Page 89 of The Cowboy’s Intriguing Love

Cash shrugged. “I’m telling you nothing. We’re not here to talk about me. We’re here to figure out what Shayna’s going to do.”

Ty rested his hand on her thigh under the table, and Shayna leaned a little closer to him. She liked that Cash had said whatshewas going to do, rather than what they were going to do about her situation. She was grateful to all of them, but she needed to feel like she was the one making the decisions. She’d been alone and in charge of her own life for a long time.

Davin met her gaze. “What do you think, Shay?”

She shrugged. “I’m still processing. It’s a lot to take in. It was bad enough before, and now that we know who he is – what he’s capable of …”

Ty wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “You know my take, but it’s up to you.”

Alexis turned to him. “And your take is …?”

Shayna felt him tense before he spoke. “I want Shay to come back with us. Obviously, I want that for myself – I’m not going to try to hide it. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s the most logical option.”

Shayna watched Alexis exchange a look with Davin, who blew out a sigh. “It is the most logical option. We all need to set our personal feelings aside here.” He looked at Shayna. “If it were just about what we want, then I’d say that I don’t want you to go.” He smiled. “We only cobbled together this little family of ours a while ago but … wearea family now and … it’s not about that; priority number one is keeping you safe. If you want to stay, we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing. You’ll never be left alone for him to get to you. I give you my word. And before you say anything – it’s not a problem. I don’t mind, Alexis doesn’t mind, Booker doesn’t mind. We allwantto do it.”

“I don’t want you to go.” Shayna had to swallow around the lump in her throat when she saw the tears shining in Alexis’s eyes. “It’s taken me more than half a century to discover that Iamcut out for family life after all.” She let out a short laugh. “I never thought that I wanted a daughter, but now that I have you …” She sat up a little straighter. “But that’s beside the point. The logical move is for you to go with Tyler. The primary objective is to ensure your safety. Normally, I’d say that’s all that matters, but in this case, what you want matters.” She raised her eyebrows.

Shayna looked around at them all. Ty pulled her a little closer to his side. Cash gave her an encouraging smile. Davin and Alexis waited.

She blew out a sigh. “This is a lot, you guys.”

Alexis smiled. “It is, sweetie. And it’s not like you need to make your mind up right this minute. Take your time, take the weekend.” She turned to Cash. “When do you need to leave?”

Cash looked at Shayna. “I can push it till Monday morning if we need to.”

Shayna sucked in a deep breath.

“Even if you decide to go, it doesn’t have to be forever,” said Davin. “We’ll be working to track him down and …”

“Take him out of the picture,” said Alexis.

Cash chuckled. “I guarantee you won’t need to worry about him again, if Alma gets her hands on him.” His smile faded. “If you want to come up to the ranch with us, you’ll be safe. If you want to replace all your jobs, I reckon there’s an equivalent to every one of them around the ranch. And then there’s …” He let his words trail off and looked at Ty.

Shayna realized he’d kept quiet throughout the exchange. He tightened his arm around her shoulders as he looked down into her eyes. “You know there’s no pressure from me, either way. Sure, I want you to come home with me, but I can find something to do here if you want to stay.” He cleared his throat. “Xander said he could use me in the kitchen over at Violets, but I can play it by ear. If I’m staying, it’s to keep an eye out for you – not to be off at work somewhere when you need me.”

Shayna smiled as she looked up into his eyes. She loved them all for the way they wanted to help her. But he was the one she’d fallen in love with. She knew in her heart what she wanted to do, but she needed a little time before she told them.

“Thank you so much – all of you. I … it’s weird to me, weird and totally wonderful. Not so long ago I felt like I was all alone in the world.” She let out a short laugh. “Because I was. Now, I have all of you. And I love it – I love you. I just hate that one way or the other I’m going to miss some of you.”

“If you come up there with us, we’ll fly you back whenever we can,” said Cash.

“And we’ll come to visit whenever we can,” said Alexis.

Davin nodded. “And bring Booker.”

Ty met her gaze and held it. “Take your time, sweetheart. Give it some thought.”

Chapter Twenty

As the plane started its descent toward the airport at Livingston, Ty watched Shayna looking out the window. She turned to smile at him.

“It’s so beautiful! And the mountains!”

“I’ll take you for a drive, show you around. I think you’ll love it.”

“I know I will.”

He hated the look of sadness in her eyes.

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