Page 24 of The Cowboy's Unshakeable Love

Ace laughed. “Yeah, we will. It’s not as though we’d talk about this there anyway.”

“True. I guess I’ll just see you there then – unless you called for something; I forgot already.”

“Shit, I almost forgot myself. I was curious about why you weren’t bringing Retta, and I wanted to warn you that Deacon’s trying to sign us all up for a fundraiser dinner.”

Travis laughed. “I bet he’s thrilled about having to do that.”

“Hates it! You know what he’s like, but it’s for the Sheriff’s department, so he doesn’t have any choice. I wanted to give you a heads up, because it sounds like everyone already has you coupled up with Retta.”

“That’s fine by me. I’ll be happy to get her a ticket if she wants to go with me.”

“Glad to hear it. I just didn’t want you to be put on the spot if you were trying to extricate yourself from the situation.”

“Nope. I appreciate you looking out for me – and I can see why you’d think it, but I’m all in. Just trying not to crowd her or lock her in. I’m all in, but I think it’ll take her a while before she decides if she is.”

“She’d be a fool not to.”

Travis laughed. “Aw, thank you, buddy. I love you, too!”

“Alright, on that note. I’m going to hang up on you.”

“Don’t be embarrassed to say it – you know you love me, too!”

Travis laughed to himself when Ace ended the call. He was still chuckling to himself when he heard a vehicle pull up outside. Ace wasn’t too bad, but some of the guys got all prickly about him using the L word. He had no problem telling them that he loved them – he did, and he always would. Those guys were his family. They’d been through more shit together than most people could ever imagine. They’d all saved each other’slives on more than one occasion. But still, some of them – namely Deacon, Blane, and Mav, couldn’t admit that what they all felt for each other was love.

When he opened the door to the cabin, he was surprised to see Ty walking up the path.

“Hey, Trav.”

“What’s up, squirt. I didn’t forget a meeting or something, did I?”

“Nope. I just dropped Shay at the barn, and I saw your truck, so I thought I’d check in.”

Travis frowned. “What’s she doing over there?”

“She wants to go over all the stalls before Libby brings the horses – make sure that everything’s good. I think she’s mostly just dreaming up things to do.”

Travis smiled. “You know, I really hoped that me hiring her full-time would mean that she’d get a bit of a break until we’re up and running.”

Ty laughed. “Yeah, I know what your plan was, and I was hoping the same. But she doesn’t know how to not work.”

“It’s not getting her any closer to the kind of work she really wants to do though, is it?”

Ty shrugged. “She’s still studying.”

“I know, but it’ll take her forever if she won’t put the time into it.”

“If you can make her see that, I’ll love you forever.”

Travis had to laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“Just thatyoudon’t mind using the L word.”

Ty smirked. “Let me guess, you made one of the guys all squirrely by telling them that you love them?”

“Pretty much. But back to Shay, I do have an idea. Eli’s making noises about moving out here sooner rather than later. We could tell Shay that she needs to get her ass into gear and get qualified so that she’ll be able to work with him as soon as possible. In fact, we could tell her that her only job is to finish getting her degree and whatever else it is she needs to do – and that’s what I’m paying her for.”

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