Chapter 7—Boy Next Door

* Tiff *

 

The rest of the week flew by. Riley respected my wishes and stayed away. If he hung out next door, I never saw him, but then I was avoiding coming home most nights until late in the evening, just in case.

While I was able to settle into a semi-peaceful routine, I mourned his absence. He invaded my thoughts more than I’d like despite my efforts to clear my mind and come to terms with my decision.

Riley and I were over before we’d ever started. I’d been a fool to come back here to the very school he was attending, but I’d done it anyway. That’s how messed up I was.

I’d been night-terror-free all week, something that hadn’t happened much since I’d returned to Seattle. I took my restful nights as a sign that I didn’t need Riley in order to heal, even if my heart didn’t agree.

I spent my spare time at the barn and the library, not an exciting life by any means, but one that suited me just fine. Besides, I worked some extra hours, and I could sorely use the money. Barns always needed help. I cleaned stalls, exercised horses, oiled tack, whatever was asked of me.

The Chinooks played an away game in Colorado over the weekend, and I couldn’t stop myself from watching. Riley looked so hot in those pads, helmet, and tight pants that hugged his fine ass. His power and speed had always amazed me. He was even faster and stronger than he’d been in high school, and he’d always been a phenomenal athlete. I was such a glutton for punishment, but I really was getting over him.

Really.

I was.

That Tuesday, Wayne busied himself in the kitchen fixing his awesome spaghetti. He’d make enough to last us the rest of the week, which meant no cooking for days, though we’d be sick of spaghetti by Saturday, and he’d dirty every dish in the house.

The doorbell rang and Alisa bolted for the door. She was probably hoping Gage had stopped by to borrow a cup of sugar and to strip Alisa of her panties.

Alisa stood back from the door and called out to me. “Tiff, it’s for you,” she said in a singsong voice, and giggled. Alisa rarely giggled, which spiked my curiosity and Wayne’s. We both peeked over her shoulders. A delivery boy stood in the driveway completely dwarfed by a bouquet of lilies, roses, and hydrangeas in a clear triangular glass vase. The arrangement was breathtaking.

“For me?” I gaped at the flowers. No one in my twenty-one years had ever sent me flowers before. I immediately thought of my dad and his girlfriend, who were trying their damnedest to earn my forgiveness.

The pimply-faced delivery boy glanced at the card pinned to the pink bow. “Tiffani Vernon?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

He thrust the flowers at me as if glad to be rid of his heavy burden and left without another word.

“Thank you,” I called after him.

“Who are they from?” Giddy with excitement, Wayne clapped his hands as he bounced up and down in front of me.

Alisa tried to grab the card, but I yanked it out of her reach and hid it from their prying eyes as I pulled the small card of out the tiny envelope. The simple message read:

Just wanted to brighten your day.

Ry

As much as I’d like this to be someone’s idea of a joke, I had little doubt Riley had sent them. The message and the flowers were so not him, but he would know what kinds of flowers I liked. My hand shook as I jammed the card in my pocket. Alisa relieved me of the vase before I dropped it, filling it with water and placing it on the coffee table.

She stood back and admired the bouquet. “These had to cost a fortune. They’re from Riley, aren’t they?” She cocked her head at me with a knowing smirk.

I nodded. My eyes stung, and I blinked rapidly. Riley wasn’t going down without a fight. He never had been one to give up. And this older, more determined, more confident version was even more of a force to be reckoned with.

“Girlfriend, it’s time for some tough love,” Wayne said.

I rolled my eyes at Wayne and groaned. “Seriously? Girlfriend?”

“Just playing the part of the gay best friend.” He grinned even wider as I scowled.

“She does need tough love,” Alisa added as she propped her foot on the coffee table and painted her toenails. “What are you afraid of exactly? He’s one of the hottest guys on campus, with a great body, and he’s a sweetheart.”

They couldn’t possibly understand. I was afraid of a lot. I was afraid of falling hard and fast for him, if I hadn’t already. I was afraid when the relationship went sideways—and in my experience all relationships eventually imploded—loving him and losing him would be my fatal blow. I’d never survive that kind of hit. I was living from day to day as it was, barely holding together the broken and damaged pieces.

My phone rang, and I jumped. It was my mother. As if I didn’t have enough to deal with, I had to deal with my mom’s drama, too. I glanced at Alisa and Wayne, who were poised like cats ready to pounce. For once, I was glad for the interruption even if I was trading one crappy conversation for another.

“I have to take this. It’s my mom.” I smirked at both of them, and they glared right back, knowing I usually didn’t pick up when she called.

“Hi, Mom, how’s it going?” I said much too brightly as I escaped to the privacy of my room and shut the door.

“That bastard. You won’t believe what he’s done now,” she said without any pleasantries or small talk.

I sighed. Maybe I should’ve put up with my roommates’ lecture on my love life. “What?”

She sniffled dramatically. “He took her to visit his parents.” She said the word her with more venom than such a short word deserved.

I waited to see if there was more. I could almost hear her building up steam toward another your dad is an ass tirade. I made a lame attempt to quell her anger. “He can do that. They’re his parents.”

“They’re my in-laws. How dare he take that tramp to meet them.”

I sighed. “Mom, he’s with her now. What he does is none of your business. The divorce is all but final. And that’ll be taken care of in a few weeks.”

She wasn’t listening. “What did I do to deserve this? I gave him the best years of my life, and this is what I get in return?” She was on a roll—again. Mom had never worked. She’d stayed home and planned charity galas, played tennis, and gone to luncheons with her country club crowd. Now she’d lost her coveted life. She didn’t care about my dad; she cared about the standing he’d given her and the clout she’d wielded as the wife of a wealthy man.

Throwing myself down on the bed, I let my mother ramble while I stared at the ceiling and thought about a certain determined blue-eyed football player willing to fight for my heart.

“Mom?” I asked quickly when she paused to take a breath, having not heard more than a few sentences of her tirade. “What was it like at first with you and Dad? You met in college, right? Did he pursue you? Make you feel like the only woman in the world for him?”

My mom was shocked to silence. “Why, yes, he did. We were madly in love. He was the only man for me and the only man I’ll ever truly love. And now that tramp has ruined everything.”

“Mom, please.”

She was silent for a moment. “Why do you ask?” she murmured, and I could almost feel the shame wash over her.

I hesitated, not sure I should open this large can of worms.

“Riley is back in my life.”

“Riley? Riley Black?” Her well-oiled wheels turned as she digested this information.

“Yes. Riley, whose uncle was the captain of the Sockeyes. Riley who plays football for Tyee. Riley who covered my body so I wouldn’t be shot.”

Mom cleared her throat. She might be a PITA and wallowing in her own pity right now, but she loved me fiercely, as did my father. I never questioned their love for their only child even once, not even through Dad’s midlife crisis or Mom’s self-absorption with the upheaval of her comfortable lifestyle.

“He was a very handsome young man and very sweet.” Mom had always adored Riley, but he had a knack for charming the older ladies. I’d always joked with him about becoming a gigolo if his football career didn’t work out.

“He still is.”

“So exactly how is he back in your life?”

“He wants to start something, but I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do?”

“I see. You’re wondering if he’s The One?” Mom momentarily forgot her own problems and went into full Mom mode. She might like bitching and moaning about the current state of her life, but she relished fixing my life even more.

“Does love ever truly last?”

“Don’t take your father and me as the sole example, honey. You’re a different person than I am, and Riley is kind and loyal.”

“So is Dad.”

“Humph. Just go on believing that.” I hated the bitterness poisoning my mother’s voice and permeating her attitude. She didn’t used to be like this.

“I did this to you, didn’t I?” I had to ask, because I felt somehow responsible for the breakdown of my family.

“What?”

“I caused the issues between Dad and you.”

“Why would you say that?”

“The shooting. Nothing has ever been the same since the shooting. We coped the best we could, but my trauma took a toll on our family and your relationship with Dad, and it never recovered.”

“Don’t you ever blame yourself. We’d been growing apart for years. Going our own separate ways and immersing ourselves in our own activities. Of course, mine were noble and his weren’t.” She had to get that dig in.

“Mom—”

“Sorry.”

She wasn’t, and we both knew it. She’d like nothing better than for me to pick her side.

“Anyway, we had nothing in common anymore. That’s the key, honey. Opposites might attract, but it’s the commonalities that keep you together and make for a lasting relationship.”

“I love animals, and so does Riley. I want to do equine therapy for children who’ve been traumatized, and Riley works with his uncle’s charity to do the same. We both love Seattle sports. We like to go hiking and swimming and stuff like that.”

“That’s a good start.”

“I don’t know what to do. I’m still pretty fragile emotionally. I don’t know if I can withstand another blow.”

“Why would you have to withstand a blow?”

“If it doesn’t work out.” I didn’t tell her coming back here had torn the Band-Aid off some pretty old wounds, but she probably guessed that.

“Assuming it won’t work out is no way to approach a relationship. Besides, you’re stronger than you think you are. Most of the time, I think you’re stronger than both your father and me put together.”

“You do?”

“I do.”

“You and Riley are meant to be together. I’ve known it for years, even if you didn’t. True love is never easy, but it’s always worth fighting for.”

I wanted to ask her if she’d fought for Dad but decided against it.

I contemplated her words long after we ended the call.

Worth fighting for.

My romantic streak had been buried under the rubble of my high school days. Was Riley worth fighting for? Or should I play it safe and run like hell just as I’d been doing for years?

And how was that working out for me?

Lonely didn’t come close to describing how I felt most of the time.

But Riley?

Was he really the right guy? Did I have enough experience to make such a judgment call this early in my life? I’d kept myself under a rock for a long time. I had friends who married young and regretted it.

But I wasn’t talking marriage. I was talking about a date—one date, which could change my life in irreversible ways.

I wasn’t sure I was ready for that.

 

* Riley *

 

The morning after the flowers were delivered, I paced back and forth on the porch that ran the entire length of the front of the house. I checked my phone for the time. If she was going to make her eight thirty, she’d need to leave within the next few minutes, but then, I didn’t have much time either, and I had to go to the opposite side of campus. I couldn’t afford to anger the professor with my tardiness. He wasn’t the forgiving kind, and he’d already pegged me as a dumb jock.

Last night I’d been beyond disappointed when Tiff didn’t call to thank me for the flowers. But today was another day, and I was bringing my A game, the only kind of game she would get from me.

I saw the door open and out stepped Tiff into the cloudy, chilly October day. At least it wasn’t raining. Us Seattleites appreciated rainless days, sun or no sun.

She hurried down the sidewalk, looking sexy as hell in her knee-high boots, skinny jeans, and leather jacket. Tiff had always known how to dress to make the most of her diminutive figure. Her long blond hair bounced as she walked. She turned toward campus, several blocks away. I grabbed my backpack and sprinted after her.

“Tiff! Wait!”

She stared at me in shock. “What are you doing here?” She glanced over her shoulder at my house.

“I live next door to you.”

Her eyes opened wide. “You live with Gage?”

I nodded, unable to stop the wicked grin spreading across my face. “You didn’t know that?”

“No. I’ve never seen your car there.”

“The house belongs to Uncle Coop, so I have dibs on the garage.”

“How long have you known I lived next door?”

“Gage told me. He ran into Alisa.”

She regarded me with narrowed, suspicious eyes. She didn’t buy my story.

“What do you think I am? A stalker?”

“You tell me.”

I loved sassy Tiff. I chuckled and fell into step beside her. “Let me carry that.” I grabbed her backpack before she could protest.

“Riley—”

I sensed a lecture coming on, and I so did not want to put up with that. “Did you like the flowers?”

“They were beautiful, but you really shouldn’t have done it.” She increased her pace, but her short legs were no match for my long ones. I kept up without effort.

“I’m not willing to admit defeat.”

“Riley.” She lowered her voice, almost sounding pitying.

“When I know what I want, I go after it. We’re not over, Tiff. We never had a chance to be over. We would be good together if you’d give us a chance.”

“I told you I wasn’t interested.”

“And I’m telling you I don’t believe you.”

She let out an exasperated sigh. “You should. I—I—there’s someone else.”

I laughed. “No, there isn’t, or you’d have told me by now.”

“Really, Ry, there is.”

She was lying, and she knew I knew. “Yeah, Dex doesn’t count.”

“You’re the most infuriating boy I know.”

“Man, Tiff. I’m a man. Not a boy anymore.” I wrapped my fingers gently but firmly around her arm and exerted enough pressure to force her to stop. I gazed down at her, letting her see the heat in my gaze and silently challenging her to deny the chemistry burning hot and heavy between us.

She lowered her head, hiding behind a curtain of hair. “Please, Riley.”

“Tiff. This man wants you as a woman, not a girl. I want you. But I want more than your body. I want you, Tiff. All of you.”

“I can’t give you what you want.”

“You can if you let yourself.”

She lifted her head and met my gaze. Tears swam in those big brown eyes. The agony shining there sat me back on my heels. I loosened my grip, and she yanked her backpack from my other hand with surprising strength. “I’m going to class now, and you are not welcome to follow me. Understood?”

My head swam as if I’d been hit by a nasty right hook and had my bell rung. Anger flashed in her eyes. “Leave. Me. Alone.” She pivoted on a boot heel and stalked down the street.

I watched her go. My eyes were drawn to that gorgeous ass of hers. My body responded, and I swallowed. This thing wasn’t just about sex. It was about so much more, even if my dick thought otherwise.

Tiff talked big, but her words had no meaning because her eyes told me otherwise. She wanted me—all of me. She hadn’t admitted it to herself yet. But she would. Soon.