Priya in Heels (Entangled Embrace) (23 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Tyler

At least two weeks had passed since the breakup, and days since seeing Pree at The Harmon’s. I wanted to protect her from all of her pain, but she wouldn’t say a word to me. It was odd having to think twice about texting her. Jenny’s big day was almost here, and Miranda would not get off my back trying to get to Pree. I told her Pree was busy with work and she would see her soon. I hadn’t told her, or my parents, about the breakup. It would crush them because they liked Pree a lot.

The wedding was in two days and everyone expected me to bring Pree. The truth was, I had thought she would see her mistake and all this would have blown over by now. I had to try harder. I knew what she liked and what pushed her away, and there was a fine line between the two when she was still hurting. Here went nothing, or perhaps, here went everything.

Tyler:
Are you…still coming to the wedding?

Pree didn’t reply. She probably thought I’d lost my mind. I repeated the text ten minutes later, and when she failed to respond, I went to her apartment. She opened the door, mouth hung open in shock, a glazed look in her eyes. She looked so cute and confused, I wanted to scoop her up in my arms and plant a kiss on her.

Miranda shattered the awkward silence and pounced on Pree. “Priya!” she squealed.

Pree laughed and returned the hug. Miranda stepped back, placed her hands on her hips, and asked, “Why aren’t you ready?”

Pree glanced down at her pajamas. “For…?”

“The wedding!”

“Oh.” She looked at me. I shrugged.

“You’re still going, right?” Miranda asked.

She paused and stared at me, and I said, “Of course, if she still wants to. She probably slept in.”

“Let’s go, let’s go.” Miranda walked past her and into her bedroom.

“OMG! This dress!” she screamed.

I flinched.
Teenage girls
.

“It’s a very pretty dress,” Pree assured me and almost cracked a smile.

I walked in and closed the door. Damn, I missed her. Why couldn’t it be like this all the time?

“What’s going on? Doesn’t she know we’re not together?” Pree whispered.

I shook my head and stuffed my hands into my pockets as I watched the hallway. “I didn’t have the heart to tell her. Her family came to visit yesterday, and she wanted to spend time with you, so they let her stay the night at my place. I told her you were working. She keeps going on and on about you.”

“So am I supposed to pretend to be your girlfriend and go to the wedding?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know if you know how brides are, but they get a little crazy. If you tell them you are bringing plus one and they pay for that plus one and you don’t show up with that plus one…”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“What do you think? Can you stomach being with me for two days?” I asked.

“Of course. Ty, it’s not like that.” She frowned sympathetically, and I wondered if she’d smack me if I kissed those tiny wrinkles between her brows. “But you should stop the notes.”

Of course I never would. I’d said a thousand and one reasons until she returned to me. “Well, you better hurry up. You can get ready at the hotel.”

“Hotel?”

“Remember? I’d asked if you were going to stay with me at the hotel and you agreed? I reserved a hotel room a while back since it’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? I’m supposed to spend the night with you…in a hotel…alone?”

My heart raced at all the possibilities the truth in her words brought to mind. But I shoved them into the corner of my mind and said, “It’s a long drive. Leaving right now gives us some time to relax and sleep, but not too much time that we could do much else. Anyway, it’s not like you’re going to throw yourself at me.”

“Right.”

“Not that I’d mind if you did.” I brushed past her, an electric shock with just that little bit of friction, and left without another word. I waited for the girls in the hallway, patiently checking my watch every few minutes.

Miranda’s voice emerged well before she did. Soon after came Pree, who stepped out in a mouth-watering pair of jeans and a pink top. She had her go-to plaid backpack slung over one shoulder, a plastic garment bag in one hand, and a shoebox in the other.

Our things were already in the car, and when Pree passed me, I instinctively took her backpack. She paused at first, and I realized what I was doing, but she didn’t fight me for the right to carry her own things.

Miranda insisted that Pree sit up front with me and proceeded to gab the entire way to Pasadena.

At first, I remained quiet and didn’t look at Pree once, although I wanted to. I spoke with Miranda and laughed at her jokes but clammed up when Pree said anything. I didn’t know how to act. The idea of losing her made me sick.

Soon, neither one of us could prevent ourselves from being roped into conversation with Miranda. We laughed and talked like old times. Being with Pree was easy, second nature to me, but I was still pissed at her and her decision.

At the hotel, I checked in at the front desk, and we dropped off our things. Miranda had left to put her stuff in a room with her parents, and Pree squeezed past me to put her shoes away. We both turned into the other.

“Oh! Sorry,” she muttered, but my hands were already, automatically, on her hips.

She wouldn’t look up at me, but she didn’t step back, either. She smelled nice, like scented candles and a floral shop. God, I missed this.

“Tyler! Your parents want to meet us for dinner.”

I flinched at my cousin’s loud voice. Pree giggled and slid past me.

It was as if nothing had changed when we sat down to dinner. Pree was lively and happy, and my parents laughed at every joke. If anything, I was content to just watch her. As long as she didn’t catch me watching, she kept smiling.

She didn’t bring up her mother, and thank goodness no one else had, either. I had told my parents about the tragedy over the phone but asked them not to bring it up unless Pree brought it up. She didn’t. She didn’t talk about it with anyone.

I was fine with Miranda monopolizing Pree’s attention with sightseeing so she wouldn’t feel awkward being around me for two entire days. It gave me ample time to verify my arrangements with the hotel staff before Pree returned.

Back at the room, Miranda walked her out of the elevator right as I opened the door to step out.

I cocked my head to the side and Miranda scattered, leaving Pree alone. She averted her eyes and wrung her hands together as if she’d been handed over to a stranger.

“I’ve got something to show you,” I said.

“What?”

I took her hand and led her to the top floor. From there, we took the stairs to the roof. A staff member walked us through as Pree gave me a confused look.

“Close your eyes,” I said.

“Why?”

I smirked. “You trust me, don’t you?”

She twisted those beautiful, pouty lips before closing her eyes. I stood behind her and placed my hands on her hips. She jerked.

I enjoyed the curve of her back against me as I gently pushed forward. “Take a few steps.”

“I’m not going to trip am I?”

“You won’t, but don’t worry, I’ll catch you if you do.”

“Ty,” she protested.

“Trust me, babe.”

I led her over the threshold. Pebbles crackled beneath our weight as I held her around the waist and matched each of her short, cautious steps.

“Okay, open them,” I whispered in her ear.

Still facing away from me, Pree gasped at the sight of lit candles around two chairs and a table covered in desserts. I urged her to sit before she protested. I sat in front of her and watched her gleefully crack the burnt sugar crust on a cup of creme brûlée. She licked the spoon.

“Is it good?”

She nodded.

“How was your evening?”

“Exhausting. Miranda has too much energy.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be. It was fun.” She looked around. “You shouldn’t have done all this.”

“I want to see you happy.”

She scraped the bottom of the cup. “I had fun,” she repeated in a softer tone.

“I didn’t have a chance to tell you this because of everything that happened.”

“What?”

“That night you fell asleep on the couch in my apartment, when you shamelessly told me how much you loved
Battlestar
, I named a star after you.”

“What? I thought you named one after my mom.”

“I did, when she passed away, to memorialize her.”

“I always look at up at the sky, searching for her star. What you did—helping me to remember her in that form—helps.”

“I’m glad. Before her star, I named one after you, but I never found the right time to tell you.” I looked up and pointed to the south at an empty patch amid clusters. “There it is.”

Pree craned her head back, exposing her graceful neck. “Which one?”

“The big, twinkling one about five stars to the right above the moon. It’s the one next to Sita.”

“It’s bigger than the others.”

“Yep. Still working on getting others named for you.”

She met my eyes. “Ty, you don’t—”

“You should have entire constellations named after you, Pree, because your beauty should last lifetimes.”

She swallowed.

I smiled and sat back so I could look up at the night sky. “Enjoy the view.”

She didn’t say anything, but from the corner of my eye, I saw her sit back. We watched the stars for a long while in silence until my phone beeped. The hotel had given us an hour and our time was up.

I stood and drew Pree to her feet. “We gotta go back downstairs.”

She nodded and shivered. I lifted my hands in anticipation of rubbing her arms but held back.

“That was nice. Thank you,” she said in the elevator.

“The best part of the surprise is in the hotel room.”

Her eyes stretched wide.

I laughed. “That sounded wrong.”

She shook her head and smiled. “Yes, it did.”

When we returned to the room, I handed Pree an envelope. She looked at it skeptically, as if it were a foreign object that she’d never seen.

“What is it?”

“A surprise.”

“Ty, no.”

“It’s for you. I’ve been working on it since the night we fell asleep on the couch after the poker game.”

She took it and stared at the paper. “You don’t have to give it to me now.”

“I thought twice about it, but no, you deserve it, and I worked too hard to not give it to you out of spite.”

She tapped a finger on the edge of the sealed flap and chewed on her bottom lip. She hesitated before opening it and reading the contents. Then she gasped. “Are you kidding me?”

“No. Do you like it?”

She slapped a hand over her mouth and screamed against it, tears in her eyes.

I grinned. “I knew you would.”

She fanned herself. “Oh my God!”

I lifted a finger to my lips.

“How did you pull this off? I mean, wow, Ty, this is the most incredible thing anyone has ever done for me.”

“I don’t divulge my secrets. It’s all expenses paid. And look, you go here to get your passes.”

“Passes? Plural?”

I shrugged. “I had hoped to go with you, but I understand if—”

She flung her arms around my neck, almost knocking me over. In a tight embrace, she squeezed. “You have to go with me. Who else would do this with me? No one else would get how awesome this is.”

I wrapped my arms around her waist and buried my nose in her hair. Closing my eyes, I said, “Yep. I’ll go.”

She pulled back and cleared her throat. “It’s just—I can’t believe this.”

“You like it?”

She lowered her glance to the envelope in her hands. “I love it, Ty. An all-expenses paid trip to San Diego Comic-Con to meet the
Battlestar Galactica
cast in private after the reunion panel. Only you’d know to get me something like this.”

I knew her, and I could bet my savings that the dentist didn’t have a flipping clue what would make Pree this happy.

“Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome.”

She buried the envelope in her backpack and muttered, “I don’t know how I’m going to sleep.”

I pulled the corner of the covers down, sat, and slipped off my shoes. “You can tell me how excited you are all night.”

I laid down and Pree gawked at me. “Where am I supposed to sleep?”

I patted the mattress beside me.

“No.”

“I won’t attack you. I won’t even touch you unless you want me to.”

She tugged on her lower lip with her teeth. A look that said maybe, probably, definitely she wanted me to touch her.

Pree pivoted on her heels and rushed into the bathroom. I frowned. I laced my fingers beneath my head and stared at the wall. Pree made little noise as she shyly reemerged in short cotton shorts and a thin top. I swallowed but couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.

She hurried beneath the covers as if I’d never seen that much of her exposed skin before.

The bed was large and when we hugged the edges, we could’ve added a third person in between us.

Silence.

“What happened to all of your excitement?” I asked.

“I’m still excited, but this is weird.”

“Why? We’ve spent many nights together. Some of them included not doing a thing.”

I eyed her with barely a movement. The bedspread covered her to her chin. She was just a head in a sea of blankets. I laughed.

“What?” She stared at me.

“You look like a little kid drowning in white blankets.”

“It’s cold.”

“You should’ve brought pants. It’s always cold in hotel rooms.”

“I don’t spend a lot of time in hotel rooms.”

“You’ll survive.”

She shivered and melodramatically wiggled her body beneath the blanket. “Maybe.”

“Body heat works best.”

She didn’t respond.

“We can make flight and hotel arrangements for San Diego when we get back.”

“Separate hotel rooms,” she corrected.

“Okay. Is the dentist going to let you go?”

She sighed. “Let’s not talk about him.”

“Why not? He’s going to be your fiancé, right? People are bound to bring him up.”

“Don’t go there, please.”