Love's Deception (7 page)

“For someone who works so hard, I think movies and books would be great hobbies. But I also like your vacation idea. It would fit nicely with my surfing.”

She played along. “Yes, it would. And there’d be no need for a wetsuit.”

“No, there wouldn’t.”

She tugged the blanket closer to her neck and let out a contented sighed. It was surprisingly comfortable in this treehouse, resting her head on his shoulder. But the breeze left her eyes dry, so she blinked them and then succumbed to the urge to close them for a minute.

Nine

“Catherine,” Ty whispered. “Are you awake?”

Her eyes flew open. “Was I asleep?”

“Not sure. I thought you might be.”

She rolled onto her knees and tucked her hair behind her ear. “What time is it?”

Ty sat up next to her. “I don’t know. Left my phone in the truck.”

“Did I sleep long?”

“I don’t think so. I might have dozed off for a minute too. If I had lain there any longer I would have been out for the night. We’d better get you home before your mom starts worrying. I don’t want to be on her bad side.”

Cat stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “I think she was asleep when I left. And I didn’t even tell her I was leaving.” Cat climbed to her feet and walked to the side of the treehouse. One look at the trunk she had to climb down made the black abyss sway beneath her. Her knees went weak and she moved back. “When I climbed up, I didn’t think about how I would get down.”

Ty took the blanket off her shoulders. “I’ll help you. Sit on the edge.” She followed his instructions. He knelt behind her. “Now put your feet on the two-by-four and slowly turn around so you’re standing.”

A wave of adrenaline washed over her, leaving her hands trembling and her heart racing. This happened every time she got on the roof or near a cliff. While fear of heights was a natural thing, a protective instinct, Cat was extra afraid of them. Every winter, her gutters clogged and overflowed with rainwater because she dreaded climbing a ladder to clean them out. What had made her come up here in the first place? She never should have followed him. Fear paralyzed her. She swallowed and shook her head. “Ty, I don’t think I can. There’s nothing to hold on to.”

He dropped the blanket. “Hold on to me. Give me your hands.” Her fingers didn’t move. She thought about lifting them, but they clutched the wooden floor like a lifeline. He reached around her and picked up one of her hands. His fingers tightened around her wrist. “Hold on to me.” When his hands were securely wrapped around her wrists, he said, “I won’t let you fall. Put your right foot on the board. Now slowly turn around and step down.”

Cat didn’t trust her voice, but nodded through her rapid breathing. She turned her toes so they faced the right direction, shifted her body, and lowered herself to the next board. Realizing her fingernails were digging into his skin, she relaxed her hold on him, then took another step down.

“When you’re ready, let go of me with one hand and grab the two-by-four,” he said.

“Okay.” Her voice came out in a croak. Focusing on the board in front of her, she wrapped her fingers around it. Then she paused, relieved to be off the edge and on her way down.

Ty chuckled above her. “Eventually you’ve got to let go of the other hand, or you’ll pull me head first off this ledge.”

She jerked her fingers away like she would from a bee sting. “I was getting to that,” she said, trying to preserve her dignity.

Although he waited until she was halfway down to begin, he soon hovered one board above her. “You’re doing great,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me you were afraid of heights?”

Cat took another step down. “I don’t know. I guess it didn’t seem so high, climbing up in the dark.”

“Going up is always easier than going down.”

“I noticed that.”

Finally, her feet touched solid ground. She sighed in relief, moved back to make room for Ty, and quickly said a silent prayer of gratitude. As he stepped down from the last rung on the ladder, he discovered her shoes and stooped to pick them up. Like the prince looking for Cinderella, he knelt in front of Cat. “Let’s see if the shoe fits,” he said. She rested her hand on his shoulder while he picked up each foot and slid it through the straps of her high heels.

They retraced their steps and found the canoe. Cat couldn’t stop smiling at the care with which Ty helped her into the boat and then pulled it out of the mud on the other side of the river. She held the blanket while he hid the canoe under the plywood and started the motorcycle. She pulled her skirt out of the way and climbed on behind him. Thankful for the excuse, she wrapped her arms around Ty’s waist. As they crossed the open field, the wind whipped past her and she laid her face against his back.

Soon he drove the motorcycle into the barn and turned off the engine. He took the blanket and dropped it onto the old desk in the office. Holding hands, he and Cat walked to his truck. He reached through the open window. “Here’s your purse.”

She slipped the strap over her shoulder. “Thanks.”

He hadn’t released his hold on her hand, and she didn’t try to pull away. They went to her truck, the barn’s security light humming in the background. Ty didn’t open the door for her; he rested his arm against it instead. “I’m glad you found me tonight.”

She glanced at her hand in his before looking in his eyes. “So am I.”

He moved closer, half of his face in shadow. Cat noticed him clench his jaw and frown slightly, as if something weighed on his mind. Tension sparked in the air between them, and she thought of their last kiss. She moved her hand to his cheek and stood on her tiptoes to touch her lips to his.

Ty wrapped his arms around her, exhaling a sigh of relief as he pulled her closer and kissed her. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I was beginning to regret that promise I made in the treehouse not to try anything. I thought it would kill me for sure.”

Cat giggled. “You did look like you were suffering.”

“I felt like I was drowning.” Then he lowered his mouth to hers in the kind of slow kiss that had her leaning into him, wishing time would stand still. Too soon he pulled away and helped her into the vehicle. “So, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

She took a deep breath and smiled. “Uh-huh, sure.”

He slid his hands into his pockets. “Drive safe, Catherine.”

A few minutes later she parked her truck in front of her house. Her mother’s bedroom light was on. A load of guilt dropped onto her shoulders. Hopefully her mom wasn’t having trouble while Cat gallivanted across the countryside with her summer fling. She unlocked the door and ran up the stairs. Her mother’s smile greeted her when she hurried into the room. “Are you okay, Mom?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing, but by the expression on your face I’d say you are more than fine.”

Smiling, she climbed onto the bed next to her mother. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say you shared a kiss with someone special.”

Cat giggled. “Why do you say that?”

“Mother’s intuition, but for starters, you’re grinning from ear to ear.”

“Well, it’s true. I did kiss him.”

Her mom smiled. “So I take it you had a good time with Allen and everything is back to normal?”

Cat’s grin slipped away. “I . . . it’s just that . . . the whole thing with Allen has been bothering me for some time, and I’m not sure we were ever meant to be more than friends.”

“Why would you worry about that tonight when you two obviously had fun together?”

“Mom, I just came from Ty’s house.”

Her mom’s eyes lost their sparkle and her lips pressed into a thin line. “Weren’t we just talking about you cooling it with Ty since he isn’t husband material? I thought we agreed on that.”

“We did agree.”

“But now you’re telling me you broke up with Allen and then went straight to Ty’s and kissed him?”

“It’s not really what I meant to do.”

“Then how on earth did it happen?”

Cat covered her eyes with her forearm, wondering how she got from point A: leaving the tavern with her mind set on severing ties, to point B: kissing Ty and wishing she never had to stop. Come to think of it, how had she even ended up at a tavern on a Sunday night in the first place?

“I don’t know. Nothing felt right with Allen tonight. Then I wanted to apologize to Ty for how things happened and break up with him in person. Honestly, I did. We started talking. I told him it wasn’t going to work. He was bent out of shape over the fireside thing, so I told him if he didn’t want me going to church with Allen then he should start going with me. Before I knew what was happening Ty committed to come to church with me next Sunday. Then I got distracted when he wanted to show me this old treehouse, and we never really finished our talk. But Mom, it’s not like I’m going to marry him.”

“Do you plan to see him again?”

“I think he said something about coming over tomorrow.”

Her mom shook her head. “You think? Catherine, I don’t know what’s gotten into you. I know it’s your decision, but I’ve always liked Allen.”

Cat checked the clock for probably the hundredth time. The horses were fed. She had showered. Potatoes were baking in the oven, a salad was chilling in the fridge, and she’d made some cookies and hidden them in the cupboard. Ty had texted her first thing in the morning, asking if they could barbecue the steaks that evening at eight. She didn’t have the heart to turn him away, plus she hadn’t been able to get him off her mind all day. The bell rang and Danny beat Cat to the door. “Hey, Ty, can we play football?”

Ty held out his hand for a high five. “Sure, but let’s help your mom with dinner first. I’m starving.” He wrapped one arm around Cat and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “How was your day?”

She smiled back, breathing in the delicious smell of him. His hair was still damp from his shower. He hadn’t shaved, and he wore the same ratty T-shirt and jeans she’d seen on him several times. Obviously, the life of a farmer didn’t include anything more than a basic wardrobe. But then who was she to compare? A horse boarder’s attire was pretty down-to-earth. “It was great. And yours?”

He followed her into the kitchen. “Long, but good. I’m so glad to be off that stinkin’ tractor.” Cat handed him the bag of steaks. “Where’s the salt and pepper?” he asked.

She pulled the salad and a pitcher of lemonade out of the fridge. “The cupboard to the right of the stove. Danny, why don’t you get us a tablecloth and we’ll eat outside on the picnic table.” Her son dug out a red-and-white-checked tablecloth.

Ty pulled a fork from the drawer and a plate from the second cupboard he looked in, then opened the bag of steaks. “These look good.”

Outside, Danny and Cat set the table while Ty started cooking the meat. Danny disappeared into the house and returned a few minutes later with his football. “Can we play now?” he asked Ty.

Ty smiled and closed the lid to the grill. “Sure, little buddy. Let’s see if your mom will play too.”

Danny pulled on Cat’s hand, begging her to play until she followed him onto the grass. “All right, what do I have to do?”

“It’s not hard, Mom. You catch the ball and then you run with it. If you don’t have the ball, you tackle who does. Unless they’re on your same team—then you block for them. The dirt over there is the end zone. That’s where you take the ball.”

Looking where her son pointed, Cat nodded. She smiled at Ty as he took the ball from Danny and lowered his knuckles onto the grass. He fingered the small ball with his work-stained hand. “You play quarterback, Danny,” he said.

Cat laughed. “What am I supposed to do?”

Ty looked her over and winked. “You’re the defense. You try to tackle Danny.”

“What are you?” she said.

“I’m the offense.”

Before Cat could comment on the disparity of the teams, Danny stood behind Ty and stretched his arms forward. He rambled off three random numbers and said, “Hike!” Ty passed the ball through his leg to Danny. Clutching the ball to his chest, Cat’s son darted to the side then suddenly veered toward the end zone. She ran after him.

She didn’t make it far before Ty’s arm encircled her waist. He lifted her off her feet and held her while he cheered Danny on. “Put me down,” she said, attempting to pry his hands off her. “Isn’t that a foul—holding or something?”

Ty set her on her feet and threw his hands out in a gesture of innocence. “I didn’t hear a whistle, and there wasn’t a flag down on the play.”

Cat rolled her eyes while Danny ran back to Ty. Grinning, her son raised his small hand for another high five. “Let’s go again,” Danny said, handing his teammate the ball.

Ty walked back to the line. “Your mom called a foul. We’d better give her another chance.”

Again Ty took his football stance and Danny rambled off the numbers. Cat smiled at the serious expression on her son’s face. Then she looked at the man in front of her and laughed. Football against him? Hopeless. But when Ty hiked the ball to Danny, she had to try. At least for her son’s sake, she could make it look like she tried to tackle him.

Cat ran after Danny, expecting to be plucked off her feet again, but this time there was no holding. He tackled her—gently, but all the same he dragged her down. Cat let out a startled scream. He landed on the ground first, pulling her on top of him. Then Ty rolled over. Shocked, she lay beneath him. The cool grass tickled the back of her neck. Smoke from the grill floated on the breeze, and the smell of sizzling meat hung in the air. Cat caught him looking intently into her face and her heart fluttered in response.

Glorying in his score, Danny yelled, “Touchdown!”

At the sound of Danny’s voice, Ty glanced up. He hopped to his feet and put out his hand. “That was a legal tackle.”