Page 21 of Billionaire Unforgettable: Tanner

Hell, I hadn’t even gotten started with all of the apologies I wanted to make to her.

“Nah,” she said. “You wouldn’t be the Tanner Remington I knew if you did. I think there was a small part of me that almost expected you to come storming into Seattle to get me back. You can be really hardheaded.”

I wondered if that was really what she had wanted. Had she left me to wake my ass up?

Had she hoped that I’d come after her?

“I thought you were with someone else. If I’d known that you weren’t with someone else, and thatI’dbeen the reason you left, that’s probably exactly what would have happened. Or at least, that’s what I’d like to think would have happened. At that point, I wasn’t able to pull my head out of my ass. I’m not that guy anymore, Hannah. My brothers and I rarely travel anymore, and as you can see, we don’t work weekends. After we lost Dad, I think we all realized how short life can be, and that we needed to pay attention to the real priorities in our lives.”

She reached out and put her hand on my forearm. “I’m so sorry about your father. He was a good man.”

“He was,” I agreed. “He was full of life until the day we lost him. If we would have known, we would have spent more time with him. He was healthy, working the ranch like a man half his age one day and gone the next. I think that sudden loss jolted all of us back to reality.”

She shook her head. “I know you thought you had plenty of time. I went through the same thing with my mother when I nearly lost her. I felt like I should have been a better daughter. I could have come home to see her instead of her coming to Seattle once in a while. I should have been here for her. Things like that will eat you alive. You couldn’t have known, Tanner, and he was so proud of all of you.”

“It’s been well over four years now,” I said grimly. “I’m done beating myself up about it. I decided I just need to do better because that’s what he would have told me to do. That’s why we’re home more often and spending more time with Mom. If we have to travel, one of us goes instead of all three of us.”

“You’re a good son,” Hannah said with a wistful smile.

“But a really bad fiancé,” I joked.

“It wasn’t all bad,” she reminded me. “But I think we had more fun when you didn’t have a lot of money.”

She removed her hand from my arm, and I missed her gentle touch almost immediately.

“Speaking of those days,” I said. “Are you still riding your bike?”

Hannah loved mountain biking, and she’d introduced me to the sport when we were in New York.

Some of my best memories with Hannah were when the two of us had escaped from the city to find remote trails to bike.

In the beginning, neither of us were flush with cash.

She was still establishing her career, and my entry level job hadn’t paid me a lot of money compared to the expenses of living in New York.

Yes, my parents had money, but I’d always worked in college, and I’d been determined to make it on my own once I’d graduated from college.

I’d gotten a used mountain bike after Hannah and I had started dating, and we’d spent a lot of time on the trails exploring together.

She shook her head. “Not here. I sold my bike in Seattle before I moved. I need to find another one. But I spent as much time as I possibly could on the trails in Washington.”

The waitress dropped our drinks off at the table, and Hannah took a sip of her cocktail before she continued, “The trails in Washington were amazing.”

“I created a trail system across my property that spans Devon and Kaleb’s property, too. They use it for horse trails and hiking, but it works well for mountain bikes, too.”

My land and my brothers’ were all connected, so it was a pretty impressive trail system with a plethora of different routes through different areas.

“Considering how much land you all own, I’m sure it’s amazing,” she said enthusiastically.

“I have extra bikes. I think you should come explore those trails with me tomorrow. The weather looks good. I’d like to be friends, Hannah.”

I wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or amused by the startled and stunned look on her gorgeous face, but this was a battle that was important to me, and one that I didn’t plan on losing.

Hannah

Itook the dainty straw out of my drink and took a large slug of my cocktail.

Surely he wasn’t serious.

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