“I am a guy,” he pointed out.
“I’m starving, too. What’ve you got in the kitchen?”
“Not much. We might have to venture out for sustenance.”
“We could drive down to my place. Order a pizza, eat it in bed?”
Ty cleared his throat. “Where’s your roommate?”
“Around. She had to work this afternoon.” Jill rested her chin on her fist and stared into Ty’s beautiful face. He hadn’t shaved in a couple of days and, if possible, the unkempt look made him even more attractive. “She was a little snippy with me last week about being gone all the time. I think she might like some company.”
“Seriously? I don’t really want to share.”
“You’d better be talking about me and not yourself.”
He pinched her butt. “Listen to your dirty mouth.” He wagged his brows. “I like it.”
“Why don’t you like Olivia?” she asked.
He huffed out a breath before sitting up and moving some pillows behind his back. “I don’t dislike Olivia; I just think she’s annoying.”
“Most men only see how pretty she is. I think it really bothers her that you don’t find her attractive.”
He shrugged. “I noticed her when I first came here. I’m not dead,” he said to deflect Jill’s anger. “But she’s pretty insecure. She knows she’s pretty and that’s about it.”
“She’s smart. She does really well in school when she applies herself.”
“So why doesn’t she apply herself? Why hasn’t she finished school?”
“She wasn’t ready to grow up. Her dad was so hard on her and Tommy. Their dad’s attitude pushed them in different directions. Tommy’s driven and seems to always be proving himself, even though he’s one of the most successful men in the valley. Olivia went in the opposite direction and does things on her own schedule. I think she regrets not finishing her degree.”
“Is she close?”
“Another semester and she’ll be student teaching, so less than a year.”
“I get needing a break,” he admitted. “This teaching job would pay more than double if I had my PhD. I need to be sure this is what I want to do before I devote that much more time to school.”
“You don’t think you’ll like it?”
“I think I will. There aren’t too many jobs that let me off in the summer to run the fly shop.”
“True.”
Jill got up and started collecting her clothes where Ty had ripped them off of her. Her stomach ached whenever he talked about his life apart from her.
“What do you think you’ll do when the summer is over?” he asked.
She sat down on the bed and turned away from him. He wasn’t asking anything more than she’d asked herself, but it seemed impossible to explain her indecision, especially after he’d spoken so negatively about Olivia. “I don’t really know.”
After a long pause, he said, “If you qualify for the trials, will you go?”
She shrugged and stared at the picture on the wall. The pretty autumn scene had become her favorite in the house. “It’s expensive. I’d have to pay my way to Oregon.”
“I could front you the money,” he said.
She turned around and looked at him. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
“Why not? It’s your dream, Jill. Nothing should stand in the way of your dream.”
“I have to qualify first.”
“You will. I’ve got a good feeling. Besides, I’ll be waiting at the finish line.”
“Then I’ll run faster than I ever have.” She threw his shirt at him. “Speaking of running, let’s go eat. I need to run before it gets too dark.”
“Don’t forget our date with the mirror.”
She gasped. “I thought you were kidding?”
He lifted one side of his mouth with a suggestive grin. “I never kid about sex.”
***
Ty washed his hands and stared at his reflection in the mirror. “Coward.” He shouldn’t have asked her about her plans. What did he expect her to do, beg him to take her back with him? Jill had too much pride to even ask. He should have just told her how he felt, told her he wanted to start a life with her. Instead it sounded like he was pulling away.
He saw the look on her face when she’d turned around after she held her back so straight against him. He recognized the way she put up a wall, clutching her clothes to her chest, speaking in that damn toneless voice. He hurt her because he was too much of a coward to tell her the truth. The problem was he couldn’t be sure of how she saw her future. Did she plan to train for the next four years? Did she want to work full time for Tommy? The restaurant was open year round.
“You’ll never know until you ask her.”
Tonight, he decided. He’d ask her tonight. After the mirror.
Chapter 34
Jill worked like a dog for a week, morning, noon, and night. In order for her to have the two days off she needed to get to and run the race, she had to pay it forward and make sure Tommy was covered in her absence.
Ty worked overtime too, taking all the jobs he could get, staying on the water ‘til near dark and back again at the break of dawn. They’d collapse at the end of the day exhausted in one bed or another.
By mid-week, she felt the kind of focus come over her that always had in the past when preparing for a big run. She found herself going over the course in her head, running the hills, skirting around corners, finishing in less than an hour, fifteen. She learned a long time ago if she could envision it, if she could believe it possible, she could achieve her goal.
She wanted to qualify. Her dad would be there with Charla, his new runner. She hadn’t told her dad she was going. She didn’t want to create any more tension in her family when they’d finally gotten past the worst of her betrayal. This felt like another and she wasn’t ready to confess just yet.
On the Thursday before the race, she’d just gotten home from a six mile run, content with her time. Fresh from the shower, she intended to dress and head back to the restaurant to check on the dinner hour when there was a knock at the door.
Ty stood on her small porch, clutching his cell phone, a look of sheer panic on his face. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
He barreled past her into the den, rubbing his forehead. “Lita called. My dad threw his back out this morning.”
“Oh, no. Has that happened before?”
“No. She said he’d been complaining of a strained muscle since they got back, but it totally went out pulling rafts this morning. The doctor gave him a shot and told him he’s got to rest for two weeks.”
“Two weeks?”
Ty sighed and paced behind the couch. She’d never seen him so antsy, so jerky in his movements, or so distressed.
“I know you’re worried, but I’m sure he’s going to be okay.”
“I know he’s going to be okay. It’s the business. When they got back from their trip out here, the shop was in shambles. The guy he left to watch it while he was gone did a terrible job. My dad doesn’t trust anyone at this point and he needs me to come home and cover for him until he’s up on his feet.”
“You’re leaving?” Jill choked.
“I don’t want to, Jill. But I have to. I can’t leave him without someone to man the shop.”
Jill nodded while she fought back the tears and the panic. Ty gone so soon? “When do you have to go?”
“I fly out of Colorado Springs tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” She lowered onto the couch when she felt her legs give out. “What about your truck? And your boat?”
“I’ll fly back out when he’s better and drive them back.”
“If you’re gone for two weeks, you’ll only have…what? A week or two before you go back for good?”
“If that much.”
“Oh, Tyler.”
He rushed to her side, clasping her hands in his. “I know. I wasn’t expecting this.”
“Of course you weren’t.” Her stomach
felt as if she’d swallowed a bucket of ice. “I know you have to go, I’m just disappointed.”
“Jill,” he grabbed her hands so tight her fingers ached, “there’s so much I have to tell you. I should have talked to you weeks ago, but I wasn’t sure it was the right time.”
“What are you talking about?”
He closed his eyes tight, and when he opened them, her heart skipped a beat in anticipation. “I love you, Jill.”
She sank into the cushion, her mouth open. “What?”
“I’m completely in love with you.”
She tried to form words, she tried to make something come out of her dry and aching throat, but nothing but a shaky breath escaped.
“I want a life with you. I want us to be together.”
“I…”
“I know this seems sudden, but it’s been building all summer. I think I knew from the very first moment I saw you that you were the one.”
“Tyler…how? We live on opposite sides of the country.”
“We don’t have to.”
She shook her head. He couldn’t be asking what she thought he was asking. “What are you saying? You want me to follow you? Move to North Carolina?”
“At first, yes. I’ve signed a contract. I’ve got to teach this year.”
“And you’ve got your business with your dad. You’re tied there. That’s where you live. That’s where you’ll always live.”
“Not if it’s not the right place for you. All I’ve ever wanted was a family, a real one. A wife who loves me, who’ll grow old with me, and children to raise.”
“A wife?” The ice in her stomach turned sharp as a knife. “Jesus, Ty. What are you saying?”
“I want you, Jill. For today, for tomorrow, forever. I love you. I want you to marry me.”
She gripped at the throbbing in her temple. He had to stop. Didn’t he know he was ripping her apart with his words? “You’re asking me to leave my home. My family.”
“If it’s not what you want, living in North Carolina, we’ll move.”
“What do you mean? You’d move here? For me?”
“For us, if it’s what’s best. Or we can live in both places at different times of the year. We can live in North Carolina in the summer. You can train anywhere. We can live out here the rest of the year.”
“That…” God, her head was going to explode. “That’ll never work.” She couldn’t think. She absolutely couldn’t put one single thought together. “Kids? Are you out of your mind?”
“No. We’d have really great kids.”
She could see it, their kids. Tall, athletic, good-natured, and a little bit mischievous. Damn him for putting the image so clearly in her head. “I don’t know.”
“I’m only asking what I’m willing to give up for you.”
“Your family.”
“I want you to be my family.”
She reached out and touched his cheek. His eyes, the hazel that changed from blue to green, closed at the first brush of her fingers. “You have a family, a very good, tight, oddly functioning family. You’re very lucky.”
“I wasn’t always so lucky. There was a time when I was younger that my parents hated each other. They fought constantly, and not in hushed voices like you see on TV. They think I was too young to remember and I never said otherwise because I know it was a time neither one of them is proud of, but it lives inside me. The feeling of being at fault, of them not loving me enough to stay together, of the anger and the pain. Things are fine with them now, better than fine, but I want what they couldn’t give each other. You’re the one I want it with.”
“But I’d have to walk away from everything here.”
“I’m not asking you to walk away from any of it. I’m asking you to walk toward something, something real, something that won’t end if you get injured or feel moody or low. I’m asking you marry me, to commit to me, and to trust that everything will work out okay.”
“I do trust you, but…”
“I’m not your father, Jill. I’m not going to look for someone else when things get tough. You remember when you asked me if I knew what it felt like to lose the one thing I’d always wanted?”
She nodded her head. “I’ve trained to be a distance runner my whole life. Every second, every thought was about getting better, and winning, and moving on to the next level. You’ve only known me a couple of months. How can you be so sure?”
“I’ve known you for more than a couple of months and I’ve wanted what you and I can have together for as long as you’ve been dreaming about setting the world on fire with your legs.”
“Wanting it and training for it are two different things.”
“What do you think dating is, Jill? Fun and games? It’s training for the real thing, so that when the real thing comes along, you know it, you recognize it, and you don’t waste any more time on anything else.”
She sputtered out a laugh. “You’re equating dating with my training regimen?”
He shrugged. “You’ve trained. I’ve dated. You know what it takes to win and so do I. I love you and nothing in my life matters more than you.”
“Tyler,” she fell to her knees, “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything now. Just think about it. Think about how happy we could be.”
The words, held so long in her heart, spilled out of her mouth without thought. “I love you, Tyler. I want you. I’m just so confused. I never thought…I couldn’t bring myself to imagine you’d want a future with me.”
“Baby.” Ty pulled her up and onto his lap. “You’re all I want. You’re everything to me.”
They fell together onto the couch, clutching at clothes, mindless in their need, in their passion. He was here, he was real, and he was hers for only a few more hours until he had to leave.
They jerked apart when the front door slammed. “Oh, for God’s sake. Can you two please move to the bedroom?”
“Shut up, Olivia,” they both said. Ty held Jill against his chest, shielding her bare breasts from view.
“I do live here,” she reminded them as he ushered Jill down the hall and into her room.
Ty pushed the door shut with his foot and then stood staring at Jill. They both burst out laughing. “I guess the gig is up. She knows we’re having sex.”
“I told her we were having sleepover tea parties, but I don’t think she believed me.”
Ty let out a shaky breath. “I love you. I know I dumped an awful lot on you tonight. I’ve been trying to tell you for weeks, but I kept chickening out. I hoped to have more time to ease you into the idea. I’ve had to mend the line a bit.”
“You’ve had to what?”
“It’s a fishing term. You mend the line when it gets ahead of the bait.” When she stared at him confused, he said, “You adjust the line according to the current.”
“This is one heck of a current.”
He lifted a shoulder, dropped it, and cocked his head to the side. “You don’t have to answer me now. Think about it. Go run your race and live your dreams and I’ll be back. I just want to be with you tonight before I have to go.”
“I’ll call Tommy,” Jill said. “I’ll drive you to Springs in the morning.”
“I’ve already arranged for him to take me.”
The stab of hurt was quick and painful. “Oh.”
“I wasn’t sure I could get on the plane if you were there, baby. Don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad. But I will be if you don’t touch me soon.”
He scooped her into his arms and fell with her onto the bed. “I love it when you tell me what to do.”
She licked her lips. “You do?”
He nodded and put his lips below her ear, right where he knew it made her quiver. “Um huh.”
“Tommy’s driving you, right?”
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes, his brows drawn tight. “Yeah.”
“Good, because you’re not going to get much sleep tonight.�
��
Chapter 35
Tommy jerked his head toward Ty and his SUV swerved onto the shoulder. “You asked her to marry you?”
Ty made a grab for the wheel, but Tommy corrected and had them back on the road before Ty had to act. “What did she say?”
“Nothing, yet.”
Holy shit, Tommy thought. Ty was in deep. Didn’t the kid know that women only led to trouble? “Nothing?”
“I told her to think about it while I’m gone.”
Tommy let out a huge breath. “Okay.”
“You think we’re too young,” Ty said. It wasn’t a question, but a statement.
“I think it’s your life. If you want to get married, if you want to marry Jill, I wish the best for you.”
Tommy could feel Ty staring at the side of his face. “You’re a cynic. How didn’t I know this about you?”
“I’m not a cynic. I just don’t think marriage is the end all, be all. It’s hard work on both sides and sometimes it doesn’t end well.”
“Have you ever been married?”
An image of Gretchen flashed through his mind. God, he hadn’t thought of her in years. “Almost. I couldn’t quite pull the trigger.”
“Ahhh.”
“What do you mean, ahhh?”
“I mean I get why you’re cynical. You come from divorce. I come from divorce, too. I think you either go one way or the other when your parents split up.”
“What do you mean?” Tommy asked.
“I mean you either long for a strong, solid marriage and go in knowing it’s forever, or you avoid marriage because you think of it as a trap.”
“I’m in the latter court.”
“And I’m in the former. I love her. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
Tommy took a deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly. “I’m happy for you, man. I guess you got what you came back for?”
“Not yet,” Ty said and looked out the window. “Not quite yet. But I’ll be back.”
***
“Jill?” Bobbie said with a look of concern when she found her daughter on her doorstep at eight in the morning. Jill tried to wait until later, but she needed her mother now. “What’s wrong?”
Jill fell into her mother’s arms and drank in her scent. She smelled like Oil of Olay and the hazelnut cream she put in her morning coffee. “I need to talk to you.”
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