“Then you’re in for a real treat,” Ty said, another smile lighting up his face. “Wanda, Ricky’s housekeeper, is a whiz when it comes to fresh fish. I can cook ’em up myself, but hers are better. I’m supposed to also invite you both for dinner tonight, and Wanda told me not to bother coming unless I brought her a fresh catch.”
Dinner had to be her chance to talk to Ricky. Surely she could make it through an afternoon of hiking and fishing with Ty.
“That sounds like a lot of pressure,” Rachel said. “What if we don’t catch anything?”
If only his eyes didn’t crinkle when he grinned. “We will. Ricky just had the lake stocked, and there’s not a fish out there who can resist my technique.”
She imagined it wasn’t just the fish who found him irresistible. But she wasn’t on the market for anything, and if flirting with her was Ty’s way of trying to break her, he could try, but he wouldn’t succeed. After everything Rachel had been through, she was impervious to flirting.
They gathered their things, and Ty led them down a well-marked trail. It didn’t take long to be mostly out of sight of the buildings. Rachel paused to take a breath of the fresh air.
“You don’t get much of that in the city, do you?” Ty asked, stopping and smiling at her.
He almost seemed like a different man from the one she’d met at the café. But that had been the story with Chris, as well. Chris had been charming enough to get her to let her guard down and marry him, and then he’d flipped a switch into being a controlling monster. He’d still been charming, when it suited his purposes. Which was why, even though most people would be tempted to trust Ty, Rachel wasn’t going to fall for the easy smiles and newly relaxed posture.
She returned his smile then glanced at Katie, who’d bent to look at something on the ground.
“What do you see there?” Rachel asked.
Katie held up a rock. “It’s sparkly.”
“That’s quartz,” Ty said, squatting to Katie’s level and examining the rock. “We have a lot of it around here, but I think you might have found the prettiest one. Do you like rocks?”
Wide-eyed, Katie nodded. She hadn’t known the attentions of a man like this. When Chris had been alive, he’d mostly been aloof, seeing his child as a status symbol. Unless it was to his benefit to make people think he was a doting dad. Everything about Chris’s interactions with Katie had been fake, whereas this tiny moment passing between Ty and Katie seemed real.
As Ty explained about the rocks in the area to Katie, he seemed genuinely interested in the little girl. Rachel had grown up with a lot of fake interest, and she’d learned fairly quickly to spot a phony. Except with Chris, until it was too late. And yet, as she studied Ty, bearing in mind that he had ulterior motives in befriending them, at least temporarily, she couldn’t find fault in him.
“Why don’t we put that in your backpack, so your hands are free for our walk?” Ty asked Katie, reaching for her backpack.
Before Rachel could explain that Katie didn’t like people touching her backpack, Katie was helping him take it off, opening it so he could put the rock in.
Katie trusted Ty.
On one hand, it was heartwarming to see her open up to a new person, but on the other, Rachel couldn’t help worrying what was going to happen when Katie lost her new friend.
“We should keep going,” Rachel said. “It’s a long walk and we still have a ways to go.”
Ty stood. “The lake will still be there. But a walk is no fun if you can’t stop to admire the pretty rocks. Isn’t that right, Katie?”
Katie looked up at him like he was a hero. “Mom is always in a hurry. She tells me to put the rocks down and leave them for other people.”
Turning his gaze on Rachel, Ty said, “Your mom is a smart woman. We can only take a special rock or two, because otherwise, there won’t be any left for other people who need a good rock. But we chose the perfect one, and now we can leave the rest for someone else.”
He winked at Rachel, like he thought he was her ally. It was nice of him not to rub in the part about her always hurrying, but he hadn’t needed to say all that about leaving rocks for her benefit.
When they continued on their walk, Rachel noticed that Katie immediately reached for Ty’s hand, and he took it, like holding hands with a four-year-old was the most natural thing in the world.
“You’re really good with kids,” Rachel said. “Do you have any of your own?”
Ty shook his head. “I wish. But I am active with the kids in our church, and of course the children of guests here on the ranch. Ricky isn’t the only person here with a soft spot for children. He won’t hire anyone who isn’t good with kids. He thinks it’s important to instill the love of ranching in a person as early as possible.”
She hadn’t thought of the impact of getting the children involved in the ranch, but she remembered the website talking about Ricky’s vision of making the ranching legacy live on.
“That sounds like a good aim,” she said. “Is that what the rock lesson was?”
He gestured at a boulder along the side of the path. “Part of ranching is knowing the landscape around you, which includes the rocks. The best way for someone to get interested in ranching is for them to pursue their natural curiosity. If someone like Katie loves rocks, who knows? Maybe she’ll end up a geologist if she follows that interest. Why not encourage it? That’s what makes a successful ranch. Everyone doing what they love in harmony.”
That didn’t sound like the cranky man she’d met in
