Remember Arizona: A Second Chance Romance (Country Love Collection)

by Dr. Rebecca Sharp

  Mee-Maw said loved, but I couldn’t toss that word around so easily.

  Taking his hand, he helped me down, but I pulled my hand away as soon as my feet were on the ground, clinging to what determination I had left.

  There was an afternoon breeze, and the sun wasn’t as potent as it had been the last several days. Instead, it loomed unobtrusively behind clouds like it, too, wanted to give us a moment of privacy.

  Our feet trailed the path worn all too well and headed for the destination we knew by heart.

  Before, the pit had taken on a desolate presence. Destroyed and empty—just like my heart. Today, it held something different in the crevices of its craggy façade. Maybe hope. Maybe possibility.

  “Tally—” Sam started as soon as we passed the last group in our sight on their way out.

  “No, Sam,” I stopped him. “I want to be the one to talk—to ask. I want to know the truth.”

  I’d been the one left behind, now I got to choose the steps I took to bring me where I needed to be.

  He nodded, accepting my request.

  “What happened with your dad?”

  He glanced at me, surprised this was the first question I’d chosen.

  “They came for everything,” he began slowly. “They took the shop and everything in it—his only means of income. What I was able to pay them—what I’d saved for New York—spared our house and truck. I don’t know what we would’ve done if they’d taken that, too. What was left owed they let me pay in installments over the next year, so I did odd jobs while making jewelry on the side.”

  “With the turquoise?” We turned onto the path that led to our lookout.

  He nodded. “I came back to Bisbee several times to get more of it, but no one knew I was here,” he replied, dragging his hand back along his hair. “Managed to get a pretty good gig going, selling my jewelry to tourists. I paid off what he owed early.”

  Tears threatened to fall only because I knew he’d probably never cried them—never felt sorry for himself and never thought twice about what he had to do.

  He always took the fall for others so gracefully.

  Sam’s head ducked. “And then he got sick.”

  I quickly swiped the wetness on my cheek. “I’m sorry, Sam.”

  “I think he was too proud to continue living knowing what he’d lost,” he mused quietly and we finished the trek up to the overlook in silence. “He passed away the year you graduated.”

  I nodded slightly because I knew—because Mee-Maw had told me when she’d come to New York for my graduation.

  “And then you went back to Bisbee…” I looked out over the pit, the colors burning even more brilliantly because of how my chest ached.

  “Tally…” He reached for my arm and the gentle touch of his fingers spurred me.

  “Why didn’t you tell me, not right away, but afterward?” I demanded thickly, pulling out of his reach; if he touched me now, all my fraying particles would jolt to him like a magnet holding me together.

  And I knew if he was the one holding me together, there was no chance I’d be able to hang on to my heart.

  “Mee-Maw knew. I-I have to assume you told other people. Why not me? Did I not deserve the truth at some point?”

  He rubbed his hand over his forehead and admitted, “I wanted to tell you. I didn’t want to keep this from you forever. But by the time I’d paid off my dad’s debts, he was sick, and I still couldn’t come to you. And when he was finally gone, I came back to Bisbee but you didn’t.”

  “So?” I charged, my voice unsteady with foolish anger.

  “What was I supposed to do, Tally? What was I supposed to think?” he bit out, his control fraying once more. “I knew I hurt you—angered you when I didn’t come back that summer, but I just needed time to fix things for my dad. I didn’t know about the note, Tally. I didn’t know you felt about me the way I felt about you. So, when you stayed in New York, I had to assume you’d moved on. That it was too late to repair our friendship, let alone anything more.” His chest rumbled with a growl. “I thought I was too late.”

  The gravel crunched as I stopped moving and faced him.

  I had to force myself into his shoes—bailing on summer and college with a girl he believed only thought of him as a friend. Friends follow different paths. Friends drift apart. Friends get angry and let friendships fizzle and die. And he’d thought we were just friends.

  “When Mee-Maw came back from your graduation alone, I had to accept you’d pursued your dream and found the life you wanted,” he rasped, his face a mess of frustration and regret. “That was the risk I’d taken by not telling you the truth, and I had to accept the consequence of losing you.”

  I stared at him for several long seconds—seconds that he met my gaze and didn’t look away. Didn’t say anything. Didn’t continue to explain. Seconds where he let me decide what the truth meant to me.

  And the truth was, my anger at Sam was like the setting sun. Bold and vibrant, but fading with every moment that passed in a way that was entirely unstoppable.

  Tears continued to drip down my cheeks, but there was still a single stone left unturned. A bright turquoise one.

  “Then why didn’t you tell me about your business?” I asked, my tongue thick with emotion and my body tingling with the need to go to him—to hold him and confess that he hadn’t lost me.

  I might’ve sworn he’d lost me—wished he’d lost me—a million times over the years, but it wasn’t the truth.

  Just like New York was never my dream.

  Now, his eyes dropped and a gust of cold wracked my body.

  After all that… he could confess all of that… but he couldn’t tell me about his business?

  “This was a mistake, Sam. I never should’ve asked you to pretend. We never should’ve slept together. And I should’ve known you’ll always be too proud to tell me the truth—” I gasped, my declaration severed by the warm clasp of his hands on either side of my face, the heat of his stare burning straight through my skin and burrowing into my heart.

  “Dammit, Tally. Never enough patience,” he groused. “Not even to give a man a chance to figure out how the hell to tell you he’s never stopped loving you.”

  I searched for more air, but there was none. There was nothing left for me but him.

  “The only reason I kept making jewelry on the reservation was because it was the only way I got to look into your eyes each and every day that I couldn’t,” he revealed with a harsh, low tone.

  My heart slammed into the front of my chest like I’d just had a head-on collision with the truth I hadn’t seen right in front of me.

  “I tried to move on. I dated. Had a few short relationships. But it was a lie. It wasn’t what I really wanted,” he went on and it was all I could do to stop the hope in my heart from exploding inside me. “And it felt like I was cheating on each and every one of those women every day I worked on those stones. Every day I looked at that turquoise—that Tally Turquoise—and only saw you. Only dreamed of you.”

  “Sam…”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

  Like the red-brown stone encasing the turquoise being ground away, the truth revealed itself in the most beautifully brilliant way.

  “I named the store Heart of Blue because you are my blue, Tally. Somewhere between handing you my helmet and agreeing to be your first kiss, my heart decided it was yours.” He drew an unsteady breath. “And I didn’t know how to tell you, after all this time, without you knowing about my dad, that I was still in love with you.”

  “Sam,” I breathed his name, my fingers finding a home in the fabric of his shirt so I could pull him closer.

  My head tipped up. If there was more that needed to be said, I didn’t know—or care what it was. All I knew was that the man I’d never gotten over was not only still in love with me, but he was in front of me, holding me in his arms, waiting for me to light the spark and ignite the desire packed into the air around us with each confessi
on.

  “I never stopped loving you,” I told him, feeling the race of his pulse against my hand.

  The heat of his gaze deepened into something permanent and inextricable.

  Tilting my head farther, he bent down until his face nestled with mine, our lips so close their shadows danced as we spoke.

  “If I kiss you now, I’m never letting you go again,” he warned.

  I shuddered and returned, “If you don’t kiss me now, you won’t make it out of this pit alive.”

  I chuckled deeply as my lips sought hers like an arrow to its target, landing with piercing pleasure and locking together the past, our promise, and the future with one searing kiss.

  Limbs blended together, wrapping and twisting, pulling at each other like proximity could erase the past.

  I dragged my tongue along hers in long, urgent strokes, my body igniting into hot, blue flames knowing she was here, in my arms, and finally mine.

  “Sam, I need you,” She panted, the ache in her voice as unmistakable as the way her body arched against mine. “I need you and me.”

  “You and me,” I repeated, sliding my hands along her sides, the soft material of her dress shifted under my fingers until I reached her breasts.

  With greedy pants, she tipped back so I could knead her flesh. She was so perfect. More than I’d ever dreamed. Finding her nipples through the fabric, I teased and toyed with them, ignoring the way my dick throbbed.

  “Here?” she breathed out the question, pulling my lower lip between her teeth, sucking hard and letting the flesh pop from her mouth.

  I growled. One day soon it would be my cock she sucked and popped with those fiery lips of hers.

  “Won’t make it home,” I replied with a gravelly voice, driving one hand down to cup the heat between her thighs. “Damn, Tally. So wet already.” Need burned through my veins feeling how hot and slick her pussy was even through the material. “Won’t even make it back to the truck,” I told her.

  Whimpering, she flattened her palm against my abdomen and then slid it lower until she reached my cock bursting against the front of my jeans and stroked until it throbbed painfully.

  “Here it is then.”

  Pulling her tighter to me, I rubbed the base of my palm against her achy clit, reveling as the fabric dampened easily with the desire I drew from her body. Deepening the kiss, we teased each other with an urgency and intimacy that was built on friendship and honed with love.

  A long, tortured groan, ripped from my chest when her frantic fingertips worked their way below the edge of my boxer briefs, finding the tip of my cock first, and then worked down the swollen, pulsing length that eagerly filled her small grip.

  “Damn, Tally,” I grunted, my hips rocking into her hand and my balls tensing with the need to come.

  Not yet. Not until I was buried deep inside the woman I loved.

  My hands shifted and clamped on the sides of her hips, fisting large handfuls of fabric until her dress was gathered at her waist, baring her lower half to me.

  Oh, fuck. My cock grew painfully large, the need for release almost making me unintelligible.

  “No underwear?” I rasped, feeling the bare expanse of flesh at her waist.

  No wonder I’d felt her desire soak through so easily.

  She shivered, and I bit at the skin of her cheeks that grew more flushed by the second. My thumbs drew small circles at the joint of her upper thighs and lower abdomen.

  “Mee-Maw was in a rush,” she breathed out the excuse, tightening her strokes.

  “Tally!” I hissed, jerking back before I came in her sweet, warm fingers. “Hold on,” I commanded, hardly giving her time to comply before I hoisted her up.

  “Sam!” she half gasped, half laughed, wrapping her legs around my waist and positioning the heat of her against my arousal.

  Her fingers pulled my hair free, letting the long locks fall so she could tangle her fingers in them.

  “Is this going to be a habit? You picking me up?” she breathed the question, wriggling her body against mine.

  “The only habit happening now,” I began, directing her hips until the tip of my cock poised against her dripping heat. “Is me not letting you go.”

  I thrust deep, spearing through her hot pussy that wrapped around me like her body was made for me.

  And I needed more.

  “Sam.” Her body buckled with pleasure.

  “Trouble.” Holding her up by her hips, I shunted into her with demanding drives, wedging deep inside her.

  Her head fell back, a moan tumbling from her lips each time I bumped against that sweet spot that made her seize and gush around me.

  I was never letting her go. Not again. No matter what it took.

  Sinking my lips into the base of her neck, I pushed into her over and over again, my cock teasing her G-spot until she was gasping for air at the peak of her climax where oxygen was scarce.

  I lost all sense when it came to Tally Kerr. All my mind. All my body. All my heart.

  “You and me,” I grunted roughly.

  It was a plea, feeling my orgasm peaking, and needing her to come.

  “Sam!” she cried out and her body fractured around mine, splintering into the most vibrant fireworks of pleasure.

  Her pussy seized around my cock, making black spots erupt in my vision. She felt so hot. So tight.

  With a feral grunt, I drove deep into her clenching heat once more before my cock erupted with long, spurting blows, filling her with the thick heat of my release.

  Tally’s head tipped down to rest on mine, and the mingle of heavy breaths and moans seemed enough to fill the massive pit we overlooked.

  “It’s you and me now, Tally,” I murmured, seeking her mouth and claiming a tender but firm kiss.

  “Against the world.” Her lips branded the words against mine.

  I made no move to let her go—or leave the warm cradle of her body—for several minutes.

  We both knew what this place meant—how many turning point moments in our life had happened here, even if we only realized them now in hindsight.

  It was here I’d given her the first ring I’d made, as a friend, knowing she was so much more than that. It was here we’d talked about a future together and, though it was starting differently than I imagined, it was starting. She’d found her way back to Bisbee… and back to me.

  Dragging in a rich inhale of Arizona summer air laden with the sweet scent of Tally’s skin, I deepened the kiss.

  “I don’t have underwear,” she murmured when I pulled back.

  With a wolfish grin, I replied, “I guess you’ll just have to wear my cum for now.”

  “Sam!” she gasped and then laughed.

  With a strained groan, I slid free from the warmth of her body, gently setting her feet on the ground so I could tuck myself back into my pants.

  I chuckled, seeing how she stood with her legs crossed underneath her dress that still wore the stain of her desire on the front, her thighs locked tight.

  “Don’t worry.” I lifted her chin with my thumb. “I’ll take care of you.”

  Her arched eyebrow disappeared when I ducked and hoisted her over my shoulder again.

  She laughed as I carried her back down the path and headed for my truck. “I think you’re the one who’s trouble, Sam Deschenes.”

  I patted the firm flesh of her ass. “The only thing I am, Tally, is yours.”

  I smiled to myself, feeling Sam’s presence before his hand rested against the small of my back.

  “Are you ready?” he murmured next to my ear.

  For the last five days since that afternoon at the Lavender Pit, our lives had tumbled back together like the pieces of a magnetic puzzle. Held apart by the strings of the past, tied down by misconceptions and distance, they were finally freed, snapping back together with the fierce, precise click of a perfect fit.

  “More than ready.” I grinned up at him over my shoulder, eagerly sighing into the kiss he quickly claimed.


  There was still one string I had left to let go of, and it was the one that had loosely tethered me to New York for the last several years.

  New York wasn’t what I wanted. New York was the kind of job you forced yourself to be happy with because it was a good opportunity, not because it was what you really wanted.

  And now, I had what I really wanted.

  “Tally!”

  My smile widened, turning to see Carlos rushing up to me, the red fury in his expression about to burst some blood vessels.

  “Where are my pieces?” His nostrils flared, jealousy-lined rage filling his eyes. “Where’s my—” He broke off, finding the answer to his question in the back corner behind me.

  Yesterday, with the help of Sam, Nico, and Mee-Maw, we’d moved Carlos’ paintings from the front and center of the exhibit to the back corner by the exit.

  Even though I still had a mind to set a certain piece on fire for the embarrassment he sought to cause me with it, I refrained because that would be childish. It would be unnecessary. It would be something that Carlos would do.

  “Why is my stuff in the back?” His voice rose with the uneven keel of a temper tantrum.

  “Oh, Carlos!” Mee-Maw exclaimed, coming up behind him and patting a firm hand on my shoulders. “At least the ghosts didn’t take it. You should be thanking Tally for holding them off.”

  My grandmother sent me a wink.

  “Thanks, Mee-Maw.” I shot her a wry stare and, noticing the bowl in her hand, added, “Did you bring chili in here?”

  “I was hungry. I needed some chili.” She shrugged, clutching the bowl tighter to her and my eyes narrowed on it as she turned away from us to talk to Nico.

  There was no spoon in the bowl. If she needed her chili, how was she planning on eating it? Maybe she was planning to toss it on Carlos if he got too sassy.

  If holding myself back from giving Carlos what he deserved was a hardship, holding Mee-Maw back from hiding all his canvases around Bisbee in places the ghosts wouldn’t even find was almost an impossibility.