“We’d love to have her. The girls will be well supervised.”
He smoothed Maddie’s hair. “Then I guess it’s okay.”
Maddie and Helena jumped up and down squealing. Sometimes he couldn’t believe Maddie was the same child who had been left with him not so long ago. And he had Leah to thank for that.
And for awakening something in him he hadn’t realized had been ignored for way too long. The need to connect with someone else.
As he drove home, the reality that Maddie would be gone overnight revealed possibilities to him. He could ask Leah out on a real date, not just a meal that she helped to prepare. He thought about taking her to Austin for a night out, but that was too far in case Maddie needed him. She was only now getting used to living with him. Would she get homesick? Plus, there were the puppies to consider.
“You should give Leah flowers,” Maddie said out of the blue from the other side of the truck. “Girls like flowers.”
“They do?”
She nodded. “Yep.”
“You seem to know a lot about what girls like.”
She gave him a “duh” look. “Because I’m a girl.”
He laughed. “That you are.” A little girl he couldn’t love any more if she were his own daughter.
He knew it was time he consulted an attorney about making her living with him permanent. He was scared to bring up the topic, afraid it would prompt officials to ask too many questions, ones that could lead to them taking her away from him. He gripped the steering wheel harder. He couldn’t let that happen, but avoiding the topic wasn’t sustainable long-term. He needed a legal way to keep her from having to go back into a dangerous and unstable environment with her mother if Kendra were to pop back into her life without any notice.
But he couldn’t do anything about that right now. He could, however, make plans to be with the woman who was coming to mean more to him every day.
Chapter Thirteen
Leah looked yet again at the text message Tyler had sent her two days before, the latest in a string of countless rereadings.
Don’t plan anything for Saturday.
He hadn’t told her why when she’d asked, not even a clue. So, of course as Saturday dawned, she hadn’t been able to sleep a wink more. She knew from Maddie that she was going to be gone to a friend’s birthday festivities until tomorrow. That meant Leah could be alone with Tyler. Excitement and anxiety had been bombarding her in equal measure since that information bomb had landed.
Even more so now that she heard Tyler’s truck coming back up the driveway. Maddie was off playing with other kindergartners, and Leah’s true test of how well she’d moved past her attack was on the verge of beginning. She pressed a hand against her churning stomach.
“Stop. I want to enjoy this.”
Her stomach ignored her.
With each minute that passed, she paced more and more. If she kept this up, she was going to have to pay for new flooring.
Her phone buzzed where she’d placed it on the table next to a red-and-silver necklace she couldn’t concentrate enough on to finish. She picked up the phone, wondering if it was another cryptic message from Tyler.
Come to the barn.
At least he was somewhat more specific this time. What was he going to do, teach her to shoe a horse so she had a fallback career plan?
With her nerves seemingly having taken up Irish step dancing, she headed out the door and down the driveway. When she entered the barn, Tyler stood there next to Comet. She noticed the horse was saddled.
“We’re going for a ride?” she asked.
“I thought we might. It’s a pretty day for one.”
“I’m not a very accomplished rider.” She rubbed Comet’s nose, smiling when he sniffed her.
“Lucky for you I am.”
The idea of sitting pressed next to Tyler sent a surge of pure animal awareness through her. After he helped her mount then swung up behind her, she thought she might combust before they even left the barn.
As he brought his arms around her to grip the reins, he leaned close to her ear. “Relax.”
Yeah, right. That wasn’t happening anytime soon.
Tyler steered Comet toward the gate to the pasture. He dismounted only long enough to open the gate, guide the horse through and refasten the gate. Then he was right back in the saddle, snug against Leah’s bottom. And it was obvious that his position was having an effect on him. Jitters danced through her. She had to get her mind on something else.
“So, was Maddie still as excited about the sleepover today as she was yesterday?”
“You could say that. I think she’s making up for all those weeks she barely spoke.”
“But you don’t mind one bit.”
“No, I don’t. She can talk my ears off if she wants to.”
Leah wrapped her hand around his lower arm. “You’re a good man, Tyler. She’s lucky to have you.”
“And you. If not for you, she might still be trapped in that shell of hers.”
“You don’t know that. She probably just had to get comfortable here, used to you. It was a big change for her.”
“Yeah, maybe. But the truth is that once she began hanging out with you, she started to change back into the child I remembered.”
“I’m happy for you both.”
They rode in silence for a few minutes, broken only when Tyler would point out something of interest. A neighbor’s house in the distance. The spot where he fell off his first horse and broke his arm. The tree under which his father sat him down to tell him about the birds and the bees.
“I thought he was crazy when he said someday I’d really like girls. Turns out he was right.”
Tyler reined in Comet, causing Leah to look over her shoulder at him. His lips claimed hers in a kiss so hot that she found herself surrendering to it gladly. He tasted like coffee, rich and dark and delicious.
When he lifted his mouth, he smiled, looking pleased with himself. “Yep, dear old Dad was right.”
They rode across the ranch a while longer before Tyler turned Comet back toward the barn. When they reached it, he had to help Leah dismount.
She stretched her arms above her head then bent to touch her toes. “Ow. I’m going to regret this tomorrow.”
“I hope not too much,” Tyler said as he removed Comet’s saddle.
“Well, not the ride or the company, but the soreness afterward, most definitely. I’ll be lucky if I can walk.” A very naughty image popped into her head. As she felt the heat rush to her face like water coming from a fire hose, she walked toward the opposite end of the barn, acting like she was simply working out the kinks.
“You okay?”
Without turning or saying anything, she extended a thumbs-up over her shoulder. When she reached the end of the barn that looked out over the pasture, she stopped and took in the view. It really was a beautiful place. She heard Tyler’s approaching footsteps.
“You’re lucky you grew up here,” she said when he stepped up next to her.
“Yeah. I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else. Did you not like growing up in Houston?”
“I liked it fine. I mean, it’s all I knew. Though I always liked coming to Blue Falls to visit Conner and his family.” Worried that he might ask her why she’d decided to move there after living her entire life in Houston, she turned to him. “All that riding made me hungry. I can throw together something if you’re hungry, too.”
He smiled. “I already have that covered. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
After Tyler hurried out of the barn, Leah strolled back to the other end where she could see him eating up the ground to the house with his long legs. He was inside less than a minute before he came back out carrying a picnic basket.
“Aren’t
you full of surprises,” she said.
When he got close, he extended his arm and she took it.
“I thought we’d eat by the creek. Have you been down there yet?”
“I have. It’s a lovely little oasis.”
“The perfect swimming hole when you’re a kid and it’s scorching hot outside.”
As they walked toward the creek, Leah couldn’t help but imagine Tyler swimming in that cool water, but not as a boy. As a man, the water running down over his bare chest. She stumbled, but Tyler steadied her as if it were no more difficult than holding a butterfly on the end of his finger.
“Sorry,” she said. “I seem to always be tripping over my own feet.”
“Should I take that as a compliment?”
“More that I’m klutzy.”
When they reached the side of the creek, Tyler pulled a blanket from the basket and spread it out on the ground. When he began to pull out containers of food, including a bottle of wine with scrolling wildflowers covering the label, she sank beside the basket to help him.
“Where did you get all this?”
“The Primrose, except for the wine. It’s bottled at a winery on the other side of the county.”
She ran her fingers across the beautiful label. “Blue Falls really is making the most of diversifying for the tourist trade.”
“It’s good for the local economy.”
“I heard they’re going to launch an arts and crafts trail. That should bring in a lot of people, too.”
“Seems there is something new starting every day. And not just in town.”
She looked up and met his eyes. He leaned forward and gifted her with a soft, sweet kiss.
“That’s a nice appetizer,” she said.
“Yes, it is.”
Before she let herself get carried away, she sat back and finished pulling napkins and utensils from the basket. “Did you buy the basket, too?”
“No, that was my mom’s. It’s been around as long as I can remember. We used to picnic down here, all four of us.”
“That sounds like a nice memory.”
He nodded then looked at her. “This will be, too.”
As they ate, they shared stories of their childhoods, how they both liked working for themselves with the freedom to make their own decisions, and about how the creek was indeed fed by a spring.
She was amazed by how easy it was to talk to Tyler, to be alone with him without being afraid. Compared with her state upon arrival at the ranch, it seemed like nothing less than a miracle.
As the sun set, their little oasis took on a twilit glow. It looked like a place right out of a fairy tale. Which seemed appropriate because her entire day with Tyler had seemed like one.
“Penny for your thoughts.”
She smiled. “I think that saying is seriously in need of revision for inflation.”
Tyler smiled, too, and smoothed a tendril of her hair at her temple. It was such a simple touch, but she felt it throughout her entire body.
“Thank you for today,” she said. “It was wonderful.”
“It’s not over yet.” The look in his eyes seemed to be asking permission. For what, she wasn’t sure.
Even so, she leaned forward, initiating the kiss this time. Tyler’s arms came around her, pulling her close. They kissed for several minutes, so long that night began to fall around them.
“I like being with you,” Tyler said as he pressed his forehead to hers.
“I feel the same.” She did, but the encroaching darkness was causing a layer of unease to rise within her. Even though she’d been with Tyler all day and should feel safe with him, there was something about the night that caused her fear to crawl out from where it had been hiding like some nocturnal animal, one bent on sinking its big teeth into her.
Tyler captured her lips in a sweet, soft kiss that made her temporarily forget the looming fear but was over much too quickly. Then he stood and extended his hand to her. He didn’t say anything to that effect, but she felt as if he knew how much the dark bothered her but didn’t question it. She shouldn’t be surprised. He was a smart man, and she’d given him ample evidence.
Though she’d been adamant about no one else knowing about her attack, feeling like the more people who knew the more the memories would linger, she suddenly wanted to explain to him. She didn’t want him to think her fear had anything to do with him because she...cared for him a great deal.
But she didn’t start spilling her story. Instead, she helped him repack the picnic basket then folded up the blanket.
“Let’s get up the path while we can still see how,” he said.
His words made perfect sense, and yet she suspected there was so much more going on inside his head.
He took her hand as they climbed the path and crossed the driveway back to the front of the bunkhouse. The first stars of the evening began to wink on against the darkening sky.
“Thanks for spending the day with me,” Tyler said.
A surge of panic welled up in Leah, nearly choking her. But it wasn’t because she feared him or what he might do to her. Rather, she grasped for some reason to make him stay because she wanted that more than anything. She realized that with every moment she’d spent with him over the past several hours, she’d fallen for him a bit more until her heart was fully involved. She didn’t want the day to end, hated the idea of going into the bunkhouse alone while Tyler went back to his house.
She didn’t think she was the only one who’d had similar thoughts. But was she healed enough, strong enough to take things further, for them to not spend their night in separate beds?
“Would you like to come in?”
Even with night upon them, she still saw the way he looked at her, as if conflicting feelings were tugging him in two directions. He lifted the hand not holding the picnic basket and gently caressed the side of her face.
“I think we should say good-night here.”
No! The single word screamed inside her. After such a wonderful day, going inside alone held no appeal at all.
“What if I don’t want to?”
The way he looked at her, with a sadness that could have no other source, gave her a sinking feeling in her middle.
“You know, don’t you?”
He didn’t answer immediately, hesitating as if trying to formulate an answer. She detected a slight sigh leaving him into the night air.
“I don’t know what, but I can tell there is something that frightens you. Or someone. And it’s made worse by the dark.”
“So Conner didn’t tell you?”
He shook his head. “But I’ll be honest, I did ask him.”
She jerked back in shock. “Why?”
“Because I hated the idea of you being hurt, and I wanted to know if I needed to protect you.”
“That isn’t your job. You’re my landlord.”
“I hope I’m more than that. I consider us friends, at least.”
At least? Just how far did his feelings extend? Were they on similar paths as far as that went? The fact that she was contemplating having him spend the night said better than words could just how her feelings for him had changed.
“We are...at least that.”
He took her hand and squeezed it gently. “I won’t lie and say I don’t want more, but I’m not the kind of man who will push a woman. I’ve waited this long. I can wait longer.”
She slipped her hand from his and crossed her arms across her chest as she faced the blanket of darkness back toward the creek, her mind racing. This felt like one of those pivotal moments in her life that she’d look back on when she was old and gray. She didn’t want to look back on it with regret.
Cold chills broke out across her skin as the memory of that night washed over her. But if sh
e wanted to move forward with Tyler, she had to tell him. How else would she be able to explain if her irrational fear overwhelmed her again in a passionate moment?
Unable to look at him as she spoke, she kept her gaze pointed ahead, at what now looked like a solid black canvas.
“I was attacked in my apartment back in Houston. A man I didn’t know broke in and was waiting for me when I got home one night after visiting my parents. I know he planned to jump me in the dark, but I flipped on the light a bit quicker than he anticipated. I know because I saw the surprised look on his face a fraction of a second before he grabbed me and clamped a hand over my mouth. He turned the light back off and dragged me to my couch.”
Tyler stood perfectly still, not saying a word. The fact that he seemed to know not to interrupt or she might not get through the telling made her heart open to him even more.
“Sometimes I would swear I can still feel his hands on my skin. They were heavy, clammy.” She shuddered at the memory. “He pawed at me, trying to get my clothes off while keeping one hand on my mouth. His grip slipped and I started screaming and knocked some containers of beads off my coffee table, sending them spilling in all directions. That’s when...” Her voice faltered, but she pushed on. She had to get through the entire story before her scraped-together courage abandoned her.
“He clamped his hand around my throat, and I thought for sure he would choke me to death. That’s why I jumped away from the kiss that night. Your hand grazed my neck, and suddenly I was right back on that couch, afraid I was going to be raped or killed or both.”
She sensed Tyler was about to apologize, but she held up a hand to forestall him.
“It wasn’t your fault, and you couldn’t have known. I know it was an irrational reaction. You’re not him. But ever since that night, I’ve been so nervous to be around men not related to me. And the dark. The fear of what might be lurking in the dark, ready to attack, is so overwhelming it’s hard to even function.”
She dared a glance at Tyler and saw a mixture of sympathy and anger on his handsome face. Though she hadn’t known him all that long, she knew that anger was not directed at her but at Jason Garton and what he’d done to her.
A Rancher to Love Page 14
