Getting Over It: Sapphire Falls Book Six (32 page)

He had to swallow hard before he could reply. He really had waited a long-ass time to hear that. But for so long it had truly been about winning, about conquering his greatest challenge—Hailey Conner’s stubborn insistence that she didn’t want him. But now he knew, somewhere along the way, he’d fallen in love with her, and he wouldn’t be happy with anything less than her love in return.

“Well, it’s about damned time,” he said softly.

“I’ll see you in Ogallala,” she said.

“I’ll be there.”

They disconnected, he threw his clothes in his bag, threw his bag over his shoulder, then said goodbye to Bryan and that they’d talk soon about the details for Bryan’s move.

On his way out, Ty grabbed one last thing off the table by Bryan’s front door—a pad of sticky notes.

Hailey had never been this nervous to see Ty.

Of course, she’d never known when he was coming to see her. She could guess around the time of a family member’s birthday, a holiday or a town celebration, but she was never
sure
when she’d run into him. When she’d been going to see him, she had time to prepare…and had been looking forward to the enchiladas and zip lining too.

Now she was in a tiny hotel room in Ogallala, Nebraska. She had no idea if there were enchiladas in this town, and she wasn’t sure when Ty would get here exactly. Or what he’d be thinking or feeling when he showed up.

This wasn’t about a fun weekend fling with great food and fun activities. This was about their future.

Ty had left Sapphire Falls after finding out her secrets and quirks.

Those weren’t gone. They never would be. Would he still want to be with her?

He’d said he missed her on the phone though. And he’d immediately agreed to meet her. That had to mean something.

Hailey replayed the warmth that had rushed through her when he’d said he’d missed her and wanted to see her, and the tone in his voice when she’d told him, finally, that he was more important to her than being mayor.

She’d realized that being mayor had originally been about taking care of Sapphire Falls and keeping people at arm’s length, but over the past three years, as she’d fallen more and more in love with Ty, being mayor had turned into an excuse to keep from getting closer to him—and getting hurt.

That was still a possibility, she knew. Ty had as much to learn about being close to people and being there for them as she did. But he was worth the risk.

It was that final thought that made Hailey finish writing on the sticky notes she’d brought.

She really hoped Ty didn’t think this gesture was stupid.

She heard her phone ding with a text message and her heart leapt. It had been over three hours since she’d talked to him. She lunged for the phone on the bedside table.

“I’m here.”

Her heart hammered hard in her chest and she pulled in a long breath. Then typed, “
Get a key from the front desk and come on up. Room 302.”

She put the phone back on the table and hastily arranged herself on the bed. She felt completely exposed and a little silly and a lot cold.

But it was worth it.

She hoped.

Her palms were sweating and she was forcing long, deep breaths when she heard the sound of the keycard in the door.

A moment later, the door swung open and Ty strode into the room. He wasn’t treading carefully, he wasn’t hanging back to judge a reaction from her. He came into the room like a man on a mission.

But when he saw her on the bed, he stopped in his tracks and stared.

The door swung shut behind him.

“Hi,” she finally said.

He swallowed hard. “Holy shit.”

Okay, she’d take that reaction.

He threw his duffle bag to the side and started toward the bed. “What’s this?” His gaze was roaming over her and in his expression she saw surprise and confusion and amusement. And affection, if she wasn’t mistaken.

She took a deep breath. “I have a sticky-note fetish.”

“I see.” He put one knee on the mattress, leaned in and reached for her shoulder.

He pulled a sticky note from her skin and held it up. “I never bake cookies, but I make a lot of cookie dough,” he read out loud.

His eyes found hers again. “What is this, Hailey?”

She looked down. She was naked except for the pink sticky notes she’d stuck all over her body. She’d used up a pad of fifty—well, minus the three she’d used to make actual reminder notes to herself about other things. Each note was something else that she wanted Ty to know about her. As he pulled them off her, she would become more and more naked and exposed…literally and figuratively.

“This is a symbol,” she told him. “I use sticky notes to remind me of important things. Now I’m using them to tell you things about me. Things I haven’t told you before.”

His mouth curled and she felt her cheeks flush.

“It’s stupid, right?”

She started to get up, but Ty quickly covered her body with his. The notes crinkled between them, one came off of her hip and the corner of a couple jabbed her, but she wouldn’t have moved a muscle for anything. The look in Ty’s eyes took her breath away and glued her to the bed.

As if his two hundred and twenty pounds of pure muscle on top of her wasn’t enough.

He propped his elbows beside her ears. “This is the most un-stupid thing either of us has ever done,” he told her sincerely. “You’ve amazed me beyond words or even the ability to do anything but
be
here with you. I can barely remember how to do anything or feel anything but love for you.”

“I’m glad you—” She stopped and stared into his eyes. “You love me?”

“I love you so damn much I’m not really sure what to do about it.”

Her heart squeezed and she felt tears stinging. She’d never almost cried as much as she had in the past few weeks. “You haven’t read all the sticky notes yet. You might find something you won’t love.”

He started to shake his head but then caught himself. “Okay, maybe.
Maybe
. But that won’t mean that I’ll love
you
any less.”

She wanted to believe that. So much. And she could feel herself grab for that truth rather than pushing it away as she always had before. She was getting closer to being able to accept that.

“I still want you to read these notes,” she said.

“I want to read every one of them,” he said. “And I have a few notes I want you to read as well.”

“You do?”

He rolled to the side and pulled something from his front jean’s pocket.

It was another pad of sticky notes. These were a bright fluorescent green.

She started to sit up, but he pushed her back onto the pillows. “Relax,” he told her with a grin.

He peeled a pink note from her stomach and read, “I can’t sit still and watch a movie without doing something else at the same time.” He looked up at her. “I already knew this one actually.”

Then he tossed the pink note aside and pulled a green one from his pad. He held it up and she saw he’d written something on it.

“I remember the first time I heard you laugh.”

She looked from the note to Ty’s face.

He stuck the note where the pink one had left an open spot. “You were standing by your locker and your friend Kristie had said something I couldn’t hear, but I heard you laugh. And I thought my heart and my cock were both going to explode,” he told her.

Hailey felt her mouth drop open, then her grin spread. “What are you doing?”

“This pad of sticky notes holds thirty-three things that I remember, know and love about you,” he said. He lifted a shoulder. “It’s Bryan’s, so it wasn’t a full pad. But the idea came to me while I was packing to come here and I grabbed it on my way out. That’s why I’m late. I thought about all of these things as I drove and stopped about six times to write them all down.”

Hailey felt the tear that ran down her cheek but she couldn’t stop smiling. “That’s…amazing.”

“See, we’re pretty in sync after all this time together,” he said. He looked up and down her body. “For everything you want to tell me that you think might scare me off, I’ve got something that will assure you that won’t happen.”

She reached for her right thigh, pulled a note free and held it up. “I would have never tried zip lining if it wasn’t for the grin on your face when you talked about wanting to take me”.

She tossed the note away and put her hand against his cheek. “They’re not all things that might scare you off. They’re things I’ve never said to you that I should have.”

She thought she saw a shine in his eyes too, but Ty turned his face to press his lips against the palm of her hand before she could be sure.

“Are any of them dirty?” he asked with a grin that wiped any shine of tears from either of their eyes.

“You mean like the one that says I love the way you grab my hair when I’m giving you a blowjob?” she asked with a mischievous grin of her own.

He winked at her. “I already knew that too.”

She laughed. “Okay, but I never
told
you that.”

He looked down the length of her body. “Where’s that one?”

“You’ll have to find it,” she said with a shrug. “Along with the one that says we don’t do the reverse cowgirl enough.”

He held up his pad of sticky notes. “‘I love you in the reverse cowgirl position’ is in here too.”

She laughed and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him down for a kiss. “We really are in sync.”

Ty kissed her deeply and it was hot and sweet, like always, but this time it felt like
more
. Like everything they’d each written on the notes was being poured into the kiss.

It took them almost an hour to go over every note they’d each written—especially because Ty kept kissing the spots he revealed under the pink notes before covering them back up with a green one, and sometimes those kisses took a while.

But as they made love on top of pink and green sticky notes, Hailey realized that her only true flaw had been fighting her love for this man for so long.

“We should go straight to city hall and see the results, right?” Ty asked.

Since they’d each had a car in Ogallala, they’d driven back to Sapphire Falls separately.

She’d been relieved when he’d pulled over at the park before they’d gotten into town. They were now leaning side by side against her car. They had their hands in their pockets and were studying the edge of the river as it ran under the little white wooden bridge.

“Yeah, we probably should,” she agreed.

She didn’t really want to see the results. Either she’d won—and she wasn’t so sure how she felt about that now, strangely—or she’d lost, which wouldn’t feel so great either.

The win would be nice since she’d finally opened up about everything and it would mean that people were accepting her in spite of all of that. It would mean that they didn’t feel as though they needed a kick-ass, put-together mayor making all of their decisions for them so they wouldn’t be bothered.

But a loss would mean she could relax. No more boring reports and meetings where she’d struggle to pay attention long beyond her ability. No more second-guessing and over-worrying and stressing about being on time. That was big. She wouldn’t have to set three alarm clocks and ask Tess to call to be sure she was up. She wouldn’t have to read through her own presentations four times to be sure she hadn’t skipped any important details. She wouldn’t have to spend her day in a sterile office so she wouldn’t get distracted.

She wasn’t sure what she
would
do, but she had some ideas. Her degree was actually in marketing, and she’d done a hell of a job and enjoyed developing Sapphire Hills. Maybe she could talk to Levi Spencer, their resident millionaire, about hiring her to help him develop some business investments in the area.

But even if she went to work baking for Adrianne or helping Delaney on renovation projects or helping Hope set up her shop, Hailey could still help Ty with the pieces of local government he’d need assistance on. And that would be helping make Sapphire Falls the great place she wanted it to be, and that would be enough. The idea of being more behind the scenes was appealing.

“I’m going to be okay either way,” she told Ty honestly. She could tell he was worried about her.

“I really don’t want it,” he said. “I mean it. If I win, you have to work to impeach me or something.”

She laughed. “Oh no. It’s all yours, Mr. Mayor. But I promise to come debase your new desk as soon as I can.”

“New desk? I don’t get to keep the cherry one?”

She grinned. “You can if you want to. But you get to redo the office however you want it.”

“Well, I’m partial to that desk.” Ty sighed. “I want to start training again.”

She looked over at him. “Yeah?”

He nodded. “The chances of medaling are almost zero. I’ll probably be only a silver medalist forever, but I’ll regret it if I don’t compete in Rio,” he said. “There are other reasons to race. Even if I don’t win.”

Her heart expanded and she turned to him. “That’s amazing. And I love you and am proud of you no matter what.”