Page 23 of Making the Save

“Yesterday wasn’t,” he said, looking back at me, the brown of his eyes so pure it kind of took my breath away. “Was it?”

I was saved from having to answer him by the whirr of the gate opening. “Beatrice is here!” I announced too loud and jumped off the couch. “Please try not to kill Tyler. I promise you he means well.”

Wyatt crossed his heavy arms over his chest. “I don’t give a shit about how he talks to me, but if he says anymore of that slut crap about you, I make no promises.”

I rocked back on my heels, taking in that feeling of protection. I didn’t know how to respond to it.

“You know, I’m tougher than I look.” I wasn’t. Not really. But sometimes I pretended.

“We’ll see,” he said, clearly calling me out on my lie. “Now let’s go meet Mean Dude.”

4

A Knight in Shining Armor or another Man with a Temper?

Sydney Malloy sure has a type. Remember Paris?

You don’t want to end up in trouble again, do you?

--Celebrity Truth

Wyatt

Tyler was an asshat.

I wasn’t saying that out loud, but my face was probably making my feelings clear. We’d called a silent truce and sat on the deck. Beatrice served tea like we were in one of those British crime shows I liked to fall asleep to. We drank from delicate cups. There was a matching pot of steaming hot tea on the table next to some pastries and cookies on a fancy dish.

I really appreciated the snack.

The tea was great. The view beyond the deck was amazing. The company was questionable, but I was rolling with the punches.

When Tyler and Beatrice walked in and pulled Sydney into a private conversation, I excused myself and called my coach to tell him there would be an explanation forthcoming and not to panic. I’d called my dad and told him the truth. He’d called me a plum idiot, as opposed to a normal run of the mill idiot.

I’d called Liam and could still hear him laughing in my ear. I knew he would find this whole thing hilarious. I’d told him his one job was to keep his mouth shut and not say a word to anyone. He promised he would lock it down.

My brother was a lot of things, but if I needed him to have my back, he would.

And now we sat with Tyler.

He was a tall, stylish man of unknown years. Could be thirty something. Could be fifty something.

He wore tight white pants and a bright coral silk shirt that enhanced his tan.

I was a dude on a team with a lot of other dudes. Mostly I didn’t notice shit about how anyone looked, but there was no way around it. This guy was flat out good looking. Like he should be in the movies, and not managing movie stars. Everything about him was turned up too loud. His tan was too tan. His teeth were too white. His hair too perfect.

He looked like a Ken doll.

Tyler began with a deep sigh, like we were already so disappointing. “We’ll have a two-pronged approach. First, we’ll start with the truth so we know what potential information is currently out there, then we’ll go over the story as it was fabricated by Mr. Hockey Player over here.”

Sydney was next to me on the sofa, leaving the two chairs for Bea and Tyler. I noticed she was careful to make sure no part of her body touched mine.

My man-spreading wasn’t intentional, just a natural result of being a big guy with thick legs who didn’t fit anywhere. I easilytook up seventy-five percent of the space on the couch, but she’d managed to make her entire body less than twenty-five percent.

I don’t know why I did it, but I man-spread a little more until my thigh was touching hers. She didn’t get up. Didn’t say excuse me or shoot me a look. She just let the contact happen, and for some reason I thought that was important. Whatever came next in this debacle we’d gotten ourselves into, and as everyone had been making very clear – I made worse - we were facing it together.

“I’ll start,” I said. “You know she was at the Foundational Classic Golf event playing with Baker Gafford. The guy’s a dick in general, but he was drunk and he was getting too handsy. Like sexual assault handsy. I stopped it and told her to play with me and my teammate instead.”

“Stopped it?” Tyler asked, like he was looking for more.