Chapter Thirteen
“Do you want me to leave you in peace for a while so you can work on that?”
They were back in the hotel, and she was writing up notes from her meeting with Eli – which had been fantastic.
Shayna jumped up from the desk. “No! I don’t want you to go. I’ll leave it … I can …”
Ty came to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m not trying to hurry you and I don’t want you to leave it. I know you want to write up your notes while it’s fresh in your mind. I know you’re going to follow up with Eli tomorrow, and you need some time to digest it all before then. I just didn’t know if you’d want me out of your hair while you do it.”
She slid her arms around his waist. “I really don’t want you to go anywhere. I just don’t want you to feel ignored while I do this.”
He chuckled. “I don’t. I’m just fine sitting here watching you. You’re awesome.” He dropped a kiss on her lips. “I’m happy to stay if you want me.”
“I want you.”
She loved the way he squeezed his eyes shut when she said it. When he opened them again, he held her gaze for a long moment. “You have no idea how bad I want you.”
“I think I do. I feel the same way, Ty.”
He touched the tip of her nose. “But I don’t mean to distract you with that. You get back at it, I’ll just sit here and watch my little busy bee.”
She inhaled sharply.
“What? Did I say something wrong? I don’t mean that I enjoy being a lazy ass while you work. I ...”
“I didn’t think you meant anything like that.”
“What then?”
“You called me a busy bee.”
“Yeah. You’re a hard worker.” He chuckled. “And you’re my honey.”
She nodded slowly.
“You don’t like it?” He looked so disappointed that she felt bad.
“No – I mean yes, I do. I love it. It’s … that’s what my dad used to call me – busy bee – because I was always working away at something.”
He ran his hand over her hair. “Makes me feel better that it’s in your nature – that you’re not working your ass off purely out of necessity.”
“No, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I didn’t have work, or study, or something.”
He winked. “I want to say that you could do me.”
“Except you already said that we can’t.”
“Not yet, but we will – and believe me, we’ll have some making up to do.”
A shiver ran down her spine as she nodded.
“But this isn’t getting your notes written up. But before I let you get back to it, I have to ask – do you mind me calling you the same thing that your dad used to?”
“No, I love it. It feels … special.”
“I’m glad. Obviously, I didn’t know, but …” he gave her a mysterious smile. “I like it.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You have something else to say, don’t you?”
He nodded happily. “I do but it can wait till later. You do what you need to do. When you’re finished, we can eat.”
She grinned. “Would you think that I’m a total pig if I say I’d like to go to In N Out again?”
“What I would think is that you really are my dream girl.”
She held his gaze for a long moment, and her heart felt like it filled up and overflowed when he nodded.
“But go on, we’re not going anywhere until you’ve done what you need to.”
~ ~ ~
“What do you think, do you want to go to the same one we went to last night or a different one?” Ty asked when they were in the truck.
“I really don’t mind.” He loved the way her cheeks flushed as she added, “I should maybe be more interested in exploring the city, but all I really care about is spending the time with you.”
He chuckled. “And getting your burger.”
“Yeah, that too, but you know what I mean.”
“I do. I feel the same way. I had all these ideas, depending on what you were interested in. I’d found a couple of different restaurants downtown. I’d looked up the details about the Tabernacle and the Capitol building in case you wanted to look at those. Looked up a couple of different hikes, but …”
“Shoot!”
“What? He shot her a worried glance.
“And here I am being Little Miss Boring, who only wants to eat fast food and from the same location each time. I … I’m not exactly exciting, am I?”
“Hey!” He reached across the console and took her hand. “I’m not saying that I wanted to do any of that stuff. I just wanted to have options for doing whatever you might want to. I love that you’re more interested in spending the time together than in what we might be doing. And not exciting? Are you crazy, girl? You’re the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me.”
The shocked look on her face made him wonder if he’d said too much, but he relaxed when she squeezed his hand. “You mean that, don’t you?”
He nodded solemnly. “I do. You’ll get used to that about me – I don’t say stuff I don’t mean.”
“I’m glad. I’m starting to get the hang of it, and it makes life easier. I don’t have to wonder and guess.”
“You might not like it sometimes. It can be a bitch when you don’t want to hear it, but I’m not good at holding back either way.”
She squeezed his hand. “There’s a line in a song about that. I don’t remember exactly how it goes but it’s something about it being better to hurt me with the truth than deceive me with lies.”
“I don’t ever want to hurt you, but I won’t lie, and I won’t deceive you.”
“I won’t either, Ty. I promise.”
After they stopped for their burgers, he drove up to the same park where they’d stopped last night. They were earlier, and Shayna wasn’t starving tonight, so they walked up the trail a little way and ate sitting on a bench looking out at the view.
When Shayna finished, she let out a big sigh. “Thank you. This is amazing. I love this, Ty.” Her smile disappeared. “I’m going to miss this.” She met his gaze. “I’m going to miss you.”
“Not for long. I’m going to come see you just as soon as I can.”
She gave him a sad smile that made his heart hurt.
“Aww, Shay! Don’t look like that. I promise I’ll come see you. I’m going to miss you, too, you know.” He chuckled. “Although it might not even be an issue.”
“What do you mean?”
“I might not be able to let you go. The thought of taking you back to the airport and waving you off?” He shuddered. “I might have to bundle you into my truck and take you home with me instead.”
She chuckled. “Part of me hopes that you will but …” She blew out a sigh. “I love my little family. I know they’re not my real family, but they’ve been so good to me. And Booker’s come to think of me as his big sister, and I love him. I help him as much as I can. He hasn’t made any friends his own age yet and …”
His heart was pounding in his chest. “What are you saying, Shay?”
Her eyes shone with tears. “I don’t know. It’s a lot to process. I want to spend more time with you. I think you know how I feel.”
He nodded.
“But … how could we even?”
He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to think about this not working out, but he knew that she had a point, and he didn’t want to dismiss her concerns.
“I don’t know, sweetheart. All we can do is take it one step at a time, like you said. But I’m not going to give up easily. I … I know it might sound crazy, but you mean too much to me already to think about giving in without a fight.”
He tucked his fingers under her chin and made her look up at him. “Let’s not worry about it yet, huh?”
“You’re right. Sorry. I …”
“You don’t ever have to be sorry, Shay. We might be getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s just enjoy what we have while we have it.”
“Okay.”
He hadn’t known when to give her the gift he’d gotten for her, but this felt like the perfect moment. Hopefully, it would put a smile back on her face. He hated to see her look so sad.
He rummaged around in his inside pocket for the gift box and the little package he’d bought. The box had come from the jewelry store, and the packet was just a lucky find in the gift shop.
She gave him a puzzled smile. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good. I’m not scratching myself like an ape even if it looks that way. I have something for you.”
Her eyes grew wide. “You do? What kind of something? Now I feel bad – I didn’t get you anything.”
“And I don’t need you to. This is just from this afternoon. I went for a walk while you were in with Eli, and I found something I thought was perfect for you. After our conversation earlier, I think it might be even more perfect.”
He closed his eyes when she touched his beard and leaned in to kiss him. It was brief, but sweet – and it hit him that was the first time that she’d kissed him, instead of waiting for him to kiss her. That meant the world.
When he opened his eyes, she was smiling.
“Okay, so I got you two things. One’s more of a trinket and one’s a bit more … I dunno. I bit more . Which do you want first?”
“I hope you didn’t spend too much …”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Don’t even go there, Shay. You’re not going to be able to talk me out of spending money on you when I want to.” He relented a little when he saw how worried she looked. “But relax. I didn’t spend too much, because I knew you’d feel that way. I got you the trinket because I figured you wouldn’t have a problem with that, but the other thing – I got you that because I want you to have it and … I hope you can be okay with it.”
She leaned in and pressed another kiss to his lips. “I’ll try. Thank you.”
“Okay. So, which first?”
She brought her hands up to cover her face and peeked out at him between her fingers. “I don’t know! You decide!”
He had to laugh. “Are you sure I’m not allowed to call you cute? Cause you look cute as fuck right now.”
She dropped her hands and gave him a wry smile. “If you must.”
“Okay, close your eyes and hold out your hands.”
She did as he said, and he dropped both the box and the little bag into her hands together. “I can’t decide which to give you first, so you choose.”
Her eyes sparkled and her cheeks flushed as she smiled at him. “Thank you, Ty! It’s like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one – only better.”
He wanted to ask how she usually spent Christmas and her birthday, but that could wait.
“Go on, then. Open them.”
She opened the bag first, and grinned when she pulled out the keychain. “Oh, Ty! I love it, thank you!”
The keychain had a straight silver bar with Utah engraved on it, a little silver beehive, and a tiny gold bee.
She kissed him again, making him grin. “You’re welcome. I wanted to get you something that would remind you of this weekend, and when I saw that, I knew that was it. You’re such a busy little bee with everything that you do. And now it feels even more right, knowing that your dad used to call you that. “
He leaned in for another quick peck and murmured, “And you’re my honey, too.”
“Aww, Ty! I love it! Thank you so much. I’m going to put it on my keys when I get home, and then it’ll be like I’m taking a little piece of you everywhere with me.”
His hand curled into a fist. He loved that idea, but he’d like it even better if he could take all of her home with him. “Go on, open the box,” he said with a grin.
She flipped it open, and her hand came up to cover her mouth. “Ty! It’s gorgeous!”
“It had to be, to suit you. Do you like it? Really? It struck me after I bought it that maybe you don’t like insects and you wouldn’t want to wear a bee around your neck.”
She laughed. “I’m not a huge fan of spiders, but mostly I’m okay with insects, and bees are different anyway. They’re like tiny flying teddy bears if you think about it, and they do so much good and …” She stopped, her cheeks pink. “You get the idea. I love bees, and I absolutely love this necklace. Thank you sooo much! Would you fasten it for me?”
She already had it out of the box, and she held her hair out of the way as he leaned in to fasten the little clasp. It was so tricky that it took him a couple of tries.
“Damn fat fingers,” he muttered. When he got the clasp fastened, he kissed his way up the back of her neck, loving the way she shivered.
“There you go. Let me see?”
She turned to face him. The pendant was another silver beehive, and this one had a little bronze bee sitting on it. The silver chain was just the right length on her. He grinned.
“You like?”
“No.”
“Shit! I …”
She laughed. “Relax, Ty! I’m playing with you. I mean that I don’t just like it – I love it! Thank you so very much. It’s beautiful, and it’s perfect.”
He managed to resist telling her that she was perfect. “I’m glad. I didn’t know it before, but it turns out that Utah is the beehive state. Since they’re all about hard work and community, it makes sense. And since you’re such busy bee …”
Tears shone in her eyes as she nodded. “Don’t look so worried, they’re happy tears, Ty. I love that you called me the same thing that my dad used to. It feels like he …” She looked away. “Sorry. I really do love it and …”
“Shay?”
She sniffed. “Yeah?”
“I’ll say it if you won’t; it feels like your dad is kind of part of it – of this, of us.”
Two fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t want to freak you out, but I’m going to say it. It’s more than just him being part of it – it feels more like he likes you and he … approves.”
She let out a little sob, and Ty wiped the tears from under her eyes with his thumbs. He wrapped his arms around her and hauled her onto his lap. She buried her face in the space between his neck and shoulder, and he just held her.
When she finally lifted her head, her eyes were red and her cheeks were splotchy, and she looked maybe even more gorgeous.
“Don’t you dare apologize,” he told her with a smile. “I love the idea that your dad might approve of me.”
“I really think he would, Ty, but …” She sat up a little straighter. “I love that you let me have a moment, but I don’t think either of us wants to stay there, do we?”
“Nope.” He would have if she needed to, but he didn’t know what he could offer, other than his shoulder and support. He was more than okay to move on.
“Okay, so I just realized that I told you about my folks, but you never told me about yours, and all your family stuff – why Cash is much older and …”
His expression must have changed.
“And never mind! That’s obviously not the place to go. So … Where do we go from here?”
He tightened his arms around her and jerked his chin toward the view of the valley, a view that was now a sea of twinkling lights in the darkness with a backdrop of shadowy mountains. Night had fallen while they sat there.
“Want to go back to the hotel? I mean, we can go for a walk around the city if you want to see it, but …”
She gave him what could only be described as a mischievous smile. “I vote for the hotel.”
He grinned as he got to his feet, keeping his arms around her as she slid to the ground. “You don’t need to ask me twice.”
She grasped a fistful of his shirt and raised her eyebrows. “I don’t?”
“Shit! I mean about going back to hang out there – I don’t, I’m not …” He shook his head. “If you want to, I’m not going to be able to resist you. I want to wait, but …”
She blew out a big sigh that had him wondering why the hell he wasn’t caving, but he knew the answer; he’d given himself his word – and that mattered.
“I know you’re right. It’s better that we wait till next time.” She smiled. “But I’m telling you right now – next time you are mine, mister!”
He wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to his chest as he kissed her deeply. When he lifted his head, he looked down into her eyes. “You’re mine.”