“Are we ready for a Saturday night date?” he asked. “Lunch is more casual, and I didn’t want there to be a lot of pressure.”
“I think we could at least try,” Winnie said.
Ty nodded. “All right. Let me talk to my brother, so I don’t have to cancel again, and I’ll let you know what time.”
She nodded, and then gently slipped her hand out of his and stood. “I’m going to get brownies for the table,” she said, and she left to do that. A new measure of happiness threaded through her, something that Winnie could barely believe.
She picked up a plate and loaded four of each type of brownie onto it before returning to the table. She set it down in the middle, and then returned to get the little dessert plates, one for each of them. She passed those out, and as she retook her seat, Ty nudged her phone a little bit closer to her.
“You got a message,” he said.
Her heart did a cartwheel—perhaps it was Taylor saying something about how Burt had already broken up with her, or maybe she’d met a cowboy at a gas station on the way home and had a date with him that night.
But she saw the message was from Ty, and it said,Bryan said I’ll be done by 3:30, and that puts me back in town around five. How about dinner at six?
She looked up and found him watching her with the same intensity on his face that he always wore while doing his physical therapy, even while at a New Year’s Eve party with his friends or at a summer dance on a blind date.
A smile crossed her face. “Six is great for me.” Then she reached out and picked up the mint brownie, declaring, “Let’s do a taste test, and you guys can tell me which one you like the most.”
7
“Like this?” Ty set an enormous vase of red roses in the middle of the table he and Libby had just finished setting up. While he’d limped back to the truck, she’d spread a tablecloth over it and set out two plates.
“Yes,” she said. “That looks great.” She set down a couple of candles, then picked one back up to switch it on. Ty really didn’t see the point of all of this. It was broad daylight, for crying out loud, and he couldn’t even see the fake flickering of candlelight.
No wonder he’d never proposed to Jenn. He didn’t want to go through the whole show of this. No, when he asked a woman to marry him, he simply wanted to show up on her doorstep, tell her he loved her, and beg her to be his for the rest of this life.
Maybe that was why he’d never gotten close to engaged.
He thought of Winnie, because the woman had embedded herself in his mind. She’d been there for a while, and he just hadn’t realized it until someone else had pointed her out.
“Do women like this stuff?” he asked as he peered into the box Libby had carried from the truck. He found a bright teal stuffed dinosaur, and he lifted it out. “Like….”
He met his friend’s eyes, and she beamed a smile at him. “Yes, Ty.” She took the dinosaur from him and positioned it on one of the plates. “Women like this stuff.” She stepped back and looked at the table, set for a romantic meal for two in the shade.
“It’s not about the roses or the candles or the trinkets.” She turned and picked up the box, holding it toward him.
Ty plucked out the only remaining item: a scrapbook, by the looks of it.
“Open that so they can both see it, behind the roses,” Libby said.
He did what she said. “If it’s not about the stuff, what’s it about?”
Libby smiled at the table display. “The roses might be the most generic thing here. But Ellie works at the museum.” She reached out and tapped the dinosaur. “She leads school groups through the dinosaur exhibit. Bryan knows that, and he knows she loves her job.”
Libby looked over to Ty. “Let’s go get the food out.” She stepped that way, and Ty took one more look at the table before he went with her. She never made him feel like he wasn’t good enough now that he was permanently injured, walked with a limp, and had to walk on her left side to hear her.
“The book is filled with pictures of them,” he said. “Bryan made that.”
Libby smiled at him. “Yep. It’ll be full of all their intimate moments together. All of the little things they’ve done, all of their experiences that have made them into them. Ellie will love it, and she’ll fall even more in love with Bryan when she sees stuff like that, because it tells her that he listens. He pays attention. He knows what’s important toher, and he’s going to spend his life making sure she’s happy.”
Ty watched the ground, though they hadn’t gone too far out into the field. “What if a man has a bad memory?” He tossed the now-empty box into the back of his truck, and together, he and Libby reached for the cooler.
Libby met his eyes. “Most men have phones,” she said coolly. “They can send themselves emails or take notes on the things they want to remember.”
Ty blinked, and they started the trip back to the table. “I can’t believe we’re the two people out here doin’ this,” he grumbled. “I can’t walk, and you hurt your shoulder during the harvest.”
“Bryan trusts us,” Libby said simply. “Besides, I’m pretty much better. Winnie’s helped so much.”
