Page 136 of The Cowboy’s Intriguing Love

“What’s wrong?”

He shrugged. “I just wish I could convince her that she doesn’t have to work so hard – and that I wouldn’t mind sharing the load on her tuition.”

Kolby appeared next to Tanner and handed them each a fresh beer with a grin. “Maybe she’ll believe it when you marry her.”

Tanner laughed, and Ty stood up a little straighter.

“Just because you married Callie after you’d only known her for five minutes, doesn’t mean that Ty’s going to …” Tanner stopped when he met Ty’s gaze. “Shit! You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?”

Ty grinned. “I am. Not rushing her into it, but it’s what I want. I know she’s the one for me. I don’t know if she’d be ready to tiethe knot yet, but I can ask her – put her a ring on her finger, and maybe that’ll help her relax and know that it’s all right to let me help.”

Kolby grinned at him. “Want to go ring shopping tomorrow?”

“Hell yeah, I do!”

Tanner laughed. “Well, shit! If you’re going to do it, I want to come too!”

Ty laughed. “It’s a date.”

Kolby raised his eyebrows expectantly, but Ty didn’t know what he was waiting for.

“What?”

“There’s another detail you’re forgetting.”

“Which is?”

“Don’t you want to talk to Davin and Alexis? I know they’re not her parents in the traditional sense, but …”

He ran his hand through his hair. “Shit. Yeah. And that’s not something I can do over the phone, is it?”

Kolby shrugged. “I asked Retta over the phone but only because everything happened so quickly.”

Ty’s mind was racing. “Okay, so tomorrow, we go ring shopping. On Tuesday …” He stopped short when Callie came running over to them.

Kolby went straight to her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“It’s my mama. She says she’s fine, but she had an accident. She didn’t even tell me at first. It was only when I heard a PA system in the background – she’s in the hospital in San Diego.”

“What happened? Why’s she in San Diego?”

Callie blew out a shaky breath. “She’s at a cheer competition with her squad. Someone pushed her or something, I don’t really understand; she didn’t want to tell me. She says she’s all right, and she only called because she was afraid that the school might contact me. She says she doesn’t need me to go but …”

Kolby already had his phone in his hand. He kissed Callie’s forehead. “I’m calling Cash to see where the plane is. We won’t be able to get a commercial flight out of here tonight. It’ll probably be quicker if we wait – he can have the jet here by morning.”

Ty hoped that Retta was okay, but if she said that she didn’t need Callie there, it mustn’t be too serious. As he listened to Kolby talk to Cash, he started to formulate his own plan. He’d just told Shay that they should take a few days away – and if Kolby and Callie were heading to San Diego, they’d have to fly right by Summer Lake. It wouldn’t take long to drop him and Shay off.

Chapter Thirty

Shayna stared out of the window of the jet as the plane started to descend toward Summer Lake. She felt like she was still trying to catch up with herself. Less than twenty-four hours ago, she’d been wishing that she could visit the lake – now, they were almost there.

The mountains that had seemed so small just a few minutes ago, loomed up to meet them. The lake that had seemed like a tiny shard of broken mirror, now gleamed a beautiful blue, dotted with little white boats.

She glanced over at Callie. “I hope your mom’s okay.”

“Thanks. It sounds like she’s going to be fine.”

It sounded as though Retta was going to be in a similar situation to the one Shay found herself in. She was a little battered and bruised and wasn’t going to be mobile since she’d broken her leg, but she was feeling more frustrated than anything else.

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