Page 26 of Catch Me, Cowboy
“I had my own demons to slay.”
“At my expense.” She repeated.
“I wouldn’t have been any good to you had I stayed.”
“I think you could have been… you just didn’t want to badly enough.”
“I’m not going to crawl to you on my belly, Shelby.” Which was a lie, because he was close to doing that now.
Letting things go, starting fresh, had been his idea, but he could see now that it wasn’t realistic. They had too many things to talk about, too many deep hurts to address. If they didn’t, then Shelby wouldn’t purposely be picking a fight with him right now.
“I don’t want you to crawl.” She sounded surprised at the idea, which was total bullshit.
“Are you sure?”
She held his eyes for the longest time, her frown deepening before she said, “No. Maybe not.”
“Thank you for the honesty.” The words sounded hollow.
Shelby dropped her gaze, studied the ground near her boots for a moment. Her voice had a husky edge when she finally said, “I haven’t been honest.”
“How so?”
She met his eyes in a serious way. “I can’t let things go, because they hurt like hell and I haven’t worked through them. I can’t say that I’m not still attracted to you, because I am.”
“That’s a bad thing?” He wanted so badly to reach out to her, pull her close.
Kiss her the way he’d wanted to kiss her when he walked back onto this ranch over a week ago.
“I don’t trust you. I don’t know that I ever will.”
“What do we do about that?”
She gave a scoffing laugh. “What can we do? We figure out a way to coexist.”
“Do you think we can do that?”
“We have no choice if you’re going to stay in the area.”
*
Les was quietas he and Ty loaded the tools before going to work the next morning, which suited Ty, because he didn’t feel like talking. He had no idea what was eating at Les, but Ty knew what was eating at him. Shelby pretty much said she still cared for him, but couldn’t, or wouldn’t allow herself, to trust him.
They couldn’t have a relationship without trust.
He and Les worked in silence until it was time for lunch and then they sat on their respective four-wheelers, eating sandwiches, until Les finally let loose with an actual question.
“What do you think of that big gelding?” he asked as he wadded up his lunch bag and shoved it into the tool box.
“Probably exactly what you’re thinking.” Ty got off the four-wheeler and pulled a t-post off the trailer.
Les gave a snort of agreement and picked up his hammer. “Shelby’s good. Has a way with horses.”
“I agree.”
Ty put the post in place and Les hammered. He and Ty had come to an agreement—Les would hammer posts until he started to feel it, then he would stop for the day. “She had a horse once that was all skittish like that. Worked him for a couple of days, then called the owner and sent it home.”
Ty was glad to hear that. “So you’re saying she doesn’t have short-woman’s syndrome.”
