Getting Over It: Sapphire Falls Book Six (9 page)

And he couldn’t use her as an excuse.

She stepped through her gate and into Ty’s backyard. As Ty was coming out of his back door.

She hesitated and then frowned. Ty called the shots when they were together in Denver. But, as she’d told him at the dance, this was
her
town.

There was a streetlight on the front sidewalk between their houses and the light made its way dimly into his backyard, giving it a glow.

“You’re gonna have grass clippings all over your backside if you don’t keep coming,” he said gruffly.

She knew that voice. She
loved
that voice. It meant she was going to be getting an orgasm that was going to make her head spin, her toes curl and her eyes cross.

The Tyler Bennett special.

“Ty, I—” But God, she actually wanted to
talk
. To see if he was okay.

She never wanted to talk. Talking led to revelations and revelations led to telling secrets and exposing insecurities and weaknesses.

It wasn’t just her flakiness or her inability to set goals and see them through without a crutch—or twenty—that held her back from diving into this relationship. Yes, he distracted her. Yes, he made her natural disorganization worse. But more than that, Ty thought she was someone she wasn’t. His crush was on the woman she wanted to be, the one she put on for the world. Which meant his crush wasn’t
real
. She’d never been able to tell him that. She hadn’t been able to handle the idea of losing him and the attention that made her feel as though she was someone special.

Ty was one of the strongest people she knew—in body and in spirit. He was confident and driven. He’d had to be to accomplish what he’d accomplished.

He thought they had that in common. Most people believed that her confidence and ability to tell others what to do meant she was strong. How would he react if he knew it was all one big mirage? How could a guy like Ty, who pushed himself and the people around him to be better and stronger every day, respect someone like her, who was driven by desperation rather than strength?

“Keep moving, Hailey.”

She took a deep breath and acknowledged that she was selfish enough to take one more night. One more chance to be with the man that made her feel like a strong, sure, amazing woman who he could love forever.

She crossed the yard and climbed the back steps. Ty welcomed her into his arms, pulling her body up against his and burying his nose in her hair. She could feel his erection and almost laughed—fighting really did turn him on. Even when the argument was all for show.

Of course, their disagreement about the tiny details of marriage and kids hadn’t been made up.

She could not marry this man. But she also couldn’t deny that she wished it was different, that
she
was different, and that she could have Ty in her life every day.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and put her lips against his skin, breathing in the scent of him with a hint of blue-raspberry punch. She resisted saying she was sorry about Bryan. At least for right now.

Ty’s hands went to her hips and he pressed against her, taking a deep breath, and she felt some of the tension in his shoulders leave him. As if she was comforting him.

Then a thought hit her—had Ty been with Bryan when the accident happened?

The two rarely rode the mountain highways alone. It was the harassing each other that kept them going up and around those torturous climbs and curves.

God, had he seen it happen? Was he somehow blaming himself?

She pulled back to look up into his eyes. “Were you there?” she asked, her voice hoarse. She had to know. She didn’t really want to know, but she had to.

He stiffened, and she was sure he knew what she was asking about.

He hesitated just long enough that she was certain of the answer.

“Yes,” he admitted softly.

Oh, God.
Her heart missed a beat and she pressed her lips together. He’d seen it happen. But even more, it could have been
him.

She held back the sob that threatened though. If she started crying and wanting to simply hold him, especially when he was clearly planning on sex, he’d fall over dead from shock.

But she did pull out of his arms as he stepped back into the house. She had to see his face fully when she asked the next question and his kitchen was dark.

She pushed him back, her hands on his hard chest. He walked backward and she followed into the dining room off the kitchen.

The light from the foyer and the light from the streetlight outside lit the room dimly. But enough. She pushed him into a chair, slid her hands underneath his shirt and pulled the cotton up and over his head.

Then she went to her knees in front of him.

Ty loved her on her knees. But she rarely got there without his command. For some reason tonight, having her willingly kneeling made him catch his breath. He lifted a hand and tangled it in her hair.

She went to work on the button and zipper of his jeans. When the fly was open, he lifted his hips without her request and she pulled his jeans and underwear down his legs and over his feet. She tossed them to the side, her full attention on his erection.

She wrapped a hand around his shaft, working him from base to tip, breathing on the head.

“Were you hurt?” she asked softly.

She felt his surprise in the sudden tension in his body. He tightened his fingers in her hair. “Suck my cock, Hailey.”

She wasn’t using this to get answers out of him. She didn’t want to manipulate him. And his words sent heat coursing through her body, need gathering deep in her belly.

But she needed to
talk
. To know more and get closer. As much as she might regret it later.

“I need to know,” she said, lifting her eyes to his. “You were there. Were
you
hurt?”

He met her eyes, his filled with a strange combination of emotions. She was used to seeing the desire and the intensity. Part of her loved knowing that powerful, serious side that he rarely showed those close to him and never showed the world who loved the laid-back playboy persona he wore so well. But she wasn’t used to seeing the warmth. Different from the heat of passion, this warmth seemed as if he was touched by her concern.

“Yes. But I’m okay.”

Worry shot through her anyway. Maybe it didn’t make sense. He was here, seemed fine, was saying he was fine. But the idea that he’d been in the accident, that he could have been seriously injured…even killed…made her chest and throat tighten, and she was frozen for a moment.

“Hailey,” he said, tugging gently on her hair.

“Where were you hurt?”

She saw him battling with the urge to deflect or deny what had happened. But finally he said, “My left knee.”

She moved her hands to his knee.

He made a frustrated noise, but she ran her hand over the joint anyway. She knew this man’s body as well as her own. She’d had her hands and lips and tongue all over him. There were no wounds on his knee, no scars. It didn’t seem swollen or deformed. He hadn’t been limping. In fact, he’d lifted her up and fucked her hard against her front door without so much as a grimace. He was fine.

“Where?” she asked anyway.

He sighed. “I partially tore my ACL,” he said. “A major ligament. Along with part of another one and some cartilage.”

She frowned, feeling her heart rate accelerate. That didn’t sound
fine
.

“I thought you said you were okay.”

“I am okay. I’ve…dealt with it. It could have been a lot worse.”

She ran her hand up and down over his knee again. The muscles in his legs were hard and thick. He biked and ran and swam for a living. He had an incredible body. The idea that anything in him could tear or give way was hard to comprehend.

“It doesn’t hurt?” she asked.

“Not really. Not most of the time.”

She studied his face. He was telling the truth about that, she knew, but it seemed as though there was something he
wasn’t
saying.

“You did race at the beginning of the month?” she asked. “In Rio? Right?”

He looked surprised.

“Yes, I know about the Olympic qualifying race in Rio,” she said.

“You do?” he asked, obviously amazed.

“Yes. And I looked up who won. You weren’t in the top eight, but the US team didn’t fill all their spots with that race, so I know you still have to race in Chicago in September.”

He stared at her.

She’d wanted to call him after the race in Rio. It was unusual for Ty to not be in the top three, not to mention top eight. But she hadn’t. They didn’t do that.

And he was talking about getting married. They didn’t talk about the biggest things in their lives, but he wanted to get married. Sure, great idea.

“Ty?” she asked, when he still hadn’t even blinked. “Did you race in Rio?”

He took a deep breath and shook his head. “No. And I won’t be racing in Chicago.”

She frowned. “You have to. Someone else might get the Olympic team spot.”

He nodded. “Someone else will.”

She stood swiftly. “You’re not trying for a spot?”

“I can’t. I’m done.”

Hailey looked down at him, processing his words. He was done? If he didn’t go to the Olympics next year, he was giving up his chance to finally claim the gold.

“You can’t?” she asked. “Because of your knee?”

“Yes.” He wasn’t meeting her gaze now.

“So get it fixed. They repair ACLs all the time.” A kid on the Sapphire Falls football team had undergone the same surgery last fall.

“I couldn’t get it fixed and rehabbed in time for the races,” he said. “So I gambled on training even with the partial tear.”

“You’ve been training on it anyway?”

He shifted, leaning forward to rest his arms on his thighs. Hailey knew he was fully comfortable naked, and it was something she appreciated about him. Very much. But she marveled that he could be naked and still have this serious conversation.

“I’ve tried. I have great strength,” he said. “That’s what the physical therapist told me. That helps reduce the instability caused by the tear. And a partial tear isn’t as serious as a full tear, and the only time a full tear
has
to be repaired is in high-impact sports. Mine are…borderline.”

“Running six miles at full speed on paved mountain roads is borderline?” she asked, propping her hands on her hips.

“Yes,” he said, lifting his head. “High-impact sports are where there’s a lot of sudden stopping and twisting and contact. Football, basketball, that stuff.”

“But it didn’t work?” she asked, dropping back to her knees. He shifted back and she ran her hand over his knee again. It was hard to believe that underneath the hot skin and hard muscle was damage that had changed everything so quickly.

He shook his head. “No. It didn’t work. I couldn’t get back to the level I needed to in time for the race.”

“Okay, but you have time before Chicago.”

He cupped her head again and looked directly into her eyes. “No. I don’t. I’m done, Hails. And I’ve come to terms with it. I’m moving on.”

What he was doing was moving to Sapphire Falls.

Suddenly, she understood. Being a triathlete was Ty’s life. It was who he was. It was everything he cared about. Competing at the level he’d been at, putting his physical and mental strength up side by side with other men filled a need in him that nothing else could.

And now it was gone. The accident had upended his life, changed everything, and instead of fighting his way back up, he was letting himself roll
down
the mountain.

He was giving up.

And coming home.

To her.

She and Sapphire Falls were the consolation prizes.

That realization bothered her, even as she truly understood it. Her first priority was her job. Her
only
priority was her job. It was more than what she did. It was who she was. She and Ty had that in common. Still, knowing that he was here with her only because his other options were now gone hurt.

Even more, that Sapphire Falls,
her
town, the place she loved more than anything, was his plan B
really
bugged her.

And she cared about him enough to
not
be that fallback plan.

She knew what he was thinking. If he was home again, with friends and family, planning for marriage and kids, then he would be able to convince himself that leaving competition was okay. Good even.

If he didn’t have another option, if there was nothing to fill in those gaps for him, nothing else that made him feel accomplished and important, then he’d fight back, rehab his knee and get back on his bike.

Hailey pushed to her feet. “I can’t believe you’re giving up. This was your chance for the gold, Ty.”

He stood swiftly, taking her hips and turning her so her butt pressed against the dining room table. “You’re my gold, Hailey. You and a life here in Sapphire Falls. That’s my new gold medal.”