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“That depends,” he said. And he didn’t tell her on what.
The silence went on as she tried to think of how to express what she was feeling. Finally, carefully, she asked, “Did you ever want to…toss a computer out the window when something went wrong?”
“Yes,” he admitted, sounding a little wary.
“But you didn’t.”
“Too expensive,” he said dryly.
“You wouldn’t toss something that’s worth a lot to you because it…malfunctions. You’d work on it until it was right, until you fixed it. Because you’re a Rafferty, and Raffertys don’t quit.”
He studied her for a moment, and she wondered that anything, even a machine, dared malfunction with that steady, brilliant gaze fixed on them. “Are you saying you just…malfunctioned?”
“I’m saying I’ve got a glitch, and it’s not having enough patience.”
“Maybe that horse of yours just uses it all up.”
His tone was beyond dry, making her unsure whether or not to be glad he could joke.
“I won’t argue that,” she said. “But the important thing is, it’s never before cost me something I…didn’t want to lose, so I didn’t really work to fix it.”
“Has it now?”
She looked at him, deep into those green eyes so like his father’s, and repeated his words. “That depends.”
He shifted in the driver’s seat, looking out toward where the sun seemed to be plummeting to the horizon. He tapped a finger on the steering wheel. He had that finger-tapping habit, she’d noticed. Probably a sign that that brain of his never stopped working.
She waited, although she didn’t want to. She hated the silence that stretched out between them. It felt like a physical thing, like a guitar string she could almost reach out and pluck.
It would probably snap. Her tone, even in her head, was bitter. And only knowing this was part of the patience she needed to learn enabled her to wait it out.
Finally, he spoke. “It probably doesn’t help that we know each other’s hot buttons so well.”
She didn’t know how to take that. Was he saying that’s why it wouldn’t work? Why they wouldn’t work? The thought tightened her chest almost unbearably. And she said the first words she thought she could get out, trying for a joking tone.
“I should hope so, after all these years.”
His head snapped around, as if she’d startled him. Then, slowly, he said, “It would take a long time to learn the good things to balance out those hot buttons.”
Her breath caught, and it was a moment before she could say, “Probably twice as long.”
He gave her a considering look then. “You think you could be as patient with me as you are with Ghost?”
Her pulse leapt, but she held back. “If you can be as patient with me as you are with your gadgets.”
Slowly, a wonderful smile spread across his face. He truly was beautiful, she thought. She always had thought it, but before it had irritated her. Now it just made her wish she wasn’t so sidelined.
Then he leaned across to her and carefully, gently, kissed her. It was long, slow, and impossibly hot and sweet at the same time.
For this, she would learn patience.
For this, she would do anything.
Chapter Thirty-Six
It had been Britt who had promised to learn patience, but this stupid abstinence thing was pounding the lesson home to him as well. Today had been the worst, but it was his own stupid fault.
It hadn’t been going into Last Stand for the first day of the Bluebonnet Festival, he’d been okay with that. She’d been practicing diligently with the crutches, building back her wrist’s strength, leaving it in the brace the recommended amount of time per day, and it was progressing nicely. The ankle was slower, but she was doing everything right there, too. In short, she was approaching the healing process the way she approached her training and barrel racing, with full concentration and dedication.
