I pressed my lips together.He'd always love her?
"Even if they never got back together, Penny said she'd never move on. She said she could never love me." He sighed. "That's it. I'm the biggest fucking joke."
I sat down next to him on the bed. To me it sounded like Penny was a tease. Running to him whenever there was the smallest problem in her relationship with James. Which was fine to do if they were just friends. But clearly it was more than that. She had to have known that. And I hated her for hurting him. Even if it wasn't intentional.
"But why are the cops coming after you?"
"Because James' ex wife is a psychopath. She's trying to set me up."
"Why?"
"I don't know. To break them up or something. She made it look like I stole money from them. And when that clearly didn't work, the psycho shot him. I have no idea why they're looking at me."
"So on the news when they said it was Penny's ex and best friend?"
Tyler shrugged. "Me and Melissa I guess. Which is crazy. I would never do anything to hurt Penny and neither would Melissa."
"And you broke up with Melissa because you realized you were still in love with Penny?"
"Yeah."
"And now you're traveling across the country to get away from all of it?"
Tyler didn't say anything.
"Why aren't you going back, though? If James dies..."
"I'm done being second. I'll be there for Penny as a friend if she wants, but nothing more. And I meant what I said before, Hails. I'm where I want to be. These past few days with you have been some of the best I've had in a long time."
"Me too." I took a deep breath. "I think I've been accidentally putting myself in a similar situation."
"What do you mean?"
I looked up into Tyler's baby blue eyes. "I'm falling for a guy that will never love me as much as he loves someone else." A tear trickled down my cheek. I lifted my hand to wipe it away, but his hand beat mine. He brushed away my tear with his thumb. It felt more intimate than any other moment between us before.
"I've been holding on to my feelings for Penny because it feels like I'm drowning when I don't have them. But it's not because of her. It's because of my own problems. I don't want to feel the way I do. I want to move on." His eyes searched mine.
"We can heal each other."
"That's the thing, Hails, I don't think you need healing. I think you need someone as whole and full of energy and life as you." He brushed away another of my tears.
"I think that maybe I just need you."
"You don't need me." He pressed his forehead against mine. His words and actions contradicted each other so fiercely. Like he was telling me no but beckoning me forward.
I breathed in his breaths. He tasted so sweet. Every second with him was better than any I had ever experienced before. "When I'm with you, I feel like everything's going to work out. Come back to Indiana with me. Please, I don't want this to end. Your heart is bigger than you realize. There's room for me too."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"When I left New York I felt like I needed something to hold on to."
"Hold on to me."
He brushed my tears away again. "If I could, I would. I'm falling for you. All I want to do is stay right here with you and forget the world."
That's what I wanted too. But the world wasn't stopping. And I was running out of time to save my dad. "Stop time back in Indiana."
