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TYLER
Tyler was tired, and just wanted a quiet night with his wife. They needed to talk about adoption. It was something he wanted to do, but he was wrong to not talk to Paige first.
His phone rang just as he pulled into the driveway. It was his lawyer, Chuck. “Hey Tyler, I wanted to give you the information for the adoption agency manager. Her name is Nancy, and she is expecting your call.”
Walking in the house, he thought carefully about his next words as Chuck continued.
“I’m really excited for you and Paige.” Chuck added.
This was the call Tyler had been dreading. When he last spoke with Chuck, he was sure this was the next step – even without talking it over with Paige. It all had made so much sense, why weren’t they opening their home to one of those children?
But after talking to Melanie, he was beginning to second guess his over eager response. This was a move they needed to make together.
He could hear Paige upstairs, so he lowered his voice as he walked into the kitchen. “Chuck, I hate to say this, but I jumped the gun with this decision. I’m not ready just yet. There are some things I need to do first. I need more time.”
“Okay. If that’s what you want. I’ll have all the information when you’re ready.” Chuck responded.
“Thanks for your help. I’ll talk to you soon.” Tyler hung up the phone just as Paige walked into the kitchen. “Hey, babe.”
“Who was that?” she questioned flatly.
“Chuck, he just had to go over a few things with me.” He was bursting with excitement. He couldn’t wait to tell her all about his idea of adoption.
“Oh.” She answered, and yet sounded unconvinced.
“I missed you!” Tyler wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. “I was looking forward to a nice afternoon in. If you’re done for the day, maybe we could order some dinner and watch movies? I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah, that sounds great, but I have a meeting. Sorry.”
Tyler shrugged and flashed his best smile for his girl. He rarely ever faked a smile, so she had no idea that he was miserable that she was leaving.
“I’ll be back for dinner.” She called on her way out the door.
“No kiss?”
“Sorry, babe. I’m late.” She never even turned around. “Maybe order a pizza for dinner.”
There was something about her dark tone that worried him, not to mention not giving him a kiss before she left. “Whatever you want, babe. I’ll be here waiting for you.”
Did she find out about the adoption? Did Melanie tell her? Did she know the whole team already knew? Aw shit... Tyler crumbled into a chair. His head was spinning, which seemed to be the new normal for him.
He texted Melanie to see how long Paige would be. Maybe if there was a chance she wasn’t needed at the meeting; Mel could send her home?
To his surprise, the message he got back was that there was no meeting.
Melanie answered: Don’t worry. I got this. She’ll be home by dinner.
“What is going on?” he said out loud.
“Meow.” Reggie squeaked and hopped up onto the arm of the chair. The kitten rubbed his head against Tyler’s arm.
“Hey little guy. I think I messed up.”
“Meow.” The kitten jumped down and hurried away.
“Even Reggie knows I screwed up.”
He got up and went to get a beer, but stared at the can, he knew that he needed to clear his head. And alcohol would just make it spin more.
Tyler grabbed his keys and his jacket. Petting Reggie on his way out the door.
After driving around for about twenty minutes, he ended up in Trina’s driveway. Before he could drive away, deciding that he needed to stop running to his sister for advice every time he screwed up, Willow appeared in the window waving at him.
“No turning back now. And I possibly see a dance party in my future.” He turned off the engine. Once he got to the front door, Willow was there to greet him.
“Uncle Ty, Uncle Ty, Uncle Tyyyyy!” Willow said, jumping up and down.
“Tri,” Tyler said as his sister opened the door for him. “Do you feed this girl a diet of straight sugar?”
“Hardly.” She scoffed. “Willow, please let Uncle Ty get in the door.”
“Hey, Ty. Is Paige here too?” Sam asked as he shook his hand.
“No. Uh, just me. I need some advice.” He stuttered.
“Uh-oh.” Trina curled her lip. Directing her attention to Willow, she said, “Sweetie, why don’t you go put on one of your shows? Uncle Ty needs to talk with the adults.”
“Okay.” Willow pouted. “But first...” the little girl ran and jumped into Tyler’s arms and gave him the biggest bear hug that her little arms could manage.
“Hey kiddo!” Tyler gushed as he hugged his niece. “Thanks for giving me a little time with your parents. I appreciate it.”
“Don’t mention it.” She called before she ran to the living room.
Tyler couldn’t help but laugh at the little girl’s very grown up comment.
“That girl,” Trina shook her head in exhaustion. “C’mon Ty, we can sit in the dining room.”
Once the three of them were seated, his sister stared at him. “So, are you guys fighting?”
“Um, I don’t think so.” He honestly didn’t know right now.
“You don’t know?” Sam asked. “Is this about–”
“Maybe?” Tyler really wasn’t sure. “I know I’m being confusing. I was all set to talk to Paige about something big today, and she basically ran out of the house claiming she had a meeting.”
“Maybe she did.” Trina said calmly.
“That’s the thing. I texted Mel to see how long Paige would be, and she confirmed that there was no meeting.”
“Ty, start from the beginning.” Trina asked.
Tyler worked backwards. He told them how he was going to tell Paige all about his misstep and they could discuss adoption together. But she ran out the door to her fake meeting before he could say anything.
“Tyler, you do realize that first, you told the whole team, and now you’re telling Tri before you talked to your wife about this?” Sam said.
Shit. Tyler dropped his head into his hands.
“You told the team before me? I mean...before your wife?” Trina’s eyes narrowed. “And here I thought you were smarter than that.”
“Trina, can we save the lecture for later and just jump to the part where you give me on advice on how to fix this?”
“Absolutely.” Trina looked like she was settling in for a long-winded discussion. “It’s very simple. You need to apologize and grovel.”
“Grovel?”
“Groveling always works.” Sam agreed while Trina nodded with a smile.
“Yep. You said she would be home for dinner, right?”
Tyler nodded.
“Get her some flowers, her favorite bottle of wine, and order her favorite dinner.” She looked at her watch. “And it’s getting late so you better hurry so you can be home before she is. Then once she gets home, apologize. Explain everything to her.”
He knew his sister was the right person to go to.
“Do you think Mel can give you a head’s up as to why she stormed off?” Sam asked.
“Probably not.” Tyler shook his head. “But does it even matter? If I screwed up, then I need to fix it.”
“I’m going to have to agree with that.” Sam said.
“Paige doesn’t typically get like this. If she’s mad, she lets me know.” Tyler said. Lately she’s been getting mad quicker and more often. It was unusual and he was at a loss for how to react.
“Just apologize and spoil her. Women like that.” Trina said. “I don’t think it matters what you did, as long as you are sorry, and you make it up to her.”
“Even if I don’t know what I did?”
“Yes.” Sam and Trina said in unison.
Tyler chuckled. “Well, considering you two are still going strong, I’m going to take that advice to heart.”
Sam slid his arm around Trina. The way they looked at one another with such love, Tyler was certain their advice was solid.
“Okay, I better get going.” Tyler got up from the table.
“Uncle Ty, are you leaving already?” Willow called from the living room. She had been so quiet he forgot she was even in there.
“Yeah, sweetie, I’m afraid I have to leave. But, how about you come over to my house next weekend and play with our new kitten?” Tyler offered.
“You got a kitten?” Willow gasped.
“Yep. So you want to plan for next weekend? Maybe we can get a pizza for dinner?” Tyler said.
“Mommy, can we?” Willow begged.
“Sure.” Trina agreed.
“All right, I will see you all later.” Tyler said as he slipped on his coat and opened the front door. “Guys, I can’t thank you enough.”
“And don’t forget, I need to yell at you later for being stupid and not including your wife in on this. She is your family. You can’t go running around making decisions for the both of you willy-nilly like you do your hockey team. Not to mention she should be the first person you go to with things, not the team. But you can come to me for advice, that’s allowed, because we are family too. But not the team before her. EVER.” She wagged her finger at him.
“Okay.” He stifled a laugh. “But I think you just did.”
“Oh, right.” Trina nodded very proud of herself. “Now go talk to your wife!”