but I detect a hint of tension in his shoulders and his words. Sitting down on the boulder, he says, “Come on,” then gestures to the space at his side.
Hoping he can’t tell how jittery I am, I plop down next to him and grip my knees, fighting the urge to touch his hair and find out if it’s as soft as it looks.
Ty begins unlacing his boots.
“What are you doing?” I ask, sending him a suspicious look.
Tugging the boots off, he sets them aside, strips off his socks, and rolls up the legs of his jeans, then lowers his feet into the creek.
“Are you nuts? That water’s freezing!” I say.
“It feels good. Come on. You should try it.” He grins. “Do something crazy for a change.”
“Please. I’m the queen of crazy. Once I dunked my entire head in the creek in November on a dare.”
“Who dared you?”
“Wyatt.”
“Ah,” he says in a tone that seems to imply he has Wyatt figured out. “The guy who gave me the evil eye the entire time we were talking at your Dad’s memorial.”
“Wyatt gave you the evil eye?”
“Blond hair? Skinny?”
“That’s him. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything. He’s just protective. We’re best friends.”
Ty’s brows lift. “Best friends, huh?”
“Yeah.” Wyatt’s expression after we kissed flashes through my mind, and my body tenses with guilt. I have a feeling he’d be hurt if he knew I was flirting with Ty. “Wyatt and I have been best friends since we were this tall,” I say, raising my hand four feet off the ground.
Ty shoves his hair back from his eyes, then looks down at his toes in the water. So do I. The sight of his long, bony feet unsettles me in a way that I like.
“So, should I be afraid of him?” he asks, his head still down.
“Who? Wyatt?”
“You said he’s protective of you.” He slides me a teasing look. “I just thought he might try to protect you from me.”
I’m not sure I want to be protected from him, but I give Ty a playful shove and say, “I can take care of myself.” I duck my head, embarrassed and too aware of him, and when I look up again he’s watching me with an amused look that blows every rational thought right out of my mind. “What?” I say, then dip my hand into the water, scoop some up, and splash him with it.
“Hey!” he shouts, laughing and shaking droplets from his hair. “If you’re so tough, why are you afraid of putting your feet in a little cold water?”
“I’m not afraid, I’m smart.”
He smirks. “I’m not buying it.”
Sighing, I remove my boots, peel off my socks, and roll my jeans up my calves, like he did. I lower one foot into the creek beside his and squeal as the shock of cold rushes up my leg. I try to yank my foot out, but Ty gently presses his hand on my knee.
“Count to ten and it won’t feel so cold anymore. I promise.”
I grit my teeth, stick my other foot in the water, gasp, and start counting.
“Was I right?” he asks when I reach ten and I’m no longer shuddering.
“I have a feeling you always are,” I say, heaping on the sarcasm.
“I am.” Reaching up, he tugs my ponytail gently and grins. “Don’t forget that.”
Silence blooms in the space between us, as thick as the spring wildflowers crowding the edge of the creek. I’m amazed that after everything that’s happened in my life recently, I can feel this good. My pulse ricochets as I ask him, “Have you always lived in the Northeast?”
“Yep. Eighteen years.”
“That explains the accent.”
“It’s that obvious, huh?” He cocks his head. “You should be used to it. I catch a hint of Yankee in your mom’s accent, too.”
“That’s weird.” I slide my toe along the slick, wet surface of a mossy stone. “Mom was born and raised in Colorado. Dad, too.”
Ty searches my face, his narrowed eyes touching each feature, forehead to chin. “I guess I imagined it,” he says quietly.
Shaken by the intimate way he looked at me, I grasp frantically for something to say to keep the conversation going. I finally settle on school and ask, “What’s Columbia like?”
“Fun. Busy. New York has an energy like no place else.”
“I’d like to go there sometime. I’ve never been anywhere, really. Besides Colorado, the only state I remember visiting is New Mexico.” My strange snatches of memory surrounding the lake and dock in Winterhaven come to mind, and