True (True Believers #1)(58)
Author: Erin McCarthy

“Don’t push me out of your life,” I told him. “Is that what you want?”

“I’m looking out for your best interests. You’ll thank me in ten years when you’re a coroner and you have a respectable husband.”

“Tyler is respectable,” I said, tears suddenly in my eyes. “He has an incredible sense of honor and loyalty and right and wrong. Whether you choose to look past the tattoos and the metal T-shirts or not. Respectable doesn’t always come wrapped in a sweater vest.” I shoved my chair back. “Never judge a book by its cover, you always said. You’re being a hypocrite.”

I took my plate over to the kitchen sink.

“I didn’t make up the fact that he’s sitting in prison right now.”

I paused, water running straight down the drain as I slackly held my dirty plate. “Yes. He’s in prison. And I’m going to still be his girlfriend when he gets out.”

“So you’re going to leave college with a hundred thousand dollars worth of debt? You’re making the biggest mistake of your life.”

I shook my head. “No. The biggest mistake of my life was spending most of it not letting people get close to me.”

***

It was not a fun Christmas at our house. After a tense gift-opening session that morning, I sat on the couch and watched movies in my pajamas all day. Susan was trying to be cheerful. Dad and I were sullen and polite.

The highlight of my day was a text from Riley. It just said “Merry Christmas,” but for him, I felt like that was a pretty grand gesture. Riley didn’t seem like a guy who discussed his feelings. At all.

Kylie sent me a text asking what I was doing. What did she think I was doing? I wondered with a rueful shake of my head. I texted her back.

Nothing. Trying not to strangle my dad.

Are you going out tonight?

Did she think I went clubbing on Christmas night?

Nope. Hot date with the couch and a horror movie marathon.

K. Have fun.

I stared at the TV, listening to my dad and Susan in the kitchen, making coffee and talking. Probably about me, given their low tones. Whatever. I didn’t for one minute believe my dad would really force me to pay for all of my tuition on my own. But if he did, fine. I had a scholarship that took care of everything but my room and board and books, so if I moved into an apartment, I could get a loan to pay for that and my living expenses. I would manage. He wasn’t going to blackmail me.

Two hours and one slasher film later, the doorbell rang. I heard my dad go to answer it, figuring it was the neighbors bringing over a bottle of wine or something as a gift.

Instead, I heard Tyler’s voice. Holy shit. I jumped up, tossing the blanket back, ecstatic that he was out of jail almost two weeks early. On Christmas.

But then I heard my dad say, “I’m sorry, you can’t see her.”

Oh, no, he didn’t.

I shoved my feet in boots.

“I’m sorry for interrupting on Christmas, but please, Mr. Macintosh, just give me ten minutes with her.”

I didn’t wait to hear my dad’s response to that. I grabbed the gift bag with the necklace for Tyler in it from under the Christmas tree, and I ran out the back door, across the deck, down into the yard, and around to the driveway.

“Tyler!” I called, breathless from running in the cold. He turned.

My father spotted me, and I saw the anger on his face in the porch light. “Rory! You get back in this house, right now!”

Instead, I jumped in the passenger seat of Tyler’s car and locked the door. Tyler got in and stared at me. “What’s going on?”

“Just drive.”

But instead he leaned over and cupped my cheek and kissed me, breathing in deeply. “God, I missed you.”

“I missed you, too. Are you out for real? They cut your sentence short?”

“Yeah.” Tyler stared at me for a second, his expression serious, before he suddenly seemed to remember where he was. “Is your dad going to come out here if we just sit in the driveway?”

“I don’t know,” I told him truthfully. “But probably not. We could go somewhere.”

“It’s Christmas, everything is closed. I just wanted to see you, let you know that I’m okay. I’m not going to stay long. I need to go home and see the boys. Riley hasn’t told them I’m out yet.”

“Oh, okay.” He had come to see me first. My heart swelled and I clutched the gift bag in my lap. “Are you okay? Was it horrible?”

But he just shrugged. “It wasn’t the best time I’ve ever had. But it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.” He bit his fingernails and stared at his steering wheel, clearly thinking again.

I felt like I was waiting for something, for him to share what he was thinking. My euphoria started to deflate. I had the sense something was wrong. This wasn’t the blissful reunion I had been imagining, us sitting in his car silent.

“You should have told me you took a plea,” I said, because I was still upset by that. “You don’t need to protect me.”

He lit a cigarette and glanced at me. “Actually, I do need to protect you. What’s going on with your dad? I take it he’s pissed about me going to prison?”

It was my turn to shrug. “He said I can’t see you. But he’s just upset. He’s not really going to cut me off and stop paying my tuition. He’ll get over it when he sees I’m serious.”

Tyler took a long drag off his cigarette, his gaze still focused on the dashboard of his car, his knees apart and up as he leaned against the door. “Rory, I had a lot of time to think when I was sitting in there. Nothing to do but think.”

“Yeah?” I asked, suddenly nervous. Why was he acting so weird? My heart started to thud unnaturally.

“I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

Oh, God. He did not just say that. My heart started to splinter, my words tumbling out, desperate and anxious. “What? Don’t be ridiculous. My dad will get over himself.”

But Tyler’s jaw was clenched, and he shook his head. “Your dad is right. I’ve got nothing to offer you, Rory. Nothing. The money I had saved for tuition went to pay my fine. I have to drop out of school, and truthfully, the university would probably kick me out anyway for having a felony conviction. I’ll never be an EMT now. That’s done. No one is going to let me be around prescription drugs. Everything has changed, and I don’t want you to have to deal with the fallout from my problems. It’s not fair to you.”