This Is Why (A Brookside Romance Book 3)

by Abby Brooks

  Ty puts his hand on mine. “Do you realize that I find you so attractive, so compelling, so achingly all-consuming, that you’re the only thing I can ever concentrate on?”

  The worry vanishes. “Nope.” I give my attention back to the road. “I think you need to explain. In detail.”

  Ty settles back in his seat. “For example, just now, the setting sun caught my attention. It was so beautiful and I wanted to make sure you saw it, too. But when I turned to you, I got lost in the curve of your cheek, the way one side of your mouth curls up before you actually smile, the way your hair cascades down your back and catches the light, reflecting all the colors of the sunset in a halo around your head.” He smiles at me, his eyes soft and filled with emotion. “And I was awestruck. Who cares about the sunset when I have you?”

  He puts his hand high up on my thigh while I’m still reeling from his comment. The combination of his calloused skin and his gentle words light a fire in my core. I spread my legs, a slight movement, but an intentional one.

  “Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me in this dress?” Ty slips his hand under the fabric. “It should be against the law for you to look this good when I can’t touch you.”

  I widen my legs a fraction of an inch. “You can touch me anytime you want.” My gaze darts to his and then back to the road.

  “But not the way I want. If I touched you the way I’ve been imagining all day, well, I think it’s safe to say people would be scandalized.”

  “How do you want to touch me?”

  He slides his hand up my thigh, slips a finger under my panties, and slips it right inside me. “Like this,” he says as I gasp. “Like I own you. I want to be inside you all the time, Lex.” He pulls his finger out, leaving a wet streak along my inner thigh, only to plunge it right back inside me again.

  I focus on driving, my lips parted, my chest heaving, my pussy throbbing. Home is too far away for me to want him this much, and if he doesn’t stop doing whatever it is he’s doing, then there’s a chance we’ll never make it home at all. I can’t concentrate. And I want to touch him, to look at him. I risk a glance and find his cock straining against the confines of his pants. That’s it. That’s all I can take. I am only human after all. I pull off to the side of the road, put the car in park, and kill the ignition.

  “What are you doing?” he asks as I undo my seatbelt and twist in my seat.

  “I can’t wait. I can’t concentrate. Not with you looking like that and making me feel that good.” I reach across the narrow console and grab his dick. He moans and widens his legs, thrusting his hips up into my hand. “I want you,” I say.

  “Then get over here and take me.” Ty gives me a taunting look, like he doesn’t think I’ll do it.

  And here I thought he was really starting to understand me.

  I shift and pull off my panties, let them dangle from one finger before I toss them in the back seat. “Lay the seat back,” I say and he does, then opens his pants and slides them down off his hips.

  I climb over the console and straddle him, take his dick in my hand, and slowly lower myself down onto him. “Oh, fuck. You feel so good.” I lower my face to his and kiss him to give myself time to acclimate to having him so deep inside me.

  He returns the kiss ferociously, one hand fisted in my hair as I begin rolling my hips, the other clutching my bare ass under my skirt. He pulls back and presses his forehead to mine. “That’s right, Lexi. Ride me. Ride that cock.”

  Ever the good girl, I do exactly what he says until my climax overtakes me. I scream his name, my muscles clenching so tightly that I can’t move. Ty grips my hips and thrusts into me, sending me spiraling further and further out of control until he comes, his eyes sliding closed as his head drops back on the seat. I collapse down on him and rest my head on his shoulder.

  “Well that was unexpected,” I say after a few seconds of stillness, my lips brushing the sweaty skin on his neck.

  “You say unexpected, I say awesome.” Ty pushes my hair out of my face and kisses my temple.

  I shift and sit up, shuddering with an aftershock of pleasure as his dick slides out of me, and then make my way back into the driver’s seat before retrieving my panties and shimmying them up my legs and over my hips. Ty buttons up his pants and adjusts his seat, just in time for movement to catch my attention through the rearview.

  “Oh, shit.” I look at Ty, eyes wide. “It’s a cop.”

  Laughter dances across his face. “We aren’t doing anything wrong.”

  Fear lances through me. “But we were. Indecent exposure is a thing, right? I’m pretty sure we were very much indecent just now.”

  “But nothing was exposed and there was no one here to see us. Relax, Lexi. Everything is fine.”

  The officer strolls up to the driver’s side window, which I have preemptively rolled down for him. “Everything okay in here?” he asks, his eyes friendly and his voice light.

  “Everything is fine,” I reply, searching for some reason to explain why we’re pulled off to the side of the road.

  The officer leans down to get a better look at the passenger seat and his jaw falls open before a wide smile takes over his face. “No way. Tyler? Tyler Reed?”

  Ty studies the man for a second before recognition lights his eyes. “Hunter Erickson. You’re kidding me. How ya doin’, man?”

  “Not bad. Can’t complain.” Hunter draws his eyebrows together and scrunches up his nose. “What are you even doing here? I thought you got free of Brookside and swore you’d never be back.”

  “Believe me. I am very much free of Brookside. I’m only here because Paige had a baby, but I’m flying back out tomorrow.”

  “Little Paigey is a mama.” Officer Erickson shakes his head. “I can’t believe it.”

  The men chat for a while, tossing around high school memories while Hunter continues to be amazed that Tyler found anything important enough to make a return trip to Brookside. If he’s been that adamant about being rid of this place since high school, why in the world would he consider coming back to live here full time? Am I fooling myself by taking this extended vacation with him? Am I putting off our inevitable separation because my life is here and his is everywhere but here?

  I don’t have to follow that thought long before I realize that I don’t care. Maybe I am putting off the inevitable. Maybe we are fooling ourselves into thinking we can have any kind of life together, but right now, I don’t care. Whatever this is between us, it’s worth taking some time to figure out.

  LEXI

  The next day, we pick up Gabe at the farm and say our goodbyes to the Carmichaels. David and Colton thump Ty on the back and Annabelle makes him promise not to stay gone so long. Michelle gives me a long hug. “I’m so happy for you,” she whispers in my ear. “Have a great time.”

  When we get to the airport, Gabe fires off questions about everything he sees and Ty answers them without blinking. The flight goes about as well as we could hope and Gabe does okay, even though the initial excitement of being in a plane wore off somewhere around hour nine in the air. The moment we land, though, that excitement ratchets right back up again. The landscape is breathtaking, with palm trees swaying in the wind and mountains in the distance under the clearest blue sky I’ve ever seen in my life.

  Gabe yawns widely as we pull to a stop at a military checkpoint, just off base. “How is it still light outside? I’m so tired.”

  I do my best to explain time zones to a six-year-old but, I’m also feeling the jet lag, so stutter around for a while, confusing us both. “It’s midnight at home,” I say, finally. “But it’s only six o’clock here.” Gabe nods and we leave it at that.

  Ty flashes his ID at the men manning the checkpoint who then asks to see my driver’s license. They take a peek, ask a few questions, and then, without further ado, we’re allowed on base. Ty drives slowly, pointing out a few landmarks as we go. I swivel in my seat, struck by the view and trying to take it all in at once before we pull
to a stop in his driveway.

  I stare at the two-story house in front of me, surprised to find it to be both larger and newer than I expected. “You didn’t tell me the ocean is your backyard.”

  “You didn’t ask.” Ty drops me a wink and then climbs out of the car. “Welcome to my humble abode,” he says as I stand and then stretch.

  “Wow.” Gabe closes the rear car door and then comes to my side, a light breeze moving in his hair. “Can we go to the beach?” He stares up at me, looking equal parts delirious and thrilled.

  I turn to Ty, almost as eager to get my feet in the sand as my son. “What do you think?”

  “Of course we should go to the beach. We’ll get everything unpacked later.” He takes my hand and I take Gabe’s and we walk down to the water. The edges of my shirt flap in the breeze and I lean into Ty. It seems fitting somehow that the first time I saw him was on a beach and now here we are at the beach again. We walk right up to the water and Gabe laughs, skipping backward as it washes up towards his feet.

  Ty wraps an arm around my shoulders. “Thank you for coming home with me,” he says.

  I drop my head onto his shoulder and stare out at the water. The sun glitters across the surface and the sky stretches out before us. I look up at Ty and smile. “If I had known the view was this good, I wouldn’t have put up such a fight.”

  For some reason, military housing made me think of square little space-efficient homes, gray and uniform in their monotony, each one as perfectly boring and utilitarian as the next. While the homes are placed close together, they look more like something I’d find in a suburban neighborhood back home than in a military installation. On the way in, we passed duplexes, triplexes, and even quadplexes, but Ty lives in a large, two story, single family home that looks almost brand new.

  He shows us around the first floor, with its grand, high ceilings and kitchen filled with new appliances. The only thing uniform about the place is the color. All the walls are white, white, white. Gabe stares up at the vaulted ceiling in the living room. “It’s so tall,” he says, spinning in a slow circle.

  “This is not at all what I expected,” I say to Ty.

  “It’s more house than I need, that’s for sure, but I’m not complaining.”

  The furnishings are simple yet comfortable. A plush chenille sofa and love seat sit in front of a state of the art TV and sound system. The kitchen table has clean lines and a glass top, surrounded by chairs that look both functional and inviting. There’s even a centerpiece, a swooping arch of candles that have never been lit. The comparison to my well-worn and mismatched furniture back home is humbling.

  Ty leads us upstairs and drops Gabe’s bags in a guestroom. “What do you think?” he asks Gabe. “Is this bed big enough for you?”

  Gabe eyes the queen size mattress on a sprawling four poster frame. “It’s like four of my beds at home.” He climbs up on the thing and stretches out spread-eagled. “I can’t even touch the sides.” He grins at us until a massive yawn overtakes him and he squeezes his eyes shut.

  “Come on,” I say. “Up and at ‘em.” I extend a hand towards our son. “I’m tired, too, but we need to try and stay up so we get used to being on Hawaii time.”

  We follow Ty past a closed door and into the master bedroom. A king size bed sits under a window with an ocean view. The matching furniture is made of clean lines and rich wood, functional yet elegant in its simplicity. We drop off my bags and I get a peek at the master bathroom.

  “I’m feeling like the country hick at the castle, for sure,” I say as I eye the separate shower and a tub so huge Ty and I could both fit with room to spare.

  Ty grins. “When I found out I was being stationed here, I did as much research as I could and quickly realized that this is the holy grail of bases. The only thing anyone had to say bad about the place was to watch out for rock fever.”

  “What’s that?” I slide a finger along the smooth surface of the countertop.

  “I guess some people get really claustrophobic, living on an island for the first time.” Ty shrugs and flips off the bathroom light. “I haven’t dealt with it yet, but maybe that’s because I’m never here that long.”

  He leads us out of the master and stops in front of the closed door. He pauses for a second with his hand on the knob and then with a deep breath, he opens the door. While the rest of the house feels like he moved his things in with a thought towards moving out again in the near future, this room looks like he took the time to make it feel like home. Bookshelves line three of the walls which are painted a rich brown instead of the uniform rows of white walls everywhere else. A thick mahogany desk sits under a row of windows on the fourth wall.

  Books fill two of the three large shelves. The third is filled with ornate boxes and exotic knick-knacks, framed photographs and bits of art. I run my finger along the spines of the books, scanning titles as I step into the room. Gabe goes straight to a shelf filled with a long row of rocks and crystals, spaced neatly in a line.

  “These are my treasures,” says Ty. “Things I’ve found or gotten overseas or while traveling. I try to find one thing when I’m in a new place, something that encapsulates the history or culture, and bring it back. When I’m feeling stuck or sad or lonely, I come in here and stare at these things. It makes me feel like I’m a part of something bigger than me.” Ty shrugs. “Which somehow makes me feel better.”

  “Isn’t that what you call your rocks at home?” I ask Gabe. “Your treasures?”

  Gabe nods. “Yep. Because they look like rocks, but when you look closer, they’re filled with crystals.”

  Ty crouches and wraps an arm around Gabe’s shoulder. “How cool is it that we both find treasures everywhere we go?”

  I study the books, mostly non-fiction, but focused on a vast array of subjects. It makes me smile because I can imagine him here, hooked on a new topic, hunched over a book, devouring all the information he can find until he considers himself proficient. The few fiction titles are surprising. JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. GRR Martin’s Game of Thrones. A thick book by Richard Adams, titled Maia, with a gorgeous cover featuring a white-haired girl with a crown of flowers.

  I run a finger over the embossed image on the cover before putting the book back in its place. “I never pegged you as a fantasy reader.”

  “Oh, come on.” Ty lifts his arms in a questioning gesture. “Shocking new worlds? Political intrigue? Sweeping landscapes unlike any I’ll ever see no matter how many times I’m deployed?” Ty grins. “I’ve got the heart of an explorer, Lex. These books take me places I can never go.”

  I shake my head. “That’s a lot of fancy words to cover up the fact that you’re a closet nerd. I never would have guessed.”

  Ty holds out his hands. “Nerds rule the world, sweet stuff.”

  Gabe looks up from where he’s crouched in front of the rocks. His eyes sweep across the rows and rows of books and then land on his father. “Knowledge is power, right Ty?”

  Ty bobs his head and purses his lips. “That’s right. And if you can’t find someone with the answers to your questions, what do you do?”

  Gabe grins. “Look for it yourself because someone is sure to have written it down.”

  The exchange makes me smile but judging by the look on Ty’s face, it touches him somewhere deep, somewhere real. I try to imagine what it must be like for him, meeting this little person who is so obviously part of him, especially given Ty’s desire to be a good dad.

  I can’t.

  I can’t imagine missing six years of my son’s life and trying to figure out how to make up for lost time while knowing that’s an impossibility. Lost time is just that. Lost. For the first time ever, I fully regret giving up so easily on finding Ty when I discovered I was pregnant.

  What would have happened if I’d tried harder? Would he have come home to meet his son? Spent less time in Afghanistan and more in Brookside? What joys have I stolen from him? These are not comfortable thoughts. I take Ty’
s hand and give it a squeeze. He smiles down at me and I stare up at him, wishing I could let him see into my head and heart, wishing he could see straight through into my memories so he could share the beautiful burden of Gabe’s infancy, the trying glory of his toddlerhood, and the plethora of silliness that culminates the entirety of his life.

  Ty crinkles his brow. “What are you thinking?”

  “Deep thoughts.”

  “Feel like sharing?” His eyes soften, such a gentle look on the face of a man who lives the life of a warrior.

  “Later.” I glance at Gabe who has abandoned the rocks in favor of the pictures and Ty nods with understanding.

  “Who are these people?” Gabe points at a picture of Ty surrounded by several other men, each of them in fatigues. Ty’s the only one smiling while everyone else stares sternly outward.

  “Those are some of my friends. This is Mike, and Duke, and Graeter.” He points to each man in turn. “We went through basic together. They might as well be my brothers even though I really haven’t seen them since.” The sadness in his eyes tells a tragic tale and I’m glad when Gabe moves on to the next picture.

  “This kid looks like me,” he says, pointing to an old photo of a little boy holding hands with an even smaller girl.

  “Actually, you look like that kid.” Ty crouches beside Gabe. “That’s me,” he says with a smile. “And that right there is Paige, my sister. You met her yesterday.”

  Gabe lets loose another massive yawn. “Was that really only yesterday? It feels like forever ago.”

  “It has been a long day.” Ty straightens. “What do you say we get some food in our bellies and start thinking about bed.”

  And for the first time in the history of the world, Gabe doesn’t protest at the mention of sleep.

  TY

  Sunday morning in Hawaii is nothing short of spectacular. Sure, there’s beauty in Brookside. I’d be a fool not to acknowledge that now that I’m old enough not to resent my hometown anymore, but it’s got nothing on the sun rising high in the azure sky, sending light down on the lush landscape, the rolling hills, and the crashing sea. Everyone said getting assigned here was a once in a lifetime opportunity and they were right. Hawaii is a place of mystic beauty rivaled only by the landscapes in some of my favorite books.