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He smirked then. “Yeah, ‘oh,’?” he echoed.
I shook my head and smiled. “I’m sorry. You just surprised me. I didn’t know you were interviewing for a job at Lawton. I thought this was the last place you wanted to be.”
He gave a short laugh and ran a hand through his hair. The way his bicep flexed as he did the small movement caught my attention. He wasn’t leaving. I would see him every day at work. This was slowly sinking in, and so was my panic.
“I didn’t intend to take the Lawton job, until… well, until you decided to stay in town. I thought I wanted to work at the larger high school offering me a position in Georgia. I could say I’m surprised by my decision, but the truth is I’m not,” he said.
I stood there staring at him at a loss for words. I wasn’t sure what my words should be, because the truth was not something I could speak right now or ever.
“Hell, it’s been five years. One would think my seeing you again wouldn’t affect me. That I would have been over you by now. I thought I was. Then I saw you and nothing had changed. The way you make me feel. My inability to think of anything other than you. My need to be near you. It’s all still right fucking there. I am connected to that football field, and coaching kids on it will mean something to me. But that is not why I took this job. I want to be here because I want that chance now. The one we were too young to take. I want to prove to you I’m not that kid anymore that you can’t trust. The one whose life had screwed him up.” He took a step toward me, and his hand reached out and brushed mine.
“My last words to you five years ago were ‘You’ll always be the one.’ I didn’t know then how true they were. But they are. I hadn’t wanted to say good-bye to you because it sounded so fucking final. I couldn’t do it. Deep down I knew then one day I would get that chance. I needed to run from this place and the pain here. You needed to chase your dreams and go your way. But we are both back. We did those things, and we are back where it all began. You don’t have to say anything today. I just needed to tell you.” He stepped back again, and then I watched as he turned to leave.
He was leaving? After all that? I hadn’t even had achance to say anything. Although I had needed a moment to get my thoughts together and accept that this was real. It was happening. I wasn’t daydreaming.
“Yes,” I blurted out. “I want that.” I said the words while his back was turned for fear I would lose the nerve when he looked at me again.
He turned back around, and the smile on his face made his eyes twinkle. I was expecting him to respond, but he took three long strides toward me, then his massive hands cupped my face just as he lowered his head. “You might be a little late to graduation,” he whispered, then his lips touched mine and the world faded away.
The boy I had loved from afar for years, and then witnessed his darkest moment and fallen in love with, had never left my heart. I knew loving the man he had become would be too easy. Life has a funny way of coming full circle even when you are determined to go another path. I was thankful for fate. Because fate had brought me home. To Lawton, to my family, and to the man I was meant to love.
NASH AND TALLULAH
“Even after you destroyed me, all I wanted was you. Why can’t I get over you?”
CHAPTER ONE
NASH
Most of the time, I kept myself busy. It helped distract me. Problem was I needed fucking distracting every damn day. This should have gotten easier. Isn’t there a point when someone heals from heartbreak? When would I stop loving Tallulah? It was fucking time. I had suffered long enough.
I knew once everyone was back in town it was going to be an adjustment. Once again, life after Tallulah screwing with me. She had become a part of us. Everything in my life she had fit into so perfectly. One year wasn’t enough time to get over that, I guess. At least not for me.
Asa moved in to my biggest guest bedroom yesterday. Gunner and Willa were taking the other guest bedroomwhile they were in town. Seeing them together wasn’t easy, but seeing any happy couple was hard. It reminded me of all I had lost.
The back door opened, and Asa stepped out with a cup of coffee in his hand.
“Slept late,” I said, raising my eyebrows.
He grinned, then shrugged. “Five years, man. Five fucking long years. We had some catching up to do.”
I didn’t need the details on what that catching up entailed. My sex life was nonexistent. “I’m surprised you came back last night.”
He shrugged. “I’d have stayed, but I don’t want to rush her. I came back, made a life decision based on her, and then went and bluntly told her she was it for me. Then we…” He paused and cut his eyes in my direction. “Uh, well, you know.”
Yeah, I knew. I nodded.
A car door slammed, and we both turned our heads to see Ryker coming around the corner of the house. He looked like a man on a mission. I could see the tension in his shoulders, and I braced myself. Something was up.
Ryker took the steps up to the back porch two at a time. When he got to the top, he stopped and looked at me shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans, then sighed heavily. “She’s here, man. She’s in fucking Lawton.”
I didn’t have to ask him who. There was only one “she” that would affect me. I tried to act as if I didn’t care when my chest felt like it was being twisted inside. With a shrug, I picked up my bottle of water and took a drink. “Her mom lives here,” I replied.
I didn’t miss the concerned look between Asa and Ryker. They both knew how I felt about Tallulah. Asa didn’t know the details of the breakup, but Ryker did. I’d lost my damn mind there for a while. Ryker had been the one to pull me back when I tried like hell to destroy myself. Without him, I’d have probably lost my damn job or ended up in jail, or worse, I’d be dead.
“Who told you?” I asked him, wishing I didn’t care.
“West called me. Maggie ran into her this morning at the Drip,” he said.
