Page 2 of Catch Me, Cowboy
Ty hadn’t come back to Marietta once after leaving—not even for the rodeo. He’d called her exactly one time, shortly after taking off, turning her inside out yet again, and she’d told him no more calls. He hadn’t attempted to contact her after that, which made her think he had understood they were through.
He shifted his weight again. His tell. “Four years is long time. I’ve never stopped thinking about you.”
She stared at him for a moment. Was he honestly going here? Trying to pick things up again?
“Are you saying that you made the wrong choice four years ago?” When he’d chosen rodeo over staying and making a life with her?
“I made the only choice I could.”
The only choice he could make was rodeo?
A spark of anger flickered to life. “But now that your career is over”—ended by a mare who’d gone down and crushed him more than half a year ago—“you’re back?” She let out a snort. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate being your contingency plan.”
“That isn’t how it is.”
“How else would you explain it, Ty?” Her tone had hardened, but she caught herself. “Never mind. You don’t need to explain.” Because needing an explanation meant she cared.
“Shelby…” He stepped closer and the gelding jerked his head up.
Ty instantly stopped, giving the skittish animal time to figure out he wasn’t an enemy and sure enough, the gelding lowered his head, stretched his nose out curiously. Ty knew horses.
He read them, which helped in his chosen line of work. “Maybe this isn’t the time.”
She forced a humorless smile and kept her voice even as she said, “You’re right. This isn’t the time. Nor is tomorrow. Nor the next day. I’ll let you extrapolate from there.”
If he’d just stopped by to say hello and warn her that he was back, she could have handled it just fine. Could have continued to believe she was through with the man. But to have the balls to insinuate that they weren’t yet done?
Oh, she wasdone. Because she couldn’t afford not to be.
The horse grew impatient, started dancing again, jerking Shelby’s arm. It was her fault. She should have put him away instead of expecting him to stand patiently while two humans duked it out verbally.
The gelding swung his butt around, stamping his front feet, and Ty made a move, as if to calm the animal, but he stopped when she shot him a warning look. She’d handle things on her own.Thank you very much. Just as she’d done for close to forever. Besides, she didn’t think she could stand it if he touched her. Didn’t think she could handle the memories pouring back. As it was, it was killing her just being this close to him, fighting the unexpected emotions roaring through her.
She could tell herself she didn’t care all she wanted—hell, she’dconvincedherself she didn’t care and had believed it… until he showed up. Now she cared. She cared about being hurt and being betrayed. She cared about Gramps being let down again. Her grandfather had loved Ty like a grandson and she was certain Ty’s abandonment had hurt him as much as it’d hurt her.
“It was good seeing you, Ty.” Lie of the century. “I’d appreciate it if you left before Gramps sees you. You hurt him, too, you know.”
“I know.”
That was when Shelby felt tears starting to burn her eyes. It didn’t matter if they were angry tears, they were tears all the same and she would not cry. “I have work to do,” she said abruptly. “You need to leave.”
With that she turned and started leading the gelding toward the corral, escaping while she still had her composure. It wasn’t the smoothest exit she’d ever made, but it would have to do. At least until she got a grip.
Her next horse, a paint mare she was evaluating as a prospect for a twelve-year-old beginning rider, was waiting for her, head hanging over the fence. The horse gave a gentle nicker, but Shelby barely registered the equine greeting.
She released the gelding and headed for the mare’s pen, refusing to look back. Hell. Afraid to look back. Finally, after an eternity, she heard the truck door open and close. A moment later the diesel engine fired to life and relief surged through her, but it wasn’t until the sound of the engine had faded into the distance that she allowed herself to turn and watch Ty’s truck slow at the end of the long driveway, then ease out onto the county road. She turned her attention back to the paint mare, disgusted that her hands were shaking a little. Reaction. She’d wondered about this reunion for years—known it was inevitable, but hadn’t expected it to affect her this badly.
The hell of it was, she knew this wasn’t over.
Ty didn’t give up easily and if he wanted to talk to her, he’d made another stab at it. But she wouldn’t allow it to be here, with Gramps around… which meant she was going to have to take matters into her own hands and set a time and place for their final—and she meantfinal—showdown.
“Hey, Shelby.” She turned to see Gramps standing on the porch.
He was still wearing his town clothes, which was good. It meant he was taking it easy today as he’d promised. He’d been moving more slowly lately and it bothered her. But the one thing her grandfather never did was admit to any kind of pain or weakness. A personal code of honor that drove her insane. He’d taken her in and cared for her in his own gruff way when her mom died, and now she was going to take care of him. The only problem was that he wasn’t cooperating.
“Who was that?”
A lie? The truth? He was going to find out sooner or later, but later wouldn’t kill him. And it would give her time to come up with strategy. “Somebody who needed directions.”
