a/n: i am really terrible at writing anything romantic so i apologize in advance lol
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CHAPTER 12: I'M A SUCKER FOR YOU
"and in the middle of my chaos, there was you."
February 20th
"Are you sure you have to leave?" Tyler whines from his spot on the bed. I feel his eyes following me around the room while I search for my clothes and get dressed.
"I have to go talk to Maddie." I say and grin when he pouts. "Besides, don't you have practice in an hour?"
His eyes go comically wide and I watch him get tangled up in the sheets while trying to get out of bed. There's a loud thunk when he hits the floor and I walk around to see him sprawled out on the carpet.
"You look ridiculous." I tell him, reaching a hand out to help him stand up. He's clutching the sheets around himself, hair dishevelled and still looking half asleep.
"I prefer dashing, but I'll take it."
I roll my eyes but let him pull me in for a quick kiss before heading off. I didn't tell Maddie I was coming back to Dallas for the same reason I didn't tell Tyler. I was terrified of her reaction because I know she wasn't happy with me long before I left.
While driving to her apartment, I try to practice a speech in my head but come up empty by the time I park in the lot. It's probably a solid fifteen minutes before I work up the courage and find myself knocking on her door.
To my surprise, Maddie doesn't look dazed to see me at all and I wonder if Tyler or Axel gave her a heads up. She just gives me a timid smile and invites me in. I follow her to the kitchen where she pours us both a cup of hot chocolate (with a little cinnamon of course) and we sit on the couch in silence until I break it.
"You don't seem surprised." I say, "did Tyler tell you I was back?"
Her face scrunches up in confusion. "Tyler? When did you see him?"
"Last night. My plane landed at 10."
"Where did you -" her eyes widen and she reaches over, yanking my sweater down a little to expose my collarbone. "Is that - oh my God, you slept with him." I watch warily as she laughs. "Jamie owes me a hundred bucks."
"Are you guys seriously betting on that?" I whine and she grins, shrugging apologetically.
"It was bound to happen sooner rather than later."
Maddie betting on it doesn't bother me but I try not to think too much about Jamie thinking about that because it makes my breakfast want to make a reappearance.
"I'm sorry." I say and she smiles.
"Me too."
"No, it wasn't fair of me to leave without telling you." I sigh, trying to find the words to explain. "Your pep-talk helped. I realized what an idiot I was being so I got off my butt and went to work but then Jaxon texted me and said dad wanted me out of the house. Everything just went downhill from there."
"Jax told me what happened." Maddie says sadly. I bite the inside of my cheek so I don't start crying again and shrug.
"We shouldn't be that surprised, I guess."
"Daisy, there is no way you could have seen this coming. Don't beat yourself up about it."
"It's my fault, Maddie." I argue. "It was me, who tried gluing everybody back together and look what happened."
She shakes her head. "What were you supposed to do? Let Axel waste his life away hiding in his room? You got both him and your mom out of a bad situation."
I don't completely agree with her but arguing isn't something I want to do now, so I force a smile.
"Did you want to get breakfast?"
She looks frustrated at my change of topic but agrees. We head out to our favourite breakfast spot and when we're getting served, my phone buzzes. I look to see a text from Tyler.
Tyler: can I take you out tonight?
"Ty?"
I look up to see Maddie smirking and I blush, nodding.
Me: Sure :)
Tyler: great. pick you up at 7 :)
"So, what happened between you two?" Madilyn asks, sipping on her water. "a few weeks ago you hated him and now you're... well, sleeping with him. You seemed to have forgiven him."
"I don't forgive him completely." I object. "and I didn't hate him. But he was an asshole and there's no excuse for that but..."
"You want to forgive him." Maddie says and I nod.
"I know he can be better but I need him to prove that I can trust him. That he won't just go do exactly what he did before."
"That's fair." She says and I feel relieved that she agrees instead of thinking I am being crazy because I'm beginning to worry I might be.
Then she smiles. "Enough about Tyler. Catch me up on what's been happening."
So I dive into what happened while I was in Montreal. I note that she doesn't have much to say about Axel going back to school. In fact, she doesn't look surprised at all and I wonder if she somehow knew but I don't know who would have told her so I brush it off.
It's not my place but I slip up and tell her that Jaxon's girlfriend is pregnant. That, she is shocked about but promises to keep quiet about it until Jaxon decides to tell everybody. I don't know when or if he is going to tell anybody but I am looking forward to everyone's reaction.
At least people will have something to gossip about instead of what is going on with my life.
It is seven o'clock on the dot when Tyler knocks on my hotel door. Maddie offered for me to stay with her but I know she's trying to work things out with Elliot so I tell her I will be alright in the hotel room until I find an apartment. The suites at this hotel are similar to apartments anyway so it's not a big deal staying here for a couple weeks.
He's wearing a suit when I open the door and I'm glad I opted for a nice dress instead of jeans and a top. He didn't tell me where he is taking me so I was completely lost as to what to wear.
There's a bouquet of carnation flowers in his hand and I grin.
"No daises?"
He shrugs. "It seemed like daisies were becoming an apology flower. This is a fresh start."
I try not to melt and open the door wider. "Come in, I'll put those in a vase and then we can leave."
He follows me in the room and I watch him look around until his eyes land back on me.
"You can stay at my place." He says, ignoring the pointed look I give him. "C'mon Daisy. Are you really just going to live here? I have the extra room."
"We talked about this." I say patiently.
"No, you talked and I listened." He grumbles and I sigh, not wanting to argue.
"We're in a good place." I shrug. "I don't want to mess that up."
He frowns, but seems to understand because he nods. A smile crosses his face and he holds out a hand.
"Let's go or we're going to be late."
I take his hand and let him lead out of the hotel and to his car. He opens the door for me and I raise an eyebrow, impressed.
He rolls his eyes playfully. "Don't act too shocked."
I grin when he closes the door and walks around to climb in the drivers side. He slips his hand in mine and brings it up to his lips.
"So, where are we going?" I ask, trying to ignore the blush spreading across my face. Hopefully it's too dark for him to notice.
"I have a couple things planned but first is dinner."
We go to a small but cute restaurant that I've never been to before. I'm glad he decided on this instead of a large, high end one.
Once we're seated, I notice how fidgety he is. He is watching me with a careful eye so I knock my foot against his.
"What's wrong?"
He purses his lips. "Is this okay?"
When I raise a brow, he further explains.
"The restaurant. I figured you wouldn't want to go somewhere really fancy."
"Of course it is." I say and he relaxes. I feel bad but I can't help but tease him a bit.
"You're awfully nervous. Never taken a girl out on a date?"
I'm grinning but he looks me in the eye and answers in a dead serious tone, "never a girl I've ever cared about this much." and I worry that I may melt through my chair.
But I'm not great with feelings so I play it off by grinning.
"I never knew you were such a softie."
This brings a smile to his face but there's a hint of disappointment in his eyes. "Don't spread it around."
I'm glad the intensity in his voice is gone because I don't know how to deal with that side of Tyler. I've always only known him as a careless flirt so I don't recognize these new feelings. Not that I don't want them - I just don't know how to handle them yet.
While we eat our dinner, I catch him up on what happened in Montreal but leave out my stay with Jo. Then he talks about what is new in Dallas although there isn't much. He tells me that his mom is really worried about me after what was basically an emotional breakdown so I make a note to call her tomorrow.
When we finish dinner I try to get Tyler to tell me what he has planned next but he just smiles and shakes his head. I list off guesses, knowing he won't tell me but I watch for reactions to my guesses in case his expression gives it away.
The last place I expect is for him to pull into the parking lot of the hockey arena. I turn to look at him and he is grinning.
"You know I can't skate." I whine.
"C'mon. I pulled some strings and it's just gonna be the two of us." Then he jokes, "the only person you have to worry about making a fool of yourself in front of is me."
He doges my hand when I go to hit his arm easily and hops out of his car. I sulk while he gets the skates from the back seat until he opens my door.
"Tyler."
"Daisy." he mimics, holding a hand out.
I don't want to ruin our night so I suck it up and follow him. The security guard greets us with a nod and Tyler pulls me to the locker room impatiently to put our skates on.
Of course, the moment I step on the ice, I end up on my bottom. I glare at Tyler while he tries to hold back a laugh but fails miserably.
"I told you I'm terrible at this." I say and he shakes his head.
"You just need practice and I happen to be a great teacher."
I accept his offered hand to get back on my feet. When he steadies me with his hands on my waist, I smirk.
"I think you just want an excuse to have your hands on me, Seguin."
"Can you blame a guy?" He jokes and I smile, letting him start to pull me around the rink. I start to get the hang of this skating thing and by the end of the hour, I manage to skate a couple laps without using him as a crutch.
When we are walking to the car, Tyler grins and knocks his shoulder against mine.
"Told you it would be fun."
I roll my eyes fondly and loop my arm with his, leaning on him.
"Thanks for this." I tell him. "I know I was ungrateful but I'm glad we went skating."
"Anything for you." He says, stopping when we reach his car.
He turns to me and wraps his arms around my waist. "and thank you for going out with me tonight."
I sigh dramatically. "It was a bit of a chore but I'm glad I did."
He laughs and tucks a piece of loose hair behind my ear. The way he's looking at me makes my cheeks heat up and heart race. I feel foolish and like a teenager but part of me doesn't care because it's been so long since I felt like this that I want to take it in.
Part of me is worried that it won't last. That he might really realize how much of a mess I am and decide I'm not worth the trouble.
"What's going on in your head?" He asks, snapping me out of my thoughts. I want to blurt out how I feel and get that reassurance but I can't.
"Just thinking about how nice tonight was."
He grins and knocks our foreheads together.
"I'm glad. I was a bit worried, to be honest."
I pull away and frown. "I'm not that hard to please, am I?"
"No," he quickly says. "not at all. I was just worried I would end up messing this up."
"Don't be silly. Tonight was perfect."
He looks relieved and tips his head down to graze his lips against mine in almost a teasing manner.
"You gonna kiss me, or should I go ask the security guard for a smooch?" I tease and he laughs.
"You're such a goof." he says affectionately and then kisses me breathless.
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a/n:
- so i kind of like this chapter?? im really bad at writing cute romantic scenes because i LIVE for angst and drama but i hope i did a decent job so let me know what you all think!!
- chapter title obviously from the jonas brothers new song. i am super happy that they're back together and i get to relive my childhood haha
- also i know daisy and tylers relationship moves a bit fast but keep in mind that each chapter is usually over the span of a couple weeks and sometimes even a month which is why i like to put the dates in so i can keep track myself
- vote & leave a comment to make a girl happy!
- thanks for reading (and also thank you for 4K reads! <3 im super grateful for everybody who is following this story and i hope you guys like it!) i know im super slow at updating but i still have A LOT planned for this story so stay tuned
-- alexandra