The Race Car that was Tyler Scott

Chapter Sixteen

Anna came up to hug me as both Tyler and I walked through the door, she didn't say anything; just smiled and then went to shake hands with Tyler.
She led us through to the kitchen where we dumped our bags. No one had told Martha about Tyler and none of us were quite prepared for her response. She screamed, as she walked into the kitchen. Then she ran out and back upstairs again still screaming. Tyler stood next to me laughing. I was a little surprised, as was Anna, "Oh my God. I am so sorry, that's so embarrassing", Anna tried to apologise. Tyler continued to laugh, "Honestly that's okay, that's really funny actually", I leant against his arm, smiling to myself.
Martha came back in, slowly. "You- you're Tyler Scott", she said, indicating that she was surprised he'd voluntarily hang out here. "I am", he said, putting his arm around me. "Oh my god! You guys are girlfriend and boyfriend!", she jumped up and down where she was. Tyler and I turned to face each other and in sync we both whispered, "Girlfriend and Boyfriend". It was weird, I hadn't thought of us that way before, Tyler was just the guy I was in love with. I hadn't thought to give that a name. We both grinned and he leant down a little to kiss me. "Awwww!!", Martha squealed, "You guys are so cute!", we all laughed this time.
Toni and Bea came running in from outside. It had started to lash down with rain and both girls came in dripping, with there riding hats still fastened under their chins and their jodhpurs were coated in mud and hay. We stood and stared and then we all started to laugh. Bea ran to hug me in her wet state as Toni took her hat off and put it on the Aga. I tried to escape from Bea's hug but I couldn't and then I was wet too, and smelt of horses. Now that I was dirty, Toni saw no harm in giving me a hug too. We laughed as she tried to rub the mud from her arms against me. "So...? How'd it go? Did you talk to him?", Toni was excited. She turned around and spotted Tyler, "Oh hey", she turned back again to face me. Her reaction in comparison to Martha's made Anna and me laugh. I guess though, Toni had already met Tyler.
We sat at the kitchen table, drinking tea and talking about the last few days and their turn out. "So you guys went basically on a suicide mission", Bea said as she tried to comprehend what we'd done. "Yep", said Tyler, nodding. I slipped on his tea loudly, it was slightly comical. And I laughed again causing him to choke and spit his tea back out which made me laugh even more. "Oh my God, are you okay?", I tried to speak against my laughing, "Yeah...fine", he gasped for air, "Are you sure?", Toni said, she was also finding this rather amusing. Martha then came running up behind him and hit him rapidly on the back, we all broke down, nearly setting ourselves with laughter in amazement at Martha's actions. It was priceless.
"So where are your parents?", asked Tyler. Mr Holt owned a peanut factory and was practically married to his job. He also travelled a lot for trade and hence he wasn't at home much. Mrs Holt was a nurse and worked full time in an understaffed A&E unit and left Anna to look after everybody else. "They work a lot", Martha said looking down at the floor with a sad expression on her face. Anna spoke to lighten up the mood, "So, any ideas for supper?", she slapped her thighs as she stood up and walked over to the fridge. Bea spoke, "Can we have pesto pasta", it was her favourite meal, she had it almost every week at least three times a week. "As long as you can cook it for us all", Toni fired a comment and soon three of the sisters were sniping at each other. "Can I cook something?", all heads turned to Tyler, including mine. I spoke for everyone else, "Yes!", amazement laced the tones of my voice as I spoke quietly.
We ate spaghetti carbonara that Tyler had cooked for us. It was truly delicious, I'd never eaten carbonara before and I'd never tasted anything so good. Tyler was skilled and gifted. He was the kind of person who are one in a million, I was lucky to have found him. "So...your text earlier- you trust him you said", Toni leant over to speak to me as we all sat and watched TV in their living room. She was smiling at me, "I think- I- I think I do...yeah, I trust him", I said slowly, checking each word for it's validity as I spoke. She hugged me, "This is such good news Mimi, I'm so happy for you", she understood what trusting him meant, she now knew how much I loved Tyler.
In such a short space of time, I had fallen completely in love with him. We had known each other barely four weeks and already we were in love.
Tyler and I had been given separate bedrooms, Mrs Holt had arrived home and hadn't deemed it appropriate for us to be sleeping in the same bed. He was as far away from me as possible in their huge house. It was pitch black in my room as I stared up at the ceiling to think. Tyler...Tyler...Tyler. My door opened slowly, the time was 1am. Someone tried to make their way through the darkness towards my bed, they tripped and cursed, giving me a hint of who it was. It was a man's voice, Tyler. I chuckled softly. He knelt on the bed and then lay down next to me, "Can't sleep?", he asked, his accent was strong. I hadn't really been paying attention to the way he spoke, in his American accent, but the way he asked this enhanced his accent. I liked his accent, it was cool and different. "Nope", I couldn't sleep because I was busy think about him and how much I loved him, "I love you", he whispered and turned his head to kiss my cheek. I turned my head and kissed him on his lips. "This house is so big", he said quietly as he gazed into the darkness. I'd had an idea, a tour. I would take Tyler on a tour of the house and perhaps by the end of it we would both want to sleep.
"Come", I grabbed his hand, crawled to the end of the bed and led him out of the room down the corridor. I ran backwards sightly, I laughed and he smiled at me as I dragged him through the house. The sky was twilight outside, through huge leaded windows I watched the clouds cross in front of the moon being pushed by the wind. I was walking quickly backwards, leading Tyler all the while. I slipped on the carpet, and feel as if I was in a skateboard - losing my balance backwards. The carpet ran forwards beneath my feet, sliding suddenly on the dark oak floor. I fell backwards, still pulling at Tyler's hand, he jerked forwards, mirroring my action. But he caught me. Almost like a dance move from a salsa routine, my legs balanced on their heels on the floor, I was hovering at a diagonal. In this darkness I could see his eyes taking in all the light the night would give, they glistened as I stared right into them. His strong hands held my back at a distance but my face was higher and therefore closer to his. He was breathing hard. I reached upwards and pressed my lips against his as I closed my eyes. And then I drew back after holding them just there for a few seconds. His eyes were still closed as I drew back and a tear rolled inaudibly against the crease of his nose. I watched him with complete content for a few more seconds until he opened his eyes again. It was the slowest yet most powerful thing I had ever felt. That one moment. Then he lifted me up again and higher until I couldn't touch the ground and I was flying above him, like the scene from Dirty Dancing. In the twilight we danced and glided through the castle. Down their imperial stone staircase and into the hall space below where the light from the stained glass windows above us caught the shadows and few highlights in our little spectacle. I ran at him in my bare feet, making no sound as I went. He reached out to clutch at my waist and threw me upwards, he didn't let go - but it felt like it. I felt as though I flew and it was an amazing sensation; all of this; Tyler and the strength of our love; this dance and how the twilight sky through the windows felt like a paradox, the castle, the security and unpredictability of this moment. All of it, all of it made me feel as though life was worth living. It made me feel as though "I wouldn't want to miss out", the memory came back to me. The words that Tyler had quoted back to me from the book he had read about a great love, 'The Scarlet Macaw', and how he "wouldn't want to miss out". This is what it was, this is what it all meant: he was my Scarlet Macaw and I was his.
I came back down from my flight and Tyler held my legs so that I wrapped them around him. And then I grazed, gracefully down his body until my feet touched the floor again. He held both of my hands in his. "Amelia...", he paused and his voice didn't sound hopeful, I was scared, "...I'm worried about you. Im worried that all that has happened since I have fallen in love with you are bad things...and it's tearing you down - I can see it's tearing you apart. I love you, okay? I love you with a part of me I didn't even know I had and it's the most overwhelming thing I have ever felt....I can't describe it. I told you that nothing could get between us, and nothing can...but I can't be selfish and love you whilst being in love with me rips you to shreds - it's-", I interrupted him. I wasn't upset or disturbed by anything he had said because I knew that nothing he could say or do could drive me away. I knew his words were sincere and that he meant them wholeheartedly, I trusted him. The thing he didn't realise was that I had already played this out in my mind, this scenario. I knew I had nothing to lose, I had all the truth now and I had been exposed to all the heartbreak being with Tyler would deliver. I was safe. I explained it to him and he was quiet for a few minutes as he tried to understand. "Then come with me...", his voice was excited, "...come with me - back to America. Or let's go some place. We could travel the world and live finally, we can live". I agreed with what he'd said, we could live finally. I wanted to go with him more than anything and so I would. I would go back with him to America and we'd travel; anywhere and everywhere. I smiled, "I want that more than anything", it was the truth. We were silent for a few more seconds. He spoke finally, "I love you", he whispered, checking my face over with his eyes, like a tennis rally switching between my eyes in the darkness. I whispered back to him, "And I you".
He led me this time. Pulling at my hand leading us towards the kitchen. He pushed open the heavy, practically soundproof door and we walked inside laughing at our secret midnight prowl. I pushed my hands down on the surface behind me, lifting myself upwards so I could sit on the counter and I started to swing my legs beneath it. Tyler opened the fridge and the refrigerator lights gleamed out at him like a sci-fi movie machine, as if he was going to be abducted into an alien spacecraft. "Jesus Christ!", he shouted trying to keep the noise contained. I laughed at him as his eyes adjusted to the light. He laughed as well a bit but I couldn't stop. He searched the fridge, trying to find something good to eat right now. He unslotted a Ketchup bottle from the refrigerator door and squeezed a tiny meringue shaped tip onto his index finger tip before putting in his mouth. "Eww!!", I said, mocking him slightly, he made a gesture with the ketchup, his finger still in place in his mouth. He laughed, sending me laughing again.
Tyler closed the fridge door and put the ketchup on the side. He walked over to me, his eyes never losing contact with mine as he moved. He stood right in front of me. He was so close. Tyler traced a strand of hair that ran over my cheek and he pushed it away. He brushed his rough finger tip over my top lip and then dragged my bottom one downwards. He leant forward and kissed them as my bottom lip shrunk back to its resting place. He stood against me as I sat on the surface, my legs either side of him and my hands holding his shoulders tightly as we continued to kiss again and again. His one hand was spread over my back and the other grabbed at my hair, he messed with it, in between his fingers and covering my shoulders with it and spreading locks of my hair all over me, ruffeling it up. I then reached slowly beneath my skirt to the top of my tights and I pulled them down on one side until they were at my knee, Tyler did the same to the other side for me. I kicked them off of my ankles and then as Tyler kissed my neck and my ear and back again I undid his belt on his jeans and pulled them down slowly until gravity helped me. He pushed down his shorts slowly as I kissed him in return. And then he took me in a tight embrace and I kissed him more passionately.
How could I ever come back into this kitchen, a kitchen where I had spent a lot of my childhood in, how could I ever come back in to the room without thinking that I'd had sex with Tyler on the middle counter. The thought made me laugh a little and Tyler smiled too. The same thought had crossed his mind and we both looked at down at the Ketchup bottle beside us. We started to really laugh now. It was hilarious and hysterical. I don't know what had happened it was just the Ketchup bottle that had triggered it and then we were both in uncontrollable fits of laughter.
We walked back to my room and got underneath the covers. I put my head on his chest and felt the weight of it being lifted up and down and up again. He ran his fingers through my hair and then kissed the top of my head as I nestled in close to him.