Even though he wasn’t there, the tension in the room was palpable. Dr. and Mrs. Wirth looked as if they hadn’t had much sleep. They barely spoke to each other—in fact, they barely looked at each other. Even Avery, glowing and happy, had a glimmer of worry in her eyes. Again, Kaelin and she didn’t speak about what had happened the night before, and Kaelin wasn’t even sure if Avery knew anything about it.
Secrets. So many secrets. Probably many she didn’t even know about in this complicated family.
She sighed, remembering Tyler’s anguish the night before. Both his parents’ reaction and his seemed a little out of proportion about the whole thing, though she had to admit maybe she’d feel differently if she’d been identified as the “hooker” they’d taken up to their room.
She rolled her eyes, earning a puzzled glance from Avery. “You don’t like these candlesticks?” Avery asked.
“Oh no! They’re lovely.”
Avery nodded and packed them back into the tissue.
She’d rolled her eyes because she was suddenly so tired of worrying what people thought, and annoyed with Dr. and Mrs. Wirth’s insistence on maintaining the perfect image. All through the wedding plans she’d had to battle with that, to keep what Avery wanted in the forefront, not what her mother wanted or thought they should have. She was exhausted from all of it.
And then the front door opened and closed.
“Can you see who that is, Kaelin dear?” Mrs. Wirth called from the kitchen.
“Of course.”
And just as she arrived at the French doors, she came face-to-face with Tyler, Nick following right behind him. They stopped and stared at each other.
“Hey,” he finally said. “Just stopped in on our way out of town to…uh…”
His hair was going every which way, he hadn’t shaved and his usual devilish smile was absent. His gray T-shirt hugged his wide chest and abs, and faded jeans, the ones he’d dragged on the other night to go searching for munchies for them, sat low on his hips, low enough to reveal a thin strip of golden skin between the hem of his T-shirt and the jeans. Nick’s dark jeans and black shirt were just as sexy, but in a different way.
“Come in,” Kaelin said.
“Hey, Tyler, come see what we got,” Avery called from where she sat in an armchair. “I thought you two weren’t coming.”
“Yeah. Well…”
The smooth-talking devil seemed at a loss for words today. Worry gnawed at Kaelin’s tummy and she exchanged a glance with Nick that, for once, didn’t reassure her. He didn’t look much better than Tyler, tired and quiet. Though Nick was always quieter than Tyler.
“I wanted to say goodbye to you. And Scott,” Tyler said. “When are you leaving on your honeymoon?”
“Tonight. We drive to St. Louis and fly out from there.”
“Three weeks in Europe. Sounds amazing.”
She smiled up at him. “Yeah. I’m excited.”
“Where are Mom and Dad?” Tyler asked, looking around.
“Mom’s making more coffee. Not sure where Dad is.”
“He’s in the den watching golf,” Scott said, walking into the room. “Hey, Tyler, Nick.”
A muscle twitched in Tyler’s jaw. “I guess I’ll go find him. Need to talk to them both.”
Kaelin met Nick’s eyes. He pursed his lips and folded his arms across his broad chest, then sighed as Tyler disappeared. She moved closer to him. “What’s going on?” she asked him quietly.
“He has something he wants to talk to them about.”
She squinted at him unhappily. “Is it about last night?”
“No. Well, sort of. But it’s not about you. Don’t worry.”
“I am worried. I don’t understand what’s going on. I mean, I do, but it all seems so blown out of proportion.”
Nick blew out a breath and rubbed his nearly shaved head. “Maybe you should know about it. You were kind of involved.”
“Know about what?” Confusion swirled inside her.
“Come in the kitchen.” He led the way to the now empty kitchen. Coffee dripped into the carafe of the coffeemaker on the counter. It smelled dark and delicious. The door to the den off the kitchen was open and they heard Tyler’s voice, but couldn’t hear what he was saying.
Nick turned to her, and spoke quietly. “You know that night you walked in on us? Ten years ago?”
Her stomach swooped. “Yes.”
Nick closed his eyes. Then opened them. He looked as if someone were stabbing him in the stomach. “After you showed up, Tracy uh…changed her mind about what we were doing. She wanted to go home. I think she freaked out that someone else saw her like that.”
Kaelin didn’t know what to say to that. Freaked out was probably a mild way to describe how Tracy had felt, although she’d been enjoying herself pretty well up to that point as Kaelin stood there hiding behind the door, watching and listening. “I’m sorry,” she said stiffly, wondering if they blamed her for ending their fun.
Nick shook his head. “Don’t fucking apologize, Kaelin,” he growled. “It wasn’t your fault. Tracy was kind of…psycho. If only we’d known that before. We were young and stupid and horny, what can I say. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Really?” She searched his face. “Did it really seem like a good idea, Nick?” Remembered hurt pulsed inside her.
Shame crossed over Nick’s face and he dropped his gaze for a moment. “I’m sorry, Kaelin.”
She nodded stiffly.
“Anyway, she went running home and I guess she was so paranoid that you were going to tell people what happened, she told her parents that…” Nick paused. Swallowed. “She told her parents we’d raped her.”
Kaelin’s jaw nearly smacked the counter she fell against. “What!”
He nodded, swiped a hand over his eyes. “She told them we’d tied her up and took turns having sex with her. It was a fucking nightmare. Her parents called both our parents. Thank Christ they didn’t call the cops, although they wanted to.”
“But you said nothing happened after that.”
“Nothing did. We’d barely touched her and we for sure hadn’t had sex at that point. Other than a little making out.”
“Well, you should have called the cops! If nothing happened, they would have proved it.”
“Oh, Kaelin, think about what you just said. We’re talking Dr. and Mrs. Wirth here.”
“Oh lord.” She rubbed her mouth. They would not have wanted the police involved, and they sure wouldn’t have wanted the entire city to know about it. “What happened?”
“Dr. Wirth paid off Tracy’s family to keep quiet about it. I don’t know how much he gave them, but it was a lot. My folks didn’t have that kind of money, but they had a whole different attitude. I told them nothing happened and they believed me. We could have gone to the police and they would have supported me, even though it would have been a helluva mess.”
She nodded, hand still to her mouth, her stomach boiling, head spinning. “I gather Tyler’s parents weren’t quite so supportive.”
Nick snorted. “The stupid asshole didn’t even try to explain what happened. They were so furious they kicked him out of the house.”
Kaelin slumped against the counter. This was unbelievable. Her eyes stung and she blinked rapidly. “They did? He was only seventeen.”
“Almost eighteen, but yeah. We were leaving for college in the fall anyway. It was all arranged, except Tyler’s parents refused to pay, other than the tuition they’d already paid. They basically kicked him out and cut him off, for what he’d done.”
“He didn’t do anything!”