She couldn’t imagine him afraid of anything, but there was definitely something off in his relationship with his father.
“Your tone changes when you speak of him,” she pointed out in what she hoped was a gentle voice. The skin tightened on his face, too, but she didn’t point that out.
He sighed, shifted his hand to where their fingers laced. “I don’t talk about my father usually. Life is better that way. Actually, you’re the only person I’ve talked to about him other than my mother and brother.”
Why did his admission make her feel as if she was different from the other women he’d been with? That maybe she hadn’t imagined just how special their night had been?
“But,” he said with another sigh, “since I’m dragging you into the middle of my life, I should prepare you. Can’t have you walking in unawares and being blindsided.”
“Being blindsided?”
“I told you that the last time I was home my father and I had a disagreement.” His lips twisted and a flicker of hurt flashed in his eyes. “I left swearing I’d never set foot in Swallow Creek again.”
He still looked at her, but Eleanor wasn’t so sure Ty saw her. He looked lost in the past, a dark, unpleasant place that held a tight grip on his present.
She lifted a shoulder. “That’s a silly thing to swear about a place where the people you love live.”
He blinked, clearing whatever had momentarily come over him. He laughed at her comment, but the sound didn’t come out as natural. “You’re right, and here I am headed back, ready to eat my words.”
Still fighting nausea, she let his admission soak in, trying to understand the man sitting next to her, holding her hand as if she were his lifeline rather than the other way around, as it had been earlier. “Why now? Why go back after all this time? Because of the rodeo?”
He took a deep breath. “My mom’s been on me from the moment I left to come back, but she understands my love of medicine.” He smiled, thoughts of his mother obviously easing some of his tension. “But lately she’s been pushing more and more. With Dad hosting the rodeo this year, she wouldn’t let up until I promised I’d be there.”
His poor mother must have missed him like crazy and been frantic to repair the rift within her family. But at no point had Ty sounded as if he wanted this trip home.
“Why did you agree if you don’t really want to do this?”
He glanced at her, seeming surprised that she’d pushed further. She knew there was more than he was telling her.
“Lots of reasons. I do miss my family.” He frowned, then added, “Mostly. Plus, if I don’t come home, she and my whole family are going to come to New York for an extended visit.”
“Would that be so bad?”
That lopsided grin lifted one side of his handsome face. “Ask me that again after you’ve met my family.”
She smiled, glad to see his usual smile back in place and hating it that something he’d said nagged at her brain. Hated it because she suspected when she asked him about it his smile was going to slip, but she wanted to understand this man beside her. Which was crazy. After this weekend, they’d probably go back to barely talking to each other.
“You said your mother understood your love of medicine.”
There went the smile.
“Does that mean your father doesn’t?” she pushed, wondering if her suspicions were correct.
“Let’s just say I’m not the son who makes him proud.” His jaw working, Ty gave a nonchalant shrug, as if her question was of little consequence, as if his answer was of little consequence. But she saw the clench of his jaw, the quickening pulse at his throat, felt the slight unsteadiness in his hand. His answer revealed a vulnerability in him that made her feel protective, as if she wanted to shield him from anyone who dared to treat him with less than the utmost love and respect.
Which really was crazy.
Ty was a six-foot-four Texan hunk. Not some wallflower who needed her to run interference.
Despite him rescuing her at the ribbon-cutting, the time they’d spent together at the hospital, the fund-raiser and afterward, well, really, they barely knew each other.
Yet she did feel as if she knew him. That he knew her. Really deep down knew each other.
Which was even crazier.
She fought leaning over and taking him into her arms. It was what she wanted to do. She doubted he’d welcome her sympathy, her comfort.
She settled with giving his hand a gentle squeeze and saying quietly, “Then your brother must be an exceptionally amazing man.”