“Spit it out,” Tyler demanded.
Like she’d just been waiting for a sign, Del lifted her head and looked at him like he’d gone mad. “Seriously? You know Eric almost as well as I do. Everything you said to him was like waving a red cape in front of an enraged bull’s face.”
“He isn’t going to treat you like that.”
“That was an improvement! He called Seth a kid instead of a brat. He didn’t tell me to go f**k myself or that I deserved whatever mess I’d gotten myself into. You told Eric to get his head out of his ass and stop thinking with his pride. You need to do the same. This crap you’re pulling isn’t helping. We need his cooperation to search the house. I hid the flash drive really well. Hopefully, it’s still there, but we won’t ever find out if you don’t stop the verbal equivalent of lifting your hind leg and pissing on me like a fire hydrant.”
Tyler tried to swallow down his rising fury. The crappy thing was, she was right. He was being overprotective and possessive. Eric couldn’t hurt her through the phone. But he didn’t like her talking to the ass**le, didn’t like remembering that his former buddy used to sleep curled around her, kiss her awake, join her in the shower each morning—then put on his uniform and cozy up to badge bunnies all day.
Del deserved better. But above all else, she had to stay alive. Which meant that Tyler needed to stop being an ass and focus on the flash drive.
“Sorry. I don’t want to see him hurt you again.”
Her face softened. “Thanks. Sometimes, you can be a great guy.”
“I can be a great guy for you.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
Melancholy tinged her smile. Regret. “When I was pregnant, I used to wonder what it would have been like if we’d met under different circumstances. You know, if I’d never married Eric, and you two weren’t friends. Would we have had any connection or would I have just been another girl you tapped and forgot?”
“You’re not the kind of girl I can forget, Del.”
“Because we have so much history, and it’s all just tangled . . .”
“Because it’s you. You’re what attracts me, not the fact that you’re Eric’s ex-wife or the mother of my son. You’re sassy, smart, funny, and honest.”
“I’m not the only woman in the world like that. I’m sure you’ve done a few and probably just never talked to them long enough to learn about them.”
Tyler gritted his teeth. “They weren’t you. What is your fascination with my sex life?”
“C’mon, Tyler. We both know that I’m one of many. Yes, Seth puts me in a slightly different category, but—”
“Bullshit!” He pounded on the steering wheel. “Is that the crap you tell yourself so you won’t care too much about me?”
She frowned. “I just . . . know you. I’ve known you for years. I’m not expecting that sleeping with me or being a father will make you be a different person. I’m just being realistic.”
“I’ve changed.”
“In some ways, yes, you have. But according to the conversation I overheard you having on the patio with your harem, you’re having anal sex with Alyssa’s strippers in the dressing room regularly, causing them to catfight onstage about you. That sounds like the same ol’, same ol’ to me.” She shrugged. “Whatever. Like I said, I don’t expect to change you.”
Tyler felt heat creep up his neck and face. She had a point, but she didn’t really know how he felt on the inside. “You’re not going to believe me if I tell you I marked time with them but always wanted you.”
“You’re right.” Her smile was faintly apologetic. “Be reasonable, Tyler. I’ve known for years that you’re a playboy. I see that something about you is different now, but if you’re really trying to convince me that you’re a whole new person, I need more than forty-eight hours to believe it. And if not . . . really, it’s okay. I’m not asking you to be different.”
Frustration carved up Tyler’s composure, but he grabbed a ruthless grip on his temper. “But I think I am. So I’ll be here for you, day in and day out. You’ll get it eventually.”
She cocked her head at him and laid a gentle hand on his arm. “I think you really believe that at this moment, but the first gorgeous Latina who walks by you with cle**age and a lush booty . . . I’m pretty sure I know what’s going to happen. You don’t have to pretend to be something for me that you’re not. If you’ll just spend some time with Seth and let him get to know you, that’s all I ask.”
But Tyler wanted more. He couldn’t dispute everything he’d done before Del had walked back into his life. And he couldn’t convince her with words in just a few short hours that she was different to him. Only time would do that. Tyler didn’t know how much of that he had.
Wouldn’t his mother be laughing now, if she could see him? Even she would doubt his staying power in a relationship. He might never have had any before, but this felt different. He felt tethered to Del, and it may not make sense, but he knew if the strings connecting them were cut, something in him wouldn’t survive it again.
But to Del’s point, she needed time. In the midst of danger and crisis wasn’t the best moment to expect her to notice or believe that he had become a different man.
Gripping the wheel with one hand, he tangled the fingers of the other in her hair, bringing her close to him. “I’m going to give you everything you need and want—and more. I promise you that. Just give me time to prove it.”
A few hours and another vehicle exchange on the outskirts of L.A. later, they rolled up in front of her house. Her former house. She’d loved this little Craftsman but lacked the money to buy Eric’s half in the divorce. He’d come up with the cash somehow, so she’d signed away her rights and turned over the keys. The money had given her the down payment on a new condo, allowing her to get a fresh start with Seth. It had all worked out.
But coming back here was always like visiting a haunted house. So many memories. Some good, like Eric carrying her over the threshold with a smile. Some not so good, like the morning her pregnancy test had come up positive. There’d been the barbeques and holidays with friends and family. There’d been the nights Eric had come home hours after his shift ended, looking utterly spent, and when she’d needed his attention, he’d merely flopped on the bed and fallen into a deep sleep. Del turned her gaze away from the little house.