Page 37 of Stormswept Colorado (Hart County #3)

THIRTY-TWO

Teller

Breathe , I told myself. I shifted into downward dog, feeling the muscles in my shoulders bunch and my hamstrings stretch.

I’d been doing yoga for about a year and a half.

I still felt uncoordinated. This didn’t come naturally to me, unlike running five miles in my sleep or banging out deadlifts.

After my injuries, I’d worked my ass off to get fit again.

Though I couldn’t do as many pull-ups as when I’d been in the Army, given my shoulder.

Yoga was not my favorite thing. But tonight, I needed all the help I could get with staying calm.

Ayla was at that event with Paul, and I didn’t like it. After everything she’d told me about him, plus my impressions from meeting him in Hartley, I didn’t trust him.

Didn’t help that I’d already seen photos online of them arriving together. His hand on her back like he thought he had some claim on her.

Fuck, why had I even looked at social media?

As if I could’ve stayed away. That algorithm had me figured out. My feed was all Ayla Maxwell, all the time.

I was no stranger to being away from the woman I cared about.

Deployments had taught me patience on that front.

But this thing with Ayla was a whole new experience.

Seeing her in the media with another guy.

It was surreal. My heart didn’t understand why I couldn’t just be there.

Telling the label exec to take his sleazy hands off her.

And then I would wrap her up in my arms and kiss her and make sure she had everything she needed. Show her what I felt. Because my craving for her was getting extreme. It was difficult for me to think of anything else.

Especially at a time like this, when I was supposed to be focused on yoga breathing and staying in the moment, when instead I couldn’t stop wondering what Ayla was doing right now.

I shifted into one of the warrior poses. If only this could give me some clarity.

I fell out of the pose when my phone rang. Grabbing for it, my excitement dulled when I saw it wasn’t Ayla. And then guilt washed in.

“Hey, Piper. You okay?”

“Why do you think something’s not okay?”

“Because you never call me in the evening unless you have a problem.”

A pause. “Oh my gosh, you’re right. I suck.”

I chuckled, sprawling on the yoga mat and looking at the ceiling of my living room. “No, you don’t. You’re a single mom and business owner with a lot going on.”

“Yeah, true. Also, I’m a delight most of the time.”

“You are. Now tell me what’s up.”

“Actually, I was calling to see how you are. Which I don’t do enough, clearly.”

“I’m fine,” I grunted. “I’m always fine.”

Sure. That sounded convincing.

“You said that the last several times I’ve seen you. I want a real answer. Something’s been weird with you for the last month or so. I’m not the only one who’s noticed.”

That was…fair.

Last weekend, when Ollie and I were working on his treehouse, I nailed the wooden door shut before realizing what I was doing. Just a few days ago, Susan made a huge deal out of the fact that I forgot to shave two days in a row. Apparently I had dark circles under my eyes too.

Which was what happened when a guy couldn’t sleep.

Before, I couldn’t sleep because I was tearing myself up over a woman I thought I couldn’t have. But lately, I’d been staying up late to talk to Ayla for hours on end. Or brainstorming what I could send her next to brighten her day. Not an easy feat when her net worth outpaced mine a hundredfold.

It was killing me not to be able to see her. But I had just as many responsibilities in Silver Ridge as ever, and of course that mattered to me too. My head was all fucked up over how to make this work.

I had to have Ayla in my life. There was no longer any other option.

But how ?

“I know you do that usual manly thing where you refuse to talk about your feelings,” Piper said. “But you’re also the uncle who tells Ollie that boys are allowed to cry. I need you to be real with me. Are you hung up on Ayla?”

Of course Piper had heard that gossip. I was surprised she’d waited this long to confront me. Maybe because she figured I would deny it.

Before, I would have. But I was determined to win Ayla over. I wanted a relationship with her. This was going to impact my life. Our life. It was past time that I admitted that to my sister.

I blew out a breath. Just say it .

“Ayla and I got close during Emma and Ashford’s wedding weekend. We both tried to move on after, but that wasn’t happening. A few weeks ago, I told her how I feel. More or less.”

“Wow. That’s major. What did she say?”

“She’s open to it. We talk every day.”

“And how exactly do you feel about her, big brother?”

I hesitated, and Piper must’ve heard something in that silence.

“Tell, are you in love with her? ”

My pulse thrummed in my throat. Guts twisting, heart rate taking off. “Pretty sure. Yeah.”

I had no idea how I’d fallen for Ayla this fast. It had been bad a few weeks ago when I went to Callum for advice.

But now that we were talking every day, it was so much worse.

Every conversation drew me deeper. Convinced me all the more that I had to have her. No matter how difficult it was.

Maybe that explained the sparks between us each time we’d interacted before the wedding. The way she’d made my blood heat and my defensiveness rise up. I’d known, down to some primitive, instinctual part of me, that she was supposed to be mine.

I hadn’t wanted to fall in love. But with Ayla, how could I not?

“It’s brutal,” I finished.

“Teller,” Piper whispered. “No, it’s not. It’s wonderful.”

“How do you figure that? I don’t know how to make this work. Aside from Ayla, everything else that matters to me is here. Especially you and Ollie. This could impact you both.”

Piper cursed. “Please tell me you aren’t sacrificing your own chance at love because of me. I don’t want that. It’s not your fault my ex was a shitty husband and father.”

“I know. But I would never abandon you either.”

“It’s not just you and me. How can you not realize that? It never has been. We’ve always had Ashford and Callum and Grace. And now, Emma and Dane. Judson and Dixie and Rosie. Plus so many other people who love us in this town.”

“I do know that, but?—“

“No. Stop right there. You’ve been my hero for a long time. Ollie’s too. Your whole life has been about sacrificing what you need and putting other people first. But it’s your turn now. If you love Ayla, then get out there and go after her.”

I huffed a laugh. “You don’t think I’m foolish, hoping someone like her will end up with a small-town guy like me?”

Ayla was incandescent. The kind of person everyone wanted to get close to, but she burned brighter than them all .

Who was I to think I could hold on to her?

“You don’t have to give her the whole entire world,” Piper said. “You just have to give her yours.”

I was back on the yoga mat and trying to get my thoughts in order when Ayla finally called. She was using a secure video call app that River had recommended.

I answered with a big smile already painted across my face. But when I saw her expression, the rest of the world disappeared and all my attention narrowed to her.

“What happened?”

She was in the backseat of her usual car. I recognized the lux interior and the leather seat. Light and shadow played across her skin. She wore the same outfit from earlier, but her hair was disheveled, and she looked distraught. Skin too pale, eyes too wide.

“It was a bad night. I’m not even sure where to start.”

“Are you safe right now?”

“Bryan is driving me home. I have the privacy screen up so you and I can talk.” She took a shaky breath. “I don’t want to talk to anyone but you.”

“ Sweetheart .” Something furious buzzed under my skin. “Let’s start with who did this . If someone did something to hurt or upset you, then I should know who I need to destroy.”

Ayla rubbed her eyes, lips curving. “It makes me feel a little better to laugh. Thank you.”

“I’m not kidding.”

She inhaled, yellow light pulsing over her face as they drove.

“Was it Paul?”

A nod, eyes to the side.

It took all my training and willpower not to reveal the nuclear explosion detonating inside me .

I had to stay calm. It wouldn’t help her if I started flipping out.

“What did he do?”

Because I had to decide whether to just maim him or outright kill him. In that moment, I probably would have. Not ideal for a law-upholding chief of police. But that was what Ayla did to me. Turned around all the assumptions I’d made about myself.

And I suddenly realized that I wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I didn’t let things get too far. It started with…” Her eyes closed. “There was something else even before Paul came at me with his bullshit.”

A text came in while as she was talking. The notification crossed the top of my screen.

River

Ayla got a response from Biggest Fan. Let me know when we can talk.

I’d have to write him back later. “Did you get an email from the stalker?”

She blinked, and tears dotted her lashes before she rubbed them away. “You saw it?”

“River just texted me. He must have some kind of automated monitoring system on your email account.” I doubted he was staring at it every minute, and River was nothing if not resourceful.

“I’m sending you a screenshot.” Ayla fiddled with her phone.

“Alright, but keep talking. Tell me what happened after you got the email.”

“Paul came up to me. It was obvious I was upset. I told him I was leaving, but he wouldn’t let me. He pulled me into a hallway and admitted he knew about my stalker. Biggest Fan. Somebody had told him about it. He claimed he wanted to help and got mad when I refused him.”

“Okay,” I rumbled. Calm . I was totally calm .

“Then he said we could be good together if I stopped fighting it. And tried to kiss me.”

That settled it. Paul Ruxton was dead. Would Dane loan me the money for a hit man? No, that wasn’t good enough. Dane could loan me the funds to pull off the hit myself…