Chapter 5

• “That’s for touching me without my permission. The moment you left me that day, you cut the right to touch me.” She pointed her finger on his face.
• Tripp was watching her closely, eyes flickering to hers, down her plump lips.
• “And you can’t just come over and talk to me like you own me. We were over, Tripp. What we had are far long gone. And yeah, I’m not married, but it doesn’t mean that I sent myself to become a nun, or I’ve been waiting for you.” She looked at him from head to toe.
• Tripp was more confident than before — overconfident and more gorgeous than ever, but he was also a self-absorbed bastard.
• “I don’t have to get married to satisfy my needs. I am sure you’re also not a saint. And I slept with men who didn’t leave me after they got what they wanted.”
• Tripp was still rooted in his place as he watched Ari walk away from him. He felt his chest squeezed painfully, and the fact that he might have gotten a first-degree burn, but every inch of his body ached, including his dick and blue balls.
• What had he done? What was he expecting anyway? That Ari would welcome him with open arms? He knew that was bullshit.
• “Well, that didn’t go well.” The voice of his sister behind him had him frozen. She couldn’t know what was going on between him and Ari now the situation was out of his control.
• Charleigh would hate him. He hadn’t told a soul about what happened to them in Las Vegas, but he had no plan on keeping it that way. At least, he had to tell a soul for him to move on. If he even wanted to move on. But not today.
• He closed his gaping mouth, clenched his teeth hard, and released a frustrated breath through his flaring nose. He looked down at his coffee-stained shirt.
• Groaning, he pulled it over his head, looked at the red spot on his abdomen, and dabbed it carefully.
• “Fuck. It hurts.” He grimaced.
• “What did you exactly do? She’s so kind to make her angry like that.” Charleigh took the soiled shirt from her brother. “Follow me. I’ll let you lend Bryce’s.”
• He ignored his sister’s question because if he would answer her, she would ask another question that would lead to another. He was still pissed off to even think of telling her the truth. The fact that Charleigh might hate him, he couldn’t stand the thought that the two most important women in his life despised him because of his sheer selfish decision.
• When they reached the house, he slumped his ass on the sofa. The dog, Lotus waggled its tail at him. It whined when he petted it. Ari mentioned that he was allergic to cats, making him chuckle.
• The constant sighing didn’t go unnoticed when Charleigh came back with a wet towel and a shirt.
• “Tripp, what’s the deal between you and Ari? You don’t have to tell me the details, but seeing her reaction earlier, I know that accident wasn’t the first time you met her, was it?”
• He wiped off the coffee-stained from his abdomen down to his V. “I need to go back to the inn to shower.”
• “Fine. Don’t tell me, but you need to apologize, Tripp.”
• He stopped from what he was doing and narrowed his eyes at Charleigh. “She burned me. Can’t you see this?” He let his sister look at the aftermath of the hot beverage on his skin.
• “And before that?” His sister arched a brow. By the look on her face, she knew it was her brother’s fault.
• “Not gonna talk about it.” He put the plaid shirt on.
• “You look good on plaid.”
• “Don’t go there. I’m not gonna adapt your town folks,” he said through clenched teeth.
• “Yet you are here winning a beautiful lady,” Charleigh sang.
• “For God’s sake, woman. I am here to see you and my nephew.”
• “Keep telling yourself that. And when you called me over the phone, you would tell me what was bothering you. Now it’s time, brother. No more excuses.”
• He walked to the door. “I really need to go back to the inn and clean up, sis. I have a meeting with Dax later. I’ll drop by to see my nephew and join you over dinner.”
• “One day, you will be running out of excuses, Tripp. I need to know, and I am your sister after all. We promised not to keep secrets anymore. You should keep that promise the way I do. And if it involves Ari, I will understand. You’ve been there for me when I had trouble with Bryce. That’s what siblings do.”
• “I know, but not today, sis.” He clamped his mouth shut before he could blurt something out. His chest tightened, making it harder to breathe as he finally closed the door behind him.
• He was Tripp Wrylee—the man who worked his ass off, relentless, persuasive, and persistent until he got what he craved.
• He gave her up once, and he had no plan on making that same mistake again. He would do anything by any means necessary. He would have her back—it was written in the stone. He knew she still had feelings for him. Perhaps, she was hurt, but doing the right thing might suffice the lost times they had.
• Cut the shit. Ari would not make things easy for him for the second time around—he knew that now.
• ***
• “I called Ari last night.”
• His head snapped at Dax sitting on his desk in the mayor’s office. Tripp was looking at the town view—it was beautiful and too quiet for his taste. They were mostly brick-stone buildings. He could also see the lake from a distance.
• At first, he didn’t get why his sister preferred this place and gave up her job. That was if he wouldn’t consider her love for Bryce.
• “She said you were in one piece when she left you. Unless the bear got into you later.”
• He managed to chuckle despite the constant knots in his stomach.
• Ari had a way with her words—That was one of many sexy things he liked about her. She looked innocent, yet she was alluring in her own way. Her full red lips though. He ravaged them many times, and he could still feel them against his own despite the years had passed. He blinked it off before Dax would notice the evidence of his lust for Ari.
• “Why was she driving that beat up?” He noticed the old truck she was driving.
• “Her dad borrowed her car to visit her sick aunt in the other town. So, Hopes Spring has grown on you pretty quick, huh?” Dax moved closer and stood by his side as they both looked outside the window.
• “I came to visit Charleigh and Nashville.”
• “People have a thing in naming their kids, do they?”
• He looked at Dax, arching one brow.
• “Arizona, Nashville, Raker, Tripp,” Dax added.
• His brows drew closer. “What do you mean?”
• “Tripp to Arizona?”
• What the fuck does that even mean?