Getting His Way: Sapphire Falls Book Seven (28 page)

Tess pressed up the hill. She could see the top and she was moving well.

She was really doing it—she was running a half marathon in Colorado. Like she’d always dreamed.

She kept Bryan’s voice in her head as she pumped her arms and legs, determined to finish the hill strong.
You know what this takes. You’re completely prepared. This is all you. You’ve got this.

And suddenly she was at the top. That was the hardest hill of the run, the biggest incline, and she’d just finished it. Happiness burst in her chest, and she knew she was grinning stupidly. But surely she wasn’t the first or last runner to pass that point and want to leap for joy—if their muscles weren’t burning and their lungs weren’t screaming.

Leaping could come later, she decided.

Then she turned the corner. And pulled up short.

The gray rocky mountainside rose on her left, but the tree line that had been on her right suddenly broke here, and the edge of the road seemed to drop off suddenly into nothing but clear mountain air right below it.

But she wasn’t looking right below it. She was looking out over the mountain range that rose up majestically and filled the view as far as she could see.

The rocky and jagged mountainsides were dotted with the deep green points of evergreens that faded to lighter green and then to gray and then white, where snow capped the peaks. The sun shone down between the puffy white clouds, breaking up the shadows on the mountains into varying shades of gray.

Tess moved to the edge of the road to tentatively look down. A girl who’d grown up in Nebraska had only been up off the ground like this if she climbed to the top of the water tower.

There was a low fence barricade on the edge of the road, and Tess expected to see nothing but jagged rocks below her. But instead, the mountain sloped very gently, and she found the ground continued immediately below the barricade for at least another twenty feet before it really dropped off.

There was a flat rock about five feet from the edge. The view from there had to be spectacular.

Tess looked up the road she was supposed to be running. The finish line was still a little over seven miles away. She had to get back on pace if she wanted to finish with a decent enough time to email to Jake Elliot.

But then she looked back at the view before her.

And she knew she wasn’t finishing this race.

She’d just gotten what she’d come for.

She’d run in the mountains of Colorado. She knew she could finish. But finishing wasn’t nearly as important as taking in this view and
being
in this view for a while.

With that thought, she threw a leg over the barricade and carefully made her way to the rock. The incline was slight and the ground not as uneven as she’d expected. She crawled up onto the rock and looked out over the Rocky Mountains.

She took a deep breath of mountain air, lifted her face to the sun and realized that
this
was what this run was about. To get to this spot. On her own. For herself.

This wasn’t about Bryan. He’d never even know she’d done this. This wasn’t about Jake or getting a trainer or improving her time or even finishing her first half marathon.

It was about finding a spot in the world that could only be appreciated by getting to it all by herself, on her own two legs, and only because she wanted to.

She’d done that.

She wasn’t sure how long she sat on that rock just looking and breathing and feeling and thinking. No other runners had passed by the spot in several minutes when she finally checked her watch.

No way
.

Tess jumped to her feet. The race had
ended
some time ago. Even the slowest runner would have finished at least fifteen minutes ago. She was six miles from the start and seven from the finish and all she had were her shoes and cell phone.

“Tess?”

She froze.

It couldn’t be.

She turned slowly to find that Bryan was, indeed, coming toward her from a car parked along the side of the road. She could see someone was still sitting in the driver’s seat, but Bryan was making his way toward her by himself, a crutch under each arm and a frown on his gorgeous face.

“
Bryan?
”

“Jesus, girl, I’ve been waiting down there forever. The last runner—besides you—crossed the line like twenty minutes ago. I was worried.”

He’d been waiting for her?

Bryan was here. And he’d been waiting for her. Tess let that sink in.

Wow, she liked that.

“Sorry, I…” She turned back to the view and waved a hand in the direction of the mountains and trees. “I got waylaid.”

He nodded from where he stood just off the pavement, watching her. “Okay. So you’re…fine?”

She sighed. Bryan was here. She’d figured out why she was running and that she could keep doing it without being in Colorado with Jake. She’d seen the mountains. Yeah, she was better than fine. “I’m good. I’ve figured some stuff out.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Like that I
really
like that you’re here. And I really like that you were waiting for me at the end.”

“It was going to be a really romantic, amazing moment,” he said with a nod. “I even had flowers.”

She smiled. “You know I don’t want flowers.”

“Yeah, but what you
do
want, I can’t do at the finish line of a half marathon in front of a crowd of people.”

She giggled. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“I couldn’t be anywhere else. How god-like would I be if I didn’t surprise the love of my life by being there for one of her biggest moments?”

She went completely still, then turned more fully toward him. “I’m the love of your life?”

“Yeah,” he said with a nod. “And if you don’t already know that, then I’m a jackass. Which I’ve long suspected is the case. Hence, the being here and the flowers and the renting a hotel room with a gigantic shower and built-in bench.”

Tess couldn’t breathe. She was the love of Bryan’s life. That was…good. So good.

“That shows incredibly good taste on your part,” she finally said.

He gave her a slow grin. “Just promise that you’ll keep telling me what you need and want. I’m not sure my guessing and instincts can be totally trusted.”

Tess felt tears welling up. “Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t tell you to come here, but here you are. And there’s a sturdy tub bench in the shower at the hotel.” Yeah, she hadn’t missed that part. Or the implication. She was going to get to have shower sex with Bryan Murray. “It’s perfect.”

“Well, turns out, I’m still really good at being the guy behind the greatness, and you, honey, are greatness.”

She watched as he moved closer, carefully placing his crutches on the uneven ground. She almost felt bad about making him come up here. Then she remembered—she hadn’t made him do anything. He was here of his own free will. And he was doing fine. Bryan Murray had left Sapphire Falls and come up into the mountains after her.

God, she loved him.

“How did you know where I was?” she asked as he settled in next to her on the flat part of the rock.

“GPS on your phone.”

She lifted an eyebrow.

“Hey, you’re not the only one with stalker skills. You just try to get away from me.”

She grinned as her heart turned over in her chest. He was here. He was really here. He’d come for her. He’d been waiting at the finish line for her. He’d come to find her.

Yeah, she liked this turn of the tables.

“So what’s going on?” he asked, laying his crutches to the side.

“I talked to a girl at the starting line,” Tess said. “She was really nervous. Said she just wanted to finish and all of that. So I gave her the Bryan Murray special.” He cocked an eyebrow at that. Tess laughed. “A
pep talk
. I told her a bunch of stuff straight off the blog.”

He laughed. “Of course you did. Because heaven forbid you be focused on
you
before a big race and giving
yourself
a pep talk.”

“I didn’t need a pep talk,” she said. “I was there. At the starting line to a competitive half marathon in Colorado. I’d already done what I came to do.”

“Really?” he asked. “That was all?”

“Until I rounded that curve back there,” she said. “And saw this.” Again, she swept her hand across the view.

It looked like a picture postcard. Except she was
in
it. She could
feel
it, smell it, hear it. The deep green of the trees on the mountainside, the bright white of the snow on the peaks, the sunlight streaming through the puffy white clouds and the endless blue sky—it was all gorgeous. But the smell of the air was so different here too. Even the feel of it on her skin. The energy in the mountains, the sounds of the birds and insects…it was all fresh and new and she simply hadn’t been able to resist stopping to take it all in.

“I stopped,” she told him. “I realized in an instant that I didn’t care about the race. I’d come for this.”

“So you crossed your finish line early,” he said.

He wasn’t teasing her. He didn’t look at all disappointed. He understood.

“I got a text from the girl I’d given the pep talk to a little bit ago. It was a photo of her crossing the finish line,” Tess said. “And I was so happy for her. And for me. Because that wasn’t the view I wanted for myself at all.”

“But you got your view,” he said.

His tone was so affectionate, she looked over at him and her heart flipped at the look in his eyes.

“Yeah. And I realized that all the hard work has paid off. Two years ago, heck, even a year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to run these six miles in this altitude to this spot. All of that training got me to this place. Every bit of it was worth it.”

“I love you.”

He said it so suddenly that she blinked three times before it really sank in. “You really do, don’t you?”

He gave her a smile that was part affection and part exasperation. “I really do.”

“That’s a good thing,” she said with a nod, totally nonchalant as she pressed a hand to her chest, trying to still the wild racing of her heart. “That shows not only that you’ve grown up and learned a few things, but you’re never going to be able to walk into your office again and not think of me. That would be sad if we weren’t together.”

He nodded, looking completely serious. “Why do you think I’m here? I can’t get a damned thing done at my desk.”

She finally grinned at him. “Thank you for coming after me.”

He put a hand to her cheek and rubbed his thumb along her jaw. “Well, it’s definitely my turn. I owe you about twenty three years of pursuing.”

“Twenty two. If you want to be exact. But—” She covered his hand with hers and looked into his eyes. “It’s a deal.”

“Then it will be your turn again.” He lowered his hand and braced himself on the rock. “This wooing thing is hard work. I’ll be ready for a rest.”

Tessa laughed and leaned into him. “Your twenty-two years will be better than mine. You’ll be getting to have sex the whole time. And, you know,
not
having to write in a diary and wondering if I even know you exist.”

“
That
is a really good point,” he agreed. “I definitely took the best shift.”

Tess shook her head, but she slipped an arm around him and hugged him close. Somehow, in spite of it all, they’d managed to get it right. She really did feel like she was on top of the world. “I love you too, by the way,” she said.

And, right on cue, he said, “I know.” Then he kissed the top of her head.

* * *

Eight months later

“That was pretty good.”

“Pretty good?” she huffed. “Seriously?”

“You didn’t have the kick at the end I expected,” Bryan said with a shrug from where he was sitting on the front porch steps, waiting for her.

“It’s a freaking
hill
,” she said between gulps of air.

“So?”

“You’re a sadistic bastard.”

“Must be doing my job then.”

He gave her the grin that usually made her heart kick, but at times like this—when she’d just finished ten miles and was hot, sweaty, tired and sore—made her want to punch him.

Tessa doubled over, resting her hands on her knees and focusing on breathing. Damn, the inclines were still tough.

“That view was pretty awesome though,” he said after she’d regained her breath slightly.

She straightened and wiped her hair back from her forehead. She grinned. “It was, wasn’t it?”

She’d stopped partway up to admire her surroundings and had snapped a photo for him. Like she always did.

“But you just had to rent the cabin the farthest up the mountain, didn’t you?” she asked, moving to sit next to him on the steps and look out over the Smoky Mountains.

He handed her a cold bottle of water.

“Your time was better than you ran in Arizona.” He held the stopwatch to show her. “But not as good as Hawaii.”

“It was ninety degrees in Arizona,” she reminded him. “And you know beach running is my favorite.”