Chapter 6
Tanner
“A re you worried that Hannah isn’t going to show?” Devon asked as we sat at a small table at The Mug And Jug.
Hell, maybe I’d glanced at my watch one too many times.
My younger brother might be a cynic, but he was one of the most observant people I knew.
He could also be supportive when he wanted to be, and it was obvious that he was lending me some moral support by plopping his ass down in the chair meant for Hannah.
Devon had been here with friends, but had strolled over to talk when he’d seen me snagging a table.
I’d told Kaleb and Devon about what had happened with Hannah when we were out at Charlie’s farm.
“I think she’ll show,” I answered confidently, but it was after eight, and I could hardly blame her lateness on traffic.
A few cars moving in the same direction was considered our traffic in Crystal Fork.
“She’ll be here,” Devon said in an unusually sympathetic tone. “Hannah isn’t the type to stand someone up.”
I shot him a questioning glance. “You say that like you respect her.”
He shrugged. “I always liked and respected Hannah. I only disliked her when I thought that she dumped you. Now that I know that you were the idiot, I like and respect her again.”
“Unfortunately, I think I probably deserved to get dumped,” I admitted. I’d thought a lot about the things my mother and Hannah had said to me earlier. “What in the hell happened to us during those years, Devon? It’s one thing to work hard to achieve a goal, but it’s another when nothing else matters except reaching that goal.”
Devon didn’t throw out excuses for either of us as he replied candidly, “KTD became so successful so fast that I think all of us lost our minds. I don’t think any of us expected to become billionaires, but I don’t think it was just the money. It was the challenge to become one of the best. We wanted to prove ourselves so much that we got lost in the game.”
He was probably right.
Besting our competitors was our main goal, and our success had put us on a high that had become addictive.
Looking back now on what had happened with Hannah, I knew I’d neglected her to the point that she couldn’t deal with that kind of disrespect anymore. And fuck knew she had deserved better than that from me.
Hannah had helped me build that company I’d been obsessed with, and her support had gotten me through some rough patches.
It was funny how the mind worked sometimes. I’d convinced myself that I was working for us, for my future with Hannah. In reality, I’d become a man that I’d never wanted to be during those years. A guy I hadn’t wanted to acknowledge after I’d come to my senses.
“I can’t change what happened,” I said regretfully. “But I can make sure people don’t treat her like the villain in our story anymore.”
“What can I do to help?” Devon asked.
I shot him a surprised glance.
“What?” he asked. “I told you that I liked Hannah. Hell, I thought she was going to be my sister-in-law, and she was like family.”
“Be nice to her,” I suggested.
“That’s not hard to do,” he replied. “She’s always been nice to me. I’m not sure that one drink with you tonight is going to change the whole town’s opinion overnight, but I’ll do what I can.”
Some people might be warmer to Hannah after they saw us together, but Devon was right. That was why I was on a mission to make sure that Hannah and I were seen together a lot in the future.
I looked at my watch again, and started to sweat just a little.
“She’s never late,” I muttered.
“Maybe she’s changed,” Devon said. “It’s been years since you two have seen each other.”
It was hard for me to believe that Hannah had changed that much.
A moment later, the woman we’d been talking about finally sauntered through the door.
Christ! How was I supposed to treat Hannah Griffin like a friend? It would help if she wasn’t just as beautiful as she’d always been to me.
She was dressed casually, but she looked more sophisticated and more confident than she’d ever been before.
Hannah lit up the bar just by walking through the door, and my cock reacted instinctively, an instantaneous reaction I hadn’t had in a very long time.
That wasn’t exactly comfortable for me since she wasn’t now and hadn’t been my woman in a long time.
But it was a spontaneous reaction that I couldn’t exactly control.
Maybe my brain had been in denial and misinformed about our breakup, but my primitive instincts toward Hannah had definitely never gone away.
“She’s here,” I said, unable to stop myself from staring at Hannah as she looked around the bar.
Seeing Hannah in anything red brought back memories.
Red had always been her color, and it was sexy as fuck on her.
“Relax,” Devon said quietly. “She’s not going anywhere. She’s here to have a drink with you.”
Hell, did I really look that uptight?
Hannah’s gaze finally connected with mine, and when she smiled at me, my gut actually clenched because it reminded me of the way she used to look at me.
Fuck! I needed to get a grip.
Those days were in the past, but it was hard not to remember the times when things had been good with Hannah.
Really good.
Devon and I both stood as Hannah approached the table.
She nodded at me and looked at Devon in surprise.
“Hey, Devon,” she said in a wary voice, the look on her face uncertain, like she wasn’t sure what kind of reception she’d get from him.
“Hannah,” he said in a deep baritone and opened his arms to her.
She hesitated for a brief moment before she threw herself into my younger brother’s arms.
Everyone in my family had been close to Hannah, and she’d always adored both of my brothers like they were her own siblings.
At one time, she’d wholeheartedly jumped into my brothers’ arms without hesitation and hugged them until they could barely breathe.
Showing affection to the people she cared about had been as natural as breathing to her.
Devon wrapped his arms around Hannah’s waist and twirled her around the same way he’d done years ago. “You look good,” he said as he set her back on her feet. “Seattle was obviously good to you.”
She nodded as she let Devon go and shot him a sweet smile.
Fuck!
It was hell watching my brother cuddle up to Hannah when I knew I’d never get that same reaction from her again.
I wasn’t sure why that irritated me after all these years, but it did.
“Seattle was good,” Hannah told Devon. “But I’m back in Montana for good now.”
Devon winked at her a little flirtatiously. “Then I guess we got lucky.”
Okay, I had told Devon to be nice to Hannah, but he didn’t need to be that nice.
Hannah isn’t your woman anymore, asshole. Suck it up.
“I’m here with some friends,” Devon informed Hannah. “But I’m sure we’ll bump into each other again. We’ll catch up next time.”
I gritted my teeth as the two said goodbye to each other, and Devon wandered back to his table.
I knew my younger brother, and part of me wondered if he’d winked at Hannah just to annoy me.
Hannah settled herself into the chair that Devon had vacated.
“No live music tonight,” she observed.
The Mug And Jug had some local bands that played at the bar on weekends sometimes.
“Not tonight,” I answered. “Silas can’t always find local people to play.”
The place was quieter than usual without a live band, but the night was young. It would get rowdier as more and more people started coming in and drinking too much.
The waitress stopped at our table, and I asked for another beer on tap.
Without thinking, I asked for a strawberry daiquiri for Hannah.
“Wait,” I said to the waitress as I looked at Hannah. “Sorry. Old habit. Do you want something else?”
She shook her head. “Nope. That’s still my go-to cocktail, but thanks for asking.”
The waitress nodded and walked away to get our drinks.
“Some people are staring,” Hannah observed as she reached for a pretzel from the basket between us.
I grinned at her. “Isn’t that what we want them to do? Smile, Hannah. Look like you want to be here.”
She looked a little pensive and uncomfortable, and I hated it.
She did smile at me, and I suddenly forgot why we were really here.
Fuck! I’d missed that smile.
“You’re right,” she said as her gaze met mine. “But you know I hate being the center of attention.”
That was true. Hannah preferred to be in the background cheering other people on.
The thing was, people did notice Hannah, but she’d never really recognized that people were drawn to her.
Right now, it was impossible to ignore since some people were blatantly staring.
“Ignore them,” I insisted. “Listen to me grovel instead.”
She laughed, and the sound was like another gut punch to me. “I haven’t heard any groveling yet.”
“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely, leaning forward so she could hear every word I said. “I got so caught up in the success of KTD that I lost track of us. It wasn’t because I didn’t love you at the time, or that I needed something different. I was just an asshole.”
She held up a hand. “That’s enough. I think I just realized that groveling doesn’t suit you. I got way too used to your cocky, bossy attitude.”
I smirked. “It wouldn’t kill me to continue.”
Hell, I hadn’t even gotten started with all of the apologies I wanted to make to her.
“Nah,” she said. “You wouldn’t be the Tanner Remington I knew if you did. I think there was a small part of me that almost expected you to come storming into Seattle to get me back. You can be really hardheaded.”
I wondered if that was really what she had wanted. Had she left me to wake my ass up?
Had she hoped that I’d come after her?
“I thought you were with someone else. If I’d known that you weren’t with someone else, and that I’d been the reason you left, that’s probably exactly what would have happened. Or at least, that’s what I’d like to think would have happened. At that point, I wasn’t able to pull my head out of my ass. I’m not that guy anymore, Hannah. My brothers and I rarely travel anymore, and as you can see, we don’t work weekends. After we lost Dad, I think we all realized how short life can be, and that we needed to pay attention to the real priorities in our lives.”
She reached out and put her hand on my forearm. “I’m so sorry about your father. He was a good man.”
“He was,” I agreed. “He was full of life until the day we lost him. If we would have known, we would have spent more time with him. He was healthy, working the ranch like a man half his age one day and gone the next. I think that sudden loss jolted all of us back to reality.”
She shook her head. “I know you thought you had plenty of time. I went through the same thing with my mother when I nearly lost her. I felt like I should have been a better daughter. I could have come home to see her instead of her coming to Seattle once in a while. I should have been here for her. Things like that will eat you alive. You couldn’t have known, Tanner, and he was so proud of all of you.”
“It’s been well over four years now,” I said grimly. “I’m done beating myself up about it. I decided I just need to do better because that’s what he would have told me to do. That’s why we’re home more often and spending more time with Mom. If we have to travel, one of us goes instead of all three of us.”
“You’re a good son,” Hannah said with a wistful smile.
“But a really bad fiancé,” I joked.
“It wasn’t all bad,” she reminded me. “But I think we had more fun when you didn’t have a lot of money.”
She removed her hand from my arm, and I missed her gentle touch almost immediately.
“Speaking of those days,” I said. “Are you still riding your bike?”
Hannah loved mountain biking, and she’d introduced me to the sport when we were in New York.
Some of my best memories with Hannah were when the two of us had escaped from the city to find remote trails to bike.
In the beginning, neither of us were flush with cash.
She was still establishing her career, and my entry level job hadn’t paid me a lot of money compared to the expenses of living in New York.
Yes, my parents had money, but I’d always worked in college, and I’d been determined to make it on my own once I’d graduated from college.
I’d gotten a used mountain bike after Hannah and I had started dating, and we’d spent a lot of time on the trails exploring together.
She shook her head. “Not here. I sold my bike in Seattle before I moved. I need to find another one. But I spent as much time as I possibly could on the trails in Washington.”
The waitress dropped our drinks off at the table, and Hannah took a sip of her cocktail before she continued, “The trails in Washington were amazing.”
“I created a trail system across my property that spans Devon and Kaleb’s property, too. They use it for horse trails and hiking, but it works well for mountain bikes, too.”
My land and my brothers’ were all connected, so it was a pretty impressive trail system with a plethora of different routes through different areas.
“Considering how much land you all own, I’m sure it’s amazing,” she said enthusiastically.
“I have extra bikes. I think you should come explore those trails with me tomorrow. The weather looks good. I’d like to be friends, Hannah.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or amused by the startled and stunned look on her gorgeous face, but this was a battle that was important to me, and one that I didn’t plan on losing.