Getting His Way: Sapphire Falls Book Seven Read Online Free PDF Page B

Hailey would have witnessed Bryan bringing girls home on occasion. Or all the time.
    “I’m sure he wasn’t nice and sweet to all the other girls. He even kissed me hotter than that a few years ago during the festival. But he was drunk then,” Tess said. “This is because he’s stone-cold sober and it’s me . I’m sweet, and Bryan’s known me all his life and can’t bring himself to kiss me the way he kisses the other girls when he’s really thinking about it.”
    “But maybe—”
    “But it’s a good thing,” Tess went on.
    “It is?”
    “I don’t want to date him. So it’s good that the heat isn’t there and that he can’t deliver for me on the fantasy.”
    “You don’t want to date him?” Hailey asked. “Why not?”
    She couldn’t tell Hailey about Denver. No one in Sapphire Falls knew about Tessa’s big plans. No one knew that she’d been saving every little bit of extra money from her three jobs for the past year so she could move to train for competitive marathons.
    “Because after that kiss, I realize he would want to…make love. He’d be sweet and gentle and nice . And that is not what I want, Hailey. I really think it would be better for Bryan and I to be friends. He clearly doesn’t feel the heat.”
    Hailey chewed on the inside of her cheek.
    “You know I’m right,” Tess said. “I’m sweet. Everyone knows it. No guy in this town, maybe especially Bryan, thinks of me as someone he wants to nail on the hood of his car or go down on behind the Come Again or use toys with or tie up. They want to romance me and light candles and make love to me.”
    Hailey nodded. “You might have a point.”
    “So there you go,” Tess said, even as her heart fell with Hailey’s agreement. Tess needed to head to Denver. And not just to run. There were other hot guys in the world who would do the hood-of-the-car thing. Probably. She assumed.
    “I’m sorry, hon,” Hailey said, pulling Tess into a brief hug. “All those years you were waiting. And then it fizzled.”
    Tess shrugged. “Now I know. And I don’t have to wait any longer.”
    That thought made her stomach flip. But not necessarily with excitement as she might have expected. It felt a little like nerves.
    “Right,” Hailey said. Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, but she didn’t tell Tess she was crazy or wrong. “You can have any guy you want.”
    “Thanks.”
    But Tess didn’t think that was quite true. Bryan might have been warning guys off asking her out, and she might have yelled at him about that, but the truth was, all the guys in Sapphire Falls thought of Tess as the sweet-little-sister, girl-next-door type.
    Probably because Tess was the sweet-little-sister, girl-next-door type.
    To these guys.
    In this town.
    She hadn’t had a hot date with a guy she wanted to sleep with in—ever. She’d been stupidly saving herself for Bryan for years. She hated thinking about it now. It had been so naïve and pitiful , but at the time, it had seemed romantic. Then she’d discovered herself. That she was strong and hardworking and capable of being more than she’d ever thought. So she’d stopped letting her life revolve around him, stopped waiting for him, putting her life and dreams on hold. And she’d dated other guys. And not once had she dated one she wanted to have sex with. Maybe it was the idea tucked in the back of her mind that she was leaving. Maybe it was the romance novels that set the bar super high for chemistry and sex and love. Or maybe she just wasn’t programmed for hot, casual sex. But it still sucked that she hadn’t found anyone to get down and dirty with. It made her want to scream. Or run.
    She really loved night runs.
    Tess pushed off the car. “I should head home.”
    “Good idea,” Hailey said. “Some ice cream therapy should help.”
    Yeah. So would a dirt road and a Miranda Lambert playlist.
    Tess drove home, making a mental checklist of things she needed to get lined up for her