“There’s no one around to impress.”
“Sure there is.” He lowered his mouth to hers, and with that the only point of contact between them, everything about the kiss felt heightened. Every motion, every movement.
He pulled away but didn’t back up, didn’t go anywhere.
“Tyler,” she said, her eyes still closed and her nerves firing on all cylinders.
“Yeah?”
“What’s going on here?”
Several beats of silence passed, but she didn’t dare open her eyes. He swept one hand down the side of her face, and she leaned into his palm.
“I’m not completely sure,” he whispered. “But I think I’m falling in love with you.”
Her eyes jerked open then, her heart frantically beating against her ribs, desperate to flee. “What?”
“For real, Tawny,” he said earnestly, his blue eyes electric and alive. “Nothing about this feels fake to me. I know it started that way, but I don’t…I want….” He exhaled and glanced away. “Tell me I’m not the only one feeling like this.” He backed up a step and met her eye again. “Tell me you feel something real for me too.”
He swallowed, a big movement in his throat, the only indication that he was nervous at all. Tawny adored the gesture, because it meant he wasn’t bottling everything up or hiding behind his perfect poker face.
“All right.” His voice pinched along the edges and he fell back another step. “Okay. I see. I…I’m sorry.” He turned and went down the steps. “You wanna keep Bones for the night?”
Every cell in her body screamed at her to get him to come back. Do something. Say something!
“No,” she said.
“All right. I’ll take him.” He came up the steps to the front porch again.
“No.” She stepped in front of him. “No.” She shook her head, her emotions spiraling out of control. Tears pricked her eyes, and her voice came out too high when she said, “No, you’re not the only one feeling like this.”
His eyes searched hers, so full of hope, overflowing with disbelief. “No?”
She shook her head and flung herself into his arms to kiss him again. Just as quickly, she pulled back, her self-pact roaring through her head. She couldn’t confess these soft things to him.
“What?” he asked, his lips sliding down her cheek and landing in the hollow of her neck. She wanted to lean into him and moan her pleasure into the sky.
Instead, she did the opposite and stepped out of his arms.
Shaking her head again, she said, “I think we should stick to the plan.” Before she could take that back, and before she could memorize how heartbroken Tyler looked, she spun and went in her house, closing the door behind her decisively.
Tawny endured the side looks from Shirley, the muttering under her breath, the way she disagreed about everything Tawny said. It didn’t seem possible that a person could argue over personal taste, but Shirley had a knack for doing impossible things.
Tyler came to her defense more than once, and his mom would back off for an hour or two. Once, she went back to the penthouse for a whole afternoon. That had been wonderful, just talking to Tyler’s dad and his brother. Gina was always nice, and she did a fair bit of muttering under her breath too. Tawny felt a special bond with her, but she tried not to get too attached, as her and Tyler’s break up was just around the corner.
Tyler held her hand if they were in public. Thankfully, they never had to perform a liplock, as she was sure she’d break into tears if she did.
And it was the longest ten days of her life, as kissless as she was. She slept little and ate less, and agonized over every article of clothing she put on.
She didn’t go with Tyler to the airport to send his family back to the mainland but hid on her own private stretch of beach, asking the waves and wind what she should do. She wanted to prolong the relationship with Tyler, which meant she had to end it as soon as possible.
“Where’s your boyfriend?”
Tawny almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of the slimy voice. For a fraction of a second, she thought it might be one of the reporters who’d hounded her relentlessly for a couple of weeks.
Then her heart chilled, and she knew she’d be looking into Omar’s soulless eyes when she turned around.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she snapped. “He’s my fiancé.”
“Right.” He hiked up his pants, and Tawny said, “Don’t sit down. Do not sit—” and exhaled as he sat down beside her.
She pulled her knees to her chest and glared at him. “This is a private beach, you know.” She’d never been terribly afraid of Omar before, even when she left Cancun in favor of Hawaii. True, he’d been a big reason, but she didn’t fear anything from him.
But as she thought about him egging Tyler’s house, her arms trembled the slightest bit. “What do you want?” she asked.
“I want you to tell me your engagement to that surfer boy is a mistake.”
“It’s not a mistake,” she said, her heart rapid firing as if to prove her words true. Whatever her relationship with Tyler was, it was not a mistake.
“It’s certainly not real.” He lit a match and held it to the end of his cigar, much to Tawny’s dismay. Him starting to smoke meant he intended to stay a while.
Tawny was tired of lying, and she really wanted to just be done with the whole charade. She’d been circling the idea of making her relationship with Tyler real. He’d said his feelings for her were real, but he’d never really said what those feelings were. He didn’t need to. She could feel it in every touch, every kiss. Not that there had been any kissing since she’d told him they should stick to the plan.
The plan.
What a stupid plan.
But his parents had left thinking he and Tawny were engaged and would be married as soon as they could decide on a date.
Problem was, she’d started this whole farce to get Omar out of her life, and yet he sat next to her on the sand.
“I’m not going to believe you unless you say it.” He puffed out a lungful of smoke, and Tawny might’ve said anything in that moment to get him to leave. But she held her tongue. She couldn’t say it was real, but she didn’t have to admit it wasn’t either.
Omar chuckled like he’d just heard something really funny, but the sound chilled Tawny to the core. The ocean seemed angry today, like maybe it would decide to be winter for a day or two.
“Well, can you call your dog off?”
“Lazy Bones?”
“No, the fiancé.”
“He’s not doing anything with you.”
“Sure he is.”
“Is that why you threw eggs and avocados at his house?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Right.” She scoffed. “Just like I don’t know what you mean when you say my engagement is fake.”
Omar remained mysteriously quiet for way too long before he eventually stood and brushed the sand from his designer suit. “Good-bye, Tawny.”
She didn’t respond, just let him walk away. It wasn’t until much later that she realized he’d said good-bye.
She expected Tyler to call, text, or show up once his family was in the air, flying away from the island. He didn’t, and she wasted the hours until bedtime by baking desserts she’d never eat and making new shirts for her yoga classes.
The next morning, Tawny taught yoga on the beach, the same as she did almost every morning. The New Year’s crowd was big at Sweet Breeze, and apparently everyone was interested in starting their year off right, because her class was easily three times as big as it usually was.
She’d never been happier that she’d cut and tied some new workout shirts. The one she wore today she’d left solid in the back and had cut up the front so her bright yellow bra top showed through.
By the time she finished the class, she wasn’t sure she could keep smiling. The crowd dispersed, almost parting like the Red Sea to give her the perfect view of Tyler.
He did not belong on the beach, and she was not the only one staring. He’d exchanged his board shorts for a neatly pressed pair of black slacks, and his faded T-shirt for a bleached white shirt, a blue tie around his neck and falling to the silver belt buckle at his waist.
He looked every bit as rich as he was, and Tawny couldn’t swallow, blink, breathe, nothing.
His hair had been cut a couple of inches and he’d slicked it back in that classic way he had, showing the shaved sides, but his face he hadn’t shaved.
She packed up her things, taking extra long minutes to do so though she was terribly thirsty and wanted to get off the sand as soon as possible. When she couldn’t prolong the moment any longer, she took a deep breath and faced him.
“You look nice,” she said, glad her voice came out strong enough.
“I have a meeting,” he said coolly, nothing like the man she’d been falling in love with for the past two and a half months.
“Oh, well, good luck.” The tension between them could surely be felt up and down the beach, and she was glad she didn’t have to fake it. At least then when the news of the break up went public there would be real situations like this to testify of how strained their relationship had become.
He handed her a drink from Two Coconuts, and she looked at it like she wasn’t sure what it was. Such simple gestures like this had her thinking maybe…just maybe….
No, she told herself. Whatever he thought he’d felt while they lied to everyone they knew and loved, he was wrong.
Chapter Seventeen
“Thank you,” Tawny finally said, and Tyler wished things between them could be different. But she’d made herself really clear. She wanted to stick to the plan while he wanted…what did he want?
The engagement to be real. A life with her, the woman he loved. Happiness beyond surfing and throwing a Frisbee and going up to Fisher’s penthouse for club meetings.
“Omar wants to meet,” he said, losing another debate with himself. He wasn’t going to tell her, hoping he could meet with the man and get him out of both of their lives.
“He does?” Her eyes flashed with concern. “Is that why you’re all dressed up?”
“I know how to play my part.” His voice was barbed and icy, and he hated how petulant it sounded. His unrequited feelings could be so sharp, and he wasn’t sure what to do with them most of the time.
“Tyler—”
“Not now,” he said, glancing around. “Maybe at dinner tonight? Would you like to break up with me then? We can make it a public spectacle if you’d like.” His words dripped with poison, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want to break up with her at all, but he couldn’t be with her now that his parents were gone. After he settled everything with Omar, there would be no reason for them to stay together.
Tawny made a squeak of surprise—maybe hurt?—and Tyler nodded to the drink. “That’s a new concoction Mo made just for you. He said to stop by and let him know what you think.” Tyler turned and took a few steps through the shifting sand. “Text me the details of what you want me to do.”
He walked away, desperate for her to call him back. She didn’t. He kept breathing. In, then out. He could survive this. He’d done hard things before.
In fact, surviving the holidays was the best Tyler could’ve hoped for. And he’d done it. He’d put on the best Christmas he knew how to, and he kept everyone happy, and Tawny had played her part perfectly.
Now, if only he didn’t feel like his entire life was about to come crashing down around him. He slid into the black car with tinted windows, where his driver had been waiting for the past thirty minutes while Tyler watched Tawny finish teaching her class before he could talk to her.
Simply seeing her was torture, and he wondered how he could survive living only a half a mile from her and not be hers.
“I’m ready,” he said to his driver, and Georgia got the car moving. Tyler stared out the window as they drove down the main streets and away from the beach. Hawaii had great hills covered in lush vegetation, with waterfalls and lava cliffs.
Omar had asked to meet with him in the mansion where he’d been staying since October. Tyler had alerted Fisher, Jasper, and Marshall, and all three of them were currently stationed at Jasper’s estate, which was just up the road.
Georgia put in the gate code Tyler had gotten from Omar and they went up the hill to the sprawling house.
“Thirty minutes,” Tyler told her. “If I don’t come out in thirty minutes, call this number.” He handed her a slip of paper with Jasper’s phone number on it and steeled his nerves. He had a feeling he’d need his wits and all of his poker skills to get through this meeting.
The walk toward the front door seemed to take forever, and someone opened it before he even had to knock. “This way,” the man said, and Tyler took one more breath before entering the lion’s den.
The house smelled falsely of lemons, like someone had burned a candle or sprayed something to cover up the scent of leftover cigar smoke. Tyler tried to take in as many details as possible, but the man led him toward the left and into a library, his final destination.
Omar was already there, and he said, “Oh, he’s here,” as Tyler entered.
Three more men turned, each of them holding a tumbler of amber liquid Tyler assumed was whiskey. He’d drunk his fair share of the alcohol while on the poker circuit, but he hadn’t had a drop since Holly had told him she was pregnant. He’d regretted too much while he was drinking, and he didn’t want to be that man again.
Omar took a long draw on his cigar, but he did not stand. Tyler remained near the door, sizing up the four men in the room. They were all bigger than him, and the only chance of him surviving this if something went south was sheer time.
Thirty minutes. He had to keep Omar talking for that long, or get the meeting over with quick.
“You got me here,” Tyler said. “What do you want?”
No one moved, and Omar regarded him with malice in those dark eyes. He finally flicked two fingers, setting the men into motion. “Come, sit.”
Tyler smoothed down his tie and did as instructed.
“It has come to my knowledge that your engagement with Tawny Loveless is fake,” Omar said.
“That’s not true,” Tyler said, maybe a bit too fast and a bit too defensively.
Omar switched his gaze from Tyler to one of his men, and he pressed a button. A recording played with Omar’s voice and then Tawny’s, where she didn’t confirm or deny that the engagement was fake.
Until she said, “Just like I don’t know what you mean when you say my engagement is fake,” in an ultra-sarcastic voice. She might as well have put it on the Internet.
“I’m willing to destroy the tape…for the right price.”
Tyler blinked at him, sure he’d heard wrong. “You’re blackmailing me?”
Omar shrugged. “Think of it as paying for a service. My service of silence.”
Tyler stood and walked away. “Not going to happen. I’ll see myself out.”
“I will put this up everywhere. Everyone will know you and Tawny have been lying for months.”
Tyler paused with his hand on the doorknob. He turned back to Omar and his goons. “I don’t care what you do with that tape. It means nothing. She didn’t say anything.” He took one step back toward Omar. “So you do what you want with it.”
Omar stood then, his eyes flickering dangerously. “I did not believe it, but I can see it’s true.”
“What?” Tyler snapped, his patience wearing very thin.
“You’re in love with her.”
“I am not.”
Omar stalked closer, a tiger after its prey. “Please, don’t insult me. I too have been in love with the beautiful Tawny Loveless. I know what it looks like.” He stopped only a few feet from Tyler, who felt rooted to the spot. “And you’re in love with her.”
“So what if I am?” Tyler sincerely hoped this conversation wasn’t being recorded, but he couldn??
?t do anything about it if it was.
A look of pity came across Omar’s face. “I’m going back to Mexico tomorrow.”
“That’s great,” Tyler said without inflection in his tone. “Take your tape with you, and leave Tawny alone.” That was all he really wanted. He turned and opened the door, somewhat surprised Omar let him go so easily.
Still, a slip of trepidation passed over his shoulders as he walked away, exposing his back to the man.
He’d just reached the front door, when Omar called his name. Tyler twisted back, not committing fully to facing him.
“For what it’s worth, I think she’s in love with you too,” he said.
“If you love her—if you’ve ever loved her—you won’t release that tape,” Tyler said, trying one last tactic. He didn’t wait for Omar to answer. He got out of there, not daring to hope that anything Omar had said could be true.
True to his word, Omar returned to Mexico the following day. Tyler couldn’t get Tawny on the phone to schedule a time for them to break up. After the third day, he quit trying. Maybe she assumed that would just be enough, and he’d be able to tell his family that the wedding was off.
But he didn’t, not even Wayne, like maybe if his mother still thought he and Tawny were engaged that they were.
A week into January, Tyler came in from surfing to find Lazy Bones had betrayed him again. This time the golden retriever sat next to Jason Barnes, the reporter from Aces High. Tyler eyed him warily and wiped the water from his hair.
“I want the exclusive,” Jason said. “For Aces High, to come out forty-eight hours before any other news outlet gets wind of the story.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Jason extended his hand toward Tyler, and he took a micro SD card from him. “What’s this?”
“Your confession that the engagement was fake. Omar Velasquez gave it to me.”
“He gave it to you?” Tyler wanted to squeeze the tiny plastic rectangle until it cracked in half. “Or you bought it from him?”