Page 19 of Catch Me, Cowboy
“Once you get an idea in your head, you’re like a terrier with a rat.”
Shelby frowned at him. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Take it as you will. I’m honestly trying to take the lead.”
“Try harder.”
“Will do.”
Shelby glanced at the machine shed and saw that Ty had ripped into one of the four-wheelers. Her shoulders slumped. “Please don’t tell me we’re looking at something major?”
“Not certain, but it’s running rough. Thought I’d take a look before showering.”
Ty wiped his hands on a rag, slowly taking the grease off each finger. “I haven’t seen much of you since arriving.”
She gave a small shrug as her pulse bumped again. “I have a full schedule. In fact, I have another horse arriving tonight.”
“I heard.”
Good. “I’m glad you and Gramps are talking. Sometimes he doesn’t.”
“I worked with the man for a couple of years.”
“You also screwed with his granddaughter and he doesn’t like that.”
“No kidding.” He gave his hands a final wipe. “Is that why you’re avoiding me?”
“Avoiding you?”
“I’ve seen the neighbor more often than I’ve seen you.”
“I have no need to avoid you. We’re starting over, remember? Clean slate?”
His mouth curved. That gorgeous, treacherous, could-do-things-to-her mouth. “I remember,” he said softly.
The words flowed over her like a caress. This was not going well.
“Maybe I’ll stop by after you get off work each day and touch base.”
She meant the words to be sarcastic, but Ty took them at face value. “Good idea. I could tell you how far we’ve gotten. Give you a Les report, since he’s the reason I’m here.”
“Yes. Good idea.”Hoisted on her own petard.But full immersion was the name of the game and she’d been side-stepping—to the point that Ty had called her on it.
“Cool.”
“Cool.” She echoed. “I need to take care of some stuff in the house. Like I said, I have a horse coming in about an hour and some business in town after that.”
“Busy evening.”
She gave a small shrug. “Keeps me out of trouble.”
She hoped. Because trouble incarnate was standing a few yards away from her.
*
Ty figured outthe problem with the fuel line shortly after Shelby marched away toward the house, patched things up, then headed to the homestead house to shower.
She wasn’t avoiding him. Right. He’d worked on this ranch before and Shelby had been all over the place then. Now she tended to make a beeline from the horse corrals to the house as soon as she finished training and feeding. And if she was avoiding him, then she wasn’t indifferent to him.
