I met Scarlett by accident.
For the past year, I’ve been living with my friend Heather and her fiancé Steve. They booked an engagement shoot, and I went with them because…well, now I can’t even remember. But I’m pretty sure it was boredom.
Scarlett was their photographer. I didn’t know her link to the Wildcats until later, but I’m glad I didn’t immediately put it together because I never would have let myself be friends with her if I’d known she was the head coach’s daughter and dating one of the players. It would have been too weird and too close of a connection to Tyler. Once I found out, it was too late. I adored her too much to let it bother me…much.
Tuesday night, I meet Scarlett and her friend Jade for drinks at one of our favorite wine bars. They’re waiting for me at their usual table. We’re in that new stage of friendship where I still feel a little awkward when I show up, but I always leave feeling like I’ve known them forever.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” I say, sliding into the open high-top chair.
“We were taking bets on how late you’d be,” Jade says with a playful smile. I might have a slight reputation for being late to, well, everything. I’m working on it.
“I’m sorry.”
“She’s only teasing.” Scarlett pushes a glass of wine toward me.
My cheeks flush, and I scramble for my purse. I was hoping they wouldn’t order for me. I only have enough for the cheapest house wine, and I doubt that’s what they got. “Let me give you some cash.”
“Nonsense,” Scarlett says. “You spent all day with high schoolers. That one is on me.”
“Thank you.” I take a sip. So much better than the sweet white I was going to buy.
I sit back in my chair. “How’ve you two been? Anything new?”
They exchange a glance. They have lots of little nonverbal communication signals from being friends for so long, but I can’t read whatever passes between them.
“What?”
“We know you ran into Tyler last week,” Scarlett says, then her lips part into a big smile.
My pulse speeds up. “How?”
“He told Leo.”
I take another sip of wine while I try to decide if I want to ask what he said. Tyler is a pretty private guy so I can’t imagine him oversharing anything beyond what Scarlett and Jade already know. Or I should say, he was. I don’t know him anymore. Either way I’m curious what he might have told Leo and his other teammates about us, and more specifically, me. Curious, but also not sure I want to know. Even after all these years I know he has the ability to hurt me deeply.
Isn’t it weird how hearing something secondhand makes it feel real in a way it doesn’t when the person communicates it directly? It’s like somehow whatever he said to his friends feels like a more authentic version than the few things he said to me. And I guess I do want to know because the next words out of my mouth are, “What’d he say?”
“That he ran into you at his sister’s school. That you were the perfect girlfriend.” Scarlett’s smile softens.
“And that you were the hottest woman alive,” Jade pipes in.
Scarlett’s eyes widen. “Yes! He said that too.”
Heat hits my cheeks and butterflies swoop low in my stomach. “I didn’t know that she was his sister. I should have. Now that I do, I can see the resemblance.”
“Confession.” Scarlett raises her hand and bites the corner of her lip. “I knew Everly was at Park Academy. My mom helped him find a school for her.”
“You knew his sister was here?” I ask.
Scarlett nods. “I don’t know the full story, but yeah. She came to stay with him late last year. I wanted to tell you, but…”
I nod, understanding what she doesn’t say.
In order to be friends with Scarlett, I’ve had to keep a very clear line about what she can share about the team. She talks my ear off about Leo and even her family, but Tyler has been off-limits. I never considered that there were things going on in his life that she was holding back from me. I mean, I assumed she was withholding information about his dating life, which I’d still like to remain happily ignorant about, but not things like he’d suddenly become responsible for his sister.
“What was it like seeing him?” Jade asks.
“Like no time had passed. I felt eighteen and heartbroken all over again. And then angry because even after all this time he still gets under my skin.”
Scarlett reaches over and squeezes my hand. “Sorry, babe. I should have warned you.”
“No, it’s fine. It was a shock, but in a way, I’m glad I got it over with. I knew it was only a matter of time before I bumped into him somewhere.”
“Especially now that he’s basically the guardian of one of your students.”
Tyler as a guardian. Weird.
“He texted me over the weekend and asked me to dinner,” I confess.
Both girls grin so big at me, like this is the best news ever.
“I’m not going.”
“Why not?” Jade asks.
“Well, for starters, I’m still seeing Chris.”
“But this is Tyler,” Scarlett whines.
“Exactly. Another reason that I shouldn’t go. There’s too much history, too much heartache. The only way I’m going to survive teaching his sister all year is to keep my distance.”
Scarlett doesn’t say anything, but I can read her expression loud and clear. She’s happily in love with Leo, engaged, planning their forever. I thought I was going to have all of that with Tyler. I can’t go back to a time where I see him as anything but the boy that shattered that dream I had for us.
“Okay, I get that, but…” She flashes a hesitant smile before continuing, “Now that you’ve seen him, will you come to my engagement party next week?”
“He’s going to be there, isn’t he?”
“Probably.” She nods. “My parents already threw us a little family one so this is just friends. Bring Chris if you want. He can be your buffer.”
Chris and Tyler in the same room? That sounds positively awful, but I really want to be friends with Scarlett. Real friends who show up for each other. I take a large drink of the wine and nod. “Of course, I will be there.”
Why does it suddenly feel like there’s going to be no avoiding Tyler?
The next day after school, I’m working on a lesson plan for my freshman class while Everly paints the backdrop. Over the last two days she gave it all a new base coat and then we worked together with the theater director to sketch the design. Now all that is left is painting the three large screens. I would never admit this out loud, but I think it’s going to be even better than what they had before.
I glance up to see her sitting in front of it, unsmiling as she moves the brush back and forth in front of her. Even bored, she’s talented.
Since I met her, I’ve found myself wanting to reach her, be there for her, inspire her somehow. But that feeling has amplified since finding out she’s Tyler’s sister, and I don’t know if it’s because I feel like I understand her situation better or because of my ties to him. Starting a new school halfway through your senior year has to be tough. I don’t know what happened that caused her to come live with Tyler, but I doubt it’s because things were going really great for her.
Since he lived away from home for the entirety of our relationship, I never met Tyler’s family. He never said much about them either. He talked the most about Everly. How he wished he saw her more and how much fun they had together when he had a break and was able to go visit. I knew he wasn’t super close to his mom, that she was remarried and he didn’t care much for his stepfather, Everly’s dad, and that his real dad wasn’t in the picture, but he kept all the whys and details to himself.
In hindsight, maybe I didn’t ask enough questions. I had my own family drama, and I think it blinded me to see how bad things might have been for him.
“You can stop for today,” I say to Everly, blinking back to the present.
She glances at the clock. “My ride won’t be here for another thirty minutes.”
“I know. Clean out the brushes and then I want to get your opinion on something.”
“Okay,” she says slowly as she moves to the sink.
I stand and come around the desk when she’s finished. I turn the paper with my rough sketch around so she can see it. “This is for my ninth-grade class. I want to have them create a two-point perspective name drawing for their lockers.”
She steps closer to the desk. “This is kind of cool.”
“I hoped you’d say that. Will you make one for me to show as another example?”
With a nod, she grabs a piece of paper. I bring colored pencils and a ruler with me to a table and sit next to Everly.
While I color in the letters of my name, she sketches hers.
I have a million things I’d like to ask her, but I stay quiet while we work side by side. If I have learned anything in this week of teaching high school students, it’s that you can’t force them to open up.
Eventually, Everly does speak. “You and my brother, huh?”
I hide behind my hair, certain my face is red. “It was a long, long time ago.”
She studies me but doesn’t say any more. The time ticks by as we work in silence.
She finishes just before her hour is up.
“It looks great. Thank you.”
“Can I go now? River is waiting outside.”
“Yeah, of course.” She pushes back from her seat and grabs her backpack.
A familiar form fills the doorway. Everly’s shoulders slump. “What are you doing here?”
“Good to see you too,” Tyler says, brows raised in amusement.
“River is picking me up.”
“No, he isn’t. I told him to go home.”
It looks like she wants to rage on him, but he doesn’t give her the chance. “Wait for me outside. I need to talk to your teacher.”
“You mean your ex-girlfriend?”
“Ev.” His voice is sharp.
“Whatever.”
“Bye, Ms. Vaughn.”
“See you tomorrow,” I say as she huffs out the door.
Tyler takes three steps farther into the room.
“Stopping her from seeing her friends isn’t going to win you any points,” I say as I stand and clean up our supplies.
“No, probably not.” His gaze drops to the table where Everly’s name drawing lies. “She did that?”
“Yeah. In half the time it took me to do mine,” I say as I wave a hand toward my paper.
“Ms. Vaughn.” He reads it, one side of his mouth lifting in a grin.
“Did you need to talk to me about something?” I take Everly’s and my work to my desk, turning my back to Tyler.
I feel his presence move with me.
“How’s she doing?”
“She should be done with the backdrops by the end of next week.” I point to the back of the room where they sit.
“I don’t just mean with that. Is she fitting in? Are her grades okay?”
“That’s probably a conversation you should have with her.”
“You know as well as I do that she’ll either refuse to answer me or give me some bullshit response.”
“If you’re worried about her art grade, then I’d be happy to set up a time with the regular art teacher, Mrs. Aaron. I’m just student teaching.”
He takes another step into my space. “I don’t want to talk to Mrs. Aaron. I want to hear it from you. I trust you, Pipes, and I just want to know that I made the right decision sending her here.”
I can see how much he cares about his sister, how worried he is, but this is not something I can answer for him. I see her for an hour a day, two now that we’re working together after school. It’s a glimpse of her entire day.
“I can’t give you that.” I take a deep breath as I move away.
He nods, but still doesn’t leave. “You didn’t respond to my text.”
I hum, a noncommittal sound like maybe I didn’t get it.
“I’d love to take you to dinner and catch up, talk about Everly.”
“I can’t have dinner with you, Tyler.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m seeing someone. Because I’m your sister’s teacher. Because…” I trail off. You broke my heart. It feels ridiculous to say that out loud. Nobody finds the love of their life at eighteen. So why am I still so affected by him?
His throat works with a swallow and his jaw flexes. “Drinks? Coffee? It’s been a long time.”
“Not long enough.”
Hurt flashes in his eyes. “I deserve that, but I would still like to talk about Everly. I think there are things you should know that might help you understand her better.”
“Mrs. Best or the counselor, Mr.—”
“You, Pipes. I want to tell you. You’re the only one I trust not to treat her differently. You never did me.”
I can’t seem to get enough oxygen in my lungs. I don’t know how he can piss me off and make me want to cry all at the same time.
“I’m busy tonight, but I could meet up with you one night later this week? Just to talk about Everly.”
A small smile passes over his lips. “Tomorrow?”
I nod my agreement. “Sure. Why don’t you stop by the school after Everly is done. We can stay here or there is a coffee shop down the street.”
He runs a hand along his chiseled jaw. His face is more angular now, and the short stubble makes him look older. “Can you meet me at the arena at six?”
“The arena?”
“Yeah, I’m not picking Ev up tomorrow. I have a conflict. But if you meet me at the arena, we can walk downtown and get drinks or dinner.”
“This is sounding more and more like a date.”
“Not a date. Promise.” He holds up both hands.
“Fine,” I say, mostly to be done with this conversation. And maybe a little because I want to prove to him and to myself that I’m over him. I can meet up with him downtown, have dinner or a drink, talk about his sister, and it not be weird.
Why? Because I’m OVER him.
“Great. See you tomorrow, Pipes.” He smiles. A smile that hits me right in the gut.
Oh damn. I’m gonna need a much better poker face for tomorrow night.
