Page 1 of Only for You: Tap and Taryn

Tap meandered across the space between his garage and home, looking everywhere except up the road.

He’d hear her car long before she came into view.

Spying some trash that had blown into the yard on the storm last night, he bent over and was tugging it out of the rose bushes when he heard the distinctive purr of her engine.

Paper crumpled in one fist, he straightened, angled his head to skim the distant road with his eyes, and watched for the moment Taryn would come into view.

Right on time.

Tap didn’t believe Taryn had recognized him in any of her hundreds of trips past his house.

He’d known who she was immediately, from a single, scant glimpse of only the side of her face.

It had been sheer chance he’d been outside that morning, home late from his midnight shift, dawdling in the yard to enjoy the sunshine before he went into his cold and dark house.

Her sleek sports car always stood out from the mass of old work trucks the average blue-collar workers drove, signaling the occupant lived in a different stratosphere than most.

He paused facing the road, fists planted on his hips, gaze trained on the car as it approached.

He lifted a hand, not waving, just acknowledging the vehicle’s occupant.

The thrill that buzzed through his veins was entirely out of proportion to the action when she gestured back, scarlet-tipped fingers held in such a way to partially obscure her face.

There and gone in a breath, Tap watched as her taillights sailed past and away up the road, flickering red in the distance as she slowed to round the next curve.

Taryn Stone, the first woman to break his heart.

God, how that memory still clawed at him, raw and unrelenting, like a wound that refused to scar over.

Seventeen years old, king of the world—or so he’d thought—with Taryn on his arm, her laughter like sunlight cutting through the fog of small-town boredom.

She’d been his everything, the girl who’d made him believe in forever, until that college boy rolled into town and shattered it all.

Her betrayal had hit like a grenade, fragments embedding deep.

He’d enlisted the next day, trading prom crowns for desert sands, but even thousands of miles away, she’d haunted him.

Now, back in this godforsaken town, she was a ghost on wheels, driving past every morning like a taunt from fate.

Tap had turned to climb the steps to his home when it happened, the bright sound of shattering glass underscored with a grinding crash of smashed metal, followed by the wailing rise and fall of a car horn that trailed off to nothing.

Even in his sudden terror he noted the horn sounded melodic, as expensive as one would expect from a car like that.

Without conscious decision he found himself pelting full speed down the center of the road, faded and peeling painted lines flashing past as he poured on the speed in a way he hadn’t since separating from the military.

Tap rounded the corner to see the twisted corpse of a deer flung to one side, blood pouring from mouth and nose, lifeless eyes staring off to the woods it would never romp through again.

He noted with some relief it was a young buck, knowing that at least meant there was no fawn curled in hiding left to starve.

Taryn’s car took up all available space between two huge oaks, the doors on both sides pinned closed and Tap’s prayer to see movement through the intact back glass was fulfilled as he approached.

A dark shape shifted side-to-side, and he heard Taryn’s voice, the fear riding the sound hitting him like a punch to the chest as she called, “Help.”

“Be still,” he called, fear making his voice hoarse and two octaves deeper than normal. “Are you hurt?”

The way the car had wedged itself between the trees precluded a normal rescue. Through the glass he could see the shattered state of the front windshield, metal of the hood crumpled high, sharp edges of steel exposed. No taking her out that way, either.

“I…” That single syllable quavered, rising and falling in a way that tore at his heart. Taryn shouldn’t ever be afraid, he thought, and the tension in his jaw steadied him, the gritting of his teeth loud in his head.

“It’s okay. You’re okay.” Aiming at soothing, he crooned the words, rewarded when he heard her take in a deep, steadying breath. “You’re gonna be just fine. Does anything hurt?”

“My leg. It’s jammed against the door.” She paused, and he heard her take in another breath. “It hurts.” The admission scored through his throat, stripping him of words. “The…the airbags worked, so I think everything else is okay. Can you…did you call for help?”

Mentally cursing himself for an idiot, Tap drew his phone out of his pocket as he worked his way around the car towards the front, needing to see her face and determine her safety for himself. A quick touch of the buttons and he heard the familiar litany of phrases acknowledging the call.

“9-1-1. What is your emergency?”

“There’s been a vehicle vs deer accident on Old Mill Road, just past the old Clemson place. About two miles east of Highway 271. Single occupant, alert and talking. Airbags deployed.”

“Tap?”

He felt his lips quirk at the dispatcher’s confused question as he stepped around the final pile of broken branches and into full view of the car. And Taryn.

He drank in the sight of her. Hair mussed, face reddened from the powder burn of the airbag deployment, blood trickling from one nostril—Taryn was still the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.

He kept his gaze on her face as he answered Becky in dispatch. “Yeah, this is Tap.”

“Jesus. Are you okay?” He ignored her question and she quickly moved on. “Okay. I’ll get medical rolling quick.” She seemed to compose herself. “What can you tell me about the driver?”

“Female. Twenty-nine years old. A-positive blood type. Five-foot nothing except in heels.” Taryn’s eyes widened and her mouth opened but nothing escaped.

“Taryn Stone, Becky. She’s still in the vehicle, it’s wedged in pretty tight in the woods.

She said her leg’s trapped between the seat and the door.

If emergency hasn’t rolled out yet, make sure they bring the saw. ”

“Jesus, Tap.” He heard her relay the information. “She’s awake?”

“Uh huh.” Becky knew the story. Hell, everyone in town knew the story.

Prom king, football captain, president of the debate team—dropped like he was four-day-old hash when a pretty college boy had come to town.

Taryn’s brutal ability to turn off her emotions had shocked him, caused his tiny teenaged ego to implode, and what he’d seen as her betrayal had eaten at him.

It was laughable now, with more than a decade of experience under his belt, but at seventeen the loss of their relationship had been devastating.

Had driven him to skip the college experience entirely—no matter he’d had a couple of full-ride offers thrown at him—and he’d hied himself straight to the nearest Army recruiter.

Two days after graduation he’d ridden a bus away from town.

Eight years and two overseas tours later, he’d taken his buyout money and left the service. Only after verifying Taryn was still good and gone had he decided to return home and put his medic training to good use, working as a volunteer for the firehouse and a paid EMT.

“I’m going to hang up and see if I can get into the car with her, get some vitals and assess. I just wanted to call it in first since she was awake and alert.” Getting into the car meant getting close to her. Taking her vitals meant touching her for the first time in…a lifetime.

I can do this .

“Okay. Call me back if there’s anything I should pass along. They’ll be onsite within ten.” Becky’s voice lowered, her tone taking on a careful timbre as she said, “You take care of you, too, Tap.”

“Tap?” Watery and weak, the word had his head snapping up and he looked at Taryn, forcing himself to take in a breath, then another. She asked, “Is it really you?”

“Yeah, Taryn. Hang on, let me get in there.” He put a foot on the shredded front tire, heaving himself onto a flat section of the hood.

It took some maneuvering, and a wicked gash in his thigh from a moment’s inattention, but eventually he was inside the cramped cabin of the car, less than an arm’s length from her. “Yeah, It’s me.”

He gathered her wrist in his hand, fingers pressing against the pulse point.

She didn’t resist, didn’t even seem to notice his grip, her gaze focused on his face.

He watched as her eyes flitted back and forth, seeming to be tracking each of his features and he was vain enough to wonder what she saw.

Gray flecks in his sideburns and beard, a couple of new scars from shrapnel, nose broken from running face-first into his roommate’s fist one night—he knew he didn’t look the same.

But neither does she. No, she looked better.

Skin still smooth as a baby’s behind, her hair was still a thick, lush mane, and from what he could see of her body she hadn’t changed much there, either.

He told himself he was staring at her chest to count respirations, but medical observation didn’t need to include a catalog of how her nipples had tightened behind her sweater and bra, obscured but still visible.

“Let’s look at that leg.” There was no blood pooled in the footwell, and he couldn’t see any scrapes or lacerations beyond the tiny nosebleed from taking 200-miles-per-hour of latex in the face.

Leaning closer, he settled her arm on the seat and slipped his hand across her thigh, quickly finding the reason.

“The armrest has you pinned in a little bit. If you can slip towards the center console, we might be able to get you loose without ripping it off.” Relief flooded through him with the knowledge that she truly was uninjured.

To distract himself from the rush of emotion, Tap looked around the inside of the car.

“Not that it matters to the vehicle’s value at this point. ”

“Yeah.” Her shaky laugh fell flat. “Pretty much totaled.”

“Scoot this way.” She tried and made a frustrated sound when she failed to gain any leverage. “Loop your arm around my neck and pull, see if that helps.”

Taryn’s head turned and she stared at him. Her bottom lip trembled, and she bit down on it, the grip of her teeth brutal.

“Come on, you’re not going to hurt me. Let’s get you more comfortable.” The irony of that statement wasn’t lost on him and he forced down the remembered pain.

I coulda moved away first time I saw her drive past and realized she’d moved back. I didn’t. Was my own choice to stay.

Like him, she’d come back to their hometown.

He’d heard whispers about her reasons, but tried to ignore them, shutting Becky and the others down each time the topic arose.

“You’ll feel better. Emergency services will be here in a few minutes, but even if we can’t get you out of the car, it’ll be better. ”

Her hand lifted and wrapped behind his neck, nails digging in the tiniest amount before smoothing past so her elbow was crooked around him.

Her muscles tightened and she pulled, Tap stiffening in resistance, giving her a solid anchor to haul against. With a cry she lurched across the seat, freed from the grip of the car.

Immediately his hand returned to her thigh, fingers probing to determine any hidden injuries.

He rucked her skirt up on that leg, slipping his fingers over the silk of her hose, surprised when he found clips holding it in place about mid-thigh.

Jesus, a garter belt. The erotic images caused by that recognition made his chest hitch, breath stuttering at the idea of the Taryn he’d known dressing like that for him.

“Okay. You’re okay, Taryn.” The rising wail of sirens in the distance intruded, and he cleared his throat, shuffling back in the seat only then realizing she’d retained her hold on his neck. Her hand slipped to his shoulder, then settled in the center of his chest, directly over his heart.

It was a position his Taryn had held hundreds of times, and his lips longed to give her the same words he’d always said. A promise his teenaged self had held to, even as he’d moved through life without her.

It beats only for you. Forever and always.

Tap lifted his chin and looked into her eyes, now welling with tears he refused to think of as anything other than relief. She couldn’t be sad about how things had wound up. He couldn’t let himself consider she might have regrets.

“You’re going to be okay.”

But as the sirens grew louder, pulling him back to the present, Tap felt the old ache stir in his chest, a coiled desire that had never truly died. Taryn’s touch burned like a brand, and in that moment, he wondered if “okay” was even possible for either of them anymore.