Twelve

TWELVE

Alana

When the knock came at my door early this morning, I expected I was up for another day of question-and-answer sessions with Ty in between meals.

But my expectations were blasted to smithereens if what I was looking at now was any indication of what was in store for me.

Ty showed up at nearly the crack of dawn—he claimed he didn’t want me having to worry about being up on my foot to make myself food—and had brought breakfast with him from the same bagel shop I’d gotten us sandwiches from a few days ago.

I couldn’t be upset about the early hour, because it was so sweet, and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with him.

But now that I was watching him empty out a duffle bag, I was curious about what was happening.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I asked him, my need for answers greater than my patience.

“I will in just one more second,” he answered.

I let out a frustrated sigh from my seat on the couch. It was loud enough that Ty stopped what he was doing, looked over at me, and cocked a brow.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I have to work on my patience.”

He shook his head, a smile playing on his lips, and got back to what he was doing. Barely thirty seconds later, he said, “Alright. Are you ready?”

“For what, exactly?”

“To practice.”

My brows furrowed and released just as my nose wrinkled. “Practice? What am I practicing?”

“I thought we agreed that I was going to help you with your transition to podcasting,” he said. “Since you can’t be up moving around, I figured we could do this for a while. I brought over games for us to play later.”

In an instant, the frustration I thought I felt earlier melted away. I stared at Ty, feeling an unexplainable sense of connection to him. Ty was treating me like I was something more than just the girl who needed a bodyguard. He was treating me like I was a genuine friend, and I could hardly contain the way it made me feel like I was soaring.

“You brought all of this over for me?”

“Yeah.” He said it with such ease, like he hadn’t done something so wonderful for me.

“Thank you, Ty. Thank you for thinking about me and bringing some things over for us to pass the time.”

He sent a proud smile my way. “You’re welcome. Now, what are you going to report on?”

“Pardon?”

Ty shot me a look of incredulity. “Well, you need to practice. So, what are you going to report on?”

“You want me to come up with something to report on just like that,” I said with a snap of my fingers.

“It doesn’t have to be actual news. It could be anything you feel confident talking about. Maybe a subject you know a lot about or a topic that gets you really fired up. This is just for practice, so have fun with it.”

At the mention of having fun, an idea popped into my head. “Okay, I know what I’m going to talk about.”

Ty seemed surprised I came up with something so quickly. “Great. Now, do you want to just start rolling, or do you want to come up with a name for your podcast?”

My eyes narrowed as I considered all the possibilities for a podcast name. The Alana Wolf Show seemed the most practical, but I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to go with the obvious. That I was even here doing this was all because of Ty, and I wondered if there was a way to pay homage to him.

“I think I’ll just wing it,” I said, hoping I could come up with something on the fly.

He shrugged. “Perfect. If you’re ready, I’ll get the camera going.”

I was surprised by how excited I was about this. I couldn’t wait to see Ty’s reaction to my first news topic. “Great. Where do you want me to go?”

As Ty set the camera up on the tripod a few feet in front of where I was sitting on the couch, he said, “Stay where you are. We’re just practicing, and you need to rest your foot. You’d be sitting while recording a podcast anyway, so you should just get used to that.”

That made sense. “Sounds good to me.”

“Alright, the camera is all set, and we’re recording. Start whenever you’re ready.”

I parted my lips, inhaled, and completely froze.

Ty noticed, pressed the button on the camera, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know how to do this.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m a reporter. I research and investigate and report. I’m not a news anchor. I don’t speak in front of the camera. How do I even talk to nobody?”

Ty put his hands on his hips. “Am I nobody?”

“I didn’t mean you. I mean, in general. Yes, you’re here now, but if I’m going to seriously consider going down this road, I have to figure out how to talk to people that aren’t in front of me.”

He nodded. “Yeah, sometimes you are probably going to have to do that. It’ll get easier the more you do it. That’s why we’re practicing. Now, take a deep breath, think about your topic, and tell me when you’re ready.”

I inhaled deeply and released that breath. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Ty pressed the button and pointed at me to let me know I could start.

“Good morning, this is…. Wait, wait, wait. Is it good morning? Should I say that? What if it’s afternoon? How do people start podcasts? I can’t even remember now.”

Laughter spilled out of Ty as he stopped the camera recording, reset it, and said, “Most people probably start it with whatever time of day they upload their podcasts. Or, they go with something that’s universal and could work at any time of the day.”

“Welcome. I could use that.”

He sent me a nod of approval. “Exactly. That’s perfect. Alright, are you ready now?”

“I’m ready.”

Ty tapped on the camera one more time to start the recording.

When I got the nod from him, I said, “Welcome to the Timing is Everything podcast. I’m your host, Alana Wolf, and today we’ll be talking about the top five things you need to pack and take with you on a deserted island. Yes, you’re getting five things instead of three. Why? Because this is my podcast, and I make the rules.”

My eyes darted away from the camera and up toward Ty. He was chuckling, but I could see the look of pride on his face. It felt good to know he thought I did well, and it warmed me to my core that he was here, encouraging me to do this. “Keep going,” he whispered.

I focused my attention on the camera again and continued. “So, the first item on our list is probably pretty obvious. We’ll be packing a knife, because it’s going to help us in multiple situations. Are we needing to clean the fish we’ve caught? Do we need to cut things when we’re building shelter? A knife is essential, and it’s the first thing I’m packing.”

I went on to talk about the next three items on my list—non-perishable food, water, a magnifying glass.

“And the final thing I’d take with me is a guy. A strong, handsome man with a kind heart and protective instincts. Someone who thinks about others before himself and will do anything to find ways to keep me entertained, even when I might feel like my life is falling apart.”

I paused for a moment, needing to see if Ty understood it was him that I’d described. Judging by the way his features had softened, I knew I’d succeeded.

“That’s all for this week. But be sure to tune in to the Timing is Everything podcast next week, when I’ll be talking about who the one person is I’d like to have a dinner date with and why I chose him.”

When I finished, I focused on Ty again. He was staring at me with a look of disbelief, like he couldn’t imagine how it was possible I’d ever want to go on a romantic date with him. After the way he’d treated me from the start, I wasn’t quite sure why he’d ever find that surprising.

“What do you think?” I asked.

His eyes roamed over my face, and for several long moments, he didn’t say anything. Maybe I’d taken this flirting too far.

Finally, after what felt like hours of waiting, he answered, “I think I’m looking forward to next week’s episode and hearing who the lucky guy is.”

Lucky.

He thought he was the lucky one.

“I guess we’ll have to see.”

“You did amazing, Alana. All joking aside, I think you’re a natural at this. Most people would have needed several takes to get it. I mean, you stumbled a bit in the beginning, but once you got yourself going, you were on a roll. I don’t think I can express enough just how impressed I am by you.”

“Really?”

Ty nodded. “You were born to do this.”

My heart leaped. “That was really sweet of you to say.”

“I wasn’t trying to be sweet, though. I’m being honest. I realize it might be scary to leave your job, but it would be a shame if you didn’t take all your talent and use it to your fullest potential. I still can’t get over what you just did.”

“If you don’t stop saying all these nice things about me, you’re going to inflate my ego,” I warned him.

He shook his head. “I don’t care. You deserve to hear how good you are. I couldn’t have done that as well as you did after fifty tries, and I know, because I did the work.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“No, no. What does that mean?” Ty remained quiet, moving to the camera and taking it off the tripod.

“It’s silly.”

I didn’t care that he assumed it was silly. I desperately wanted to know this piece of information about him. “Ty?” I called.

He lifted his gaze to mine. “Yeah?”

“Please, tell me.” My voice was soft, sweet. I was seconds away from begging.

“I’m really good at fixing old video game systems,” he started. “I got interested in it when I was younger, and so I started fixing them for myself and my friends. It’s always been a hobby, something I like to do to occupy myself and distract me if I’ve got things on my mind. But after talking to a few people, I realized there were so many interested in how to do it. So, I started a little educational channel on YouTube to show people how to fix their systems. I’ve been doing it for years, so I’m much better at it now, but I was awful at speaking in front of the camera when I first started.”

A slow smile spread across my face as I perked up in my seat. “I love that. It’s so cool. Can I watch one of them? What’s your channel?”

He shook his head. “No. No, I’m not showing it to you after I witnessed what you just did here.”

Disappointment moved through me, my shoulders falling. “Are you serious?”

There was discomfort written all over his expression. Seeing that, I was suddenly rethinking my need to see it. I still wanted to, but not if it was going to cause him that level of uneasiness.

“You know what?” I said. “It’s okay. I don’t have to see a video when I get to see the real deal. That’s much better, anyway.”

Relief swept through him. “Thanks.”

As disappointed as I was that he didn’t want me to see it, I refused to let it show. Maybe one day he’d change his mind.

“So, what’s next? Does the video have to be edited?”

Ty sat down right beside me, our legs so close they were almost touching. “It does. Would you like to see how it’s done?”

Without hesitating, I scooted closer. “I’d love to see.”

I watched as his eyes shifted to where our legs were now touching and loved the way his mouth quirked. Ty was so confident all the time, and there was this part of him that seemed a bit shy. I wondered where it came from.

For the next hour or so, I listened intently as Ty explained how to edit my video, doing it on the laptop he’d brought over. He took the time to share what he was doing and why. I thought he was an excellent teacher, and I fully believed he was great at creating his videos for his YouTube channel.

It was amazing to me to see how he cut and spliced the video together, making the final product a seamless video that looked like it had been filmed straight through. I learned a lot, and I was convinced that with a few lessons from Ty, I’d be able to edit videos on my own.

Once we had finished the video, I asked, “So, what games did you bring with you today?”

“Well, I brought a board game in case, but I also brought a video game console as well. I’m not sure if you’re into playing video games, but I figured it might be fun, since you’re just sitting around for the next day or so.”

“I played them when I was younger, and I only ever played the original Nintendo system. If you brought something new or fancy, I might not be very good.”

He grinned. “I brought both a new system and the original Nintendo system. We can do whichever you’d like.”

“I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. Can we go old school first?”

He placed his hand on my thigh and squeezed. “We can do anything you’d like.”

I sent a mischievous look his way and wagged my eyebrows. Ty laughed at me, shook his head, and got up to get the game set up.

Then we spent hours playing games with each other, stopping only for bathroom and food breaks. It was the most fun I’d had in a long time.

And before he left, Ty surprised me by giving me a piece of paper with the name of his YouTube channel, so I could check it out after he went home. Suffice it to say, I stayed up late watching him teach people how to fix their video game consoles, and I felt my heart falling a bit harder for him.