Page 123 of The Cowboy’s Intriguing Love
She tugged at the front of his shirt. “Maybe I don’t need one.”
He grinned and pulled her down onto the mattress with him. “Good call – we can say that we’re practicing for when we go camping. Need to ease you into roughing it.”
He groaned and pulled his shirt off over his head when she said, “I think I’d like it better if we ease you in – although I don’t mind rough.”
~ ~ ~
Ty caught himself smiling as he stared out the kitchen window at the lodge. He and Shay had made a lot of love since she came here, but there’d been something special about it under the stars on the mattress on the back porch the other night.
He checked his watch, only a couple of hours until he’d be home with her tonight, and he was thinking he needed to get the mattress back out there. And then, this weekend, he’d take her up into the mountains and …
He jumped, feeling guilty when his phone rang, bringing him back to the moment. He grinned when he saw Travis’s name on the display.
“Hey, Trav! What’s up?”
“Hey, Ty. Wanted to run something by you.”
“What?”
“Have you made any headway on your idea of opening a restaurant of your own?”
“Nope.” He laughed. “Before I met Shay, I would have hated admitting that. Now, I can honestly tell you that I don’t mind putting it on the back burner while we get her settled and established in whatever she’s going to do.”
“Happy for ya, squirt. How would you feel if something fell into your lap?”
“Something like what?”
“You know I’m pulling a deal together to buy the Woodfield place? Well, the sellers added a restaurant building. I was thinking we’d use it as just a mess hall kind of place but I got to talking to Cash, and it’d make more sense to use it as a real restaurant. It’s the closest building to the road, so we could open it to the public without customers coming all the way onto the property, and if we make it a commercial venture, it can contribute to the running costs of the rest of the place.”
Ty ran his hand through his hair. “Damn! I like that idea, Trav. I … when you say make it a commercial venture, what do you mean? Would you lease me the place and …?”
Travis chuckled. “Haven’t thought that far yet. I wanted to see if you liked the idea in general first. How would you feel about leaving Wade?”
Ty glanced over to where Christian was standing. “It’ll be fine. He already has a replacement lined up. I’d miss him, but this was only ever meant to be temporary – he was doing me a favor and we both knew it.”
“Alrighty, then. And it’ll keep you closer to your honey if she’s going to be working with us.”
Ty grinned. “Yeah. I like that idea.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll let you know when I’m going to be there again and we can meet up – start throwing a plan together.”
“Awesome, Trav. Thank you.”
“Nah, thank you, Ty. I’ve been ready to come home for a while, but I wasn’t sure how to make it work. I’m going to miss these guys. It’ll be important to me to still be working with family.”
“It’ll be awesome to have you home.”
“All right. I’m going before you make me cry. Don’t believe all the stories about me having a heart of stone – I’m a softy really.”
Ty had to laugh. Out of all of Cash’s friends, Travis had the biggest heart, and there was nothing stone-like about it.
After he ended the call, he was tempted to call Shay and tell her about it, but he decided to wait. She’d be on her way home from school with the kids by now. He could wait until tonight – at home. They could celebrate – he smiled, maybe on that mattress.
His smile disappeared when Wade came striding into the kitchen with a worried look on his face.
“Have you heard from Shayna?”
“No. That was Travis. Why?”