Chapter 10
Ten
“I appreciate you letting me set up here today. Ty’s probably being overcautious, but I’m still nervy about being by myself.”
Ivy shut the door behind Paisley and bent to scrub Duke’s ears. “It’s no problem. Where better to hang out and write than a house with two other writers? Besides, now I can ask all my nosy questions.”
“I knew that interrogation was coming.” A part of her was glad of it. She had some of her own questions, and she didn’t think she could ask Ty. “At least ply me with coffee first.”
Ivy led the way toward the kitchen. “I will enjoy the second-hand coffee fumes.”
“I thought pregnant women could have one cup a day?”
“Doc says yes. Baby says, Ha ha ha ha! No! I’m considering an espresso-scented candle.”
“That might just make me sadder. Where’s Harrison?”
“Already in the writing cave.” Ivy pulled out a couple of mugs and gestured to the coffee pot before turning on the kettle for herself. “He still keeps early hours after all that time in the Army. He’s usually had a run, breakfast, and his first hit of caffeine by the time I surface.”
Grateful she didn’t even have to wait for it to brew, Paisley poured herself a cup. “Ty was a morning person even before the Army. I’m reasonably sure that means he’s from another planet. But he uses those hours to my benefit, so I can’t really argue.”
“Oh really?”
Paisley laughed. “I didn’t mean that. Although yeah.
” She definitely couldn’t argue with a sexy start to her morning, even if it meant she’d be jonesing for a nap by two.
“He took me to school back in the day, and he’d always bring me coffee in a travel mug.
And on Mondays, he’d stop and pick up donut holes so the morning would suck less. ”
“That’s really sweet. I have to admit, I’m having a hard time picturing high school Ty. The version I’ve known has always seemed…stony and taciturn.”
“He was less serious, but still kind of quiet until you pulled him out of his shell, which I was really good at.” Paisley sipped, smiling as much at the memory as the hit of delicious caffeine.
“He had a chivalrous bent, even then. It’s how we met, actually.
I was the new girl in school that year. My parents were big into throwing me into the deep end to make friends, so I was at the Homecoming Dance alone, feeling awkward as hell.
This asshole started hassling me, and Ty shows up with punch, pretending to be my boyfriend.
So, I did what any red-blooded girl would do in that situation. ”
“Played along.”
“I kissed him. At which point we both forgot about the asshole. It was a damned miracle Ty didn’t spill the punch all over us both because I shocked the hell out of him.”
“Wow. What happened to the asshole?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t see anybody else after that because I’d just been struck by lightning.
Ty’s hair was practically smoking, so I knew I wasn’t alone in that.
I told him he was my hero and that was more or less it.
We were just together after that. Back then I thought we always would be.
He was my first love, and I couldn’t ever imagine being with anyone else.
I’d picked right, straight out of the gate. ”
Ivy joined her at the counter with a cup of tea. “I’m starting to understand how you became a romance writer.”
“It was really great fodder for it, that’s for sure.
” But it hadn’t stayed that way. “After we graduated, I thought we had the whole summer ahead of us before we headed off to college. Garrett and Bethany got engaged, which was a shock to no one. They’d been together since the fourth grade.
So, one night, Ty picks me up and takes me down to our spot by the river.
There was this romantic picnic and Ty starts talking about the future and how much he loves me.
” Even remembering, Paisley’s heart began to thrum with anticipation.
“Any second, I was expecting him to get down on one knee and propose. And instead, he tells me he and Garrett have enlisted and that they’re aiming for Special Forces.
I thought I’d misheard him. We were leaving for college in two months.
What the hell was he talking about? He went off on this whole tangent about duty.
I didn’t understand it. In my world there was absolutely nothing more important than love.
It turned out this had been in discussion for months, and he hadn’t said a word to me. ”
“Ouch! Was all the romance supposed to soften the blow?”
“He wanted to make it clear that making the decision to end things wasn’t because he didn’t care about me, which wasn’t at all what it felt like at the time. And he wanted to talk me into staying together until it was time for him to go, making the most of the time we had left.”
“Was that the end right there, or did you get your summer?”
“I held on. Did everything in my power to change his mind. In the end, nothing stopped him from getting on that bus.”
“That must have been awful having him choose the Army over you.”
“It was devastating. But it wasn’t the Army he chose over me.
It was Garrett. He’s the only one Ty loved more than me.
And I get it. They were brothers from diapers.
Nothing was more important to him than having Garrett’s back.
Which isn’t to say he didn’t feel he had a duty to country, but I don’t think it would have been strong enough to make him enlist on his own. ”
“Did you resent Garrett for that?”
“No. He didn’t make Ty choose.”
“He could have chosen to try to make it work.”
“We wouldn’t have made it. Ty understood that before I did.
He made the right call for us under the circumstances.
I would have made a lousy military wife.
Which is a lot easier to say with the wisdom of years.
But it didn’t make it suck any less or any easier to let him go.
I grieved for a really, really long time. ”
“And so, he became your hero archetype.”
Paisley lifted her mug in a toast. “Got it in one.”
“This explains so much about your work.”
“I love me some second chance romance.”
“Seems like you’ve got one. How did that happen anyway?”
“In a moment of glorious symmetry that I couldn’t have plotted better myself, there was your asshole cousin at your reception, and Ty swept in with the exact same ploy, pretending to be my date.”
Chin in hands, green eyes sparkling, Ivy grinned. “Did you kiss him again?”
“I did.”
“And that, it seems, is the end of that. Again.”
“Maybe.”
“You two give off fireworks when you’re in a room together. Why the lack of confidence?”
“We started out doing this whole casual thing.”
Ivy snorted. “There is nothing casual about the way that man looks at you.”
“I know. But this stalker situation pushed him when I don’t know if he was ready to be pushed. I’m deathly afraid that this is Speed Syndrome.”
“It’s what now?”
“Like you’re afraid, when the bus stops, everything will go kablooey?” Harrison supplied as he stepped into the kitchen and made straight for the coffee pot.
“Yes, exactly. And please, let’s educate your wife about one of Keanu Reeves’ best roles.”
“It’s not her fault. She was a toddler when that came out.”
Paisley winced. “I keep forgetting you’re so much younger than me.”
“I think I understand the concept well enough. You think when the threat to you is gone, he’ll balk.”
“It’s what I’m afraid of. This whole situation, combined with our history, has escalated things between us. And I’m not convinced that’s a good thing.”
Harrison and Ivy exchanged one of those married-people looks that told Paisley this was a topic they’d discussed.
“I have a different theory,” Ivy offered.
“By all means, enlighten me.”
“Do you know that before the last few days, I’ve never seen Ty smile?”
She’d heard the jokes but hadn’t thought much about it. “That wasn’t just Sebastian giving him shit?”
“No. I didn’t meet him until he was already out of the service, after Garrett’s death. He took it incredibly hard, as you’d expect.”
“They were brothers, in every way that mattered,” Paisley murmured. “I’ve still got friends back home, so I knew Garrett had died, but haven’t asked Ty about it. I’m kind of afraid to. How bad was it?”
Harrison kicked back against the counter with a fresh cup of coffee. “Depression. PTSD. Suicide watch. He gave me a helluva shiner when I stopped him from eating a bullet.”
She covered her mouth, already feeling tears begin to fall at the thought of it. So much pain and grief. No matter the circumstances, he’d blame himself because protecting Garrett was the whole reason he’d gone in. This was what he’d meant by wounds that would never heal.
“He shut himself off from everything and almost everyone. Getting him into law enforcement helped. It gave him a new purpose, and that brought him back from the brink. But he hasn’t really been living.
Everything but the job has been temporary.
You’ve seen his place. He could move out tomorrow and you’d never even know he was there. ”
Ivy picked up the thread. “But you broke through all of that. And knowing what I do now, I think you’re maybe the only one who could shake him out of that inertia.”
“Me? Why?”
“There’s this whole transition period when you get out of military service,” Harrison explained, “trying to figure out how the hell to be part of the civilian world. We’ve all been through some measure of it, wondering where we fit.
For Rangers in particular, we’re accustomed to being part of a tight team, to knowing those men have our six.
Being out, without that backup, it’s easy to feel kind of adrift, even when leaving was a choice.
With Garrett and Ty being a unit well before they joined up, his has just been a thousand times worse. ”