A/N: Sorry for the delay, but something unexpected came up which took a great amount of time away from my work on the story. I didn't want to delay posting this chapter any longer than necessary, so I wrote it as quickly as I could. I hope it meets your expectations.
Chapter 19
It's close to the end of Ty's shift when Tim walks in finding him sitting at a table finishing some paperwork.
"Hey Tim,...what brings you by?"
"I know what you did."
Setting his pen down on the table, Ty replies, "Listen, Tim..."
Tim raises his hand to stop Ty from saying anything further. "I found out yesterday at the house and I want to thank you. I heard from my lawyer just a little while ago. He said that Jesse dropped the charges and I thought you should be the first to know."
"That's great, but actually I didn't do it just for you."
"I figured as much."
"It was Amy, Lou, and Lisa who handled the hard part. All I did was suggest to them what I thought would be the best way to handle Jesse."
"Well, I still appreciate what you did. So, I heard that Scott is back. I guess that means you'll be leaving soon. I'll bet you're tired of all the crap that happens around here and looking forward to getting away from it. Frankly, I'm tired of it too. That's why I'm still thinking of leaving myself."
"So you can be closer to your son?"
"That's the plan."
"How about Amy, Lou, and the girls?"
"They'll do fine without me around here all the time. Besides, it's not like they'll never hear or see me again. We'll stay in touch. Jack told me that you promised to stay in touch too, but you and I probably know better than anyone how that works...we pick ourselves up, make the best of things, and get on with our lives, burying our regrets. It'll be hard for me to go, but I suppose easier for you since there's really nothing to keep you here. It's not like you're leaving any family behind...you know, people who might care about you. So, I wish you all the best and if there's anything I can do before you leave..."
"Ty interrupts, "You know Tim, actually there is something you can do for me. I tried calling the house earlier and I'm in a bit of a hurry, so..."
...
Amy walks into the kitchen where Jack is reading his newspaper. "Grandpa, I just got a call from Ashley. I guess Ty's plan worked."
Setting his newspaper down, Jack asks, "Jesse dropped the charges?"
"She didn't know for sure, but she assumed so. She heard from Val who asked her to take over at Briar Ridge starting next month. She said Val was going to stay on running the place herself for the time being until she gets here."
"So what about Jesse? Did she say anything about him?"
"She said he's on his way back to Florida with his tail between his legs. She'll call back later once she finds out more."
"Sounds promising so far. I wonder why Tim hasn't heard anything yet. I would expect him to come bursting through the the door with the news. By the way, where's Lisa? She wasn't here when I came in after morning chores. She'll want to hear the news too."
"She said she had some business she had to take care of, so she went into town about an hour ago."
A few minutes later, Lisa walks through the door while Jack is back to reading his newspaper and Amy is tending to the dishes in the sink.
"Lisa...Amy told me she heard from Ashley and..."
Lisa interrupts. "I know...I just came back from having a little heart to heart chat with Val. She didn't share all the details of her conversation with Jesse, but she did kinda apologize in her own way and we agreed to let things go back to normal. She'll probably be calling you later."
"So, what did she say?" Jack asks curiously.
"First of all, she asked that we keep all this just between us. She doesn't want word of what happened to get around and I told her that as far we were concerned it wouldn't be a problem. Jesse was supposed to drop the charges against Tim this morning and then he's on his way back to Florida. Apparently, after she confronted him, he rolled over on the bank manager. Before we met for coffee, Val spoke to the president of the bank about the manager, so I suppose he's going to be out of a job too."
Amy responds, "I'm going to call Ty and let him know. Lou will be glad to know too as soon as she gets back from the dude Ranch."...
...
After less than an hour, Tim walks through the door.
"Hey everyone...I got a call from my attorney this morning telling me that Jesse dropped the charges."
Lou responds, "That's great dad, but we already kinda knew. Ashley called Amy to tell her she's going to take over running Briar Ridge and Lisa talked to Val already. She told her that Jesse was suppose to drop the charges before heading back to Florida."
Jack adds a warning, "Now listen Tim...we have an agreement with Val that we're going to keep a lid on all this. So, the less said the better...got it!"
"Yeah, sure...no problem."
Lou suggests, "You should thank Ty."
"I did already. I spoke to him right after I heard the news from my attorney."
Amy asks, "You spoke to Ty? I tried calling him, but it went straight to his voicemail.
"His cellphone died. He said he tried calling the house but the line was busy. It'll probably be a while before you can get through to him anyway. I mean once he's back in cellphone range."
"Cellphone range?" Amy asks.
"Yeah, I caught him right at the end of his shift. He's in a hurry to leave for Fort Benton, so he asked me to let you know and then he gave me a check to give to Lou." Handing the check to Lou, Tim says, "Ty said to tell you that this is to payback the money his dad stole, with interest."
Lisa comments, "That's strange. I ran into Mrs. Bell in town and she told me that Ty came by yesterday and gave her a check too. He paid her back for the money she spent on his tuition. You know, I hate to say it, but it seems as if he's getting his affairs in order...taking care of unfinished business, maybe because he's planning to leave."
Refusing to believe that what Lisa said may be true, Jack replies, "Before everyone gets too excited, I don't think Ty would do that again...at least not without saying something about it first."
"Grandpa, can I use the truck? I need to find him before he's gone." Amy asks worriedly.
"Whoa...what's the hurry? He's only going for a few days." Tim explains.
Annoyed, Jack admonishes Tim. "You might have said something sooner before Amy got riled up! Did he say anything about why he's going to Fort Benton?"
"He said he has a few things to take care of and someone he needed to say goodbye to. You told me to stay out of it, so I didn't ask any questions."
"See...he's not going anywhere just yet." After pausing for a moment in thought, Jack adds, "You know, I think one of the reasons he's going might be because of Sarah."
Confused, Amy asks, "Sarah?"
"Ty didn't tell you? That's where she's from and I wouldn't be surprised if one of the things he needs to do is to stop by the cemetery. Don't bother calling him. I'm sure he has a lot on his mind, so let him take care of whatever it is he needs to do without having to explain himself."
Tim asks curiously, "Who's Sarah?"...
...
A few days later, Amy's on her phone talking to Ashley when Lou comes into her room telling her that she just noticed Ty's truck parked next to the barn. Amy tells Ashley she has to go, hangs up, and then immediately asks Lou, "How long has he been here?"
"I don't know. I didn't see him arrive and he didn't come to the house. I guess he saw Grandpa in the barn, so he's probably in there talking to him."
Amy walks hurriedly to the barn expecting to see Ty talking to Jack. "Grandpa, where's Ty? I thought he would be in here."
"He is...we talked a bit and then he asked if he could go up and see the loft. That's where he is now."
As Amy turns towards the stairs, Jack suggests, "Amy, I wouldn't ask Ty about Fort Benton...at least not yet. It's been put to rest."
"Is that all you two talked about?"
"Pretty much."
"Is he staying?"
"He wouldn't say. I think he wants to talk to you first."
As Amy tentatively climbs the stairs to the loft, she asks herself, "Should I say something first...or wait to hear what he has to say? I was going to ask about Fort Benton, but..."
Amy's thoughts are interrupted as soon as she sees Ty appear in the doorway. "Hey...I heard you walking up."
Stepping into the loft, Amy asks, "Revisting old memories?"
"Sorta...as many times as I've been here over the past month, it never dawned on me to take a look up here. I see things haven't changed much."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. No one has stayed up here for any length of time since you left."
Amy walks over to the old chest at the foot of the bed. She opens it and takes out a black cowboy hat. The hat that once belonged to Jack and the one she had given to Ty to wear the first time he went on a cattle drive.
"Remember this?"
"Yeah...I do, which reminds me...I think I still owe Jack fifty bucks. I guess I never quite lived up to your image of a cowboy."...
"Oh my god...I hope he's not thinking...I should never have shown him that damn hat!"
..."I'm surprised you still have it. I expected it to be tossed out by now."
"You mean like I did before, don't you?"
"Yeah, I suppose so."
"It never crossed my mind. I thought I would leave it here in case you ever came back. As a matter of fact, I still have all those things I boxed up for you. Caleb found them in the trailer and gave them back to me. I'm sorry I ever did any of that..."
Ty interrupts, "How many times are you going to say you're sorry before we can put all that behind us?"
"As many times as I need to until you're convinced that the person who did all that is not the same person standing here in front of you right now."
"I know that and that guy from back then isn't standing here either."
"I would like to think he is in a way...I...I really...well, you know."
"Yeah, I do."
Amy puts the hat back in the chest and closes it. She then says, "I had a lot of time to reflect on what happened and I realized there were a lot of things about myself that I didn't like. Things that caused me to say and do things I'll always regret. If I could go back and change the past I would in a heartbeat, but I can't. All I can do is try the best I can to change the future. I don't want to miss out on the chance and I don't want to have to live with the regret of not at least trying. Ty, I know it may sound selfish of me, but I have to say this...I don't want you to leave."
"So, I guess that's how you came up with that name, Chance. I suspected as much."
"You're right...I thought Chance would give me the opportunity at a second chance."
"You're not going to play that word game are you?"
"I'm serious, Ty. I know Scott offered you the option to stay."
"I'm not surprised you found out and I suppose you know about the money too. I'm not naive, Amy. I figured there had to be a lot going on behind the scenes. There's not much that happens around here that everyone doesn't know about sooner or later."
"You're right. I promised Cassandra I wouldn't say anything, but she told me she happen to find some bank statements of yours in a folder one day when she was looking for something else. I know it's none of my business, but where did that money come from?"
"That must have been the day I went to Calgary."
"It was."
Ty pauses for a moment before explaining. "Well, shortly after my dad died, my mom found out that he had a safety deposit box. She didn't want to deal with it, so she gave the contents to me. It was a cigar box with a few items in it, including a couple of lottery tickets. I was going to throw it all away except for a picture and something for my mom, but Sarah convinced me to at least check the lottery tickets first before tossing them away. I assume my dad never knew it, but one of them...well, let's just say that it was just like his luck that he never knew. My mom didn't want any of the money, but I did pay off all her bills anyway. It didn't feel right to spend any of it on just myself, so I left it sitting in the bank."
"You mean banks don't you?"
"Yeah, several. With that many zero's, I had to spread it around...savings and other things."
"So, what are you going to do with it?"
"I haven't decided yet. Like I said, it wouldn't feel right to spend it on myself and I got by well enough so far without touching it."
"But you did buy back those horses and then bail dad out of jail. Then you paid back Lou and Mrs. Bell, so that had to set you back some."
"It did a bit, but that was money I earned and saved."
"Okay, so I have to ask...what are you going to do now?"
"There's something...actually, maybe it's better if you come with me."
Amy follows Ty down to his truck. As he opens the door, he says, "I had Frank look for this and fortunately it was still right where I left it, so a few days ago I asked him to send it to me."
Ty reaches across the drivers seat and pulls a painting out of a box and hands it to Amy. "I wasn't sure if you might still want this. There's no point in keeping it since it doesn't belong to me..."
Before Ty can say anything more and with her eyes tearing, Amy throws her arms around Ty's neck, giving him a hug, as she says thank you.
With his hands on Amy's waist, Ty pushes her gently away and says, "I guess that answers that."
Wiping the moisture from her cheeks, Amy says, "I love this painting. I always wondered what you had done with it and was afraid you might have thrown it out."
"I wouldn't do that. As a matter of fact I was going to send it back to you, but I didn't know when would be a good time. It was already boxed up to be mailed, so I set it aside and then I kinda forgot about it."
"So, I have to ask again...what are you going to do next?"
"Well, first of all...to avoid any more drama over dinner here at the ranch, I thought I might take you out to dinner. Just the two of us."
"You mean like a date?"
"I guess you could call it that."
"There's nothing I would like more, but what about after that?"
"You know, I was thinking I could use some help finding a place of my own. Maybe an apartment on this side of town. Part of my deal with Scott doesn't include having a roommate on his couch for very long."
"Deal?... So you're staying then? What made you decide?"
"Come with me and I'll show you."
Amy follows Ty back into the barn. He has her set the painting down on stacked bails of hay and motions for her to place her hand on Spartan's neck. He places his hand over her's. She feels a surge of warmth spread throughout her body, just as she felt before when Ty first had her do that with Chance.
Ty asks, "Do you feel that?"
"I do...I felt it the first time you had me do that with Chance."
"I felt it then too."
"But you never said anything and I glanced back at you to see if you had the same feeling as me, but you never showed any sign."
"I did feel it. I guess I spent so much time trying to control my emotions that it when it happened I just naturally suppressed it. It took me a while to figure it out. I'm working on fixing that."
Amy smiles and says, "Okay, let's see how long it takes for you to figure this out." Amy slides her arms over Ty's shoulders and around Ty's neck. She leans in and she kisses him as Ty places his hands on her hips. A tender kiss that makes her heart flutter and sends a tingle through her body. Breaking away from the kiss, she asks, "So, what do you think?"
"Ty grins and says, "I'm not sure...maybe we should try that again."
As they lean in to kiss again, Ty's phone chimes. Amy stops and asks, "Aren't you going to check that? It might be important."
"You're not serious are you? I'll just turn it off."
Ty sighs as he takes out his phone. After a quick glance at the screen and as he presses the power button, he says, "It's from Caleb. He just found out that Ashley is coming back and he's ticked off at me."
While Ty places his phone back into his pocket, Amy says, "I think he's going to be for quite a while. Ashley told me that Val is going to make sure, should anything ever happen to her, that Jesse will never get his hands on Briar Ridge again. So, Ashley is there to stay. Oh...and you were right about him skimming money from the boarding fees and the construction budget. Ashley seems to think that Val will probably put him in charge of the janitorial services for her properties in Florida as punishment."
Ty laughs. "That should put his commerce degree to good use, but I'd have him pushing a broom. So, I guess then that Caleb's going to be mad at me for a long time. I'm going to have to come up with a way to make it up to him."
"I'm sure you'll think of something." Amy pauses, taking a moment to look around as she thinks, and then says, "You know Ty, I just remembered something."
"What's that?"
"It was right here...where we're standing right now that we first kissed."
"I can't think of a better place then to start fresh."
"And this time I'm going to make absolutely sure I get it right. As I remember it, just before that kiss, I said something like talking is over rated." Amy smiles up at Ty as she continues, "Now, where were we..."
...
Georgie comes into the house while Lou and Lisa are beginning to prepare lunch. "Guess what I just saw? You'll never guess in a million years!"
Lou replies, "Okay, if that's the case, then why don't you save us the time and just tell us."
"I saw Amy and Ty making out!"
Hearing What Georgie said, Jack walks into the kitchen and asks, "Are you sure?"
"When two people have their arms wrapped around each other and their lips locked together that long, I call it making out."
With a huge grin Jack says, "I guess any questions about Ty's plans have been answered."
Lisa replies, "So, you were right. Ty was waiting for Amy to come up and meet him in the loft."
"Well, it seems so. I think Ty likes to plan one step ahead if he can. That's probably why he called me this morning to see if Amy was here before he arrived. It all started in the loft, so it only makes sense that if anything was to come of all this that Ty might want it to begin there again."
"I'm going to go out there and invite Ty to stay for lunch."
"Lou...leave them alone. I'm sure they still have a lot to talk about."
Georgie comments, "I don't know about that. I heard Amy say that talking is overrated and how much they can say in between the kissing."
Jack replies, "You'll find out soon enough that a kiss says a lot."
Lou adds, "Not too soon I hope."...
...
A year later...
"C'mon Tim, we have to get this done before Amy and Ty get back from their honeymoon."
"What's the hurry, Jack. We only have to move the furniture from the Quonset hut up to the loft."
"Listen, we've been working on it for three months now and I promised it would be done by the time they get back. It should have been done two weeks ago, before they left. We have to make sure everything is placed just as Amy wants it. Lou has the floor plan Amy made for her and you know Lou...she wants everything perfect for them when they get back tomorrow."
"You know...I was thinking..."
"Here we go..."
"It makes sense that at some point that loft is going to be too small for them and, since Ty bought Big River, they will probably want to move over there. So, I'll need a place to live..."
Jack interrupts, "I know what your thinking and it's not going to happen! Besides, Ty isn't a cattleman. He's a vet. That's why he didn't buy your half of the herd and he only bought your place so you wouldn't get yourself in trouble again with the bank."
"Yeah, but part of the deal was me giving Caleb free boarding for his rough stock business. Now I have to deal with him almost daily and he won't even let me go in as a partner with him."
"You have enough on your plate already with maintaining the ranch, you're half of the cattle, and the rodeo school. You don't need something else. Spreading yourself too thin is what got you into trouble with the bank in the first place. I wouldn't be surprised if Ty offered Caleb that deal so you would have someone else to share your less than brilliant advice with instead of him."
"Yeah, I guess you're right, but at some point they're going to need a larger place."
"Listen, after buying Big River, going into partnership with Scott, and paying for the remodel of the barn, he can still more than afford another place or have one built somewhere here at Heartland should Amy want to."
"I know that, but it only makes sense..."
"Stop right there! I'll burn the barn to the ground before you ever live in it!"
...
The morning after next...
...A sliver of light illuminates the room, enough that he can be seen surrounded by a haze of darkness. His finger tips glide lightly over my bare shoulder and down my arm. His warm breath against my cheek causes me to once again yearn for the warmth and comfort of his embrace. There are glistening beads of sweat at the nape of my neck and across my chest which marks the intimacy of the moment. Feeling the pounding of my heart and shallowness of each breath, with a trembling hand, I reach...
"Amy, wake up. We're going to be late. We promised we would join the rest of the family for breakfast."
Amy sits up in bed. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she sighs as she realizes it was all a dream and says, "What was I thinking...I should have said lunch."
"You looked like you were sleeping pretty soundly there."
"I was and you interrupted a...well, let's just say a very pleasurable dream."
"I'm sorry."
"You can make it up to me by finishing it."
"What do you mean?"
"Come back to bed." Amy replies as she pats a spot on the mattress next to her, followed by flashing a devilish grin.
Ty recognizes the look on Amy's face for what it is. It means she has more in mind than just cuddling. He smiles back and replies, "I'm sure they'll understand if we miss breakfast."
As Ty lays back in bed and takes Amy into his arms, he says, "You know, we'll have to go back to France one day."
"We will?"
"Yeah..because this is why we didn't see everything we had planned."
"Are you complaining?"
Ty laughs as Amy rolls in top of him and he answers, "Not in the least!"...
...
Completed
A/N: I want to thank everyone who's followed the story and took the time to post comments. I would also like to acknowledge and thank "lifein3d" who offered a second pair of eyes and was kind enough to let me know of some errors, which after corrected made the story easier to read and follow.