Page 15 of Love Me, Cowboy
“Tyler? What’s wrong?” Claire was afraid to touch his arm for fear of hurting him more. “Tell me what to do. I don’t know how to help.”
“It’s fine,” he said through a clenched jaw, then took several deep breaths, keeping his eyes closed. “I just forget sometimes.”
Claire caught herself taking deep breaths with him and had to make herself stop. “Forget what?” she asked.
Dropping his hand, Tyler opened his eyes and slowly lowered his shoulders. “The face wasn’t the only thing damaged in the accident. As I said at the Thirsty Cowboy the other night, my shoulder got torn up pretty bad, too. Doc has me in physical therapy and it’s mostly healed, but the weight of the toolbox was too much, I guess.”
He guessed? The man had taken years off her life with that reaction. The pain must have been excruciating to take his breath like that.
“Thank goodness you won’t be doing that anymore.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, working his shoulder up and down. “Picking up the toolbox? Not with that arm, I won’t.”
“Not the toolbox,” Claire said with a roll of her eyes. “Riding bulls. No more climbing onto the back of a beast that would rather kill you than let you stay there.”
Tyler’s face turned serious. “I have every intention of getting back on a bull.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Dead serious.”
Claire threw a hand on her hip. “If that’s supposed to be a joke, it isn’t funny.”
“I don’t make jokes about my life.” His eyes darkened. “My life. I’m a bull rider, and I’m going to continue being one. No matter what you or my sister or anyone else says.”
Jerking the toolbox off the ground with his good arm, Tyler slammed it onto the truck bed, then hopped up after it. Claire had to shuffle around to the back so she could use the bumper to climb up, but she wasn’t about to let this stubborn cowboy walk away from this argument.
“Your sister loves you,” she yelled, storming across the empty flatbed. “And I...” She what? Loved him? Unfortunately so, but she wasn’t about to tell him. “I care about you, too. That bull could have killed you.”
“And I could get hit by a truck tomorrow. Doesn’t mean I’m going to hide in my house.”
“That isn’t the same and you know it.” Why couldn’t he see what getting back on a bull would do to the people around him? How they’d feel if the worst happened?
Tyler turned so quickly, Claire nearly charged into him. “What if someone told you to stop teaching?”
“What?”
“Didn’t your parents push you to be a lawyer? To do your civic duty and join the family business of running towns and making decisions for other people?”
Her situation was nothing like his. “Being a teacher isn’t going to get me killed.”
“No? How many school shootings have we had in the past few years?” Tyler asked. “Life is random, Claire. A meteor could kill us all tomorrow. You have to live while you can, the way you want.” His voice dropped as his eyes held hers. “I’m a bull rider. That’s what I do.”
Claire felt deflated. He was right. It was his life, and only he could decide how he wanted to live it. But that didn’t stop her from wishing he would choose another way.
“It’s going to kill your sister when you climb back on one of those bulls.”
And it will kill me, too, she thought.
“I can’t do what she’s done, Claire. I can’t walk away from the thing I love because it’s what other people think I should do.”
The need to grab him and hold on was so strong, Claire did the only thing possible.
She backed away.
“That banner probably needs to dry before being hung up. I’ll get someone to help me with it tomorrow.”
“Claire, don’t—”