Beyond the Cherry Trees: The Cook Brothers Series (16 page)

“Why is someone from work calling you on Christmas?” Morgan wrinkled her forehead as she appraised me. I looked behind her to see Taylor slowly shaking his head in warning.

“I have no idea,” I shrugged.

“Have you been with her?” Morgan pushed, and I coughed as I choked on the sip of coffee I’d just taken. “Sorry. It’s none of my business.”

“No,” I sighed as I released a deep breath. “I guess I have to start telling people, but this is not to leave this room.” I pointed at her as I slowly lowered myself onto one of the stools in the kitchen. “Chrissi and I,” I paused as I thought about how to work this. We weren’t dating, we’d never been together like that. “She and I kinda slept together… a lot,” I groaned.

“So you were a booty call.” She shook her head at me as she leaned over and placed her elbows on the kitchen island. She shook her head again before letting it drop into her hands and sighing.

“Yes,” I muttered. “I guess that’s a nice way to put it.”

Morgan gripped her hair as she murmured, “Why do I get the feeling that there’s more?”

I moved closer so I could keep my voice down as I murmured, “She’s kinda pregnant.”

“What do you mean, kinda? There’s no kinda about it,” her voice rose. “Did you knock her up and now your avoiding her?” she gasped. “Tyler!”

I felt the sting before it sunk in that she’d actually hit me. I cupped my cheek as my eyes watered before I growled and the anger took over. “What the fuck was that for?” I shouted, forgetting all about the fact that CJ was in the other room.

“Hey!” Tay growled. He moved to stand beside Morgan and faced me, “Don’t talk to my wife like that. You’re wrong here and you know it,” he pointed the spatula he was holding at my chest.

I could feel my temper rising, and I knew I needed to get away from them. Leave it to Chissi to ruin Christmas morning for me. I shook my head as my blood boiled right below the surface. I knew Morgan was right, and the fact that she’d dealt with an unplanned pregnancy in the past hadn’t even dawned on me. Red was all I saw, and I knew that if I didn’t walk away right then, I might punch my brother. It had been years since we’d gotten angry enough to come to blows, but right now, the idea of Morgan saying something to Mia was fueling me.

I turned and stormed away as I heard Taylor soothing her. I stomped up the steps, threw on some clothes, and rushed out to my car before any more words could be exchanged. I needed to see Mia. I needed her to ground me; to make me feel like everything was going to be fine. I couldn’t tell her about this, but I needed the reassurance that when I left in the morning things with her were good.

TYLER AND I
had spent almost every day together since the afternoon on the snowmobile. It was a lot like old times, but something was different. Tyler was different. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but he seemed to be hiding something. I’d only asked him about it once, and he swore it was nothing. Work had been crazy before he left for his visit, and the case he’d been working on was supposed to go to trial while he was here. I couldn’t believe that he’d leave the city at such a crucial time, but he assured me he was worrying over nothing, and his other partners could manage just fine without him.

When he showed up at my door Christmas morning I was startled. We’d talked about spending the morning with our families and seeing each other that night. I knew he was leaving soon, but I’d be following soon after. It wasn’t like we were going to be separated for very long.

When the knock sounded, my father stood from the kitchen table. We’d been enjoying our breakfast, and my brother was telling us about the girl he’d convinced the night before to be his girlfriend. He’d been asking her for a while, but she finally agreed at the church service the night before. When my dad rounded the corner back into the kitchen, Tyler was trailing him.

“Morning,” Ty waved as he clinched his snow hat in his fists in front of him. He looked nervous and worried.

“Hey, I thought you weren’t coming over until tonight.” I watched as he shuffled his feet. It was almost as if he was trying to avoid looking at me.

“Can we talk? Alone?” He stepped back into the doorway as he watched me slowly rise from my spot on the other side of the table.

“Ok,” I nodded as the words seemed to tumble out of my mouth. He was making me nervous. I knew he’d been hiding something, and it seemed he was finally ready to tell me whatever it was. “Give me a sec,” I hobbled around the table, slipped a snow boot on my good foot, and grabbed my coat. “Wanna go out on the porch?” I pointed to the door. He nodded, and I led the way closing the front door behind us.

Once we were outside, he motioned to the swing at the end. “Can we sit?” I nodded slowly as I moved over and lowered myself, all the while watching him curiously.

“What’s going on? Are you ok?” I swallowed. This had bad written all over it, and I wasn’t sure I wanted the answers to my question now that he was starting to pace in front of me. “Ty?” I grabbed his hand, stopping him from moving. “You’re scaring me.”

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “Shit. I’m fucking this up,” he growled as he ran his hands through his hair roughly tugging at the ends. He took a few deep breaths before turning to squat in front of me.

He placed his hands on my thighs before looking up at my face and grimacing. “I head back to the city in the morning,” he murmured.

“I know,” I nodded slowly. “It’s ok. I’ll be back next week,” I reassured him.

“It’s not that.” He took a deep breath and held it for a second before releasing it in a deep whoosh. “My life in New York isn’t like the one I had when we were together. I’m not proud of it, but I changed after you left.” He sat beside me and placed his elbows on his knees before looking at me. His eyes caught mine before he looked away to stare at the ground between his feet.

“Mia, you wrecked me. I didn’t want to talk about this; I’m past it, but you need to know what being with me is like.” He reached over with one hand and laced our fingers together. Without looking at me, he barreled on. “I’ve been with a lot of women since you. I’ve been wrestling with telling you this since you told me you hadn’t been with anyone other than me. I’d like to think that I could have been man enough to not want another woman, but I’m not. I used women to forget you. Some of them I knew, others were just random faces that I found at a club or bar.” He laughed bitterly before looking over at me. “I’m ashamed to say this, but I know less than half their names.”

“Why are you telling me this now?” I whispered as I tried to pull my hand from his grip.

“Because if we’re going to make this work you need to be ready for what being in my life is like. When I go out in public, I usually have a woman hitting on me within the first ten minutes of entering whatever bar I’m in. I work with women who make passes at me with no qualms about it.” He sighed as he shook his head. “I want to know that you can handle that. You’re the one I want. No one else. You need to know that. I need to know that you know that. I want to leave here tomorrow feeling like we’re in a good spot. I want to know that when you get back to the city next week you’re going to be ready to pick this back up from where we are now. I don’t want to have to start over.” His eyes stared at mine unblinking as he waited for me to answer.

“Ok,” I bit my lip as I nodded.

“Ok?” His lips curled up on one side as his trademark smirk started to appear.

“Yeah. Is that what’s had you in knots for the last week? You think I’m gonna bolt?” I reached up and cupped his cheek.

“A little, yeah.” He closed his eyes as he leaned into my hand.

“Two years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life. I don’t plan on a repeat performance.” I smiled as I leaned in and pressed a light kiss to his lips. “Anything else?”

I watched as his face clouded momentarily. His eyes closed once again as he gave his head a subtle shake. “No, nothing else.”

“Can we go inside then? It’s cold, and I want to give you your present since you’re here.”

“A present, huh?” He grinned as he straightened up, stood, and held his hand out to me.

“Yeah,” I giggled. When his grin spread even more, I couldn’t help myself. I smacked him in the stomach playfully with the back of my hand. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Ty; my parents are in there.”

“What?” he snickered.

I rolled my eyes as I let him lead me into the house. The tension from moments ago melted away as we entered the living room where the sounds of laughter and Christmas music filled the air. Ty seemed to transform right before my eyes. He was back to the carefree man I’d been spending time with every day, and it was as if our previous conversation had never happened.

IT FELT ODD
being back. I felt it the moment I stepped off the train three days ago. I tried to slip back into my normal routine, but I couldn’t. I’ve been avoiding Chrissi at work by keeping busy and sending her calls directly to voicemail. I knew it was immature and that I’d need to talk to her eventually, but I just didn’t want to. Mia was going to be back in four days, and all I could think about was having her here in the city with me. I could take her on a real date and treat her like she needed to be treated. I wanted to show her that this could work and that I was changing my ways for her.

I didn’t have any new cases yet so my work load had been lighter than usual, but a new client had just called in this morning. My boss, Henry, had told me that he wanted to partner me up with someone to take a look at it. He had a few promising associates and interns that he thought could learn something from me. I was flattered but annoyed at the same time. I really didn’t have the desire to help some green attorney when I’d rather be at home Skyping with Mia. Henry didn’t give me a choice though, so I arranged my schedule to begin working on the case today. The client was supposed to come later in the afternoon, and I was going to use the time this morning to go over everything with the new associate I was working with.

I was shuffling the papers on my desk when a soft knock sounded on my door. I sighed as I called, “Come in,” without even looking up. “I don’t really have time to go over the basics with you today. The client will be here in two hours. I want to talk about our plan of attack.” I lifted my eyes just enough to see a pair of killer heels standing in my doorway. Fuck me, they gave me a woman to work with. My head slowly began to lift as I scanned her legs before recognition dawned on me. My head jerked up as my eyes met Chrissi’s.

“You can’t avoid me now,” she smirked as she stepped into my office and closed the door behind herself. “We had a deal Ty, and you haven’t been holding up your end of it.”

I opened and closed my mouth a few times as I tried to formulate an answer in my head. Nothing coming to me sounded very convincing, and I knew that I was royally screwed no matter what I did or said. “I’ve been busy,” I muttered as I shook my head. “You’re only a second year. How the hell did you score this position? Daddy give it to you?” I sneered as I watched her head snap back. She couldn’t go to trial with me. All she could do was help organize things, make phone calls, she’d be more of a secretary than anything else.