“No, I’m being realistic,” I say quietly, ignoring the fact that my throat is starting to burn. “You need to go back to Montana, and I need to get back to my life here.”
“All right.” He crosses his arms over his chest and leans back like he’s settling in. “If you’re set on doing this, I want you to give me one good reason why I should walk away.”
I stare at him, my mind scrambling for something, anything, but it’s difficult, especially when I thought he would just leave.
“I’m waiting.”
“You eat meat,” I blurt out, the first thing that comes to mind, and he laughs.
No, he doesn’t just laugh. His head falls back on his shoulders and he roars his amusement.
“This is not funny.”
“Yes, it is.” He shakes his head, still chuckling. “Okay, so what else?”
What else? There’s nothing else, and that was hard enough to come up with. “You said one thing.”
“Your one thing was lame, so unless you can come up with something else, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Why are you making this so difficult?” I stomp my foot like I’m a three-year-old not getting her way, and he grins.
“Because what we have is worth it, and I know you’ll end up regretting ending things about five minutes after I walk out the door, because you’re in love with me.”
I gasp and take a step back. “I don’t love you.”
“You’re really on a roll tonight. First, you try to break up with me, then you lie to my face.” He makes a tsk-tsk sound while shaking his finger back and forth. “You love me, Cybil, and just because you’re not willing to admit it out loud doesn’t make it any less true.” His arms fall to his sides, and he steps toward me. “We’re not breaking up, and I’m not going anywhere unless you’re going with me.”
“Tanner.” Tears cloud my vision as he wraps his hand around the side of my neck, the other around my hip. “You . . .” I swallow hard. “You giving up your dream because of me is too heavy a weight for me to carry around on my shoulders, especially when we hardly know each other.”
“Sunshine, if I don’t have you, none of the other shit will even matter, and yeah, we are still getting to know each other, but time isn’t going to change how I feel about you,” he says gently, urging me closer until my body is pressed against his. “I love that you want to protect me, but I know what I want and what I need.” Both his hands grasp my face as he cups my jaw. “We have enough to deal with, and a lot of shit to figure out, so let’s not make things more complicated than they already are by fighting.”
“I need you to talk to me about stuff. If this is going to work, we need to be honest with each other, even when it’s stuff we don’t want to talk about.”
“I can do that.”
“Okay,” I say quietly, and he leans down, pressing his lips to mine in a soft, sweet kiss. When he pulls back, he studies me for a long moment, then rests his forehead against mine.
“I love you, sunshine.”
My breath catches while my hands latch onto the front of his shirt.
“I know a lot has happened. I know this is all new, but everything’s going to be all right as long as we trust each other,” he tells me gently.
“I just don’t want you to end up hating me,” I admit, dropping my eyes from his.
“Look at me, Cybil,” he urges, using his thumbs to lift my chin. “I’m not going to hate you, and shit with Blake has been brewing for a while, and that shit has nothing to do with you.”
“What does that mean?” I wait, expecting him to blow off my question or to distract me like he’s done before, so I’m shocked when he doesn’t.
“He thinks working himself to death will earn his dad’s respect.” His jaw clenches. “He doesn’t realize the reason his dad is pissed at him all the time isn’t because he’s not good enough but because he’s disappointed Blake’s forgotten what’s actually important in life.” He lets out a deep breath.
“Over the last couple of years, things with him have gotten progressively worse. He’s forgotten what we fought for while we were in the military and why we built Live Life to begin with. We didn’t do it for the money. We did it because we wanted to make a difference. We wanted to help people realize their potential, to show them how strong they are, and to build bonds like the one we share.” His voice drops. “We wanted to do something that made us feel like we were still giving back. He might have forgotten that, but I haven’t, and neither has Maverick.”
Hearing that, I want to shake Blake myself. “Have you talked to him? I mean, I know it’s not exactly normal protocol for men to use more than a few words at a time.” He smirks as I add, “But have you ever told him how you feel?”
“Not in so many words.” He laughs when I roll my eyes. “Besides, it doesn’t matter anymore. You’re here. Your family and friends are here, and I know you won’t want to move.”
“You know that, do you?” I raise a brow.
“You wanna move to Montana?” he asks, and my heart starts to speed up. The idea of leaving Jade, Maisie, and Bernard makes me feel slightly nauseous, but the truth is I would move to be with him.
“No,” I say, and he tries to hide his disappointment. “Not right now with everything that happened to Maisie, but once I know she’s going to be okay, yes. Absolutely.”
“Really?”
“I love your house.”
“And?”
“And what?” I frown.
“And I love you.”
“Thanks.” I press my lips together to keep from laughing, then scream and take off in a run, shrieking as he chases me down the hall and into my room.
“Trapped with nowhere to go.” He closes the door and stands in front of it. “I’m not letting you leave this room until I hear you say ‘I love you, Tanner.’” He stalks toward me, then catches me around the waist when I attempt to get across the bed.
“Tanner,” I breathe as his weight settles between my legs.
“Yeah, sunshine?” His lips brush mine.
“Never mind,” I gasp as he kisses me.
And sometime later, after he’s pushed me to the edge and fallen over with me, I wrap my arms around him and whisper “I love you” against his ear, thankful he didn’t let me give up on us.
Chapter 22
TANNER
With Cybil still asleep after I’ve taken a shower, I quietly leave the bedroom, head down the hall to the kitchen, and flip on the coffeepot before going to the living room to turn on the news. I start to take a seat on the couch, but my cell phone buzzes on the counter. I grab it and see a text from Blake, asking me to call him.
After Cybil tried to break up with me last night because of this situation with him, I’m not feeling very amicable, but at the end of the day, he’s still my brother. Not sure how this call will go, I take my phone with me outside in case I lose my shit like I have the last couple of times we’ve spoken. I clear the last step, head across the grass to the floating deck that’s kitty-corner to the edge of the trailer, and take a seat at the table situated near the gas grill. After dialing Blake back, I listen to the phone ring.