Chapter Four
Tyler hadn’t been this excited to go back to England before, especially not at this time of year when the weather was terrible. It was strange once he realised that he was eager to return, but at the same time, it felt good. It felt like he had a home.
A home where there was someone waiting for him. Although, right at this moment, there was nothing solid. But Kristie was there, and he was going to see her soon.
He was going to tell her the truth about how he felt.
Tyler knew he had been dancing around it for a very long time, and keeping away from Kristie, unable to touch her as he wanted, had been agonising. He had told himself now that she was pregnant, it was done. He didn’t need to do anything else. But as he watched her, saw how her body subtly changed, his desire grew. A need built inside him, but it wasn’t a need for a baby.
It was a need for her. Kristie had slipped past his defences, and she refused to budge. The moment Tyler realised that, he panicked. It was not something he was happy about. He had not planned on finding a girlfriend. That was not what he had set out to do at all.
And that went out of the window. It had gone out of the window as soon as he asked Kristie to be the one to carry his child. He should have insisted on it being an artificial insemination. Then maybe he wouldn’t have fallen so hard.
Give over. You would have fallen for her regardless. Sex just moved it along.
Being away in New Zealand should have been a perfect opportunity to keep away from Kristie, to focus on himself, and then when he came back he would be back in control. Kristie would be a thing of the past. But that hadn’t happened. His bowling had been off, and his stats were down. Tyler couldn’t focus properly, and it was noticeable, to the point that he was replaced in the final test, and he had to sit in the dressing room and watch. That had been embarrassing, especially at his age and experience. He was being given a lifeline to be part of the team in the West Indies, but he had been told to go get his shit sorted out.
Tyler knew he had to do that. He needed to face this head-on and stop avoiding the matter. His personal life had to be settled down.
He was going to do it. For Christmas, he was going to ask Kristie to be his for real. Not for any stupid idea in his head. He wanted her to be his girlfriend. He wanted to be free to love her as he wanted.
Of course, that meant dealing with the director and his ideas on dating the staff, but that was nothing to Tyler. He could easily move clubs, and Kristie could keep her job. As for her brother…that was not going to be comfortable, given how Steve behaved to anything regarding Kristie. Tyler thought it was over-excessive, and he knew Kristie didn’t like it. But it wasn’t his business. Tyler would simply tell him and then carry on with his life.
Nothing to do with him. It was between Tyler and Kristie. And, soon, their unborn baby.
As he took a taxi back to his place, Tyler wondered if they were going to have a boy or a girl. Kristie had mentioned having an ultrasound just after Christmas to find out the gender. Tyler wanted to go to that. He wouldn’t care either way; he liked the idea of having a son or a daughter, it didn’t matter.
How could he have thought that he could get through this on his own? Asking the woman he desired to carry his child and have nothing further to do with it had sounded like a good idea at the time, but as things progressed, it had gotten messier. A really bad idea. Tyler had just made it worse. Kristie was being mucked about by him, and she didn’t deserve that.
He needed to put that right.
Tyler was letting himself into his house as the taxi pulled away when he heard someone shouting his name. Turning, Tyler saw Steve storming up the driveway. Immediately, Tyler knew this was going to end in a fight; Steve looked furious.
He didn’t need to guess why.
“She told you, didn’t she?”
“If you mean she told me you got her pregnant, she didn’t have to. I found out myself.”
Steve charged at Tyler, shoving Tyler hard in the chest and knocking him against the open front door. Tyler stumbled, ending up on the floor as he tripped over his suitcase. Steve stood in the doorway, breathing heavily with fury in his eyes.
“You bastard! You would take advantage of my sister like that?”
“What? No!” Tyler scrambled to his feet. “Of course not! I would never hurt Kristie like that!”
“You can dress it up all you want, but you took advantage.” Steve pointed at him. “Of all the people you had to get pregnant, why her? Why did it have to be Kristie?”
Tyler was not going to have this on the floor. He got to his feet.
“You make it sound like I forced myself on her. She’s an adult, Steve. If Kristie wants to sleep with me, that’s up to her. Didn’t she explain it to you?”
“She did, and I’m just disgusted.” Steve’s lip curled in a sneer. “Planning to have someone get pregnant and carry your baby only is one thing, but you had to do it to Kristie? We had to find out that she’s pregnant, and now I have to tell my parents the situation? Didn’t you think about how it’s going to affect her family as well as her?”
Tyler folded his arms.
“It was business between Kristie and myself. We decided to keep it quiet for now until things were sorted.”
“And when would that be? After the baby is born and we find out that she doesn’t have the child with her? You would have broken my parents’ hearts.”