Her beautiful brown eyes held doubt that hadn’t been there before.
Whether it was just about me or staying here didn’t matter. I needed to convince her we needed her in our life.
“I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have pushed you. I should have supported whatever decision you chose, not tell you how to do it,” Ty whispered, pain evident in every word.
“I’m sorry I yelled at both of you and walked out. We should have talked everything through, but I was too hurt to listen. I trusted you. I trusted you would be there to help me, but all you did was make me feel small and push me away.”
Grace looked down at her hands in her lap. The sniffles she tried to hide broke me.
“I’ve tried so hard to not be like my father and in the end, I turned out to be exactly like him. You are a strong and independent woman, Grace. You don’t need anyone to tell you what to do or how to run your life. I wasn’t thinking about what you wanted, just what I thought you should want.” Ty reached out and placed his hand over hers.
She looked up; tear tracks ran down her cheeks.
“I hurt you, and I never want to do that again. I want to make it up to you. I had all these ideas that could possibly fix everything but that’s still me controlling things. So, I’m stepping back. You tell me what you need, what you want, and how I can help you get it.” He squeezed her hand. “That is, if you’ll let me. I completely understand if you want to walk away from all of this, but I want you to know before you do, that I’m in love with you.”
Grace let out a ragged sigh.
“I’m completely and totally in love with you. I’ve never felt like this about anyone else, and I think that’s one of the reasons I went all controlling. I wanted to make sure that you had the best and tried to steer you where I thought you needed to go and instead, I really needed to just let you shine.”
Grace nodded and gave Ty a small, encouraging smile.
Ty’s thumb gently caressed her hands. “That’s one thing I love about you. You are determined to follow your own path. You may have thought you were lost and helpless after what happened with the other team, but you came here determined to find another so that you could still chase your dreams. The bond you have with Storm is unbreakable, and I love seeing you with him. Knowing that you inspire such devotion from that horse. Hell, he even hunted you down and almost kicked in our door to find you.”
A full-on smile graced her face. I only hoped she was remembering the first night she spent with us and how it was the start of something amazing.
“I know you can handle yourself, and I need to let you. I’d love to say I can change overnight, but you might have to forgive me if I stumble and overstep. Just know I’m trying and will make it up to you. It’s so hard to step back when you want to take care of the one you love. I don’t want anything to hurt you, Grace.” He lifted her hand and kissed her palm.
She smiled sweetly at him, but didn’t move.
Ty laid his heart out for her. It was my turn now.
“I’m in love with you, too, Grace.” She turned and gave me her attention, dropping her hand from Ty’s back into her lap.
“I never thought I would love another woman after Hannah died.” This was going to be harder than I thought it would be. “Hannah was my fiancée. She died in a barrel racing accident.”
Grace’s hand flew to her mouth.
“After the accident, I pushed everyone away. I threw up my walls, so I could never get hurt again. My heart shattered that day. And then you came along and woke something in me. You broke through those walls and put my broken pieces back together. I tried to write it off, but deep down, I knew I was falling in love with you. And it scared me. I was afraid of losing someone I loved again.”
Grace wiped at the tears trailing down her cheeks.
“Then you had the accident with Storm, and it took all I had not to demand that you never ride a horse again. I didn’t think I could watch you put your life at risk everyday riding. But I knew I couldn’t ask that of you when I did the same thing every day. So, I tried to hide my fears and those walls that had started to crumble began to rebuild a wall around my heart because I knew that one day, you’d leave me. And I knew it’d destroy me.” I cursed that she was sitting so far from me on the other side of Ty. I wanted her close, but I knew I had to let her make the first move.
“Oh, Scott,” she whispered, but didn’t move from her seat.
I was grateful she’d stayed this long to hear us out and now I had to finish telling her what was in my heart. “You were so set on finding another team; I knew there wasn’t anything I could do to stop you. And I didn’t want to stop you. I wanted to see you fly. See you reach your dreams. I didn’t want to be the one to stand in your way. So, I lashed out and retreated. I hurt you, and I can barely stand to look at myself knowing that.”
Grace swiped her eyes with her fingertips.
“Here’s the thing. We want to be with you. We both love you and want nothing but the best for you. Whether that’s here on the ranch, or someplace else. We don’t want to lose you.” Ty jumped in. “But we want to know what you want. If you don’t want us, we’ll step back and leave you be for the rest of the time that you’re here.”
“I…” Grace looked between the two of us.
I was terrified she was about to tell us it was too late.
“I understand where both of you are coming from. Why you did what you did, and I do forgive you for it. I’m also sorry I overreacted and left. But I’ve given it a lot of thought over the past three days, and I’ve been doing a lot of research on teams here in the US. My mother found me a great team to be on in Ohio. An amazing team with the reputation of having their riders earn spots on the Olympic team.”
I dropped my head and looked down at my muddy boots. I couldn’t man up and look her in the eye as she told us it was over for good.
“I should accept it, but I’ve been having second thoughts if I really want to do this anymore.”
What?My head snapped up.