Page 56 of Missing Pieces (Men of Manhattan 3)

I didn't really have anything to say to that. Telling her I was trying to run away from my feelings for her wasn't exactly a reason I felt like sharing. I turned away from her instead and picked up my sneakers. There was nothing to say. I needed to run because I was frustrated. And honestly, I was scared to death.

"Can you...come back to bed for just a few minutes?"

Reluctantly, I turned back toward her. I immediately realized that I had mistaken the sparkle in her eyes. It wasn't from the moonlight. She was crying. No one should look that beautiful when they were crying.

She wiped underneath her eyes. "Sorry, I just...I had a bad dream. And I thought...well, never mind." She wiped underneath her eyes again.

I dropped my sneakers on the floor and climbed back into bed. Seeing her cry made my chest ache. It completely trumped the twisted feeling in my stomach. I just wanted to make her happy. I wasn't sure when that had become the most important thing to me, but it was. I pulled her into my arms.

She immediately pressed her face against my chest as she wrapped her arms around me. She clung to me like she needed me. I closed my eyes. God, I needed her too.

"It's okay," I said and ran my fingers through her hair. "It was just a dream."

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I just keep having it over and over again. And when I wake up I think it's real." Her cold tears trickled down my chest.

"What is the dream about?" I kissed the top of her head. I still wanted her to open up to me. Even though I knew how one sided that was, because I hadn't opened up to her either.

She didn't say anything for a few minutes.

I took her silence as her not wanting to talk about it. "It's okay, Hails. It was just a dream."

She shook her head again, smearing her tears against my chest. "You've never told me about your family. Tell me about them."

I pressed my lips together as I looked down at the top of her head. "It's just me and my mom."

She looked up at me. Her eyes were still teary. "Are your parents divorced?"

"Um...no." I ran my hand down her back. "My dad actually passed away a few years ago. Well, not really a few anymore. Five years ago."

She pulled away from me. "Shit, Tyler I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. You couldn't have known." Because I don't talk about it.

"I'm so sorry."

"It's fine, Hails."

"What happened? If you don't mind me asking, that is."

I didn't really want to talk about it. But she had stopped crying. I didn't want her to start again. "It was a car accident."

She nodded. "Were you two close?"

"Yeah, we were."

She was starting to blink fast, like she was about to cry again. She reached out and splayed her fingers against the left side of my chest, right on top of my heart. "Sometimes the worst things happen to the best people."

We just stared at each other. Something unspoken seemed to settle around us. She was everything good. I certainly didn't feel that way about myself. But she seemed to see it in me. That warmed me to the core.

She let her hand fall from my chest as she snuggled in close to me again. "Is that why you said your biggest fear was dying?" Her breath was warm against my skin.

"Yeah, I guess." The lie came out before I could even stop it. The truth was more complicated than that. I learned a lot from my dad's death. But it was mostly to live each day to the fullest. To go after what you really wanted. I looked down at the girl lying on my chest. Maybe that's why I was scared of death now. I couldn't go after what I really wanted. Because what I wanted was Hailey. I was terrified of dying in combat without ever knowing what my life with her could have been.

"Thank you for staying."

I wanted to tell her I wasn't going anywhere. That I could be there whenever she needed someone to catch her when she fell. But that couldn't be me. Instead, I just held her until she fell asleep again. Then I slipped back out of bed and went for a run while dawn was just starting to break.

Chapter 29

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