Getting Over It: Sapphire Falls Book Six (2 page)

And now she knew every inch of his body and what that body was truly capable of. He was more slender than his brothers, but he was hard
everywhere
and had stamina that was truly mind-blowing. The man made a living with his body and it showed in everything he did. Yeah, there was no
not
being distracted by that.

Which was one of her big problems when he visited Sapphire Falls. He distracted her from
everything
.

He was in a simple T-shirt and jeans today and, having grown up around denim and cotton in all shapes and sizes, Hailey had to admit that blue jeans seemed made for showing off asses like Ty’s, and T-shirts were meant to cling lovingly to wide shoulders and flat abs.

His hair was longer than usual and looked windblown—which fit a guy who spent most of his time outdoors. He also hadn’t shaved today. It seemed that she shaved nearly every inch of her body, but she was a born-and-raised country girl, and scruff, tanned skin and big work-roughened hands did it for her.

She knew exactly how that scruff and those hands would feel rubbing over her—

“Hailey?”

She focused on his eyes. He was giving her a knowing grin.

She hated when he did that. When he
knew
things about her that she didn’t want him to know. It made him smug. And it made her aware of the things he
didn’t
know. The deal breakers. The reason she preferred ogling him and losing her mind over him in
Denver.

She needed her mind and her pride when she was here in Sapphire Falls.

“Why couldn’t you tell me?” she asked, thrilled to be able to remember what they’d been talking about. Seriously, she was standing on the porch of the neighbor she had been wondering about for weeks and she almost didn’t remember that
he
was the topic of conversation. Pathetic. “He paid
you
not to say anything either?”

“Because it would have upset you and you would have caused problems for…him…moving in. He needed to get settled first.”

It would have upset her? Why? Who the hell was this?

“So you decided to wait until he was all moved in to tell me that you know him?” she asked. “In spite of us…” They never talked about their affair while in Sapphire Falls. Ever. It was one of their rules. Okay, it was one of
her
rules. Actually, pretty much her only rule. She sighed. “Who is it?”

He chewed on the inside of his cheek, simply watching her as several seconds passed. She waited.

Finally, he seemed to make a decision. “Me.”

She expected him to grin or go on and explain that he was house-sitting for her new neighbor until he could move in. Or something.

But he didn’t say anything else.

Tyler Bennett teased her a lot. He gave her a hard time. He loved to rile her up just to rile her up.

But he didn’t look like he was kidding now.

No.

Her stomach knotted, dread trickled through her, and she started shaking her head. No.
No.
Ty lived in Denver.

Tyler was a triathlete who competed on the international stage. He’d left home for Colorado right after high school to train. He’d been entering and placing in the top three in races all over the world ever since, including a silver medal in the Olympics.

But it wasn’t gold, and he wasn’t going to stop until he had one of those too.

His training and constant striving for that number-one spot kept him in Colorado. Talk about personal space. She had five hundred and two miles of personal space. Oh, sure, he thoroughly invaded that personal space the second she set foot in Denver—and she loved every minute of it. But then she could retreat back to Sapphire Falls and breathe deep and recover and live her life.

While he lived
his
life.

In
Denver.

Seeing him for a weekend every couple of months was fine. And enough. Ty was…potent. When they were together, he took over her thoughts. He distracted her from everything else. He owned her. Which was fine for a couple of days, far from home and work, every once in a while. It was more than fine, actually. It was heaven.

But there weren’t enough sticky notes and planners in the world to keep her on track and any kind of productive if Ty lived next door.

He could
not
live next door. That would be crazy. He loved their weekend indulgences as much as she did, but he’d also confessed that if she were around all the time, he’d never be able to focus fully on his training. She made him want to stay in bed all day and eat ice cream—off of her—and spend the day at the zoo and lie on the couch watching Netflix marathons and have sex on every available horizontal surface. And a couple of vertical ones.

They worked out together. She loved rock climbing and zip lining and biking and running with him. But it was hardly at the level he needed to work out at to stay competitive.

His training wasn’t just a hobby or a way to stay in shape. It was his
life
. It was the way he made a living, between the prizes and his endorsements. And his training happened in
Denver.

“You?” she finally asked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m your new neighbor.”

His grin was gone. His smugness was gone. In their place was a confident, direct gaze that told her he meant it. And that she was in big trouble.

This was not the teasing, fun-loving Ty who visited Sapphire Falls. This was the intense, I’m-in-charge Denver Ty who made her do things that…well, that she’d never do in Sapphire Falls.

That meant he wasn’t kidding.

And that meant they had to break up. Or she had to move.

“Well, now that’s impossible,” Hailey said after a stunned silence, in that cool, haughty tone she’d perfected in the ninth grade.

“Impossible?” Ty asked. “Why is that?”

He could smell her shampoo and body wash and his entire body tightened in response. She always smelled good. Even after a workout or a hike, he wanted to put his nose…pretty much all over her.

“Because you’re not stupid,” she said, lifting her chin. “You
act
like an idiot sometimes, but you’re not actually dumb enough to move in next door to me without talking to me about it first.”

No, not if he wanted everything to be civil between them.

But he didn’t.
Not
being civil with Hailey was one of his favorite things in the world.

This woman frustrated the shit out of him. She pushed him away. She argued with him. She called him on his bullshit and wasn’t impressed with his trophies and medals. She made him work for every smile, every moan, every yes.

And he fucking loved it.

It sounded crazy, he knew, but it was the competitor in him. He loved to win, but the sweetest victories were those that were hard-won.

He also loved adrenaline. Loved feeling it pumping through him, making him daring and strong. And no person got his adrenaline flowing like the good mayor of Sapphire Falls.

He hadn’t expected her to be overjoyed by this at first. He knew that she loved their arrangement exactly as it was—miles and time in between them. But things had changed and he wanted more. He wanted
her
. She was going to have to deal with that.

“If I had told you, you would have cut me off,” he said, keeping his tone light. “And you know I’d lie, cheat and steal to get my tongue on your—”

“You’re right,” she broke in. “I would have. Like I’m doing right now.”

Her cheeks were flushed and Ty wasn’t sure if it was anger, lust or a delicious combination of the two.

She started to turn away, but Ty anticipated her move and blocked her from the steps with his body.

She narrowed her eyes. “Get out of the way.”

“Not until we talk about this.”

“Okay, here’s what I’ve got to say. If you live here, that means I don’t get my weekend in Denver anymore, which means I don’t get to eat at El Ranchero anymore, and I don’t get to go skiing and I don’t get to have massages from Meredith anymore. Basically, you’re fucking everything up, and if you think you’re ever going to have sex with me again after taking away my enchiladas, you’re a dumbass.”

She shoved him out of the way and started down the steps.

He knew the enchiladas were not her main concern, but taking her away from her favorite Mexican food would definitely be held against him. Not to mention Meredith’s magic massages.

Of course, he was gambling on being more important to her than corn tortillas and cheese.

He really hoped he wasn’t going to lose that bet. He couldn’t be number three on her list behind lavender massage oil and the best red sauce in the US.

Ty started after her, but she suddenly stopped on the third step. He caught her by her shoulders to keep from plowing her over.

“We can still go skiing,” he said.

She turned and looked up at him. “Not together, Ty. It’s all over.”

For a moment, he thought he saw her bottom lip quiver.

But, no. This was Hailey Conner. Her lower lip did lots of really nice things, but pouting was not one of them.

She lifted the plate of brownies she held. She’d brought brownies to her new neighbor. Ty started to grin.

Until she shoved the plate at him, brownies first, smashing them against his chest. “Welcome to the neighborhood.”

Ty caught the plate as she spun away and stomped down the steps.

She was pissed.

He could work with that.

Hailey was a challenge, but she always had been. Riling her up and then wearing her down was some of the most fun Ty had in life. And he really needed some fun.

Things in his life over the past few months had been pretty damned bleak. No one here, outside of his family, knew anything about it, of course. He was upbeat and cocky as ever as far as they were all concerned. Even Hailey.
Especially
Hailey. But ever since that fucking truck crossed the middle line and forced him and Bryan, his friend and riding partner, over the edge of the mountain, things had been rough.

He’d tried to stay positive for Bryan, who had spent weeks in a hospital bed and then rehab. But Ty had been in pain, restless, angry and frustrated in varying amounts almost constantly since then.

With the exception of Hailey’s visits.

Since things had gone to hell five months before, she’d been to Denver twice. Part of him had wanted to confide in her. He’d even started to tell her on one occasion. But being with her had made him forget about the pain and the things he couldn’t do and, in the end, he couldn’t tell her. The pain and fear he felt when she
wasn’t
there had actually made it even clearer that she was a bright spot in his life, and he needed more brightness. So he’d consciously kept the darkness out of their time together.

Instead of deep, revealing conversations, they argued about politics and pop culture and if cream or jelly was the best donut filling. They pushed each other to climb higher on the rock wall and to run farther on the indoor track. They even competed when doing word searches or playing chess.

And when she left, he felt it in everything. His house was quieter and didn’t smell like coconut. He was bored to death by the word search and his workouts went back to being work.

It wouldn’t be easy to convince her that he needed her full time, of course, but he was looking forward to that. He didn’t like things that came easy. Anyone could do easy. It took a champion to stick with something in the face of opposition, hurdles…and one stubborn, pissed-off, gorgeous mayor.

The plate still against his chest, he followed her down the steps and across the grass between their houses.

Damn, she looked good walking away.

Or walking toward him. Or standing there. Or lying there…

“This isn’t about enchiladas,” he said.

“Those enchiladas are amazing.”

“You haven’t been driving eight hours for enchiladas.”

“Well, you can’t get enchiladas like that just anywhere.”

Right. He climbed her porch steps behind her. “But everything else you love about coming to Denver you
can
get anywhere?”

She spun on him. “No. That’s the thing, Ty. I can’t zip line here. I can’t hike in the mountains here. I can’t see concerts in Red Rocks here. I love hanging out with you in Denver and now you’ve messed it all up.”

She’d said it with enough conviction that he actually hesitated. Denver was awesome and they’d had a hell of a good time together there. But there was no way the majority of the appeal was the mountains and food.

“You’ve loved
hanging out
with me?” he said. “That’s what the last three and a half years have been about?”

“In
Denver
,” she emphasized. “And, yes.”

For an instant, he had a flicker of doubt.
He’d
had a good time, but maybe she loved the mountains more than he’d known. But she lifted her chin slightly after she said it. That was her tell that she wasn’t feeling quite as sassy as she seemed but that she was going to fight anyway.

He grinned. This woman had been making his ego sting for years. It was part of her appeal. He could never get too full of himself with her around. The smiles he got, the spontaneous hugs, the way he could get her out of her clothes in five minutes or less, was all about him and had nothing to do with his medals or commercials.