Page 24 of Billionaire Unforgettable: Tanner

“Don’t be sorry,” he said roughly. “Tell me about what happened in Seattle. Talk to me, Hannah. Tell me anything you want to tell me.”

He took my hand as I resumed walking at a slower pace.

I didn’t have the energy or the will to pull away from him.

I’d obviously needed to get those feelings out, and I’d already completely melted down in front of him.

I wasn’t going to save my dignity at this point.

In some ways, it had helped to learn that he’d cared enough about me back then to feel hurt about the breakup, too.

“It was brutal at first,” I confessed. “We were together for a long time, Tanner, and I’m not sure I knew how to be alone.”

I’d just turned twenty when we’d gotten together, so I’d spent most of my adult life with Tanner.

I hadn’t been a virgin when we’d met, but I’d only been with one other man in my life, and that relationship had ended fairly quickly.

I continued, “I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, I guess. I survived, but I never wanted to hurt that way again. It helped when our business took off, and I was constantly busy. I made a lot of friends in Seattle, and I built a life there that I really loved.”

“And now you’re here in Crystal Fork again,” he commented.

“It wasn’t a difficult choice,” I told him. “Mom is here, and she’s at that age when she needs me to be here. She’d never admit that to me, but I knew it was time for me to come home. I need to be here to make sure she’s okay. After her heart attack, I’d be worried about her all the time if I stayed in Seattle.”

“But you miss your life in Seattle,” he guessed.

“I do,” I said softly. “I’m getting some occasional jobs here, but it’s nothing like the success I had in Seattle. I don’t think I miss the location as much as I miss having my business and my friends there.”

“It will take time, Hannah,” he said soothingly. “You can’t just rebuild a business that quickly.”

“I realized that,” I agreed. “I knew it was going to take time, and I was okay with that. I guess I just feel so isolated here, which is weird because I grew up here. I guess I don’t feel like I belong here anymore.”

“Then let me be your friend, Hannah. Not a pretend friend. A real friend.”

“I’m not sure I can do that, Tanner. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer, but our relationship was over a long time ago. We can’t start over, and we can’t go back.”

“We can start over as friends. You’ve changed. I’ve changed. We’re different people than we were years ago, Hannah. I know what’s important in my life now.”

“It wasn’t completely your fault,” I confessed. “I was insecure. I should have made you listen to me somehow. But the more you brushed me off, the more insecure I became. I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do with my life in Crystal Fork, and that was my fault. I wasn’t making myself happy, and your circumstances had changed so much. You were becoming incredibly successful, and I was an unhappy hairdresser in a small town. I let my self-esteem revolve around you for a long time. At some point, I think I let myself believe that I wasn’t good enough for you anymore.”

“I hope to hell that you eventually realizedthatwasn’t true,” he said gruffly.

“I did. Maybe I needed to step outside the situation and realize who I was as an individual. We’d been a couple for most of my adult life. If we were together now, I’d probably knock some sense into your head because I know I’m worth listening to. I’ve grown up a lot in the last seven years, and I’ve made my mental health a priority. That’s probably why my common sense is screaming at me to stay away from you.”

“But you want to come riding tomorrow on my trail system, don’t you?” he teased.

“More than anything,” I said with a sigh. “I’ve missed being on my bike, and I’m bored to tears without enough work to keep me busy.”

“Then do it, Hannah. I bought a bike for Lauren to use, but mountain biking isn’t really her thing. She’d rather be on a horse.”

“How is she?” I asked curiously.

Lauren Collier was like an adopted sister to Tanner. She was the little sister of his best friend, who had died when Lauren had just finished with high school.

Tanner had been watching out for Lauren ever since her brother had died, and they were close.

“She’s good,” he said in a more upbeat voice. “She moved back to Montana, and she just moved into a house in Crystal Fork. She’s working remotely on her own business now.”

“She finished her doctorate degree?” I asked.

---