Learnin' The Ropes (20 page)

“No, ma’am. I’d like to go. Are you sure it’s okay for me to be gone? I mean, everyone is busy getting ready for branding and the spring farm work isn’t finished.” The last thing he wanted was to be accused of receiving special treatment.

“I already mentioned it to Swede and he thought you’ve more than earned a day off, especially since you seem to work on Sundays instead of getting away from here. If you want to go, be at the house at five in the morning. I’ve got a client meeting at ten-thirty. If you wouldn’t mind, maybe I could have lunch with you, Beth, and Nate, so I could meet little Jax, too.”

“That would be awesome.” Ty warmed to the idea. “I’d really like for them to meet you.”

“Great, it’s settled. I’ll see you in the morning.” Ty’s warm hands on her shoulders halted her progress. She glanced over her shoulder at him.

“Thanks, Lexi. You have no idea how much this means to me.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek before taking a step back. Momentarily forgetting his plans to remain strictly professional with the boss, he held her hand in his. “Thanks for the spurs and chaps, too. Are you certain you want me to use them? They’ve got to be special to you since they belonged to your dad.”

“They are, but I know you’ll take good care of them.” She squeezed his fingers. “Dad had multiple pairs of each, so don’t give it another thought. You really have earned the right to wear them.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she whispered before hurrying outside. Lexi hoped the evening air would cool her hot cheeks.

Concluding she had finally lost her mind, Lexi knew there was no way she could spend an entire day with Ty and come away unchanged by the experience.

A few minutes before five the next morning, she heard footsteps on the porch and opened the door. Ty greeted her dressed in his western attire, wearing a big grin. From the black hat he held in his hands to the polished boots on his feet, he definitely looked like a cowboy. A very dangerous cowboy if the effect he had on her system was any indication.

The blue striped shirt he wore made his eyes even bluer and accented the breadth of his shoulders and chest. His cheeks were smooth and clean-shaven and he smelled far sexier than any man should at five in the morning.

Lexi pulled her gaze away. Her insides churned and she felt overheated despite the chilly morning air.

“Aren’t you going with me?” she asked as he stepped inside while she gathered her things.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, still grinning. He knew she would be dressed in something other than her work shirts and jeans, but Ty didn’t expect to see her in a soft green suit that complimented her eyes while highlighting her tall figure. High heels, the same tone as her skin, made her legs look a mile long. Her hair hung down her back in thick black waves. Lexi’s scent enveloped him as soon as she opened the door, throwing his reeling senses even further off kilter.

“Then why are you dressed like that?” Lexi picked up her purse and briefcase. She tried to pick up two travel coffee mugs along with everything else she had in her hands. Ty took the coffee from her and held the door as she walked outside onto the porch.

He followed her to the garage. “I thought Beth and Nate would get a kick out of seeing me this way.” He was excited about getting to ride in Lexi’s sports car. Once, he’d worked on one when he lived in Portland and took it for a test drive. It was definitely a fun ride.

After opening the side door of the garage, Lexi set her things in the car and retrieved the coffee from Ty while he opened the big doors. She drove the car out then he closed the doors and slid into the passenger seat. He placed his hat in the back, buckled up, and admired the inside of the car.

“Nice wheels,” he said, moving the seat back to accommodate his long legs.

“Thanks. I kind of like it myself.” She grinned as she shifted the car and started down the driveway.

“What made you choose a Nissan Nismo?” Ty asked, sinking into the soft leather seat and inhaling Lexi’s scent as it floated enticingly through the car.

“I wanted a sports car, something fun to drive. I looked at everything from a Mustang to a Porsche. This one was in my price range,” Lexi said, leaning toward Ty with a conspiratorial look. “And if you really want the truth, I loved the color and none of the others could match it.”

Ty laughed. Now, that was something he would expect a female to do – choose a car based on the color scheme. Admittedly, it was a pretty burgundy shade called black cherry.

“Don’t you laugh at me.” Lexi gave him a stern glare. “The color was a major influence on my decision.”

“Anything else, besides the color, that made you decide to buy this particular car?” Ty asked, picking up the coffee closest to him.

Lexi waited for him to take a drink and return his cup to the holder before she pulled out on the highway.

“Yep. The V6 engine with 350 horsepower and 276 pounds of torque may have helped with my decision. But the fact it will go from zero to sixty in just about five seconds was the clincher on the deal.” Lexi accelerated so quickly Ty wasn’t sure it took a full five seconds to hit sixty. By the time a minute passed, they roared down the road doing ninety.

Unsure what to think, he wisely refrained from commenting on her speeding and hoped nothing like a cow or deer decided to cross the road in front of them.

“You like to drive fast?” he finally asked, taking his eyes off the road long enough to study Lexi’s profile. The sight of her flawless skin in the early morning light, highlighted by her crown of dark hair, warmed his insides far more than the coffee he’d been drinking.

“Sometimes.” She expertly handled the car on the stretch of road before them. There wasn’t much of anything to see except sagebrush and more sagebrush for the next hundred miles. “I enjoy driving and this empty stretch of road is a great place to see what a car can do.”

“I noticed your dad’s old mustang in the garage. Is that where you got your love of fast cars?” He wanted to know more about Lexi, who she was, and what made her so unique.

“Dad loved that car,” Lexi said, her voice quieting as a wistful expression filled her face. “I can remember him taking me for rides. Sometimes Mom would go along, too. He had big plans to restore it, but never seemed to have the time. He ordered the parts he needed to do the work, he just didn’t get it done. I know I should do something with that old car, but it holds too many memories of my dad. Someday I’ll look into having it restored.”

“How long was your dad sick?” Ty knew her father had died of brain cancer. From what he heard, it was a horrible way to die.

“A lot longer than he let on.” Lexi stared at the road. “He was diagnosed about eight months before he finally told anyone the news. By then, there was no denying the fact. As soon as he let us know what was going on, I came home, but that wasn’t until the end of August. We lost a little part of him every day those last few months. Three weeks before he died, he didn’t recognize any of us and was confined to his bed. Swede and I agreed he needed more care than we could provide so we placed him in a nursing home. Dad would have hated the way it ended.”

“I’m sorry,” Ty said, feeling sorry for the man who had been such a strong influence in Lexi’s life.

“I should have known something was wrong long before he admitted it.” She recalled all the odd things her father had done in the year before he died. He forgot things, was easily upset, and then he started hiding tools and parts and tack, acting like someone was trying to steal his things.

She shouldn’t have been surprised to find all that money missing. Lexi was sure it was somewhere on the ranch, although she didn’t have a clue where.

“You can’t blame yourself. I’m sure your dad needed time to adjust to the idea before he let everyone know,” Ty said with insight. He certainly would need time to come to terms with news like Lex Ryan had received. “Have you found any more clues?”

“Yes, I found one in his farrier kit. I haven’t been able to decipher it, though.”

“What did it say?” Genuinely interested, Ty wanted to help her find the money. Not from a monetary standpoint, but because it was something Lexi needed to find to have some closure with her father’s passing.

Lexi sighed.“Girls Demand Excitement.”

Ty laughed. “Sounds about right to me. At least for the girls I know.”

They drove along in silence a few miles before Lexi glanced at Ty. “What made you decide to become a mechanic?” she asked, honestly interested in his story. She wanted to know everything about him.

“My mom.” A nostalgic look filled his face as he recalled his childhood. “I loved to take things apart but I wasn’t always very good about putting them back together. Mom worked two, sometimes three jobs, to feed us and keep a roof over our heads. Money was tight so what we had needed to last. She’d just bought a new toaster and I wanted to find out what made the toast pop up when it was done. I dismantled the entire thing. Mom came home from work to find me studying the pieces. She didn’t yell at me or read me the riot act for what I’d done. Instead, she sat down at the table and cried.”

Ty ran his hand through his hair. That was the first time he realized he couldn’t deal with women’s tears. Each salty drop ripped at his heart and made him want to promise anything to get them to stop.

“Then what happened?” Lexi asked, interested in the story.

“She wiped her face, took a deep breath, and looked me in the eye. She told me we couldn’t afford another new toaster or anything else for a while. If I wanted to take things apart, she said I had to learn how to put them back together and make sure they worked. If I didn’t, I couldn’t ever take anything else apart. So I learned. The older I got, the bigger the things were I took apart. I finally started playing with wrecked cars. When I was fourteen, we moved into a place that was just down the road from a junkyard. The owner was a friendly old man who let me take apart anything I wanted to work on. My first and second cars both came from the junkyard. He never charged me a thing for them and helped me get them running.”

“That’s great you’ve always had a curiosity to learn and delve into things to see how they work.” She wished her dad had taught her even some basic mechanic skills. “I know you received certification. That must have made your mom very proud.”

“Yeah, she was pretty excited when I graduated from tech school. I was part of a competitive mechanics team in high school. The year I was a senior, we won the state level and got to compete in the nationals in Washington D.C. We took second place and I received a few job offers along with two scholarships. I took one of the scholarships, got my certification, and never looked back.” Ty thought of all the years he worked for the garage in Portland before they let him go and turned his life upside down. Right now, it didn’t seem so bad since he ended up at the Rockin’ R Ranch with Lexi.

“What about your dad?” Lexi asked. Ty was such a good man she assumed there had been some positive male role model in his life somewhere along the line.

“My mom married a loser, thinking she could change him. The only thing that changed in the three years they were married was my mother’s idea that he would grow up and be responsible. He couldn’t hold down a job, drank up what little money my mom earned, and spent most of his time running around with other women. When Mom had Beth, she thought he’d settle down, but things got worse. My impending arrival sent him running off. We never heard from him again.”

“Ty, that’s terrible.” She clasped his callused, grease-stained hand in her soft, delicate one.

Absently, he wondered how a hard-working rancher had such lovely hands. With effort, he shifted his focus back to their conversation.  “I don’t know. My mom loved us both, gave us what she could, and taught us how to work hard and live right.” Ty turned a warm blue gaze her direction. “When they were alive, Beth and I spent summers with our grandparents. They lived on the coast. The air always seemed so fresh there. My grandpa was killed in a boating accident and my grandma gave up the will to live. Beth and I were on our own during the summers after that.”

“How old were you?”

“I was eleven, so Beth would have been thirteen. Old enough to get into all kinds of trouble, but we tried to walk the straight and narrow. We didn’t want to upset Mom when she already had so much to worry about.”

“What happened to your mother?”

“She passed away a few years back. One winter, she got pneumonia and just couldn’t shake it. She refused to take care of herself and ended up in the hospital. She never came home. The doctor said her heart was completely worn out.” Ty watched the sagebrush whiz by in the early morning light as the pain of losing his mother washed over him.

“I’m so sorry. I know how hard it is to lose a parent.” Lexi held her emotions in check with a tenuous grasp. Losing first her mom and then her dad had been incredibly hard. But she’d had them both during her growing up years. She never wanted for anything and always felt surrounded by their love.

Gently, Ty rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand. “I know you do. I’m sorry for your losses as well.”

“Well, aren’t we a sorry pair of maudlin orphans this morning?” Lexi teased, trying to lighten the mood.

Ty chuckled and turned a smile her direction that caused her to swerve into the other lane.

His hand slapped onto the dash. “Car, Lexi. Oncoming car!” he said in a panicked voice.

She swerved back into their lane. “Sorry.” Befuddled by his presence, by the scent of him and the deep rumble of his voice, she thought it would be a miracle if they arrived in Portland in one piece.

“You need me to drive?” Aware of his ability to distract her, he felt a little smug with the power.

“No, I’m fine.” After a brief glance, she offered him a cheeky grin. “You’re looking for any excuse to get behind the wheel, aren’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The grin he tossed at her warmed his eyes and her heart.

They talked about everything from their favorite books and movies to childhood adventures on the way to Portland. Lexi stopped in Bend long enough for them to grab a bite of breakfast and fill the gas tank before getting back on the road.