Chapter 5 #2
A few stayed, and of course, Mitch and Lacy lived on site, and they’d wanted to do a faculty and staff party before life returned to normal again. Ty only worked with Mitch training the hearing dogs, and the rest of his experience with Signs for Success was actually as a student.
Do you know what they’re having for the main dish? Ty typed into Jacob’s phone, as Mitch and Lacy had said they would provide the meat.
Smoked turkey, Jacob wrote. And steak bites. I’m supposed to take cheesy potatoes to go with.
“Sounds like we’ll eat well tomorrow, at least,” Ty said as he typed the words into the phone. He grinned at Jacob, and he did enjoy his steak—every scrumptious bite.
He cleaned up the kitchen, wiping down the stove of all the steak splatters and wiping out the cast iron skillet with a paper towel before he took his phone and headed outside.
Darkness had started to fall, and Ty walked the sidewalk between two pads of grass—the playground on the right that he could see out the window over their kitchen sink—to a bench on the left side in the corner, about one hundred yards from his front door.
Winnie hadn’t strayed far from his mind, as she had been the one to tell him to make this walk every day, focusing on his steps and his stride, where his shoulder was, and how he could pull it into position and find the natural gait that he’d once had.
He’d done it too. Even on his busiest days, he made the one-hundred-yard walk to the bench, thinking of her the whole time before making his way back.
Tonight, he sighed mightily as he sank onto the bench and looked at his phone. Winnie hadn’t texted again, but she hadn’t seemed to mind his questions, and surprisingly, he hadn’t minded hers either.
He’d learned that her favorite food was avocados and her least favorite foods were mushrooms or eggs.
She had two cats, and that was her favorite animal.
And he’d told her that he loved horses and the full moon and the scent of dust and dirt in the air, and the way the earth felt so clean after rain.
She loved a good rainstorm too, and Ty thought it might be the first and only thing they’d agreed on yet.
She loved the color purple, and he already knew she was a people person.
He wasn’t, but he figured lots of people found happiness with someone who wasn’t exactly like them.
Why couldn’t he?
I’m going to need a rain check, he typed out. My brother called this afternoon, which is why I kind of disappeared. Then Jacob came home with steak and well, now you know where you rank against fresh steak from Shiloh Ridge.
She seemed to like the emojis, and he sent a couple of laughing ones.
Then my momma called and, wouldn’t you know it? My brother’s getting engaged on Saturday, and apparently he needs my help to do it, so I can’t take you to lunch.
He sent that message and sighed as he looked up.
Maybe we can find another time before next weekend to make sure that we don’t embarrass ourselves in front of the whole town. Since, you know, my momma already knew I had a date to the wedding.
His phone buzzed only a few seconds later, and he looked down at it.
Your momma knew you had a date? Winnie asked.
Out of all the things he’d said, that was what she’d latched onto?
I guess someone picked up on something at the brunch today, he said. Maybe you and Taylor were talking about it.
Yeah, we were, Winnie said. Maybe someone at the table next to us overheard.
Welcome to Three Rivers, Ty said. This place is notorious for its rumor mill, especially with someone like me.
Someone like you? Winnie asked. What does that mean?
And someone like you, he said. You’re new to town, so of course people are curious about you.
And I’m not new to town, so everyone knows everything about me from the time I was born, and they feel—like, I don’t know—protective of me.
At least that’s how my momma explains it. I just find it annoying.
Cry me a river, cowboy, Winnie said. I left my small Oklahoma town because everyone there knew every single thing about me, and I couldn’t stand the way they looked at me.
Ty sensed a story there, and his memory flashed back to earlier that day, when she’d said she had something to tell him, and then her sister had interrupted her.
He wanted to press her, but at the same time he didn’t.
Instead, he said, I’d love to hear about it when we finally get to go to lunch together.
Then, fearing she might never go to lunch with him if she thought she had to tell him something she didn’t want to talk about, he added, Or whenever you want to tell me. It doesn’t have to be the first time we go out.
Okay, she said. We’ll see how it goes.
Does the reason you left Oklahoma have anything to do with why you won’t wear dresses? he asked. That little tidbit had intrigued him more than anything else she’d said.
Yes, they’re related, Winnie said. And maybe if we can figure out how to get along, I’ll tell you about it.
I think we’ve been getting along pretty great over text.
Well, let’s see how we do in person, cowboy. Now my cats are demanding dinner. And I have to make the dessert for the party tomorrow night, and then I’ll be back if you want to text some more.
Ty’s smile widened by the second. He’d forgotten that Winnie was going to start as a sign language instructor at Signs for Success.
She was supposed to begin in the fall semester, but her workload at the physical therapy clinic had been too much, and she’d asked Mitch and Lacy if she could postpone her assignment.
They’d made things work with Lacy taking on the beginner classes that Winnie was supposed to teach.
Ty had been really grateful, because he wasn’t sure if he could see Winnie at the physical therapy office and in his beginning sign language classes. He’d graduated out of that one now, though, to the Intermediate ASL class, so she wouldn’t have to be his therapist and his teacher.
“And hopefully your girlfriend,” he whispered to himself as he turned his attention back to his phone.
I’ll be around later if you want to chat. At least tell me what you’re making for dessert, because that’s the best part of any meal.
She didn’t answer right away, and Ty got up to do his walking exercises, because while he’d been on a vacation schedule at the orchards and the boarding stable, his healing never took a day off, and he suddenly wanted to become as whole and as strong as possible…for Winnie.