Bad In Boots 02 - Ty's Temptation (8 page)

Once they’d climbed in Jena’s vehicle, Evan drove straight to Dr. Shelton’s office.

Ty cast his gaze her way and noted her stiff posture as she pressed harder on the gas pedal. “Slow down, speedy. It’s not like I’m in danger of passing out on you.”

“It’s ten ‘til twelve. Dr. Shelton closes at noon on Fridays.”

Ty studied her. Yeah, they were short on time, but something else was bothering her. A few seconds ago she was concerned, but she still joked and reprimanded him. Now she seemed tense. What had caused her change of mood?

* * * * *

Ty walked into Dr. Shelton’s office behind Evan. While he filled out the paperwork, the doctor’s secretary said, “Hi, Evan. It’s good to see you. If you two will have a seat, Dr. Shelton will be out in a minute.”

Ty and Evan had been sitting all of a minute when a side door opened and a dark-haired woman in a long white physician’s coat walked out.

“Ty Hudson. I can’t believe it!” She looked up from her clipboard. Her surprised brown gaze locked with his.

Ty’s chest constricted. He stood and worked hard not to show any emotion as he responded in a low tone, “Lily. It’s been a long time.”

Evan stood beside him. She glanced at him in curiosity before addressing the doctor. “Hi, Lily. Ty needs stitches and probably a tetanus shot, too.”

“Come on back.” Lily smiled at him.

Ty’s stomach knotted as he started to take a step to follow her back to the exam room. Lily stopped when Evan joined him.

“You can wait out here, Evan. I can take it from here.”

Ty glanced at Evan and noted the determined set of her lips. He could tell she was about to insist on coming back with them. “I’ll be fine. Be right back,” he said.

The hurt look on her face pulled at his heart, but Ty didn’t want Evan to hear the mini-version of his past he was sure Lily would dredge up. Hell, he didn’t want to hear it either.

Once Evan walked back to sit down, Ty followed Lily through a door, past a couple of doors until they reached an empty exam room. His gaze ate up her petite, trim figure and her pitch-black hair clamped in a quick twist. She’d grown into the beautiful, sophisticated woman he’d always thought she would become.

Lily closed the exam room door behind them. “Since I’ll be working on your forehead, have a seat on the stool. When’d you last have a tetanus shot?”

“Six months ago.”

She nodded and jotted down a note on his chart. “Since your last tetanus shot was so recent, I think you’ll be fine without one.”

Ty sat down on the cushioned rolling stool and waited.

“I couldn’t believe it when I read the name on the patient’s form.” Lily washed and dried her hands then retrieved a bottle of antiseptic and cotton balls from the white, glass-doored cabinet.

“Yeah, a real shocker,” he commented. Floored was more like it. The last thing he expected was for the town’s doctor to be the woman he’d fallen in love with all those years ago. “I see you married.” He glanced at her name badge. Her familiar jasmine scent invaded his senses. At least one thing about her hadn’t changed.

“Soon to be divorced.” A smirk curved her lips as she moved closer while pulling on a pair of rubber gloves.

Now that comment surprised him. He started to raise his eyebrow but winced at the pain his action caused.

“Hold still.” Lily dabbed at his wound above his eyebrow with a cotton ball. Ty closed his eyes, blocking his view of her breasts, exposed by her v-neck cotton shirt under her open jacket. Once she’d cleaned the wound thoroughly, he felt her fingers manipulating his skin. “You have a nasty cut. Evan’s right. You need stitches. Do you want a painkiller?”

Ty met her gaze and shook his head. He wanted to remember the pain this woman caused him. Having her inflict him with more would be a perfect physical reminder.

“How’d this happen?” she asked before returning to the cabinet.

“Got hit with a flying bridle.” Ty watched her prepare the needle and thread.

Lily raised a perfectly arched eyebrow and cast an amused gaze his way. “That’s not something one hears every day.” She turned away from the counter and approached him holding a scissors-type instrument. The end of the instrument was pinched closed, holding the needle and thread.

“I expected you to leave Boone. To seek that ‘better life’ you wanted.” The comment came out before he could stop it. Why did he torture himself? he wondered.

She met his gaze with her steady chocolate brown one before she grasped his jaw and turned his head to the side so she could see better. “I got married. To a surgeon, no less.”

“Not surprised,” he grated out at the same time the needle pierced his skin above his eyebrow. Son of a bitch! That hurt. Ty forced himself to ignore the stinging pain.

She pursed her lips at his sarcastic jibe and continued to suture his wound. “Life doesn’t always turn out as one plans. So what do you do now?”

Her tone might be conversational, but he felt the slight tug on the thread. No fucking way was he telling her he was a very successful architect. “A little of this and a little of that.”

She chuckled at his vague response. “When I read Harm’s wedding announcement in the paper and saw he was marrying your sister, I hoped you’d come back to Boone.” Lily tied a knot and snipped the thread.

“Oh?” he asked, surprised by her statement.

Even though she’d finished her task, Lily hadn’t moved out of his personal space.

“I never forgot about you.”

Was that interest he heard in her voice? Ty’s gut clenched.

He heard his own pulse rushing in his ears while Lily’s words, spoken over two decades ago, came rushing back.

“Marry you? I don’t want to be hemmed in by marriage. I want to make something of myself, Ty. To be someone important.”
He heard her voice as if it were yesterday. Each word had stabbed at his heart, shattering his image of true love. He’d loved her, damn it.

“You didn’t want me back then,” he reminded her in a cold tone.

Lily placed her hands on his cheeks. “We were seventeen, Ty. Too young to know what we wanted out of life.”

“And did you find it?” he challenged, angrier then he’d ever been in his life.

Her gaze searched his as she moved her mouth closer to his. “Yeah, I think I just did.”

Before her lips could connect, Ty grabbed her wrists and set her away from him. He released her and stood up from the stool. “Thank you for closing my wound.” He was very aware of the irony of his words. While she’d just mended one wound, she ripped open another—one that took a helluva lot more than stitches to close.

Seeing Lily again made him relive the devastating hurt she’d caused him all those years ago. Churning emotions he’d long buried, surfaced anew, tearing at his gut, making his stomach burn.

“Congratulations on the professional life you’ve created for yourself, Lily. I’m happy for you,” he said before he opened the door and walked out.

“Let’s go,” Ty snarled as he walked out of the doctor’s office.

Evan rushed to keep up with his long, determined strides. What was going on? Why did he seem angry? And here she thought she was the one all wound up.

Evan had been so tense waiting for Lily to take care of Ty’s wound. While it was true she could’ve stitched his wound herself, the truth was she really didn’t want to have to take him to her office. The name Evan Masters, DVM, plastered on her veterinary office’s front door was a dead giveaway. She wasn’t quite ready to share that part of herself with Ty. Not yet. Maybe never, since he’d be leaving in a few days anyway.

“Lily got you all fixed up?” Evan asked, trying to lighten his mood.

“You could say that.” He put his hand out for the keys. “I’ll drive.”

Evan met his deep green gaze, hoping to see some emotion, something to give her a clue as to his current mood. He stared at her with an inscrutable expression.

Her gaze moved to the stitches above his brow line as she dropped the keys in his hand. “I’m really sorry.”

“No big deal.” He wrapped his fingers around the keys and opened the passenger side door for her.

She climbed inside and waited for Ty to come around to his side and slide into his seat. They’d driven for a few minutes in silence when Ty finally spoke.

“I don’t think we’re such a good idea.”

“What’d you say?” she asked, her heart tightening.

Ty kept his gaze on the road. “I think it’s best if we keep it platonic between us. Chad knows you’re staying with me. That should be enough to keep him at bay.”

His words hurt her more than they should’ve. She felt like someone had just grabbed her heart with both hands and twisted each half in opposite directions. Why did she have a feeling his change of heart had to do with Lily? Evan might not have been socially aggressive growing up—hell, she was at least two years and in some cases, three years younger than her classmates in college and vet and business school—but she’d never been one to hold back when she felt the need to speak her mind. And she wasn’t about to start now.

“You’re chicken.”

“What the hell did you just say?” He cut his gaze her way, green eyes sparking in anger.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “You heard me. Bock, bock. What are you afraid of, Ty? That you might like it a little too much?”

Ty’s jaw clenched. “You’re awfully smug for a virgin.”

She ignored his jab. “I didn’t take you for the fowl type.”

“I’ll be gone day after tomorrow.”

“All the more reason not to worry you’ll get too attached,” she challenged, meeting his narrowed gaze head-on.

“The deal’s off.” He turned his gaze back to the road and tightened his fingers on the steering wheel.

We’ll see about that.
She turned away to stare out the window while sheer determination simmered inside her.

When they drove up Steele Way’s main drive, Jena came out of the stables wiping her hands on her jeans. “How’s your head?” she greeted her brother as he and Evan got out of her truck.

Ty dropped the truck’s keys in her hand. “I’m as good as new.” He didn’t say a word to Evan before he walked off toward the stables.

As Evan came around the front side of the truck, Jena asked, “What caused that surly mood?”

Evan shrugged. “I was hoping you could tell me. Didn’t you say you and your brother spent a couple summers here when you were younger?”

Jena nodded.

“Do you know if Ty and Lily Shelton knew each other back then?”

Jena’s brow furrowed for a second. “Oh yeah. That Lily. Her married last name threw me. I’d forgotten about Ty dating Lily. The last summer he came to Texas, he and Lily spent a lot of time together. I hardly saw my brother those couple of months. That’s why I ended up hanging with my cousins.” She smiled. “The Tanner boys kept me busy dodging their teasing ways.”

Evan’s heart constricted at the news, but discovering Ty and Lily had a past explained his mercurial change of mood. “Were they serious then?”

Jena eyed her and a small smile formed on her lips. “Ah, I see where this is going.”

Evan’s stomach tensed. She needed to lighten Jena’s serious thoughts. “You do? If so, I’d like to be in on the secret. Your brother will be gone in two days, Jena. I have no expectations other than to enjoy his company while he’s here. His mood went in the tank once he saw Lily.”

As soon as Evan spoke, a sudden sinking realization hit her. Maybe the reason Ty called it off with her was because he wanted to rekindle an old flame with Lily while he was here. The thought made her stomach cramp into tight, hard knots. She sighed as her own good spirits dropped considerably.

Jena put her hand on Evan’s shoulder. “I don’t know what to say, Evan. My brother has always been pretty quiet when it comes to his relationships. He’s not one to share much.” A sympathetic look crossed her face. “Are you still going to come to the rehearsal party this evening?”

Evan straightened her spine. She’d gone this long without a guy. There was no reason to be concerned about a man she never had in the first place. “Absolutely. I’ll be there…and I’ll even wear a dress.”

Jena smiled. “That’s the spirit!”

Evan’s gaze strayed to Ty as he came walking out of the stables with a bag of grain across his shoulders. He’d taken his shirt off again. The play of muscles across his chest made her mouth water before he turned to head to the back of the building. Damn, the man was built.

Evan let out the breath she’d been holding. “Well, I’d better collect Flash and a mount for Ty and then I’ll head back. Tell Harm I’ll keep Flash until the wedding is over. She should be back to her old self by then.”

Jena smiled her appreciation. “Harm will be relieved to have her back. He doesn’t like me riding the other horses as much. Says he trusts Flash’s genteel nature when it comes to me.”

“It’s so obvious when he looks at you that Harm is very much in love.”

Jena gave a soft laugh. “I love him very much, too.”

The adoration reflected in Jena’s gaze as she looked at her fiancé across the yard, solidified Evan’s personal vow. No matter how long it took, no matter how old she was…she refused to fall in love with a man who couldn’t give her all his love in return.