Part 3

The breeze cooled the light sheen of sweat on Lydia's body. It had been an eventful evening, and she was finally settling down. Josiah had showed Tyler the apartment while Josie had cornered Lydia in her kitchen.

"He is so dreamy," Josie sighed. "You should think about a quickie affair while he's town." She waggled her eyebrows at Lydia.

"I'm not really the affair type," she had responded. What she wanted to say was that she had been there and done that. But she hadn't told anyone, and apparently neither had Tyler. It wasn't something that Lydia wanted to open up about.

They had waited for Tyler to shower, then Josiah had driven them to The Country Club for dinner. Time had passed quickly with all the well wishers that stopped by the table. Josie and Josiah had managed to keep the conversation flowing, and Lydia had managed to not say too much about her life. At one point, Tyler had leaned in close and whispered, "As quiet as you've been all night, it makes me think you're keeping a secret."

"Yeah, you know me," she had replied a little too tightly, "I'm keeping all kinds of secrets." She only had one, and he was the only one who knew what it was. That had received a smoldering look from Tyler. He was used to women that threw themselves at him, not ones that shrunk away everytime he touched them. But he had touched Lydia before. And, eight years later, he wanted to touch her again.

Lydia took another sip of her beer as she remembered the looks he had drawn from the eligible bachelorettes in Harper's Bend. She touched her toe to the ground, gave a little push and the swing she was in started drifting slowly back and forth. As the swing drifted so did her thoughts, back to the day her life had changed.

She had been seventeen and lonely. Her mother had run off when she was twelve and hadn't bothered to even say good bye. It had taken Theresa Adams almost six months before she had contacted her daughter. And Lydia hadn't known how to handle the emotions and the turmoil she was experiencing, so she started withdrawing. Her father had worried about her and made her join an extra curricular activity. She was forced into theater when all the others were full. Thankfully, she loved it. She was finally making friends and coming out of her shell.

Practice had run late one night and she was the last one to get in her car. All of her friends had already left the parking lot when she realized her car wouldn't start. She had started the long five mile walk home thinking of it as a great adventure. Two miles into it she was ready for the adventure to be over. When she had seen the headlights approaching, she had been elated and scared. What if it was a serial killer? She had wanted a ride so badly, she was willing to risk it.

She recognized the car when it stopped. It was Tyler Wickham, Josiah Todd's best friend. Most people called him Wicked, male and female. He was TROUBLE and proved his nickname fit as often as he could. He put the car in park, unlocked the door with a push of a button, and waited for her to get in. She sank into the seat with extreme gratitude and beamed a smile at him.

"Where to?" he asked, barely moving his lips.

"I live past Josiah's. My car broke down and I thought I could walk it," she started, fumbling with her seat belt as he put the car in gear. She was suddenly feeling very clumsy and awkward around the town bad boy. "Turns out I'm not as athletically inclined as I thought I was," she finished with a nervous smile and what was supposed to be a small laugh. Tyler just stared at her, expressionless. He suddenly smiled and let out a huge laugh. Lydia relaxed a little and gave him directions to her house.

She had invited him inside when he pulled up to her front door. He just shook his head and warned her about the big, bad wolf. She had a feeling he was talking about himself. That thought made her shiver, but she couldn't get it out of her mind all night. The shivers it produced later weren't from fear.

They had run into each other that weekend at a party. She had been talked into going, at least once while she was in high school. She could hear the whispers when good girl Lydia Adams walked into the house. She had fled upstairs after a while, looking for a place that was quiet. She had run into Tyler coming around a corner, and he had grabbed her arms to keep her from falling. He stared at her, Lydia unable to tear her eyes away from his sky blue irises. He leaned closer to her, she retreated to the wall. When he leaned closer, softly rubbing his lips against hers, Lydia thought she was going to faint, her knees soft, legs rubbery, and heart pounding.

They had seen each other every day after that. But not in public. He didn't want to ruin her good girl rep, he kept telling her. She met him wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted. They kissed and touched and talked and kissed some more. Tyler made her body hum and she knew what all the girls were talking about. He taught her lots of things, but he didn't make love to her. He almost got carried away one day by the lake. They were spread out on a blanket and both ended up naked, but he had pulled back, walking away, his back straight. She dressed quickly and waited for him by the car. He refused to take her virginity, telling her she deserved someone better than that.

A few days later, they had the talk. She had met him at the lake again, and he seemed distant. She knew what was coming. She knew he was going to break her heart. He kept insisting that he was a poor boy from the other side of the tracks with a couple of non-caring alcoholics for parents. She insisted that just because her father was the richest man in the county, she was still in love with Tyler and didn't care where he came from. She left in tears, crawling back into the shell she thought was finally gone for good.

Lydia felt the pain of that day all over again. She had buried it for eight years and it was rearing it's ugly head. She wiped a stray tear from her face, muttering, "Stupid fool." She had just opened another beer when she heard soft footsteps crossing the grass.

"Can I have one of those?" Tyler asked. He gestured to the swing, "Can I sit?"