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“You need to call Lauren,” he said. “She’s upset.”
“I don’t know where my phone is right now,” Sage said.
“I’ll call it.” Ty tapped a couple of times to do that, but Sage said, “It won’t do any good. I keep it on silent at work, and I didn’t turn it back on.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” He turned to face her. “I know you want room to grow. Room to be yourself, and get chickens, and eat dinner alone on the deck. But I feel like…I feel like you’d rather be alone than be with people.”
Sage rifled through her purse, but she didn’t find her phone. She looked up. “I like being with people too.”
“On your terms,” he said.
“That’s usually how everyone operates.” She huffed and added, “I’m going to go check my car.” She left, and Gypsy came over to Ty. He stroked the dog’s head absently, watching the front door.
Sage finally came back inside, wiping her nose and saying, “Yes, Lauren, I’m fine. I swear. I just…I don’t know what happened.” She turned to close the door, and she kept her back to Ty. Her voice lowered, so he wasn’t sure what she said to Lauren.
He had a feeling he was going to say something he’d regret later if he stayed, so he made sure he had his phone, and he approached Sage. “I’m going to go back to the beach,” he said. He swept a kiss along her cheek and walked outside.
He’d made it all the way to his SUV before Sage called, “Ty, wait.” She came running toward him, her purse over her shoulder. “Can I go to the beach with you?”
He hesitated, and not because he’d have to drive her all the way across the island when the evening ended. Then drive himself back home. “Do you think that’s the best idea?”
“Lauren says everyone wants to see me.” She hesitated near the hood of his car. “I don’t mean to be distant, Ty. I don’t mean to be, I swear. I…” She flapped her arms up in frustration and let them fall back to her sides.
“You do realize you’ve been distant since moving in here, right?”
“We still see each other a lot. You’re working a lot. So am I.”
“It’s more than that, Sage,” he said, though he couldn’t articulate it any further. “I don’t want to talk about it tonight. I just want to get back to the beach.”
She took a couple of steps toward him. “That surprises me a little. You aren’t really the beach party type.”
He put his hand on her hip, unable to stop himself. “You’re not the only one who can change,” he said. “I’m friends with Grant, and this is hisonlydaughter’sgraduationparty.”
She ran her hand up his chest. “Are you going to be mad at me for very long?”
“I don’t know,” he said, though he wasn’t upset anymore. “Can we talk about it another time?”
She nodded, some measure of relief moving through her expression. “Yeah, let’s get back to the party.”
He said nothing about how she couldn’t go back to something she’d never been at in the first place. Ty also knew that he’d lose her attention the moment they arrived on the beach, because her Supper Club friends would descend on her, and he’d be left to take a bottle of beer from Grant, sit in the sand, and stare at the firelight flickering off the waves in the distance.
Honestly, it was better than the scenarios that had been running through his head on the drive here. His muscles were still bunched and tense, and he didn’t know how to get himself to calm down.
Sage is okay, he told himself. He hadn’t known until now that his imagination could be so vivid. Call up such horrific things.
He got behind the wheel and waited for Sage to get in the passenger seat. Ty honestly wasn’t sure how to survive this drive, but he took a deep breath and started the ignition. Thankfully, he’d been driving for a great many years, and it didn’t take many brain cells.
“I thought maybe you’d been in a car accident,” he said as they crossed the bridge back to the island. “Then, your car was here, and I thoughtmaybe she fell down the stairs.What am I going to find inside the house? Can I just go in?It was—it was awful.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“I don’t want your new ‘waterfront way’ to exclude me,” he said. “I’m trying to give you the space you need, and I want you to have everything you’ve ever wanted. But I’m afraid that I’ve made it too easy for you to—to…to something.”
“Fly,” she said.
The perfect word for what Sage wanted. How did he catch a bird who wanted to fly away?
“You can fly,” he said, shoving down the impatience and slight irritation. He wasn’t sure if he was upset with himself for starting to fall for yet another woman who didn’t want him, or with her for starting something with him when he didn’t fit into her plans.
