Page 44 of Rough Stock
“These,” she said and lifted her pant leg. The boots were beautiful?a deep, dark mahogany red with black inlay and black stitching. “Whaddya think?”
“I think they’re gorgeous. Getting them?”
“I’ve got to see how much money I have,” she said, pulling out her phone.
“Nope. I’m paying for this shopping spree,” he announced.
“No, Jensen. I pay for my own things.”
“Then consider them gifts. I’m paying for them,” he repeated.
“No! I mean it! I don’t want you buying things for me! I’ll?”
He snatched the box the boots came in and headed to the register. “Paying!” he called back to her.
“No! Don’t you… Jensen, I mean it! Oh, shit!” she yelled, and he saw her trying to get the boots off and get hers back on. That set him to laughing.
By the time she got to the register, he’d paid for everything and she was fuming. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Too late. I did.”
Her mouth was set in a hard, straight line. “But you shouldn’t have.”
“Too late. I did,” he repeated.
Shyanna shook her head and looked away from him. “What in the hell am I going to do with you?”
“I’ve got some ideas,” he said, and she whipped her head around and glared at him. “No, not that! I meant, well…” Leaning in to her ear, he whispered, “You could tell me you love me.”
She didn’t say a word, and it terrified him. Maybe she reallydidn’tcare anything about him. By the time they got to the truck, he was in a funk. He helped her in, put her bags behind the seat, and climbed in on the driver’s side, but he couldn’t make his hand turn the key in the ignition. All he could do was stare out the windshield until a tiny voice said, “Jensen?”
The thought of all the things she might say was terrifying to him, but he turned to look at her anyway. “Yeah?”
That big boulder of dread in the middle of his chest started to dissolve when she reached over and took his hand. “Look, I’d like to say that to you. Really, I would. But every time I’ve said that to somebody, they’ve bailed on me. Every time. And I don’t want that to happen here.”
“But by now you should know?” he started, but she interrupted him.
“I know. It’s me, not you. But it’s my fear, and I don’t know what to do about it. Time, maybe?” she said, and Jensen nodded. “And until I’m really, really comfortable with there being an us, I can’t. Do you understand?”
He nodded in defeat. “Yeah. I do.”
“Good. Because I don’t want you thinking I don’t care anything about you. That’s not true. Okay?”
“Okay.” He sat there for a few seconds, wondering if he should follow his original plan, then decided to go for it.Reaching over the back of the seat and rustling around in the bags, he finally found what he was looking for. “I was going to wait until we got back to the house, but I think now is the time. Before I give this to you, I just want you to know that it doesn’t have a hidden meaning. None. I don’t expect anything because of it. But I want you to have it, and I hope every time you look at it, you think of me.” He handed the box to her and waited.
Shyanna pulled the navy blue top off the silver-foiled box and gasped. “Oh my god. It’s one of those silver pieces, the ones made by the company that makes our rodeo buckles. Jensen, you shouldn’t?”
He sighed. “Can’t you just tell me thank you? Act like you like it a little bit?”
“I don’t like it. I love it.”Gee, wish it were that easy for her to say that about me, he thought, but he let it go.Baby steps, he told himself. “It’s beautiful. I’ve wanted one for a long time, but this one has a bull rider on it.” She gazed down at the cuff bracelet like it was solid gold, then looked up and smiled. “You’re wrong.”
He could feel his eyebrows tip down in the center of the bridge of his nose. “Wrong about what?”
“You said there was no hidden meaning. But there is,” she said as she took the bracelet out of the box and held it up to the light coming through the truck’s side window, her eyes wide with wonder. “It does have a hidden meaning.”
“No, it?”
“Yes, it does. You bought me a bracelet with a bull rider on it. It says you believe in me. Is that right? Did I get it?” she asked, a hint of excitement in her voice.
