“She’s flighty,” Winnie said, her voice crisp and coming out in bursts. “And I never know what she’s going to say or do and, yeah, that makes me a little nervous.”
He grinned at her. “I bet it does. Where does she live?”
“Oklahoma,” Winnie said. “She’s still in the small town where we grew up.”
“Is that where you moved from?” Ty asked.
Winnie nodded and swallowed. “Yeah. She goes home tomorrow.” She looked back at Ty, her shoulders deflating. “And I can’t wait.”
Ty wanted to draw her into his chest and help her feel safe and comfortable the way he did horses.
“Well, today’s already half over,” he said. “How much trouble can she get into?”
“You’d be shocked,” Winnie said dryly.
Ty was pretty sure he’d met and known women like Taylor on the rodeo circuit, and doubly sure that Winnie would be shocked if she knew all the wild and crazy things that happened in that life. Ty realized in that moment that he didn’t miss it at all anymore, and that God had led him exactly where he needed to be—back here in Three Rivers.
He blinked at the beautiful brunette in front of him, wondering if God had put her in his life too. He cleared his throat, his mind suddenly buzzing with all kinds of questions and words andfragments of sentences that wouldn’t come together in complete thoughts.
“Anyway,” Winnie said, “I just wanted you to know—” She waved her hand and didn’t finish the sentence. She turned back to table ten again, and this time, Ty reached out and grabbed her hand as she started to leave. She gasped, but Ty held on as the electricity flowed from her fingers, through his, and up to his shoulder. Every cell in his body buzzed and—holy-eight-second-ride, he was attracted to this woman.
He cleared his throat. “Maybe you’ll just want a relaxing weekend after your sister’s been here.” He ducked his head and tilted it away from table ten, lowering the brim so he wouldn’t be able to look that way and see anyone watching him.
Winnie’s eyes stayed on his face, though he wasn’t directly meeting her gaze.
“I work with Mitch on Saturday mornings. We train the hearing dogs, and afterward, I always treat myself to lunch. Maybe I could stop by and pick you up and we could go together.”
He had no idea what he’d do if she said no to a casual Saturday lunch date a week before the wedding they were already set to attend together. A moment went by and then another, and Ty raised his eyes to hers. He found Winnie smiling, and her fingers in his tightened.
“Is this like a dry run for the wedding?” she asked. “To see if we can get along?”
He grinned at her. “If you want to call it that, that’s fine with me.”
“Well, if that’s not what it is, what is it?”
“I’d call it a date, ma’am.”
Winnie swallowed too, an edge of fear creeping into her expression now. “Ty, there’s something I should tell?—”
“We’re ready, Winnie,” Taylor said as she arrived.
Winnie dropped Ty’s hand instantly and put another foot of space between them. She held his gaze, and he found pleading in itthis time, and he understood her to be begging him to please understand and that she would explain later.
Ty nodded and went back to bussing table three as Taylor and the two cowboys collected Winnie and they all left.
“As long as there’s a later,” he muttered to himself, catching sight of Winnie’s shiny, earthy hair as she ducked out the door, wondering how long he’d have to wait for her to call or text him and let him know if she would—or wouldn’t—go out with him on Saturday.
4
Winnie sat curled into the beanbag in the corner of her living room, her favorite spot in the whole world. Behind her, the New Year’s Day sun shone over her shoulder, and she had two purrers on her lap. Salmon had finally given up pawing her to pet him, and she’d been texting with her best friend back in Oklahoma about Ty for the past twenty minutes.
Just text him and tell him you’ll go to lunch with him,Amelia had said.He’s probably going crazy by now, and I’m not going to answer you again until you’ve told me you’ve texted him.
Amelia could be hard-nosed if she needed to be, and right now, Winnie really appreciated that. She’d been staring at Tyson’s name on her phone for the past several minutes, and she sighed as she looked up to the movie she’d put on.
When Taylor had gone down the hall to get ready for her evening date, Winnie frowned because she didn’t understand why her sister had turned her visit into adate-as-many-cowboys-as-possiblefest.
To be fair, Taylor was going out with Burt again tonight, and Redwood only sat two hours from where Burt lived and worked near Amarillo. Still, Winnie wouldn’t want to do a long-distancedating thing, and the reason she hadn’t texted Ty yet was because she wasn’t sure she wanted to do “a dating thing” at all.
