“I’m sorry I took Scott away from you today, but he was a wonderful tour guide.” Well, he was after we found common ground.
“Not sure I’ve ever heard Scott described as wonderful.” Ty laughed.
“Fuck you, man,” Scott retaliated, shoving Ty’s shoulder.
“Well, he was after he got his head out of his ass,” I giggled.
“Now that’s more like it.” Ty turned to Scott. “I like her.”
Heat burned its way up into my cheeks. At least one hot cowboy liked me. Maybe Ty and I could have some fun while I was here. Especially since Scott hadn’t shown any interest in me besides being a possible friend.
The chiming of Jessie’s dinner bell rang in the distance, reminding me how late it was. Once Scott and I made peace, the day had flown by, and I was surprised that we’d spent the whole day together. By the end, it’d felt like we’d become friends, unless I was just getting my hopes up and had misread the situation completely.
It was time to go. I’d taken up enough of Scott’s day. Even though part of me wanted to stay and find out more about him, I figured he probably wanted the rest of the day to himself.
I sighed and moved to let myself out of Jameson’s stall, only to be blocked in by Ty. Surprised, I looked up at him to see he was staring at Scott, and the two seemed to be having a silent conversation with each other.
Not wanting to interrupt whatever it was, I cleared my throat to get his attention. “It was nice to meet you, Ty. And thanks for the tour today. I’d better be going. I’ve taken up too much of your time already.”
Ty glanced down at me. A fierce, possessive look entered his eyes that held me in place.
“Come have dinner with us tonight.” Ty’s deep, rumbling voice made it sound more like a command than a question.
A shiver ran down my spine. I bet that tone worked on all the other girls to get what he wanted, because it was working on me. My heart dropped. I didn’t want to say no, but I still needed to meet up with Blake to figure out tomorrow’s plans. We hadn’t decided how my training would be affected by the team coming back and Blake needing to split her time between us.
“I wish I could, but I’m having dinner with Blake.”
Scott chuckled. “Not tonight. It’s our off day coming back from our rounds. Those three won’t be out of that house until tomorrow morning.”
“What?” Blake lived by a schedule. There was no way she’d not want to go over tomorrow with me.
“When we come back from our rotations, we usually don’t see the three of them for dinner on our off day. I can guess you could say they’re making up for lost time.” Ty smirked. “I don’t blame them. I’d probably be the same. After being away for three days, I wouldn’t want to share my woman with anyone else.”
My eyes widened at his words and my ever-present blush seemed to burn my cheeks. I cleared my throat, determined to ignore my embarrassment.
“Okay, I’ll come to dinner with you…on two conditions.”
“Name them.” Ty leaned his arms over the door, putting his face much closer to mine.
I took a deep breath, trying to stop myself from swooning.
“First, Scott must be okay with me joining you two. I’ve already taken over his day. I’m sure he’d rather get as far away from me as possible.” I couldn’t look at Scott for fear of what I might see on his face.
“Today wasn’t that bad,” Scott responded.
“Wow, that almost sounded believable.” I rolled my eyes to hide the fact that I felt my heart breaking just a little. There wasn’t even a hint of teasing to make me think he was kidding with his bland statement. I thought we’d connected this afternoon, but to him I was just a chore, something he had to do as part of his job on the ranch.
Ty’s eyes narrowed as he shot Scott an evil look. I’d always made friends easily. People seemed to gravitate toward me, and I was always the life of the party. Not having someone want to be around me hurt. This cut especially deep because at some level I realized I had a crush on the brooding man I’d spent the day with, and he seemed to just tolerate me.
“I didn’t mean it like that, Grace.” The sincerity in his voice had me turning to face him. “Please come to dinner with us. I really enjoyed today, and I want to get to know you more.” He stepped forward and placed his hand on my upper arm. The electricity that sparked at his touch had me wanting to lean into him.
“You’ll have to forgive him. It’s been a while since he’s talked to a woman.”
“Seriously, why do you always have to be an ass?” Scott punched Ty’s arm.
I laughed. Their brotherly banter was cute. “Alright.”
“What’s the second condition?” Scott asked.
“Someone needs to explain this rotation thing to me and how this whole ranch works.” I tried to keep a straight face, but it didn’t last. Laughter filled the barn as Ty and Scott led me to the dining hall.