Only Tyler Read Online Free Page B

he’d had the courage to give her reasonable justification for his departure, something that would have taken the sting out of her loss. The idea of hurting Katie, even the littlest bit, gnawed away at him. “Who was he?”
    Steve shook his head. “I don’t know. She outright refused to tell me, even asked me not to push her on the issue. But she was pretty beat up about the whole thing. Spent months putting her life back together afterwards.”
    Tyler went cold. He could sort out Steve’s confusion in a sentence.
    He could tell him the truth, but he didn’t. Steve couldn’t know about his and Katie’s affair. Not yet.
    “She even took up running.”
    “Katie?” His woman despised exercise.
    “I think it was her way of working through her anger. She really dug the guy, Ty. His disappearing act pissed her off, big-time. I’ve never seen her so furious.”
    Jesus. He knew he’d hurt Katie. He had to know he’d experienced the same devastation at losing her. Yet hearing Steve voice it out loud was a knife in his chest. It cut straight through him, bringing back the raw loss he’d lived with as he attempted to rebuild his life in London.
    Steve frowned. “You know what the amazing thing is? No matter how much he hurt her, and no matter how mad she got, she never said one bad thing about him. Ever. If I try to badmouth the dickhead, she cuts me off cold. Refuses to hear it.”
    “Sounds odd,” Tyler said in a gruff voice.
    “Yeah. No matter what he did to her, she has this strong sense of loyalty to him. Doesn’t make sense.”
    Yes, it did. Katie would never let Steve slate his best friend, even if he did so unwittingly. She wouldn’t criticize him either. No matter how much he might have hurt her, the friendships between all three of them would always be more important than anything else.
    Only they weren’t for him, right? If they were, he wouldn’t be here now, preparing to challenge his best friend for his fiancé. Preparing to possibly decimate their circle of three. What the hell kind of friend was he anyway?
    One that knew Steve was with the wrong woman, that’s what kind.
    “That’s when it all began for Kate and me. She was busted up over this guy. I was all fucked up because of” he paused, looked at Tyler and grimaced.
    “Because of Penelope.” He shrugged. “We turned to each other. We got each other through it.”
    Tyler had left, and Steve and Katie had turned to each other.
    Perfect. Just fucking perfect. He’d set the whole thing up. Practically pushed them together. And why? All because he’d believed he had to go. “Steve?”
    “Yeah?” Steve turned to look at him.
    It was all he could do to maintain eye contact. He felt like the lowest form of slime. “What if Katie’s dickhead came back?” He let the Penelope comment slide. For now.
    His friend didn’t hesitate. He stared Tyler straight in the eye and said, “I’d beat the crap out of him.”
    Tyler took in the lean, hard muscle of Steve’s biceps with muted apprehension. Perhaps he deserved the thrashing.
    “No one gets to hurt Kate like that, and get away with it.” Steve’s face reflected the conviction of his words. “No one!”
    No one had gotten away with it. Tyler had spent two years in hell trying to get over her. Having the crap beaten out of him would hurt significantly less than beating himself up about it every day of his life.
    “Did I tell you we’re going to have kids soon?” Steve asked.
    The question slammed him in the solar plexus.
    “I’m not getting any younger, mate,” Steve said. “Kate and I are both thirty-two, and I’d like to have a family someday. I don’t want my kids to have an old man for a dad. Know what I mean?”
    Tyler winced. The words hit him like physical blows.
    “Kate would make a great mom. Don’t you think?”
    How could Tyler discuss Katie and Steve’s children? How?
    “I want two kids. She wants four. Two boys. Two girls. We compromised on three. Either sex, I