Page 29 of Catch Me, Cowboy
Ty turned toward her, his features shadowed by the brim of the ball cap he was wearing. “I don’t know if he did the horse-Houdini thing, or if Les forgot to close the gate latch after he cleaned out the water trough.”
“Why did he clean out the water trough?”
“Humongous dust devil came through, tossed debris everywhere. We scooped out all the troughs on this side of the barn.”
Evarado started pacing the fence, then came to a stop in the far corner. “Glad you caught him before he hurt himself. You know how it goes—”
“The horse that gets hurt is the expensive one or the borrowed one.”
“Exactly.” Shelby turned toward the fence and studied the horse standing out of the light, his dark coat blending into the night.
He snorted, a sharp whistling sound meant to warn off predators, and stamped his foot.
“Isn’t he beautiful?” Ty said in a fair imitation of Blake.
“Like you said, he’s scared. I wonder what happened to him, poor guy.”
“Does it matter?”
She shook her head. “I’ll evaluate for another day or two and if I make progress and he doesn’t seem dangerous, I’ll proceed as far as I can with him.”
They stood in silence, close, but not quite touching. Even so, she felt him. Felt his warmth, felt his strength. Wanted to lean closer, but didn’t dare because she didn’t know if she could stop herself from disaster if she got too close.
He touched her shoulder and her gaze snapped toward him as her heart leaped. “I’m not the enemy, Shelb.”
Her body stiffened as she fought the need to touch him as he was touching her, a response so deeply ingrained in her that she was surprised shecouldfight it.
It was only when she forced herself to remember he’d left her and then come back expecting all to be well that she was able to say, “You’re not the answer, either. You’re… a distraction.”
She felt his reaction, felt his hand contract before he let it fall away, breaking the contact she told herself she didn’t want. More honestly, it wasn’t so much a matter of didn’t want as couldn’t afford to want. Because she wanted. That was the problem.
“What the hell does that mean? A distraction?”
Shelby lifted her chin and explained. “You are a walking talking reminder of a time in my life when everything had seemed so perfect… before it all went to hell.”
“Then why am I here, Shelby? On this ranch? Because even though I can handle your grandfather, you could have hired someone else.”
He wasn’t touching her, but he was close enough Shelby wanted to put more space between them. Maybe a few extra feet would calm the jangling of her nerves and thoughts. But stepping away smacked of retreat, and caring too much, and reacting too much, so she stayed planted exactly where she was. “I thought that if you were here… if we spent time together without being lovers, that it would change things.”
“How?”
“I thought I would get used to you.”
He frowned, showing he wasn’t quite following and one corner of her mouth quirked impatiently.
“Like sacking out a colt. You expose him to the things that make him react and eventually, with increased exposure, he no longer reacts to them.”
The frown turned into stunned lift of his eyebrows. “You were sacking out our relationship so you no longer reacted to me?”
“We don’t have a relationship, but yes, that was the theory.”
She assumed he was going to tell her what a stupid idea it was, because it sounded totally lame when spoken out loud, but that wasn’t why she shifted her weight and swallowed dryly. No, that had to do with the way he was looking at her, with his eyes slightly narrowed as if considering options.
“Let’s see how this is working.”
“How so,” she asked cautiously, not liking the look in his eye.
“Kiss me.”
