Page 77 of Say the Words
The girls squealed and whooped as Crystal handed out their iron-on badges embroidered with tiny ponies, showing them off to each other like they were Olympic gold medals. Parents came forward to collect their daughters, last longing glances were cast at Miss Kitty, and the group split apart.
One little girl moved away from the others to approach Ty. He stooped down to her level, wincing as he moved his body forward. I couldn’t hear her over the goodbyes shouted all around us, but whatever she said seemed to startle him. His sternness melted away, and he smiled down at her.
“You’re welcome,” was all he said.
Their conversation over, she trotted off to her mother, who waited by the barn. I didn’t have time to ponder the sweet little interaction long before Crystal and Marnie walked over to where Ty and I stood.
“Thank you both for today,” Crystal said. “This means so much to the girls, you have no idea.” She held a check out to Ty. “Our program fees. June said you didn’t want to take payment, but it’s only fair.”
“She did all the work.” He didn’t make a move to take the check. “The money should be hers.”
Crystal cut an apprehensive look at me. “I wrote the check out to Ty. Can you two maybe…?”
“We’ll work something out.” I took the check.
“Thank you!” Marnie called as she and Crystal walked across the yard to their car. Soon, they disappeared down the dusty drive, and the ranch quieted again. Man, fifteen kids could be noisy.
I gave Ty the smuggest look I knew how. “Pretty good, right?”
“Not bad.”
The trace of a smile on his face was praise enough for me.
I folded the check and moved closer to him until we stood toe to toe. Being in his space proved a delightful, dangerous indulgence. I didn’t give myself long to savor it, since I didn’t know just what I might do in that closeness. Careful not to touch his injured chest, I slipped the check into his shirt pocket. Stepping away again, I worked against the powerful pull that tempted me to move right back to him.
“I’ll cash it and have the money for you tomorrow.”
“Ty,” I said softly. “Don’t be an ass.”
His mouth twisted into a crooked smile, and he nodded as though I’d offered him sage words of advice instead of a fond insult. “I’m working on it.”
“What did that little girl say to you?”
“Maybe it was a secret,” he said, his voice low and teasing.
I smiled up at him until he relented.
“She just said ‘thank you’. She said she’d never been up close to a horse before, and…” He cleared his throat, looking away. “She said she loves horses more than anything. No big deal.”
“No big deal,” I repeated. “For someone who says he doesn’t have the personality to be around kids, you sure won her over quick.”
He gave a disinterested tilt of his chin. “It’s the horses that do it.”
“That must be it.”
Miss Kitty waited in the round pen, stepping lazily along the edges, looking for stray grass that hadn’t already been chewed to the dirt. The rest of the horses had been turned out before the Girl Scout lesson started, and they roamed the pastures. Still plenty warm out, but the worst of the day’s heat had just about burned off.
“You know what I feel like doing?” I said, fresh inspiration dancing in my thoughts.
Ty looked like whatever I wanted to do was sure to be a bad idea. “You want to try shoeing them next?”
“I want to go for a ride.”
One of his eyebrows quirked. “When was the last time you were on a horse?”
“Not that long ago.”
He blinked slowly. “It was at that Girl Scouts trip, wasn’t it?”
