11. Mallory

As soon as we get downstairs she starts commanding everyone, giving orders and directions and everyone listens and scurries around quickly. She’s not rude about it or anything. She’s just authoritative.

She tells me to sit in the dining room and watch. A guy walks by me, holding a camera. He’s a big, hulking guy with dark wavy hair and sparkling blue eyes. He’s hot. So hot I’m not sure why he’s behind a camera instead of in front of one. As he brushes by me again he gives me a smile and I smile back. It feels awkward but if he notices, he doesn’t react.

The scene in the kitchen is about a mom confronting a daughter about having lied about something. I”m half-paying attention, half lost in my thoughts. But it is interesting to see the behind-the-scenes view of this. Tenley is incredible too. She”s an entirely different person than the girl I knew growing up. She”s so professional and focused. No hint of the party girl who loved to throw social grenades around like confetti, starting trouble and walking away with a smile.

The shoot is done before Dylan even wakes from his nap and Tenley announces she’s staying the night here, so everyone else has to take the equipment back to the school for her, in their cars. The handsome camera dude groans. “Ten, you promised us all beers at the Saddle Ranch after this.”

“Yeah, well, rain check,” Tenley says, reaching up to pat his broad shoulder. “I need to bond with my brother’s baby mama.”

“That’s not me,” I announce and now every eye in the place is locked on me. I stand up, the dining chair making a squeak as it slides back. “I’m Dylan’s nanny, Ten. Not his mom.”

“But… well, where the hell is the…” And then it hits her. She must have heard about Diana’s death. She still has ties to Silver Bay and I”ve seen mention of Di”s death popping up on local friend”s social media in the last couple of weeks as the news spread.

Tenley’s eyes widen and fill with tears. “Diana?”

I nod.

The hot guy, whose name I still don’t know looks between the two of us. Trying to figure out what the hell is going on, I’m sure. Tenley takes a shuddering breath and her hands lift to her mouth. “Oh my God, that poor boy.”

She walks out of the room and out the front door, probably to collect her thoughts and emotions. I get it. I just dropped one hell of a bomb. Hot guy is collecting cables, and the actors are grabbing their things to leave. The sound woman is also gathering her things and the light guy is already on his way out the door.

The silence makes my stress levels escalate. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. And then I hear someone speak. The voice is deep and close. “Well, I have no idea what drama we’ve just stepped into but I, for one, am happy you aren’t the mother to Ten’s brother’s baby. Because now I can ask for your number and not get punched by Tenley.”

My head spins and I find him looking at me with a friendly but sheepish grin. The man has a toothpaste commercial smile. “You’re joking right?”

“No. You’re cute,” he tells me flatly. “And this seems like a hell of an interesting meet cute, so why not?”

“You know the term meet cute?”

“I’m studying film, so yeah,” he says and extends his hand. “I’m Fisher by the way. Fisher Adamson.”

“Mallory. Echolls.”

“My favorite hockey player growing up was Beau Echolls.”

“My uncle.”

“Of course.” He grins. “Any friend of Tenley’s is always hockey or hockey adjacent.”

I smile. I can’t believe it because of everything going on, but I smile. He grins back. “So…? Digits?”

“I… I mean…” I can’t give this guy my number. “I’m probably not staying in California much longer.”

Probably? Why did that word leave my mouth? I am not. One hundred percent not staying in California.

”Okay well, then we”ll have to go on a date sooner rather than later,” he replies and walks over to the refrigerator in the kitchen. There”s a magnetic whiteboard on the side. It”s got a dry-erase pen hanging on a string. Tate uses it to leave notes for the cleaner. Fisher grabs the pen and scrawls a number on it. ”Now you have my number so you can think about it. Text or call if you want to take me up on it.”

And then he grabs his camera, a bag, and some cords and walks out the front door. I sit there staring at the number and watching everyone pack up and go until I get an alert on my phone Dylan is moving in his crib.

I quickly rush upstairs. When I get back down the crew of film students is gone and it’s just Tenley texting madly on her phone. I freeze with Dylan on my hip. “Please say you aren’t telling anyone about this.”

“No,” Tenley says and her blue eyes lift off her screen briefly. “I think Tate’s in enough of a clusterfuck. I don’t need to add to it by outing this situation to the rest of the fam. Especially not my parents.”

“How do you think they’ll take it?” I ask because I’m curious and I’ve never had the courage to ask Tate. And he’s not offering his opinions or predictions to me.

Tenley sighs and drops her phone on the couch beside her. I place Dylan on the floor in front of her with his blocks, which he immediately grabs. Tenley leans down and cups the back of his little head. He looks up at her with a slobbery smile. ”He”s teething right now, so he”s slobbering worse than a Saint Bernard.”

I toss Tenley one of the facecloths I keep handy and she wipes his face. He gurgles and goes back to his blocks. Watching Tenley watch Dylan is surreal. Her pretty face is awash with emotion. She looks both in awe and in fear. “Tate is not on anyone’s bingo card as the first offspring to produce offspring, you know? If you polled every single member of the family, they’d probably have him tied for last with me. So, obviously, my parents will be a bit shocked. But they’ll just melt when they meet Dylan. It’ll be instant love. And joy.”

“I don’t think Tate believes that,” I tell her, sitting at the other end of the sofa. “I think that’s why he’s so reluctant to tell anyone.”

“I’ll try to reassure him,” Tenley tells me and leans back. Grabbing a pillow and hugging it to herself, she sighs. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m…” My eyes prick with tears. “I’ll deal with me later.”

“That’s not a healthy attitude,” Tenley says softly. “She was your best friend for years.”

“Since third grade.”

Tenley reaches over, takes my hand, and squeezes it. “I can’t imagine how devastating it must be.”

“I was… I was with her. In the car. When we crashed,” I tell Tenley and I wish I could shut up, but suddenly I need to spill all of this onto someone and she’s the only one here. “It was horrible weather, but Diana was managing. We’d come from a bridal fitting. She was engaged you know.”

Tenley shakes her head. “I didn’t know.”

”She was engaged to this guy named Felix. He was rich and charming and she thought she”d won the jackpot. She didn”t want to miss the fitting or cancel it because of rain.” I shake my head. ”Felix agreed to stay with Dylan so I could go with her. Anyway, the accident wasn”t her fault. We were driving along on the freeway… they call them motorways, and then suddenly some car a few cars in front of us slammed on their brakes, and that caused the car in front of us to slam into him and we just didn”t have enough time to stop. She slammed on the brakes. I remember that, but we slid, I guess.”

I take a shuddering breath. “I don’t remember much except waking up, upside down, hanging from my seat belt. My head was crushed against the passenger window that was covered in mud. I couldn’t move my head so I couldn’t see her.

“I think that’s probably for the best,” Tenley whispered. “Rumors at home say it was ugly.”

“I could hear her.” I sniffle and that’s when I realize tears are sliding down my cheeks. I take my hand out of Tenley’s and wipe at my cheeks. “Her chest had been crushed and she was choking on her own blood. And all she kept saying was ‘Dylan’. And ‘Help’. She wanted me to help him. It was her only thought as she died.”

“Oh my God, Mallory.”

The next thing I know Tenley is right beside me, almost on top of me, and I’m in a bear hug. Luckily her arms are across the top of my shoulders and neck, so she isn’t squishing my ribs. I close my eyes and cry. Sob. And cling to her the way Dylan does me when he has a meltdown.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper through the hiccups and tears.

“Don’t be. Jesus, Mal, you haven’t told anyone about this, have you?” Tenley rubs my back gently.

”No. I mean, I haven”t seen anyone but your brother and Diana”s ex-fiancé,” I swallow and sniff. My head is pounding now, with all the emotion I”ve just expunged. ”Felix didn”t want to know anything. I thought he was in shock. Maybe he was. All he cared about was getting me and Dylan on the first plane out. And Tate… I mean he has enough to deal with. He doesn”t need to add my sob story to his list of emotional trauma and he would take it on. He”s that guy.”

“I know,” Tenley agrees. “Our parents think he’s aloof and avoids commitment like the plague because he’s in his selfish era. I think he thinks that too. But I know it’s because when he has feelings, he only has big ones. And he is terrified of them. A kid… well he has no choice but to feel all the big feels. It must be fucking with him so bad. That explains why his game has struggled.”

“He’s trying harder than I give him credit for, I think” I pull out of her hug and see Tenley nod as she takes off her baseball hat and drops it on the couch beside her. Dylan automatically reaches for it and she lets him have it. “I wish Di had told him sooner. I wish I didn’t have to come here and ruin his season.”

She waves a hand dismissively. “Forget about that. Tate will figure it out on the ice. He’s a Garrison. Let’s focus on the important stuff, which is you and this perfect new Garrison. How can I help?”

”I have to meet Tate at a medical clinic tomorrow morning,” I explain. ”He”s going straight there from the airport when the team lands. It”s in downtown Los Angeles and I”m stressing about taking a freeway there. I”ve only done short runs to Target or the grocery store in his fancy car. Lord knows we don”t have five-lane freeways in Silver Bay and after the accident…”

“Say no more. I will gladly drive my brother’s car and take you to the appointment,” Tenley agrees and squeezes my hand again.

“So I guess I should text him and give him a heads up.” I sigh. I am not looking forward to telling Tate his secret is out.

”Nah. No need to stress him out now.” Tenley pats my hand and gives me a reassuring grin. ”Besides, over text or the phone, he won”t believe I have his back. Little shit will think I”m going to stab him in the back and blab in the family group chat or something. Better he sees with his own eyes I”m on Team Dylan and not going to make this worse.”

That makes sense. And besides, I don’t want to throw him further off his game. Tenley reaches down and takes her hat from Dylan’s hands then lifts it up and drops it on his head, making a goofy face while she does it. Dylan giggles with delight. She giggles back. I didn’t realize how similar Tate and Tenley’s features were until now, because I see her in Dylan too.

“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but fuck Diana for not telling Tate.” Tenley sounds furious and I can’t blame her.

“You said it yourself,” I reply. “He’s not willing to give anyone anything of substance and Diana knew it. She accepted it. And then she found Felix.”

“Felix was good to her? And Dylan??”

I nod and picture the guy who turned from Jekyll to Hyde the second Diana’s death certificate was signed. “Felix was older than us. Thirty-two and wealthy and settled in a good career and he was very good to her. He agreed, without hesitation, to help her raise Dylan and was set to adopt him after they got married.”

Tenley’s big eyes get even bigger. “So Tate was going to lose all rights without even knowing it?”

I pick at the fringe on one of Tate”s throw pillows. His style in this place doesn”t really feel like him. It feels like he hired someone to decorate how a rich guy”s place should look. ”For the record, I intended to tell Tate myself if and when she tried to go through with the adoption. I knew she would disown me as a friend, and of course, fire me as a nanny, but I knew it was the right thing to do. But then we had the accident and I never got the chance.”

“And now here you are.”

“Here we are,” I confirm.

Tenley shifts her blue eyes down to Dylan who is happily playing with her hat again, waving it like it”s a flag and he”s at the finish line of the Daytona 500. The late afternoon light sliced into the living room, showering him in golden hues. Angelic is the only word for him at the moment. Tenley tears up but ignores it, wiping calmly at her tears. ”He”s going to be so loved by everyone,” she says with a soft smile. ”As soon as I get my brother”s head out of his ass and make him tell the fam.”

I stare at her and try not to worry. Tenley is a bit of a bull in a china shop and Tate is fragile right now. She might just break him.