Getting Over It: Sapphire Falls Book Six (29 page)

“Strange?” Adrianne looked at Hope. “Lavender and rose petal and lemon.”

Hope couldn’t hide her smile. “I could make you some that have a more natural, softer scent.”

“No scents,” Mason said. “Soap doesn’t need to smell like anything but soap.”

Adrianne muttered something under her breath.

“What else?” Phoebe asked, leaning both elbows on the table. “What else is on perfect Adrianne’s drive-Mason-nuts list?”

“You don’t think Joe has a list about you?” Adrianne asked.

“Oh, I
know
Joe has a list,” Phoebe said. “He shares it with me sometimes.”

“What’s on your list?” Hailey asked.

“I get up too early. I can’t
not
talk for more than five minutes at a time. I like kiwi. I like to have sex in the laundry room.”

“How is liking to have sex in
any
room annoying?” Mason asked.

“We just did it one day spontaneously,” Phoebe said with a grin. “But the dryer is exactly the right height. Now I want to have sex in there all the time.”

“So?” Mason asked. “I’m still not seeing a problem.”

Phoebe nodded. “I know, right? But Joe prefers a bed. Or the front seat of his truck.”

“How is liking kiwi a problem?” Lauren wanted to know.

“He thinks they’re creepy. It’s the fuzzy brown outside,” Phoebe told her.

“Joe is weird,” Lauren said.

“Well, and I eat like ten kiwi at a time,” Phoebe said. “That’s a lot of fuzzy brown peeling lying around.”

“Lying around?” Adrianne asked. “As in lying on the counter or something?”

Phoebe seemed to be thinking about it. “Huh, maybe
that’s
the problem.”

Hailey snorted at that and realized she’d had
a lot
to drink. “I want to hear Travis’s list on Lauren,” she said.

Lauren grinned and got out of her chair. “Me too.”

They all headed across the room to the table where the guys were clustered.

TJ pulled Hope onto his lap and Lauren propped her butt on the edge of the table next to Travis, facing him. The rest dragged extra chairs around the table, blocking any possible escape for Travis, Tucker, TJ and Joe. The guys all looked nervous.

“What’s up?” Travis asked.

“We’re wondering if there are any quirks about living with me that you would change if you could,” Lauren said.

Travis started to laugh and then turned it into a cough and shook his head. “Of course not.”

Lauren laughed. “You’re so full of shit. We’re trying to show Hailey that Ty can want to live with her even if she’s not perfect.”

Travis looked at Hailey, his eyes not exactly sympathetic, but understanding. “The first thing you need to know is that Ty is completely full of himself and that he’s kind of an ass sometimes.”

Tucker and TJ nodded, and Hailey smiled. “I’m actually aware of that. Turns out, I’m kind of an ass sometimes too.”

Travis grinned at that. “Okay, so Lauren’s flaws.”

“We prefer the term quirks,” Hailey said.

“Got it. Quirks. How many do you want?”

Lauren kicked him in the shin. “Two or three is fine.”

“Oh, I have a lot more than that,” Hailey said, fighting her own grin. “I think the more I hear of yours, the better I’ll feel.”

Travis nodded sagely. “I agree. Okay, number one—when she tells me about news stories or things going on at work in the lab or in DC, she dumbs it all down for me.”

Lauren frowned. “That’s not on the list.”

“It is.”

“I was thinking you were going to say that you hate how I eat ranch dressing on everything.”

Travis looked at Hailey and nodded. “Oh, that’s on there too. I mean, who puts ranch dressing on grilled cheese? That’s not right.”

“You think I dumb stuff down for you?” Lauren asked.

“Don’t you?” he asked.

She sighed. “I wouldn’t put it quite that way.”

“But you do make it simpler for me.”

She nodded reluctantly. “Maybe a little.”

“But do you actually know what a pistil is?” Adrianne asked him, a tiny smile curling her mouth.

Travis narrowed his eyes. “No.”

Mason looked at Hailey. “Another important lesson is compromise—meeting somewhere in the middle of scientific and political terminology and…” He trailed off and looked at Travis.

Travis lifted an eyebrow. “Is dumb farmer the term you were looking for?”

They all laughed and Lauren slid onto Travis’s lap. His hands cupped her butt and he nuzzled her neck. “At least we don’t have to have a glossary for
every
conversation we have,” he said. “In the bedroom, we both understand what we’re saying perfectly, don’t we?”

Lauren kissed his temple. “And in the kitchen and the laundry room.”

Phoebe blushed and Joe laughed. “I see we’ve already covered Phoebe’s list.”

“Really, man?” Mason asked. “How can you not like sex in the laundry room?”

“I like sex in
any
room,” Joe said. “But there are things I like to do that don’t work as well on top of a dryer.”

Hailey was overcome by jealousy and longing and she hated them all even as she realized that she really, truly loved them all.

“You guys suck,” she muttered. She’d left her margarita glass behind on their table. Because it had been empty. She reached out and snagged a beer glass from the table and took a long swig.

“Yeah, I was thinking I should head home,” Tucker said, stretching to his feet. “Delaney’s probably about done with the project she wanted to finish up tonight.”

“Don’t forget to pick the boys up from mom’s first,” TJ said with a knowing wink.

“Actually, I think Delaney and I need to do some laundry before the boys come home,” Tucker said. He clapped Joe on the shoulder. “You’re crazy, man.”

Hailey finished off the beer and looked at TJ. “Well? Your turn. Does Hope have any quirks?”

TJ stared at her for a long moment. Then he burst into laughter. Laughter like Hailey had never seen from gruff, tough TJ Bennett.

When he was composed again, he said, “Hope is one giant quirk, Hailey.”

Hope hugged him as if it was the greatest compliment anyone had ever given her.

“You don’t go crazy living with her? Don’t want to change her into your perfect dream girl?” Hailey asked.

“Living with her makes me crazy sometimes,” TJ admitted. “But living
without
her would be worse. And she’s my perfect dream girl because of her quirks and making me crazy.”

Hope looked completely serene and satisfied perched on TJ’s lap. As if his words not only made her happy, but they didn’t surprise her a bit.

Hailey frowned. She wanted a little bit of that serene-and-satisfied stuff. Just a little.

“Making you crazy makes her perfect for you?” Hailey asked.

TJ nodded. “If someone doesn’t make you kind of crazy, they must not matter much. And being crazy once in a while keeps things interesting.”

“Well, Ty must find me
fascinating
then,” Hailey muttered.

“He does,” TJ agreed.

She hadn’t meant for anyone to actually respond to that.

“I don’t know. He’s back in Colorado now that he knows I’m
not
the woman he thought I was and wanted.”

“He’s back in Colorado because things aren’t going according to his plan,” Travis said. “Ty likes control, and finding out that not every aspect of his life will always go exactly the way he wants is taking some getting used to.”

Hailey thought about that. It was true that his career wasn’t going as planned. And with her…well, she wasn’t who he’d thought she was. But she still loved when he took control. That wasn’t a problem. That had never been a problem.

Even in high school, when she’d thought she was the one dictating how their relationship would go, or not go, she’d been fooling herself. She’d lived for those stolen moments in the hallway or at her locker. She’d anticipated him approaching her at dances and ballgames, and when he didn’t right away, she’d put herself in his path. When she was feeling down because a boyfriend had upset her or because Angela had said something mean or because her dad was ignoring her, she’d thought about Ty and the things he said to her, the way he smiled at her, the way he went out of his way to give her attention. And the moment she’d stepped into his office in his house in Denver, she’d been all his.

“He’s planning the training center because it puts him back in control of his career,” she said.

His brothers nodded.

“He doesn’t do well with unpredictability,” TJ said. “Rather than take a risk on rehab and competing again, he’s taking the safe route.”

“Except that I didn’t go along with his plan and jump for joy that he was moving here and starting the training program,” Hailey said.

“And thank God for that,” TJ said. “Ty needs to learn that just because something isn’t on his list of goals, that doesn’t make it a bad thing, and just because something is written in his planner, it doesn’t mean it has to happen exactly as scheduled.”

Hailey felt her heart thump hard at that.

She used her planner to stay on track and to tone down the flakiness. She needed more organization and structure in her life. But Ty was the king of structure. Maybe he needed to be a little flaky once in a while.

Maybe they could be good for each other.

And maybe Denver was too far away from Sapphire Falls for that to happen. Maybe they’d fallen into their roles when they were together—him the leader, her the follower—because it was comfortable and easy, and anything else would have taken more time than they really had together.

But something she had learned over the past several days was that getting uncomfortable and doing something new and scary—like actually
running
for mayor and being vulnerable and open—could be a really good thing.

She looked around the table. She felt closer to these people than she ever had. They loved her and were here for her in spite of the things she’d shared, the things that had held her back. She hadn’t been only concentrating on being Ty’s dream girl—she’d wanted to be everyone’s dream girl. Or a dream mayor at least.

But she didn’t have to do that. They knew she had quirks but they loved her anyway. Maybe even because of them.

And Ty could too.

She suddenly stood and her chair skittered back across the wood floor. Eight pairs of wide eyes looked up at her.

“I need to go.”

“Go where?” Phoebe asked.

“Halfway to Denver.”

TJ nodded. “Halfway. I like that.”

She didn’t know exactly what was halfway, but she’d find out.

“You can’t leave,” Phoebe protested. “The vote is on Friday. You need to campaign.”

“I might be back by Friday. Or I might be in Denver by Friday. I don’t know. But this is more important than being mayor.”

She could feel the jolt of surprise that went through the group, and she smiled. “I know. I never thought I’d say that either. A dream mayor would never say that. But a dream girlfriend would. I don’t have to be perfect to be right for Ty. I have a lot of experience with things not going according to my plans. I can help him with this.”

Phoebe gave her a big grin and swiped at her eye. “Wow, our little mayor is growing up.”

TJ seemed most pleased of all for some reason. “Our mom always says that falling in love changes you for the better.”

Hailey took a deep breath and let it out, letting the realization sink in that she really was getting over some things.

She was getting over the fact that she made mistakes. She was getting over the idea that letting people close made her vulnerable—it actually made her stronger. She was getting over the idea that being mayor meant she had to be perfect. And she was definitely getting over the idea that being with Ty meant she had to be perfect.

She might even be getting over having three planners and five highlighters within reach at any given moment.

She
might
even be able to give up her sticky notes…

But that was where she stopped herself. She couldn’t go too crazy here. She would never give up her sticky notes.

Chapter Nine

Bryan pulled himself up off the sofa, propped himself on one crutch and made his way to the wheelchair a few feet away. Ty made himself watch, even though it felt like someone was punching him in the stomach as he did.

Bryan was getting around much easier than the last time Ty had seen him, and that made Ty feel good, but damn. Bryan wasn’t supposed to hobble around. He wasn’t supposed to need to be propped up.

Bryan was a go-getter. If people thought Ty had trouble sitting still and that he pushed himself to nearly breaking, they’d never seen Bryan go at it. Of course, their motivations had been different. Ty had been training, doing it all for the glory. Bryan had been doing it for the adrenaline and fun.

But that was over. And it pissed Ty off.