Ty forced a smile. “Make sure they put him in the first stall past the tack room, would you?”
“Sure.” Reagan slipped her sunglasses on and headed for the door. “Might be handy to have the attorney around if there are forms to sign.”
Eli’s voice drifted back to Ty as he followed his wife. “Is that all I am—your legal monkey?”
“Just be grateful I haven’t sold you to a traveling circus.”
Ty listened as the front door closed and muffled their voices. He wheeled his chair from the window so he faced away from the scene outside. He envied them the sunshine on their shoulders, the breeze in their faces and open air around them. The ability to walk without limitations or fear of falling. To ride out across the pasture. To see the new foals that had arrived in his absence. Those little ones wouldn’t know him, would consider him an unidentified threat, and that sickened him. He’d never missed the birth of a foal, never missed the chance to rub them downand be there every day thereafter. Now? It would be ages before he could get to the barn, get involved, get to know the babies.
“Hello, Ty.”
The feminine voice startled him. He’d been so lost in thought he hadn’t heard anyone enter. He spun the chair toward the intruder. Recognition was as effective as a punch to the gut. “Mackenzie Malone. Couldn’t spare a call, huh? So why are you here now? Come to check out the crippled cowboy? Or did you come in to write a check in the hopes you’d buy some goodwill? I expected better of you.”
Her cheeks paled and she reacted as if shoved, taking a step back before recovering. “Feeling’s mutual.” She lifted her chin a notch, her eyes narrowing. “And I didn’t come into the house to buy anything. I was there, in Texas, when you were hurt. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell me your attitude was maimed along with everything else.” Kenzie stepped closer and propped a hip on the sofa arm, one leg slowly kicking back and forth as the other one held her in place. “I didn’t immediately announce myself because you were brooding. I thought I’d let you get it out of your system. Looks as if that isn’t happening, so brood away.”
“You didn’t spend two weeks in a coma. You didn’t nearly lose your life on national television. Both your legs work just fine. Riding is a joy you indulge in and take for granted every damn day. So don’t you come in here and judge me, Mackenzie.” There was a world of accusation in his words, a world he hadn’t intended to tap into. “Go back to your gilded castle and play at breeding quality horses. You have no right to be part of this, no right to be here.”
She stiffened, her eyes widening before she schooled the emotions chasing one after another across her face. “Don’t have the right?” Her lips thinned. “I beg to differ.”
“Begging’s a good place to start, sweetheart.” Ty leaned against the wheelchair’s armrest to catch every single word, every expression, anxious to have it out with the woman who’d run off with his horse the first chance she had. The same woman who had forgotten him as soon as she’d taken what she wanted, and it hadn’t been him. It surprised him how much that stung, but damn if he’d admit it. He curled one lip up in a half smile, half snarl. “Go on, then. I’m waiting.”
Her eyes narrowed to finite slits, blue irises sparking wildly. “I’m sorry?”
“That’s the way. Is this the first time you’ve ever groveled? Keep it up. You’ll get the hang of it.”
She opened her mouth only to snap it shut and stare at him. Seconds passed before she spoke again. “What’s your damage, Covington?”
“Are youblind?” he half shouted. “My problem is I’msitting, Malone, and it’s not because I’m lazy. I’m here, stuck in this damn house, watching as some stranger delivers my horse—my horse—and parks him in a stall in heaven only knowswhatcondition!” Yep. Full-on shouting now. He wasn’t proud, but he wasn’t going to apologize. She had it coming, keeping information on Gizmo sequestered the way she had. He’d understood the horse was getting the best care possible, but nothing in life was free. At some point, she’d want something in return.
Crossing her arms, she stood.
“Lording it over me, huh?” he continued. “That you can stand and I can’t? Feel good to finally be able to beat me at something?”
Her lips all but disappeared in that beautiful face. “Of all the people outside your immediate circle, I’m most aware you were as injured as Gizmo. But don’t you dare,dare, throw down theverbal gauntlet unless you’re prepared to take the gloves off, too.”
“I had a right to know about my horse, to see him settled today!”
“Like hell you did!” she shouted in return. “You’re in no condition to handle that horse right now. You’d despair, and he’d know. He’s a sensitive animal. He has to focus on getting through physical therapy, very much like you do. He deserves every chance to make as full a recovery as is physically possible, or everything that’s gone into saving him was wasted. Same goes for you. There’s a pattern here, in case you’re not seeing it. Fifty bucks says you’re yelling at me because you’re making asinine assumptions about how I pity you, sitting in the house in the wheelchair.” She sucked in a breath and blew it out on a harsh exhale before pushing forward. “Do the responsible thing for once in your life and put someone else’s needs in front of your own. Don’t go see Gizmo until you can keep from treating him as if he’s crippled. And do yourself a favor. Stop forcing everyone else to regard you, and treat you, the same way.”
Every bit of heat drained from his face as Ty listened to her accusations. He nodded, fighting to swallow the emotion clogging his throat.
She stepped forward and loomed over him.
The move forced him to roll his eyes up to see her. “Step away, would you?” he bit out.
“Move your chair.”
“You coldhearted—”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” One degree further and the ice in her voice would have rimed the windows. “I know you’ve been handed a raw deal, but don’t let yourself be reduced by circumstance to calling a woman foul names. You’re a better man than that. Or you were.” He started to defend himself, but she waved a hand between them and spoke overhim, drowning out any defense he might have delivered. “I’m exhausted, I haven’t been home in two months and I missed my chance at nationals because I was playing nursemaid. You owe me courtesy—no, you owe me bone-deepgratitude.” Blue eyes sparked wildly as heat climbed her cheeks. “I’m not willing to negotiate on that. Like it or not, you owe me.”
He closed his eyes and blindly steered his chair away from her. They both knew she’d taken the gloves off with that last comment.
Tyson Covington rarely owed anyone, and when he did? He always paid up.
Always.
KENZIESTORMEDOUTof the house, a sticky miasma of dark emotion roiling through her. Fear. Heartache. Frustration. Compassion. Fury. There were more—so many more—but none she’d ever thought she’d have to deal with in relation to Ty Covington.