“Why would it be stressful?” Momma asked. “You don’t have to be anyone but who you are.”
“No, butshemight feel like she needs to,” he said. “I would be stressed if I was going to dinner with her parents.”
“Oh—Lucas is right here,” Momma said. “I love you, bud. Text me the address.”
“Love you too, Momma,” Ty said, and he ended the call.
He looked at his phone, wishing he could call Winnie, but she had a much harder time answering at work. So he typed out a quick message to her and sent it before reminding himself that he’d traveled the continent with only a rodeo manager, his horse, and a couple of bags of personal items for years.
“Yeah, but you don’t have that life anymore,” he told himself, and he didn’t even want it. He wanted to be able to call his mother and have her come to a showing, or text his girlfriend and let her know that he missed her and felt lonely.
He arrived early at the farm, but he knew from Jerry’s intel that no one lived there right now. He drove down the dirt road, which was pretty well-kept considering they were coming out of winter and had endured a couple of pretty major storms in recent months. Ty loved all the trees that hid barns and buildings, as it gave a sense of privacy he really liked.
He rounded the corner and the house came into view. His heart leapt and bobbed against the back of his throat when he saw that he could drive right up to it and only had to navigate three steps to the front porch.
“This is not what was in the listing,” he said, frowning at the single-story house. The one online had been white with pale-blue shutters—and two levels. This one was pale blue with white shutters, and just the one story.
He quickly pulled out his phone, just in case he’d come to the wrong place. He scrolled to Jerry’s text, tapped the link, and flipped through the photos. He recognized every single one. He’d definitely been looking at the right property. Then he realized he’d never noticed there weretwohouses on this parcel.
“What in the world am I going to do with two houses?” he muttered, looking up. He wasn’t sure, but something inside him told him to be patient and to have an open mind.
His phone chimed with a text from Winnie, but movement out his side window drew his eye as his parents’ truck rolled to a stop beside him. He smiled and waved at his mother and then quickly looked at Winnie’s text:
I can’t wait to hear all about the house tonight. I’m really craving some cheesy enchiladas. Can we go to Marco’s for dinner and you can tell me all about it?
Of course we can, Ty said, and then he got out of the truck and stepped straight into his Momma’s arms, where she held him close to her heart the way she had when he was a baby, a little boy, and now a grown man.
Ty was once again reminded that life didn’t have to be perfect tobe wonderful. He stepped back and grinned at his mother. “Thanks for coming,” he said. “This is actually one of two houses, believe it or not.”
“Wow,” his daddy said, peering at the house like it might hold secrets he really needed to know. “What are you going to do with two houses?”
Ty burst out laughing, because he had literally just asked himself that very same question.
30
“Anyway,” Ty said in Winnie’s ear. “I just pulled up to your house. I’ll get the cats fed, and we can go to dinner when you get here.”
“Okay,” Winnie said, and she dipped her hand into her purse to find her keys. “Wow, the wind is terrible.” A flash of fear moved through her, as if she might have to endure another dust storm in her car. Winnie looked to the western sky, which remained clear and dust-free. The sun stayed up longer and longer these days, but it would be down in probably the next hour.
“Oh, hey, Rocky.” Ty’s soft coo for her cat came through the line, and Winnie’s heart filled with appreciation for Ty. As much as he claimed not to like cats, he sure took good care of Rocky and Salmon.
When she pulled her keys out of her purse and clicked to unlock the door from several feet away, she practically dove into the safety of it, shivering just a little bit.
“It’s really cold today,” she said.
“Yeah, we’ve got a little spring cold snap coming through,” Ty said. “I can’t wait to tell you about this place.”
He’d already told her quite a bit, as he’d dialed the moment he’dgotten back in the car after wandering around a smaller hobby farm that he thought might actually work for him. It was the first time she’d heard any true excitement in his voice after a showing, and it did Winnie’s heart good to hear him so happy.
She pushed the ignition button and her sedan roared to life. Thankfully, it had not been in the shop for very long—the bumper had just had to be pulled out and the engine cleaned.
“Okay, I’ll let you go to drive,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.”
“All right,” Winnie said, though she loved making her quick fifteen-minute evening commute with Ty on the line. He went to work earlier than she did and was usually done a few hours before her. They’d fallen into a nice rhythm of dating, where she called him after her final paperwork was done for the day and he kept her company on the drive home, though she usually found him already at her house, feeding the cats or stirring something on the stove. The man loved to cook, and he was very, very good at it.
Tonight, they were going out, and Winnie couldn’t wait to have some of her favorite chicken tortilla soup and chips and guac while Ty told her everything about the property.
She arrived home, called, “Let me just change my clothes real quick, and we can go,” as she walked inside, and tossed her bag on the dining room table.
