Once and Always (Women of Character) (4 page)

Tyler turned from the desk. There
was plenty of space to set up his computer desk, collection of CD's and
software. The existing furniture was heavy and old but in good condition. A
leather couch sat against one wall and the remaining space in the room was
taken up with a card table and chairs. The room didn't look like it had gotten
much use and still looked pretty much like the way Martin had left it.

Tyler walked back out to the foyer
and crossed the hallway. He entered the dining room and stopped in wonder. The
dining room had been converted into a work area. He stared in fascination at
the richly-hued stained glass panels hanging on the walls and carefully stacked
on workbenches. He wondered if this was Annie's workshop. She'd created
pictures and intricate scenes with colored glass and the talent displayed
amazed him. A partially completed piece on the workbench showed a howling wolf
with a background of snow and mountains, the sky only partially completed, a
swirl of cloudy blue, pink and pale yellow glass. Tyler lifted the glass in
wonder.

"What are you doing in
here?" Annie demanded from behind him.

Tyler released the panels gently,
straightened and turned on his heel. Annoyed with himself, he felt heat move up
his collar as if he'd been caught doing something wrong. "I've been
considering possibilities for all the rooms," he said coolly. She might as
well get used to seeing him in this place. "You did mention I should look
at everything."

Annie moved into the room, opened
a drawer in a cabinet against the wall, pulled out some sheeting material and
draped it over several panels. She turned to face him, her arms crossed in
front of her. "Of course I did, but that wasn't a blanket invitation to go
through my private things."

"Sorry. I was surprised to
see all the glass here and I guess I forgot everything else."

She looked around the room and he
saw a blank look in her eyes, as if his invasion of her private work area had
totally thrown her. "Moving this stuff to the guest house might take up to
a week."

"Your work is
remarkable."

She shrugged but he thought he saw
a slight softening around her mouth. "It's special to me. Working with
glass relaxes me."

"I never knew you were so
artistic."

"Maybe there were a lot of
things you didn't know about me."

Tyler couldn't ignore the jab. Was
she right? "It would be interesting to watch you put a piece
together."

The lift of her brow told him she
found his interest suspect.

"You could keep this as a
work area," he said, ignoring her obvious skepticism. "Then you
wouldn't have to move any of this."

"T-that's generous." She
was obviously taken by surprise. "I'm sure you'll want to put your own
things in here." She lifted her chin. "Besides, I think it's best if
we keep our private lives separate. The house will be yours for the term of the
lease."

Tyler nodded. "You're
right," he said briskly. "If you're willing, I want to sign the lease
this week. Have you thought about my suggestion to work together? Maybe you'd
consider reentering the show arena."

The sudden shadows in the room
gave her face a vulnerable cast as she circled the room restlessly.
Unexpectedly, she stepped close, showing him the scarred side of her face.
"Reenter the show arena? Look at me. My face colors every decision I make.
How often I go to town for groceries, how badly I want to see a movie. I can't
even tell you the last time I went to have my hair cut." She turned away
and gave a hollow laugh. "Hell, I've been cutting it myself. Imagine me
going into the beauty center for my monthly facial. Mary Sue would cringe if I
showed up now."

"Did that happen?" There
was nothing he could do to ease the pain of such an experience.

She looked at him incredulously.
"No, but only because I was smart enough not to test my own theory. I've
seen enough startled reactions that I'd never ask someone to touch my face.
Look at your reaction today. That's mild in comparison to some." She
looked away.

What could he tell her? He didn't
know what she'd gone through, but it bothered him that she'd been hurt by
other's reactions. "I was taken by surprise to see you had been hurt and I
never knew. I admit I was shaken." In some way, those feelings were
connected to the way he used to feel about her.

"My point is I don't know if
I'll ever have the guts to work around the public again." She clenched her
jaw. "The scarring is the first thing people see. They can't help it. They
stare and I'm damned sensitive about their curiosity."

"People's curiosity or
rudeness doesn't make you less of a person. You're a good rider, that's what
should matter. What I want you to contribute is your riding skills."

"But one goes with the other
and I'm afraid my scars will override any skills I have. It's
unavoidable." Annie rolled her eyes and gave him a cynical look. "Put
bluntly, people may recall my barrel racing wins, but they'll be more curious
about my scarring. I know. It's been two years, but those reactions still hurt.
Yes, it might be self-pity, but I don't care." She took a turn around the
room, her pacing reminding him of an animal in captivity.

"You mentioned you wear
makeup sometimes." Tyler wanted to soothe her, but he kept his fists in
his pockets, wondering where those thoughts came from. A residue of old
feelings? "You can't hide the rest of your life."

Annie's face turned pasty white,
her greenish-hazel eyes dark in her face. "I know that! And you can keep
your opinions to yourself. You've been gone a long time, you don't know
anything!"

Tyler decided to try another tact.
"Can you deny that the idea of being in the thick of things once more
stirs your blood? I could see it in your face when I first mentioned it. You
can be instrumental in bringing the ranch back to the way it used to be."

"It's not that simple."
She looked away from him, biting her lip, obviously torn. "Make no
mistake, what you want to do is incredibly important and exciting to me. I'd
love to be a part of it, but beyond the initial excitement―" She
turned away, her voice muffled. "― I'm not the same person."

Annie's admission laid her
vulnerability bare, underlining his ignorance regarding her suffering. She'd
made the omission, but he knew she'd only go so far in telling him anything
right now. Tyler stifled his impatience. He wanted to know everything about
her, what had occurred in the intervening years, but also knew that the telling
would come at a cost to Annie, and to him.

Ω

Anna turned back to Tyler when he
remained silent. He lifted one brow and the dark hair fell over his forehead,
just like it always had. A dark sensuality enveloped him, and it frightened her
that she still felt an attraction for a man who'd had no problem walking away
from her. "It makes me angry when I look at you. I want my feelings for
you to be colder than stone."

"I'm not the same person
either," Tyler said evenly. "I've been hurt too, but all that matters
is that we establish a business relationship. Once we sign the lease," he
added, "I'll be busy with more mundane matters. The hay has to be cut and
baled, the lawn needs mowing on a regular basis. I plan to bring in some of my
own horses and besides the painting and staining there's a dozen other things
that are going to crop up. It'd help if I could count on you through his whole
process."

That tingle of excitement hit Anna
again, but she cautioned herself to proceed slowly, think clearly and weigh her
options. She hated change, the uncertainty it sometimes brought. "I have
no choice, I have to act on this. I'll let you lease the property." She
put up her hand. "Before we go further, you need to know that in addition
to Danny remaining, I want a clause that says either one of us can get out of
the lease if it's not working."

"I'm not going into a lease
with that hanging over my head. You could get cold feet two months down the
line," Tyler said impatiently.

"So could you, but that's my
condition." She lifted her chin. "I don't plan to be unreasonable. I
need this to work as much as you do. We can start off by going over the lease
and what we both expect. If we can come to an agreement, we'll go to the
lawyers and finalize everything. Maybe we can put a six month trial period in
there."

He studied her intently. "Can
I trust you to hold to this?"

Anna stifled her resentment, and a
small dig of hurt. "There was a time when you wouldn't have questioned my
word. If we're in this together, we have to trust each other. So what will it
be?"

"Let's do it."

Ω

Tyler drove down the narrow
darkened streets of Marsh Plains, tired and wanting only to get to his hotel
room. He felt curiously unsettled after his meeting with Annie, especially
after the snide comment he'd made in parting. He'd never known her to lie or
given him any reason to think she couldn't be trusted and he was angry with
himself for acting like that. The problem was, she hadn't chosen him six years
ago, and if he was honest, that thorn had stuck in him all these years. She'd
chosen a mean old man over him and left him swinging in the breeze. He'd been
striking back like he was a kid. God almighty, when would he learn from his
past mistakes?

The streetlight turned red and he
stopped, recalling in high school how they used to joke that if you sneezed
while driving down Main Street, you'd miss the town. All his life he'd been a
kid in and out of trouble, until his father brought him to live at the Double B
and that had kept him out of jail. He'd discovered a love of horses and found
his niche. When Martin brought Annie to the ranch, everything in his world had
changed. They'd had so much in common, yet not much at all. He'd never wanted
to slide back to the old ways. She'd tagged after him in those early days of
her arrival because she'd been scared and had been impressed with his knowledge
of horses, but he hadn't minded that she followed him around. Her beauty had
always seemed slightly unreal to him, and although in the beginning she'd
consciously or unconsciously used her looks to get favors from others, she
never tried that with him. Annie had always been upfront with him, until that
last night.

Gripping the steering wheel, Tyler
stared at the buildings on either side of him. Some of the places he
recognized, others were either gone or replaced with new buildings. Since he'd
hit the city limits his chest had been tight, as if he had unfinished business.
In reality, he did have unfinished business. He realized that part of him had
been left behind six years ago. The optimistic young man. He just wasn't
certain how to recover that part of himself.

The light changed. As he moved
ahead, Tyler recognized Oakey's brightly lit Ice Cream Palace. A glance at his
watch showed it was ten o'clock. On impulse, he cranked the wheel to the right
and pulled into the parking lot.

Tyler stared at the brightly lit
pink and brown ice cream cone sign out front. He turned off the truck and
climbed out, stretching his legs as he stared at the place he remembered from
when he'd been a kid. He pulled the wooden screen door open and moved inside,
the door slamming loudly behind him. The pastel colored booths still lined the
small parlor, and the ice cream counter ran the entire length of the place,
stools waiting for the next kid to sit down and spin.

Tyler looked at the man behind the
counter and unless he was wrong, it had to be Jake Oakey. He looked like he was
well into his eighty's, and though he was stooped with age he had the same
welcoming smile. He'd been bald as long as Tyler remembered. He still had an
impressive arm for his age, and Tyler remembered sitting on the stool listening
to Jake Oakey tell stories from his wrestling days. Tyler didn't move from the
doorway, questioning instead the impulse that had brought him inside.

"What can I get for
you?"

"I know it's late,"
Tyler said, "but I saw the lights." He reached for the door behind
him. "I'll let you get on with closing down."

"You might as well have
something to make it worth your while for stopping," the old man said
cheerfully.

"Do you still make those root
beer floats with chocolate peanut butter ice cream?"

"It's been a long while since
anyone asked. Come closer. I'm almost blind, you know, and I can't see your
face."

Suddenly reluctant to reveal his
identity, Tyler took a step back. "Never mind. It's late, and I'm sure you
want to close up." He pushed the screen door open.

The old man snapped his fingers.
"Tyler!"

Tyler stopped cold and looked over
his shoulder at the man.

"Tyler Stanton!" he
exclaimed, grinning.

Holding himself stiffly, Tyler
said, "That was a lucky guess."

The old man laughed. "Of
course I recognized your voice, it just took me a minute. You'd drink root beer
floats until I thought you'd be sick on them."

Tyler's heart pounded. "I did
a couple times." The first time he'd run into this place he'd been nine
and trying to outrun four kids who wanted to beat his face in because he
wouldn't give up his lunch at school. Despite the drumming in his chest, he
walked over to the counter. "But I always came back for more. I haven't
been in the area in six years."

Jake nodded. "I was sorry to
hear what happened." He squinted and leaned closer. "Looks like you
turned out okay, though," he added with a chuckle. "I don't put much
stock in gossip."

Tyler lifted a brow in surprise.
"You're probably the only one."

"Sometimes tempers flare and
things get heated up, and then with Martin dying like that, it was a real mess.
‘Course, there's always folks that will hang onto whatever they choose to
believe, no matter what the facts are."