Learnin' The Ropes

by Shanna Hatfield

  Life was pretty darn good.

  Just before noon, Ty found himself trying to herd a stubborn cow and her calf out of the sagebrush. The cow went willingly, but the calf got himself caught in the middle of a big sagebrush. Ty stepped off Delilah and begged her not to run away while he picked up the calf and carried it out of the sagebrush. When he set it down, the calf bawled loudly, bringing his mama on the run. Ty hurriedly mounted Delilah before the cow got any ideas about running him over. Lexi and Swede had both warned him the only thing worse than tangling with a mad mama cow was a mad mama bear. A smart man avoided both.

  He chased the cow and calf back to the rest of the herd. A loud growl from his stomach let him know it was time to eat. Resigned to missing lunch, he grinned when Lexi rode over and handed him a bag of jerky, a candy bar, and a bottle of water that was closer to warm than cold.

  “Not much of a feast, but better than nothing,” Lexi said, taking a bite of jerky.

  “Thanks,” Ty said, accepting her offerings. “I’m so hungry, I’d eat just about anything.”

  “Anything?” she asked with a saucy grin.

  “Almost anything,” Ty corrected. He wondered what hideous thing Lexi thought she could feed him.

  “I’ll keep that in mind for the next time I make you dinner,” Lexi teased. From her seat on Rowdy’s back, she watched Ty. She couldn’t believe how at home he looked not only in the saddle, but on the ranch — as though he was meant to be there.

  Shaking her head to dislodge her ridiculous thoughts, she took another bite of jerky.

  “You’re a great cook, so I’m not too worried.” Ty finished his jerky and candy bar. The sunlight on her golden skin sent his thoughts skittering in a dangerous direction, so he grasped the first topic that came to mind as a distraction. “How’s the treasure hunt progressing?”

  “I found the yearbook in dad’s room with another clue. It said ‘the power of the horse.’ I haven’t quite figured out what that one means. I think I need to dig through his tack but I haven’t had time.”

  “Does anyone use his tack?”

  “No. He moved all his tack into a little storage room off the main part of the barn and locked it after his mind had started to go. I’ve got a key and gone in a few times, but I haven’t cleaned it out like I should.”

  “I can help you look sometime, if you like,” Ty offered.

  Lexi nodded. “Thanks. I might have to take you up on that offer.”

  The two of them went back to trailing behind the cattle. In another hour, the cattle were in the pasture where Lexi wanted them.

  Carefully shifting in his saddle, Ty thought he might end up crippled for life. The distinct possibility existed that his sore legs would refuse to hold him when he finally got off Delilah.

  They rode back to the house and were almost to the barn when Baby ran out to greet them. She barked once and trotted over close to Delilah, gazing at Ty adoringly.

  “Well, I guess we know who her favorite is,” Lexi said as the dog ignored her.

  “I wouldn’t take it personally.” Ty dug a piece of jerky out of his shirt pocket and tossed it to Baby. She devoured it without even chewing. “She knows I come bearing treats.”

  Lexi laughed and Ty’s heart warmed at the sound. He could listen to her honeyed voice for the next sixty years and never tire of it.

  At the barn, Ty managed to swing his leg over the horse’s back and step out of the saddle without groaning in pain. He removed Delilah’s saddle, brushed her down, and turned her out to pasture before hobbling to the shop.

  The lawn mower was ready to test out so he started it up and drove it over to the ranch house. A pass around the edge of the lawn provided the machine worked fine. He went ahead and mowed the lawn, cleaned up the clippings and the lawnmower. After filling the tank with gas, he parked it in the shed behind the garage where Lexi kept garden tools and equipment.

  Back in the shop, he started working on the posthole digger that hooked on to the tractor. Cal and Keith worked to install a new section of fence and gave the auger a demanding workout. Before being put back to use tomorrow, the machine needed a thorough service and the blades sharpened.

  Ty finished just in time for dinner. He removed his dirty coveralls and washed up before setting his cowboy hat on his head and hurrying to the bunkhouse. It looked like Gus was cooking which meant meatloaf with mashed potatoes or hamburgers were on the menu. Those were the only two things he seemed to be able to make that were somewhat edible. Since he hadn’t eaten much lunch, Ty hoped Gus made meatloaf.

  He left his hat on a peg by the door and joked with the rest of the guys. He gave Cal and Keith a bad time about their abuse to the posthole digger, and teased Jimmy when he leaned back too far in his chair and tipped it over.

  After dinner, Ty went back out to the shop and worked until it was nearly dark before returning to the bunkhouse and taking a long, hot shower. In the midst of drying off, he glanced in the mirror and saw something on the back of his shoulder that made his eyes go wide. Straining to get a better look in the mirror, whatever it was appeared to be some kind of insect. Although he tried to brush it away, it remained firmly attached.

  Panic began to set in as he tried to think what it might be and how to get it off. He hated to ask any of the guys, but he didn’t know what else to do. With a towel wrapped around his waist, he dashed across the hall to his bedroom, pulled on clean underwear and a pair of running shorts, and slid his feet into slippers. He strode down the hall to the big main room of the bunkhouse. Cal and Keith were the only two around, watching a rodeo on the television.

  “Hey, do you guys know what this thing is?” Ty asked, bending down close to Cal. Keith leaned over and whistled.

  “Looks like you get one whopper of a tick,” Keith said, moving off the couch so he could see it better. “He’s a hungry sucker, too.”

  “Yep, that’s a tick,” Cal said, offering his expert opinion. “No doubt about it.”

  “How do I get rid of it?” Ty asked, fighting to remain calm while a case of the heebie-jeebies raced through him. He wracked his brain trying to remember anything he’d ever heard about ticks. Obviously, they sucked blood. He recalled reading something about them carrying diseases.

  “We could burn it off,” Cal said with a grin. Ty wasn’t sure if he was teasing or serious.

  “Best way is to pull it out with a pair of tweezers. Swede has a pair,” Keith said, resuming his seat on the couch.

  “Swede’s still gone, isn’t he?” Ty asked, staring out the window at Swede’s darkened house. He went into town for a meeting and said he’d be back late.

  “Yeah, you could ask the boss. She might be able to help,” Cal said, no longer interested in Ty’s tick as he turned his attention back to the rodeo.

  “Thanks.” A hint of sarcasm dripped from his voice as he jogged out the door and hurried toward the ranch house. Baby met him at the gate, licking his hand as he walked up the porch steps and knocked at the front door.

  Muffled noise came from inside the house and he waited a minute before knocking again. Lexi finally answered wearing a buttery-yellow bathrobe with her hair wrapped turban-style in a towel. The scent of flowers floated around Ty as she opened the door.

  “Ty, what’s up?” she asked through the screen door. She’d just stepped out of the shower when she heard what sounded like a knock at the door. The men didn’t come to the house unless there was an emergency Swede wasn’t around to handle. Quickly yanking on her robe and wrapping her hair in a towel, she ran down the stairs to see what disaster had befallen one of her crew.

  When she looked out the window and saw a shirtless Ty on her porch, she thought twice about opening the door. As hard as it was for her to resist him fully dressed, seeing him without his shirt made her pulse race while her insides bubbled into a molten mess.

  “I seem to have picked up a tick today and Cal thought you might be able to get it out. Swede’s gone or I’d ask him.” Ty refrained fro
m adding the only two humans awake at the bunkhouse weren’t particularly interested in providing assistance. The next time they asked him for a favor, he’d remember their lack of helpfulness in his hour of need.

  “Certainly, come in.” Lexi held open the screen and stepped back as he moved inside the house. “Go on into the kitchen and I’ll get my tweezers.”

  Ty went to the kitchen while Lexi ran upstairs to the bathroom, collecting tweezers, cotton balls, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. She hated bugs, spiders, and anything that could be considered creepy-crawly, but growing up on the ranch, she had plenty of experience removing ticks.

  She hastened down the back stairs to the kitchen. The sight of the half-dressed man waiting for her made her catch her breath.

  Good gracious, but his shoulders looked massive as he sat with his elbows propped on the counter. Muscles bulged in his arms, rippling along his back and tapering down to the waist of his shorts. She wouldn’t allow herself to look at his legs. Emotionally and physically, she just couldn’t handle any more of the buff, good-looking man at the moment.

  “Have you ever had a tick before?” she asked as she set down her supplies and got out a tiny dish. After pouring in rubbing alcohol, she set it aside then took her tweezers to the sink and poured a liberal amount of alcohol over them.

  “No, ma’am.” Ty battled to keep control of his urge to shudder in revulsion. He imagined he could feel it sucking his blood as he waited for Lexi. Even though he knew it was impossible, the thought kept entering his head. It was important to him to maintain his calm façade although inside he was shouting in protest at having the disgusting thing attached to his shoulder. “I don’t know any more about ticks than I do ranching or farming.”

  “Then you’ll be happy to know this particular kind of tick doesn’t carry diseases like deer ticks. We’re supposed to have a bad year of them since the winter was mild. Hard winters tend to kill off a lot of bugs and spiders. We didn’t have that many days of bitter cold this year so we’ll have more than our share of insects.” Lexi moved a stool closer to the bright light by the kitchen sink and motioned Ty to sit down.

  “So we’ll have problems all summer?” The idea of being a traveling buffet for ticks until the weather cooled off again didn’t hold any appeal for Ty.

  “Probably,” Lexi said as she worked the tweezers under the tick, trying to get as close to its head as possible. “Ticks feed off warm bodies, be it cattle, dogs, horses, and sometimes humans. Most likely, you picked up this freeloader out in the sagebrush this morning. From now on, when you come in from the range, you might want to do a full body check. Just get a hand mirror and hold it in front of the bathroom mirror. That way you can easily spot if you have one attached somewhere you can’t necessarily see with a quick glance. You should throw your clothes in the dryer to make sure you kill any that might still be searching for something to eat.”

  “Good to know.” Afraid to breathe as she worked, Ty remained still.

  “If the guys offer to burn one out or smother it in Vaseline, ignore them. The best way to remove them is to jerk them out by the head with tweezers.” She pulled out the tick and dumped it in the dish with the alcohol, effectively killing it. She poured alcohol on a cotton ball and swabbed the spot on Ty’s shoulder, rubbing it gently. “All done. You can smoosh the tick if you like, but it makes an awful mess.”

  Ty shuddered, not from the tick, but from the nearness of Lexi and her warm softness pressed against his back. Before he could think about the consequences of his actions, he spun around on the stool and tugged her against his chest. The towel on her head fell to the floor and he buried his face into the fragrant, damp locks.

  It had been almost a year since Ty held a woman in his arms. His girlfriend dumped him as soon as he lost his job. A homeless man has no worthwhile dating prospects. Although he’d nearly forgotten how wonderful it felt to hold a woman, he knew none had ever felt as good or made his blood thrum like Lexi.

  “Thanks.” Ty drew her tighter in his arms. Anxious, he waited for her to pull back or offer some resistance. Instead, she melted against him.

  “Anytime,” Lexi whispered against his neck, her lips hot and moist against his skin. Taken aback, she hadn’t anticipated Ty putting his arms around her. She certainly hadn’t planned on it feeling so good, so right. If she had any sense at all, she would pull away, walk him to the door, and bid him good night. But her need to be close to him won over common sense.

  The reality of being held in Ty’s powerful arms against his hard muscled chest was ten times better than any of the multiple dreams involving him she’d played out in her head. Her ability to think and reason completely vanished at his welcome proximity.

  Sliding her hands up his arms, she savored every touch of her fingers to his body, memorizing the feel of his muscles, his enticing scent, and the warmth of his skin. Finally surrendering to the temptation, she ran her hands through his thick brown hair, twining her fingers at the back of his head.

  “Lexi,” Ty growled in her ear, making her lift her head. He slipped into the deep green depths of her eyes as he lowered his lips to hers. An explosion of fire jolted through him as he tasted and tested her sweet, soft lips. Slowly rising to his feet, he drew her tighter against his chest, while his hands rubbed up and down her back.

  The only thought Lexi could process was that she wanted to be closer to Ty and took a step forward, leaving only a breath of space between them. On tiptoe, she returned his passion, kiss for kiss. Engulfed in his arms, surrounded by his presence, Lexi fell into a place she’d never been. A place where only she and Ty existed.

  Ty eventually started to draw away, but Lexi tugged him back to her lips. “Not yet, Ty, don’t stop.”

  He moaned as he kissed her long and deep, until they both gasped for breath. When they came up for air, he rested his forehead against hers. Ty ran his hands over her arms, down her back and circled her waist. A soft yellow robe was all that stood between him and discovering if his dreams of Lexi were half as good as he imagined. Firmly grasping the last bit of control keeping him on the right side of doing something wrong, he released a sigh.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. My apologies.” Contrite, but not quite remorseful enough to let go of her and walk out the door, he studied her. She was so warm, so real, so beautiful. Ty knew no woman had ever fit so perfectly in his arms and he had the fleeting thought that no one else ever would.

  “It’s okay, Ty. I shouldn’t have enjoyed it quite as much as I did,” Lexi admitted as much to herself as Ty. She stared at his sculpted chest as he pressed his stubbly cheek against her temple. “It’s as much my fault as yours.”

  “You mean you planted the tick on me, made sure no one who could be of assistance was around so I’d have to seek your help, and then planned to seduce me while you took it out?” A teasing grin tipped the corners of his full lips.

  “Of course not! Don’t be ridiculous!” Indignant, she stepped back from him. The playful look on his face made her grin. “You’re wicked and ornery.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Ty kissed her again, just to make sure he hadn’t dreamed the past several fantastic moments of holding her in his arms.

  Unable to resist him, Lexi gave herself to the kiss. Her knees grew as weak as her resolve to stay away from Ty.

  “I think it’s time for you to go,” Lexi whispered when he drew back, smiling at her with such warmth, heat radiated throughout her entire being. Purposefully hitching the ties on her robe tighter, she walked him to the door.

  “Thanks for removing the tick,” Ty said, as he lingered at the door. “And for kissing me all better.”

  “Get out of my kitchen, buckaroo!” She shooed him out, but gave him a wink that let him know she enjoyed the kisses every bit as much as he had.

  Lexi watched him stride down the walk and back to the bunkhouse before she closed the door. She held her robe closed at the neck, feeling the need to hold herself together mentally much
the same way.

  So much for her theory that after one kiss, they’d realize they weren’t really attracted to one another. Assuming one kiss from Ty would quench her thirst for him was every bit as stupid as expecting an eyedropper full of water to put out a rampaging wildfire.

  If she thought she had a problem keeping her mind off Ty before, Lexi had no idea how she’d keep from being consumed with him now. Never had she experienced kisses like that, never had her emotions exploded like that. Desperately, she wanted to continue exploring the wonder of it all.

  The heat of Lexi’s gaze bored into his back as Ty walked to the bunkhouse. It took no small amount of effort to leave her when what he really wanted was to go on holding and kissing her the rest of the night.

  He knew it was wrong, knew he shouldn’t even think about it. Regardless, Lexi reached places in his heart that he hadn’t known existed until their lips met in a fiery burst of heat and passion.

  Cal and Keith looked at him as he entered the bunkhouse.

  “Get the tick out?” Cal asked as Ty stopped in the kitchen for a glass of water.

  “Yep,” he said, drinking the water in one long swallow.

  “You okay?” Keith asked, watching him down the water.

  “Yep. Good night.” Ty gave them a curt nod as he went down the hall to his bedroom. The smell of Lexi’s sweet floral scent still filled his nose and clung to his skin as he collapsed on the bed. He closed his eyes and imagined her warm body pressed against him. How was he going to keep thinking of her as his boss when he knew, without a doubt, that she was the one woman on the planet meant to fill his arms and his heart?

  The next morning, Swede studied him as they left the bunkhouse after breakfast. “Heard ya had yer first tick encounter,” Swede said, accompanying him to the shop. “Creepy lil’ boogers, ain’t they?”

  “Yeah, they are,” Ty agreed. No matter how much the idea of a tick freaked him out, if Lexi would remove them all like she did last night, including the kissing session, he’d traipse through the sagebrush until another one latched onto him.