Chapter 38
Ty could not have hoped for a better reaction.
He did worry for a moment that Winnie would barrel straight into him and the two of them would tumble head over heels down the eight steep, concrete steps he had already climbed.
He prayed he had the strength to hold her—and himself—upright after a restless, sleepless night and a three-hour drive at dawn with only a cold breakfast burrito and subpar coffee to sustain him.
She grabbed onto him, and he hugged her tightly too, and thankfully, they both stayed on their feet.
Winnie’s laughter subsided and she stepped back, her eyes wide and searching. She ran her fingers down the sides of his face. “You’re here,” she said, as if she couldn’t believe it. “You’re really here.”
His cowboy hat was gone, but Ty didn’t need it, because he was ready to expose everything between them. “I couldn’t do it,” he said.
Winnie’s excitement faltered and her expression filled with anxiety. “Couldn’t do what?”
“Make it through another weekend without you.” He threw one arm out in a gesture, as if to indicate the whole world was awful without her, which it was. “I mean, the wedding was wonderful, but I hated every minute of it, because I was there by myself.”
He felt wild and out of control, the way he did after he’d finished an eight-second ride and was waiting for his score to come up on the board. He forced himself to look at Winnie and take another breath.
His eyes met hers, and Ty could see his future in her face.
She spoke of home and goodness, and while he hadn’t been sure if he was in love with Winnie Landry or not, as he stood there on her parents’ front stoop—movement behind her threatening to steal his attention—Ty allowed the very real feeling of love to fill his heart.
“I love you,” Ty said, as if it were a terrible thing.
He threw his hands up and let them fall back to his sides.
“Yep, there it is. I’m in love with you.
And Momma says love shouldn’t make a man miserable, but I’ve been so unhappy since you left.
And then she said that if I am miserable without you, that maybe I’m in love, which doesn’t make any sense, but there you have it. ”
He forced himself to slow down and take a breath. “And I know I just bought that ranch, and I think it’s awesome, but I’d sell it and move here, if that’s what I needed to do to be with you.” He flicked his eyes behind her, where her mother stood beside a man who had to be her father.
“Or maybe your parents can move to Three Rivers. I’ve got two houses on my place, and I can take care of them and the cats. I just have to be with you.”
He looked at her again. “And maybe it’s too fast, and maybe it’s too soon, and maybe I’m a complete fool, but Rock said he knew he was going to end up with Clover after their first date.
And Carolina says that I should never be afraid to speak what’s in my heart.
And Finn told me to just get everything out between us and then let you decide. ”
Ty’s mind finally slowed and the words in his mouth dried up. When Winnie didn’t immediately jump in and repeat I love you back to him, he said, “That’s it. That’s all I’ve got.”
A slow smile spread her lips. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?”
“Yes,” he clipped out.
She cocked one hip and put her hand there. “I don’t think I’ve heard you say so many words strung so closely together.”
“All right,” he said. “I drove three hours to be here and you’re going to ridicule me?”
“No.” She reached out and straightened his perfectly flat collar. She watched her own fingers, and then she finally lifted her eyes to his. “Are you serious right now?”
“When am I ever not serious with you?” he asked. “Do I just say stuff off the cuff?”
“No,” she whispered, and her chin shook, and Ty wanted nothing more than to erase every hard thing from her life.
“Or maybe you need me to speak a little slower,” he said. “Or climb up on the roof and yell it.”
She looked up at him again, pure vulnerability riding in her eyes now.
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” he said. “I called Jerome at home about fifteen times yesterday until he told me that you would not be at work this week. So then I immediately called in sick everywhere.” He hooked his thumb toward his truck.
“And I have nowhere to stay tonight, but I’m sure there are hotels here and I’ve got enough clothes for the next week.
And maybe we can just spend some time together and talk. ”
They hadn’t really broken up, but Ty felt too far from Winnie to be sane.
When he looked at her again, he found her watching his truck. “Did you bring my cats?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “I pawned ’em off on Conrad.”
She pulled in a breath. “Ty, that man has a four-month-old baby.”
“Yeah, and a six-year-old daughter who loves felines,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’m paying her.”
“You’re paying someone to watch my cats?” Winnie shook her head. “No, that is not okay.”
“Well, I couldn’t bring them with me,” he said. “I did manage to look up a few places to stay, and none of them accepted cats.”
Winnie grinned at him, and Ty loved this back-and-forth between them.
“I’d offer for you to stay here,” Winnie whispered, leaning closer. “But one, I don’t want you to. And two, there’s no extra bedrooms.”
“Oh, well, can you properly introduce me to your parents anyway?” he whispered back. “Or give me some indication that you’ve heard all the things I’ve said and that I’m not an idiot?”
She glanced over her shoulder and then put one hand on Ty’s chest and pushed him back on the porch so she could exit the house too. She pulled the door closed behind her and stayed up on the step so that she stood almost level with his height.
“I’m not sure, because you were talking real fast, and in a way I’ve never heard you talk before, but I think you said you love me.”
“I do,” Ty said. “And maybe it’s crazy, but—”
“It’s not crazy,” Winnie said. She dropped her chin in that shy way she had that made Ty love her even more. “I was just about to talk to my parents about coming to live with me in Three Rivers.” She looked up and met his eye. “Because I’m miserable here without you.”
“Yeah?” His lips curved up in a smile. “That’s great news.”
“Me being miserable is great news?”
Ty tipped his head back and laughed. “Yes, sweetheart, because it means you’re in love with me too.”
“Hm, I didn’t say that,” Winnie said.
Ty pressed in close to her, resting one palm at her hip against the door. “You don’t have to say it, Win. You kissed me like it when you left, and when I kiss you right now, I’m going to feel the exact same thing.”
“You think so, huh?” She swallowed, and Ty dropped his head and moved at a snail’s pace, giving her every opportunity to push him away or shoot some other barb in his direction.
She didn’t, and when his lips grazed hers, Winnie reacted the same way she always had. She pulled in a breath, grabbed onto his shirt, and pulled him closer. She kissed him hard for a moment, and then she let Ty take control again.
He savored his time kissing her, finally moving his left hand up her arm and across her shoulder and into her hair.
“Mm, yeah, I love you,” he said. “And you kiss me like you love me.”
“Fine,” Winnie whispered. “Maybe I do.”
He chuckled and touched his lips to her earlobe. “Yeah, maybe you do.”
He pulled back; their eyes met, his smile falling away at the tenderness between them.
Winnie breathed out and then pulled in another breath, and Ty recognized her trying to control her emotions. He took her face in his hands again and kissed her for several long moments until he became aware of voices on the other side of the door.
He pulled away just as Winnie said, “My parents.”
“Yeah. You want to introduce me to them?” he asked.
Winnie grinned, and though her face bore a bit more pinkness, she nodded.
She reached behind her and twisted the doorknob and almost fell backward into the house.
She tugged him inside with her, and Ty tried to stand as tall and as strong as possible at her side as she said, “Momma, Daddy, this is my boyfriend, Ty, and he drove here from Three Rivers, because he loves me, and I’m not staying here in Redwood, because of him.
So we need to talk about the two of you coming to live with me in Three Rivers, where Daddy can have his surgery and I can then help take care of him in the recovery. ”
With every word she spoke, her parents’ faces morphed through a range of emotions—first from gentle acceptance, then to happiness, and then to disbelief, and then to pure shock.
“We can’t go to Three Rivers,” her father said.
“Oh, yes, you can,” Winnie said.
“I don’t have a doctor there,” he said.
“I’ve called several,” Winnie said. “And we actually have an appointment in Three Rivers, not this Tuesday, but the next one.”
She glanced at Ty, and he nodded at her, hoping to give her the strength she needed to see this through.
“So we have a week to get this house packed up with everything you need, and then Ty and I are taking you back to Three Rivers with us on…”
She turned toward him, and Ty cocked his eyebrows at her. “Saturday?” he guessed.
Winnie nodded and turned back to her parents. “Saturday.”
“What about the house?” her mother asked.
“Taylor lives here,” Winnie said without missing a beat. “She can handle anything with the house. You guys can come to Three Rivers, where there are renowned back surgeons, Daddy, and you can have your surgery there, and I can keep my job, and my boyfriend.”
Ty put his arm around her and watched, once again, as her parents went through a roller coaster of emotions. Neither of them spoke for several long seconds, and then they looked at one another as if they had rehearsed it.
“It might be a good solution, Cecil.”
“I don’t like it,” her daddy said.
Her mother let out an exasperated sigh. “You wouldn’t like anything we proposed.” She shook her head and then stepped forward. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Ty. Winnie has told us a lot about you.”
“It’s great to meet you too, ma’am.” He stepped forward and shook her daddy’s hand. “Sir.”
He grinned around at all of them, though he didn’t see Winnie’s sister. “Now, it smells like coffee in here, and it has to be better than the glop I drank from the gas station at the Oklahoma border.”
Winnie’s mother sucked in a breath. “Was it Harrod’s?”
He nodded, and she tisked her tongue. “This is terrible news. Come get something good.”
Winnie beamed at him like he’d just done something amazing, and Ty honestly felt like he had. For the first time since Winnie had left town, he felt like he was walking on clouds as he followed her mother into a small kitchen where she poured him a fine-smelling cup of coffee.