Page 15 of Catch Me, Cowboy
He smiled that cool half-smile of his. “I’ll have the trailer moved by the end of the day.”
Chapter Four
Keeping an oldman from hurting himself was a lot of work… especially when the old man was a guy who didn’t want anyone doing anything for him.
Finally, after Les had dug his fourth posthole, Ty reached out and took the diggers from him. Les’s gloved hands fell to his sides as he shot Ty a fierce look.
“What are you paying me for?” Ty asked, holding the diggers out of reach.
“To help me fence.” Les growled.
“Then stop paying me towatchyou fence.”
Les pulled in a breath that expanded his chest a good inch or so, and Ty fully expected an argument to follow, but instead Les’s cheeks puffed out and then he exhaled.
“I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, letting you be here on the ranch.”
“Why wouldn’t it be the right thing?” Ty asked.
“Because I worry about Shelby.”
Ty had known this talk was coming and was relieved Les had decided to dive in shortly after their workday had begun. The sooner they had this settled, the sooner Les would stop trying to kill himself by working too hard.
“It ruined her when you took off.” Les reached out and took the diggers from Ty. He walked to the next stake and stabbed them into the moist ground. Ty followed.
“It would have ruined her if I’d stayed. I needed to go.”
“She tried to hide it from me, but the girl was hurting.” Another stab. “Bad. It took her months to get back to her old self.”
Ty tightened one corner of his mouth and looked past Les to the treelined horizon. “She’s doing okay now. We agreed to put the past behind us.”
“How so?” Les asked suspiciously.
“We’re going to… start fresh.”
The old man snorted and put his back into the next stab of the diggers. “Well, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t start at all.” He sounded serious.
“If you thought that was a danger, then why did you agree to let me come back to work?”
“Shelby set this whole damned thing up.”
“Kind of blindsided you?”
Les leaned on the diggers, perspiration gleaming on his forehead. Shelby was going to kill him if Les did himself harm on his watch. “Yeah. Pretty much.”
“So why not kick me off the place?”
“Because I need the help,” Les admitted gruffly.
“Not from what I’ve seen.”
“I’m working out some frustrations, okay? I can’t control Shelby’s life, but I worry about her. Having you back in Marietta… I figured maybe I could talk to you, get you to see that you and Shelby… well, it’s not good for her” He met Ty’s gaze then. “I like you, Ty. Always have. But I can’t have Shelby getting hurt again.”
“And if I do hurt her, are you going to cut off my nuts or something?”
The look Les gave him before giving the diggers another sharp jab into the ground was answer enough. Hurt Shelby and he’d be singing soprano.
“Gotcha.”
