One Smart Cowboy

by Misty Malone

  “But I’d really rather she not be here.”

  He sighed. He knew how she must feel, but he didn’t want her to be bitter toward her mother. It sounded to Ty like her mother had simply been being her mother, and not intentionally hurting Cheyenne. In fact, he felt in her own way she felt she had been protecting her. He thought a few more seconds about the situation and how to handle it. “You know,” he said, thinking out loud, “in some ways your mother sounds a lot like my father.”

  “How?”

  “I think they both thought what they want out of life is what would be best for their children. They were both wrong, because both of us are quite capable of determining for ourselves what we want and what makes us happy in life. But the fact remains, they both thought that what to them was the perfect life would be the perfect life for us as well, and tried to give us that perfect life. If that really was their intention, and they wanted the best for us, how can you really fault them for their logic?”

  “Well, they thought wrong. They need to let us make our own decisions.”

  “You’re right, and we’ll certainly not make the same mistake with our children, but that still doesn’t mean they did anything to hurt us on purpose.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I’m talking to myself here as much as to you. I think we both need to stand tall and let them see for themselves that they were wrong. We need to let them see that we made a good life for ourselves in spite of them. Not because of them, but in spite of them. And let them see how happy we are.”

  He watched as she thought for several long moments, then held her head up high and nodded in agreement. “You’re right, Ty. We need to let them see how happy we are with the choices we made for ourselves.” He watched her gain strength and determination. “Okay, I’ll send her an invitation.”

  “Good. And send one to my parents, as well.”

  ***

  Cheyenne finished her classes, thus finishing her degree. The day after her last final exam, she and Ty went furniture shopping, and the next day Ty moved into their new home and took over ownership and control of The Bar T.

  Cheyenne spent much of her time at their new home, decorating it. She also ate supper there most nights, since he’d kept the housekeeper and cook Clyde and his wife had. Cheyenne had insisted she could do it once they were married, but Ty wanted her to have plenty of time to devote to getting her new bookstore up and running eventually. They’d agreed to wait until after their marriage and honeymoon to begin that process.

  Cheyenne liked Ellen, the cook and housekeeper, instantly. The two were soon sharing thoughts like old friends. Ellen met and liked Cheyenne’s family. She spoke to Ty and arranged a little graduation dinner for Cheyenne, with the two of them and Sam and Clay and Lynelle. Cheyenne was surprised, and very impressed that Ellen offered to do that.

  Cheyenne was at their new house, adding some new items she’d gotten for one of the guest suites two days before the wedding, when the front doorbell rang. She went to answer it and found herself face to face with a man she immediately knew had to be Ty’s father, and a lady she assumed was his mother. She stood there staring at them several seconds before she remembered her manners. “May I help you?”

  His father smiled and said, “You must be Cheyenne. I’m Timothy Tomlinson, and my wife, Marjorie.”

  “Ty’s parents,” she said, with a huge smile on her face. “It is so nice to meet you. Come on in, please.”

  Marjorie looked at her husband and smiled. “Thank you. We weren’t sure what kind of reception we’d get.”

  “I am so happy to meet you, and I’m really glad you came. Let me call Ty and get him in here.”

  Timothy held his hand up to stop her. “Could we speak with you a moment first, please?”

  “Of course. Come on into the living room. Would you like some coffee, iced tea? I think Ellen has some lemonade.”

  Marjorie looked confused. “Ellen?”

  “I’m sorry. Ellen is Ty’s cook and housekeeper.”

  Timothy looked toward the kitchen. “Will she be staying on after you’re married?”

  “Yes, she will. I got my Master’s degree a couple weeks ago and I’m planning on opening a vintage book store after we get back from our honeymoon. I told Ty I could do it after we’re married, but he was determined he wanted me to have time to devote to getting the store stocked and opened. Now that I’ve gotten to know Ellen, I’d miss her if she wasn’t around. Once we’re married and I move in here, I’m sure we’ll get even closer.”

  “So you’re not living here now?”

  Marjorie gave her husband a smack on his arm and admonished him. “Timothy!”

  “No, no, it’s fine, Mrs. Tomlinson,” Cheyenne assured her. “You two don’t know me at all, so that’s a fair question.” She turned to Timothy and gave him a genuine smile. “To answer your question, no, I don’t live here. Your son is a real gentleman, and that’s one of the things I love about him. That’s unusual in this day and age, but he has been a true gentleman from the day we met.”

  Timothy smiled. “Thank you for answering my question, but Marjorie’s right; I had no right to ask, and I apologize for it.”

  She grinned and tried to put him at ease. “It may not have been politically correct, but I’m really hoping we get to know each other much better, and that’s a good start. I’m not upset at all.”

  Timothy returned her smile before turning to look at his wife. “Marjorie, I think our son found a good lady.”

  Cheyenne felt her face flush. “Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson.”

  “Please, call me Timothy. May I be bold enough to ask one other question I probably have no business asking?”

  “Sure,” she said with a big smile.

  “Will Ty be okay with us coming here?”

  “Honestly, it depends why you came.”

  “Fair enough,” he agreed.

  “If you came to be his parents, and be part of his life and accept that he’s made a life for himself and is very, very happy ranching, he’ll be ecstatic that you came.”

  “You’re saying you think he’ll be able to forgive me for being a jackass and thinking that he should want out of life what I wanted out of life?”

  She chuckled, and her face lit up. “I think if you word it that way he’ll warn you to watch your language, and then be smiling ear to ear as he’s hugging you.”

  “Do you really think he’ll be able to forgive me?”

  “I can’t say positively, obviously, but I think he will if you ask him to. I think he’d welcome you back into his life.” She saw the tears in his mother’s eyes and moved over to rub her arm. “Let me call him and get him up here. He’s out riding fences, making sure they’re okay for some new cattle he’s buying.” Ty’s mother patted Cheyenne’s hand and nodded.

  She took out her phone and called him. He answered on the second ring. “Hey, pretty lady, what’s up?”

  “I know you’re busy, but there’s somebody here who wants to talk to you. I think it’s pretty important. Can you come to the house?”

  “You really think it’s something important?”

  “I do.”

  “Okay, tell him I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”

  “Thanks, Ty.” She looked back up at his parents. “He’ll be here in about ten minutes. Let’s go into the living room to wait. What did you decide about that coffee, tea or lemonade?”

  Ten minutes later they were enjoying some lemonade and getting to know each other when Ty came in the kitchen through the back door. She excused herself and went to greet him. “Let me wash my hands first. Is he in the office?”

  “No, actually, they’re in the living room having some lemonade.”

  “They?” He looked up then and noticed the expression on her face, but didn’t know what it meant.

  Before he could ask she took his arm and pulled him toward the living room. “Come on.”

  He moved his hand to her back, leading her in. He walked into t
he room, saw his parents, and stopped. With an expression Cheyenne couldn’t read, he took a moment before responding. “Mom, Dad?”

  “We’re here to see our son get married,” Timothy said, “if you’ll let us share in that special day.”

  Ty looked over at Cheyenne and saw the big smile on her face and tears in her eyes. She gave a slight nod, and Ty knew what he needed to know. “We’d love to have you share in the big day,” he said, smiling. His mother was at his side quickly, and he took her in his arms.

  After he hugged her he turned to his father, who was obviously nervous. “Ty, I’ve been a fool, and I’m sorry. It’s easy to see you’re happy in the life you’ve built for yourself. I’m glad. I truly am.”

  “Thank you, Dad.” They all sat down and Cheyenne poured Ty a glass of lemonade before sitting down beside him. Ty looked at his father. “If I may ask, what brought about this change of heart? Has Grandpa been talking to you?”

  “Your grandfather has been trying to get me to listen to reason for years now, but what really touched our hearts and got us thinking about this whole situation was someone else.”

  Ty was totally confused. “Who was that?”

  Timothy looked over toward Cheyenne. “Apparently our genius son found a very wise young lady to marry.”

  Ty turned to look at Cheyenne, who was blushing. “You talked to Cheyenne?”

  “She sent us a letter with the invitation to your wedding. She said you didn’t know she was writing the letter, so if we were upset she said to blame her and not to take it out on you.” Ty looked at the red-faced, nervous little minx beside him, and put his arm around her, pulling her closer to him. He felt her relax when she looked up and saw him smiling down at her.

  Timothy saw their interaction and gave them a moment before continuing. “I’ve got to say, son, her love and respect for you was quite obvious from the letter. She explained how she was struggling with what she wanted to do with her life, and the fact that you knew what you wanted and went after it was one of the things that impressed her. She explained how impressive it was to her that you started at the bottom, as a ranch hand doing what others didn’t want to do, and learned what you needed to know, ending up as the best foreman her father has ever had. She said that impressed her, and she couldn’t understand how a parent would not be impressed.”

  Ty’s eyebrows raised as he looked over at her. She squirmed a bit. “I know, I had no business writing that letter, and I’m sorry.”

  Marjorie spoke up for the first time. “Sorry? Don’t be sorry. I am so glad you wrote that. It finally got us thinking. We finally understand that our son’s dreams don’t have to be our dreams. Once we got that through our heads, your words sunk in. As his parents, we are impressed, finally.” She turned to Ty and her sincerity was obvious. “Son, we may not deserve a second chance, but I hope you’ll give us one. We are sorry it took us so long to see what Cheyenne pointed out to us; that everyone has their own dream.”

  Ty went to his mom and gave her another hug. He assured them they were forgiven and he was happy they were here to meet Cheyenne and be part of their wedding. But Ty being Ty, he knew they all had to talk about what had happened, get their feelings out in the open and talk about them, or they wouldn’t have the closeness they all wanted. So they visited for an hour, talking through everything that had happened, the hurt feelings Ty had all these years while they didn’t contact him, and the hurt feelings Timothy had when he felt Ty was turning his back on his help getting into the prestigious law firm.

  Cheyenne didn’t say anything, but held Ty’s hand the whole time, and listened to what everyone was saying. She realized for the first time that Ty was right; his parents had been wrong to try and push their dreams onto him, but at the time they thought they were offering him a rare opportunity many young men would jump at, and he was turning up his nose at it.

  She was beginning to see her mother in a little different light. Clay had told her several times that their mother was who she was, and he loved her. In a much different way than he loved their dad, but he still loved her, and he hoped Cheyenne would eventually be able to, as well. She always said she didn’t understand how he could be so accepting of her, and her selfishness. But now she was actually starting to see what Ty and Clay had been telling her all along. She hurt Cheyenne, and was being very self-centered in doing so, but she hadn’t done it on purpose. In fact, Cheyenne was now starting to believe she really was trying in her own way to protect her.

  She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind to consider later tonight. Now she wanted to listen as Ty and his parents made amends and restored the family unit. She was so happy for Ty, and so glad everything worked out okay. She wasn’t sure if Ty would have approved of the letter she sent his parents if he would have known about it, but seeing them work out their problems would make it worthwhile to her, even if he was upset with her for sending it.

  Ellen called them to dinner, which was delicious. She had really outdone herself, and Cheyenne made a mental note to thank her for that. After a wonderful meal, Ty and Cheyenne showed his parents around the house, then Ty suggested they get in his pickup and he’d take them to see where the wedding was going to be held.

  He stopped at the top of the knoll overlooking the lake and picnic pavilion. “This is where our ranch joins Cheyenne’s father’s ranch,” he proudly told them. “We each own half of this lake, which has now become known as Unity Lake,” he chuckled. “Cheyenne always thought it would be a pretty setting for a picnic pavilion, when she was growing up on that side of the lake. Now that we own the other side, we thought Unity Lake would be the perfect spot for us to be united in marriage.”

  Timothy nodded his head, but Marjorie took Cheyenne’s arm. “This is a beautiful spot, and that’s a beautiful thought. I like it.” The two ladies were heading down toward the pavilion, arm in arm, talking excitedly about all the flowers Cheyenne had planted around the pavilion in anticipation of the wedding.

  While the ladies were going to look at the pavilion, Timothy turned at his son. “You really have made me proud, Ty. In her letter Cheyenne said if I’d come visit you I’d see how happy you are ranching, and she’s right.” His eyes were full of pride, and he grinned. “She also said you have to really like it to learn as much as you have about it as quickly as you have, and be as good as you are now. She really is a special little lady, and it’s obvious how much she loves you.”

  “Cheyenne is indeed a special little lady, and I don’t know what I did to deserve her, but I plan to be the best husband I can. She deserves the best.”

  Timothy nodded his head again. “You two will be just fine. I can’t tell you how glad I am to see that.”

  They spent some time at the pavilion, enjoying the surroundings. Ty pulled his fiancée in next to him and made a suggestion. “Cheyenne, let’s go introduce my parents to your dad.”

  “Wonderful idea.” As they were going back to the truck she pulled him back a few steps, with a warning. “My mother may be there. She was supposed to get here sometime today.”

  “They can meet her, too, then, as can I.” Looking at her face and seeing the trepidation, he gave her an encouraging little hug. “You’ll be fine, honey. Just mind your manners and remember she didn’t hurt you on purpose. Just be yourself and let her see how strong and happy you are.”

  She looked and felt better after their little talk.

  Once they got back to the house, Ty took their luggage to the guest bedroom suite Cheyenne had just finished decorating that afternoon. As soon as they walked in, Marjorie looked around. “This room is beautiful. Ty, I don’t know where you found a decorator with this much talent out here, but these rooms are lovely.”

  Ty proudly pulled Cheyenne to his side a little closer. “I found the wonderful decorator right here, Mom. Cheyenne did all the decorating in this house.”

  Marjorie looked at her with pride in her eyes. “Cheyenne, it really is beautiful. The whole house is.”
/>   “Thank you,” Cheyenne answered, turning red. “Are you ready to meet my dad, or did you want a few minutes first?”

  Timothy answered for them. “We’ll be down in just a few minutes, if that’s all right?”

  “Take as long as you need,” Ty told them. “Please, make yourselves at home.”

  He and Cheyenne went downstairs to give his parents a few minutes. As soon as they got to the living room he held her shoulders so she was looking at him. “Now, young lady, it seems you sent a letter to my parents without telling me about it?”

  “I’m sorry, Ty, if you don’t think I should have. I guess I was kind of like them, and my mother. I had good intentions.”

  He smiled at her warmly. “I know you did, honey, and it worked out great. I don’t know how to thank you for that. Having them here means a great deal to me.”

  “I thought it would. Ted agreed.”

  “Grandpa knew you sent the letter?”

  “He agreed with the idea of sending a letter. He didn’t have anything to do with what was in it, but he said he didn’t think you’d be upset with me for sending it as long as it was courteous.”

  “He is a wise man, isn’t he?”

  “He is. And he’s coming in tomorrow. I’m anxious to see him again.”

  “Me, too.” He took her in his arms and gave her a kiss that told her how much he appreciated what she’d done. She returned the passion in a kiss of her own. When Timothy cleared his throat, they both jumped a bit, causing all four of them to laugh.

  “I’m sorry, kids, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Timothy said. “I’m sorry we interrupted. Should we come back in a few minutes?”

  “No,” a red-faced Ty answered, “you’re fine. Are you ready to go meet Sam?”

  Ten minutes later they were at Cheyenne’s home, and happy to see Clay and Lynelle were all there, as well. They were there to welcome Clay and Cheyenne’s mother, Iris. Ty introduced his parents, and Cheyenne introduced her mother. Everyone sat in the living room and they visited for an hour.