A Grand Teton Sleigh Ride: Four Generations of Wyoming Ranchers Celebrate Love at Christmas (28 page)

“Don’t worry, I’ll explain,” she said. “I’m sorry you ended up in the middle. I didn’t mean to wait so long to tell him about my pottery on display at Blue Mountain.”

Still trying to process the conversation, Ty wasn’t sure what to say.

“But I have an idea,” she continued. “You can trade me ski lessons for your grandmother’s gift. That is, if you still want to work with me.”

Any guy with brains would ski jump off the highest ramp for the chance to teach Hayley Covington how to ski, but the conversation tonight had sent Ty’s confidence plummeting. He liked this girl, really liked her, but he would never get by her father if he imagined something could ever happen between them. She respected the man too much. Ty frowned.

“Ty?” Disappointment lingered in her gaze.

“You grew up here and have never been skiing?”

“No. Too busy with ranch chores, and you heard Daddy. Skiing is for the tourists, not the locals.”

Sounded more like the man had said a waste of time, but whatever.

Scraping a hand over his face and then down around his neck, Ty blew out a breath. “I have a feeling you’re not the kind of person who takes no for an answer either.”

“Are you saying your answer was going to be no?”

Hardly. He sent her an easy smile. “If you can find time between your ranch chores and your amazing pottery, I’ll carve out some time for you.”

“Thanks.” Hayley gave him a peck on the cheek, her crystal blues gleaming with joy.

Ty knew he’d never shake that image from his mind.

After Hayley finished up the dishes, she found Daddy in his study perusing his laptop. He didn’t notice that she’d entered, even when she stood right behind him.

Hayley placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. “So what did you decide about the horses?”

He reached over with his right hand to cover hers, his grip strong and sure. “I’m wondering if I should just sell the whole ranch.”

His words punched the air from her. “What?” She came around to sit on the ottoman in front of him. “Daddy, no. Why would you even think that?”

“Why keep it? Nobody wants to run it. What happens when I’m gone?”

A weight pressed on her shoulders. “Are you saying this just because I want to sell my art in Jackson?”

Her father shut the laptop. “Not just because of that, no. But it got me thinking.”

He grabbed her hand then. “You really want to be an artist, don’t you?”

She huffed a laugh. “Daddy, I
am
an artist—it’s inside me, just like Mama, no changing that. But whether or not I can sell enough to make a living, or make a name for myself, who can know. I don’t want you to sell the ranch. I love it here. Can’t I be an artist, too?”

He smiled and squeezed her hand. “Of course you can. I guess I’m still trying to find my way after your mother passed.”

A pang hit Hayley behind the eyes. “Daddy, she died fifteen years ago. This has nothing to do with her.”

“I never had a mind to take a new wife.” His chest rose and fell with a heavy sigh, and his eyes flicked to hers. “You don’t have to tell me that I embarrassed you in front of your friend, and I’m sorry about that.”

“Oh, Daddy, it’s okay. Ty’s …” Ty was what? Hayley hated to admit she really didn’t know the man, which was obvious enough—she thought he’d worked for the studio. “He understands.” She hoped.

Edging forward in the seat, he said, “Make something nice for his grandmother.”

Her father stood and moved in front of one of Mama’s paintings of the mountains, hanging tall in the center of his study, and jammed his hands in his pockets. Hayley always suspected he resented the time Mama had put into her art, and that’s why he struggled with Hayley’s creative side. Or maybe art made him think of his beloved wife and miss her all the more. Hayley wasn’t sure. But she was sure that Mama had never put her paintings on display in the Jackson galleries because of Daddy.

“She would have loved your work,” he said. “Would have told you to put it in those galleries in town a long time ago. I’m sorry if I held you back. She would have liked your guy.”

Hayley stood next to him, looking at the painting. “He’s not my guy, Daddy. I don’t even know him, not really.”

“But you like him, don’t you?”

Hayley wasn’t sure she should say the words, but it terrified her to think otherwise. “You don’t have to worry about me getting married and leaving you to run the ranch by yourself, not that I do much around here.”

He father drew her into a hug. “The ranch isn’t worth your happiness, Daughter.”

She loved it when he spoke in what she called pioneer speak. She squeezed him back, thinking it was worth Daddy’s happiness to stay. “And I’m happy, right where I am.”

Even as the words left her lips, her thoughts went to Ty and how she could make this evening up to him.

T
here you are.” Making his way to his grandmother who dug in the white stuff, Ty kicked at the soft snow.

“Got it.” She wrapped her gloved hands around a pinecone then stood to face Ty. Crinkles appeared around her eyes as she smiled at him. “Needed some more of these for a craft I plan for my Sunday school class. What are you up to today? Can you stay for supper?”

“Yep. Just finished with my last sleigh ride at the Elk Refuge, and my ski lessons are done for the day.”

“Good. I’ve got chicken dumplings on. Was hoping you’d stop by.”

Ty visited his grandmother several times a week between his jobs, and he usually stopped by at suppertime. Sometimes he’d take her out to the local buffet, but he hadn’t been by since he’d seen her at church on Sunday. He’d been noticeably distracted then, and she’d picked up on it, asking a few too many questions. Ty had wrestled with his failures after the fiasco meal with Hayley and her proud father last week.

Hayley loved the man too much to truly see how harsh he was, but Ty understood that. Love covered a multitude of sins, the Bible said. But the conversation had forced Ty to face what he’d tried to avoid for too long.

“It’s going to be dark soon, do you need more pinecones?” he asked.

“Just a few.”

She grabbed a couple near the surface of the snow, and Ty joined her, placing them in the bucket she’d set out for her collection. They filled the bucket then moved inside, where the aroma of her chicken and dumplings made his mouth water and stomach rumble. Warm feelings and memories of living here with her wrapped around him and brought him a measure of comfort. He’d loved how secure she’d made him feel.

He shrugged out of his coat, and took hers, too, hanging them on the coatrack, then followed her into the kitchen. She uncovered the stockpot and ladled dumplings into two bowls, handing one over to him. They settled at the kitchen bar counter.

“Milk or water?” she asked.

“Water’s fine. What are you going to make out of all those pinecones?” he asked. “Seems like a lot.”

She chuckled. “Some are for the class. But I gathered enough to make a Christmas wreath. I know it’s not Christmas yet, but I figured you could use a wreath to hang on your door when the time comes.”

He let the dumplings he’d been eating warm his stomach before he spoke. “I’m not the best at decorating for Christmas. I don’t spend a lot of time at my apartment anyway.” In truth, he preferred to visit his grandmother, or hang out at the lodge with a few friends. He’d like to add seeing Hayley at her art studio to his free-time endeavors, but he wouldn’t make a conscious effort to go back there without an actual invitation. Not after meeting her father.

Coward
.

“I understand. You’re busy and you’re a bachelor. You need a good woman to do that sort of thing for you.”

Ty snorted. Nanna was so old-fashioned. “I could buy a wreath. You don’t need to make me one.”

“Nonsense. I enjoy making something out of nothing, though a pinecone isn’t nothing, it’s part of God’s wondrous creation, put here for me to do something with.”

Ty had endured enough of these conversations to know she was likely thinking about him and how he should do something important with his life. But he’d moved out to his own apartment, and she hadn’t wanted to push him further away, so she stopped talking about it.

But Ty wanted to discuss that very thing this time. He’d felt duly humbled at Hayley’s table, realizing that he wanted to do something more with his life than simply earn enough money to scrape by. Enough money to ski. He’d met a girl he liked, but why would she give him a second look when he hadn’t done anything with his life except learn how to ski and instruct others?

“What’s bothering you, Ty? This is the first time you’ve been by this week. I figured you for busy, but I see you have something on your mind.”

“Yes”—he nodded—“actually, I do.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“You’ve been right all along. I should have gone to college. Done something with my life. But now look at me. I work part-time at two different places. Sure, I get to ski until I’m sick of it, but that’s about it.”

She wrapped her mouth around a dumpling and studied him while she chewed. Took a swallow of her milk then settled against her chair back. “What brought this on?”

Ty wasn’t sure he wanted to tell her. The more he thought about it, the more painful it was. To share that with his grandmother would sink the knife deeper into the wound.

“Nothing. Just been thinking.”

She got up from the chair and searched in the cabinet, returning with the salt and pepper. She shook a little of the contents into her bowl. “Not salty enough for me. You?”

She handed the shaker to Ty, who took it from her but set it on the counter.

“So what happened? You finally meet a girl?” She winked at him.

“Maybe.” Ty shrugged.

“Those pinecones were just sitting out there, waiting for me to pick them up and do something with them. It’s not too late for you to do something with your life, Ty. Have you got anything in mind? If you could do anything at all, what would you want to do? And don’t tell me ski.”

Now it was Ty’s turn to chuckle.

He thought of Hayley and her art, and how her father appeared to stifle that, or else why would she have hidden that she’d been featured in a local gallery? “That’s who I am. I wish I would have worked to at least manage a ski resort. Something.”

He got up and rinsed off his dishes then stuck them in the dishwasher.

She sighed. “I’ve been waiting for you to step up. To see that you have so much more to offer, so now’s probably as good a time as any to tell you that you should think bigger. I have a plot of land I’ve held on to, to give to you one day. You could look into building a resort there.”

Ty laughed. “Do you know how much that would cost? We don’t have that kind of money. Not to mention permits and zoning. No. That’s way out of my league.” Only people like the Covington’s had the ability to do those kind of things. Who did he think he was, spending even ten seconds with Hayley?

His grandmother frowned. “It’s something to start with, Ty. You create a business plan and get venture capitalists. Look into it. But I’ll give you one even better than that. There’s a man been trying to buy that from me for years to build another ski resort. The mountain is perfect, he says. I kept that for you, Ty.”

“Why? Why would you keep it for me like that when you think I haven’t done anything worthwhile? And why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I believed you had it in you. You just needed to realize that for yourself. Or at least want it.”

“I don’t even have a business degree.”

She eyed him, while tugging out a map. “You’re full of excuses.”

Ty watched as she fingered her land. It was near enough the Covington Ranch, he wondered if it didn’t back right up to the property. Hayley’s father would just love to have a ski resort next to his ranch, since he thought so highly of the activity.

Hayley exited the Blue Mountain Art Gallery and climbed into her vehicle parked at the curb. She’d gone in to browse and watch when and if anyone stopped to look at her pottery.

There’d been only a few people inside, and her pottery hadn’t caught their attention. Oh well, she’d try not to let that discourage her. But one thing that had discouraged her was that Ty hadn’t returned her call.