Getting Over It: Sapphire Falls Book Six (6 page)

But she
would
miss that Hailey. She loved that woman. So much that she wanted to cry thinking about not taking that drive to Denver again.

“I told him to go back to Denver.”

Adrianne laughed and Hailey smiled.

“Really? He told everyone that you made him feel very welcome to the neighborhood. Obviously, I had to come over and find out what
that
meant, exactly.”

Hailey felt her cheeks flush again and she gritted her teeth. Of course, everyone would be wondering about that. Most would likely think he was being sarcastic, but her nosy friends would—

“
Ty
is the one that moved in next door to you?”

Phoebe Spencer came through the door, followed by Kate Leggot, Delaney Callan and Lauren Bennett.

Phoebe took the chair next to Adrianne but scooted it closer to the desk. Delaney stood behind Phoebe’s chair and Kate leaned on the wide window sill. With a sigh, Hailey pivoted in her chair to face the inquisition.

It did not escape Hailey’s notice that most of her closest friends were women who weren’t from Sapphire Falls and who didn’t know her very well. Or at least who hadn’t known her back in high school.

Phoebe was the exception. She’d grown up in Sapphire Falls too, and had been witness to many of Hailey’s mean-girl moments. It had taken her some time to come around. Without Adrianne, Hailey doubted she’d be able to call Phoebe a friend.

But Phoebe was a true Sapphire Falls girl—once she was your friend, it was for life.

“Yes, Ty is the one who moved in next door to me,” Hailey confirmed, shooting a glare at Delaney. “Really not cool, new girl. Keeping secrets from me isn’t a good habit to start.”

Delaney shrugged. “He paid me an extra ten grand to not tell you.”

Hailey narrowed her eyes. “You mean not to tell
anyone
.”

“No, he specifically said you. But I couldn’t really tell anyone else, or they would have told you.”

Hailey shook her head. Ty was in so much trouble. “Like I said, not a good habit.”

Delaney nodded. “Duly noted.”

“This should be interesting,” Phoebe said, focusing on Hailey. “Ty Bennett right next door, driving you crazy until the day you die. Or kill him.”

“Considering I plan to live a very long time, and every time I see him, he makes me crazier, I’d say you should all put your money on option B,” Hailey said. She looked around. “What are the specifics of the pool, anyway?”

“The pool?” Delaney asked.

“The pool everyone has set up about me and Ty. Is it that one of us toilet papers the other’s trees or booby traps the front porch, or is it really big—mouse or roach infestation?” She’d thought of all of those since seeing Ty that morning.

Delaney’s eyes were wide. “You really don’t like each other that much?”

It was well known in Sapphire Falls, carefully cultivated by Ty and Hailey personally, that they rubbed each other the wrong way and couldn’t be in close proximity without tossing insults back and forth.

“Let’s put it this way,” Hailey said. “I would love to come up with a plan to get him out of the house next door.” True enough.

“Well, we don’t need all that hoopla. You want me in
your
house instead, all you have to do is ask nice.”

The deep voice from her doorway made tingles go dancing up and down her spine, and Hailey wanted to close her eyes and ask him to say dirty things to her in that voice.

Which he knew.

Bastard.

She swiveled her chair slowly to face Ty.

She hadn’t had more than ten consecutive minutes without him on her mind today. Why did she get the impression that was exactly what he wanted? Dammit, what was he up to?

He pushed away from the doorjamb and sauntered into her office, giving everyone a charming grin that worked on women, married or not. Married to his
brothers
or not. All of the women grinned back and she could have sworn Kate batted her eyes.

Kate’s boyfriend, Levi Spencer, was a notorious flirt, however. Looked as though he was rubbing off on his pretty blonde love.

“What do you want, Ty?” Hailey asked.

She immediately regretted the question.

Ty had publicly announced he had moved back to Sapphire Falls. Who knew what else he was ready to publicly announce?

For a moment, she panicked. Ty had said he wanted them to be together. He knew that she liked their arrangement as it had been for the past three-plus years, but he didn’t know all of the reasons for that. He knew she wanted to keep her cool outward façade in place. He didn’t really know why she
needed
to keep it in place.

“I tried to make an appointment to see you Monday, but Tess told me to come on over here now. Said you would be happy to see me.”

Tessa Sheridan, Hailey’s assistant, had been in Ty’s class. She, like all other women who knew Tyler Bennett, probably couldn’t think of one reason why Hailey would
not
want to see Ty.

He braced a hand on her desk and leaned in on his extended arm. “Guess you need to update your blacklist for her.”

Hailey looked up into those blue eyes that she’d seen full of happiness, passion and even affection. She loved his eyes.

God.

She glanced around. The women were all watching with rapt attention. She’d been careful not to let on how she felt about him, but now that he was here full time, hiding her feelings about him would be a full-time job. She didn’t need one more thing to worry about hiding from her constituents. Once in a while, here and there, she could play her part, but it was going to be hard to keep up the pretense of not liking him every single day.

“I don’t really have time right now, Ty,” she said. “Sorry. I can check my calendar for Monday though.”

“That’s fine. There were some people I wanted to talk to first anyway. I’ll see most of them tonight at the dance. Then I can bring that information on Monday when we talk.”

There was a wedding dance tonight in the town square. Reena Bosch and Eddie Stevens were getting married that afternoon in the gazebo and throwing a huge party afterward. As was common in Sapphire Falls, not everyone in town would be invited to the ceremony, but everyone was encouraged to come celebrate with them afterward.

“You’re going to the wedding dance?” she asked.

“Of course. Great chance to see everyone,” he said.

“And talk with them about what, exactly?”

“Oh, no,” he said, pushing off the desk. “You’re busy. I don’t want to take up too much of your time.” He started for the door.

“Well, I could maybe make some time,” she said quickly.

Dammit, she didn’t want to give him his way and she
really
didn’t want to seem available to him at the drop of a hat. But she also wanted to know what he had up his sleeve. Preferably before he talked to everyone else in town about it.

She loved being in the know. Definitely a perk of her job.

She
needed
to be in the know where Ty was concerned.

Ty stopped at the door and glanced back. “Or you could come over for dinner tonight before the dance and talk about it. That will give us something to talk about rather than, you know, throwing cutlery at each other.”

She stared at him. Had he seriously just asked her to dinner? In Sapphire Falls? With witnesses?

They were her friends, but he knew they didn’t know about her travels to Denver to see him. And they weren’t exactly gossipmongers. They wouldn’t go tell the town. But they would likely tell their husbands, fiancés and boyfriends. Who
would
tell the town.

Seriously, the men here were like a bunch of overgrown kids when they got together.

“Um, I…no…that’s…”

She was
stammering
. Hailey Conner did
not
stammer.

“We can have dessert in my hot tub.”

He had a
hot tub
? Had Delaney put that in? Or had he brought the one from Denver? Because
that
baby was nice. It was big enough to—

She pulled in a long breath, calming herself.

“I’m in the mood for brownies, how about you?” he asked.

“Did you take my brownies over to him?” Adrianne asked. “I thought those were for your neighbor.”

Hailey gritted her teeth.

“She did,” Ty said. “Absolutely delicious.” He kept his eyes on Hailey as he said it.

She knew that he had her exactly where he wanted her—ruffled and hot and bothered and unsure of herself.

Well, screw that.

She wasn’t going to lose her cool, even for Ty.

“On second thought,” she said. “Monday is fine.” She glanced down, pretending to be looking at her desk calendar. In truth, all she could focus on was her heart racing. “How about eleven?”

She had no idea if she was free at eleven. But she’d make it work.

“You bet. Eleven is perfect,” Ty said happily. “Thanks, Madam Mayor.”

She looked up and he gave her a wink.

“Hot-tub-dessert offer stands, though.”

And then he was gone.

Hailey
so
wanted to slump down in her chair and just breathe, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t show her friends that Ty had shaken her up.

She jotted a note on her calendar about Ty on Monday morning. She also resisted drawing a heart around his name. She also had no intention of having that meeting. She was going to find out what he was up to long before Monday rolled around.

“What was
that
?” Lauren demanded as soon as Ty had shut the door.

“What do you mean?” Hailey asked.

Seriously, what
did
she mean? Could Lauren read how shaken up Hailey was now?

She needed to get it together. God knew what Ty was talking about. He could be planning to talk to everyone about holding some kind of charity 5K race or something. Or he could have been making the whole thing up. She knew he planned to make his mark, to be sure everyone was aware he was home and that they all had the chance to ooh and ahh over him. But he wouldn’t go person-to-person at a wedding dance and casually mention that he and Hailey had been sleeping together for three and a half years and that he was home because he wanted a more serious relationship.

No, he’d do something public, something in front of a bunch of people at once.

Like ask her out in front of a crowd of her friends.

Hailey really wanted to thump her head on her desk, but she put on a smile that said no big deal. At least that’s what it was supposed to say.

“Ty just asked you out.”

“Ty just asked to have a business meeting with me,” she corrected.

“In his
hot tub
,” Kate said.

Hailey made herself roll her eyes. “He was messing around. He knew I’d say no.”

“And I still don’t get it,” Kate said. “Why would you say no to that? He’s gorgeous, charming, sexy and you’re both single.”

Because he filled her body with restless energy and her mind with fun and fantasies—and obliterated every thought of anything serious or meaningful. Because he was the antithesis of all of her calming and organizational strategies. Because he could ruin everything she worked so hard at and that she was proud of. And because if he found out who she really was, she’d never get to play her favorite role—Ty Bennett’s dream girl—again.

And she swore every time she thought about it, she could hear her stepmother saying to Hailey’s father, “See Stan, she’s a flake. You can’t depend on her.”

“Because,” she said carefully in answer to Kate’s question, “Ty and I could never make something work long-term. We don’t want the same things.”

And that was the most honest answer she’d ever given in regards to her and Ty. Usually, she said things like, “He drives me nuts,” or, “He’s not my type.”

But the truth was they had different visions of life in Sapphire Falls.

It hit her suddenly. That was exactly the problem. If they were together in Sapphire Falls, Ty would want her all wrapped up in him. He
loved
that he could take over her every thought and become her sole focus. That helped satisfy the part of him that needed to be number one. In short weekend bursts, it worked. He was happy and she was able to relax and let him run the show.

But day after day in Sapphire Falls? She had to multitask twenty-four-seven. She had to be able to give her full attention to this town that had elected her twice to take care of them. Taking care of Sapphire Falls was
her
crowning achievement, the thing that made her feel the way winning races made Ty feel.

Adrianne seemed to notice that Hailey had answered more seriously than usual. “You both love this town, and now that he’s living here again, maybe—”

“Not going to happen,” Hailey cut her off.

“TJ is concerned.” This came from Delaney.

“He is?” Hailey asked, trying to seem casual. “Why is that?”

“He thinks it’s strange that Ty is suddenly leaving his training and everything to move back here. Something must have happened.”