t really argue. He drove her to and from work, wanting to be aware if someone was following her, and though she appreciated his diligence and caring, it was just another way she was getting too used to having him around. Making it even more difficult when things inevitably ended. In her world, good things usually did.
Yet for the next week, life fell into a normal routine. And Ella did well with routines. Routines had kept her centered as a child when she had little else to rely on. Life was normal. Or as normal as it could be with someone having tried to break into her apartment. Luke, it turned out, had taken a flight to St. Lucia to look into the mugging and break-in further. So on that count, Ella was in waiting mode.
With no other alternative, she pushed any negative thoughts out of her head and just lived. She did her job during the day, and at night s
he had dinner and amazing sex with Tyler. She’d never been in a relationship that clicked or worked, and there was a symmetry and sense of peace she was finding now. At the very least, she knew she was capable of more than she’d experienced before Tyler, giving her hope for her future. A future she refused to dwell on because … hello, she wasn’t going to be negative and think about whether he would be in the picture even a week from now, after her situation was resolved.