Page 1 of Only for You: Tap and Taryn
Chapter 1: The Daily Ritual
Tap meandered across the space between his garage and home, looking everywhere except up the road. He’d hear her car long before she came into view. Spying some trash that had blown into the yard on the storm last night, he bent over and was tugging it out of the rose bushes when he heard the distinctive purr of her engine. Paper crumpled in one fist, he straightened, angled his head to skim the distant road with his eyes, and watched for the moment Taryn would come into view.
It was a dance he performed every morning. Glancing at his phone, he saw it was 7:45.
Right on time.
Tap didn’t believe Taryn had recognized him in any of her hundreds of trips past his house. He’d known who she was immediately, from a single, scant glimpse of only the side of her face. It had been sheer chance he’d been outside that morning, home late from his midnight shift, dawdling in the yard to enjoy the sunshine before he went into his cold and dark house. Her sleek sports car always stood out from the mass of old work trucks the average blue-collar workers drove, signaling the occupant lived in a different stratosphere than most.
He paused facing the road, fists planted on his hips, gaze trained on the car as it approached. He lifted a hand, not waving, just acknowledging the vehicle’s occupant. The thrill that buzzed through his veins was entirely out of proportion to the action when she gestured back, scarlet-tipped fingers held in such a way to partially obscure her face. There and gone in a breath, Tap watched as her taillights sailed past and away up the road, flickering red in the distance as she slowed to round the next curve.
Taryn Stone, the first woman to break his heart.
God, how that memory still clawed at him, raw and unrelenting, like a wound that refused to scar over. Seventeen years old, king of the world—or so he’d thought—with Taryn on his arm, her laughter like sunlight cutting through the fog of small-town boredom. She’d been his everything, the girl who’d made him believe in forever, until that college boy rolled into town and shattered it all. Her betrayal had hit like a grenade, fragments embedding deep. He’d enlisted the next day, trading prom crowns for desert sands, but even thousands of miles away, she’d haunted him. Now, back in this godforsaken town, she was a ghost on wheels, driving past every morning like a taunt from fate.
Tap had turned to climb the steps to his home when it happened, the bright sound of shattering glass underscored with a grinding crash of smashed metal, followed by the wailing rise and fall of a car horn that trailed off to nothing. Even in his sudden terror he noted the horn sounded melodic, as expensive as one would expect from a car like that.
Without conscious decision he found himself pelting full speed down the center of the road, faded and peeling painted lines flashing past as he poured on the speed in a way he hadn’t since separating from the military. Tap rounded the corner to see the twisted corpse of a deer flung to one side, blood pouring from mouth and nose, lifeless eyes staring off to the woods it would never romp through again. He noted with some relief it was a young buck, knowing that at least meant there was no fawn curled in hiding left to starve.
Taryn’s car took up all available space between two huge oaks, the doors on both sides pinned closed and Tap’s prayer to see movement through the intact back glass was fulfilled ashe approached. A dark shape shifted side-to-side, and he heard Taryn’s voice, the fear riding the sound hitting him like a punch to the chest as she called, “Help.”
“Be still,” he called, fear making his voice hoarse and two octaves deeper than normal. “Are you hurt?”
The way the car had wedged itself between the trees precluded a normal rescue. Through the glass he could see the shattered state of the front windshield, metal of the hood crumpled high, sharp edges of steel exposed. No taking her out that way, either.
“I…” That single syllable quavered, rising and falling in a way that tore at his heart. Taryn shouldn’t ever be afraid, he thought, and the tension in his jaw steadied him, the gritting of his teeth loud in his head.
“It’s okay. You’re okay.” Aiming at soothing, he crooned the words, rewarded when he heard her take in a deep, steadying breath. “You’re gonna be just fine. Does anything hurt?”
“My leg. It’s jammed against the door.” She paused, and he heard her take in another breath. “It hurts.” The admission scored through his throat, stripping him of words. “The…the airbags worked, so I think everything else is okay. Can you…did you call for help?”
Mentally cursing himself for an idiot, Tap drew his phone out of his pocket as he worked his way around the car towards the front, needing to see her face and determine her safety for himself. A quick touch of the buttons and he heard the familiar litany of phrases acknowledging the call.
“9-1-1. What is your emergency?”
“There’s been a vehicle vs deer accident on Old Mill Road, just past the old Clemson place. About two miles east of Highway 271. Single occupant, alert and talking. Airbags deployed.”
“Tap?”
He felt his lips quirk at the dispatcher’s confused question as he stepped around the final pile of broken branches and into full view of the car. And Taryn.
He drank in the sight of her. Hair mussed, face reddened from the powder burn of the airbag deployment, blood trickling from one nostril—Taryn was still the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.
He kept his gaze on her face as he answered Becky in dispatch. “Yeah, this is Tap.”
“Jesus. Are you okay?” He ignored her question and she quickly moved on. “Okay. I’ll get medical rolling quick.” She seemed to compose herself. “What can you tell me about the driver?”
“Female. Twenty-nine years old. A-positive blood type. Five-foot nothing except in heels.” Taryn’s eyes widened and her mouth opened but nothing escaped. “Taryn Stone, Becky. She’s still in the vehicle, it’s wedged in pretty tight in the woods. She said her leg’s trapped between the seat and the door. If emergency hasn’t rolled out yet, make sure they bring the saw.”
“Jesus, Tap.” He heard her relay the information. “She’s awake?”
“Uh huh.” Becky knew the story. Hell, everyone in town knew the story. Prom king, football captain, president of the debate team—dropped like he was four-day-old hash when a pretty college boy had come to town. Taryn’s brutal ability to turn offher emotions had shocked him, caused his tiny teenaged ego to implode, and what he’d seen as her betrayal had eaten at him. It was laughable now, with more than a decade of experience under his belt, but at seventeen the loss of their relationship had been devastating. Had driven him to skip the college experience entirely—no matter he’d had a couple of full-ride offers thrown at him—and he’d hied himself straight to the nearest Army recruiter. Two days after graduation he’d ridden a bus away from town.
Eight years and two overseas tours later, he’d taken his buyout money and left the service. Only after verifying Taryn was still good and gone had he decided to return home and put his medic training to good use, working as a volunteer for the firehouse and a paid EMT.
“I’m going to hang up and see if I can get into the car with her, get some vitals and assess. I just wanted to call it in first since she was awake and alert.” Getting into the car meant getting close to her. Taking her vitals meant touching her for the first time in…a lifetime.
I can do this.
