Getting Over It: Sapphire Falls Book Six (26 page)

He wanted Hailey, and things between them back to when she’d been excited to see him and he’d made her happy.

He wanted the laughing, relaxed, sassy woman who would cheat when they played checkers by putting lotion on her legs while he was trying to concentrate, and who could make drinking a strawberry malt pure erotic torture with her moans and sighs and tongue and lip action. He wanted the woman he loved making chocolate-chip pancakes for because she acted like he’d lassoed the moon when he did it. He wanted the woman who had gotten him hooked on the show
Parks and Recreation
and who had introduced him to the music of Brett Eldredge.

He wanted what they’d always had. He missed her—not just the sex they hadn’t been having, but the feeling he got when he first saw her after weeks apart. And the way her eyes lit up when he got her a gift. And the way she snorted when she got to laughing really hard. He missed the things she yelled at referees and umpires during ballgames and the way she wiggled and danced after getting past the third screen in Pac-Man on his vintage videogame console.

As he climbed the stairs and threw clothes into a duffle, something else became clear.

If he wanted things to be the way they’d always been with Hailey, he was going to have to
move
back to Denver.

Things had been good with them when he’d lived in Colorado. He didn’t get to see her as often as he wanted to, but he’d rather see her happy for two days at a time than see her stressed and unhappy because he’d forced her into a lifestyle she didn’t want by moving in next door.

His duffle full, Ty grabbed his keys and phone from the dresser and headed back downstairs. He needed to find her before he left, but he wasn’t sure if he should tell her he was going to visit Bryan or if he should tell her what he was feeling about them.

He was in love with her, and so far he’d done a shitty job of showing it. It had been all about him since he’d opened his front door to her and her brownies.

Hell, it was no wonder she didn’t tell him everything.

He’d shown up next door without talking with her about it. He’d pushed her into a campaign she never should have had to run. The campaign had forced her to open up about things she’d kept to herself all her life.

He was causing her trouble and pain here.

He needed to leave her alone and be thrilled with the two days every four to six weeks they had.

Ty was reaching for the knob when the doorbell rang.

He pulled the door open, expecting a brother to be on his doorstep.

But it was Hailey.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

His whole body ached with the need to pull her into his arms.

“We should talk,” she said.

“Yeah. We should. Okay.” He stepped back to let her in.

Her eyes landed on the bag in his hand. “What’s that?”

“Clothes and stuff for a couple of days. I need to go check on Bryan.” He dropped the bag behind the door. “But I can talk first. I want to talk first.”

She stopped in the arched doorway to the living room and turned to him with her arms crossed. “Is Bryan okay?”

“I don’t know, actually. I haven’t checked on him the way I should have. I need to go and spend a couple of days.”

Ty didn’t know exactly what kind of talk this was going to be. He slid his hands into his front pockets and kept the five feet of space between them. He’d been hurt to learn there were things she hadn’t felt she could share with him, but like his conversation a few days ago with Lauren, Ty realized this was on both of them. No, Hailey hadn’t shared. But he hadn’t asked. He hadn’t dug into her motivations, into the things that made her tick. He’d thought he knew her and had been content with what he thought he knew. She had been the woman he wanted and he’d been happy with the fantasy he’d built up in his mind.

“Okay, so maybe we should talk later. Or never.” She took a step toward the door.

He moved in front of her. “Hold on. Not never. We should talk.”

“About how I’m not the perfect woman that you want anymore.”

“I never thought you were perfect.” Not literally. Completely. Fuck, he was a jackass.

“You thought I was perfect for
you
though,” she said.

“Yes,” he said sincerely. “Absolutely.”

“But I’m not. You’ve been realizing that ever since you got here. I’m not confident and in charge. And now you know that I’m not organized and on task and goal-oriented like you are. The things you respect and like about me are all fake.”

He didn’t answer at first. It was true that he’d believed all of those things about her before he’d become her next-door neighbor. It was true that he’d thought one of the things that appealed to him about her was that he had won over the woman with sky-high standards. He’d also believed they had a lot in common—driven, competitive, career-oriented type-A people.

But did the fact that she wasn’t any of those things change how he felt?

He wasn’t sure.

“I think I got my answer,” she said after the silence had stretched too long. She started for the door again.

Ty stepped in front of her. “Hang on. Give me a second.”

“You don’t need a second,” she said. “You know how you feel. You just don’t know how to say it.”

“Dammit, Hailey, I’ve been a little blindsided here, okay? Give me a damned minute to process it all.”

“What’s to process? I’ve been lying to you and keeping things from you for years. I’ve made myself into the woman that I knew you wanted, but that’s not really me.”

He stepped close, towering over her in the boots more than he could in her usual heels. He didn’t touch her, but he knew she wasn’t going to try to get around him. She knew he’d stop her. And he would. Not to force his will on her, but because he needed some answers and he had some things to say and she wanted to hear them. Somewhere deep down she knew that.

“Why did you try so hard to be who you thought I wanted? Seems like I worked awfully hard for a long time to get you. If you thought I wouldn’t like the real you, why not just show her to me from the beginning?”

He saw the sparkle of tears in her eyes. Oh no, she couldn’t cry. He couldn’t handle her tears.

“No crying and getting my sympathies that way, babe,” he said softly. “I need to know this stuff, and if you cry, I’ll want to hug you, and if I hug you in those shorts, it’s going to be a long time until either of us can catch our breath enough to talk again.”

That did the trick. Heat and affection flared in her eyes instead, and Ty was comforted knowing that he still knew her on some level. Maybe a more important level than knowing about her ADHD.

Still, that was a big deal. It clearly affected how she lived her life. He needed to know about it if they were going to have a future.

“So you never thought there would be any long-term for us?” he asked, realizing it only a moment before he asked. “Because if you had, you would have realized that you needed to tell me about the sticky notes and anxiety.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded.

“Yes, what?”

“I did realize that,” she said. “I wanted long-term, but I didn’t think it would happen. I thought I was safe—I was mayor here, so you’d never expect me to move to Denver. And your life was there, your training and everything, and I knew nothing else would be that important and you’d never move here.”

He kind of hated the nothing-else-would-be-that-important bit, but he wasn’t sure he could effectively argue against it. Chasing the gold had consumed his last eleven years. Having her in his life had been a break from the pressure and the pain of going after something that stayed beyond his reach.

“I was crazy about you because as I was training for the medal that just wouldn’t fucking come, I had you. I had this woman who was my dream girl—and many men’s dream girl—in my bed, in my life. I could make you go weak and beg and want me. You’d drive eight hours to be with me. That made me feel like a king.”

“And that’s why I kept it all up,” she said. “I knew that dream girl mattered to you and if I wasn’t her, someone else would be. For real. And I’d lose you.”

He moved in even closer, until the toes of his boots touched the toes of hers. “You didn’t want to lose me?”

She shook her head.

“Because of the sex?”

She shook her head. Then she nodded. Then she wiggled it side to side. “That was some of it. Sex with you is amazing.”

He gave her a half grin. It definitely was. “Because of my Olympic medal or the hopes of another?”

She shook her head.

“Then why? The chocolate-chip pancakes?”

“Okay, those are amazing too,” she said. But then her expression grew serious. She took a deep breath. “Honestly?”

“God,
yes
,” he said. “Please.”

“It’s because you were the only person to ever come after me, to want to be with me. You made me feel special and wanted and cherished. I hadn’t ever had that before.”

He finally couldn’t resist. He lifted a hand and cupped her cheek. Ty felt the tension through his whole body. The ache to make things better for her, to make up for what she’d been missing, the urge to hurt those people who’d hurt her. But there was also a surge of satisfaction upon hearing that he’d given her something no one else had.

“I want to keep making you feel that way,” he said.

“Thank you.”

She smiled and it reached her eyes in a way that made Ty breathe easier. He did that to her. For her. He made her feel special and important for something other than being pretty or being mayor. That made
him
feel important.

“I’m going to take my house in Denver off the market. Tomorrow, as soon as the office opens.”

She pulled her face away from his hand. “What?”

“I’ll move back to Denver. I shouldn’t have moved here without talking to you about it anyway. But things were good when you came to Denver. Let’s go back to that.”

She stared up at him, a myriad of emotions flashing across her face. “What about your training center?”

“I can open it there. It will be okay.” He’d loved the idea of having it here where he’d started his journey, but Denver made sense.

She stepped back and he dropped his hand. “And what if you win the election?”

“I’ll step down. Hand it over to you. Whatever I need to do. I never wanted to win, Hails.”

“It’s not that easy. You can’t say, ‘Oh, I’ve changed my mind.’”

“Then I’ll have Travis lead a campaign to have me impeached or something. I’ll embezzle some money or something.”

“And go to prison.” She crossed her arms again.

“We’ll figure it out. And if I’m not here for these next few days, maybe no one will vote for me anyway.”

“We can only hope,” she muttered.

He stepped toward her. “Running was a dumb idea. I’m sorry.”

She shrugged and studied her boots. “It wasn’t so bad. It made me realize some things too. No one’s wanting or waiting for me to fail.”

“Of course not.”

“And I have some really good friends. In spite of everything.”

“You do.” He’d liked Adrianne, Phoebe and Lauren as long as he’d known them, but he was now also grateful for their support of Hailey. “I’m glad you were able to open up to them.”

She studied his eyes. “Really? Even though I didn’t open up to you?”

“Of course. I love the idea of being important to you.” He reached out and took her upper arms and brought her forward. “I
love
the idea of being important to you. But I’m glad you know you’re important to other people too.”

She pressed her lips together, strangely quiet after that.

Finally, she said, “I thought you’d like the shorts.”

So they weren’t going to talk more about their feelings. Good.

He could definitely deal with cut-off denim shorts that showed long, smooth legs he wanted wrapped around his waist.

Emotions, on the other hand… Yeah, they should stick with the shorts.

“Those shorts are the hottest fucking thing I’ve seen besides your bare pussy on the edge of your
cherry
-wood desk,” he said bluntly.

Heat flared in her eyes and she sucked in a breath.

“But I’m not happy that you wore them for the whole town. Just like you confessed all your secrets for the town. For the votes.” He needed her riled up. “While all the women were admiring how honest and strong you were to tell about your ADHD, all the guys were admiring the sweetest thighs and ass in Nebraska.”

He needed her riled up because the soft Hailey made him want to wrap her in a fuzzy blanket and stay in Sapphire Falls and take care of her. And that was the last thing she wanted or needed. She didn’t need to be taken care of. She needed to be respected and supported. That was different. He knew that. He just wasn’t really sure how to do the support thing.

He needed to go to Denver, get some distance, get his house off the market. Talk to Bryan.

There was a knowing look in her eyes. She knew what he was doing. “I wore the shorts for you. Not for the votes.”