Chapter Twenty-Six
“Can we stop at the bakery and see the big man?” Maya asked.
“We can’t, sweet pea. Your mommy’s waiting for you at home.”
Maya blew out a big sigh.
“She doesn’t just want to see Rocket man,” Mateo said. “She wants a cookie.”
Shayna laughed. He was no doubt right, and Shayna didn’t blame Maya one bit. The cookies, and the muffins – and everything else at the bakery was so good! She decided that she’d ask Sierra if it was okay if she took them a cookie each the next time that she went to collect the kids from school on Thursday.
She smiled at them in the rearview mirror. “I bet your mom has a snack for you when you get home, doesn’t she?”
Maya gave her a naughty little smile. “She does, but cookies are nicer than carrot sticks.”
She had to laugh. “Maybe your tastebuds think cookies are nicer, but your body likes all the nutrients that carrots and other veggies give you.”
“Did your mommy used to give you carrots and veggies?” Maya asked.
“Sometimes.”
“Your old mom, or your mom at the lake?” asked Mateo.
“My mom when I was little.” She didn’t want to say her real mom, because she didn’t want to make that distinction. They were so young when they lost their folks, that they were coming to think of Sierra and Wade as their real parents.
She could see that Mateo was frowning at her in the rearview mirror.
“What’s up?”
“Why did you leave your family at the lake and come here instead?”
“I … there was a bad man there. He …” She didn’t want to say too much, so she smiled. “And I met Tyler, and we wanted to be together, and he asked me to come here with him.”
“I’m glad you came here,” Maya told her with a big smile. “I love you!”
“Aww, I love you guys, too.”
Mateo was still frowning.
“What’s up, little man?”
“How do you know that the bad man won’t follow you here?”
“He doesn’t know where I am.”
“But he might find you. The bad man who took our mom found her.”
While she was wondering what she could say to reassure him, Mateo held his arm up. “You can have my watch.”
She gave him a puzzled smile. “That’s sweet of you, but you need your watch.”
“No. You don’t know – it’s a special watch. It will keep you safe.”
Maya nodded sagely. “Mommy’s watch kept her safe.” She held her little arm up. “Mine’s the prettiest color, but they’re all special watches. Mine, and Mateo’s, and Mommy’s.”
She’d noticed before that they all wore watches with colorful bands. Now, she was intrigued. “How are they special?”
“They tell people where you are,” Mateo told her.
“How do they do that?”
“They send a signal when you press the button. You can wear mine so that if the bad man comes for you …”
She smiled at him in the mirror. “Thank you, sweetie. I love that you’d let me wear yours, but you need it. And like I said, the bad man won’t be able to find me here.” Her smile faded. She hated that he’d found Booker at the barn, and she hated that they hadn’t been able to find him.
When they got to the big cabin, Sierra came out to greet them.
“Thanks again for going to get them,” she told Shayna.
“It really is my pleasure.”
“Can I call Dad?” Mateo asked.
“Why, what’s wrong?” Sierra looked worried, and Shayna loved the way he went to her and took her hand – as if he was the grown up and wanted to reassure her. “Nothing’s wrong, but Shayna needs a special watch like ours.”
Sierra smiled. “Shayna’s safe here, Mateo.”
He scowled. “You don’t know that – not for sure. And even if she is safe, she can wear a special watch.”
Sierra smiled at Shayna. “He’s right. There’s no harm in wearing one, is there?” She held her hand up, showing off the bright pink plastic band. “I know people think it’s strange that I wear this instead of my old Cartier one, but this one saved my life.”
“I get it,” Shayna told her, wondering if she still wore it out of sentiment or because it was better to be safe than sorry.
Sierra answered that for her when she told Mateo, “We’ll talk to Daddy when he gets home – we can order one for Shayna.”
She was about to protest, but Sierra smiled at her. “Now that Mateo has brought it up, I have to get you one – it’d be like tempting fate if I didn’t.”
Shayna nodded. “I was about to argue with you, but I feel the same way. I’ll talk to Ty.” She had no idea how much something like that would cost but …
“There’s no need – I’ll ask Wade to order one, and it’s my gift, part of my thank you for picking them up from school for me.”
She stepped closer and gave Shayna a hug, and Maya wrapped her arms around their legs and grinned up at them.
“Do you want to come in for a while?” Sierra asked.
“Thanks, but I need to get home. I’m hoping to make some headway on my assignment before Ty gets back from work.”
“Okay, we’ll see you on Thursday then.”
As she drove away from the big cabin, Shayna looked back at it in the mirror. It was a beautiful place, but she wouldn’t want to live there. She loved the much smaller cabin that she shared with Ty. It was perfect for them.
~ ~ ~
Later that evening, after they’d had dinner, Ty led Shay out onto the back porch. He loved that she waited for him to sit before she lowered herself onto his lap. This had become their thing. They sat out here to watch the dusk fall and the stars come out.
He pressed a kiss to her temple. “How was your day, busy bee?”
She laughed. “I don’t feel like I’m living up to that name anymore.”
“What, because you’re only working seven jobs now instead of seventeen?”
“Because nothing feels like work here.”
He grinned at that. “It doesn’t?”
“It really doesn’t, Ty. Think about it – whenever I’m in the lodge, you’re there, and I get to see you. When I’m running errands for the ranch, I get to drive around this beautiful valley. I feel lucky that I get to spend time with Mateo and Maya when I pick them up. And I get to ride horses with your brother and sister – how could that feel like work?”
“We need to carve out some time to ride up into the mountains, just you and me.” He frowned when a thought struck him.
“What?”
“Most of the time, I feel like we’ve been together forever. But sometimes, like just now, it hits me that there’s still so much we don’t know about each other.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Do you enjoy camping? When I said we should ride out into the backcountry, I was thinking that we could make a weekend of it – go camping. But I don’t even know …”
She smiled. “My dad used to take me camping. I haven’t had the chance to go since he died – and that’s a long time ago now. I’d love to go with you.” She made a face. “You’ll probably think I’m a useless city girl because I won’t know what to do, or how to help – but I’m a fast learner and …”
He chuckled as he caught her chin in his hand and made her look into his eyes. “You don’t need to do a damn thing, Shay. I’ll take care of you.”
She wrapped her arms around him and dropped a kiss on his lips. “I know, but I want to learn, and I need to do my part.”
“I want to tell you that your part is just being with me and looking pretty but …” He laughed when she pushed at his arm.
“I’m messing with you, sweetheart.”
“I know, but you know better.”
“I do. Have to tell you, though, you’ve got the looking pretty thing covered. What do you say, do you want to go this weekend?”
“What about Sunday lunch?”
He made a face. “I’ll tell them that they have to fend for themselves this week. They didn’t expect me to be there to cook for them every week even before I met you.”
“Okay.” He loved the way she smiled. “Let’s do it.”
“Now, I’m going to spend the rest of the week fantasizing about making love to you under the stars.”
She shivered and he ran his hand up and down her back. “You like that idea, huh?”
“I do …” She dropped her gaze.
“What?”
She looked back up at him with a guilty little smile. “I’ve never …”
He shifted in his seat. “Never …? Under the stars?”
She shook her head slowly. “Outside.”
He got to his feet so fast that he had to hold her steady so that she didn’t fall when she slid off his lap.
“What … Where are you …?”
He didn’t say a word as he marched straight into the spare bedroom and dragged the mattress off the bed.
Shay’s eyes were wide as she watched him haul it outside and lay it down on the porch. He tugged at the sheets to straighten them before he looked up at her. “I’ll go get the pillows.”
She laughed. “Ty!”
“What?” He went to her and cupped her face between his hands. “It never occurred to me that you wouldn’t have …”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Maybe I was saving myself for you.”
He crushed her to his chest and claimed her mouth in a deep, searing kiss. When he finally lifted his head, she smiled up at him.
“You like that then – the thought of me saving myself for you?” she asked with a laugh.
He nodded vigorously. “Yeah. I know it’s unreasonable but …” He shrugged. “I ain’t gonna deny it. Don’t go anywhere, I’m going to get you a pillow.”
She tugged at the front of his shirt. “Maybe I don’t need one.”
He grinned and pulled her down onto the mattress with him. “Good call – we can say that we’re practicing for when we go camping. Need to ease you into roughing it.”
He groaned and pulled his shirt off over his head when she said, “I think I’d like it better if we ease you in – although I don’t mind rough.”
~ ~ ~
Ty caught himself smiling as he stared out the kitchen window at the lodge. He and Shay had made a lot of love since she came here, but there’d been something special about it under the stars on the mattress on the back porch the other night.
He checked his watch, only a couple of hours until he’d be home with her tonight, and he was thinking he needed to get the mattress back out there. And then, this weekend, he’d take her up into the mountains and …
He jumped, feeling guilty when his phone rang, bringing him back to the moment. He grinned when he saw Travis’s name on the display.
“Hey, Trav! What’s up?”
“Hey, Ty. Wanted to run something by you.”
“What?”
“Have you made any headway on your idea of opening a restaurant of your own?”
“Nope.” He laughed. “Before I met Shay, I would have hated admitting that. Now, I can honestly tell you that I don’t mind putting it on the back burner while we get her settled and established in whatever she’s going to do.”
“Happy for ya, squirt. How would you feel if something fell into your lap?”
“Something like what?”
“You know I’m pulling a deal together to buy the Woodfield place? Well, the sellers added a restaurant building. I was thinking we’d use it as just a mess hall kind of place but I got to talking to Cash, and it’d make more sense to use it as a real restaurant. It’s the closest building to the road, so we could open it to the public without customers coming all the way onto the property, and if we make it a commercial venture, it can contribute to the running costs of the rest of the place.”
Ty ran his hand through his hair. “Damn! I like that idea, Trav. I … when you say make it a commercial venture, what do you mean? Would you lease me the place and …?”
Travis chuckled. “Haven’t thought that far yet. I wanted to see if you liked the idea in general first. How would you feel about leaving Wade?”
Ty glanced over to where Christian was standing. “It’ll be fine. He already has a replacement lined up. I’d miss him, but this was only ever meant to be temporary – he was doing me a favor and we both knew it.”
“Alrighty, then. And it’ll keep you closer to your honey if she’s going to be working with us.”
Ty grinned. “Yeah. I like that idea.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll let you know when I’m going to be there again and we can meet up – start throwing a plan together.”
“Awesome, Trav. Thank you.”
“Nah, thank you, Ty. I’ve been ready to come home for a while, but I wasn’t sure how to make it work. I’m going to miss these guys. It’ll be important to me to still be working with family.”
“It’ll be awesome to have you home.”
“All right. I’m going before you make me cry. Don’t believe all the stories about me having a heart of stone – I’m a softy really.”
Ty had to laugh. Out of all of Cash’s friends, Travis had the biggest heart, and there was nothing stone-like about it.
After he ended the call, he was tempted to call Shay and tell her about it, but he decided to wait. She’d be on her way home from school with the kids by now. He could wait until tonight – at home. They could celebrate – he smiled, maybe on that mattress.
His smile disappeared when Wade came striding into the kitchen with a worried look on his face.
“Have you heard from Shayna?”
“No. That was Travis. Why?”
“She hasn’t arrived to pick the kids up from school.”
Ty was already dialing her number.
“She’s not answering,” said Wade. “The school called Sierra. Sierra tried her and got no answer, so she called me. I told Sierra to keep trying and I couldn’t get through to you so …”
Ty barely registered what his brother was saying. He was listening to Shayna’s message.
“This is Shay – leave me a message!”
“Where are you, Shay? Call me back as soon as you get this, sweetheart.”
His heart was pounding, and his head was filled with the roar of white noise. She wasn’t going to call him back – he knew it.
He dug in his pocket for his keys and ran for his truck. Wade was right behind him and climbed into the passenger seat just in time before he took off.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to drive the route to school. Last time I talked to her she was on her way to get the kids. She left a while ago because she wanted to read while she waited for them. She should have been there early, not …” He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to.
Just as he was approaching the big house, he cursed when Kolby’s truck pulled out in front of him, forcing him to stop.
Kolby climbed out and came running. He pulled the driver’s door open and glared at Ty. “Get out. I’m driving.”
“Fuck that!”
“Get out, Ty. You know it makes sense. I’ll drive, you make the calls. Sierra called me, and she was going to get ahold of Ford and Tanner. You need to talk to Cash and her people at the lake.”
Ty blew out a big shaky breath. Then he jumped out and ran around to the passenger side that Wade had just vacated to go and move Kolby’s truck out of the way.
“I’ll follow you,” he called.
“You’d better go get the kids,” Kolby shouted. “Rocket and Spider are on their way, Ford and Tanner are … Right there …” He pointed when Ford’s truck came flying around the corner.
Just when Ty was about to explode with impatience, Kolby put his foot down, and Wade backed out of the way just in time as the truck surged forward.
“We’ll find her, bro. She’ll be fine. She’ll probably wonder what all the fuss is about when we all show up …”
Ty didn’t bother to answer. He knew in his gut that they weren’t going to find her at the side of the road with a flat tire and no signal. He closed his eyes and held his phone tight, silently begging her to prove him wrong.