Beyond the Cherry Trees: The Cook Brothers Series (22 page)

Tyler swallowed a few times and took several deep breaths before closing his eyes. “A couple of week,” he sighed.

“Weeks?” I shrieked.

“I wasn’t with you when I was with her,” he growled. “We weren’t together!” He waved his hands between us as he started pacing his office. “I swear I haven’t cheated on you. I broke things off with her weeks ago. I told her about you. I swear it’s just you now.” He yanked at his hair before stopping in front of the window keeping his back to me.

“What’s her name?” I whispered. “Why haven’t you told me about her?”

“Why are you doing this?” he begged. “Why are you doing this to us? We just got
us
back. You’re really going to do this now?” He dragged his palms down his face.

“What’s her name?” I slowly moved in his direction but stopped when he started talking again.

“Her name is Christina. She’s an intern here. She didn’t and doesn’t mean anything.” His voice was monotone as he stared out the large window.

“You had sex with her. She meant something,” I gasped.

“No, she didn’t. We were fuck buddies, Mia. We had sex. We didn’t date. We didn’t love each other.” He shrugged, and I couldn’t help but gasp at his frankness. “It’s not at all like you think. I don’t care about her like I do you. I don’t love her, I love you.” He turned to face me, and as I felt a tear slip from the corner of my eye, he moved faster to get in front of me. When he reached me, he wrapped his arms around my middle and hugged me to his chest. His chin dipped down and he placed a kiss to the top of my head. “I’ve never loved anyone like I love you.” His voice was steady, sure. “I don’t want anybody else. Do you understand that? Nobody has ever burrowed into my heart the way you have.” He loosened his grip as his hands moved to my shoulders. “Do you hear me?” His eyes darted between mine.

I bit the inside of my cheek as I slowly nodded. Another tear slipped from the corner of my eyes as I sucked in a shuddering breath. “I’m just…” I closed my eyes and just barely shook my head.

“Just what?” he coaxed me to look at him.

“How am I supposed to compete here?” I looked away at nothing in particular. “After I walked away I never… and you’ve been,” I swallowed, “busy.”

“They didn’t mean anything.” He grasped my chin forcing me to look at him. “Do you hear me? They didn’t mean anything. I don’t know how to prove that to you.” His shoulders rose and fell as he took several deep breaths.

“Why was she going to get you lunch?” I watched confusion spread across his features. “When I first got here, I saw her out in the lobby. She said you didn’t want lunch,” I clarified.

“Mia,” he sighed again as he grabbed my hand and led me over to his desk. He sat down in his chair and then tugged at my wrist to get me to sit across his lap. “We’re on a case together. She’s been working in here for days. Her dad’s my boss. I can’t exactly tell her no,” he groaned.

“So nothing else is going on with you two?” I turned to look him in the eyes.

“Nothing,” his eyes searched my face.

“You promise?” I pushed.

“Jesus, Mia.” He shook his head. “What do I have to do? Write it in blood?”

“I’m sorry; she just seemed like she thought you two were more.” I tried to climb off his lap but he tightened his arms around me.

“Well, she’s not,” he grumbled. “I just want to spend time with you. You still up for going out tonight?” He leaned back to see my face.

“I guess,” I shrugged.

“Good. Gavin’s been harassing me to go out for drinks. We can all go together.” He pecked my lips as a boyish grin slipped into place. “I like this surprise even if it did end up with us fighting,” he chuckled. “Maybe next time you can warn me a bit. I’ve always thought about having you on this desk,” he smirked. “Or maybe that couch over there, or in this chair. Hell, I’d be happy with the bathroom over there.” His brows wagged as he leaned closer. “It’s always gonna be only you. Don’t ever question that, ok?”

“Ok,” I gave him a half smile as I leaned my forehead against his. “You and me,” I whispered.

“You and me,” he echoed.

AS THE DAYS
turned into weeks, winter melted into spring. Mia was working at the studio more and more, and I was just trying to keep my head above water at the office. Henry had been on a tear lately, and it seemed that the cases that no one wanted were the ones that landed in my lap. Just the other day, I found a folder on my desk that was worn enough around the edges that it looked as if everyone in the office had handled it.

Chrissi had been keeping to herself. She wasn’t parked in the corner of my office like she had been, but she’d managed to get the gossip mill running full force. She had more than a little bump at this point, and whenever she passed me in the hallways, she’d glare in my direction. Henry hadn’t called me on it yet, but I was waiting for him to come storming in my office any minute. I lived my life on the edge, thanks to Chrissi. She made sure I was on constant guard, and that’s why when she finally cracked, I wasn’t at all surprised.

It was a Monday, and I was sitting at my computer typing away on a deposition. Mia and I were supposed to meet for lunch, but I’d invited her here to join me instead. As bad as it sounded, I needed a working lunch, but we hadn’t gotten much time together lately. Both of us were busy. Swan Lake was opening the next week, and she’d landed her coveted spot as the White Swan. She spent more time with her partner, Garrett, than with me. I wasn’t jealous, but I did miss her. When we’d first started out, we’d been staying at each other’s apartments, but she was getting in so late these days that we’d gone back to sleeping apart.

“Hey,” a knock on the door jamb of my office caused my head to snap up. Chrissi was standing there leaning with her arm propping her against it. “I need to talk to you,” she sighed as she pushed off and shuffled in. She closed the door behind her before coming toward me with a folder in her hand.

“If that’s another crappy case, you can put it over there on the stack of other crappy cases,” I grumbled as I shuffled through some papers and went back to staring at my computer screen.

“This isn’t work related.” She paused in front of me, waiting for me to look up again.

“Well, I really don’t have time to talk to you then. Mia’s coming for lunch soon, and I really need to get this done,” I muttered as I tapped away at the keyboard.

“You need to make time,” she snapped as she tossed the folder at me. The contents slid out slightly, and I could tell they were black and white photos.

“Are you surveilling someone?” My brow creased as I gave in and looked up at her.

“Just your son,” she grumbled. “It’s a boy.” She caressed her belly as a soft smile played on her lips. “The baby, it’s a boy.” Her eyes turned away from mine as she looked lovingly at her protruding belly. “I thought you’d want to know.” Her voice was soft as she waited for me to respond, but in all honesty, I didn’t know what to say. We’d been avoiding this topic for months, and now it was all too real. I swallowed as my trembling fingers opened the folder and lifted one of the photos. I couldn’t really tell what I was looking at, but Chrissi chimed in. “That’s his head, and that’s the spine.” Her index finger ran softly along the photo as she shifted so she could look at the grainy image with me. “That right there is his ‘little boy’ parts.” She giggled at that one, but when I looked up at her face, a small tear was forming in the corner of her eye.

“I never imagined it like this,” she sighed. “You’re not supposed to do this alone, Ty. We’re supposed to do this together.” She wiped at her eyes as she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I have to get back to work. Those are for you to keep,” her voice went from the sad defeated tone to business as she started to walk away.

“Chrissi,” I called after her, causing her to stop at my door. She turned to stare at me, waiting for me to continue. “Thank you,” I pointed at the folder. “I’m sorry it happened this way, but thank you.”

She gave a quick nod. “He’s your son. You may not want me, but I really hope that one day, you’ll want him. It’s not very much fun growing up with a parent that doesn’t want you.” Her words cut like a knife, and I remembered one of our late night conversations when we were a little too drunk to be talking. Chrissi’s mom had never wanted kids and made sure to tell her that every chance she got. When her parents got divorced, she jumped at the chance to live with her father. Her mother hasn’t contacted her since, and it’s been more than ten years. I think her mother is selfish and wanted all her father’s wealth and attention. Having Chrissi meant she’d have to share.

I still hadn’t told Mia about this, and at this point, I wasn’t even sure how to. I’d told her that I didn’t have any secrets, and that she knew everything. Since we’d been together, she did know everything but this. Becoming a parent wasn’t something I had planned to do, especially with a woman I didn’t love. I wasn’t sure how to even go about raising this kid once he got here. How was this even going to work? Were we going to trade weekends? I didn’t know anything about kids. I’d never really spent much time with my nephews. Taylor and Trevor had kept their kids in Cherryville, and other than the few holidays I’d been back, I really hadn’t seen them. The more I thought about it, the more this situation began to resemble a Lifetime movie.

While I stared out the window of my office, it began to rain. Small droplets hit the windows and streaked slowly downward like tears. I hadn’t been in a bad mood, but after Chrissi left, I couldn’t help but feel slightly defeated. I needed to tell Mia. I couldn’t keep this in much longer. The longer I waited, the worse it would be. The sky began open up at that point, and if it weren’t for the knock on my door, I probably would have continued to daydream out the window.

“Come in,” I called as I turned toward the door.

“Hey,” Mia smiled, but when our eyes connected the smile dropped. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I shook my head and as she moved closer, I realized I was still holding the folder with the pictures in it. I quickly shoved the photos inside before leaning over to place them in one of my desk drawers.

“What’s going on?” She scrutinized me.

“I’m at work,” I shook my head. “You know I can’t talk to you about the stuff I do here.” I was in so deep here. I don’t know why I decided to dig this grave deeper.

“Sorry,” she held up a bag in her hand, “I brought subs.” She half skipped over to my desk, leaned forward, and placed a quick kiss on my cheek before placing the bag on my desk. She lifted her arms to wrap them around my neck before grinning down at me. “Can you take a break to eat them with me?”

“That I think I can do,” I chuckled as I pushed back from my desk. “Let’s go over here,” I motioned to the conference table in the corner of my office. “I was hoping that the rain would stop and we could go somewhere outside, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

“That’s ok,” she smiled as she sat down and handed me a sandwich. “I’m just glad that you had time for me,” she grinned. “Am I going to get billed for this?” she teased as she bit into her sandwich.

“Oh, you’re getting billed all right,” I snickered. “You won’t be paying with money though.”

She blushed before she giggled. “Well, maybe I should come during office hours more often then,” she replied saucily.

“Maybe you should,” I winked before taking a giant bite.

We didn’t talk anymore as we ate our lunch, but you could cut the sexual tension with a knife; it was so thick in my office. Thoughts of telling her about Chrissi and the baby were pushed to the back of my mind as I thought more and more about how I could bill her. If I had known what was coming though, I might have tried harder to tell her.