Page 68 of Catch Me, Cowboy
“He’s going to be a handful when he gets home.”
“Understatement of the year.”
“You’re sure you can leave him?”
“Here’s what I am sure of… the three of us can work things out. Compromise. And no matter what, when this next rodeo season ends, we’ll be together. That’s the important thing.
Ty leaned forward to kiss the woman he loved. “Actually, babe, it’s the only thing.”
Epilogue
“Are things anybetter?” Shelby came by to perch on the arm of Ty’s chair after he hung up the phone. His dad was driving him nuts, but he was also trying very, very hard to accept the fact that even though, seven months in, Ty was having a stellar comeback season, sitting fifth in the standings, this was his last rodeo season.
“He only dropped a couple of heavy hints about guys still competing that were way older than I am.” Ty smiled up at her. “He asked about you, though. And Les.”
Which meant he was trying to accept Ty’s choices in life—and the small fact that Ty’s life was his own to live as he saw fit. It also meant his dad was probably driving Austin crazy, but Austin was so much better suited to fend off their fathers’ interfering ways without offending the old man. That was how it was when one took very little in life, except for their career, seriously.
“So I’m no longer the wench that’s stealing you away from rodeo.”
Ty pulled her down into his lap. “No. You’re still totally that.”
“Hey. Hey. None of that.” Les came into the living room carrying a mug of tea and a plate of cookies and scowled at them. But his scowl wasn’t as deadly as it’d been a little over half a year ago, when Ty had first started helping him fence. “Yours is poured, but you got to get it yourself.”
“I’ll go.” Shelby maneuvered herself off Ty’s lap and headed for the kitchen. “You took your meds, right?” she called back to Les.
“Jess has me well trained,” he replied before lifting his tea mug and taking a small sip.
The guy had been a godsend. After moving into the trailer, Jess had used his carpentry talents to totally refurbish it, with Callen’s permission, and what had once been a ratty tin can was now a funky showpiece. And somehow he’d managed to put Les on a meds schedule and help around the place on weekends.
Ty heard the spoon rattle in the sugar bowl as Shelby fixed the tea, and waited for the question that came almost every time he and Shelby managed to make it home for a few days between rodeos. When was he going to make an honest woman of Shelby?
“So,” Les said gruffly. “When—”
“November.”
Les’s eyes bugged a little. “You aren’t kidding an old man.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He made a gesture rather than finish his sentence as Shelby came in carrying the tea.
She stopped dead when she saw the expression on Les’s face. “You told him.”
“He asked.”
Shelby set down the tea mugs. “Are you okay with this?” she asked her grandfather. “I know we’ve only been seriously together for a short time—”
“You’ve been together a lot longer than that,” Les muttered gruffly. “And yeah. I’m okay with this.”
“Will you come to Vegas with us for the wedding?” Shelby settled once again on the arm of Ty’s chair.
“Vegas?”
“We’re getting married just before the National Finals,” Ty said. “That way, no matter what happens there, I’m a winner.” Even if he got injured before the season was over and wasn’t able to qualify, he’d be a winner.
A slow smile built on Les’s lined face. “Yeah. Good thinking.” He frowned suddenly. “Won’t be an Elvis wedding, will it? Because I don’t know if I can give my granddaughter away at an Elvis wedding.”
“Low-key cowboy wedding. Buck asked about filming it, but we said no. He can get some footage afterward. And Shelby’s agreed to do some talking on camera about life the road.” As well as facing fears.
As the months had passed, her anxiety had subsided—to the point she was now analyzing Ty’s rides with him. Buck, being the student of human nature he was, had watched her transformation and now wanted her interview as part of his documentary. It seemed like the least they could do for the guy who’d hired Ty to cover the Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming rodeo circuits forRough Stock Worldafter his official retirement in December.
