Page 27 of Catch Me, Cowboy
Les sent him a surprised look, then laughed. “Yeah. I guess that’s exactly what I mean.” He sat on the edge of the trailer and pulled a bandana out of his pocket to wipe his face. “So she’ll be honest about her abilities.”
“But you’re still worried.”
“I am.”
Ty nodded and refrained from saying, “Me, too,” knowing in Les’s eyes he’d lost that right.
Les sighed and stared off across the meadow. “I don’t normally worry about her. Not more than the usual amount anyway.”
“You know how pissed she would be if she knew we were discussing her like this?”
“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” Les went back to the trailer and picked up another post. “When this fence is done, you’re pulling out, right?” The words were more of an order than a casual comment.
“I am.” Which was true. If all went well, he’d be back on the road after the Copper Mountain Rodeo.
“Shelby might ask you to stay on to help me out. Don’t.”
Ty choked back a laugh. “No worries there.” He hit the t-post so hard he sank it too deep.
Shit. He reached out and wiggled the post. Pretty solid, too.
“You know… I didn’t come back to hurt Shelby.”
Les shot him a look, but said nothing.
“Do you think I would have made a good husband? Before I left?”
“You guys didn’t have to get married.”
“You’re saying I could have just hung around.”
“Until you two knew for sure,” Les agreed.
“Maybe I did know for sure… then.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Les spoke in a slow staccato rhythm, emphasizing each word.
“I couldn’t miss that window of opportunity.” Not with his father edging ever closer to depression as the farm fell to pieces around him.
But it wasn’t only his father living through him that pushed him to leave… he’d needed to get the rodeo out of his system. He’d seen firsthand what happened to people who didn’t. He didn’t think a day went by that his dad didn’t regret giving up his career.
Les’s mouth quirked in ayeah surekind of way and then he turned to drag another metal post off the trailer. Ty followed him and set the hammer down on the fender.
“I know Shelby thinks that means I put the rodeo ahead of her and, yeah, I did. But I wasn’t ready for anything else. Had I stayed”—he gestured as his lips tightened—“it would have been a train wreck.” He picked up the hammer again and then reached out to take the post from the old man. “And I think you know that.”
Les didn’t respond. The power of silence.
“Here’s the deal, Les. I didn’t have the maturity to commit back then. I do now. And you may have married your bride at the age of nineteen and been blissfully happy forever and a day, but I had to grow up a little, and I recognized that.”
He turned back to the fence and started pacing off the distance to the next post. He was done talking. Les didn’t say one blessed word in response. Instead he started the quad and followed Ty, and once they were at the new locale, he silently went to work. But he looked thoughtful, so maybe Ty had gotten his point across to at least one of the O’Connors. If not, then he would leave the ranch in a couple of weeks with both of them thinking he was a total asshole.
Chapter Seven
“Iwish I’dthought of redoing this depot,” Cassie said as she and Shelby waited for their order at FlintWorks. She said something along those lines every time they met in the old train station, and Shelby saw her point. Not only was FlintWorks successful, it was beautiful.
“Somehow I don’t think you have the resources of Jason Flint.”
Cassie pointed a finger at her. “Andthatis the only thing that stopped me.”
