I nodded, resigned to the fact that this was just Dean being who he was. He was always so protective of me.
In silence, we hailed a cab and rode the whole way without uttering a word. It wasn’t like us not to say anything, so it was completely unsettling and foreign.
Once we were parked outside my house, I made a move to pay the driver, but Dean stopped me. “I got this. You go in and get some rest.”
I smiled timidly at him and nodded. “Thank you.”
I opened the car door and was about to get out when I heard a whisper behind me. “I love you, Tyler O’Shea. Don’t you ever forget that.”
I paused for a moment, my eyes pooling with tears. I didn’t look back because I knew I couldn’t possibly leave without him if I did. Instead, I got out of the cab, walked up to my door, and walked in without a backwards glance. Once inside, I leaned back against my door and slowly slid to the floor.
Chapter 6
Dean
It is his capacity for self-improvement
and self-redemption which most distinguishes
man from the mere brute.
Aung San Suu Kyi
I watched as Tyler opened her door and went in without looking back once. It fucking killed me. I gave the cab driver the address of where I was staying and sat back, burying my head in my hands.
“Rough night?”
I pulled my hands away and looked at a pair of eyes staring at me in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, something like that.”
“There’s always that one, isn’t there?”
I frowned, not knowing what he was getting at. “What do you mean?”
I saw his eyes crinkle into a smile. “The one who sticks with you no matter what. The one who never leaves your mind no matter how many years have passed.”
I laughed silently, thinking how perceptive he was. He was more correct than he realized. “You got that right.”
“Can I ask you something?”
I laughed. “You can try.”
“Is she worth it?”
My heart wrenched in my chest. She was worth it more than she would ever know. “She’s definitely worth it. She’s worth it all and more.”
The cab driver shrugged. “Then I guess you gotta keep telling yourself the same thing.”
Raising my eyebrow, I wondered where he was going with this. “What’s that?”
He looked up at me in the mirror. “Some things are just worth fighting for.”
The cab driver dropped me off, his words still ringing in my ears. I didn’t know who the hell he was, but something inside was telling me he was like a voice of reason. Someone I was meant to bump into so he could give me a message I really needed to hear. When Tyler left me, I didn’t know what to think. I felt like I was losing her all over again. She looked so broken tonight. After the fight, I thought things might change between us and I’d finally get my Tyler back. Then something shifted in the air after Tara and Jimmy left. Her playful, soft features suddenly turned hard. She put up her walls so strong, even I couldn’t penetrate them. I just wished I knew what the fuck she was thinking. It always fascinated me when I was younger, but now that we were all grown up and things around us had changed, it just frustrated the hell out of me. I needed to know what she felt. If I knew there was a chance she would possibly let me in, I’d be around at her house like a shot, begging her to take me back.
But she obviously needed time, and I wanted her to see that I was the kind of man who could give her what she needed. I wasn’t going to be selfish and beg for her time, beg for her love, no matter how much it fucking cut me up not to. It took everything within me not to reach out and touch her. She was like my magnet. I was drawn to her like an invisible force. It was the same thing that drew me so violently towards her when I was only eight-years-old. It never waned, it never stopped. In fact, the power of it just grew stronger with time.
When I got back to hotel, all was quiet. Jimmy was obviously still out with Tara and I certainly wasn’t expecting him home tonight. I never saw Jimmy like that with a woman before. Tara seemed like a nice girl, though. Anyone who wanted to love and protect Tyler was always going to be a friend to me.
As I opened the fridge to get a bottle of water, I looked up and saw that it was after two in the morning. It certainly had been quite a night. Thinking about it made me smile. Tyler was on fire tonight. Thinking about her fighting all those big men in the bar made my dick twitch. I knew she was always a little bit feisty, but I had never actually seen her in action like that. It was fucking sexy. I don’t know how she could possibly even begin to think I could walk away from her. Not now. Not ever.
Some things are just worth fighting for.