Just Good Friends (6 page)

“
Oh, um,” Tiffany did the
mental count in her head, “thirteen years.”

“
Thirteen years and suddenly
you’re in love,” her mother said with a sigh. “How romantic. Of
course, Zoe and Brad are quite the romantic pair, too. They’re
getting married, Tyler. Zoe, show them your ring.”

“
I saw the ring in the
pictures you sent in the email,” Tiffany said, though it did her no
good.

Zoe was right at her side to show off
the sparking large diamond.

“
Saved up a whole year for
it,” Brad said. “Zoe almost fainted.”

Zoe giggled. “I sure did. When I put
the thing on, it weighed a ton.”

“
I wanted you to have the
best, Zoe.”

While the others expressed their “ahhs”
for the endearment, Tiffany forced down the urge to gag.

“
He’s so good to me,” Zoe
told Tiffany and kissed Brad’s cheek.

“
That’s wonderful,” Tiffany
replied, not sure what else Zoe wanted to hear.

Then, one by one, all of her relatives
came up to welcome her and Tyler to Montana, and soon after that,
they finally made their way down to the baggage claim.

“
You’ll ride with us,” her
mother told her and Tyler. “We already made up the guest rooms for
you.”

“
Oh, you didn’t have to go
through all that trouble for us,” Tyler said after he grabbed their
suitcases.

Tiffany’s dad winked at them. “It’s no
problem for someone we’ll be seeing more of in the future, eh
Tiffany?”

Okay, now it was official. She wanted
so much for the floor to open up and swallow her. She’d been afraid
her parents might throw not-so-subtle hints about them getting
married. And now, they were.

She glanced at Tyler, but one of her
uncles was asking him what being the vice president of a company
was like. That was good. He was spared her dad’s
comment.

Zoe slid up to her and jabbed her in
the side. “I thought you could do better than that.”

“
What do you mean?” Tiffany
asked, keeping her voice low so the others wouldn’t
overhear.

“
Come on. Glasses. The suit
and tie. The neatly trimmed hair. You never dated a nerd
before.”

“
He’s not a nerd. He was at
work earlier today.”

“
Well, he could at least get
some contacts.”

“
There’s nothing wrong with
glasses.” Great. Now she felt awful for trying to push Tyler into
wearing contacts.

Zoe laughed, put her arm around her
shoulders, and gave her a hug. “Of course, there isn’t. Tomorrow,
we’ll see if he wears T-shirts and jeans like the rest of us. No
one should be dressed up until the actual wedding.”

“
Tyler dresses nice for
every occasion. He’s not a jeans kind of person.”

“
Too bad. The rest of us
are, and if he can’t fit in with us, there’s no way Mom and Dad
will approve of him.”

“
I don’t care if they
approve of him or not.”

“
Okay, but don’t say I
didn’t warn you.”

With a sigh, Tiffany followed her
family to the parking garage. Three days. All it was going to be
was three days. Then Tiffany could return to her nice, quiet life
in Omaha.

Chapter
Five

After Tiffany’s mother showed him to
the guest bedroom, Tyler put his things away. He was still baffled
by what she’d whispered to him right before she showed him to his
room. “Of course, when you and Tiffany get married, you’ll sleep in
the same room,” she’d said.

He hadn’t known what to say, and since
Tiffany hadn’t been nearby when it happened, he’d been spared from
trying to come up with a polite response. She would have been
mortified if she’d known. He decided he wouldn’t tell her. It was
bad enough she had to bear with the onslaught of her relatives who
had asked her all about the big city. Omaha could hardly be called
a big city, but he supposed to people living in a small town, it
would be.

He didn’t understand why they all felt
the need to take the hour drive out to Billings to pick them up
when they were all going to meet up the next day for Thanksgiving
dinner. But then, he came from a small family, so maybe this was
something large families did when someone visited from out of
town.

He opened his suitcase and pulled out
the suit he’d wear at the wedding. He went to the closet and hung
it up. Then he hung up the shirts and slacks he’d brought for
tomorrow and Friday. Afterwards, he turned his attention to lining
up his toiletry items on the dresser.

Once that was done, he debated whether
or not to venture out into the rest of the house. He didn’t know
Tiffany’s family well, and since Tiffany was unpacking in her old
bedroom, he was probably better off waiting to see if someone would
come by. Or maybe he’d just wait until he heard Tiffany’s
voice.

Sitting on the bed, he pulled out his
smartphone and checked his email. One from Nathan caught his
attention. He opened it and read, “Here’s another tip for making
parents happy. Remember to praise the way your friend’s mother
decorates the house. Women like to think they’re good when it comes
to domestic duties. More advice will come as I think of
it.”

Tyler shook his head and deleted the
email. He saw no reason to encourage either one of Tiffany’s
parents. He wasn’t even going to praise her mom’s housekeeping or
her parents’ excellent child rearing abilities. The two were
already planning out his future visits for goodness’ sakes. There
was no way he wanted the not-so-subtle hints to get
worse.

A knock came at his door, and he went
to open it. When he saw Tiffany, he relaxed. “How are you holding
up?”

“
As good as can be
expected,” she replied.

“
I see what you mean about
your parents getting on your case about being married. They’re
pretty intense.”

“
I’m sorry I brought you
into this, but I’m really glad you’re here. I know it’s selfish,
but I don’t want to be alone with them.”

“
You owe me big time for
this.”

“
Yeah, I know. And I promise
to repay the favor.” She glanced down the hallway. “Before they bug
us about drinking hot chocolate with them, you want to see what
they did to my room?”

“
They fixed it up for your
visit?”

“
They did more than that.
Well, I should specify. It was my mother. Dad wouldn’t mess with my
bedroom.”

“
You got my attention. Okay.
Show me what she did.”

He followed her down the hall to the
other room, and she waved him in. He didn’t even have to ask what
her mom did. The first thing he saw was a stack of wedding
magazines on her dresser. Next to that stack was a book on planning
a wedding. Little hearts and balloons decorated the mirror over the
dresser. Then when he turned to her bed, he saw a book on how to
pleasure her husband in bed. And next to that were two teddy bears,
one wearing a bridal dress and the other a groom’s
tuxedo.

Tyler whistled. “Wow.”

“
Wow, indeed,” she replied,
crossing her arms. “I have to admit that even for her, I was
shocked. I knew she’d be giving hints, but I didn’t think she’d do
anything like this. I keep wondering if she’s giving my sister
books on baby names and what to expect during
pregnancy.”

“
If this is her style, then
probably.” Despite himself, he couldn’t help but laugh. “Mind if I
take a picture?”

She gasped. “No.”

“
Oh come on.” He pulled out
his smartphone. “Nathan won’t believe it.”

“
I don’t want Nathan to see
this.”

“
Why not?”

“
Because he’s the boss of
the company I work for.”

“
He’s my boss,
too.”

“
Yeah, but he’s also your
friend.”

“
Which is why he needs to
see this.” He gestured to the room. “It looks like the honeymoon
suite in a hotel.”

“
It’s
embarrassing.”

“
It’s funny.”

He held up the phone, but she grabbed
it from him. “Don’t you dare,” she hissed.

Laughing harder, he made a move to
retrieve it, but she dodged him. “What if we send it to Beth
instead? You two are good enough friends where this would give her
a good chuckle.”

She slipped it in her pocket, a move
that successfully made him stop.

“
Fine,” he relented. “You
win. Though this is classic. No one’s going to believe it. I bet if
I made a video, it would go viral on You Tube.”

With a groan, she picked up the
magazines, books, and bears and slid them all under her bed.
“There. Now you won’t be tempted to take a picture or
video.”

“
That’s a real shame. Your
mom did nothing this crazy in my room.”

“
Good. I wouldn’t want you
taking a picture of that either.”

He supposed he couldn’t blame her for
not wanting anyone to see it. He might not either if it’d been his
parents.

Her mother popped her head into her
room. “Tiffy, I made hot chocolate for you and Tyler. Come to the
living room.”

“
Mom, it’s been a long day.
Can’t we do this tomorrow?”

“
This might be the only time
you, your dad, Tyler and I can all talk alone. Tomorrow’s
Thanksgiving, Friday is the wedding rehearsal, and Saturday’s the
wedding. What other time will your father and I have?”

With a resigned sigh, Tiffany nodded.
“Okay. But it’s almost midnight. I don’t want this to go beyond a
half hour.”

“
Deal.” Turning to Tyler,
her mother added, “She’s quite agreeable most of the time. But
you’ve been friends with her for years, so you know that already.”
Chuckling, her mother left the room.

Tiffany shot him a worried glance, so
he rubbed her shoulders and whispered, “Saturday isn’t too far
away.”

“
I know it, but it feels
like it’ll take forever to get here.”

Slipping his arm around her shoulders,
he led her out of the bedroom and down the hall to the living room
which was already decorated with a large Christmas tree, glowing
candles, and Christmas music.

“
Usually, we get everything
set up for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving,” her father said
as Tiffany and Tyler sat on the couch. “But since we’ll be getting
ready for Zoe’s wedding, we decorated the room earlier
today.”

“
This wasn’t the only room
that got decorated,” Tiffany muttered under her breath.

“
What was that, dear?” her
mother asked as she handed them their cups.

Tyler accepted his cup, and his eyes
grew wide in surprise. He had to admit the whip cream and little
chocolate chips were a nice touch. Sure, the woman might go
overboard with decorating Tiffany’s bedroom, but she sure knew how
to make a great cup of hot chocolate.

Her mom settled in her chair. “Did you
have a good flight?”

“
It wasn’t bad,” Tiffany
said.

“
Did you have any problems
changing the name on Andy’s ticket?” her dad asked.

“
No. I work at a travel
agency. It helps to have access to a work computer for that kind of
thing,” she replied then sipped her cup.

“
Well, I never cared much
for Andy anyway,” her dad said. “He was always gruff when I
called.”

Tyler didn’t think it was possible, but
Tiffany’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “You did what?” she
demanded.

“
It was only a couple of
times,” her mom spoke up. “And he did it on my behalf. I had to
know if you mentioned liking anything so I knew what to get you for
your birthday. It’s not every day you turn thirty-five.”

“
Why didn’t you just ask me
what I wanted?” Tiffany asked.

“
If I’d done that, then it
wouldn’t have been a surprise.”

Tyler bit his lower lip. Yes, he knew
the woman was frustrating Tiffany to no end, but her mom acted as
if she had no idea why she had upset her daughter, and that was as
funny as the room had been. Either her mom really didn’t get it, or
her mom was good at acting. And Tyler had no idea which was the
case.

“
I don’t want you calling
any more of my boyfriends,” Tiffany insisted.

“
Tyler didn’t seem to mind
it when we called,” her dad said.

She turned her bewildered gaze to
Tyler. “My dad called, too?”

Realizing he’d just been put on the
spot, he stopped drinking the delicious hot chocolate and shrugged.
“Just to ask what dessert I’d like at Thanksgiving
dinner.”

“
And Tyler was very polite,”
her dad added with a wink. “Andy was curt and rude. You can tell a
man’s character by how he acts on the phone.”

“
Amen,” her mom
agreed.

“
I was wondering,” Tyler
began in hopes of breaking the tension in the room, “I notice the
angel on top of the tree is holding the number five. Is there a
significance in that number?”