Two To Wrangle (Hotel Rodeo #2)(18)

“I don’t mean to be rude, but what’s between me and Ty is no one else’s business.”

“It’s not that I want Ty back,” Delaney said. “It was a mistake the first time around. We both know that. The whole thing was pure lust.” She hesitated, digging the carpet fringe with the toe of her boot. “Maybe I could have loved him if he’d only tried just a little bit. Even at his worst, Ty is impossible to hate, but he never invested anything in the relationship.”

“Then why did you marry him?” Monica asked, more curious than ever to reconcile Ty’s version of the story with Delaney’s.

Delaney plopped down on the edge of the queen four-poster bed with a sigh. “Because I was desperate to get out from under my controlling family when I met Ty. For as long as I can remember, someone was always telling me how to dress, how to act, and even what to think. I was raised to be the perfect little Houston debutante. I wasn’t free to make even the simplest decisions for myself. All that mattered was the outer package. No one really cared about me. Ty, on the other hand, didn’t give damn about any of those trappings.”

“No, I don’t suppose he would,” Monica said.

“Ty was everything my parents would hate—the perfect antidote to my horrible life,” Delaney continued. “He was also my first . . . but he didn’t know that until after the fact.”

“Really? And how did he take it when he found out?” Monica asked.

“He felt guilty as hell.”

“And you used it against him?” Monica asked.

“More or less. I talked him into eloping.”

“It was that easy?”

Delaney returned a wistful smile. “Yeah, it was. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other back then. That part was good, but it didn’t last very long.” She paused. “I don’t believe Ty ever intended to hurt me, but Ty likes women. A lot. And they’ve always liked him back.”

“Sounds an awful lot like you’re trying to warn me off.”

“Maybe so,” Delaney said.

“You think he cheated on you?”

“He was gone for weeks on end. His drinking got heavier, and his phone calls were fewer and farther between. What was I to think? Then I saw some very incriminating pictures posted on the Internet. He denied any wrongdoing, of course. I know he was pretty messed up back then, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, or that I could forgive him for it.”

“If that’s the case,” Monica said, “what do you want with him?”

Delaney returned a cool smile. “As you just so eloquently put it, what’s between me and Ty is no one else’s business.”





Chapter Six


Ty was looking forward to saddling up ol’ Beau. He hadn’t been on a horse in ages and desperately needed some time to think. He already had a good idea where Tom would have wanted his ashes to be scattered and hoped to figure some things out on the long ride down to the river. Horses were the best therapy he knew—aside from sex, that is. If he couldn’t have the one, he’d have to settle for the other.

He was leading Beau out of his corral when Monica appeared. “That’s a beautiful horse,” she remarked. “I bet he could clear some fences with those long legs.”

Ty grinned and patted the neck of the leggy, bald-faced sorrel. “Working cattle, jumping fences, scaling canyons, crossing rivers. You name it. Anything you can imagine doing on a horse, this ol’ boy’s done it.”

“Really? How old is he?” she asked, stroking the gelding’s nose.

Ty scratched his chin in thought. “Tom gave him to me as a yearling for my fifteenth birthday, so I guess he must be coming up on twenty, but don’t tell him that.”

“Where are you going with him?” Monica asked.

“Thought we’d ride down to a place where Tom and I used to fish for alligator gar.”

Her eyes widened. “There are alligators in that river?”

“Not gators. Alligator gar. It’s a butt-ugly sport fish with a mouth like a gator. They’re also just as big. Tom and I once reeled in a six-footer. The biggest ones on record have been caught in the Red River.”

“I didn’t realize Tom enjoyed sport fishing,” she said.

“Yup. Ranching, fishing, hunting, flying his plane. Tom was a real man’s man.”

“There’s so much I still don’t know about him,” she said sadly. “And now I never will.”

“You knew enough to love him,” Ty reassured. “And he loved you back, Monica. He was damned proud of you too. Hell, he bragged about you all the time and even carried your picture in his wallet. He showed it to me the day he had his first stroke. I think he had some crazy matchmaking scheme in mind.”

“He wasn’t so subtle about it with me either,” she replied dryly.

“Oh yeah?” Ty cocked a brow. “What did he say?”

“Tom never kept it secret that he didn’t like Evan, but he thought a great deal of you. He wanted us to run the hotel together, but I think he had hopes of more. I set him straight that it was never going to happen between you and me.”

He eyed her levelly. “Never’s an awful long time.”