Page 25 of The Cowboy’s Intriguing Love

“I know. I’m kind of scared, though, Ty.”

He closed his eyes. He loved the way she said his name, but hated hearing that she was scared. “You don’t have to be scared of anything with me, Shay – ever.”

Her voice was kind of breathy when she spoke again and this time, it felt more like she was reaching for his heart than his dick.

“Thank you. Is it weird to say that I feel like I already know that?”

“No. Well, maybe, but not to me. To me, it means that you’ve already figured out who I am. But go on … before I say too much, what are you scared of?”

“That when you see my photo you might not like me, and I might not ever hear from you again, and well … that’d suck, you know?”

“I do know. I feel the same way. I want to say that it doesn’t matter how you look, but I guess we have to keep it honest. Tanner pointed it out to me, and he was right – that site is a dating site. So, if you’re not someone I would want to date – or if I’m not someone you’d want to date, then what’s the point? At the same time, I like who you are … tell you what, if we exchange photos and there’s nothing there, we have to be honest – both of us. And for me at least, it doesn’t mean we have to stop talking to each other. You’re the kind of person I’d like to have as a friend if nothing else. Not saying that you have to keep talking to me if you think I’m fugly, though.”

“Okay …”

He chuckled. “Okay, but what? You can say it, whatever it is.”

“Can we wait a bit longer? I really like talking to you and I like … I like …”

“Want me to say it?” he asked.

“Okay. You go first and then I’ll tell you what I meant.”

“Obviously, I can’t read your mind, but I’d rather wait a while as well. I’ll want to keep talking to you either way, but … I’m kind of hopeful here about what might happen; that we’re going to be more than friends. I’m not ready to give up that hope yet. If you think I’m butt ugly and don’t want to talk to me anymore …”

She laughed. “I really don’t think that will happen – me thinking that way about you, I mean. But yeah, you’re right about the rest. Right now, there’s hope … I don’t want to let go of the fantasy.”

He chuckled. “Are you saying I’m your fantasy guy?”

“Stop it! You know what I mean.”

“Sure I do. If it makes you feel any better, I could call you my dream girl.”

“Then I’d think you were bullshitting me.”

“Nope. I won’t do that, Shay. Promise.”

“Thanks. I won’t either. So, how was your evening?”

He chuckled. “From the abrupt change of subject, I take it that I’m not allowed to call you my dream girl?”

“No, because it feels fake.”

“Shit! You’re right. I won’t then – not for now, anyway. If I ever call you that, it’ll be because I’ve taken my time to figure out if it’s true first. How does that sound?”

“Honestly? It sounds awesome – but there’s a long way to go between here and there.”

“Right, so back to how was my evening. It was fine.” He chuckled. “Art galleries aren’t exactly my idea of fun, but it’s worth it to make sure that Nessa’s okay. And if you’re wondering about her – she’s more like an annoying little sister. There’s no history between us or anything.”

“Oh, that didn’t occur to me. It sounded like she’s just your friend.”

“She is. I told you she had a bit of a scare a while back – she and her mom were both taken by some assholes who wanted to kill them.”

“Oh my god! Did the police get them – the bad guys?”

“Kind of. Ace rescued Nessa, and then Ari, her mom, kind of rescued herself. Ace and Cash put an end to it and … Yeah, the bad guys are out of the picture now. There’s no reason to think that anything else might happen to them, but we all like to keep an eye on Nessa whenever she’s here. And before I forget, she told me I have to say hello to you from her.”

“Aww, say hello back to her, and don’t forget to tell her that I said thank you for setting you up with a profile.”

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