Page 9 of Catch Me, Cowboy
Ty let that one pass. If over was truly over, she wouldn’t have bothered to seek him out.
“I heard that you’ve found a place to live.”
“Kind of.” The bartender placed a perfectly poured mug in front of him, smiled, and moved on. They smiled a lot in this place. Whoever had trained the staff, had done a job of it.
“And that you’re looking for work.”
“I am.” Ty took a drink, then gave an appreciative nod. Triple C was a decent brew.
“So you’re staying.” When he lifted his eyebrows at her blunt statement, Shelby have a small shrug. “You have no job, no family, no real place to live. Youcouldhave no job and no place to live pretty much anywhere. So why come back here?”
Her expression told him why he’d betternothave come back.
Tough, Shelby.He’d played the game by her rules for four long years. Now he wanted to make some rules, set some parameters.
“I’ve got a couple of reasons.”
She tilted her head and her hair slid over her shoulder. Ty wanted very much to push it back into place, to feel the silky strands move through his fingers. And if he did that, she’d probably deck him.
“A couple of reasons?” The politely conversational tone was at odds with the hard look in her eyes.
“For one thing, this is my hometown. It’s the place I want to be.”
“In all your travels you never found another place?” She took a small sip of wine.
“Marietta has everything I want.”
She gave him a long look. “You know you don’t always get what you want, Ty.”
He smiled a little. “True, but a lot of times I do.”
Her hand tightened around the stem of the glass, but her gaze remained steady. “I better not be one of the reasons you came back.” She took another a slow sip, studying him over the top of the glass.
“And if you are?”
The wine came down fast. “Don’t waste your time, Ty. It won’t be good for either of us.”
“Maybe I’ve changed.”
“So have I, Ty. I no longer need you.”
“I don’t know that you ever needed me.”
She studied him for a moment, taking her time before answering. “Meaning that if I had, I would have come with you?” Her eyebrows lifted. “That goes two ways, Ty. You didn’t need me, either.”
That was where she was wrong. Hehadneeded her, but he hadn’t been ready to settle down. Making things permanent at the ripe old age of twenty-four wouldn’t have worked, but he’d been a hair’s breadth away from doing just that, for her—until his dad had talked to him.
“We aren’t going to change the past.”
She smiled grimly. “Or build a future.”
“But maybe we can make a truce.”
She considered for a moment, studying her wine again with a slight frown. A guy moved up to the bar next to her, squeezing into too small of a space, causing Shelby to lean toward Ty, whose first instinct was to tell the guy to back off.
“Excuse me,” Shelby said to the oblivious asshole.
“Sorry,” the guy muttered without looking at her or giving up an inch of space. Ty took a step forward, but Shelby sent him a warning look.Not your fight.
