“Yes,” he said. “I was supposed to meet my team lead in the administration building, and the guy I was with wouldn’t let me go. He said it was too far and that I wouldn’t make it.”
Winnie pursed her lips, irritated that someone didn’t think Ty could do anything he wanted to do.
“Do you think you could have made it?” she asked.
“I honestly don’t know,” Ty said. “My station was clear across the ranch, so I just went with Caldwell and checked in with his team lead.”
“I’m glad,” she said. “You wouldn’t have wanted to be in such a hurry that you fell.”
“Exactly.” He stroked his hand down her hair. “I was mostly justreally worried about you, and I was really glad I got in touch with you before you started driving.”
Winnie thought of those abandoned cars on the side of the highway. She wondered where the people had gone, and a shiver ran down her arms.
“I shared my pin with you too,” Ty said. “But I don’t think you accepted it.”
“Oh, right.” She reached for her phone in her pocket and then realized she didn’t have it. “I don’t really know where my phone is right now.”
“It’s probably still in your bag,” he said. “You want me to go get it?”
His body shifted, and Winnie tensed and held on to him. “No, stay,” she whispered. She pulled away from him slightly and looked up at him.
“I don’t know what I would have done today without you,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and it made me realize I’m all alone here, except for you.”
“I mean, kind of,” he said. “You’ve got coworkers and neighbors, and you know people in town.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Maybe I just want you to be the one to take care of me.”
His eyes dropped to her mouth, as they’d done on many occasions before. “And I want to take care of you.”
Ty had not kissed her yet, and they had not talked about when he might be ready to do so.
Winnie reached up and cradled his face in her hand, about to ask him what he thought, when he leaned down and touched his lips to hers.
Winnie’s whole world turned sideways all over again, but for a completely different and much better reason than before.
She kissed him back almost hungrily, and he matched her stroke for stroke, until it seemed the storm between them blew out and his touch became sweeter and softer.
Winnie liked all sides of Ty: the grumpy ones, the intense ones, the romantic side, and the sweet side that said things like,I want to take care of you.
So she didn’t much care how he kissed her, as long as he didn’t stop.
20
Ty had no less than forty-eight messages waiting for him on his phone. He’d silenced it in the barn at Lone Star after letting his parents and his friends know that he was fine, safe, and sheltered. His mother also had his pin, and all she had to do was look at her map app and see that he lay on Winnie’s bean bag, kissing her.
Of course, she couldn’t really seethat, and Ty wasn’t even sure how often his mother checked on him. But with a dust storm having just blown through town and him ignoring his phone for the past hour and a half, he figured she might be looking.
He couldn’t bring himself to care in that moment, because kissing Winnie was unlike anything he’d ever done before. Ty had ridden two-ton bulls successfully. He’d bungee-jumped off bridges and flown all over the world, but absolutely nothing compared to holding Winnie in his arms and kissing her, and kissing her, and kissing her.
He couldn’t quite get himself to stop, and he wondered what he’d been so nervous about. He certainly remembered how to kiss a woman, and Winnie sure did kiss him back like she was enjoying herself.
She ran her fingers through his hair and down the sides of his face, and Ty felt so cherished and like he really mattered.
He finally found the willpower to pull away, but he kept his eyes closed and simply listened with his good ear to Winnie breathing in and out. Her breath came a little quicker, and then she sighed as she tucked herself against his chest again.
A moment later, the timer on the oven sounded, and Ty groaned as he rolled away from her and pushed himself up. Getting off a bean bag was no small feat for Ty, but as it was Winnie’s preferred place to lounge in her house—and it was quite comfortable while he was in it—Ty didn’t dare complain.
Instead, he ignored the protests of his body as he limped into the kitchen, silenced the timer, and pulled the fish fillets out of the oven. He’d set the risotto in a pot of water and turned the heat on, hoping it would boil. It hadn’t quite gotten to that yet, but a few bubbles popped on the surface.
