Getting Over It: Sapphire Falls Book Six (18 page)

And the worry intensified, though he couldn’t fully explain why.

Hailey wasn’t soft. Not really. He loved
making
her soft and needy and submissive to him. But in general, she was tough.
He
made her soft. Not…the world. Or her lack of confidence. Or her stepmother. Or anything else.

At least, that’s what he liked to believe.
He
was the only one with that power.
He
knew that side of her that no one else got to see because he was special, because she’d let him close. And he used it for her good. Not to hurt her like her stepmom and dad had, but to help her relax, let go, to take a break from her demanding job.

“Hail—”

“Let me finish,” she said.

Ty shut his mouth and motioned for her to go on. Even as he felt his gut knotting and his hands itching to grab her and shake her and insist that she was everything he’d always believed she was.

But maybe he needed to hear the rest of this.

“I’m good at two things, Ty.” She held up two fingers. “Bossing people around and looking good. I figured out early on that what people really want is someone who will tell them what to do with confidence. That’s all a leader really needs—confidence. If you act like your idea is the best one ever, people will believe you because
they
don’t have the confidence. People want to be led. All I’ve had to do is be the one willing to stand at the front of the pack.”

“You think that people like to be led around like dogs on leashes?” he asked with a scowl.

“No. But I do believe that me being bitchy and in control makes them feel secure. I won’t take crap from them, but I also won’t take crap from the people working for the city or companies coming into town or the state when it comes to things like the highway expansion or allocating funds and resources.”

Ty opened his mouth, but she wasn’t done.

“People want to live in a quiet, friendly, clean, safe town,” she went on. “They want to raise their kids and earn enough money to cover what they need and be taken care of when they’re sick or when bad things happen. But they don’t want to worry about the budget or legal aspects of keeping things quiet and friendly and clean and safe and they don’t want to have to deal with the issues when things
aren’t
quiet and friendly and clean and safe. They want someone else to do it for them. And I’ve convinced them that I’m the one. I don’t want to mess that up.”

“And you live in constant fear that they’re going to find out that you supposedly don’t know what you’re doing,” Ty said. And he fell a little more in love with her even as she was telling him a bunch of stuff he did not want to hear.

She hugged herself, looking sad.

He hated that. Even if they were arguing, he wanted her adamant and pissed off rather than sad and unsure.

“People like it when someone takes the hard decisions on for them,” she said. “And they like it when someone tells them everything will be okay, and they like it when they can relax and let go of the worry and trust that someone has their best interests at heart. They don’t really want me to be friendly and approachable.” She swallowed. “Like how I feel with you.”

Those words rocked through him and he had to work to stay where he was and let her go on.

“I love the freedom that comes from trusting you and letting you be in charge of making things good for me.” She took a deep breath. “That’s what I try to do for Sapphire Falls. I want them to relax and know that I’ll take care of them and make life good here.”

“And you do that,” he finally said gruffly. “You’ve taken care of the town for a long time.”

“I have. I love this town. Being mayor is the only thing I’ve done that I’m truly proud of. But I’ve gotten everything in my life because I’m pretty and/or because I’m bitchy and no one wants to cross me. If I put the right people in the right positions around me, things get done and life is good and no one cares that I’m not friendly or warm. As long as things are good for them personally, people don’t necessarily have to like their leaders.” She shrugged. “It’s worked all my life.”

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t know
what
to say.

“I told you this because I trust you,” she said quietly, her eyes begging him to understand. “I’m not good at anything but making people
believe
I’m good at things. I can’t let everyone find out that I’m basically the Wizard of Oz behind my curtain. They’re happy things are good here, so I don’t feel guilty. But if they get too close, they’ll see the emeralds in this Emerald City are just rocks painted green.”

Another long moment stretched in complete silence.

Then Ty said, “Sapphires. Our city is made up of sapphires.”

She shrugged. “Okay, the rocks are painted blue.” She took a deep breath. “Being mayor is all I have, all that’s important to me, and now you’re going to take it all way,” she said. “It’s hard keeping the façade going. Up against someone else… I don’t know if I can.”

He gritted his teeth at the all-that’s-important-to-me bit. Then he gritted his teeth against her not knowing if she could keep fooling everyone.

Ty ran a hand through his hair. “So don’t keep it up. It’s not a façade anyway. I mean, maybe you don’t… Shit.” He sighed. “I don’t know what I mean.”

He stood looking at her, realizing that maybe, just maybe, he’d fucked this up.

“It is a façade, Ty,” she said quietly. “I’m bitchy. But I’m not kick-ass.”

He took in the long silky hair that he knew curled into gorgeous waves if she let it air dry. He catalogued the straight, fitted skirt that showed off legs he’d had propped on his lap under a warm, fuzzy blanket in front of the fireplace a dozen times. He noted the heels that gave her three extra inches and made her arches scream—and he knew the spot to dig his thumb to make her moan. He studied the flawless makeup that seemed like a mask over the face that he’d seen relaxed in sleep and lit up with amusement and open with passion and vulnerability.

And he realized that he didn’t get to see the straight hair, makeup, skirts and heels in Denver.

He’d also never seen her barefoot or with nothing but lip gloss on, her hair pulled up into a messy bun—or her vulnerable—inside these city limits.

But maybe that wasn’t about him. Maybe it wasn’t that he’d magically chipped through the ice. Maybe…she really wasn’t kick-ass.

Instantly, he rejected that idea. She was. She just didn’t know it.

“So fight me,” he finally said.

She frowned. “What?”

“Fight me for mayor,” he said with more conviction as the realization of what he needed to do sank in. “You love this so much, you want it so bad, run a campaign that will beat me. Don’t fool anyone. Don’t put on a show. Be yourself and win this damned thing.”

“Oh, sure, it’s that simple.”

Clearly, Hailey wanted to be mayor. Clearly, she was the best one to
be
the mayor. But she was also already convinced that she’d be number two. Again.

Well, the town needed to see her fight. They needed to see her passion.

And Hailey needed to fight.

She had to know that when it came to something important, she could, and would, fight for it. For real. Not intimidate people or fool people into it. She had to be herself. And win.

“If you want it, come and get it,” he said.

For a second, he thought she might cry. Or laugh. Or slap him.

But after several long seconds, he finally saw what he’d been waiting for—she lifted her chin and looked him in the eye. “You want to fight with me, Ty Bennett? You got it.”

He wanted to blow out a long, relieved breath, but instead, he nodded and said, “I’m not going to go easy on you.”

Now he realized he couldn’t. He’d been intending to joke his way through the campaign. He’d planned to make it one big party. But he did love Hailey and he knew she was a fighter.

He just had to prove it to her.

“Oh, you better bring it,” she told him.

She was faking her bravado right now. He could tell. But at least she was saying it. Feeling it would come later.

He knew about competition. He knew that having a worthy opponent made him work harder. He liked racing the best guys in the world because it made
him
give more, try harder, push.

So he’d make her work for it. She needed that. And the town deserved it. They deserved to know how damned much their mayor loved them. Had always loved them.

All at once, this had come to be about a lot more than making sure Hailey felt important and respected and like number one for a change. Now it was about making sure Hailey knew that she actually
was
the woman he’d been in love with all these years.

“I’m going to bring it. But, babe,” he said, stepping forward and putting his hands on her upper arms again. “I do love making you
soft
.”

She gave him a smile, then shrugged out of his hold and stepped back. “Glad you enjoyed it.”

He sighed and dropped his hands. “Because it’s over until the election is over, right?”

“You got it.”

Yeah. Another thing he hadn’t totally thought through.

She turned on her heel and started for the bakery and her campaign kick-off party. Ty fell into step beside her.

“I find it funny,” she said conversationally when they were about halfway there. “That you really thought you were going to run against me and keep getting laid.”

“Well, turns out I might be a little stupid after all,” he said.

She didn’t reply to that.

She didn’t really need to.

Chapter Six

Ty had been edgy the rest of the night after Hailey’s party at the bakery.

He’d gone over for a while, in the spirit of friendly competition. But his mood had definitely been stifled compared to how he’d felt and acted at the Come Again.

If anyone noticed, they’d probably chalked it up to him being embarrassed about how Hailey had put him in his place.

Instead, he had been dealing with the reality that he was kind of a dumbass and that he was in love with a woman who wasn’t really who he’d thought she was.

Or at least she didn’t think she was.

Or something.

Ty tried to smile and make small talk with his family around his mother’s dining room table. They were having a big family lunch since TJ and his new girlfriend, Hope, had just gotten back from a trip to Arizona to retrieve some of Hope’s belongings for her move to Sapphire Falls.

Oh, and to celebrate Ty running for mayor.

Yeah, yippee.

Last night, the idea of taking Hailey on in the campaign and election had seemed like the right thing to do. Initially, he’d wanted to showcase what a great leader she was and give her some competition so when she won, she would feel like the gold medalist of Sapphire Falls.

Then, it had become a mission to help her see that she really was the tough, sharp fighter that he’d been crazy about since tenth grade.

And now, sitting at his mother’s table for lunch, sleep deprived and confused and worried about Hailey and worried that he was truly fucking everything up for her and for their relationship, he didn’t really know what he was doing.

That bugged the shit out of him.

He always knew what he was doing. He always had a plan, a goal, something he was working on and toward.

What was he working toward here?

Throwing an election. To win over a girl. Who would have won for sure if he’d just stayed out of it. And who he’d thought he already had.

Now he wasn’t sure he had anything. Throwing a race, of any kind, went against everything he knew. The girl wasn’t a fan of his training program idea. He didn’t have a solid knee, which meant everything he’d done since the past Olympics, where he’d come in
second
, didn’t matter. The girl was mad at him. And he was second place to her job and this election.

He really fucking hated coming in second.

Ty took a long drink of the iced tea his mother had refilled and told himself again that he was doing the right thing running against her. Hailey needed to see what she was made of.

But maybe
he
needed to see what she was made of too.

And he felt like a giant jackass thinking that.

He either loved her or he didn’t, right? That’s how it worked. You loved a person, no matter their flaws or their insecurities.

But surely he got some slack for having reservations considering he hadn’t even known she had insecurities.

Fuck.

He looked across the Sunday dinner table at TJ leaning in to whisper in Hope’s ear and then glanced over to see Tucker sharing a grin with his fiancé, Delaney, and Ty knew that, no, the truth was he was a jackass.

It was incredibly shallow of him, but he’d had no idea that Hailey had all of…
that
…hiding underneath all of her beautiful blonde bitchiness.

Dammit.

Maybe he should have known.

He’d been watching her for years. He’d been
sleeping with her
for three and a half. He’d known there was a reason she was a different person in Sapphire Falls than she was with him in Denver. But he’d thought he’d known that reason—she liked to be in charge in Sapphire Falls and she liked having him take over when they were in Denver. It really had seemed that simple to him, and he’d been okay with it. He liked simple. He’d liked thinking he knew her.