Back to You (9 page)

“No, Grammy, we’re just friends.” I gestured for Riley to join me. “Grammy, this is Riley. Riley, this is my uber nosy and slightly crazy grandma.”

Grammy took Riley’s hand and pulled him down to hug her too. “It’s nice to meet you, Riley.”

Riley latched onto my hand tightly and I could tell he was uncomfortable, but he was always that way around strangers. “It’s nice to meet you too, ma’am,” he responded quietly and politely.

“Oh, come now! That’ll be enough of that ‘ma’am’ crap or you’ll start to make me think I’m old or something,” Grammy retorted. “You just call me Grammy Bea and we’ll be peachy, okay, dear?”

“Yes, ma… I mean yes, Grammy Bea.” I was proud of him for correcting himself and not clamming up like he usually did. I squeezed his hand reassuringly and he smiled.

I looked around the room and noticed that my entire family was there and they were all staring at Riley, which was even making me uncomfortable. “Hey, you nosy assholes, this is my good friend Riley,” I announced to the group to make it easier and to try to get the awkwardness out of the way which made them all a little embarrassed, I could tell, as they broke off and started talking amongst themselves again.

“I’m so sorry about them.” I turned to Riley and grinned. “Are you ready to meet the family or would you rather run for the hills now?”

He still seemed a little nervous but he replied, “I’ll meet them.”

I put my hand on his lower back and guided him toward my parents. “This is my mother, Nicole, and my father, Alan.”

“It’s so nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.” His voice only slightly trembled and then Riley stuck his hand out to shake my dad’s.

“Nonsense, son, please, call me Alan,” my father instructed. Riley nodded and turned to my mother who promptly embraced him tightly.

“It’s so good to see Tyler with somebody again,” she sniffled.

“Mom…” I protested. “Let’s not do this right now, okay?”

She nodded and dotted at her eye with her sleeve. “Sorry, it’s just been so long.”

“I know,” I told her. “We’re going to go talk to Karly and Judd. We’ll be right back, alright?”

My parents smiled at us, and Mom headed into the kitchen while my father sat down on the couch next to Grammy. I led Riley over to where my sister’s family had congregated. “Uncle Tyler!” my niece Lily screeched and came running at me, throwing herself into my arms, which meant I had to let go of Riley in order to catch her.

“Hey, munchkin, how are you?” I hugged her tight and kissed her cheek.

“Good! I’m in kiddiegarden now!” she exclaimed.

“I know! You’re getting to be such a big girl,” I informed her and then put her down to pick up her younger sister Keira. “How’s my little sweetie pie?”

“I’m good! I missed you Unca Tyler!” She planted a big, wet, sloppy kiss on my cheek, which made me grin from ear-to-ear. If there was an award for the world’s proudest uncle, I’m sure I would’ve won it. I loved my nieces and nephews to death and didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with them.

“Can I tell you a secret?” I asked her. Her face got all serious and she nodded eagerly, so I got really close to her ear and whispered, “I missed you too!” She squealed and giggled when I tickled her tummy then I put her down next to Lily.

I knelt down so that I was at their level and asked them, “Would you girls like to meet my friend, Riley?” They eyed him carefully and then smiled which I took as a yes. “Riley, these are my beautiful nieces, Lily and Keira.”

Riley knelt down next to me and said, “Well, it’s so nice to meet you girls.” And then he took each one of their hands and kissed the back of it which caused them to giggle incessantly. I stood back up and pulled Riley with me.
Interesting. He’s not wary of kids at all, it seems, just adults.

“This is my sister, Karly, and her husband, Judd Edwards.” Then I took the baby out of my sister’s arms and said, “And this adorable little love bug is my nephew Hayden.”

Judd and Riley shook hands and of course Karly had to hug him too. “Aw, he’s so cute,” Riley cooed. “How old is he?”

Karly beamed with pride as she answered, “He’s eight months old and just a little spitfire already.”

“I love kids,” Riley told her. “Yours are so adorable!”

“Do you want to hold him?” I asked. Riley looked at me as though I’d just asked him to have sex in my mother’s house, which made me laugh.

“He’s not going to break.” Karly chuckled. “Although I can’t promise he won’t puke on you.”

“Come on, Ri,” I encouraged and he relented, holding out his arms and taking my nephew carefully from me. He rocked Hayden slowly and just stared at him in awe, with this goofy little grin on his face and I couldn’t help myself. I took out my phone and snapped a picture of him. He was truly something beautiful.

“You ready to meet my brother?” I asked and nudged him toward the other side of the room.

Riley walked carefully with the baby in his arms and when he started to fuss, he shifted Hayden to his shoulder and bounced around gently to quiet him down. “I see Karly pawned him off on the new guy already,” Austin joked and slipped his arm around his girlfriend’s waist.

“Riley, this is my brother Austin and his girlfriend Abi,” I introduced them just as we heard a crash behind us.

“Connor!!!” Abi cried as she rushed over to him. “No!!”

I couldn’t help but laugh as Riley and I turned to see my two-year-old nephew Connor standing with a mischievous grin on his face and dirt all over his clothes from my mom’s potted plant that he’d just knocked over. “And that little monster is my nephew Connor,” I informed Riley with a chuckle then left him next to my brother to go help Abi clean up the mess.

The doorbell rang and Austin hopped up to answer it. When he came back into the living room, Andrew and Robyn were following him. When Riley saw Robyn walk in, his body visibly relaxed and he walked straight over to her, and they both immediately started fussing over Hayden.

“Grammy Bea!” Andrew exclaimed when he saw her and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. “You just get younger and younger every time I see you,” he teased her which caused my grandmother to blush.

“Oh, you sweet talker, you.” She patted him on the shoulder and asked him how things were going. They chatted for a few more minutes before he excused himself and came up to me.

“Connor at it again?” he speculated when he saw me cleaning up the last of the dirt off the floor.

I nodded. “Of course, who else would it be?”

“Well, it definitely couldn’t be these two little princesses over here, could it?” Andrew held out his arms for the girls to come hug him and when they did he surprised them with a tickle assault. “It looks like the tickle monster came for a visit!” he cried out as the girls squirmed and cackled with glee. Then Connor came rushing over, not wanting to miss out on the excitement and pretty soon Andrew was being attacked by three little kids wanting him to play with them, and I figured it served him right for getting me so drunk last night. After the kids had had enough of the tickle monster game, Andrew got up off the floor and clapped me on the back. “How are you feeling, buddy?” He gave me a knowing look and grinned wickedly.

“Just fucking peachy. Thanks for asking,” I replied sarcastically and punched him in the arm. “How did you feel this morning?”

“Oh, I felt like absolute shit,” he stated. “Thank god for Robyn coming to get us last night or we never would have made it out of that bar.”

Ah, so that’s how I got home. “Remind me to thank her for that later.”

My mother came into the room holding a cake lit with what I assumed were twenty-three candles. Everybody sang to me, and then I was bombarded with three little kids who wanted to help their uncle blow out the candles. “Make a wish!” Grammy ordered over the noise.

I closed my eyes and absolutely, positively did not make my birthday wish about seeing Alex again.
Yep, keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night.

As it turns out, my mother had an entire barbeque dinner planned, so Riley and I spent the rest of my birthday pigging out on my mom’s famous ribs, hanging out with my family, and playing with the kids. It was a great time and I loved being able to share it with Riley. He eventually warmed up enough around everyone to be himself, and my family loved him. I’m sure it helped that Andrew and Robyn stayed so he had a couple of extra people that he knew.

At about eight o’clock that night, Riley and I said our good-byes and headed back to my house so that I could get what I really wanted for my birthday—Riley naked in my bed.

It didn’t take long to make that a reality. I was slowly kissing my way down his body, licking every inch of lean, muscled skin that I could get my tongue on, just about to reach the grand prize when my phone rang.

I groaned, incredibly frustrated at being interrupted and I swore to myself that if it was Alex I was going to let the man have it, but it was Judd’s cell phone number which raised a red flag because usually if they needed something it was Karly who called.

I answered the phone with my heart pounding. “Hello.”

He was panicking, I could tell. “Tyler, it’s Judd, we’re at Bryan Hospital on 48
^th
Street. You need to get here quick. It’s Grammy Bea and it doesn’t look good.”

My heart stopped beating for a second, literally. “Wait, what’s going on?” I cried.

“I don’t have any answers yet. Just get here as quickly as you can!”

“Okay, I’m on my way.” I hung up the phone and jumped out of bed. Riley was already up and halfway dressed. “We’ve got to get to the hospital; it’s Grammy and they don’t know what’s wrong.”

I rushed to the car with Riley on my tail, my hands shaking as I tried to get the key into the ignition, tears threatening to fall. Riley put his hands on mine to stop them from shaking. “Let me drive, I’ll get us there safely.”

I nodded and switched seats with him. I was entirely numb and it felt like all the blood had drained out of my body. I couldn’t lose my Grammy.
Damn it!

Riley floored it all the way to the hospital and it was just pure luck that we didn’t get pulled over for reckless driving or speeding, but I had zero fucks left to give for the law as long as we got to the hospital as quickly as possible.

I’d talked to Karly on the way there since Mom and Dad weren’t answering their phones and she told me what room they were in. Riley dropped me off at the doors and I sprinted through the hospital to get to Grammy. As soon as I rounded the corner to the waiting area, I saw my mom crumpled on the floor bawling and my dad crouched down hugging her.

“I’m here...” I cried out breathlessly and my father stood up to pull me into a hug. “How’s Grammy? When can I see her?”

“I’m so sorry, Tyler,” Dad said softly as he squeezed me tighter. Tears that I had barely been able to hold back thus far flowed over freely and my heart stopped. It was as if I couldn’t feel it beating anymore. White noise filled my ears and it felt as if the whole world faded away. I couldn’t see anything and my whole body went cold.

I don’t know how long I was like that, but when everything finally faded back in, I was sitting in a hard plastic chair and Riley had his arms around me whispering to me that he was so sorry and that everything was going to be okay.

“Why Grammy? Why today?” I was angry. She was my favorite person in the whole world and just like that, she was gone. Heart attack? Really? She had been so spunky and full of life and she loved me like no one else ever could. She was my biggest supporter and I felt empty.

My whole family crowded around me and we cried together. Twenty-three could go fuck itself if my birthday was any indication of how the next year was going to be.
Happy fucking birthday to me.

Alex

It was after noon on Sunday before I worked up the nerve to call Donny. I’d been both hoping for him to call me first and for him to take the space we both needed to figure things out, and apparently, he’d chosen the latter.

He was still upset with me, with good reason, but agreed to meet me at Sweet Things to talk. When I walked in the shop, he was sitting in the back with two cups of coffee at one of the tables that we usually occupied, so I hurried to get to him.

He gestured for me to sit down and pushed one of the cups my way. “Thanks,” I replied and picked it up to take a sip. It was perfect, exactly the way I liked it, which didn’t surprise me since Donny seemed to know all the little things about me. Even when he was mad at me, he still did things that he knew would make me happy, which just proved how much he deserved someone better than me. He just nodded and looked at me expectantly, which meant I needed to get the show on the road or he was leaving. He made no effort to speak to me.

Hello, awkwardness.

“Okay, so I know I fucked up the other night and I’m sorry I hurt you.” I took a deep breath and he narrowed his eyes at me. “Again… Okay, I’m sorry I hurt you again.” His eyes returned to normal and he picked up his cup nonchalantly, taking a long, slow drink. “I shouldn’t have been hiding and I should’ve been honest with you about what I was doing and how I’d been feeling.”

“No kidding.” Sarcasm was not a good look for him since he was always so sweet.