“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you’d jump to that conclusion.”
“Why else would I think you were here?” Now that the shock had passed, she was being hit from all sides with all kinds of emotions and reactions, and her words came out sharper than she intended.
Ryan smiled crookedly. He looked tired, she noticed, with a two-day stubble and his hair sticking up all crazy as though he’d been running his hands through it. But it only made him look yummy, and a wave of longing hit her hard. Fast on that, her heart started to hurt—both from missing him the last few weeks and seeing him now. All this was still doing battle with annoyance for scaring the daylights out of her, and the adrenaline from both the shock and excitement kept her blood pumping at high speed. She was an overstimulated wreck at the moment, yet she still took a nanosecond to bemoan standing here in pink pajama pants, a ratty tank, and a hoodie.
“Like I said, I’m sorry about that.”
She waved away the apology as she opened the door wider to let him in. As he passed, she took a deep breath, inhaling his scent. It sent a pang through her. “So, why are you here?”
Ryan looked uncomfortable, squashing the hope that was fluttering to life in her chest. “Well, I—”
“Hey, Helly, it’s so not on my diet, but would you eat rangoons if I got some? Oh—” Misha stopped short in the kitchen doorway. “I didn’t realize someone was here.” She looked Ryan over carefully and smiled her approval.
She’d totally forgotten about Misha in the eternity of the last minute and a half. “Ryan, this is my friend Misha. Ryan is a . . . Um . . . He’s a . . . He’s from Magnolia Beach.”
Misha looked at Helena with raised eyebrows asking and answering a dozen questions even as she held out a hand to Ryan. “Well, you’ve come a long way to visit.”
“This obviously isn’t a good time. . . .”
“Actually,” Misha interrupted, “I just remembered that I have a really important phone call I need to make, so I’m going to run home and do that.” She grabbed her purse off the floor by the couch and slipped her feet into her shoes. “You can talk to Ryan”—she smiled at him again—“and we’ll postpone our evening to another time. I’ll call you later.” She waved and pulled the door shut behind her.
There was a long, very awkward silence.
Ryan finally cleared his throat. “It’s Friday night. I should have known you’d have plans.”
She couldn’t believe Misha had just bailed on her like that. She had to fight back the urge to chase after her and drag her back in here for moral support. “Just a girls’ night in. Nothing important.”
“Maybe I should have called first.”
She was about to scream in frustration. Her nerves felt like tiny knife blades cutting into her skin. She tried hard to keep that frustration out of her voice. “Well, you’re here now, so . . .”
“How are you?”
Argh. “Good, thanks. Settling back in. How about you?” She tried to sound casual. “Everything okay in Magnolia Beach?”
Ryan’s smile was wry. “About the same. You know how it is.”
“Good.” This conversation was so inane, it bordered on farcical.
“You look great.”
Oh. Dear. God. “Ryan Tanner . . .”
He laughed softly and ran a hand through his hair, creating more spikes. “I had seven hours in the car to plan this and thought I had it all worked out, but now it just sounds stupid, even to me.”
“Just say whatever it is you came to say. The suspense is killing me.” That was the understatement of the year. She was swinging wildly from one possible explanation to the next, and she needed to know where to park.
“I missed you.”
That was neither what she’d hoped nor thought he’d say, landing smack in the middle of the spectrum of possibilities and not giving her strong ground to plan her next words. “Is that why you came all the way here? Just to tell me you missed me?”
Ryan rolled his eyes heavenward, then shook his head as if clearing it. “I know this is crazy, and I know it’s coming out of left field, and I don’t really expect . . . Actually, I have no idea what I expect—”
The tenuous grasp she had on her sanity snapped. “Damn it, Ryan. Spit it out.”
His hand cupped her cheek. “Isn’t it obvious? I came to tell you that I love you.”
The room skewed sideways, and Helena had to sit. “Oh.”
Ryan knelt in front of her. “I know it’s crazy, but that’s the way it is.”
It was hard to process, harder to believe, even as her heart began to beat faster and the cloud that had loomed over her lifted. “You hardly know me.”
“Technically, I’ve known you my entire life. I’m just slow on the uptake,” he joked, taking her hands in his so tenderly that Helena’s heart cracked a little. “The last few weeks have been . . .” He paused as he searched for the right words. “Dull. You’re one of a kind, Helena,” he said with a smile. “You’ve got a good heart and a sharp tongue, and the combination is irresistible. You make me laugh. You keep me on my toes and constantly surprise me. I keep looking for you now, expecting to see you somewhere in town, and I’m disappointed every time I don’t. I’m grumpy and foul-tempered, and that’s solely because I don’t have you.” He blew out his breath heavily. “So I came here to tell you that I love you and I miss you and I need you.”
Her eyes began to burn. The words weren’t fancy or flowery, just straightforward and honest, exactly like the man saying them. It felt real, and she believed him, making this the single most amazing moment of her life. She wanted to revel in it.
But as wonderful as it was to hear, it hurt, too. The situation was doomed, and in that moment, Helena decided she might rather have never known. It would have been easier in the long run.
“Well?” Ryan caught her eye. “Say something.”
He’d been honest with her. She owed him the same respect. “This is crazy and very romantic, like something from a movie.”
“And . . .”
She took a deep breath. “I love you, too, but—”
He cut her off with a finger against her lips and smiled at her. “Let me enjoy that first part. We’ll get to the ‘but’ in a minute.” Then he kissed her. It was both gentle and passionate and filled with something she couldn’t bear to face. That knowledge didn’t stop her body, though, from cranking its engines, and a little shiver ran over her skin. It was a long, wonderful moment, one Helena really didn’t want to end, but the kiss finally slowed and broke, and Ryan rested his forehead against hers. “Now you can finish.”
She had to unscramble her brain and backtrack the conversation before she could. “This won’t work.”
He moved to sit beside her and laced his fingers through hers. “Because you don’t want to live in Magnolia Beach, right?”
She nodded. “It wouldn’t be good for you for me to be there. There will always be someone who holds my past against me, and they’ll hold it against you and start to judge you for my sins. They did it to Grannie, and they did it to Tate. I won’t let them do that to you. I won’t be responsible for that.” She squeezed his hand. “It hurts, but it’s the right thing to do.”
“That’s very mature and insightful of you, Helena.”
“Thanks.” That doesn’t make it suck any less.
Ryan sighed. “You like this neighborhood?”
The change in topic threw her and was a bit deflating after such a dramatic moment. “Yeah, it’s all right.”
“Because I noticed a sign on the building next door that there’s an apartment for rent. If you’ll let me crash here tonight, I’ll go tomorrow and fill out the paperwork. Do you know if they take pets?”
This made no sense. “What the—”
“If it’s vacant at the moment, I can be in by the end of next week.”
> The meaning of his words finally dawned. “You can’t move to Atlanta.”
“Of course I can. My job skills are very portable. Between my savings and whatever I can get for the house in Magnolia Beach, I’ll be fine until I get established here.”
“You’d be miserable here. You love Magnolia Beach. It’s where you belong.”
“I’d rather take the chance, because I know I’ll be miserable at home without you. Magnolia Beach isn’t going anywhere. It’ll always be there, and I’d pick you over a place any day.”
The shock nearly left her sputtering. “You’d leave Magnolia Beach because of me?”
“Not ‘because of,’ but ‘for,’ yes. Absolutely.”
“But your whole life is there.”
“I can always visit. I know you’ll be wanting to go see Ms. Louise as often as you can, so I’ll go then, too. We can split the driving.” He smirked. “You know, it might actually be good for me to move. My family is way too far up into my business. It would be a refreshing change.”
She threw out her last, desperate idea. “But you said you like being a big fish in a little pond. Atlanta’s the damn ocean.”
An eyebrow went up. “Are you saying my ego couldn’t handle it?”
“I honestly don’t know.” She didn’t know anything right now. Her whole worldview was shifting, for God’s sake.
“That hurts, Helena.” He clutched his chest in mock dismay. “Maybe my ego needs adjusting. It’ll be a character-building experience.”
She kept waiting for the punch line, but it never came. “You’re serious.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying.”
Helena wasn’t sure her system could take many more shots tonight. Ryan loved her—loved her enough to not only stand beside her proudly in Magnolia Beach, but also enough to jeopardize his place in the community to be with her. Loved her enough to make an ass of himself and risk arrest by punching Mike Swenson. Loved her enough to leave Magnolia Beach for her.
He loved her. Loved her a lot.
And that changed everything.
How long it took her to work all of that out, she didn’t know, but Ryan was still staring at her, waiting patiently for her to respond.
“I can’t believe this.”
“Which part?”
“Any of it. All of it.”
She could see him sucking it up, regrouping, ready to start in again with a fresh set of arguments. “So how do I convince you?”
“You already have.”
Ryan perked up, question written all over his face. At her nod, he grabbed her and pulled her into his lap. Everything seemed so up in the air and strange, but it all felt completely right and good at the same time. They could make this work.
It took a long time to get the kiss she needed to give him out of her system, but it was nice. No rushing, no trying to get to the next, naked, part. She’d have plenty of time for that, and reveling in this moment was more than enough.
“It’ll take a while for me to get things completely sorted at home, but I promise I’ll be permanently settled up here as soon as I can.”
“It will be easier if I go home with you. I’ve got less stuff, and I already have a place to live.”
Ryan looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. “I’m not sure I’m following you.”
It was hard not to laugh at the look on his face, but then, he had every reason to be confused. “I’ll give Magnolia Beach a chance, see how it works. If it doesn’t work out and it all goes to hell, Atlanta will still be here.”
“You’d come back to Magnolia Beach for me?”
“Yes. And that answer surprises me as much as it does you.”
“Why?”
The happiness on his face made this worth a try. “Because you really do love it there. And I’d rather you not give all that up for me if you don’t absolutely have to. Hell, if Jessie Floss can reinvent herself and marry Duncan Hollis, maybe there’s hope for me. It’s worth a shot first, I think.”
“I do love you, Hell-on-Wheels.”
She rubbed his jaw. “And I love you, Mayor Tanner.” She giggled. “And now I’m actually looking forward to it.”
“To what?”
“Me and you, together in Magnolia Beach. The possibility that I’m back for good and I’ve bagged the town’s favorite son will definitely stir up some excitement. Oh, and heads will explode all over the county at the mere speculation that Hell-on-Wheels herself could very well be the First Lady of Magnolia Beach one day. It’ll be better than having the circus in town, and I don’t have to do a single thing except show up and breathe.”
Ryan laughed and shook his head. “You are far too excited about that idea. It’s a little scary.”
She grinned. “Yes, but doesn’t it sound like fun?”
Epilogue
Ryan parked the truck and turned off the engine, but Helena stayed put, not even unbuckling her seat belt. The light from the streetlights was enough for him to see her eyebrows pull together as she stared at the school. Then she shook her head.
“This is not a good idea. Actually, I think it’s one of the worst ideas ever. I can’t believe that I—or anyone else for that matter—agreed to it for a second.”
“Helena . . . ,” he began, but she interrupted.
“You go on. I’ll come back and get you later,” she offered.
Helena’s return to Magnolia Beach—this time in a moving truck—had certainly caused a buzz, but mainly because everyone knew the reason why she’d come back had little to do with Ms. Louise. But since the big shock had happened back in September when she’d first arrived, a second return, less than a month after she left, felt a little redundant and lacking oomph. She’d moved back into her childhood home—using reasons of “appearances” and “propriety” and “respect” to explain why she wouldn’t just move in with him—and by the time everyone got through the hustle and bustle of Christmas and New Year’s, it was old news. There’d been a couple of rough patches, and there were some folks who still held grudges and several who held to leopards-not-changing-their-spots opinions, but for the most part, the foundations of the town remained unshaken and Helena was settling in fine.
Well, most of the time. She had a few grudges of her own to carry—but really no more than people who had spent their whole life in the same place—and she wasn’t always comfortable in certain situations. Tonight was turning out to be one of those situations, but hell if he knew why.
“That’s not happening.” He opened his door, and the music escaping out the gym doors—a heavy bass thumping that he knew would give him a headache long before midnight—floated into the cab of the truck. “Come on. We’re late.”
She pinned him with a look. “This is insane. I cannot chaperone the Sweetheart Dance.”
He decided to intentionally misunderstand. “It’s not hard work. Just stand around, give kids an evil eye if they start grinding or twerking, and make sure no one spikes the punch—”
“Then burn in hell for my hypocrisy?” she asked.
“Honey, if you’re going to hell, the devil has bigger sins to choose from.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re real funny.”
With a sigh, he said, “Look, we all grow up and get self-righteous with the next generation. It’s not hypocrisy.” She wasn’t buying it, and he tried to think of something else. “It’s . . . It’s sharing the knowledge we acquired the hard way in the hopes they won’t repeat our stupid mistakes.”
Helena snorted. “That’s one way to spin it.”
“Anyway, I want you to come with me.”
“Because misery loves company?”
“Well, that and . . .” He reached into the backseat and got the small box he’d stashed earlier. He’d felt a little silly about it all day, but it was worth it when Helena opened the box and
her jaw fell open.
She laughed. There was a note of disbelief in it, but he could still tell she was touched. “You got me a corsage?”
“Helena Wheeler, will you go to the Sweetheart Dance with me?”
Helena pulled the corsage out of its box and paused to sniff the orchid before sliding it onto her wrist. “You make it very hard to say no,” she admitted.
“So that’s a yes?”
There was a long pause. “Yes.”
Ridiculously pleased, he gave her a quick kiss, then hurried around to the passenger’s side to open her door. She reached for his hand as they walked through the parking lot, and every now and then she lifted her wrist to her nose for another sniff. He shortened his stride to match hers, but he noticed pretty quickly that her pace was slowing the closer they got to the building. Before they made it to the sidewalk, she stopped completely.
“Good God, does this mean I’m supposed to be some kind of role model now?” He couldn’t quite tell whether she was shocked or horrified by the idea.
“Of course not. Just try not to give the kids any ideas, okay? Ouch,” he added, rubbing his arm where she’d punched him.
“You deserved that and you know it,” she said primly.
He leaned in and kissed her again, hard and long and uncaring of who might see.
A little breathless, Helena needed a second to recover. “What was that for?”
“Because you deserve it.” When she smiled, he tugged on her hand. “Let’s go, Hell-on-Wheels. Time to set a good example for the young ones.”
“Now that’s something I never thought I’d hear. Usually it’s ‘Be good’ or ‘Don’t make trouble.’”
“Well, that, too.”
“Don’t worry, Mayor Tanner,” she said, sliding a hand down his chest seductively. “I’m saving all that for later tonight.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“You should be.” She arched one eyebrow up at him, then turned and walked into the gym, head held high like she owned the place.
A little while later, he pulled a protesting Helena onto the dance floor, totally ignoring the shocked faces of the high school set who moved aside to give them room. With an appropriate, school-sanctioned distance between them, they swayed gently to the music. “I should have done this years ago,” he confessed.
Something to Prove Page 28