Page 65 of Catch Me, Cowboy
“Both?”
“I was afraid of becoming my dad, Shelby, and I was worried about you becoming like my mom, controlled by her husband’s resentment. I believed Dad when he said I needed to follow my dreams. Both Austin and I did.”
“So you left me.”
“I asked you to come, despite my dad telling me not to.”
“I felt like my dream was taking second place to yours.”
“I thought that my dream had a time limit and yours didn’t.”
She frowned over at him. “I wish we could have said these things four years ago.”
His grip on her thigh tightened ever so slightly. “Maybe we needed four years to think.”
“Why the confession now, Ty?”
“Because if we are going to try to build something, we need to truly understand where we stand. What our fears and motivations are. We loved each other before, but we didn’t share a lot.” He paused for a moment and then said, “My riding scares you, doesn’t it?”
Shelby looked down at her lap and was surprised to see that she was twisting her hands together. She released her fingers and laid her palms on her thighs, splaying the fingers. “I may as well just come out and say it. Yes. Your riding scares me.”
“So why did you tell me to ride tonight?”
“I think you should do this documentary. It’s a huge deal. My fear of your riding… that’s my problem. Not yours.”
“No. It’s our problem.” She looked up at him and he smoothed the hair back from her cheek with a gentle stroke of his hand. “I’m not leaving you, Shelby. Whether or not I ride, I’m not leaving you.”
“You can’t promise that. Look at what happened to Harry.”
There. She’d said it. Let out her biggest fear. Losing Ty permanently.
“And your mom.”
Shelby swallowed. “And my mom.”
Ty leaned in and kissed her then. A sweet, I’m-there-for-you kiss, his lips moving gently over hers, one hand cradling the back of her head, the other at her cheek. As he pulled back, Shelby opened her eyes and focused on the man sitting a few inches away from her, whose taste was still on her lips. A man she couldn’t stand to lose again.
“Maybe we should go home,” she whispered. “We can get my truck in the morning.”
“Good idea.”
Chapter Fourteen
Shelby and Tydidn’t talk as he took the back roads home to the Forty-Six Ranch, but there wasn’t much more that needed said. What Shelby needed now was time to process.
She called the hospital shortly after arriving home and was told her grandfather was doing well and, if nothing changed, she’d be able to pick him up at noon the following day. Shortly after that, she called the insurance company, the salvage company that had towed Gramps’s truck, and Cassie, just to let her know that all was essentially well.
“Do you want to stay with me? Or do you want me to come to the ranch?” Cassie asked. “Because you shouldn’t be alone right now.”
“I’m not alone,” Shelby said simply. Ty was outside feeding and she knew he wasn’t going anywhere. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
She ended the call and set the phone on the table. It would be twilight soon. What had been one of the longest days of her adult life was almost over.
And she was not alone.
That meant so much. She could have handled alone, because she was a survivor, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to be with Ty. She wanted to wake up in the morning with him there next to her, and go to sleep at night curled up against him. And she wanted him to follow the dream that meant so much to him.
Shelby got to her feet and walked out the door, the crisp, early evening breeze ruffling her hair. She spotted Ty near the homestead house and started toward him. His head lifted as she approached.
