Page 39 of Control

“So, you’re the only girlandthe baby of the family.”

“Forget about the middle-child syndrome. They need to come up with a name for people like me.”

“Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”

I cocked a brow. “You have no idea.”

“Alright, I’ll ease up on that for now. How about you ask me another question?”

Tapping my finger on my chin, I realized that perhaps Ty was right. Maybe following the doctor’s orders for the next two days or so wasn’t going to be so bad. Being here with him was certainly much better than being alone. It was that thought which led me to my next question. “Okay, I’ve got one. Do you live in downtown Steel Ridge?”

“No. What would make you ask that?”

“Well, I was just thinking how nice it was that I’m not sitting here alone, feeling bad about needing to pause my steps to uncovering the truth about Annie, and so I was rememberinghow we met. Barring the horror of the car accident, you happened to be at the right place at the right time. Were you heading home from somewhere, or were you out shopping? I mean, the holidays are approaching.”

In a flash, Ty’s entire expression changed, his body going rigid. Surely, he couldn’t have had such a negative response to recalling my accident, but it was evident he was not the same light-hearted guy from only moments before.

Worrying that I’d crossed some line I wasn’t aware I shouldn’t have, I quickly backtracked. “Um, it’s okay if you don’t want to?—”

“It’s okay,” he assured me. His eyes roamed over my face, something I couldn’t read passing through his expression. “I had actually just learned mere minutes before your accident that my now ex-girlfriend, who does live in downtown Steel Ridge, was cheating on me.”

Without thinking, the words just spilled out of me. “Oh, my God. Are you serious?”

“Yep.”

I stared at him, hesitated, but ultimately said, “If you don’t want to talk about this, I completely understand, but are you saying you learned about this through a friend or a phone call or something? Or, are you telling me you learned because you saw her out with him?”

“Neither.”

My brows pulled together, trying to figure it out. I wanted to ask for more, but I couldn’t bring myself to push for information that was likely painful for him. So, I remained silent, unsure of what to do at all.

“Evangeline and I hadn’t spent much time together over the five weeks leading up to that night,” he started. “She was studying to take her CFP exam, and she had wanted to put her focus into that. That night, I’d decided to surprise her withdinner. She’d been working so hard to prepare for that exam, and I thought it’d be nice for us to get together for an hour, have dinner together, and she could go back to studying. I showed up at her place, found her in a robe, fresh from a shower, and some man I didn’t know wearing nothing but a pair of jeans. It wasn’t difficult to figure out what was happening, and she didn’t deny it, either.”

I was at a loss for words.

How? Why?

Ty was easily the best guy I’d ever met. He was handsome, charming, smart, and unbelievably protective. I’d learned this in a matter of days, and I was willing to bet I’d just barely scratched the surface of the kind of man he was.

I tried to think of what kind of woman Evangeline would have to be to have a man like Ty in her life and toss him aside like he was nothing. Because from where I was sitting, he was everything I thought a girl could ever hope to have in her life.

“You’re not saying anything,” he noted.

I shook my head, trying to rid the thoughts from it. “I’m sorry. It’s just, I can’t imagine what would ever make someone do that, especially when she had a man like you. God, Ty, I’m so sorry. How are you doing?”

“I’ll admit it wasn’t exactly an ideal situation, and I’d never want to experience that again. But I’m much better now. I mean, I get to sit around for at least the next two days and take care of you,” he teased.

I wanted to say that it had been her loss, that he deserved much better, and that I was the lucky one, but I didn’t want to be insensitive. “I promise to do my best to keep you occupied.”

He chuckled. “I appreciate that. So, what about you?”

“What about me?”

“I know you said you don’t have a boyfriend, but when was your last relationship?”

I sighed. “My last serious relationship ended about two and a half years ago. We were together for just over a year, and it became too much.”

“Too much?”

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