Page 72 of Always Choosing You

“Yeah. I guess he liked what I had to say. He asked me to call him to make an appointment so he can see my work.”

“Do you have work to show him?”

“I could bring some of my yearbook spreads, maybe some of my sketches,” she responded. “It’s not much, but I don’t know, is it worth a shot?”

Tyler sat there in silence, staring at the thick paper card. Rory realized she was holding her breath and let it out slowly, nervous all of a sudden. Was he going to tell her that it was a bad idea? That she should go to a real college and forget it altogether?

But he didn’t shut her down. Instead, he turned his dark chocolate eyes to hers and said, “I think this is incredible.”

She felt her face heat. “R-really?”

“Absolutely,” he nodded. “And I think it makes a lot of sense.”

“Why?”

He gave her a You have to be joking me look, which made her laugh. “Ry, you’ve been making me watch Disney movies on repeat since I moved to Haverport. Your room is like a freaking art exhibit, and you’re never afraid to wear what you want or try something new, like with the yearbook. You would kill it at a place like Baybrook.”

She sniffled, realizing there were tears on her cheeks. She didn’t bother wiping them away. “But Gabi…what do I do? How do I tell her?”

Tyler brought his hand up and wiped away her tears. “I don’t know, Ry. It won’t be easy. But I think you’ll always regret it if you don’t try.”

She placed her head on his shoulder. She smiled, remembering when they’d sat like this on Christmas during a snowstorm, the almost-kiss.

“Ry?”

“Mmm?”

“Why have you been ignoring me?”

She stiffened. “I’ve…had a lot going on. Finishing up the yearbook.”

“I know, I get that. But it’s been weeks since I’ve heard from you. It feels like I messed up or something. Is it because we…?”

Kissed? Rory finished his question in her head as she sat up, looking at Ty. His eyes were insistent as he scanned her face, as if her ignoring him was eating him alive.

“Zoe told me the truth.”

She could see the wheels turning in his eyes, calculating his careful response. “What did she say?”

“That you guys aren’t really dating, that it’s all fake.”

Tyler looked away for a moment. “Is that all she said?”

“Well…yeah. She wouldn’t tell me why, which makes all of this so much more confusing.”

He didn’t say anything, just kept looking over her shoulder.

“Please tell me the truth, Ty,” she pleaded.

She watched his shoulders sag, the expression on his face softening as he finally looked back down at her. He grabbed her hand and leaned in, his thumb brushing back and forth over her knuckles. “Back in November after the Homecoming game, Zoe’s dad invited me to dinner. He said that a player like myself should be playing college football, and he had a connection through a friend at the University of North Texas.”

Her body went rigid. “T-Texas?”

He nodded. “So I went to the dinner, and it went really well. But he kept making these comments about how nice of a young man I was, that I should take his daughter out, and all that. So, that night, Zoe and I made a pact. We would pretend to date until graduation.”

She was silent for a moment. “That night when you had Zoe over, you closed the curtains—”

Tyler cut her off. “We were doing homework. That’s all we do together. I have straight As for the first time in my life.”