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“Can you?”
“Sure,” Mike said, not liking the challenge in her tone. “Why wouldn’t I be able to? I work with your daddy. He likes me.”
Gerty sighed and looked toward Pony Power. Mike sensed some unrest inside her, and he didn’t like it. Gerty wouldn’t talk about it until she was good and ready, he knew that. He tried anyway with, “Hey, what’s in your head?”
She shook it slowly. “Nothing.”
“It’s something,” he said.
“Mama and Daddy….” She trailed off, her eyebrows forming a V. “They do like you, but they don’t think we should be dating.”
Shock blitzed through him. “Why not?”
“They think I’m not ready.”
“Are you ready?” Mike backed up and released the hold on her body. He honestly wasn’t sure what he’d do if she said she wasn’t ready. She kissed him like she was ready to be doing that. They had a great time together, and he wasn’t half as comfortable with anyone else like he was with her.
Maybe Keith, but they’d also been friends for a long time.
“I feel like I am, yes,” she said quietly. Her gaze came back to his. “I know there’s so much you still want to know about James and me.”
“Hey.” He slid one hand along her jaw and reached for her ponytail with the other. He ran it through his fingers and looked at her. She almost seemed apologetic. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready, okay?”
“Like you’ll tell me about your accident when you’re ready.”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t disagree. Gerty saw the movement and lifted her eyebrows. “Mike?”
“There are some things about my military service I can’t tell you, Gerty.”
“Is the accident one of them?”
It was his turn to look away, and he did, once again pulling his hands away from her. “No,” he said honestly. “But I’m sure you can imagine that I don’t want to relive it very badly.”
She put one hand on his chest. “Mike, you relive things whether you want to or not.”
“I guess.”
“I heard you the other afternoon,” she said. “When I found you asleep in the stall with Chorizo? You were having a nightmare.”
He whipped his attention back to her. “What? Really?”
She nodded, anxiety in her eyes now. “I might not have known, but you said, ‘No, Stonewall! We’re banking too fast!’ and when I woke you, you nearly hit me in the face.”
Mike sometimes had dreams of the things he’d experienced on his flights and missions. Some were okay. Some were not. He swallowed, but his throat stuck together it was so dry. “Stonewall wasn’t the co-pilot during the crash.”
“Okay,” she said. Gerty didn’t push him, not on this. She could speak her mind on other things, and she was usually a no-nonsense woman. But she could also exude kindness and grace like she was now, and Mike liked both versions of her.
He pulled her into a hug and kissed her temple. He looked out over the pasture, not really seeing it or anything beyond it. “I’ll tell you when I’m ready,” he whispered against her ear.
“Then we have a deal,” she whispered back. “When you come tonight, don’t let my daddy pressure you into talking and don’t ask him about James, okay?”
“Okay,” he agreed.
She nodded and stepped out of his arms. “Come on, Davy,” she called to the little boy on the front porch, and he poked his head around the pillar.
“Time to go?” he asked.
“Time to go,” she confirmed, extending her hand toward him. He came down the steps and slipped his pudgy hand into hers, which only made Mike smile. He had no idea if Gerty wanted to be a mom or not, as she’d never mentioned it. She was so good with horses, and she’d let life blow her about a bit, from ranch to ranch and even into the rodeo. He still hadn’t heard all of those stories, and he couldn’t wait to learn more about her through them.
