Meeting The Unpredictable Read online

  “Am I going to end up with a pissed off neighbor when you leave?”

  I sigh. “I don’t know. I hope not. Tyler is a great guy. He’s someone I wouldn’t mind talking to again one day.”

  Her face softens. “I told myself to mind my business but—”

  “Then maybe you should.”

  “It’s about Mom and Dad.” My eyes shoot straight up. “What about them?”

  “She asked when your appointment is. When I told her I didn’t know, she made a comment about calling and checking on things herself, and I know you don’t want her involved.”

  My stomach turns. “I don’t understand her, Jodi. She’s my mother. On some level, I know she’s worried about me, but the second I don’t follow her rules, I’m the outcast. So why does she really give a damn when my appointment is?” I force myself to tamp down the anger that’s starting to surface.

  “Lennie, you of all people should understand not everything is black and white. Mom loves you but that doesn’t mean she has to accept everything you do.”

  “How about nothing. She doesn’t accept me at all, not the way I come.” Jodi nods her head instead of arguing with me because we both know I’m right.

  “Maybe if you stick around for a while...show her you have what it takes not to run then—”

  “I left Dallas and Mom and Dad behind in order to safeguard my heart. You call it running. I call it self-preservation.”

  “Okay, it was just a suggestion. I need to get going. I have court in a few hours.”

  I go back to pretending to mess with my phone but the second she’s gone, I switch to my contacts and once again attempt to dial the number I’ve been avoiding for far too long.

  ***

  I WALK STRAIGHT INTO TYLER’S apartment, and I’m not surprised when I see him working at his computer. What does surprise me is the smile he has on his face when he spots me.

  “I was starting to wonder if you were coming over today.”

  “I was busy scoring us tickets to a concert in Warren Park. Some local band that everyone is fawning over is performing tonight and I decided we should go.”

  Tyler’s smile vanishes. “I don’t know, Lennie. Concerts really aren’t my thing.”

  “We’ve been over this before, Tyler. Nothing is your thing. Besides, if I stay out of your way and let you work all day, what excuse will you have?”

  “How about the part where I said I don’t like concerts?”

  I dramatically roll my eyes. “You don’t hate concerts. You hate people and crowds and going out in public, but let me remind you, you did great the other day at Six Flags.”

  “Whatever,” he huffs before turning back to his computer. He tosses his headphones on and I can’t tell if he’s working or pouting. Either way, he’s already made me smile on a day that started out crappy.

  As I lay on his couch and watch him, I know I’ve never met anyone like Tyler before. Someone who easily accepts the boring life he lives. For fuck’s sake, he’s twenty-eight. Sure, his ex broke his heart...I might not have a lot of experience with heartbreak, at least not the kind Tyler suffered, but six years seems like a long time to still be mourning the loss of his relationship. Unless...he didn’t tell me the whole story. I’m not usually a nosy person, but I can’t deny the fact that I’m desperate to know if he’s been holding out on me the same way I’ve been keeping a part of myself hidden from him.

  ***

  I FELL ASLEEP WAITING FOR Tyler to finish working and the jerk didn’t bother to wake me up. When my eyes roam around the room, I jump to my feet when I spot the time.

  “Tyler, the concert starts in an hour.”

  “Oh, darn. By the time we drive down there and park it will already have started.”

  My eyes thin. “So what? We’ll miss the beginning but we’ll still have a good time.” I challenge.

  “I told you I don’t like concerts.”

  “Fine. I’ll go by myself.”

  “What?” he snaps.

  “Tyler, you don’t want to go, and I’m not going to make you.” I walk over and lean up on my toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Everyone has something they’re afraid of and yours is concerts.” I smirk.

  “Funny.” He tries hard not to laugh but he’s unsuccessful.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I get close to the door when I hear a long sigh.

  “You’re really going to drive down there by yourself and watch a band you’ve never heard of before?” His nose is turned up.

  “Absolutely.”

  I reach for the door when he hollers my name.

  “Wait up. I’ll go with you.” I smile, causing him to groan.

  “Don’t think for a minute I can’t see how you’re manipulating me.”

  “Noted.” Tyler grabs his keys and meets me at the door.

  “Let’s go.”

  I’VE BEEN GOING WITH THE flow and doing whatever Lennie suggests, but I hate Warren Park and I’m not doing anything to mask my lack of enthusiasm.

  The problem? I spent many nights here listening to bands with Amber. Once upon a time, it was our thing. Only now, it’s their thing, or at least last I heard they still come here.

  “What’s wrong?” Lennie asks when I stop and stare at the crowd in front of us.

  “Nothing. I told you I really don’t like coming here.”

  “Why?”

  I bark out a fake laugh. “Why do you ask so many damn questions?”

  Lennie rolls her eyes and laces her arm with mine. “I understand moody, Tyler. My parents are convinced I invented the emotion.”

  A smile forms on my face without even trying. “You don’t seem moody to me.” If anything, Lennie seems to always be verging on chipper, but I remember overhearing how she spoke to her father.

  “My parents would disagree with that, but then again, they seem to bring out the worst in me.” She shrugs off her comment, but I can tell by the way her smile falters for a moment what she said bothers her.

  “I understand the feeling. My parents are...” I trail off, unsure if I’m ready to open that door.

  Lennie squeezes my hand. “Believe me, I get it. My parents don’t approve of anything I do. They hate my tattoos. They consistently complain about how I don’t live in Dallas. Most importantly, they’re disappointed by the fact that I’m not a carbon copy of Jodi.”

  My breath catches. My parents don’t necessarily compare me to my brothers, but I do, and for years I’ve found myself lacking.

  “The weather is beautiful, the beer is flowing, and this actually sounds like a pretty damn good band, so let’s forget about our families and enjoy the evening.” I find it eerie sometimes how in tune to my thoughts Lennie appears to be. She knows how to push me, but she also has an uncanny way of knowing when to drop something.

  “Lead the way.” With another smile, Lennie starts walking us to an open area of grass. We sit down and she instantly snuggles into my side as music fills the air.

  After the first band ends their set, Lennie snuggles even tighter into my side. “I’ve never been here before.”

  “Really? I figured by how determined you were about coming that you must love it here.”

  “Nah, I left Dallas when I was eighteen. The kinds of people I hung out with before I left town wouldn’t have been caught dead in a park with rich kids and uppity bands.”

  Her comment rings true. My parents have money. We weren’t private school kind of rich, but we lived in an upscale neighborhood. “All types of people come to Warren Park to watch concerts.”

  “True, but the ratio is off balance.”

  “I don’t pay that much attention to other people.”

  Lennie groans, “When something’s not normal to a person, it catches their eye. When I was a teenager, I had every hair color you could imagine. If you saw me walk into this park with glowing pink hair, you would have noticed.”

  My eyes thin. “You had pink hair?”

  “If it
pissed off my parents, then I did it.”

  “Why?”

  With her head resting on my shoulder, she takes a few moments before answering me. “Because I hate fake people. My parents claim to love me, to only want the best for me, but they mean what they feel is best.” She breathes out a long sigh. “Sometimes, when something breaks, there’s not always a way to fix it.”

  My eyes painfully close and I’m not sure if I’m feeling agony for Lennie or me. “Is...is that what you are?” Her face turns and she looks up at me. “Broken?” My voice cracks.

  Slowly, she nods her head. “No matter how hard anyone tries to fix me...I no longer have all the pieces.”

  My chest feels heavy. I want to know about Lennie’s past, but I know her well enough that if she feels backed into a corner she’ll fight, and right now I’m concerned about ruining whatever someone wants to call this relationship we’ve unexpectedly formed.

  “Even if you found all the pieces, that would make the old Lennie. Maybe you should focus on the pieces that make you the Lennie that’s here with me tonight because...because I really like her.”

  A small smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. “Thank you, Tyler.”

  “You don’t need to thank me. If anything, I probably should be thanking you. I never would have come here, and you just proved that it’s not as awful as I imagined.”

  “I discovered a long time ago that things are always scarier in my head. Sometimes, you just need a push in the right direction and suddenly everything looks different.” My voice gets caught in my throat because Lennie couldn’t have said that better if she tried. Sitting here in Warren Park with her is better than a hundred different nights with the girl I once loved.

  ***

  “YOU WANT TO GO OUT for a beer tonight?”

  I look over my shoulder at Chad. “I don’t know. I think Lennie is coming over later.”

  His face perks up. “With Jodi?”

  I chuckle. “I doubt it.”

  “Damn,” he mumbles.

  “We can still go out. I’ll just ask Lennie to come with us.” Chad’s face wrinkles.

  “Do you think hanging out with her all the time is a good idea? I mean, you said yourself that she plans to leave in a couple of weeks.”

  I shrug my shoulders and try my best not to act like Lennie leaving will affect me, but it will. I’m not in love with her, but she became a part of my daily life almost overnight. Now when I think about her leaving, I wonder how I can go back to my old, boring ways.

  “I’ll be fine.” But deep down, I know the only person I’m fooling is myself.

  “Go get Lennie and let’s go.” I shut down my computer, and for only the second time I walk across the hall and knock on Jodi’s door. Until now, it hadn’t dawned on me how one-sided our friendship has been. It seems like all I do is sit back and wait for her to come to me.

  “Hello.” Jodi’s voice brings me out of my head.

  “Is Lennie here?”

  “Umm.” She glances over her shoulder but when my eyes follow hers, I don’t see anyone. “She is but she’s had a rough day.”

  My stomach tightens. Lennie told me when she left my apartment last night that she was going to spend the day volunteering. I’m not sure how that translates into a bad day. “I’d really like to see her...please.”

  Jodi’s face softens. “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  I step inside and follow Jodi down the hall. “This is her room.”

  I knock lightly but she doesn’t answer. I knock again, slightly louder, and still nothing. I could walk away. I should walk away, but I’m going to take a page out of Lennie’s book and force my way into her personal space.

  I HEAR A KNOCK ON my door, but I ignore it. I knew what would happen if I went there today, and still I went. But, how could I not? I was doing well, pretending I was okay, until I saw her picture. Then I lost it. I absolutely lost it. Some inspiration I am. Then again, I’m a walking lie, most of all when I’m there.

  “Hey,” I hear Tyler say from behind me. When I ignore him, he climbs onto the bed and pulls my back tight to his chest. We lie together, not saying a word for hours.

  Life has a funny way of surprising you. I thought when I met Tyler Brooker I was going to save him from his boring, uptight life, but right now, he’s giving me something no one has in years.

  ***

  “I’VE NEVER SHOPPED AT THE farmer’s market.”

  I gasp. “Really? Why not?”

  Tyler shrugs. “There’s a nice grocery store a couple of blocks from the apartment. They have a decent produce department, so I’ve never considered coming this far into the city for vegetables.”

  “Tyler, almost everything you buy at a store has chemicals on it. This stuff here”—I wave my hand around—“is all produced locally. It doesn’t need chemicals to extend its shelf life.”

  He shrugs again. “They wouldn’t sell it if it wasn’t safe, and besides, it takes over thirty minutes to drive down here.”

  My eyes thin. “That’s not true. Besides, once you taste the fruits and vegetables from here, you won’t want that crap from the store.”

  Instead of arguing, Tyler shakes his head and chuckles. “Whatever you say.”

  “Come on, I want peaches.” I wrap my arm around his and we start walking towards the fruit. We’re only a few steps from the vendor I want to buy from when Tyler abruptly stops walking.

  I turn my face up to his then follow his stare. He’s watching a woman with a baby on her hip who’s staring back at him.

  “Who’s that?” I ask, but he doesn’t answer as she slowly makes her way to us.

  “Hey...how...are you?” she hesitantly asks as a lightbulb goes off. This is her.

  “I’m...good.”

  My eyes shoot back to Tyler’s. His voice sounds off, and his face looks pale. Without waiting on him to introduce me, I stick my hand out. “Hi, I’m Lennie.” I force myself to smile but she doesn’t appear thrilled to see me. With her nose turned up, her eyes take me in from top to bottom, and she clearly finds me lacking. I shouldn’t be surprised that this woman is the complete opposite of me, but for some reason I am.

  She has blonde hair cut into a short bob that barely passes her chin. She’s wearing a sundress and fancy sandals. Her skin color looks perfect, as do her nails. Everything about this woman screams impeccable and it pisses me off.

  I know I can’t keep Tyler. I know our time together will eventually come to an end, but if I didn’t already know this then meeting this woman would have convinced me because she’s everything I’m not. I get to play the role of Tyler’s temporary bedmate, but this is the type of woman that will get to play the role of his future wife, and no matter how much I tell myself it doesn’t matter, it’s still a bitter pill to swallow.

  “Nice to meet you.”

  I smirk. “And you are...”

  “Oh.” Her eyes shoot to Tyler’s. I think she’s surprised that I don’t already know who she is, even though I do. “I’m Amber.”

  “Nice to meet you, Amber. You have a beautiful child.” I snuggle tighter into Tyler’s side.

  She loudly swallows. “Thank...you.” She watches us closely, and going off the look on her face, she’s not happy to see Tyler with someone else, or at least not with me. As catty as it might sound, I love the fact that I bother her.

  “Well, baby, are you ready to go look at those peaches?” I smile, laying it on thick as Tyler finally snaps out of his thoughts.

  “Yeah. Let’s go...get peaches.”

  “It was a delight meeting you, Amber. I hope you have a wonderful day,” I purr.

  Her eyes widen but she nods her head. “Yeah, you too.”

  I tug on Tyler’s arm until he starts walking with me. He doesn’t say anything while I take my time picking out the basket of peaches I want. Once I’m done making my purchase, I glance back to where Amber was, but she appears to be gone.

  “So, that was her.”
/>   Tyler turns and looks at me. “That was her.”

  “Is this the first time you’ve run into her?”

  He starts shaking his head. “No, but this is the first time in years I’ve seen her without him.”

  “Is that why you don’t come to the farmer’s market? Because you’re worried about running into her?”

  “No. I had no idea that she shops down here.”

  “I had no idea she still held this much power over you.”

  His face whips to mine. “That’s not true. She doesn’t hold any power over me.”

  “Really, then why do you act like you’ve seen a ghost?”

  Tyler groans. “Because I did. When I saw Amber just now, it was different. I wasn’t mad. I wasn’t depressed. I was...thankful.” A confused look crosses his face. “I was thankful,” he repeats, like he’s hearing his own words for the first time.

  “Thankful for what?”

  He takes a deep breath. “She’s not happy with him. At least from what I hear they aren’t the happy little couple they both try so damn hard to make everyone believe. That could have been me. It would have been me. I would have sacrificed my happiness for hers, and in turn I wouldn’t be where I’m at now.”

  “When one door closes another opens. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t open right away, but I’m happy for you. You deserve to be happy, and if that wasn’t going to happen with her, then I’m glad you found out before it was too late.”

  Tyler looks around before he smiles. “Let’s get out of here and go do something fun.”

  I chuckle. “Okay, but what’s your idea of fun?”

  “I don’t know. I’m feeling a little crazy today so I’m going to bow down to your expertise and let you pick.”

  “Okay, then I know exactly what we’re going to do.” The normal look I get from Tyler when I make suggestions is nowhere to be found. Maybe he really is ready to say goodbye to his past and hello to his future.

  ***

  I DRIVE ALMOST THIRTY MINUTES before we finally arrive at River Rock Lake. Tyler glances around with a grin on his face until I pull up to the paddleboard rental.