CHAPTER 17 TRISTAN

I leap out of the truck as my body seemingly prepares for battle.

My chest tightens, my jaw is set, and my eyes harden. My armor is on, and I will do whatever it takes to protect the woman I love from the woman I…don’t love.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I hiss, and I feel Tessa’s presence as she moves in behind me.

“Is this the one that’s been causing all the problems?” Savannah asks, looking just over my shoulder.

“No. You are the one who caused all the problems,” I say.

Savannah shakes her head with a bit of disgust. “You didn’t push for the divorce until you came back to this hellhole of a town, and suddenly it’s old times again for the two of you?” She rolls her eyes. “Listen, Tris. You know I’ve been doing my due diligence, and I came to tell you the truth about her.”

I hold up a hand. “That’s enough, Savannah. I know everything I need to know, and last I checked, our divorce is final and I’m through with you. You can see yourself out of this hellhole of a town.” I turn to walk down the driveway, grabbing Tessa’s hand on the way so I can walk her home.

“Can we just talk for two minutes?” she asks. “Alone?”

Tessa squeezes my hand, and I can’t tell if she’s clutching me closer in solidarity or if it’s more her way of telling me not to do it.

Either way, I make my own decisions. “No,” I tell Savannah. “You can take your last-ditch effort to get me back and shove it.”

“That’s not why I’m here,” she says. “You know I’ve always just wanted what was best for you, and this?” She nods toward Tessa. “This ain’t it.”

I spin around to face her again. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Leave. Get out of Fallon Ridge. Get out of Vegas. Get out of my life.” I hear the fatigue in my own voice, but frankly I’m tired of going round after round with her. “I don’t want you here. Nobody does, and it’s over, Savannah. We are over. Move on. Find someone else you can make miserable because it can’t be me anymore.”

We’re walking up Tessa’s driveway when Savannah sighs loudly. “I’m not leaving. I’m here to attend the festival tomorrow. I’ve got a gaudy room at that hideous bed and breakfast in town, so I’ll be close.”

Tessa’s unlocking her front door while Savannah’s talking, and I walk in behind her and slam the door shut.

“Fuck,” I say, and then I yell, “Fuck!” as I punch a balled up fist into my other palm.

Tessa wraps her arms around me, and it’s the calm I need with my ex-wife slithering around town. I stand there a beat as I allow her comfort to wash over me, and then I loop an arm around her waist.

“God, I hate her,” I say.

“Why is she doing this to you?” she asks.

“That’s a great question. I don’t really know.” All I know is that she fixates on things to the point of obsession, and when Luke warned me of that when we first got together, I ignored him. I never thought it would actually turn dangerous. I never thought the fact that she digs into people’s history was a sign of anything other than her doing her job.

But maybe it’s something bigger than that.

“I keep trying to figure out the meaning behind all of it—why she so badly wants to be married to a football player, why she sinks her claws in and doesn’t let go. All I can think is that she’s driven everyone she ever loved away because of her behavior, and now she’s lonely.”

“Have you met her family?” she asks, pulling out of our hug and walking over to the kitchen table.

I shake my head as I follow her. “She and her mother have been estranged since her parents got divorced when she was a freshman in high school. She chose to live with her father, but from everything I’ve ever heard about him, it sounds like he was pretty emotionally unavailable. He died on her twenty-third birthday.”

“Why’d she choose to live with him if he was emotionally unavailable?” She sits, and I take my seat beside her.

I shrug. “She didn’t talk about it much, but I got the sense her mother was involved with other men who possibly didn’t treat Savannah very nicely.”

Tessa’s brows dip. “That’s really sad, but I think you just summed up her attachment issues, Tristan. Was her father a football fan?”

“I think so, yes.” I nod. “I remember her telling me how much he loved Jack Dalton when they were together, but Jack broke up with her.”

“There you go. And she was married before?”

“She ended up marrying Jack’s brother, Luke. She blackmailed him, too. It’s just the way she is.” I sigh. I really, really, really wish I would’ve listened to Luke when he tried to warn me off her. Everything he said was the truth—including that she’d blind me with sex and promises only to bail on all of it the second she roped me into marriage.

God, I was stupid. I wasted so much time on her.

I’m not sure how much it really matters, though, in the long run. Tessa wasn’t in my life for the majority of my time with Savannah, and all it took to push me in the right direction was the mere thought of getting her back.

But I should’ve known she wouldn’t just lie back and take it. She spent two years fighting to stay married to me. She’s not going to walk away quietly.

“She’s just doing what she thinks her father would have wanted her to do, and now he’s not here to tell her otherwise,” she says quietly. “But if he was emotionally unavailable, he might not have tried to guide her in a different direction anyway.”

I can’t help but wonder if she’s projecting her own insecurities on my ex-wife. “Are you?” I ask.

“What?”

“Doing what you think your father would have wanted you to do?”

She glances at me thoughtfully for a beat before she answers. “No. I hated my father for a long time, and there were things he did that I never forgave him for. And then he died, and I found out he was even worse than what I thought. It’s not his approval I care about.” She shakes her head. “I wish I had it in me to forgive him, though. It’s like a big weight I’m carrying around, and I don’t like the stress of it. But how do you grant forgiveness to somebody who’s gone?”

“I don’t know,” I murmur. “I guess you just…do it. You let it go. Drop that weight so it stops holding you back.”

“Tristan, I—” she begins at the same time I say, “I should go—”

She offers an awkward chuckle. “You go.”

“I should go check on Coach and the tables and chairs,” I say, wondering what she was about to say. “Will you be okay?”

“I’m fine,” she says, and I gaze at her a beat to make sure I believe her words.

I press a kiss to my hand and lay it over her stomach, and then I lean in and brush my lips across hers.

She lets out a soft, contented moan, and then I push back from the table.

“I’ll report back in a bit,” I say, and she nods.

“Thanks for all you’re doing,” she says softly.

“Anything for you.” I wink, but honestly I’m not sure I’ve ever meant anything more in my life. After running into Savannah, I realize I will do literally anything for Tessa.

Anything…even heading over to Mrs. Harrison’s B and B to confront my ex-wife.