Chapter Fourteen
By Sunday night, Shayna was dreading having to say goodbye to Ty. She couldn’t believe how close she felt to him when ten days ago she’d never even heard of him.
She looked around as they walked back to the hotel. She liked Salt Lake, although she knew she’d never be able to think of it as just a city; it would forever be the place where she first met Ty.
At least, she hoped that it’d be the place where they first met, but part of her couldn’t help wondering if it would become nothing more than the place where she once spent an amazing weekend with a hot, sweet cowboy who’d stolen her heart.
She glanced up at him; she didn’t dare even think that thought too loud. It was true – he had stolen her heart, but how would he react if he knew that was how she felt? It was too soon to go anywhere near the idea. The last thing she wanted to do was scare him off.
He squeezed her hand. “What are you thinking so hard about?”
She blew out a sigh; she could tell him at least a partial truth. “Sorry, I was … I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye to you tomorrow.”
“It’s not goodbye, Shay – not unless you want it to be.”
“I don’t! I …”
He stopped walking and wrapped his arms around her. She clung to him. “I hope it’s not.”
He shook his head. “I told you. I’ll come see you as soon as I can. I’m thinking next weekend – how does that sound?”
She realized that she’d hesitated for too long when his eyebrows drew together and he asked, “Or is that too soon?”
“No! I …” She blew out a sigh. “Of course I want to see you next weekend. I’d want to see you every weekend if we could. But … you know how things are for me. I have to work. Next weekend, I’m at the barn both mornings. I’m helping at Violets on Saturday afternoon and The Boathouse on Saturday night. I don’t know what schoolwork I’ll have to fit in, but I usually finish whatever I have left to do on Sunday night.” She tightened her arms around him. “I’m not saying that I don’t want to. I’m just saying that I don’t know how to make it work.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw as he looked down into her eyes. “Do you want to make it work? Do you think it’s worth it?”
“Yes! I really do, Ty. You’re amazing, and we … we’re good together. I haven’t had a lot of relationships. I … honestly, I haven’t even been in a relationship for a few years. I’ve been on a couple of dates here and there but … I just don’t have the time. But with you? I want to make time for you. I want to spend time with you. You’re the best guy I’ve ever been out with but … even if we lived in the same place, I don’t know how we’d make it work.”
He nodded slowly, and from the look on his face, she feared the worst. A wave of relief rushed through her when he finally spoke.
“Are you working Friday night?”
“No, but depending on what assignments I have, I might need to catch up on those.”
“And Sunday afternoon?”
“That’s when I hang out with our little family.”
“How do you think they’d feel about me joining you guys?”
“You’d want to do that?”
“I’d love to. I know it’s not going to be easy, Shay, but I don’t want to give up. If this is your way of telling me that you don’t want to do this, then tell it to me straight.”
She shook her head rapidly. “It’s not that, Ty. It really isn’t. I want to see you again – I want to keep seeing you, I just don’t know how.”
“If you want it – if you want me – I’ll find ways to make it work. I can get there for Friday evening. I can hang out and be quiet while you do your schoolwork. If your friend’s okay with it, I can help you at the barn in the mornings. If Xander and Tori don’t mind, I can work behind the bar with you on Saturday lunchtime. I don’t imagine that’ll work at the other place – The Boathouse. So, I could either sit at the bar while you work or if you don’t want me in your hair while you’re busy, I can do something else. Maybe go back to Xander and Tori’s place until you finish. And if you think your family wouldn’t mind me being there, I’d love to join in your Sunday afternoon.” He smiled. “I’d be happy to do the cooking, maybe that’ll help?”
“You’d really do all of that?” Her heart was pounding.
“Of course. I want to see you, sweetheart. I want to spend time with you. I’m prepared to do whatever it takes.” He frowned. “But I don’t want to force myself on you. I don’t want you to feel like I’m muscling my way into your life.”
“I don’t! I’d love it. I want you to be part of my life, Ty. I want to be part of yours.” She frowned. “My classes end soon – the semester’s almost done. I’ll have a bit more free time over the summer. I … I’ll find a way to come and see you, too. I don’t want you to feel like you have to do all the work. I …”
He smiled and rested his forehead against hers. “I’m prepared to do whatever it takes, Shay.”
She pressed a kiss to his lips. “Thank you – and I need you to know that I am, too. I hate to feel like we just overcame one set of obstacles and I’m already lining up more but …”
“You want to know what the next step is?”
“Yeah. I mean … You … you don’t want to leave Montana, do you?”
“No.” He gave her a pained look. “Shit. I told you that being honest sucks sometimes, but I have to tell it to you straight, Shay. I don’t want to leave. My family’s there, my whole life’s there. I left once, but I always intended to go home and now that I’m there … But it’s the same for you. You grew up in Summer Lake. You have your family – they’ve been good to you; you don’t want to leave them, and I get that. You don’t want to leave Booker – and I respect the hell out of that. It sounds like the kid needs a big sister; you make his life better.”
“Yeah.”
Her heart was heavy as she stared into his eyes. It didn’t make any sense for them to even try, but she didn’t want to give up before they got started.
His arms tightened around her. “Our chances don’t look too good from here, do they?”
“No, but …”
He grinned.
“What?”
“You said but – and that’s all I needed to hear.”
“It is?”
“Yeah. Our chances don’t look good from here, but I’ll come and see you next weekend. And maybe things will look different from there. One thing I know for sure is that the horizon won’t change until you take a step forward. I’m prepared to keep taking the steps, if you want me to. Who knows, maybe at some point, something we can’t imagine yet will appear out of nowhere and make it all possible.”
“I want to believe that something will, Ty. I really do.”
He pressed a kiss to her lips. “Then believe it, sweetheart, because it sure as hell won’t happen if you don’t.”
~ ~ ~
Ty folded his arms behind his head and leaned back against the pillows. He stared, unseeing, at the TV. This had been the best weekend of his life, and he didn’t want it to end. It was late, and he knew that they should get some sleep but then they’d wake up, and it’d be tomorrow, and they wouldn’t have any more time left. He’d have to take her to the airport and watch her walk away. He was really hoping that it wouldn’t be goodbye, but he knew that it might be.
He hadn’t lied when he told her that something they couldn’t yet imagine might appear out of nowhere. He just hadn’t wanted to point out that while that might be something that would make everything possible for them, it could equally spell the end. She might get back to her life and realize that she just didn’t want to make the effort. That it’d be easier for her to find someone closer to home – or that she just didn’t have the time for a relationship at this point in her life.
She was taking her time in the bathroom, and he couldn’t wait for her to come back out and sit with him. He wanted to hold her while they pretended to watch TV. Part of him kept thinking that he’d be crazy if he didn’t make the most of this last night together. He knew damn well that if he took things in that direction, she’d willingly have sex with him.
If this was it – if he never got to see her again – he’d probably regret passing up the chance for the rest of his life. But he wanted to believe that they were going to have a future, and he didn’t want to embark on it that way. Of course, he wanted her, but right now it felt kind of opportunistic.
He frowned when her phone vibrated on the nightstand beside him. He didn’t want to check, but he couldn’t help it. It was a new notification from the dating site.
He felt like a shit, but he had to – he leaned across so that he could read it.
Shay’sGuy: Where are you? I miss you. Come home.
What the fuck? He reread it a couple of times before the screen went dark.
She came out of the bathroom, and the sight of her in the shorts and tank top that she wore as pajamas distracted him for a moment. She took his breath away every time.
“What do you think, should we …” Her smile faded. “Ty? What is it? What’s wrong?”
He stared at her while he tried to push down the anger that had bubbled up. Was she playing him for a fool?
She climbed onto the bed with him and cupped his cheek in her hand as she looked into his eyes.
“Are you all right? Did something happen? What is it?”
He shook his head slowly. “I … shit, Shay. I hope everything’s all right, but you’re going to be the one who has to decide that.”
“What do you mean?”
He pointed at her phone. “You just got a message.”
Her eyes grew wide. “What was it?” The way she scrambled for her phone, looking totally panicked, made him feel bad.
“Was there an accident? Is someone hurt?”
“Nothing like that – I didn’t mean to scare you. It was from that dating site.”
She frowned. “What? I don’t understand. What was it? What did it say?”
He shrugged. “Take a look for yourself. And I know I shouldn’t have looked, but … I did.”
He watched her face as she opened her phone.
“ Shay’s Guy ?” she asked incredulously. “I have no idea who this is.”
From the way her hands were shaking, and the freaked out look on her face, Ty was inclined to believe her.
Her eyes were huge when she looked up at him. He felt like he’d been sucker punched when she met his gaze and whispered, “Oh my god, Ty!”
“What, sweetheart?” He was across the bed and had his arm around her before he knew what he was doing.
“Who is it? What did he say?”
She handed him her phone.
Shay’sGuy: Where are you? I miss you. Come home.
Where did you go? I went to all your jobs this weekend – you weren’t at any of them. You need to get your sweet little ass back home. I miss you. If you can take time off work, you can make time for me. I’ve been patient for long enough.
Ty scowled. “Who is it?”
“I have no idea.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously, Ty. I …” She froze, and in that moment, the expression on her face shifted from fear to anger – and hurt. It was the hurt that felt like a dagger in Ty’s chest.
“Oh my god! You think I’m talking to some other guy on there?”
“No! Shay, don’t get mad at me, please. I just … it’s … I’m trying to understand what’s going on.”
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “Okay. I can see how it must look, but honestly, Ty. I’m not talking to anyone else – on that site or anywhere else. I … I don’t know who it is, but I do know that it’s freaking me out.”
“Yeah.” If this was someone she didn’t know, the message was enough to freak Ty out, too.
“What do you think – do you want to answer?”
She shook her head rapidly. “No! I …” She visibly calmed herself again. “I probably should, shouldn’t I? – try to figure out who it is.”
“Yeah. If some guy knows where you work – all your jobs – and has noticed that you’re not there this weekend.” Ty scowled as he reread the message. “We should try to figure out who it is – and how to make him leave you alone.”
She shuddered and he wrapped both arms around her. “I’ve got you.”
His heart sank when she gave him a small, scared smile. “I know, and I love it, thank you. And …” She gave a shaky little laugh. “Alexis says I’m her star student, so that should help.”
“What do you …?” And then he remembered – Alexis was teaching her self-defense.
“Why’s that your first thought? Is there something going on that you haven’t told me about?”
“No! Well, not exactly. I … the only thing I can think of is that there was a guy who was following me around. It was a while ago. I thought it was over with, but that’s part of why Davin and Alexis rented me their apartment, and why Alexis set up the self-defense classes. Everyone was looking out for me for a while – because I was on my own. But …” She shook her head slowly. “I haven’t seen him in ages. To be honest, I’d started to wonder if I made the whole thing up.” She looked up into his eyes. “When people heard about it, everyone started looking out for me. Kenzie, who manages the bar at The Boathouse, follows me home after work to make sure I get there okay. Davin and Alexis made me promise to always close the garage door before I get out of the car – the entrance to my apartment is inside the garage so …”
Ty scowled. “So, you’ve got some kind of stalker?”
“No! It was just some creepy guy. He followed me home once. He hung around outside the gym a couple of times while I was teaching. But like I said, that was ages ago, and I haven’t seen or heard anything of him since.”
“Because it sounds like your friends have been making sure that he couldn’t get near you.”
“I guess.”
“And you have no idea who he is?”
“No.” She looked down at her phone. “Do you think I should ask him?”
“Yeah.” Ty’s heart was pounding. The thought of someone following her around … of what could happen to her … He ran his hand through his hair. If he’d wanted to take her home with him before, the urge was even stronger now.
He watched as she tapped out a reply.
ShayinCA: Who is this?
She looked up at him. “He might not answer.”
“Let’s give it a few minutes. I reckon he’ll be waiting and watching for a reply.”
He was right – the three little dots bounced up and down, indicating that whoever Shay’sGuy was, he was typing.
Ty scowled to himself. He’d come to see himself as Shay’s guy, and he hated some sick fuck calling himself that. Shayna tensed beside him.
“Are you mad at me?”
“Jesus, no! I’m not mad at you, sweetheart. I’ll admit that I wondered for a second if you were … but I should have known better, and I’m sorry. If I look mad right now, I am. Not at you.” He glared at her phone. “Whoever this fucker is, I want to rip his head off. I …” He stopped when the little red bubble appeared, indicating that Shayna had a new message.
She clicked on it and they both read.
Shay’sGuy: I’m your future. I know you’ve been lonely, but you won’t be anymore. Where are you? I didn’t give you permission to leave town. Or are you in that apartment? I don’t like you living there. I can’t get in. It’s almost time for you to come home with me.
Shayna trembled all over, and Ty glared at the screen, even while he tightened his arm around her. He didn’t know what to say, and he didn’t trust himself not to frighten her more if he voiced his anger.
Shayna’s voice was no more than a whisper when she asked, “Do you think that means he could get into my old place?”
Ty nodded slowly. “It sure as hell sounds that way.”
“What do I do?” she whispered.
He was tempted to say that she should come home with him. He’d be able to keep her safe. He and his family had had to keep every single one of their women safe in one way or another. He knew that wasn’t the solution, even though he wanted it to be. They couldn’t let some sick freak chase her out of her life. If she was going to come to Montana to be with him, it’d have to be her choice – because it was what she wanted. Not because it wasn’t safe for her to stay where she was.
“I think we should talk to your family before you get home, and I think I should see if I can get myself a ticket. I want to come with you.”
“But what about work, what about your brother and the lodge and …?”
“I’ll call Wade and explain.” He checked his watch. “It’ll be ten-thirty in California now – is that too late for you to call your people?”
“No. You think I should?”
“I do, and I’d like to talk to them as well, if they’re open to it.”
“Okay.”
“Let’s talk to them first. I can call Wade afterward.”