A Man For All Seasons

“Marlie.” Ty leveled a look at her. “Drama free.”

No coddling from Ty, which was probably the only reason she was able to get through her story without crying. “I just couldn’t believe it. He’d never said anything about wanting to live in another country. Why didn’t he ask me? I would have been up for it.”

“Do I really have to answer that?” Ty asked. “Do I really have to tell you it was because he didn’t want you to go with him?”

“That’s cold.”

“Marlie!” He looked pained. “This cannot be news to you. Forget about it. You went to his office—he wasn’t there, then what?”

Marlie skipped the part about crying for hours after discovering he’d put her name on the “block personal information” list at his new company. As if she was a stalker. “I called his mom, who, by the way, was under the impression that Eric had bought me this house as a lovely parting gift. I set her straight on that, as well as what it was going to cost to cancel the wedding.”

“Details I don’t need.”

Marlie exhaled in frustration before continuing, “She expressed her opinion. I expressed mine.”

Ty gave her a thumbs up.

“And she refused to tell me where he was. Not even what country he was in.”

“You’re not looking too good here,” Ty said.

Marlie’s jaw dropped. “I’m not?”

“You’re the one who fell in love with that turkey.”

“I didn’t know he was a turkey.”

“We’ll work on your turkey-detecting skills after I fix this problem,” he said.

“Other than a really large mortgage and a really small income, I don’t have a problem.”

“Yes, you do.” Ty sipped more water. “You’re not over him yet.”

“Oh, I’m over him. But I don’t know how I missed the signs that something was wrong.”

“Hey. Listen to me.” Ty leaned forward, holding her gaze intently. “There weren’t any signs. He made sure of it because he wanted out. Confronting you in public, breaking your heart, and taking away your dream home was calculated to make you hate him.”

Marlie believed him. She didn’t want to, but she knew Ty was giving her the unvarnished truth. “But why?” It was the question she’d asked herself way too many times. If Ty could answer it, he was a genius.

“Because then you wouldn’t want him back. No hoping you could ‘work things out.’ It would be a clean break and you both could move on. Like ripping off a bandage. It stings, but it doesn’t hurt for as long.”

“It was a lot more than a sting.”

“For you, yes. But he’d been planning his move for a while. He’d already checked out of the relationship. You don’t do what he did to somebody you love.”

Unvarnished truth hurt. “You’re saying he’d fallen out of love with me?”

Ty nodded.

“But he, but we still—”

“That would be him hiding the signs.”

“Did he have to hide them twice just the night before?”

“He was being thorough,” Ty said implacably.

Details from their last night together flooded her memory. “We talked about our future that night. We talked about having children.” Marlie swallowed. “I feel sick.”

“Now, if you had a bed pan in here, we’d be all set.”

She stared at Ty. “You are unbelievable. How can you say such a thing? He broke my heart and you act like it was nothing more than a broken date. Don’t you have any empathy at all?”

Ty offered her the water bottle.

“I don’t want any water!”

“Still feel sick?” He tilted the bottle to his mouth.

“I’m too mad at you to feel sick. Oh.” She watched him, or rather she watched his neck as he drained the water. “You made me angry on purpose. I suppose you think that was clever.”

“Yeah. I’m getting better at this.”

“You’re getting lucky.”

“That is not what I’m getting.”

“Aaaand we’re back to that.”

“I never left.”

As much as Marlie wanted to be mad at him, she wasn’t. Ty was blunt and sometimes annoyed with her, but he was here and he’d never lied to her.

Marlie suddenly looked back on all those summers in a different light. He’d hated having to be responsible for her and yet, not once had he failed to show up when he was supposed to. He hadn’t taken it out on her, either. Sure, he obviously resented babysitting her, but other than that, they were friends. Just not friends who liked each other. Ty was the kind of friend who told her the truth because she needed to hear it and he didn’t care how it made him look.

He screwed the top back on the empty bottle. “Okay, here’s what happened with Eric.”

Good, Marlie thought. Finally I’ll know.

“He took one of those overseas jobs for single guys.”

“Why do they have to be single?” Because women were involved? Marlie tried to imagine Eric as a sort of exotic male escort. No. Now Ty…

“It’s common in the oil business. Some countries don’t allow foreign women and children to live there, so companies recruit unmarried men. That way, they’re not separating families. It’s less complicated all around. The deal is you sign a contract for a year or two years, work twelve hour days and live in on-site corporate housing.”

“You’re saying he’d rather do that than marry me?”

“It’s the cash,” Ty said. “You make a pot full. I’ve seen these guys when they come back stateside after finishing a contract. They party hard and throw a lot of money around. They get the flashy cars and the flashy women and it looks pretty sweet, especially when you’re stuck in a cubicle earning a lot less and about to take on a wife and mortgage.”

“Eric proposed to me,” Marlie clarified. “He is the one who asked me to quit my job and move halfway across the country with him.”

Ty nodded to himself. “Now what he did really makes sense.”

“Not to me.”

“Say I’m Eric.” Ty paused. “Do I look like him?”

“You look exactly like him,” Marlie said, and then watched the emotions flicker across Ty’s face. She added a gooey look and saw the beginnings of panic. Good. He was entirely too smug. “Except that Eric’s hair is dark and curly. And his eyes are brown.” She touched her chin. “He had a beard thing here and he wore glasses. He might have been a little chunkier than you, not that he was out of shape, but he was buying the relaxed-fit Dockers, if you know what I mean. But you two could be twins. From different families.”

“You could have said no.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

A slow smile slid across his face. “You’ll be okay.”

Marlie had not been the direct recipient of such a smile from Tyler. It warmed her middle and caused her heart to give a few syrupy thuds. Remember that he reconnected your buttons. Just don’t connect with him. She poked his foot with hers. “Keep channeling Eric.”

“Right. Eric.” Ty gazed up at the canopy. “So I’m Eric and these guys head out for drinks and whatever, but I can’t go because I have to taste wedding cake samples with Marlie and her mom and her girlfriends.”

“It was just me, you were late, and you’d been drinking beer, so none of the cakes tasted good to you.”

Ty looked at her. “For real?”

“Yes.”

“You were mad.”

“Well, yeah.” Eric had embarrassed her in front of the other couples who’d been there.

“When I told the guys, they gave me a hard time about being on a leash.”

“A leash?”

“Words to that effect.” Ty waved his hand. “There were more instances like that and I started thinking the ‘if onlys.’ If only I weren’t getting married. If only I could take a year or two and make some big bucks and buy the kind of car I really want, go where I want and do what I want. If only I didn’t have to follow Marlie around to caterers and florists and invitation makers—”

“I didn’t bother you with any of that. And I thought it would be fun to taste a bunch of cakes. You like cake.”

“Marlie, work with me.” Ty gave her an impatient look. “It’s not the details. I’m showing you his frame of mind and how he got there. While you were all involved with the wedding and the house, he was seeing a really great life pass him by. These guys had money and freedom and no responsibilities. What would he have? Kids and a giant mortgage.”

“He’d have me,” she said in a small voice.

“But you wouldn’t be you—you’d be a mother.”

“Of his children!”

Ty spread his hands. “I’m telling you the way a guy thinks.”

Truly, it was like watching a special feature on a DVD, the one where the director explained different scenes. “That’s the way all guys think?”

“Nah. Some guys are into it.”

“Is that the way you think?” It would explain why he never dated the PTA mom type.

Ty considered her question. “I’m in the middle—buying a house, but definitely not ready for a wife and kids.” He regarded her with a touch of sympathy. “He wasn’t ready, either, Marlie. You need to find a guy who’s ready.”

She’d thought she had. “Why didn’t he just tell me?”

“He felt guilty after dragging you halfway across the country.”

“I would have waited for him.”

“And he knew that.” Ty shook his head. “I hate to say it, but the guy actually did the decent thing. He just didn’t expect you to mope about it for so long.”

Men always stuck together in the end. “I’m not moping. I’m working.”

“Then you’re moping while you work.” He eyed her before swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “This is a great bed.” He leaned on his hands as he scanned the interior. “Too bad you have to get rid of it.”

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.