Just Good Friends (21 page)

“
They’re nice,” he told her,
though he doubted anyone would look at her earrings when she filled
out her dress so well.

“
Uh oh,” her dad said,
nudging her mother in the side. “They’re both under the
mistletoe.”

Her mother giggled. “So they are. Come
on, kids. You know what you’re supposed to do.”

“
Yep. Tyler, give your bride
a kiss.”

Tyler glanced up and, sure enough,
there was a mistletoe hanging right over his head.

“
I didn’t see you put that
up there,” Tiffany told her parents.

“
We thought we’d do it while
you were dressing for dinner,” her father replied with a
mischievous smile. “You can’t blame a father for having a little
fun at Christmas.”

“
It’s more like a Valentine
day thing if you think about it,” her mother commented.

“
Who says you can’t have a
little romance at Christmastime?” her dad asked.

Her mother giggled again and motioned
for them to kiss. “Go on you two. Kiss.”

Tiffany glanced up at Tyler, and he
caught the uncertainty in her eyes.

“
Well,” Tyler said, “I guess
one kiss wouldn’t hurt.” Especially when she was so
beautiful.

Tiffany bit her lower lip for a moment
then told her mom, “No pictures.”

Her mother sighed and returned her
phone to her pocket. “Fine. No pictures.”

Her father chuckled. “Melissa’s always
liked to take pictures. It really picked up after Tiffany and Zoe
were born.”

So Melissa was Tiffany’s mother’s name.
Tyler hadn’t thought to ask what her parents’ names were, but now,
he realized he wanted to know her dad’s name, too. Sure, her
parents could be pushy, but they really weren’t all that bad once
someone got to know them.

“
Do you mind if I ask you
your name?” he asked her dad.

“
Oh no, you don’t,” her mom
protested. “You’re not sidetracking us so you can get out of
kissing your wife in front of us.”

“
No, I wasn’t trying to…” He
glanced at Tiffany, sure his face went bright red. “I mean, I was
curious, that’s all.” He cleared his throat. “Okay.”

Under ordinary circumstances, he
thought a kiss might not be so awkward, but since her
mom—Melissa—was smiling at him, silently encouraging him to do it,
he felt like a bumbling fool as he lowered his head and kissed his
best friend. He kept it short. Simple was best, after all. But
something about it made his heartbeat pick up just a bit. And when
he looked at her, she didn’t quite seem like the same person she’d
always been.

“
Alright, he kissed me,”
Tiffany told her parents. “Now, will you tell him your name,
Dad?”

“
Phil,” her dad said. “My
name is Phil.”

With a relieved sigh, Tiffany grabbed
her coat and purse. “Great. Now let’s go before we’re
late.”

Tyler held back for a moment. The kiss
probably didn’t affect her the way it’d affected him. And there was
no reason why the kiss should mean anything. It wasn’t like they
were really in love. They were only pretending to be.

Forcing his gaze off of her, he pulled
the keys out of his pocket. “Right. We don’t want to keep my
parents waiting.” Who knew what Nathan would tell them if he wasn’t
there to stop him?

He followed everyone out the door then
closed it. “You forgot to lock the door,” he called out to
Tiffany.

She stopped walking down the hall and
hurried back. With an apologetic smile, she fumbled around in her
purse for a few seconds until she found her keys. After she slipped
it in the doorknob, she locked it.

“
Don’t you have your own
key?” Phil asked.

“
Oh, yes,” Tyler quickly
lied. “I, um, just thought Tiffany would want to do it.”

“
There’s nothing wrong with
me being the one to lock the door,” Tiffany said then slipped her
keys into her purse. “We’re not like you and Mom.” She looked at
Tyler. “He is the one who manages the locks in our
house.”

“
It’s a habit,” Phil replied
with a shrug.

“
Well, like Tyler said, we
don’t want to be late.” She hesitated for a second before she took
Tyler’s hand. “Come on, honey.”

For a moment, he thought she took his
hand because she wanted to hold it, but a quick glance at her
parents reminded him that she was only doing it because they were
watching. It was silly he should entertain such notions, he
supposed. But entertained them, he did. And he didn’t know whether
to entertain them more or put a stop to such nonsense at
once.

“
I can’t wait to meet your
parents,” Melissa said as they left the apartment. “Your mom
sounded so nice on the phone.”

“
They are,” Tiffany replied.
“But I wish you would have told me before you called
her.”

“
I thought about it, but you
were busy trying on the dress you’re wearing tonight,” she told
Tiffany.

They stopped at Tyler’s car, and, since
he was still holding Tiffany’s hand, he opened the door for
her.

Instead of getting in right away,
Tiffany asked her mom, “Why do I get the feeling you waited until
then to make the call?”

Melissa shrugged. “I don’t
know.”

Tiffany narrowed her eyes at her. “You
did it on purpose so I wouldn’t be there to stop you.”

“
I don’t understand what the
big deal is. We’re all family now. Surely, his parents knew about
it.”

After a long, tense moment, Tiffany
finally said, “Maybe I’m tired of you overstepping your bounds. It
wasn’t your place to introduce yourself to them. You should’ve let
me or Tyler do that.”

Tyler’s eyes widened as Tiffany got
into the passenger seat of the car. In the whole time he’d been
with her and her parents, he never saw Tiffany stand up to her
mom.

And apparently, her parents were
equally shocked since they both stood by his car for several
seconds before they finally got into the back seat. Breaking out of
his own trance, Tyler shut the door and took a good look at Tiffany
who was staring straight ahead, her lips forming a thin line. She
was upset, and she was struggling to remain calm. She’d always been
careful when choosing her words, and this was probably the one time
when she let her mom have it. Though, if this was how bad Tiffany
got when she was upset, she was tame compared to him who stormed
into Nathan’s office screaming at him. He was amazed she had so
much self-control.

Tyler got into the car and drove to the
restaurant. When he pulled into a parking spot, her mom finally
broke the awkward silence. “I’m sorry, Tiffy. You’re right. I
should have asked you if I could call his parents.”

Tiffany’s eyes grew wide, and she
turned to look at her mom. “Really?”

“
Yes. I didn’t think
anything of it,” her mom added. “Nathan called while you were in
the dressing room and said he was going to invite all of us to
dinner, so I asked for Tyler’s parents’ phone number so I could say
hi and introduce myself. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

With a glance at her mom, Tiffany said,
“Just don’t call or tell anyone else, okay?”

Then, before her mom could answer, she
opened her door and got out. The others did the same. When Tyler
reached Tiffany’s side, he could tell she didn’t know what to think
about this turn of events. And quite frankly, he didn’t know what
to think either.

All this time, Tyler assumed that
Melissa knew she was being pushy, but maybe she didn’t. Maybe she
was so used to acting the way she did that she didn’t realize what
she was doing.

“
Do you forgive me?” her mom
asked Tiffany, coming up to them.

Tiffany’s face softened. “Yes.” Then
she gave her mom a hug.

Afterwards, Tiffany took Tyler’s hand
and headed for the restaurant. Tyler wasn’t sure what just
happened, but he suspected it was a turning point between Tiffany
and her parents. He squeezed her hand and smiled at her, glad when
she smiled at him in return.

When they entered the restaurant, the
host came over to them. “Are you Mr. and Mrs. Jackson and Mr. and
Mrs. Clark?”

It felt weird to hear the host refer to
Tiffany as “Mrs. Jackson”, but it wasn’t a bad kind of weird. In
fact, it was kind of nice.

“
Yes,” Tyler answered for
everyone. “We’re meeting Nathan Rudolph.”

The host nodded and said, “I’ll show
you to your seats.”

They followed him to the table, and
Tyler’s mom jumped up to hug Tiffany. “It’s so good to see
you.”

Offering a hesitant laugh, Tiffany
hugged her back. “We’re sorry we didn’t tell you
sooner.”

“
Oh, well, we figured you
two were still enjoying your honeymoon,” his mom said, glancing at
his dad who came over to hug Tiffany, too.

Not quite, but what was Tyler supposed
to say in front of everyone? His mom gave him a hug, patting his
back and whispering, “We’re so happy for you.”

“
Thanks, Mom,” he
replied.

His dad gave him a firm pat on the back
and said, “We’ve been secretly hoping you two would end up
together, but we didn’t want to say anything in case we embarrassed
you.”

“
Well, everyone sit down and
relax,” Nathan called out, gesturing to the chairs. “We have this
evening and Sunday to get better acquainted.”

“
Sunday?” Tyler asked as he
settled into the seat next to Tiffany.

“
I’d like everyone to come
over to my house around noon for an indoor pool party,” he replied.
“I already invited Ryan and Beth Jackson and Danielle Pearce and
her husband. Their kids will be joining us as well. I thought ‘the
more, the merrier’, you know? I hope no one minds.”

Tyler’s parents shrugged. “It’s fine
with us,” his mom said. “We haven’t seen Ryan or Beth in a while,
so it’ll be nice to see them again.”

“
And we’d love to get to
know Danielle and her husband,” Tiffany’s mom added.

Nathan turned his hopeful gaze to Tyler
and Tiffany. “What about you two? Want to join us? There’s plenty
of exercise you can do in my pool, Tyler. And it’s
heated.”

It was Thursday. Granted, Sunday wasn’t
that far away, but with everything happening so fast, it was hard
to keep up with it all. Tyler had been to Nathan’s mansion, and,
unfortunately, Nathan had more than enough accommodations to see to
everyone’s needs. So he couldn’t try to back out by saying there
was no room for him and Tiffany at this party. And as much as he
tried to figure out another way out of going, he
couldn’t.

“
Um…” Tyler looked at
Tiffany. “What do you think?”

Despite the uncertainty on her face,
she indicated she’d go along with it.

“
Okay, we’ll go,” he told
the group.

When their parents weren’t looking at
him, Tyler made eye contact with Nathan and willed his
so-called-friend to understand that he didn’t want him to do
anything else. Nathan simply gave him the same smile he gave
someone who was about to lose then turned his attention to the menu
he was holding.

With a sigh, Tyler resigned himself to
doing whatever Nathan wanted during the rest of her parents’ visit.
It was apparent his friend wasn’t going to stop, no matter how much
he protested it. It was just like Amy often said: once Nathan got
started on something, he didn’t stop until he got it. All Tyler
could do was wait out the storm and pick up the pieces when all was
said and done.

Chapter
Eighteen

Ever since her parents came into town,
Tiffany hadn’t had any time alone with Tyler. It seemed that most
of her time was spent with her parents, so when her mom suggested
she and Tyler have lunch alone on Friday, Tiffany was
relieved.

“
How are you holding up?”
Tyler asked as he drove her to her favorite little café.

“
Today I don’t have a
headache, so I think it’s better.”

“
Who’s giving you the
headache? One of our parents or Nathan?”

She crossed her arms and leaned her
head against the back of her seat. “Definitely not your parents.
They’re perfect. They didn’t act shocked when my mom called them,
and they aren’t running off telling everyone about our mock
marriage. It’s my side that does the damage.”

He chuckled. “My side comes with
Nathan, you know.”

“
I always wondered if he was
as bad as you said when he drove Amy crazy right after he married
her. Now I know he was.”

“
Yeah, he has a way with
people. Either people love him or they hate him. There’s no middle
ground. He doesn’t do anything halfway.”

“
Which explains why people
either love him or they hate him. Just what made you become friends
with him anyway?”

“
I’m not sure. He seemed to
pop up wherever I was when we were in college. We were also
roommates, so it wasn’t like I could run off to my room to get away
from him.”

She laughed. “Was he the irritating guy
you told me about who joined every single campus group?”