Chapter 23
Winnie grinned at the black and white horse Ty had just cooed at. Yes, cooed. The cowboy had never spoke as softly as he did when working with horses, and she stepped up to his side and ran her hand down the horse’s nose.
“So you’re Matilda, huh? Ty talks about you all the time. Did you know?”
“All the time?” Ty scoffed. “I don’t talk about her all the time.”
Winnie gave him a dry look. “Please. I hear about Matilda every day—even days you don’t work here.”
“That is not true.”
“Should I go through our texts?”
Ty grinned at Matilda and stepped over to the notes at the side of her stable. “We’ll get your stall cleaned out in a bit, girl. We have to do the tack room first.”
Matilda stood deathly still, her eyes only halfway open and Winnie stroked her neck. No wonder Ty liked her. “I wish you could tell me what he whispers to you,” she murmured.
“She can have a candy,” Ty said, and Winnie turned toward him.
“She can?”
“This stable is mostly Lone Star horses,” he said. “Angel’s, Henry’s, Trevor’s, and any cowboys who work here and have equines, plus a few others.”
“So we got the posh job, is what you’re saying.” Winnie grinned at him. “And I haven’t met Trevor, have I?”
“I don’t think you have, no.” Ty moved down to the next stall. “This is Gypsum. Hey, you. How you doin’ today?”
Winnie stood with Matilda and simply watched Ty interact with the next horse. Gypsum, an eggshell white horse, lifted his head over the half-closed gate and snuffled at Ty.
He chuckled at the horse. “Yeah, I know, You’d just gotten here, and then the world turned sideways, didn’t it?” He leaned in close to the horse and actually touched the brim of his cowboy hat to the horse’s head.
“My life has changed a bunch too in the past couple of days, believe it or not.”
Winnie left the safety of Matilda’s side then, and she leaned into Ty’s side. “So this is Gypsum.”
Ty tucked her in close. “He’s my favorite.”
“Shh,” Winnie whispered. “You can’t say it so loud. Matilda is right there, and you literally just said she was your favorite.” She beamed at him, because Ty was simply adorable with his horses.
He grinned, first at Winnie and then at Gypsum. “He understands that life is unpredictable and changes constantly.” He stroked one hand down the horse’s neck. “Don’t you, bud?”
“He does? How do you know?” Winnie envied the horse in that moment, being tended to by Ty, without a care in the world. Not only that, but she and Ty would feed this animal, clean out his stall, and make sure he felt like a king before they moved on to repeat the process for the next equine.
“He was born to be a racehorse,” Ty said fondly.
“He even trained for a few years, but then he got sold. No more running.” He sighed like this was terrible news.
“Gypsum loves to run, and he got a little fat and lazy at his new home. Then he got some foot rot, and his owner’s sold him to a hobby equestrian.
“She got him fixed up, and he started training to be a show jumper. He only did that for a couple of years, and then, the woman’s daughter got too old, and Gypsum came to Amarillo.”
“Wow,” Winnie said. “How do you know all of that?”
“Horses come with history,” he said. “Just like people.”
“Like, a written file?”
He smiled at her. “Sort of, yeah. His owner now is an ER doctor who works thirteen days on, and then has the rest of the month off. So we get him while he’s working.”
Gypsum blinked at Winnie, and he put off a more intimidating air than Matilda. “Do you tell him any secrets?” she asked the horse. “Is that how he knows so much about you?”
“This is Winnie,” Ty said matter-of-factly. “Remember, I’ve told you about her?”
Winnie’s eyebrows cocked up. “What have you told him?”
“Just that I was a little conflicted about you.” He glanced at her and seemed to realize what he’d said.
“Conflicted?” Winnie asked, her voice pitching up like her eyebrows.
“I mean, in the beginning,” Ty said. “I’m not conflicted now.”
“I should hope not.” Winnie’s stomach pinched slightly. “What were you conflicted about?”
He took a beat to think about it. “You being my physical therapist,” he said. “What people would think of that.”
“No one’s said anything.”
“No, I know.” He gave her a quick look with slightly narrowed eyes and left Gypsum. “This is Laura Ingalls. She belongs to Trevor, and she’s one of his best cutting horses.”
“I’m not sure I know what that means.”
“They cut cattle out of the herd,” Ty said. “Trevor’s one of the best horse trainers in these parts, and he sells his cutting horses for tens of thousands of dollars.”
“Wow, he does? I thought you said he couldn’t walk?”
“He uses arm crutches, yeah,” Ty said. “He’s actually one of my heroes. He gives me hope.”
Winnie wanted to know more about that, but she also thought Ty had more to say about what he’d been conflicted about when it came to her. “Why’s that?” she asked, deciding to stick with this thread for now.
“Because,” Ty said. “He’s struggled physically for years. He’s endured surgeries too. And yet, he just got married to the love of his life, and he runs this boarding stable.” Ty shrugged. “And he’s happy.”
“Did you think you couldn’t be happy?”
“After my accident? Absolutely. I thought I’d never be happy again.”
“Were you happy on the rodeo circuit?”
Ty checked Laura Ingalls’s chart, and then looked over to Winnie. “Happy enough, I guess. I wasn’t unhappy.” He exhaled and turned to get something from the wall in front of the stable. “She gets oats this morning.”
He went about giving Laura the feed bag, and then he took Winnie down to the next stall. “I don’t think I knew what happy and unhappy meant.”
“And you do now?”
“I one hundred percent do now.”
Winnie refrained from telling him that perhaps God had given this experience to help him learn, and grow, and change. No one wanted to hear that half of their body had to be shattered so they could learn the difference between being happy and being unhappy.
“What were your other reservations about us?” Winnie asked quietly as Ty continued to stand there with Laura Ingalls.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Don’t do that with me.”
Ty looked at her, and Winnie let her eyes hook into his. She worked with plenty of men like him—hurting, broken men.
Ty was no longer the man who’d first walked into their initial PT appointment. He’d changed right before her eyes, and oh, Winnie felt herself falling for him right there in Stable C.
“I was worried I’d asked you out just so Trap couldn’t.” He cleared his throat and shifted his feet. “Winnie, I’m still learning how to listen to myself. How to feel things and understand what they are.”
She nodded. “I understand that.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She tried to shrug and only pulled it off halfway.
“Imagine you were a week away from marrying someone you love with your whole heart. And you think they love you too. They’ve said it lots of times.
You’ve been together for over three years.
And then, she shows up and says she actually doesn’t love you, and hey, I’m also leaving town. Good luck to you.”
Winnie heard the very clear bitterness in her voice as the last word came out of her mouth.
She couldn’t hold Ty’s gaze any longer, and she focused on Laura’s shiny, chestnutty coat.
“That makes you wonder if you know anything. If you’ll ever be happy again.
If you’re really as stupid as it seems, and you can actually hear the shattered pieces of your heart as the taillights drive away down the street. ”
“Winnie, honey.” Ty brought her close to his chest.
“So yes,” she said. “I know what it feels like to be happy, and unhappy, and to second-guess literally everything I’ve ever thought, felt, or believed.”
“I’m sorry. Of course you know what this feels like. I’m so stupid.”
“Hey, no you’re not.” Winnie pulled away and looked at him. “It’s okay for you to have this be a new experience for you.” She tilted her head and watched his gaze flit around. “Can I tell you something that will feel like a lecture, or would you rather I not?”
Ty took the now-empty bag of oats from Laura Ingalls and re-hung it on the wall. He nodded down to the next horse. “Yeah, I can hear a lecture.” He gave her that sexy, lopsided grin she loved so much. “If it’s in your voice, it’ll sound like sweet music.”
Winnie giggled and shook her head, moving down to the next stall. “Now you’re just sweet-talkin’ to me.”
“Is it working?”
She ran her hands down the sides of the next horse’s neck and glanced over to the nameplate. Light glinted off it, and she couldn’t make out the letters.
The words she wanted to say stormed through her head, and she debated whether she should say them out loud or not. She reminded herself that she wanted a partner she could speak her mind with, and she’d asked first.
He’d said yes.
“This is a new experience for you,” she said. “Learning how you feel, and if it’s true or whatever. But you’re not alone.” She lifted her eyes and met his. That tether that had always been there between them reformed, stronger and tighter than ever.
“You’re not the first person to experience this, and you won’t be the last. God knows you, and He knows what you need to become the man He wants you to be.”
“I want to be someone who’s good for you,” he whispered.
Winnie’s heart leapt and sang, causing a smile to come to her face. “You might be,” she said. “But you might not be. We’ll figure it out, but you shouldn’t try to be who you think I want you to be. You should try to be the best person you can be, because I might not be the one for you, and then—”
“Don’t say that,” he said. “I can’t think of a single reason why we shouldn’t be together.”
Winnie nodded. “I honestly feel the same right now, but Ty, we’re only one month in.”
“How long does it take?”
“How long did you date Jenn?”
He flinched and blinked like she’d thrown ice water in his face. “Okay,” he said. “Point taken.”