Getting Over It: Sapphire Falls Book Six (33 page)

He pulled one hand from his pocket and held it out. She put her hand in his.

“It’s going to kind of suck at first. My knee needs a lot of work. And I’m on a tight timeline.”

“I’ll do whatever I can.”

“Take over as mayor for me if I win?”

She laughed. “Except that. But I’ll help.”

He smiled and nodded. “We’ll figure it out.”

She squeezed his hand. “Of course we will. Together.”

He pulled her in for a kiss and then wrapped his arms around her. “I’m still going to call you Madam Mayor in the bedroom.”

“You better.”

“Okay, let’s go see what the next three years of our lives are going to look like,” he said.

She hugged him tight and then leaned back. “I already know what I need to know about the next three years, Ty. We’ll be together. That’s all that matters.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Good answer.”

Five minutes later, they’d parked along the edge of the town square and approached the steps of the city hall.

They could see that the chalkboard was propped on the easel at the top but couldn’t read the result.

It was three o’clock in the afternoon, so most of the town had already been by and knew who their new mayor was. There were a few people in the square and the usual foot traffic along Main Street, but it was only the two of them on the city hall steps.

“Okay, come on,” Ty said after they’d paused at the bottom for nearly a minute.

She nodded. Butterflies were swooping in her stomach, but she had no idea if they were excited or worried butterflies.

Probably equal amounts of each.

They climbed the steps hand in hand and stood in front of the chalkboard.

“
TJ Bennett
?” they said at the same time.

They turned to each other.

“TJ?” Hailey asked.

“Did they get the letters wrong?” Ty asked. “Mistakenly put a J instead of a Y?”

“I have no idea.” She looked at the board again.

But it most definitely did
not
say Hailey Conner.

And she was so okay with that.

She felt a grin spread, the butterflies did a big happy swoop and she felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. “But it’s not me!” She turned to Ty and threw her arms around him. “Congratulations!”

“Hey, that’s
my
congratulatory hug,” a voice said from behind them.

They turned to find TJ and Hope climbing the steps.

“What?” Ty asked. “They got the letters right?”

TJ stopped in front of his brother. “They sure did.”

“You’re the new mayor?” Hailey asked.

Hope smiled and squeezed TJ’s arm. “He is.”

“But…
how
?” Hailey asked.

“
Why
?” Ty added.

TJ shrugged. “I started a write-in campaign. Apparently, the town feels that I have the right combination of things—I’m smart and tough and love this town like Hailey, but I’m approachable and fresh like Ty.”

Ty lifted an eyebrow. “
You’re
approachable and fresh?”

TJ clapped him on the shoulder. “And I know the answers to all the questions and issues brought up at the debate.”

“You did all of this in the last couple of days while we were gone?” Hailey asked.

It hadn’t fully sunk in, but if she’d been pressed to answer if TJ would make a good mayor or not, she would have said yes.

“I’ve been doing it since Ty announced he was running,” TJ said. “Turns out you can
talk
to people one on one rather than having big debates and parties.”

Hailey and Ty looked at one another. They grinned and nodded. That didn’t really surprise them at all.

“I never knew you had political aspirations,” Ty said to his oldest brother. “But congrats.”

“Thanks. And I didn’t,” TJ told him.

“Then why?” Ty asked. “You thought we were going to screw it all up?”

“Because
you
need to be training for Rio,” TJ said. “You need to quit hiding out and filling that spot in with other things that don’t mean as much.”

Hailey looked up at Ty. He looked stunned but touched.

“I was planning on resuming my training,” he said. “But here. Not Colorado.”

“Good,” TJ said with a nod. “This was where you started and where your biggest fans are. That makes a lot of sense.”

Hailey really loved Ty’s brother in that moment.

“And you,” TJ said, looking at her. “You’ve done a great job, but this isn’t where you belong.”

She lifted her chin. “I’m not leaving Sapphire Falls.”

“Of course not,” TJ said. “I meant your office in city hall. You need a chance to do the things you’re
really
good at and love.”

She swallowed. “And what’s that?”

“Director of Business Development and Tourism for the town of Sapphire Falls,” TJ said.

She frowned. “There’s no such thing.”

“There is now. Or there will be as of tomorrow morning when I take office,” TJ said. “It’s my first official act. I still intend to farm and I’ve got Hope, so I can’t give myself to this job twenty-four-seven. You did, but it was because you were doing it
all
. Now, instead of the mayor taking care of every tiny detail in this town, I’m going to
hire
someone to take care of a lot of it. You. You can do all the stuff you love and shine at, and I’ll take care of the meetings and reports.”

Hailey blinked at him. He thought she shone at some things? And she wasn’t going to have to read any more reports?

Now she
really
loved Ty’s brother.

“What about the highway expansion proposal?” she asked.

TJ smiled. “I have a plan.”

“What?”

He shook his head. “Not your worry anymore.”

That
sounded nice too. Except…

“But if I’m going to develop—”

“The job sounds perfect,” Ty said, hugging her against his side. “The town needs you to do that, Hails. Starting on
Tuesday
.”

She looked up at him and then at TJ. She sighed. She was going to have to let go of some more things. “Okay, I accept.”

“Of course you do. You’re a very bright woman,” TJ said. “Who only lost to me by three votes, by the way.”

And she decided TJ was absolutely her favorite someday-brother-in-law.

“We’re going over to the Come Again to celebrate,” Hope said. “Come with us.”

They turned and started down the steps.

Hailey looked up at Ty. “Can your training wait one more day?”

He grinned down at her. “Doesn’t even really matter,” he told her. “I have the only gold medal that matters right here in my arms.”

Her heart thumped hard at that. “I love you, Tyler Bennett.”

“I love you, Hailey Conner.”

He lowered his head to kiss her, but Hope called, “Oh, I forgot to give you this.”

She came back up the steps and handed Hailey a small plastic container.

“She said you two were supposed to share this,” Hope said with a grin.

“She?” Hailey asked.

“Kathy.”

“My mom?” Ty pulled off the lid. And immediately started laughing.

Hailey looked in and saw a huge piece of German chocolate cake.

“Is that what I think it is?” she asked.

He nodded. “Kathy Bennett’s famous engagement cake.”

Everyone in town knew that Kathy made German chocolate cake for all engagements and anniversaries in town.

Ty dipped a finger into the frosting and lifted it to Hailey’s lips.

She leaned in and sucked it clean.

His eyes heated. “Now we’re officially engaged, you know.”

“I know.”

The heat was intensified by a look of love that made Hailey catch her breath

Ty glanced in the direction of the Come Again. “So I was wondering…”

“Yes?”

“Bryan said that I should be better about making things quiet and private and meaningful.”

She shook her head but was already smiling. “But you’d like to get up at the Come Again and make a big public announcement and steal the spotlight from your big brother, right?”

Ty shrugged, but his grin gave him away. “Maybe a little.”

She laughed. “Well, they don’t put big billboards up on the edge of town of people who shy away from making a spectacle of themselves,” she said.

“I’ll take that as a yes. To the spectacle
and
to the proposal.”

“It’s a definite yes,” she said. “To both.”

And as she hugged him, Hailey relished the fact that no matter how much they’d both changed, some things would always stay the same. Like Ty’s love, his support and his honesty. And his ego.

And the fact that she was never, ever going to get over him.

And don’t miss how it all began with Hailey and Ty in

Getting to Her
,

the companion novella out now!

Excerpt
:

SAPPHIRE FALLS HIGH SCHOOL

Fourteen years ago

“You know the word ‘secret’ in secret admirer is kind of a keyword.” Hailey Conner slammed her locker shut and turned to face him. “It’s supposed to be a
secret
.”

Tyler Bennett grinned at her. “I signed it TB. There are at least three others.”

All of his brothers shared those same initials.

“Mark is going to kick your ass, TB,” Hailey said with a little shrug. “Guess he doesn’t care if he gets the right TB or not.”

Ty only grinned wider. Mark Andrews, Hailey’s boyfriend, wasn’t going to kick his ass. Mark was no doubt going to talk about it all over school all day long, but it was never going to happen. Mark didn’t want to risk hurting his shooting hand before the big basketball game on Friday, and everyone knew the Bennett boys had hard heads.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pretend to be scared of him and sorry,” Ty said. “Nothing will happen.”

Hailey crossed both arms over the short stack of books she carried. “If you didn’t sign it at all, it would be a secret and you wouldn’t
have
to be sorry.” She said it almost as if she truly was puzzled about why Ty insisted on putting his initials on his secret admirer notes.

“I said I would
pretend
to be sorry,” Ty corrected. “And if it was a complete mystery, how would you know who to have a little crush on because he’s so sweet and romantic?”

“I would still know it was you,” she said. Then frowned. “I mean, I would still know the notes were from you. I don’t have a crush.”

But Ty didn’t believe her. She always pretended to be exasperated by his attention and flirtation, but she never told him to stop. Maybe she didn’t have a crush on par with his—he wasn’t sure Romeo’s crush on Juliet had been on par with Ty’s feelings for Hailey—but she liked being on the pedestal he’d put her on.

That was why they worked.

Hailey loved to be adored and Ty was a competitor.

To the core. He loved to win. He
lived
to win. He had to be number one. He had three older brothers who were good at absolutely everything and Ty had been competing against their grades, their reputations and their records since he was born. But Hailey was the biggest, most difficult challenge Ty had faced.

He hadn’t won her over. He wasn’t the most important thing in her life. He wasn’t the center of her universe.

Yet.

Hailey flipped her silky blond hair over her shoulder and turned to head down the hallway to history class. Ty fell into step beside her.

“So what has Mark given you this week?” he asked.

He knew the answer. Nothing.

It was Valentine’s Day week. The Sweetheart Dance was on Saturday and the big day was on Sunday. Everyone was taking advantage of the upcoming holiday to buy cards and candy and stuffed animals for the ones they loved. Or the ones they wanted to love.