Chapter Ten
Kelsi
“God, I hope he’s not fat and ugly,” I moaned as Hannah and I tried to pick out a dress for my blind date.
“Was that Tyler who just called?” Hannah asked.
“Yeah, he was trying to ask me out again. Like I’d really go out with him after everything he put me through in high school. I just can’t do it.”
“You seemed pretty friendly with him the other day.”
“Okay, yes, he’s handsome, and I was nice to him. That doesn’t mean I’m going to date the guy. He doesn’t live here. He lives in Alabama.”
“I get it; I think we should concentrate on this new guy anyways. What do you want to wear?”
“Maybe this blue dress?” I asked. “You know Tyler is just one of those guys who is used to getting his own way. He probably doesn’t even like me and is only asking me out because he doesn’t like that I was the one to break up with him when we were younger.”
“Yeah, probably.”
“I mean, he couldn’t have changed all that much. Once a jerk, always a jerk.”
Even as the words came out of my mouth, I wasn’t sure I believed them. Tyler didn’t seem like he was as much of a jerk the more I got to know him. He was kind and polite and everything that I remembered him being when we dated. It dawned on me that the jerk he turned into after we almost had sex might have been the guy he was pretending to be, and maybe the real him had always been the man I dated.
It didn’t matter, though. I was living in Rainbow, Texas, and he wasn’t. We had two different lives, and although they collided for a short period of time, he really wasn’t going to be staying, and I wasn’t moving to Alabama, so there was nothing else to discuss.
“So, have you seen his father yet?” Hannah asked as she pillaged my closet looking for shoes.
“No, I’m afraid to.”
“It will be all right. You should go see him. I’ve been out there with Robert and Kendall; it was fine.”
“I will go.”
“Okay, so what are we going to do about your shoes? For such a sexy woman, it’s appalling the supply of dresses and shoes you own. Don’t you think you should buy yourself some clothes every now and then?”
“I hardly have enough money for Clyde’s clothes. My clothes are just fine; look at this fabulous wardrobe,” I said dramatically as I held up my work boots. “What woman wouldn’t love to have a pair of these in her closet?”
“Me.” Hannah giggled.
“Yeah, I guess I might not need them for much longer if they sell this place. What on earth would I even do with myself?”
“You’re a smart girl, I know you’ll find something else. Maybe you could go work at the Everett ranch?”
“No! Absolutely not! I heard they are genetically modifying all their horse food. Who does that? Only natural food is good for the horses. I wouldn’t last a day there.”
“Me neither. Maybe the two of us could go look for work together?”
“We might have to.”
“Have you considered buying the ranch at all? Or taking it over? I really think you’d do great at it. You could start implementing more of your ideas you are always talking about.”
“Ideas need money, Hannah. I don’t think I’d be able to keep this place up and running without taking out a loan and I don’t know if that would even work. It’s so overwhelming, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Let’s talk about what this hunky millionaire is going to look like.”
“I really do think you should give Tyler a chance,” Hannah added.
“Are we talking about the ranch or Tyler? I can’t keep this conversation straight.”
“Kelsi, he’s so unbelievably cute, and I saw how you were around him. He’s the one. I feel it in my bones. It doesn’t matter what happened in high school. Who cares about high school? No one had fun in high school; it was just a giant mess of hormones. I think you should go out with him for real and see if there is anything there.”
“No.”
“That’s it? Just like that, you’re going to blow off the chance of your lifetime?”
“He’s not a chance of my lifetime. I don’t care about his money. I know Tyler too well; it would never work.”
“Maybe that’s exactly why it will work out perfectly?”
Hannah was one of those girls who always thought life worked out exactly like it was supposed to. Her husband, Martin, was a decent guy, and they had married after only a few months dating. In her eyes, once you met the man of your dreams, you just automatically knew he was the right one. I wasn’t so sure about that.
Was it really possible to meet someone and know you were meant to be? I certainly hadn’t met anyone who I’d fallen for like that in a long time. I couldn’t really count Clyde’s father either; I knew I was in lust with him more than love. I wasn’t even all that heartbroken when he left, only sad because I was going to have to raise a child alone and anxious about what all that would entail.
“Can we please stop talking about Tyler? I’ve got a date tonight. Let’s worry about this for right now.”
“You’re great on dates. This will be easy; he’s going to fall in love with you,” Hannah said dramatically.
“Oh, my God. No. I don’t want anyone falling in love. That’s too much pressure.”
“Okay, he’ll like you a lot and be really handsome.” She laughed. “Oh, that sounds so romantic. Like right out of a fairytale. The okay prince and the sort of nice princess,” she teased.
“Maybe I should cancel? I’ve never gone on a blind date before. What on earth will we talk about? What if he’s ugly? Or not funny? Or rude?”
“Take a deep breath. I’m sure he’s a nice normal guy and you’ll have a great time.”
“I’m not sure. How can you be sure?” I asked as I felt myself starting to panic. “What if he’s a murderer? I shouldn’t go out with him. This is not right. Something feels off.”
“Kelsi, stop trying to make this into a big deal. People go on dates all the time. There’s nothing unusual about this, and it doesn’t have to be a big deal. You are just two people going to have a meal together. Sit down, eat your food, smile, and then say goodbye if the date doesn’t work out. You really need to stop worrying so much.”
My brain knew Hannah was right, but my body still felt like it was being pulled tighter and tighter as I tried to calm my nerves. As much as I logically knew this man was probably just like me, there was still this small part of me that couldn’t get over the fact that he was using the blind date feature. Why would a man do that? Just because he’s rich, he thinks a woman would just agree to go out with him? But then again, I did agree so what did that make me?
I could see that the blind date feature would be useful if a man didn’t want the entire world to know they were online dating. Although Tyler didn’t seem to mind being online, he wasn’t exactly looking for a love connection from what I’d heard. Maybe it was a good thing that this guy was a little more cautious; perhaps that meant he was taking the idea of dating more seriously?
“Should I wear my hair up or down?” I asked as I stood in the mirror. “Up looks too fancy, but down looks a little frumpy.”
“You’ll look beautiful either way, but I’d say we should curl it a little and pull it up.”
“Yes, up would be good,” I said confidently. “Or, maybe half up and half down?”
“Oh, stop, Kelsi! It’s just a date. You really have to get over this if you’re going to start dating on a regular basis.”
“Who said I was going to date on a regular basis? I’m fine being single. I don’t even know how I got wrapped up in this whole dating website thing. After this date, I’m done for a while. Clyde and I will be just fine without a man around.”
Hannah just laughed as she finished helping me get ready. She was a good friend and a great co-worker. It was weird how some people came into your life and fit so perfectly, as if they were meant to be there with you.
“Do everything I wouldn’t do,” Hannah yelled after me as I pulled away from the house.
My nerves wouldn’t stop on the drive to Fort Worth, and my hands were literally shaking by the time I pulled into the restaurant parking lot. I was 15 minutes early for the date, but I had to get a drink if I was going to calm my nerves before my date showed up.
“Cranberry sour, please,” I said as I stood at the bar.
“Coming right up.”
I sipped it a little faster than I should have, but I had to get my hands to calm down. I didn’t know what this guy looked like and the only way I was supposed to recognize him was going to be the red rose he had in his hand. It was either going to be very romantic or a huge disaster if some other guy showed up with a rose that night as well.
“Ms. Sullivan?” a man in a nice suit asked.
I took in a deep breath and glanced over at him, looking for the red rose he was supposed to have and didn’t see it. Instead, I saw a name tag that listed this Michael guy as a manager.
“Yes,” I said cautiously.
“Your date has reserved a special table and asked that I seat you if you arrived before him.”
“Oh, um, all right. Can I get another one of these delivered to the table?” I asked the bartender.
“Certainly, ma’am. I’ll bring it out to you,” Michael, the manager, said.
I followed him through the restaurant to a table right in the middle of the room. It was a large table with plenty of room around it, but it certainly didn’t seem like that special of a table. If a guy was going to go to all the trouble of reserving a table and making sure the manager of the restaurant brought me to it before he arrived, I would have thought it would be a special table in the back or something nice like that. This table was right where everyone could see, and it wasn’t all that quiet out in the middle of the room like that.
“Thank you,” I said as the manager held my chair out for me and pressed it under me as I sat down.
“I’ll bring your drink right out.”
“Thank you. Does my date know I’m here?” I asked as if there was some sort of secret communication going on between the manager and my date.
“No, ma’am, I have not seen him yet.”
“Thank you.”
I looked around the room anxiously while I waited for my drink to be delivered. At least my hands had stopped shaking, and I didn’t feel totally out of control. When he delivered my second drink, I took a small sip and then let it sit in front of me. I couldn’t ram through drinks like a crazy woman if I was going to keep my wits about me that evening.
Sutherland’s was a fancy restaurant with mainly couples filling the tables all around me. It wasn’t the kind of place you’d pay for to take children since they likely wouldn’t eat half the food that was on the menu. It did look like there were a couple of families who had older teenagers and adult children, but no young kids. I tried not to look too crazy as I glanced at the tables around the room and tried my best not to look like a lonely woman sitting in the middle of the room all by myself.
What if he doesn’t show up?
The thought made my stomach flip over. What a perfect way to embarrass someone. Tell them to come to a super expensive restaurant and then have the manager put them right in the middle of the room so everyone could see their embarrassment when the date never showed up.
“Kelsi,” I heard a man’s voice say, and I smiled as I looked up from my phone.
“Tyler, what are you doing here?”
“I was in the neighborhood,” he said with a flashy grin on his face.
“You just happen to be in Fort Worth, and you just happened to show up at Sutherland’s when I was here?”
He slowly pulled a red rose out from behind him and extended it to me as some sort of peace offering. I fumed with anger as I looked at him and then at all the people who were watching us. To avoid an embarrassing scene, I took the rose and smiled politely as he sat down across from me.
“You tricked me?” I said under my breath since people were still looking.
His smile didn’t waver as he leaned in to talk with me. If I hadn’t had a hundred people around me, I’d probably have been screaming at him by then. But I wasn’t going to make a scene in front of everyone, and he knew it. That was why he picked the table in the middle of the restaurant, so I wouldn’t leave in a huff while screaming at him.
“I really wanted to go on a date with you,” he said with that continuous smile that just wouldn’t go away.
“So, you pretended to be someone else and set up a fake profile to contact me? Real mature, Tyler.”
“It was my same profile. I just updated it.”
“The profile said my date like to watch movies, go to musical theater, and volunteered at a local children’s charity. That doesn’t sound like you at all.”
“It is.”
“Sure, okay, whatever. I’m going to get going. I don’t date liars. I would have thought you figured that out from our days of dating in high school.”
“Kelsi, don’t go,” Tyler said as his hand reached out for mine.
The touch of his firm hand on mine was enough to stop me still. The way he looked at me and urged me to stay with his eyes was just another thing I couldn’t ignore. He looked sincere in his request. Tyler didn’t look like he was trying to trick me or pull one over on me, he genuinely seemed to want to talk to me.
“Fine, I’ll stay for dinner,” I huffed.
“And if things go well, you’ll go to the musical showing downtown?”
“Don’t push your luck, buddy,” I said playfully.
“Thank you for staying. I know I tricked you and I’m sorry. I thought you might have seen the humor in it. Like a little bit of a practical joke.”
“You are a practical joker now?” I smiled.
“Obviously, I’m not as good as you are at it.”
“Okay, so you’ve got me here; now what? Did you have a big plan for how dinner would go, too? Will there be some sort of cake with a human jumping out of it? I hate those, don’t do that.”
“Are you two ready to order?” the waitress said as she joined us at the table.
“Cancel the man jumping out of the cake,” Tyler said playfully. “But otherwise we aren’t ready just yet. Give us a few minutes please.”
“I’m starving; let’s decide and get our order in. There are tons of people, and I don’t want to be here all night.” I said firmly.
I wasn’t about to let him think I had let my guard down just because I was still sitting there with him. He was charming, I knew at least that much about Tyler. He had always been able to charm his way in or out of any situation he got himself in.
“Oooh, you’re full of spunk tonight, aren’t you?” He laughed.
“I’m sorry. It’s been a long few days. I’ll behave myself.”
“Don’t behave on my account; I’m fine with you being naughty,” he said as his eyes drifted to my chest and he licked his lips. “I’d really like to be naughty with you. Maybe tonight you and I should do it?”
“Really? You’re going to look at my boobs as you’re trying to win me over? Does this really work with your little online girlfriends? Come on, they have to want more than this.”
Tyler was laughing hysterically at me. It took me a moment to figure out what he was doing and when I did, I also started to laugh hysterically.
“The night of the party, I said that to you while we were eating McDonald’s. It almost worked. I mean, if those darn meddling police hadn’t broken up the party.”
“Yeah, that was a horrific moment. Remember how I jumped off the bed and onto the ground?” I laughed.
“Oh, yeah, I remember because you left me on the bed without any blankets at all. You were all cozily wrapped up in your blankets on the ground while I was left head to head with Mike and Bryce.”
“Head to head.” I kept laughing. “You are guys; nakedness doesn’t matter between guys.”
“Very true, but it was still embarrassing. I was thinking about how I handled things, and I see why you were angry. I didn’t see it when we were younger, but I see it now. It wasn’t very sensitive of me to think it was all funny and not listen to your feelings. I didn’t realize just how much you were getting teased and I truly am sorry.”
“I’m going to start crying; thank you for that. I’m sorry, too. I was young and immature, and I should have just come and talked to you and made you see my side of things. My friends were telling me what a jerk all three of you were, and I was listening; that was wrong of me.”
“Are you ready to order?” the waitress asked as she stood awkwardly looking at us while we were in the middle of our uber romantic moment.
“Yes, we should order,” Tyler said with a bit of a smile on his face. “You go ahead,” he said with a nod.
“I’d like the lobster salad, please.”
“Oh, lobster, that sounds good, but I think I’d rather have the whole tale.”
“Would you like me to bring you some rolls to the table?” the waitress asked.
“Yeah, rolls,” I said without a moment of hesitation.
Bread had somehow become the enemy of Americans and I just didn’t get it. Everything in moderation was just fine to have, but I wasn’t about to give up bread just to lose a couple of pounds.
“I love bread,” Tyler said almost under his breath.
“Me too.” I giggled. “How’s your father doing? Do you think he is in very much pain?”
“He’s doing as well as can be expected. How are your parents doing?”
“That’s been part of my stress this week. Our family has had some stress going on with the ranch, and I was kept out of the loop, which was annoying.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.” I laughed.
“Can I ask you a question, without you getting mad?” Tyler said.
“Sure. Well, I think so. I guess it matters what the question is.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about your son?”
“What son?” I said with a straight face to see his reaction.
“Um, well. I thought you had…”
“I’m teasing you,” I said because I couldn’t keep a straight face any longer. “He’s five, and his name is Clyde. Did your sister tell you?”
“Yeah, it’s no big deal, I was just wondering if there was a reason you hadn’t told me.”
It was a legitimate question, and I hadn’t thought about telling him about Clyde at all. When I was at the reunion, I was caught up in the evening so much that I wasn’t thinking about anything more than what we were talking about. Then while on our horseback riding, I didn’t think I’d be seeing him again after that day so I wasn’t going to go into the long story of my life. I didn’t keep Clyde a secret because I was ashamed of any part of my story; I simply didn’t want to make anything more complex than it needed to be.
“Just didn’t get around to it, I guess. I’m sure I would have told you sooner or later, but I wasn’t planning on hanging out with you again,” I teased as I motioned around the restaurant.
“Ah, yes, you were planning on meeting up with one of those super sexy millionaires and I ruined your date. I’m terribly sorry you’re stuck with my hideous face for this meal.”
“Yeah, I was hoping for someone a little better looking than you,” I teased. “But I guess I can suffer through the meal.”