She buried her face in his chest and let herself cry.
“Shh,” Ty said, and she felt his lips on her head, a brotherly kiss. “I got you, honey. It’s all going to be okay.”
Probably not, but as long as she was lying, he could too.
“I’m sorry, but this interview is over.” Pete glanced at Tallie, then back toward Jess’s retreat and simply couldn’t stand there one more minute.
“Trust me, you’re hero enough for both of us.”
Unfortunately, Jess hadn’t chased her words with a smile or even given any hint that she didn’t mean to reach in and rip out his heart. He even reached up and pressed his hand to his chest, as if she’d actually left a raw, empty hole there.
For the first time in his life, he’d been trying to pass along the kudos. To step out of the limelight, maybe not try so hard to be liked. At least not by people who didn’t matter.
“Pete, we’re not done,” Tallie said, following him as he headed down the hall.
“I’ll be right back,” Pete said.
“I can’t do this, Pete.”
What couldn’t Jess do?
Please let it not be be with him.
He strode past his team—Ben and Chet, Gage and Kacey all looking at him like they should be scrambling behind him.
So maybe he wore a little thunder on his face. He held up his hand. “I’m fine. Gage, go woo the press with your snowboarder charm. Tell them how you saved Sam’s life.”
Sam. He hadn’t yet made it up to his brother’s room.
Sam was out of surgery, and out of critical condition. So much that they moved him to a regular room.
Pete couldn’t put a finger on why he hadn’t made it up there yet.
Maybe it was easier to play the hero, like Jess said.
He shook the thought away as he reached the double doors that connected to the main lobby.
Stopped.
Because through the strip of glass, he could look right into the mostly empty space and see the truth.
Jess had run away from him right into the arms of her former boyfriend, Ty Remington. By the looks of things, whatever happened out in the field today had reignited old flames. Jess clung to Ty, her head nestled into his chest, and even from here Pete could see she was sobbing.
Pete put a hand on the door, the urge to push his way in and demand answers stirring to flame inside him.
Then he saw Ty lean down and kiss her. On the top of her head, but the gesture bespoke gentleness, compassion.
Love.
Pete hadn’t seen that coming. Yes, Ty’s gaze usually lingered on her longer than it might, say, Gage, but the softness in Ty’s expression said much more.
Ty was still in love with her.
The way Jess clung to him, apparently she was too. Maybe hadn’t been, but whatever had happened over the past ten hours . . .
“He’s my teammate.”
Her words, her laughing tone, burned inside him, an ember low in his gut.
Oh, he was an idiot.
Pete turned around and stalked back to the ER waiting room, his brain churning with memories—Jess’s smile when he showed up to fix her plumbing, the way she clung to him as they’d raced down the mountain, her laughter in his ears.
The way she’d pulled him into her vortex, making him believe that he could stop being all-fun, all-the-time Pete and instead be someone who actually hung around, showed up for the hard stuff, who could build a life with her.
Apparently, she’d finally figured out he wasn’t that guy.
Except . . . And then he got it.
Tallie.
She stood waiting for him at the end of the hallway, her microphone put away. The cameramen were winding up cords, collecting their electronics. She smiled at Pete, so much welcome on her face.
It wasn’t hard to rewind, to slow down and see Jess’s expression as Tallie slipped her arm around him. His sins, returning to haunt him, and probably Jess could read the future.
All-fun, all-the-time Pete.
“Are you okay?” Tallie said now, her tone filled with real concern. She ran to keep up with him.
Admittedly, a dark, angry part inside him wanted to round on her. To tell her that, no, he wasn’t okay. And maybe she could do something about that. Then the old Pete, the one from even a week ago, would have given her a charming, dangerous smile, something with spark and heat in it, and suggested that they get out of here and find someplace to, um, talk.
He considered it a long moment, in fact.
But it was too late. He’d already met Jess, already seen something beyond tonight, which was probably why a week ago he hadn’t ended up making colossal mistakes with Tallie—a few yes, but nothing that required him to avoid the man in the mirror. Jess made him want to be that guy who stuck around. Fixed roofs and generally showed up the next day.