by Jess Bryant
“Oh my God.” Hunter sounded awed when Tyler trailed off and he knew immediately that he’d said too much.
“What? What is it?” Tyler heard Millie’s soft voice in the background and groaned. He didn’t know if his brother had walked into the bathroom so he could bring his new wife into the conversation or if Millie had gotten out of the tub at the sound of her husband’s shocked expression.
“It’s Ty.” Hunter’s voice was muffled as he spoke to his wife.
“Oh.” Millie raised her voice, “Hey Tyler!”
“No. You don’t understand. It’s Ty and he’s telling me all about the runaway bride he’s been driving cross country with.”
“Yeah? Is it awful?” Millie responded and Tyler rubbed his forehead where a headache was beginning to sprout.
“Um, hello! Can you not talk about me like I’m not on the other end of the phone? I can hear you both.”
“Sorry.” Hunter’s voice came back fully as he clearly put the phone back to his ear. “I was just so surprised I had to tell Mills.”
“Surprised about what?” Tyler insisted.
“That you’ve got a thing for Princess Peach.” Hunter chuckled and then must have caught Tyler’s growl because he corrected himself. “Sorry. Sorry. Ashtyn Echols. You’ve got a thing for Ashtyn Echols.”
“Oh, Tyler? Really?” Millie’s voice sounded wary. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? She did just leave her last boyfriend at the altar? Maybe it’s not wise to…”
“Mills, I love you but stop talking.” Tyler groaned.
“Sorry?”
“She has a valid point.” Hunter added.
“First off, I do not have a thing for Ashtyn. I like her, that’s all.” he murmured over his brother’s sound of disbelief. “Second, she’s a job so even if I did have a thing for her, it can’t happen.”
“Sure it can.” Millie piped up quickly. “Hunter and I work together and we’re in a relationship.”
“It’s not the same.” Hunter said at the same time Tyler did.
“Why not?” Millie asked.
“You weren’t my client.” Hunter explained. “I worked for Lemon and we worked together. Prin- sorry, Ashtyn Echols is a client of the agency. Forming relationships with clients is always a no-no. It creates a conflict of interest.”
Tyler rubbed at his forehead again, “You’re doing it again. Talking to each other like I’m not here.”
“Sorry.” Hunter was clearly grinning when he said it though and Tyler was just annoyed enough that he said something stupid.
“Ashtyn is the job, but she’s not the client. Her father and mother are. But that’s not the problem. The problem is that she doesn’t know she’s a job. She doesn’t know I’m her security detail and I’m bound by my word to her mother not to tell her.”
“Oh Jesus.” Hunter groaned this time. “Why? Tyler, why would you agree to keep something like that from her?”
“Because when I agreed I didn’t know her. I had no way of knowing I was going to…”
“Fall for her?” Millie supplied happily and Tyler wished he didn’t love his brother and new sister-in-law so much because then he could just hang up on them.
“I like her, okay. But she’s a job and even if she wasn’t, she’s in a vulnerable place right now. I can’t take advantage of that.”
“Does she have feelings for you?” Millie’s voice was louder, as if she’d taken the phone from his brother and Tyler sighed.
“I don’t know. Maybe. Yeah? I think so.”
“Then might I suggest never, ever, telling her that you think she’s vulnerable and you’d be taking advantage if you gave into your feelings? She’s a grown woman, don’t tell her how she’s supposed to feel right now. Then, if something happens, you’ll know it’s just because you both want it.”
Tyler bit his cheek, refusing to tell Millie that he’d already done all of those stupid things and crossed every line and ruined it. He couldn’t go back and change things and he and Ashtyn couldn’t move forward, not from the lies he’d told. So none of this really mattered.
“I appreciate your advice. Really, I do. But I think it’s best if Ashtyn and I just stay friends.”
Hunter chuckled somewhere near the other end of the phone, “Good luck with that brother.”
“I tried to stay just friends with Hunter and now I’m married to him.” Millie giggled.
“Okay, that’s about all I can take of you two and your wedded bliss for tonight.” Tyler snorted. “I’m hanging up now.”
“Oh come on, Ty. Don’t go yet.”
“I have to. Got something I need to take care of. I’m glad you made it home and I’ll come visit as soon as I’m back in Nashville.”
Hunter sighed, “Okay, just be careful out there.”
“I will.”
“I don’t just mean on your bike.”
He groaned, “I know.”
They exchanged goodbyes and he hung up before throwing himself down on the bed. Leave it to Hunter and Millie to pick up on everything he was dealing with in one single conversation. He was glad they were home but he was equally glad that he and Ashtyn were thousands of miles away from the happy couple with all of their advice and good-natured ribbing at his expense. He could only imagine what sort of trouble Millie and Ashtyn would be if he had to deal with them in the same room.
He shook off that minor nightmare and forced himself to get up from the bed. He’d been on a mission before Hunter called and completely derailed his thoughts. He needed to go find Ashtyn and make sure she wasn’t hurt or marred with some godawful tattoo and then and only then was he going to try and convince her to be his friend again.
Because he couldn’t imagine going to sleep tonight knowing she hated him.
He picked his phone back up, did a quick search for nearby tattoo studios and then pocketed one of the keys to the motel room. He didn’t bother taking the bike. It looked like the studio was just around the corner so he walked in the right direction and after one wrong turn and looping back because he missed the small sign in the window, he found the place that Ashtyn must have picked for her first tattoo.
Conniving little brat. She really had been planning this all day. The place was an easy and walkable distance from the motel she’d chosen. Plus, the studio itself had a ton of great reviews online and from the looks of it was well-lit, clean and professional.
He found himself smiling as he walked inside and saw Ashtyn sitting on a black leather reclining chair. She didn’t immediately notice him so he took the minute to just take her in. She was smiling and laughing with the hulking beast of a man that was beside her on a stool, black latex gloves covered his hands and every other visible inch of his skin was covered in tattoos. He looked like the kind of guy that would eat girls like Ashtyn who came in for silly dolphin tattoos for lunch, but of course Ashtyn had won him over. The guy was looking at her as if she was the most incredible woman he’d ever met and a flash of red-hot jealousy pulsed beneath Tyler’s skin.
“Hey.” he called out.
Ashtyn stiffed before turning slowly to face him. Her smile faded. She didn’t look happy to see him but she didn’t look angry either. Just that resigned acceptance that he was here and she couldn’t avoid him.
“Hey.” She offered back, “You found me.”
“Were you hoping I wouldn’t?” He raised a curious eyebrow and Ashtyn’s lips twitched.
He’d gotten to know her so well over the past few days. He knew that twitch. She was thinking of saying something sassy and insulting. He could read it all over her face. Instead, she licked her lips and looked away, back at the tattoo artist.
“This is the guy I was telling you about. Tyler, meet Jose. Jose meet Tyler. He’s the one giving me a ride to Vegas and helping me check things off my bucket list.”
The hulk, aka Jose, looked up and grinned, showing a gold tooth, “That’s so cool, man. A road trip and a bucket list. Everyone should get to experience that kind of ru
sh at least once in their life.”
“Yeah.” Tyler nodded, the best he could manage for the guy that was still holding Ashtyn’s wrist.
“Jose loves extreme sports, like you.” Ashtyn continued. “He biked the Death Road in Bolivia like ten years ago.” She smiled when Tyler’s eyebrows hit his hairline. “Cool right?”
“Very cool.” he agreed, smiling again before motioning to her wrist where Jose was bandaging what had to be her new tattoo though Tyler was too far away to see what it was. “You about done here?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Sure thing, Ms. Ashtyn.” Jose winked at her and Tyler shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from fisting them. “You’re all good to go. Just remember what I told you. No swimming or submerging the tattoo for at least two to four weeks.”
“Good thing I already marked skinny-dipping off my bucket list.” She grinned playfully and Tyler swallowed a groan.
Jose chuckled, “Let it breathe and heal but if you’re going to be on the open road a bandage to keep the dust off it these first few days might not be a bad idea either. Moisturize and clean it two to three times a day. No scratching or rubbing. Blot it dry after washing and only warm water, not hot.”
“Got it.” Ashtyn pulled her wrist away from him and nodded towards Tyler, “If I have any issues, I have a professional with me to help out.”
“You’re an artist?” Jose glanced up at him and Tyler shook his head.
“Not at all.”
“But he has a lot of them so he knows the drill, right Ty?” She surprised him by sliding up from the chair and looping an arm through his.
“Right.” He nodded down at her.
“Okay, well, thank you so much for your time Jose. It was truly a pleasure.”
“Pleasure was all mine.”
“Do I need to pay for you?” Tyler asked as Ashtyn began to propel them towards the door.
“I took care of it with Venmo on the phone I bought. Come on. Let’s go.”
He followed her outside and she let go of his arm as they headed up the street, “What was that all about?”
“Oh you know, the usual. Pretty girl all alone. Jose was asking me to stick around and have dinner with him before you arrived. I was trying to figure out the best way out of it and then boom… there you were.”
“That explains why you were so happy to see me.” he harrumphed.
“Oh stop whining. I’ve decided to stop being mad at you. We’re going to be friends again. It’ll make the rest of the road trip much more pleasant.”
Tyler chuckled at her matter of fact tone, “Is that so?”
“Yep.”
“Okay then, what’s next on your to do list, friend?”
She rolled her eyes, “Dinner. I’m starving.”
He chuckled, “So you’re just going to gloss over the whole tattoo experience. Are you even going to tell me what you ended up getting permanently inked into your body?”
She turned and walked backwards in front of him, holding her wrist up. It was covered in a clear bandage but he could now clearly see the dark ink against her inner wrist. It was a tiny little bird, so small it was hardly even noticeable. It was cute, dainty and feminine, just like the woman that wore it, and he had to admit there wasn’t anything gaudy about it.
“Why a bird?”
Ashtyn shrugged, turning back around to walk beside him again, “It just felt like the right thing for this moment in my life. I’ve spent most of my life feeling caged but now I’m free. I’m spreading my wings and flying on my own and even if I crash land, it’ll be because I left that cage and tried. It probably doesn’t make sense to you but…”
“It makes sense.” He cut her off as his heart squeezed painfully in his chest. “And I think it’s perfect.”
“You do?” She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, clearly surprised.
“I do. It’s perfect, just like you.”
She grinned at him then and that pain in his chest spread throughout his whole body. She had decided they were going to be friends again. She didn’t seem to be mad anymore. He’d been hoping for this when he set out to find her at the tattoo studio but now that he had her so close, now that she smiled at him and it felt like having the sun beating down on him with warmth, he didn’t think it was enough, or that friendship with her would ever be enough.
Hunter had been right. So had Millie. And, in the back of his mind, he’d already known the truth.
He was falling for her, because how could he not? She was brave and beautiful and everything he could have ever wanted in a woman. He was falling and when he crash-landed, it was going to hurt like hell.
17
Ashtyn stared at herself in the cloudy old mirror above the sink in the bathroom of their newest motel room. As she brushed her teeth, she couldn’t help but notice the small black bird inked into her wrist. Each time she caught a glimpse of it, she smiled and felt pride course through her with the knowledge that she had changed herself irreversibly.
The tattoo was proof that she was different now. Even if the girl in the mirror with her long blonde hair and blue eyes and sharp cheekbones still looked exactly the same as the girl in the mirror that day in the church, she had changed. This journey had changed her and this tattoo would always be there to remind her of that.
The grumbling that came from the other room also made her smile as she rinsed her toothbrush and packed it back into her bag. The man in there had changed her too. He didn’t even realize how much he had done for her, what his support and encouragement and even his arguments and disapproval had meant to her on this trip.
Nobody had ever spoken to her or treated her the way that he did. He was so different from everyone else in her life and she regretted yelling at him that he wasn’t when she’d been mad at him for rejecting her. He was different and the fact that he hadn’t walked out on her, hadn’t left her behind or abandoned her because she didn’t agree with him was just further proof of that.
And it wasn’t just that she was changing in his presence, she knew that their relationship kept changing too.
From strangers to allies, to friends to lovers, to enemies and now back to friends, even if it was an uneasy and tentative bond. They’d gone through a lot in such a short period of time. This trip, running away, only having Tyler there to have her back, it made everything between them more intense and she knew that had to be why her feelings for him seemed to multiply every single time he smiled in her direction or cursed under his breath about her stupid list.
She liked him. She liked him a lot and she knew it was more than just simple attraction or chemistry. It wasn’t just physical. Her emotions were involved and that complicated an already severely overcomplicated situation.
Tyler had pulled away from her today because he thought it was for the best. Even if she was sick of people acting in her best interest instead of simply hearing her out and letting her decide what she wanted, she knew that of everything he’d said that morning that she could argue or hate him for, his honesty wasn’t one of them.
He’d only been being honest with her and she couldn’t hold that against him. There were so few people in her life that were honest with her, truly honest about their motives and their intentions, that she knew how precious Tyler’s honesty was. She wasn’t sure that she and Aaron had ever been one hundred percent honest with each other, not about their feelings and certainly not about their doubts. So she could accept Tyler’s honesty and let everything else go because in the end she’d prefer he tell her the truth than lie just to make her feel better.
It had been a long day on the motorcycle. It had been a long night getting the tattoo and then getting away from Jose when he started to turn suggestive. But then Tyler had walked through that tattoo studio door, just when she needed him, and he’d saved her all over again. It was then that she’d realized she couldn’t stay mad at him, not when he had done nothing but be there for her for the past few days.
Th
ey’d talked over dinner at a diner down the street. Talked about everything and nothing. They’d laughed about the ridiculous gold tooth Jose had been sporting proudly and argued about whether or not she had implied to the gas station clerk that Tyler was an abusive boyfriend. They’d talked about the reasons she wanted her little bird tattoo and he’d opened up about a few of his own, explaining when and why he’d gotten them and what they meant to him.
He’d told her about his brother calling to check on him now that he was back from his honeymoon. She felt as if she knew Hunter and Millie herself now and couldn’t help but wonder if she’d ever get a chance to meet them. The talk of their honeymoon had turned the conversation back to Ashtyn’s life and she’d admitted that she hated skiing, hated snow and hated being cold. She’d only agreed to go to the mountains with Aaron for their honeymoon because it was a family tradition for him and she hadn’t wanted to complain. Tyler had given her a knowing look at that and she’d realized that despite the easy conversation they were both learning more about each other, understanding one another better, and bonding even more than they already had on this journey.
She knew they didn’t have much time left on the road. She’d looked at the map on her new phone. They could be in Las Vegas by tomorrow night if they drove straight through tomorrow. Her journey, their journey together, was almost over, but no matter if she crossed every item on her bucket list off, she wasn’t ready for the end.
She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to this man that had become her savior and her friend and maybe, if they’d met in another place or time, he could have been her everything.
“Hey, you done in there?”
Ashtyn blinked in the mirror, glancing up to see that Tyler was standing in the doorway. She’d been lost in her thoughts and hadn’t heard him approach. He was bare-chested and his jeans were slung low over his hips. He had his toiletry bag in one hand and when she met his eyes again, he raised a curious eyebrow.
