Where Forever Lies (16 page)

A few
minutes later, he received her text, telling him good morning as well
and he started grinning as he sat alone at his table. He shook his
head, telling himself to take it slow. He didn’t want to let
his guards down so fast. He’d been down this road before,
except now he had to think about his son.

He pushed
his chair back and got up, ready to get the fence done so he could
relax the rest of the day. As he opened the front door and headed
outside, the sun seemed to slap him in the face with its heat.

“Damn,
it’s going to be a hot day,” he muttered to himself as he
began his walk around the fence line to find the broken spot.

It took
longer than he was hoping to find the spot where the fence was
broken, but once he finally did, he realized it shouldn’t take
long to fix. Luckily there were just two boards down. He got to work,
bustling to get it knocked out quickly so he could get out of the
heat, and thirty minutes later he was done and ready for a cold beer.

As he was
on his way to the barn to put the horses back in the field he decided
to make a pit stop at the house for a beer. He pulled a beer out of
the fridge, sucking half of it down in one gulp and as he leaned back
against the counter, his phone went off. He looked down at the name
and groaned. “Dammit.” His voice was loud in the silence
of the empty house. After spending some time with Paige, he’d
forgotten all about Sarah. Seeing her name didn’t ignite any
feelings and he decided to ignore her call for now. He knew it
wouldn’t make her stop calling, the girl was relentless, but it
would at least give him time to decide how he was going to turn her
down. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her feelings, but he
also didn’t want to ruin anything with Paige. He liked Paige, a
lot, and he wanted to see if they could possibly hit it off.

He
scratched his chin, thinking about how different they both were. He
seemed to always find the girly girls, but Paige was definitely more
finicky than most of the ones he’d dated. She seemed to have
some inner turmoil hidden somewhere deep inside her. He had wanted to
ask her what had happened this past year that had made her anxiety
worsen, but he could tell she wasn’t ready to open up about it
just yet. He wanted to know. He had this urge to help her overcome
whatever had happened to her. But he could tell it was very personal
to her. Even though she had things she was keeping hidden for now,
things that seemed to make her keep part of her guard up, she was
still easy to be around. He didn’t feel like he needed to watch
what he said around her for fear of upsetting her. Most girls he
dated were getting mad at him all the time for stupid shit he’d
said. He never understood it and it never worked out in the long run
anyway. But with Paige, his bluntness didn’t seem to bother
her.

His phone
started ringing again. Sighing, he decided to answer it and get it
over with. The sooner the better, so he could get back to getting
some things done around the farm.

“Hello,”
he said as he pulled out another beer.

“Tyler,
I’ve been trying to get hold of you,” Sarah said in a
light tone. He could tell she was trying to hide her irritation.

“Yeah,
I’ve been busy working. What’s up?” he asked
casually.

“I
haven’t seen you for a while, I miss you.”

Tyler
rubbed his hand over his face, wanting to slap himself for letting
this thing go on for so long with her, knowing it was never right to
begin with. “I can’t tonight, Sarah. I’ve got a lot
of stuff going on right now.”

Shit,
why can’t I just tell her the truth?
He wondered.

“Why
not? Don’t you miss me Tyler?” she questioned, her voice
turning more sultry with each word, more convincing.

Tyler
paused for a second trying to find the right words. This was
something he wasn’t good at but knew it had to be done. “Look,
Sarah,” he began, feeling the tension already forming through
the phone. “I just can’t do this anymore. It’s not
working out. You know I’ve told you before that I’m just
not interested and it’s not right to keep leading you on. I
don’t want to see you anymore.” Tyler waited for the blow
up, for the high pitched screeching to begin but there was only
silence. He began to wonder if she’d just hung up but as he
pulled his phone away, he saw he was still connected.

“Oh,
Tyler you don’t mean that. We’re having fun. I know you
enjoy my company,” Sarah said in a tone that he thought was too
confident for what he’d just told her.

“Sarah,
I’m serious. I’m done. Please, I don’t want to
fight with you, I want this to be civil,” Tyler said as he took
another sip of his beer. He had a feeling he’d need something
to calm his nerves.

“Tyler,
you can’t possibly mean that. We’ve been seeing each
other for three months now,” she whined.

“I’m
really sorry, Sarah. You’re a great girl, but I just don’t
have the time right now for a relationship.” Tyler knew that
was partly true and partly a lie. He had time if he made the time,
but it was also the safest excuse he could give her.

“You
could make time, if you’d try, Tyler, don’t give me that
bullshit.”

Tyler
tightly squeezed his eyes shut, feeling the stress coming on. “Yeah,
maybe, Sarah. Look, I gotta get going, I’ve got some work to
do.”

“You
always have work to do, Tyler. You’re missing out on something
that could be good if you’d give it a try,” she said, her
voice softening.

“Take
care, Sarah,” he said as he pushed end on his phone. He hated
dealing with these kinds of things, it was so emotionally draining.
He just hoped she would actually let it go and not keep trying to
change his mind. He had the feeling she could be a pain in the ass if
she didn’t get what she wanted.

Feeling
better about getting that off his chest, he decided to go outside and
get some other things done that he’d also been putting off for
a while. There were a lot of trees that needed trimming and he had
some things to fix on his truck too. He had enough to keep him busy
until dark.

♥♥♥

He spent
the rest of the day trimming the trees around the house, letting his
mind relax and think of nothing in particular. It always made him
feel good to work around his property. It gave him a sense of pride
to make his place look nice. He briefly thought of Paige and it
crossed his mind what it would feel like to share all this with her
and her daughter. Of course that was crazy because Paige would never
be happy out here in the middle of nowhere. She loved the city and
had some paranoia about going outside and getting dirty. Feeling his
hopes drop, he realized they probably weren’t really that great
of a match, either. For some reason, he kept going after women he had
nothing in common with. He should be looking for a woman who could
see and enjoy the real beauty out here. Someone he could share all
this with and who wanted to be out here. Not chasing women who would
rather be somewhere else.

Hours
later, after the sun was beginning to disappear behind the tree line,
he finally decided to call it a day and head inside to shower and
relax for the evening. His muscles were sore from working nonstop all
day and he was ready to unwind.

He opened
the screen door that led inside his old kitchen, and cringed when it
grated against the door frame; he knew that’d be on his agenda
next weekend. The door was old and needed to be replaced. He had been
replacing and restoring the house one small thing at a time, when it
fit into his schedule and budget.

After
showering all the dirt from a hard day’s work, he got out, made
a sandwich, and turned the TV on. He was just settling in and was on
the verge of dozing off when he heard a knock at his door. He looked
at the clock, seeing that it was a little after nine, and wondered
who’d be stopping by. His heart dropped when he’d
remembered the conversation with Sarah earlier, and he was praying it
wasn’t her. He was looking to relax and knew she’d be up
for drama.

He opened
the door and stiffened when he saw her and felt his grip on the door
handle tighten. She had a bashful look about her and he knew this
night was not going to go as planned.

“Sarah
what are you doing here? I thought I’d made myself clear
earlier.”

She inched
forward, a sly smile forming on her full lips, “I thought I
could get you to change your mind if I persuaded you a little.”
She reached out to him, her hands finding his waist as she tried to
pull him closer.

Tyler
gritted his teeth together, trying to keep his cool, but he had a
feeling it wasn’t going to happen. He knew most guys would love
to have a woman standing at their door trying their hardest to prove
how much they wanted you. But he’d been down this road a
hundred times and it was a dead end. “Sarah, I was serious
about what I’d said earlier. Nothing can change my mind.
Please, just go.” He pushed her away and crossed his arms.

Tyler
watched her expression go from confident to defiant in a matter of
seconds. She placed her hands on her hips and pushed past him into
his house. Not believing what was going on, he went after her, trying
to figure out what on earth she was doing as she went from room to
room. “Sarah, what the hell are you doing?” he demanded,
his temper beginning to rise.

“You’re
seeing someone, aren’t you? That’s where all this is
coming from. Who is she?” she yelled, her voice cracking with
unshed emotion.

“I
don’t have anyone here. I told you, it’s just not working
out. Now, I want you to leave. I don’t want to argue with you.”
Tyler clenched his fists, trying to calm himself down. This was one
of the reasons why he’d gotten a divorce and sworn off getting
involved again. He hated arguing, hated dealing with all the drama
and hated losing his cool.

Sarah took
off searching his house again, yelling curse words at him along the
way. Tyler stood in the kitchen, waiting for her escapade to end so
he could get her out of here. It was ridiculous.

He heard a
loud crash and lunged forward, down the hall and towards his bedroom.
He couldn’t believe how crazy she was acting. He never thought
she’d be like this, they weren’t even that serious. He
rounded the corner and came to a halt. She was in his bedroom,
slinging everything off his dresser and off his desk as she seethed
with anger. At first he was stunned, but then he snapped out of it
and went towards her, ready to get her out of here. Now, on top of
dealing with her, he was going to have to clean this mess up.

He wrapped
his arms around her waist, pulling her kicking body out of his room
and down the hall towards the front door. Enough was enough. He
wasn’t going to have some crazy woman trashing his place. As he
carried her to the door, he heard her sobbing as her body went limp.
He set her down at the door, feeling at a loss for words as he looked
at her stricken, tear stained face. He didn’t want it to end
this way, but he couldn’t keep going on with it, either. He
clenched his fists together a few times as he stared at her. “Look,
Sarah, I’m really sorry, okay? It’s really nothing you
did, it’s just not what I need right now.” He was hoping
she was done going crazy and could maybe talk rationally before she
left.

She sucked
in a sob, wiped her eyes and said, “I’d better go before
I do something else stupid.”

Tyler
watched her jog to her car and slam on the gas, spinning gravel out
onto his yard. He grimaced at the sight, but was relieved that she
was finally leaving. Shutting the door he went inside, grabbed
another beer, and leaned against the counter thinking about the whole
incident. Being in a relationship was difficult. For some reason he
always picked the psychotic women who could flip a switch and turn on
the crazy in a matter of seconds, usually over less of an ordeal than
tonight. He understood that she was upset, but did she really have to
trash his room?

He chugged
the beer and thought about the consequences of getting involved with
another woman. Maybe he should stay single for a while longer, until
Brandon was a little older and he knew more of what he wanted in a
relationship, because right now, he wasn’t picking any winners.
He thought about Paige and he wondered if he should even waste his
time. What if it was another dead end and they couldn’t get
along, either? They both had children who would be involved in all
this mess if things went south. At least with Sarah, she didn’t
have kids and he only had her come over when Brandon was at his
mom’s. Plus, Paige and he were complete opposites, so there was
a big chance they weren’t going to be that compatible. He
sighed as he realized he needed to give dating some serious thought.
He didn’t want to get wrapped up in another woman only to find
out they weren’t right for each other. Did he really have the
time and patience for all this?

He headed
down the hall to the mess that awaited him, feeling exhausted and
torn as to what to do about Paige. His heart was telling him to not
let her slip away but his mind was telling him to run.

Paige
leaned down and softly kissed Kyra goodnight on the forehead, pulled
her animal printed cover up to her chin, and then quietly shut her
door. She walked down the hall to the kitchen to pour herself a glass
of wine. It had been a long, stressful week and she needed something
to help calm her nerves down.

As she
leaned back against the counter and sipped on her wine, Tyler crossed
her mind. She was surprised the date had gone so well and that she
had enjoyed herself. Usually, there was something that turned her off
about the guy, or the date itself, but with Tyler, everything had
ended up turning into complete chaos, while at the same time it
couldn’t have been more perfect. That thought struck her as
odd. She never would have thought she’d look back and see that
unorganized, dirty date as perfect.