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Why wouldn’t she have told him? It burned through his gut like acid.

Ben and Micah returned to the seats, and if Shane had been more with it, he might have been surprised and impressed by the amount of crap Ben had bought for the kid.

“There are the girls,” Gavin said in a low voice.

Shane glanced up to see Mom leading Molly, Lindsay, and Cora toward them. They all looked happy, talking and laughing to each other as they filed in, filling up the rest of the row.

Cora slid into the seat next to him, smiling up at him. “I hope you know you’re on the hook to buy me a hot dog and some cotton candy.”

He tried to smile, didn’t allow himself to speak, afraid all that would come out was a demand to know what the hell Micah was talking about.

“You’ll bethrilledto know, your mom found the most gorgeous dress. Now I just have to find someone who can alter the hem in Benson, and things will be set on that front,” she chattered, digging through her purse for something.

She pulled out a little piece of metal and handed it to him.

He took it and inspected what looked to be the remains of a horseshoe fashioned into aT. Small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

“You’re supposed to carry it around for good luck. I got one that looks like a horse for Micah.” She grinned up at him, happy and sweet, and a lot of that anger leaked out of him. He loved this woman, and if she hadn’t told him about things, maybe there was a reason for that. She didn’t trust him yet.

It hurt, but it was okay. He’d make it okay.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Cora couldn’t say she was a baseball convert, but she had a sneaking suspicion Micah was. At least a convert to the array of food offered to him over the course of nine rather long innings.

But the Rockies had won, and there was an air of joviality to the crowd funneling out of the stadium that she found a bit contagious. Maybe it was because Micah had been his normal self, well, mostly. A few times he’d glanced over at Shane and her with thatlookshe hadn’t figured out yet.

But she felt like she would. She just needed time, and theyhadtime. Time to figure it all out and make it work.

Shane linked his fingers with hers as they walked to the car, and she managed to snag Micah’s hand despite his trying to jerk it away. She pulled him to her side, until he gave in a little and leaned against her, though he did finally free his hand. They reached the truck the boys had driven in, and Deb tugged Micah out of Cora’s grasp.

“All right, we’re kidnapping this one for the ranch tonight and tomorrow. I don’t know what you two are going to do, but you better make the most of it.”

Cora laughed, thinking it was some kind of joke she didn’t get, but Shane’s grip on her hand tightened. “This way.”

“But . . . What?”

“You two enjoy yourselves,” Deb said, waving her away. “I don’t want to see you before five o’clock tomorrow.”

“But, Mi—” Micah was already walking to the car, happily chattering with Molly and no doubt making plans for horses, horses, andmorehorses. He glanced at her quickly enough to wave and offer a lame good-bye.

“Where are we going? How will we get home? How . . .” Cora asked, trying to make sense of it.

Shane kept tugging her in the opposite direction of his family. “The hotel is less than a mile away, so we can walk if it’s okay with you. There’s a rental at the hotel for us to drive home, or wherever we want to go tonight. I figured we could maybe make it to a restaurant this time since we have some time tomorrow too.”

“This is . . .” She looked up at him in the middle of the baseball stadium parking lot. “Shane, this is too much. Cost and time and—”

“You try arguing with my mother.” He stopped pulling and grinned at her. “This was not my idea, FYI. I mean, I agreed with it a lot more easily than you are, but Mom set everything up. Well, not everything. I had a say in a few things.”

Cora opened her mouth, then shut it. Yes, there was no arguing with Deb, and Micah did seem more than happy to head off with the Tylers.

She shook her head, awed and a little dizzy with it. “It’s so . . . We only had Lilly to rely on for so long, and then in this past year we’ve had this whole Mile High family, and now yours.” She looked up at him, and some of her joy faded at the odd, serious look on his face. She traced a groove next to his all-too-serious mouth. “What’s wrong?”

“I love you, Cora.”

Someone bumped into her, and far off in the distance a drunk man yelled something really vulgar, and all Cora could manage to do was gape at him.

“This wasn’t the venue I meant to confess that at,” he added, but those dark, serious eyes never left hers.