Ty felt tears pool in his eyes. He didn’t want to fucking cry, but she was his safe place. She’d always been his safe place. “Can I be enough for you?”
“You have always been enough for me,” she vowed, tears of her own falling. “You are enough, Tyler Davis. I love you and I wish he could be here with us, but we’re going to be okay. We’re going to be together, and we’re going to get through this.”
He was doing exactly what he’d accused Michael of. He was turning this around and making it all about him. “Yes, we are, and now it’s time to get you to bed. I think I promised you some relaxation.”
She went on her toes and pressed her lips to his. He let his hands find her waist, bringing her close to him, and wondered how he’d survived without this intimacy. Kissing Lucy was like breathing, a necessary thing for him to live.
He didn’t have to question how he felt about Lucy. He’d been afraid of losing her, afraid he wouldn’t be enough for her, but he’d never once doubted that he loved her, that she was the woman for him. He’d never had to. He’d never had the foundation of his life ripped from under him, so it was easy to kiss her and believe the world was going to be okay because for the most part, it always had been for Tyler Davis.
“I don’t want to give up on him,” he whispered.
“I don’t either, but we have to let him come to us. I wanted to be angry, too. When he asked about the apples, I had a dark moment where I thought I would have to write him off. How could he possibly love me if he could think I could kill someone? Five minutes later and I’ve already justified it in my head. He doesn’t honestly think I did it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have come here. He’s in a dark place and looking for a way out. I think there’s a little part of him that wishes I’d confessed because then he wouldn’t have to try. Trying is scary. I know all about that. So now we have to figure out what we want. We have to be patient, even if it means he never comes back at all,” she said as tears caressed her cheeks. “He has to make the choice, but we can’t be bitter with him. This isn’t him rejecting me or you.”
He let his forehead rest against hers. “He’s rejecting himself, not allowing himself to be happy. I don’t understand it.”
“You don’t have to. You just have to know that he’s not doing this to hurt either one of us.” She sniffled, and her hands tightened around his waist. “But, Ty, someone is definitely trying to hurt me.”
“Yeah, I think Nate’s right and when the state takes over, they’ll zero in on you.” He couldn’t stand the thought.
Lucy stepped back and bit her bottom lip. “They’ll have no choice but to do that.”
“Of course they have a choice. They can follow the money.” He was smart enough to know that this was about money. Women didn’t murder the men who harassed them. There would be a whole lot less men if they did.
“They won’t. They’ll come straight to me, and they won’t have to investigate further. Ty, I looked through the bathroom cabinets for some tissues.” She’d paled again. “I found a baggie of white powder tucked away behind your extra toilet paper.” She laughed, a nervous sound. “I don’t suppose it’s cocaine.”
It was sad that he wished it was.
Someone was setting up his girl, and now he had to prove it.
* * * *
Michael meant to go up to the suite where Nate had told him he could work. Work. That was what would get him through this. Avoiding work was where he’d gone wrong. He would call on Monday and take the job he’d been offered. He would work alone, and he would concentrate on the job, on hunting down people who needed to be found. He would start by helping Nate and Cam and Gemma prove Lucy had nothing to do with Brock Foster’s death. Then he would move on and dedicate his life to work.
He wouldn’t think about the two people he needed more than anything.
He wouldn’t think about the people he’d lost and would never find again.
And yet he found himself going down instead of up. Cole Roberts lived in the penthouse when he was in residence. He and his wife and husband cuddled up in a glorious suite of rooms.
He didn’t need that. He’d been happy in Ty’s little room. He would have been even happier living with them in the valley, where they would have had a community they loved around them. Where he could have his coffee on the front porch before heading to work.