Tyler wished he could say the same. “You rest up, and I’ll be back later.” He started across the room.
“You’ll work on your end of the bargain?” Dad’s question, so filled with hope, made Tyler stumble.
“Of course,” he called over his shoulder. Should he text Nettie today and schedule a date? Or maybe he needed to have Kade or Emberly set him up with a friend. They’d both offered at one point or another over the past couple of years. If that didn’t net good results, he could always try an online dating app—although that would be his last resort.
He’d promised his dad he’d do his best to find the love of his life. He wasn’t exactly keen on the agreement, but handshake or not, he’d do whatever it took to help Dad heal.
7
Kinsey liked Wyatt a whole lot better than Tyler.
“And over there you can see the archery range.” Standing beside her on the deck, Wyatt pointed beyond the corrals to what appeared to be targets but were difficult to see through the trees, especially in the fading light of evening. “My dad says I’m real good.”
“I’m sure you are.”
“You can come watch me sometime if you want.”
She hesitated. She didn’t want to encourage Wyatt into thinking she could do things with him. T.W. was her priority, and she needed to make sure the boy knew that. On the other hand, she was leaving next week when her replacement arrived. So what harm was there in letting the child think they could be friends? She’d be gone soon enough.
“I’m also good at shooting a pistol.”
“A pistol?”
“Yup. I can hit the hundred-foot target already.”
Did the ranch let children his age handle real guns? Maybe they only had BB guns or some other kind of fake gun for the younger ones. At least, she hoped so. She’s seen more than a fair share of accidents over the years than to approve of children handling firearms.
The seven-year-old was a miniature version of his dad in his looks, but that was where the similarities ended. Wyatt waseasygoing, talkative, and sweet, unlike Tyler, who was definitely a grizzly bear and not a teddy bear.
She’d only talked to Wyatt a few times since arriving, and she liked the little boy more each time he sought her out.
After spending all afternoon and evening with T.W. without a break, Leah had insisted that Kinsey take some time to sit down and eat. Anson had still been in the kitchen when she’d come out, and had been overseeing Wyatt’s homework sheet.
The older cowboy had fixed her a meal in no time. Then Kinsey had brought her plate to the deck to watch the sunset while she ate. Even though the air was chilly and the shadows long, she’d breathed in deeply, trying to quell the dizziness that still bothered her, although the medicine was helping tremendously after having it in her system over the past hours.
Only a few bites into a grilled-chicken sandwich, Wyatt had slipped out onto the deck, and he’d been chattering away ever since.
“For a while I thought I might wanna be a cowboy when I grow up and be just like my dad.” Wyatt was attired in miniature cowboy boots, a fringed vest, and a cowboy hat with his dark hair curling up underneath. “But then I decided I wanna be a bull rider like my uncle Kade.”
Kade, the pilot? “He’s a bull rider?”
“Yup, he’s got lots of belt buckles to show for it.”
“He seems nice.” She’d only seen Kade a couple of times since she’d started taking care of T.W. While he loved his dad, he didn’t have the same intensity as Tyler and wasn’t so bossy.
“My uncle Brock likes to play the guitar and sing. But I can’t whistle a tune to save my soul.”
She laughed lightly. His uncle Brock was much more than a guitar player and singer, but the boy obviously hadn’t grasped the extent of his uncle’s fame yet.
“I never could whistle either.” She finished her last bite and set her plate aside on the glass patio table. “But then I learned a trick that helped me.”
Wyatt plopped down into the wicker chair next to hers, his brown eyes so rich—like Tyler’s.
Tyler did have really great eyes. They were like a double espresso—dark and intense and strong with the power to melt a woman’s insides.
Notherinsides. Okay, well, maybe a little melting happened on occasion around him. It was hard not to get sucked into those eyes when she looked closely at him. Most of the time, however, she was too annoyed with him and his arrogance to feel any melting.
“Can you show me your whistle trick?” Wyatt peered up at her with such anticipation that she couldn’t resist him.
