Getting His Way: Sapphire Falls Book Seven (3 page)

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be monogamous. It wasn’t that he didn’t think he could be very happy with Tessa forever. It wasn’t that he thought he’d ever regret being with her.

It was just that it would be so different. A completely new life. And he’d had a lot of different and completely new over the past two years or so since his accident. He’d wanted to get a little stable first. Or something.

He’d always known he’d settle down with Tessa. He’d just figured he would get to
choose
when that happened rather than having fate or destiny or the universe or whatever decide for him.

But his injury and disability and move back to Sapphire Falls had decided a lot of things for him, and Tessa getting asked out and dating other men had decided the rest.

He was settling down. With her. Now.

“What is
everything
?” she asked, watching him with narrowed eyes and a definite tension in her spine that hadn’t been there a minute ago.

He moved in closer, propping a crutch against the desk and bracing a hand on the desktop. “I want you.” There. Straightforward was always the way to go.

Except now she looked confused.

“You want me to do what?”

Well, there was a loaded question. The first several things that jumped to mind were probably too graphic. He’d been thinking a lot about Tessa Sheridan and her delicious curves though.

Bryan cleared his throat. “I want you to date me.”

Her eyebrows climbed up her forehead. “Excuse me?”

“I’m asking you out. I want to date you. How about dinner tomorrow night?”

She just blinked at him.

“Tess?”

“You want to
date
me? You’re telling other people not to ask me out because
you
want me?”

He moved in closer, making her tip her head back to look up at him. Her big brown eyes would have made it hard to remember what they were talking about if it had been any other topic. But they were talking about him wanting her. That was never far from his mind.

“Yes. I’m ready to be everything you need.”

Her eyes widened. “So now you’re ready?
Now
? For whatever reason, you’re finally ready and you thought I’d just be here waiting for you?”

Bryan blinked at her. She looked angry. About him wanting to date her. That didn’t quite compute.

She
had been
waiting for him. That had been their deal.

“You told me you were,” he finally said.

She frowned. “What?”

“You told me you were waiting for me.”

“I—” Her puzzled look quickly morphed to astonishment. “That was
nine years
ago. And I was completely wasted on Booze!”

“Booze is like truth serum,” Bryan said. It was. The homemade moonshine that Mary and Tex sold in mason jars with handwritten labels was potent stuff, and it made people speak their minds.

“It was during the festival,” she said, as if that explained everything.

And it kind of did. People threw caution to the wind and lived like it was their last days on earth during the annual summer festival.

“Uh-huh.” He wasn’t buying it.

It was true that the festival made people happy and carefree. But it did not make people suddenly fall in love. Tess had already loved him.

Then again—Bryan thought about a number of couples who had gotten together during the festival. And not for hookups. Forever.

But, he reasoned, that just meant that if Tess had said it during the festival, Booze or not, it would stick.

“You still said it,” he told her with a shrug. “I’ve been counting on it.”

“That was
nine years ago
.” She looked even madder.

Which was fascinating to him. Tess had never been
mad
at him before.

“Five years ago, I told you I knew I’d never find another girl like you,” he reminded her.

“Yes. And that time
you
were drunk on Booze. And that seemed more a statement than a declaration of intent,” she said.

He grinned at that. Sometimes Tess got downright prissy. “Well, Tess, I definitely had some intent. And I did it on the Ferris wheel.” That was as good as telling all the other guys in Sapphire Falls hands-off. It was long-held tradition that if you kissed a girl on the Ferris wheel, you were declaring yourself committed to her and only her.

“You were drunk.”

“I remember every minute of it.”

She blushed when he said that, and Bryan grinned. He’d
kissed
Tess that night. That had been no peck on the cheek or quick buss on the lips on New Year’s.

“So you think that carries weight for five years?”

“Yes.” He wasn’t sure anyone had ever challenged the statute of limitations on a Sapphire Falls Ferris wheel kiss, but he didn’t think Tessa was going to ask for a public opinion on it anyway.

She huffed out an exasperated breath. “And now you’re here. In Sapphire Falls.”

He frowned. She definitely didn’t sound thrilled. “Yes. I’m here to stay.”

“What about your travels?”

He shook his head. Tess was a homebody. Born and raised in Sapphire Falls, she’d never lived anywhere else. He was ready for that with her. He’d gotten to see the world, and now he was ready to settle down. Yeah, so his accident had determined some of that for him. But just because this wasn’t going exactly the way he’d planned, didn’t mean he wasn’t okay with how it was turning out. “No worries. I’m here for good. I’m all yours.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Bryan. I’m not interested.”

He felt his eyebrows pull down and he leaned in. “What did you say?”

“I’m not interested in dating you. I’m sorry.”

Bryan stood looking at her for several seconds. Then he shook
his
head. “No.”

“No?” She frowned. “No what?”

“That’s not right. You’ve
always
been interested in me.” Okay, that made him sound like a jerk. But it was true, dammit.

She blushed at that but straightened her spine. “I
used to
be interested in you that way, but not anymore. Things…change.” She swallowed hard after that.

And maybe if she hadn’t—or maybe if she hadn’t stumbled over the word change—he would have believed her. Maybe.

But he didn’t.

He dropped his crutch, grasped her chin, tipped her head up and kissed her.

Her lips parted on a surprised gasp, and he swept his tongue inside, needing a taste, just for a moment. She tasted like bubblegum, and he was sure it was her lip gloss. Or maybe she’d been chewing some on her way over to the bar. Or maybe it was just her. That wouldn’t be out of character. That’s what he loved about her. In a world where things went to shit on a fairly regular basis, Tess was a constant source of sweetness and light and happiness.

He didn’t care
why
she tasted that way, only that she did.

He needed her sweetness. He needed her to be the same girl he’d always known. The one who looked at him with hearts in her eyes.

Unfortunately, the girl in his arms was holding herself stiff. She wasn’t fighting him, but she wasn’t melting into him, wasn’t running her fingers through his hair, wasn’t pressing close as if she couldn’t get enough of him.

Bryan lifted his head and looked down at her. Nothing? Really?

He felt a flutter of panic in his stomach.
No.
He could
not
lose Tess.

She was the one thing about his future that he’d been
counting
on, that had been a ray of sunshine in the midst of all the other dramatic changes in his life that he had been handling like a fucking champ, thank you very much.

She was the light at the end of the tunnel, the rainbow after the storm, and a bunch of other awesome metaphorical stuff.

He was
not
going to handle losing Tess. Not well. Not at all.

Then he saw it.

She pressed her lips together.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Ye—” She stopped and cleared what sounded like gravel from her throat. “Yeah.”

And Bryan felt a huge grin stretch his face.

She was affected.

He didn’t know why she was denying it or fighting it. But she was affected. And that was really all he needed to know.

“So,” she said, crossing her arms again, even though it was incredibly awkward with how close their bodies were. She insisted on getting her elbows up between them though, and Bryan leaned back to give her a little room. But only a little.

“So,” he said agreeably.

“You can see that the kissing does nothing for me.”

“Is that right?”

“There’s just no spark,” she said, almost pulling off sounding apologetic about it.

“Tess,” he said evenly, not even trying to resist the urge to run his thumb over her lower lip. “You know me really well.”

She nodded. And Bryan thought she might be holding her breath.

“So that means that you know the
best
way to keep me coming after you is to tell me that I need to try harder. I do love a challenge.”

She blinked up at him and then started shaking her head quickly. “No, I’m not challenging you. That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s okay,” he said, giving her a big, friendly smile. “I’m totally fine coming after you. You deserve that. After all, you’ve been there for me all this time.”

She shook her head again. “You do
not
need to do that.”

“Oh yeah, I do. After everything you’ve done to show me how you feel and make me feel special, I definitely do.”

“I’ve never—” She cleared her throat and her gaze dipped to his mouth. “I’ve never done anything that big.”

She hadn’t needed to. There was something about Tess—no doubt her sweetness and ability to see the best in him no matter what—that had made him feel special just being the object of her affection. And she had actually gone big for him at one time. “Really? A year of love notes and gifts? That was pretty big.”

Tessa stilled, and her eyes widened. “You knew that was me?”

“My secret admirer in seventh grade?” he asked. “Of course. Everyone knew it was you.”

There had been notes about how great he was, how cute he was, how talented he was, how funny he was. Then there had been cupcakes on his birthday. Balloons when he won the state track meet in his event. A giant stuffed bear on Valentine’s Day. And lots of other things throughout that entire school year.

“I didn’t know you knew,” she said, her cheeks bright red.

That was because he’d threatened all of his friends if they dared say a word or tease her, he’d beat their asses. They’d then threatened anyone else they thought might make a big deal of it.

It had been sweet, and he’d known she would have been horribly embarrassed if she’d known he knew. And she might have stopped. He’d loved those damned notes and gifts. Even more after he’d known they were from her.

“Don’t be embarrassed. It was amazing. I was bummed when it didn’t continue in eighth grade.”

“Yeah, I got smart and got a
diary
in eighth grade.”

“You wrote in your diary about me in eighth grade?” he asked, loving that.

She tipped her head back. “I realized that a lot of people knew those notes came from me. But I thought they’d kept it from
you
.” She righted her head and opened her eyes. “Who told you?”

He chuckled. “No one told me, Tess. I knew your handwriting.”

“You knew the
whole
time?”

Bryan grinned widely. “The
whole
time.”

“Well, that settles it,” she said. “No way can we date.”

She slipped around him so quickly he couldn’t react fast enough to stop her. By the time he’d turned, and wobbled a little, she was at the door.

“Why does that mean we can’t date? It proves that you’ve been crazy about me for years.”

“Because every time I look at you, I’m going to be thinking about those stupid, sappy notes where I spilled my guts.”

Bryan started toward her and took a step before remembering that he didn’t move very fast without crutches. He never knew if his ankle was going to be there for him or not. Fuck. He couldn’t grab her and hug her and reassure her.

“I wanted to be the person you spilled your guts to, Tess. I never told a single person what those notes said.” He might have bragged about being Tessa’s one true love, but he’d never shared her actual words. “You don’t know how important those notes were to me.”

The notes, even though they had been so long ago and from a thirteen-year-old girl, had made him feel like a king. Tess had had some big self-esteem issues and had struggled with who she was and what she wanted. Bryan had known that on some level, most thirteen-year-olds dealt with similar issues. But he never had. So having that insight into her heart and mind had made him feel great. Special. And he knew the notes had been a part of him wanting to be someone who could encourage and inspire people even now. Those notes from Tess, telling him how much she admired how hard he trained in track, and how much he made her look forward to algebra class because of his jokes and goofing off with Ty, and how special it made him feel that a smile from him could make her whole day better, had helped form him into the person he was today.