“I don’t want to air all my insecurities on the first date,” she said.
“Hey, it puts us on even ground,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
He glared at her for a moment, then focused on driving again. “I mean, you’ve seen me at my worst. Angry, hurting, falling down. It’s nice to know that even the sunniest pictures can still have real problems.”
Winnie wasn’t sure if she should be hurt or not. “No one’s perfect,” she finally said.
“No,” he murmured. “No one is.”
“I’ve missed this.” Winnie squeezed his hand. “I left my family in Oklahoma. I left all my friends, and I miss this…this human touch. No one ever hugs me. The closest I get to this is petting my cat.”
“I’m better than the cat is what you’re saying.” He kicked her that flirty grin again, and this time, Winnie returned it.
“So far,” she said.
Ty tipped his head back and laughed, and oh, Winnie had neverheard such a glorious sound. She let it drip through her ears and paint her soul with the golden light it possessed. She even giggled for a few seconds near the end, and when he quieted, Ty looked over to her again.
He seemed completely transformed from the angry, hurting cowboy who she’d first met at the physical therapy clinic. He hadn’t barked at her once tonight the way he had when he’d called on New Year’s Day. None of the frustration over having to reschedule this date had accompanied him on it, and Winnie let herself sink further into the seat of his truck, a sense of comfort sweeping through her she hadn’t anticipated she’d feel on tonight’s first real date with Ty.
“Do you dance, ma’am?”
Winnie barely caught the movement of his throat as he swallowed. “I can,” she said cautiously. “Why?”
“Squared Away is a bistro,” he said. “With a dance hall attached, and I thought you might like that.”
“You thoughtImight like dancing,” she said. “So you’re taking me to a place where we dine and dance, when it’s the thingyoudislike most.”
He shifted in his seat. “We don’t have to do it.”
“Ty,” she said, and she heard her physical therapist voice come into play. “I would like you to look at me.”
“I’m driving,” he said, and oh, the stubborn cowboy actually looked out his side window instead of over to her.
“I want this date to be fun for both of us,” she said. “So no, I don’t want to dance with you tonight.”
“Well—that’s rude.”
She heard the teasing undercurrent in his tone, and she turned her head away from him as a soft smile came to her face too. “I’ve had a busy day,” she said. “And I just endured a panic attack when I didn’t know I got those. I want something delicious to eat, and I want to linger over coffee and dessert, and I want you to tell me something hard you’ve been through, so I don’t feel so alone.”
“You already know all the hard things I’ve been through,” he said. “Although, there was this one time on the circuit when I lost by a half of a point to this cowboy named Wuth, and boy, I wassoangry.”
“Wuth?” Winnie repeated. “That is not a name.”
“You’ll find a lot of not-names on the rodeo circuit,” Ty said. “And Wuth was a real tool, and losing to him put me in a lower bracket for Nationals. I was so mad, I punched a wall in the arena, and that was a huge mistake too.”
He flexed his hand on the steering wheel. “That was not a good year for me. My manager ended up calling it arebuildingyear.” He glanced over to her then. “I hate that word, by the way. No one wants to berebuilding, and yet, here I am rebuilding my entire life from the ground up. So I’m not having a picnic or anything.”
“I like picnics,” Winnie said with a smile. “Maybe our next date can be a lunchtime picnic, with a basket and a red-checkered blanket and everything.”
“Maybe tomorrow,” Ty said. “It would save me from having to eat Sabbath Day dinner with my family.” He pulled into a side parking lot at the end of Main Street, swung into a parking space with precision Winnie did not possess, and put the truck in park. “Do you go to church, ma’am?”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “Do you?”
His eyes held hers for a few long moments, each one filling the truck with a delicious tightness that bound Winnie to Ty again, and then again, and then again. “Sometimes,” he said. “If I could sit by you and hold your hand, I’d go more often.”
She grinned at him and pulled her hand away. “You’ll behave at church.”
