The Long Way Home

A guy like Cole Slater is hard to forget. Tina Sanchez should know—for years since high school she’s tried to bury the pain of Cole’s cruel betrayal. But it’s impossible to ignore the man she sees reflected in her young son’s eyes now that Cole is back in her life—and about to meet the child he never knew he had.

Returning home to New Mexico, Cole is determined to put his playboy reputation to rest. Especially now that he knows there’s a little boy looking up to him. And seeing Tina again reignites all the feelings Cole ran from as a teen. Despite his fear that he can’t be the man Tina deserves, he’s determined to try. For his son’s sake—and his own.

Footsteps on gravel made her pause.

It wasn’t Jed’s familiar tread, and they had no one staying at the hotel at the moment. Maybe this was someone who wanted to book a room. Tina turned with a welcoming smile.

That smile died on her lips when she saw the cowboy standing in front of her.

Cole Slater.

In one startled, reflexive sweep, she took in almost everything about him. The light brown hair showing beneath the brim of his battered hat. The firm mouth and jaw. Broad shoulders. Narrow hips. The well-worn jeans, silver belt buckle and scuffed boots. In the next reluctant second, she turned her gaze to the one feature she had deliberately skipped over the first time.

A pair of blue eyes that made her think instantly of her son.

She clutched the grocery sack and demanded, “What are you doing here?”

His face looked flushed. But he didn’t look angry, the way he would have if he’d seen Robbie and put two and two together. She breathed a sigh of relief at the reprieve, no matter how brief, giving her a chance to come to grips with his reappearance.

If she ever could.

Dear Reader,

Cowboy Creek is typical of my small towns, where everyone knows everyone else—and their business. Though you’ll find lots of matchmakers and nosy neighbors around, you can be sure they’re all wonderful folks at heart.

No one in Cowboy Creek has a bigger heart than Jed Garland, the local hotel owner and meddling grandpa who wants to see his granddaughters happy and settled down. Oh...and providing him with a few more great-grandchildren!

In The Cowboy’s Little Surprise, I hope you enjoy discovering how a marriage-shy cowboy handles secrets, betrayal, unexpected fatherhood and a matchmaker who is certain he knows what’s best for him.

As always, I would love to hear what you think about this story. You can reach me at PO Box 504, Gilbert, AZ 85299, or through my website, barbarawhitedaille.com. You can also find me on Facebook (barbarawhitedaille) and Twitter, @BarbaraWDaille.

All my best to you.

Until we meet again,

Barbara White Daille

The Cowboy’s Little Surprise

Barbara White Daille

www.millsandboon.co.uk

BARBARA WHITE DAILLE lives with her husband in the sunny Southwest, where they don’t mind the lizards in their front yard but could do without the scorpions in the bathroom.

A writer from the age of nine and a novelist since eighth grade, Barbara is now an award-winning author with a number of novels to her credit.

When she was very young, Barbara learned from her mom about the storytelling magic in books—and she’s been hooked ever since. She hopes you will enjoy reading her books and will find your own magic in them!

She’d also love to have you drop by and visit with her at her website, barbarawhitedaille.com.

This book is dedicated only, and as always, to Rich.

I’m so glad we got hitched!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

Prologue

Seventy-some-odd years on this earth had taught Jedediah Garland what made life most worth living—and it was the one thing he wanted more of to call his own. Not property. He owned plenty of that, between the Hitching Post Hotel and the ranch it sat on. Not friends. He had a sufficient number of those, too, and wouldn’t give up a single one of them. But the most important thing...family.

That’s where his life fell far short.

Paz came into the dining room toting his breakfast. The hotel business had quieted down some lately—heck, it had up and gone to Tahiti—and he and his cook had the room to themselves. She set the platter on the table in front of him.

“Chile relleno okay with you for tonight, boss?”

He shrugged.

She put her hands on her hips. “What? All of a sudden you don’t like what I make for you?”

“It’s not that.” He shifted the cutlery on his napkin. “I’m off my feed today. It’s Thom’s birthday.”

“Yes.”

He thought of his eldest son, now long gone, and the rest of his small family, mostly scattered across the country. “I never thought things would come to pass the way they have. And I don’t know what I would do without you and Tina here.”

His youngest granddaughter was also Paz’s only grandchild. Tina and her four-year-old son were the only members of his family to live under his roof. “You know, Mary and I always thought we’d have our kids around us, if not on the ranch, then at least settled somewhere within hailing distance of Cowboy Creek. And we’d expected to see all the grandkids growing up in the area.”

“Yes, I know. But the girls plan to visit. You can spend time with them soon.”

“A week? Two weeks? That’s not enough.” He slapped his palm on the table. “And if the granddaughters I’ve got are all I’m going to have—well, I’ll learn to live with that. But they need to get busy and give us more great-grandkids. Heck, they all need to get married. Besides...” Frowning, he resettled the napkin beneath the cutlery at his place. After a long moment, he muttered, “I don’t like seeing my girls unhappy.”

“You think they’re not happy?”

“Of course they’re not. How can they be? One’s traipsing all over the world with not a chance of settling down. Another’s trying to raise two kids by herself. And then there’s Tina, on her own with Robbie. You want her married, too, don’t you?”

“Yes. But Tina’s very proud...”

“And we’re proud of her.” His youngest granddaughter had studied hard in school, then gone on to get her degrees. Now she kept the books for him and helped manage the hotel. Yes, they were both so proud of her.

Paz stared down at the tabletop.

He frowned. “I know what you’re thinking, and you know it makes no difference to me that our kids never got married. Tina’s just as much my granddaughter as Jane and Andi are.”

“Yes, I do know that.”

“Then tell me, flat-out straight, what’s bugging you?”

“Tina. She’s so independent.”

“Yeah. Too independent for her own good. Something’s got to be done about her, Paz. About her and my granddaughters, too.”

She said nothing.

He sighed and rubbed his chin. The rasp of a few whiskers he’d missed shaving that morning sounded loud in the silence. “I stopped in at SugarPie’s the other day.” Sugar Conway ran a combination bakery / sandwich shop / gossip parlor in the center of Cowboy Creek. “Sugar didn’t have any details yet, but the word is, Cole Slater may be headed back to town.”

Paz dropped the serving tray, which knocked against the saltshaker, spewing salt across the bare wooden tabletop. “Oh, I’m sorry, boss.” With hurried, jerky movements, she brushed the loose salt into her palm.

He frowned. “Something wrong?”

“No. Why should there be anything wrong?”

But she didn’t meet his gaze. He frowned at her bent head and eyed the silver strands threaded through her once-dark hair. Paz had worked for him for twenty years and more, and he could spot something odd about her with his eyes closed. “It’s not like you to drop things in the dining room. Or the kitchen or anywhere else for that matter.”

“I’m just rushing because I’m running late.”

He eyed her. “No later than normal. So I’ll ask you again, what’s up?”

“I was speaking with Sugar this morning,” she said with obvious reluctance.

“Must be some good scandal flying around to warrant a call this early.” He sat back in his chair without asking for details, knowing full well Paz would fill him in. And why not? As one of the town’s business owners, he had a right to know what happened in Cowboy Creek.

“Sugar said Layne just confirmed it this morning,” Paz said in a low tone. “Her brother will be here next week.”

“Will he? Well, it’s about time. It’s—what?—five years now he’s been gone.” He’d thrown that last comment out offhandedly, but to tell the truth, he knew down to the hour when Cole Slater had left town. “It seems to me Tina mentioned his name quite a bit in their school days.”

“Because their teachers had them work together.”

“Right. Now you say that, I do recall. And now he’s coming back, I’ve had another idea. There’s no reason those two shouldn’t work together again.”

“Oh, boss, I don’t think...”

“There’s nothing you need to think about. This idea’s got some strong possibilities, too, and I’m just the man to put it in place.” He smiled. “Don’t you worry, Paz. None of these kids will have a clue as to what’s going on.”

Chapter One

Two weeks later

To Cole Slater, walking into the Hitching Post Hotel felt like coming home...which probably didn’t mean much, considering he’d hated the home he had grown up in and hadn’t stayed in any one place since leaving it.

He stared around him in awe. Everything looked the same as it had the day he’d shown up here as a high-school senior, as raw as any wrangler could have been, to start a job on Garland Ranch. In those early days, he’d ridden the line between a determination to prove himself and the stomach-clenching certainty he was in way over his head.

Exactly the way he’d felt since his return to Cowboy Creek.

Pushing the thought aside, he turned to Jed, who hadn’t changed much, either. His white hair was combed neatly into place, as always, and he wore the same string tie and belt buckle Cole had never seen him without.

“Glad you could drop by,” his former boss said.

“I appreciate the invitation. As the saying goes, you’re not looking a day older, Jed. And things around here don’t seem to have changed a bit.”

Jed beamed. “We try to keep the place up.”

“You’ve done a good job of it.”

Years of polishing had buffed the hotel’s registration desk to a high sheen. The brass foot rail encircling it gleamed. Even the knotty-pine walls and flooring of the reception area gave off a soft glow, as if the candles in the wrought-iron holders on the wall had been set to flame.

In the sitting room off to one side of the entry, the same heavy, low-slung couches and chairs sported the same handmade afghans, and the chime clock on the wall still ticked the seconds away like a slow, steady heartbeat.

Or maybe that was his own heart, thumping so hard he could hear it.

No, the Hitching Post hadn’t changed. Neither had the old man in front of him. But he himself sure had, and the time had come for him to prove it.

“Paz and Tina will be sorry they missed you.”

At the statement, he froze. Jed couldn’t know just how wrong he’d been. Paz, yeah, maybe she would be happy to see him again, and he felt the same. But Tina...

He’d practically grown up with Jed’s granddaughter. They’d had the same teachers all through the lower grades and even shared some of the same classes in high school. But after what had happened between them senior year, Tina would never want to see him again.

“C’mon back.” Jed waved at him to follow and walked away.

Cole knew where they were headed. From his days of working here, he knew the ranch and the hotel well. Halfway along the hall, he stopped in the doorway of the small, overcrowded den where Jed would sit every Friday when his men came to collect their pay. On a good many of those Friday nights, Cole would hang around to talk to the boss long after the rest of the wranglers had left.

The old man probably still handled his payroll from here. He had always claimed the den was the only danged room in the hotel he could call his own.

Now his former boss took a seat in the leather chair behind the massive handmade desk. He rested his gnarled fists on its surface, looked at Cole and said not a word.

Cole stepped into the den and swung the door closed behind him.

Jed waved toward one of the guest chairs. “Never thought I’d see you sitting in front of me at this desk again.”

“Me, either. I owe you an apology, Jed.”

“Do you, now?”

“You know I do. For leaving here without letting you know I planned to quit.”

“That was a surprise, I’ll admit. Walking off without notice happens with cowhands who move around. I see that go on all the time. It’s not what I’d expect from a man I keep on the payroll. And then, never to hear a word...”

“Yeah.” He ran his thumb along the arm of the chair. “I’ve been on the move.”

“On the run.”

He froze.

“And, I take it,” Jed continued, “by nobody’s choice but your own.”

“It didn’t exactly happen like that.” He sighed. “I just wanted to get out of Cowboy Creek. You know once I was left as Layne’s legal guardian, our lives got a little crazy.”

“All the more reason to reach out to a friend.”

“I couldn’t do that. Not again.” He shrugged, as if he could dislodge the burden he’d carried since that time. He was just turned eighteen and caring for his younger sister on his own. Their mama had recently died and their dad had passed on a couple of years before that. His boss had known all this back then.

“I never wanted to ask you for those advances to my pay. But Layne was still trying to deal with losing Mama when her boyfriend dumped her—on her sixteenth birthday. She was a mess.” He shook his head. “I wanted to get her something special. Heck, I wanted to buy food to put in our fridge. But all my pay had already gone to the rent.”

Sitting back in his chair, Jed laced his fingers across his belly and squinted again. “At least you had your head on straight about your sister. I’ll give you that. Family’s important.” He sounded more sad than angry now. But he frowned. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me back then you still needed help, boy?”

Cole took a deep breath and gestured uselessly. What could he have said? That he wanted to keep Jed’s respect for stepping up and taking care of his own? That he hated the thought of admitting his helplessness to the man he looked up to more than he ever had to his own dad?

Instead, unable to say either of those things and worried nearly to death about Layne, he’d turned around and betrayed the one person who’d believed in him.

“Anyhow,” he said, “once she and her boyfriend made up, she wanted to get married. She was underage, and as her guardian, she needed me to sign the paperwork to give my okay. And I did.” He sighed. “I didn’t stop to think about much else. I was still just a kid myself, too dumb to know that walking away from a job without notice wasn’t the right thing to do. But all I could see was that getting Layne settled gave me my ticket out. So I grabbed it and never looked back. Now, she’s on her own again, only this time she’s got both a kid and one on the way. So here I am.” He took a deep breath. “I always intended to apologize to you. And to pay back the advances.”

The old man’s white eyebrows shot up. “It’s sure taken you a while to get around to it.”

“I know that, too. This is the first time I’ve come back to town since then.” For one reason or a dozen, none of which he wanted to think about. “It didn’t sit right for me to just mail you a check. When I paid my obligation, I wanted to make sure I was looking you in the eye.”

“Folks say a handshake between friends is worth its weight in gold.” Jed stood and reached across the desk. When they clasped hands, the old man’s grip was as strong and sure as it had ever been.

“And I need to take care of those advances.” He pulled out his wallet. “No haggling over this, Jed. I owe you.”

“Well, we can let that part go.”

Cole frowned. He didn’t want their conversation to end this way. After all this time, he wanted to pay his debt in full. To finally get rid of the burden. But Jed, jaw set stubbornly, had returned to his seat.

Instead of the redemption he’d hoped for, he would have to settle temporarily for that handshake and the knowledge he hadn’t lost a friend.

“I have got a proposition for you, though,” Jed said. “Now you’re back in town, you’ll need a job.”

“Yeah. I figure I’ll get picked up at one of the ranches around here, even if it’s just through the summer.”

“I want you on this ranch.”

“Here?”

Jed laughed. “Don’t sound so surprised. You worked out fine the first time, didn’t you?”

He had to take another long breath before he would trust his voice again. “We just went through this. I walked away. And you went five years without hearing from me, without me paying my debt. Yet you want to hire me on again?”

“Are you listening to what you’re saying, boy? That’s three loads of guilt in one sentence. Sounds like you’d darned well better take this offer if you’re ever gonna get over yourself.”

Cole shook his head. His old boss always had read him better than anyone could.

“I’ll wager Pete will be happy to see you again.”

Surprised, Cole said, “Pete Brannigan?” The man had broken him in during his early days on the ranch. He’d felt sure Pete, a few years older, would have moved on by this time. “He’s still wrangling for you?”

“That and more. He’s managing the place for me now. Lives right here on the ranch with his family. And he’s been saying we could use an extra hand. So, what do you say?”

He hesitated, though he knew full well he’d have to take the offer. He needed a steady job. This one would give him a chance to prove to Jed he’d changed. At the same time, it might give him an idea of how to pay the man back.

But it would also put him in danger of running into Tina. Tina...who, with one short conversation with her granddaddy, could get him thrown off Garland Ranch.

* * *

TINA PULLED THE ranch’s truck into the empty parking lot behind the Hitching Post. As she and her grandmother climbed out of the cab, she said, “Abuela, you go ahead in with the frozen food, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“You can handle all that?”

“Sure,” she said. “This is nothing.”

And that was a problem.

The small size of their order from the Local-General Store reflected the lack of guests at the hotel. As the hotel’s bookkeeper, she found that lack giving her plenty to worry about lately. Sure, it was only early March, never one of their busiest seasons, but it was quieter than usual for this time of year. Their bookings for the summer hadn’t begun to pick up yet, either.

“We’ll need to go back to the store again soon, before Jane and Andi arrive.”

“No problem, Abuela. I know you need to buy everything fresh. John Barrett must love seeing us walk into the L-G so often.”

“I think you’re right.”

John had established the market forty years ago, naming it the Local-General Store. He claimed building it smack in the middle of Cowboy Creek made it local to everybody, and stocking everything under the sun made it general. The store’s popularity—despite the attempt of a couple of national chains to take over—seemed to have proven him right.

She looked over at Abuela, who was still gathering the couple of insulated carrier bags she used for frozen food.

“Is everything okay? You’ve been looking tired lately.” More than tired. Her shoulders seemed slightly stooped, the lines under her eyes more pronounced. With her grandparents always so active, Tina sometimes had to remind herself they’d both reached their seventies. “Has Robbie been wearing you out? He’s got so much energy.”

“Don’t be silly. And a four-year-old must have lots of energy.”

It wasn’t till Abuela was halfway up the steps of the hotel that Tina realized she hadn’t answered the first question. Was everything okay with her? Was she concerned about Jed, the way Tina had been for a while now?

Though she hadn’t learned she was Jed’s granddaughter until shortly before she had started school, he had always been her abuelo. She loved him just as much as she loved Robbie and Abuela.

His behavior lately had her very concerned. He’d been acting odd, distracted, as if he were worried about something. But of course, there was one perfectly logical reason for that. He had the same worries she did.

Ever since high school, she had helped keep the hotel’s books for Jed. Very early on, she had learned that when people were forced to budget, vacation funds often went in the first cut. And the Hitching Post felt the pain. That meant she felt the pain, as well. She glanced up at the hotel, all three stories of it, all the way up to the windows of her attic hideaway. She loved the hotel, the only home she and Robbie had ever known. Jed, who had also lived here all of his life, couldn’t like the idea of all those empty rooms, either.

Sighing, she reached for one of the grocery sacks in the back of the truck. Footsteps on gravel made her pause. It wasn’t Jed’s familiar tread, and they had no one staying at the hotel at the moment. Maybe this was someone who wanted to book a room. She turned with a welcoming smile.

That smile died on her lips when she saw the cowboy standing in front of her.

Cole Slater.

In one startled, reflexive sweep, she took in almost everything about him. The light brown hair showing beneath the brim of his battered hat. The firm mouth and jaw. Broad shoulders. Narrow hips. The well-worn jeans, silver belt buckle, and scuffed boots. In the next reluctant second, she turned her gaze to the one feature she had deliberately skipped over the first time.

A pair of blue eyes that made her think instantly of her son.

Clutching the grocery sack, she demanded, “What are you doing here?”

His face looked flushed. But he didn’t appear angry, the way he would have if he’d seen Robbie and put two and two together. She breathed a sigh of relief at the reprieve, no matter how brief, giving her a chance to come to grips with his return to town. If she ever could.

Seeing him again had brought back years of memories she didn’t want to think about.

She should have known better than to fall for Cole Slater. At the tender age of seven, she had already heard about his reputation as a sweet-talker. By junior high, he had progressed to a real player. And by senior high, he had turned love-’em-and-leave-’em into an art form, changing girlfriends as often as she replaced guest towels here at the Hitching Post.

Too bad she hadn’t remembered all that when he had finally turned his attention her way.

He shoved his hands into his back pockets, which pulled his shirt taut against his chest. Now, she felt herself flushing as she recalled the one and only time—

No, she wasn’t going there. And he wasn’t staying here. “You must have made a wrong turn somewhere. I suggest you find your vehicle, wherever you might have left it—”

“I parked near the barn—”

“—and be on your way.”

“—and to answer your question, I came to see Jed.”

“What for?”

“He invited me.”

“Then I assume you’ve seen him already and, as I said, you can be on your way.”

“You and I need to have something out first.”

Please, no. Had he caught a glimpse of Robbie, after all?

He shifted his stance and crossed his arms over his chest. “I didn’t expect to run into you this soon, but since we’ve met up, it’s as good a time as any to talk.”

“I don’t really have anything to say to you.”

“But I’ve got something to say to you.”

He ducked his head, looking suddenly like the kindergartner made to give back the lollipop he’d just sweet-talked out of her hand. Even in those days, she’d have given him anything.

One night in high school, she’d proven that.

She turned to the truck and grabbed another sack. “I’m busy, sorry.”

“I’ll give you a hand, and then we can talk.”

“No.” He had stepped up beside her and stood only a few inches away. His nearness unsettled her. The thought of him going back into the hotel upset her even more.

While she and Abuela had been in town, her son had stayed over at the ranch manager’s house on the property. But Pete’s housekeeper might be bringing Robbie back home any minute.

“All right,” she conceded. “Say whatever you want to say right here.”

“I’m sorry.”

She blinked. “What?”

He ducked his head again, then tugged the brim of his hat down, shading his eyes. “Look, I know I acted like a real jerk to you back in high school.”

“High school? You mean that lunchtime you turned me down when I asked you to the dance?” The time you humiliated me in front of everyone in the school cafeteria? “I’m over that.”

“You are?”

“Of course.”

“Well. That’s good. But I still feel I owe you an apology.”

“Oh, please. Don’t even think twice about it.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” She forced a smile and hoped he couldn’t see her grinding her teeth in frustration. She just wanted him gone. Off the ranch. Anywhere but right here, right now.

“Well, that’s good,” he said again. “I’m glad you’re not holding any bad feelings against me, since we’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other.”

“I doubt it. The hotel keeps me busy and close to home. I don’t go into town much.”

“You won’t have to.” His smile didn’t look the least bit forced. “You’ll see me here. I’m back to working for Jed.”

Chapter Two

“Men are more trouble than they’re worth.”

Tina’s best friend couldn’t possibly know how much Tina agreed with the familiar refrain right at that moment.

She looked down the length of Canyon Road, Cowboy Creek’s business section, then back at Ally. They had just met in the parking lot of the hardware store, where Ally worked as a clerk. As often as Tina could manage, they would get together at the end of Ally’s workday to walk, pacing the length of the business section of Canyon Road and back again, for as long as their time allowed.

Right now, just a few hours after her meeting with Cole, she needed a good, long walk to work off her sky-high stress. And listening to Ally’s complaints about the latest man in her life would be a good distraction. “What now, Al?”

“Oh, that new wrangler in town, the one I told you about—you know, the cute one.”

“They’re all cute to you. Can you be more specific?”

“Details. Always, you want details.” Ally rolled her eyes. “The tall blond one who just showed up in town a week ago. He’s been coming into the store a lot. But I can’t get him to look my way. And you know I can be pretty hard to miss.”

That was an understatement. Ally was nothing if not flamboyant. Today after work she had changed into a magenta exercise leotard paired with electric-blue biker shorts and her favorite purple running shoes.

Tina wore her navy sweatpants and her faded New Mexico State University T-shirt.

Ally looked her up and down and shook her head. “When are you going to listen to me, chica?” she demanded.

“Don’t start.”

“Too late for that. I started on you years ago. I don’t know why I love you when you’re so darned stubborn.”

“For my abuela’s Sopapilla cheesecake.”

Ally laughed. “You’ve got a point.”

“And as usual, my point right now would be that—as sorry as I am about your cute wrangler—you can’t throw yourself at every good-looking cowhand who walks in. Please tell me you didn’t do that with this one.”

“I can’t help my impetuous nature.” Ally grinned. “You could learn something from me, chica. How to have your heart broken on a weekly basis. It would sure make your life more exciting.”

“Once was enough for that, thanks,” she said grimly.

Ally frowned. “You’re not looking too happy yourself. What’s wrong?”

She hesitated. But Ally was the only friend who could understand what Cole’s return meant to her. “Your blond isn’t the only man who’s shown up in town. Cole’s back.”

“You’re kidding me!”

Her best friend was also the only woman Tina knew who could manage to screech in a whisper.

“Do I look like I’m kidding?”

Ally shook her head, sending her dark curls tumbling around her shoulders. “No. You look like you’re in shock. C’mon, let’s get going.”

Tina moved through the parking lot and out onto the sidewalk on autopilot, in the same manner she had gotten herself to the store. Somehow, she had made it all the way here without thinking again of Cole. Blurting out the news of his return to Ally had brought him back to her again.

A ridiculous choice of words, since he’d never been hers to begin with.

All through the years, despite his reputation, she saw glimpses of a Cole no one else knew. Or so she’d thought. Those glimpses gave her just enough hope for him. For her. Just enough reason to keep her crush alive.

But years of love from afar didn’t equal a real relationship.

“How long is he going to be in town?” Ally demanded.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, we need to find out. And then you need to stay away from him. Hang out at the ranch, that’s all, like you usually do. And keep Robbie with you.”

“I can’t hide from the man, Ally.”

“Who’s saying hide? But Cole doesn’t deserve to know the truth. Not when he hasn’t even bothered to send you a postcard in all this time.”

All this time.

Five long years.

Ally shook her head. “After what he did, I can’t believe you’ll tell him anything.”

What Cole had done to her that lunchtime had been bad, but what she had done to herself leading up to that day was much, much worse.

In high school, they shared a few classes, and in their senior year, her dream of getting closer to him had come true. She was ecstatic when they became lab partners in biology and then study buddies in English.

Once Jed hired him to work at the ranch, she was thrilled for the chance to see more of him—whether he knew she was watching or not.

Evidently, he did know. One Friday night after he had collected his paycheck from Jed, he asked her to go for a ride in his truck. She said yes, proud to have the world—or, at least, the folks in their world—finally see them as a couple, too.

Only no one had seen them together at all.

They had gone for a long ride before parking near the school baseball field, where they sat and talked for hours. She was puzzled when he took her straight back to the ranch afterward. But on Saturday, she was pleased again when he finished up work and asked her out for another ride. This time, they trusted each other with glimpses into their pasts. She shared stories with him she had never told anyone else.

Yet, again, he took her directly home. Alone in her bedroom, she struggled to push away the rising doubts that kept her from falling asleep.

On Sunday night when they had driven away from the ranch in his pickup truck again, she ignored the replays of childhood memories, pushed away the nagging thoughts of the boy he had been because she saw the boy he was now. The boy who seemed proud to have her with him, too, who treated her as if she were the only girl in his world.

The boy who was giving her this magical weekend.

On Sunday, they had done very little talking...

“You can’t forget what he did,” Ally said.

“No, I’ll never forget. And luckily, you’re the only one who ever knew.” Cole’s attentions hadn’t lasted long enough for anyone else to realize they had so briefly become partners of another kind outside English class and the biology lab.

“Why is he here, anyhow?” Ally asked.

“He didn’t say.”

“I’m guessing he’s come back to help Layne,” Ally said thoughtfully. “I heard things haven’t been going too well for her. So, everything’s okay—Cole will be busy with her and Scott, and you’ll stay on the ranch. You’ll never have to see him again.”

“No, everything’s not okay.” She repeated what Cole had told her, which brought Ally to a halt. “Keep moving,” Tina said over her shoulder. “You know I’m tracking our time.” From behind her, she heard a huge sigh. Despite her tension, she couldn’t hold back a smile.

Once Ally caught up to her again, she said, “He’ll be working on the ranch?”

“Yes.”

“Then, we need to find out what’s going on.” Ally took her by the elbow again and marched her down the street. “Let’s stop in at SugarPie’s and talk to Layne.”

Tina kept walking but pulled her arm free. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. She’ll just tell Cole.”

“Not if we handle this right.”

They were within a hundred yards of the bakery and sandwich shop when Ally came to a stop again. “That day in the cafeteria...”

“Yes,” Tina said with a sigh. “That day...”

At lunch in the school cafeteria that Monday, she had invited him to the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance. He had turned her down, then walked away—with his arm around another girl.

The rejection, coming after what he had done to her—done with her—the night before had left her stunned.

Yet, as much as it had hurt at the time, she had later thanked heaven for Cole’s brutal response. It had made her face the reality she hadn’t been able to admit during the weekend. The reality that all the magic she had seen in him was nothing but a much-practiced act full of smoke and mirrors.

Ally shook her head. “It took you forever to work up the courage to ask Cole out, didn’t it?”

She nodded.

“But,” Ally said softly, “if I were in your place now, I know what you’d say to me. You’re not that scared high-school girl anymore, are you?”

“No, I’m certainly not.” Over the past few years, she’d grown up and developed a backbone. She’d learned to stand up for herself, to be a good role model for Robbie.

Something his father could never be.

“All right, then,” Ally said, “let’s go inside. We can take care of two birds with one sticky bun—find out from Layne what’s going on with her and get her to tell us how long Cole’s staying in town.” She raised her eyebrows in question.

Tina nodded firmly.

Though she had spent five years dreading the thought of seeing Cole again, she had never actually prepared for the reality.

He would be starting work on the ranch in just a few days and that didn’t give her much time. Before then, she needed to find out whatever she could about his plans.

* * *

TINA AND ALLY walked through the unoccupied bakery and entered the adjoining room. The homey, country-kitchen atmosphere of the sandwich shop encouraged lingering over a cup of tea. People said the owner had planned it that way because, as a result, she heard all the gossip that traveled around Cowboy Creek.

As teens, Tina and Ally had felt sure the many small round tables in the shop were bugged.

At this time of the evening, they had their pick of the room and seated themselves at a table for two.

Tina took a deep breath, inhaling the aroma of cinnamon and cloves that always seemed to hang over the bakery and the shop. The smells here were almost as good as those in Abuela’s domain at the Hitching Post.

“I don’t see Layne,” Ally said over the top of her menu.

“Maybe she’s in the kitchen getting an order.”

“I don’t know... Wait—Sugar’s headed this way. You know what that probably means.”

Tina nodded. “She’s filling in.”

The owner began her day in the bakery long before the sun came up, yet could often be found in the shop at closing time. Normally, she let the waitresses handle the customers.

The wooden floorboards creaked as Sugar approached their table.

A hefty Georgia peach in her midsixties, Sugar had the softest drawl Tina had ever heard. She also had the most solid arms Tina had ever seen on anyone, including any wrangler who had ever worked on Garland Ranch. Sugar claimed she’d earned those muscles from years of kneading bread dough and hauling restaurant-sized sacks of flour.

“Hey, girls, you’re in late.”

“And you’re working overtime,” Tina said.

“Yep. Layne took the day off, so here I am.”

“Darn.” Ally set down her menu, giving Tina a look that said she would handle the questioning—which was fine with Tina. The less interest she showed, the less suspicion Sugar would direct her way. “We wanted to talk with her.”

“Well, she’ll be in tomorrow. Or you can catch her at home tonight.”

“Is she spending the day with Cole? I heard he’s in town.”

“He is.” Sugar’s gray eyebrows rose as her eyes widened. “And you could have knocked me over with a sheet of parchment paper when I heard about him coming home. Layne was pretty closemouthed about it till last week.” She sounded upset that she hadn’t known sooner about Cole’s return.

“But why is he back?” Ally asked. “I mean, he hasn’t come home since he graduated high school.”

“Because the ink’s barely dried on Layne’s divorce papers, and that rat Terry’s kicking her out of the house.”

Ally gasped. “But she’s got Scott—and she’s pregnant!”

Tina winced, thinking of the loving support she had received from Abuela and Jed all through her life, even during her pregnancy. Even though she had never told them who had fathered her child.

“Layne’s situation doesn’t seem to be bothering Terry,” Sugar continued. “So, she called Cole.”

“That’s a first,” Ally said, exchanging a glance with Tina. “How long is he staying?”

Ally had spoken too quickly. Sugar frowned. Resting her hands on the edge of the table, she stared from Ally to Tina and back again. “Why? What’s happening?”

She didn’t ask only out of curiosity. Everyone knew how well Sugar looked out for all the residents of Cowboy Creek, especially her employees.

Just the way Jed looks out for us, as Abuela would often say.

“There’s nothing’s happening,” Tina said. But there soon would be, unfortunately.

“Yeah.” Ally nodded. “I was just wondering whether I’d get to say hi or not.”

“You should. Layne tells me he’ll be around for a while.” Sugar chuckled. “I think coming back home again might give that boy a lot more than he bargained for.”

This time, neither Tina nor Ally had anything to say.

* * *

IN HIS SISTER’S new apartment, Cole picked up one of the packing boxes he’d piled in the corner of the room. She had given the larger of the two bedrooms to her son—and his toys—and left this closet-sized one for herself.

“Scott’s probably getting hungry,” Layne said. “I need to start thinking about supper.”

“Supper? You just gave him a three-course snack.”

She laughed. “That was hours ago, Cole. And little boys have big appetites. Don’t you remember from when you were a kid?”

“Not really.” What he recalled was being four years old and stockpiling his own snacks, holding them aside until Layne started whining about being hungry. The sooner he could get his little sister quieted, the less chance there was of their dad yelling and sending her into tears.

As if she had read his mind, she abruptly grabbed a pile of clothes from the carton he’d set next to the closet door. “Once I have this box emptied, I’ll start supper.”

“We could go out,” he suggested. “Or pick up some takeout. My treat, either way.”

“No. The sooner I get used to cooking in that tiny kitchen, the better.”

She turned to the closet. Shaking his head, he took a seat on the edge of the twin bed. He should have known she’d refuse the offer. It had been enough of a struggle getting her to agree to let him pay for some of the groceries.

She hadn’t had the money to rent a truck for the move, either, and wouldn’t let him get one, though he’d told her he could easily afford to pick up the tab.

In the years he’d been gone from Cowboy Creek, he had worked as a wrangler on one ranch after another.

On the run, Jed had said.

He’d rather think of it as staying open to possibilities.

In any case, he had never tied himself to anything permanent, never owned a home or even paid rent or electricity, and he had always traveled light enough to fit all his belongings into a couple of duffel bags. No sense buying things that would only weigh him down. Cheap, some folks might say, but again he preferred to look at things his way and call it being frugal.

That frugality had paid off. So had his time on the rodeo circuit. He now had a good-sized nest egg he’d been sitting on, thinking of investing.

As he’d said to Layne, what better investment could he come up with than spending some of it on his sister and her son?

He knew the answer to that question, all right. So did Layne. He would do anything for the little sister he’d raised practically single-handed.

In the years he had been gone from Cowboy Creek, he made sure to send money when she asked to borrow it, and even when she hadn’t.

Deep down, he knew money could never make up for not being here for her the last few years. True, he hadn’t known how bad things were between her and Terry until the end. But maybe if he’d stayed, he could have helped her out more. Been there to keep an eye on her son once in a while, so she and her now-second ex could have had some time together. Maybe that would have saved the relationship—not that he’d believed it had ever really had a chance. Neither he nor Layne knew what a good marriage looked like.

But if nothing else, helping her back then might have him feeling less like a stranger with his own sister’s child now.

In the long run, his offer to get the truck for her move had done no good.

You’re taking care of enough already, Layne had said.

So he had loaded his pickup and made one trip after another between her former two-story house and this so-called two-bedroom apartment.

He thought of the trip he’d made out to Garland Ranch that afternoon.

Though he and Tina had been a couple of grades ahead of Layne in school, the two knew each other. Suddenly, he felt the urge to tell Layne about running into Tina again. About what a jerk he’d been to her in high school and about how that could come back to bite him. About how he wished he’d done some things...maybe a whole lot of things...in his life differently.

But he’d never dropped his problems on his sister before and sure wouldn’t start now. Not when she had enough troubles of her own.

She turned from the closet. “I talked to Sugar about giving me more time at the shop and maybe even letting me back her up when she needs help in the bakery.”

“Do you really need to take on more hours, especially when it means being on your feet, in your condition? If that bast—”

“Don’t. Please.” She shot a glance toward the door. “I don’t want to talk about Terry around Scott. And I can’t blame Terry. If he were Scott’s father, things might be different, but I can’t expect the man to give me extra support for a child that’s not his.”

“Is he still planning to see Scott?”

“He said he would.” But she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

Damn. A man didn’t just walk away from a child he’d raised, even if that child wasn’t his own.

But he didn’t push the issue. This was the first time he and Layne had discussed the subject, and he realized the wisdom of keeping the rest of his feelings about it to himself. For now.

“What about financial support for the baby?” he asked.

She touched her stomach, not much rounder than it had been the last time he’d seen her.

Late December. She had just discovered she was pregnant and hadn’t wanted to be home for the holidays. They had met halfway between Cowboy Creek and the Texas ranch he was working.

For the first time since he’d left town, they had spent Christmas together. They ate dinner in a nearly empty diner decorated with limp tinsel and faded ornaments. But the waitress wore a pin with a reindeer whose nose flashed like a small red strobe light and had made Scott laugh.

Layne, expecting a baby but already on the road to divorce, had done her best to smile.

The effort it took told him he needed to come back to Cowboy Creek.

Layne shifted one of the boxes he’d set on the bed. “My lawyer’s making sure Terry’s keeping up with the insurance payments to cover the hospital.”

“He’d damned well better keep up. You have any problems, you let me know and I’ll talk to him.”

“Always the protective big brother,” she murmured, her eyes misting. She sat beside him and rested her head against his shoulder. “I really appreciate everything you’re doing, Cole. Coming back to town. Helping with the move. Even giving me a hand with the unpacking.” She sat back and looked up at him. “I couldn’t have done all this without you.”

“I’m not begrudging any of it, you know that. But you also have to know you’re not alone here. You heard what Sugar told you the other day. You’ve got friends in town, plenty of friends who would help out.”

“Yes, I do.” She gave him a crooked smile. “Maybe I should have said what I was really thinking. I didn’t want to do this without you.”

To his dismay, her voice broke. “Layne...”

“Let me go check on Scott.” She hurried from the room.

Earlier, after giving her son strict instructions to stay on the floor with his trains, she had settled him in the living room. With boxes piled throughout the apartment, it wasn’t safe to let him run loose.

Cole looked at the boxes piled around him in the small bedroom and had a sudden urge to run loose himself. Or just to run. Maybe Jed hadn’t been wrong, at that.

He felt the need to get the hell out of Cowboy Creek again. Coming back here had dredged up too many bad memories, too many thoughts of how helpless he’d been to protect Layne against their mama’s indifference and their dad’s vicious tongue.

Too many reminders of the boy he’d once been.

On the other hand, his return to help Layne through a bad time had brought with it an unexpected advantage. Taking a job at Garland Ranch again would go a long way toward proving he had changed.

His talk with Tina should have done the same, but her acceptance of his apology had rung about as true as a forced smile at a sad Christmas dinner.

He’d have to try harder to convince her they could put their past behind them.

Chapter Three

“What do you think, Paz?” Jed asked.

At the table in the hotel kitchen after breakfast, he sat finishing up his coffee. Paz stood at the counter where she was making one of her fancy desserts for tonight’s supper. With Tina and Robbie at the breakfast table, they hadn’t had a moment to themselves till now.

She cracked an egg into the ceramic bowl in front of her. “I think,” she said, “by asking Cole to return to work here, you have stirred up more than the sugar in your coffee.”

Frowning, he looked at her. She had sounded tart and a few worry lines creased her forehead, but she gave him a faint smile.

He grinned back. “I have set some things in motion, haven’t I? For step one, anyhow.”

“Do you think everything will go as you want it to?”

“Of course. All according to plan. And once the other girls are here, we’ll move on to step two.”

She cracked another egg into the bowl and added a spoonful of vanilla. “Sugar called me this morning. Tina and Ally were at the shop last night.”

“To see Layne?”

“Yes. And asking about Cole.”

He chuckled. “What did I tell you? Nothing to worry about. Everything’s falling into place.” At the sound of light, familiar footsteps in the hallway, he added, “Hush. Here comes the girl now.” He got up to rinse his mug at the sink.

Tina entered the room and set a tray of dishes on the counter beside him. “Thank goodness for the Women’s Society and their monthly breakfast! Maria’s just clearing the last couple of tables. I’ll take care of loading the dishwasher for you, Abuela. I’ll take that, too.” She plucked the rinsed mug from Jed’s hand. “And then I’ve got to get to my office.”

“Already?” he asked.

“Yes, unfortunately. And I know the next part by heart, Abuelo.” She laughed. “‘You can’t work all day, every day.’”

“Well, it’s true. You need to relax once in a while, girl. Have some fun. You work too hard.”

“Somebody has to, while you brush up on being lord of the manor. You’ll want to make a good impression on Andi and Jane when they get here.”

“Oh, I’ll make an impression on them, all right. One of these days, I might even make you sit up and take notice, too.” Smiling, he left the room.

* * *

IN HER OFFICE behind the hotel registration desk, Tina entered items into the accounting software. Working with finances normally grabbed her attention, but for the past couple of days, she’d had trouble concentrating.

Again, her thoughts flew to the cause of her distraction—her brief reunion with the man who had fathered her child.

Cole had broken her heart years ago. That was nobody’s fault but her own. She was over that—and over him.

Still, his return had resurrected the old memories.

She had gotten close to him, yet he had walked away from her without looking back.

Apology or no apology, if she let him get close to Robbie, how could she believe he wouldn’t walk away from their son?

She pushed the thoughts of Cole from her thoughts and envisioned her little family—Robbie, Abuela and Jed. For their sakes she needed to focus on her work. On what was important to her. And that definitely didn’t include Cole.

She forced her attention back to the computer screen.

Though she made sure to double-check each entry, the numbers didn’t look good. Not because she hadn’t totaled them correctly, but because they didn’t add up to enough.

She had just finished her entries when she heard the familiar sound of Jed’s boots on the stairs. His steps grew louder as he approached the front desk in the hotel lobby.

“Tina, you in there?”

“Yes,” she called. “Give me a second.” She hurried to back up her file and close the program.

In the kitchen that morning, Jed had seemed more like his old self. But that couldn’t make her forget the past few weeks, when every time she’d tried to talk to him about her concerns, he’d brushed her off. Maybe now, he finally wanted to discuss what he had on his mind.

The office doorway led right to the lobby’s registration desk. There, Jed stood with his crossed arms on the counter and one boot planted on the brass foot rail. Tall and thin, he had neatly combed his sparse white hair and wore his usual boots, jeans and Western shirt with a string tie.

Though she often lovingly teased him about being lord of the manor, as she had done in the kitchen a while earlier, there was some truth behind her words. He now left the day-to-day working of the ranch to his manager, Pete, and his cowhands, but Jed kept tabs on everything. And he always took care to project just the right image for a man who owned both a ranch and a hotel.

“Hey, my handsome abuelo,” she said. “What’s up?”

“Not much. Just checking to see if you were in there. And where’s that little guy of ours?”

Her throat tightened at the thought of her son. How would she explain her years of silence about his daddy to Abuela and Jed? She swallowed hard and forced a smile. “He’s in the kitchen with Abuela.”

“You and Paz get all the shopping done this morning?”

“We did. She had quite a list.” Unlike their trip earlier in the week.

“We’ll use everything she bought. Things are gonna be a mite busier around here soon.”

“You mean with Jane and Andi coming to visit?”

“That. And more.” His grin made her heart fill with love—and additional concern. The low number of reservations continued to bother her. For years now, they hadn’t opened the small wedding chapel on the property or even catered a reception. They would manage, especially with the bookings she had taken for later this week and the next. But they had nothing on tap for the next few months to justify Jed’s level of excitement.

“Did you book a large group while we were gone?” she asked.

“Nope.”

“Did half of Cowboy Creek call to reserve tables for dinner?”

He shook his head.

“Then, what? Come on, tell me.”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Oh, really? And is this surprise the reason you’ve been so quiet lately?”

“Might be.” He winked. “No more questions. You’ll see soon enough. And I’m off to see your gran.”

Relieved to have him acting like himself again, she returned to her office with a smile.

Before she could take her seat, she heard a discreet buzz, the signal Jed had set up in the hotel’s office and kitchen to announce the opening of the front door. Again, she went out to the registration desk. This time, she froze behind it.

Cole Slater stood in the entryway, looking back at her.

His nephew, Scott, gave a little cry. He had seen the collection of horse figurines in the sitting room off the lobby. As if he visited the Hitching Post on a regular basis, the boy headed right toward the next room. She watched him go.

Better to focus on Scott than to stare at the man standing across the room from her. But even that didn’t help, when she knew the little boy she watched was just a few months younger than her own son.

“Looks like he made himself at home,” Cole said. He glanced around. “As I told Jed, this place never changes.”

“Like some people I know.” A pile of brochures sat on one side of the desk, the paper edges neatly aligned. She reached out to straighten them, anyhow.

“I wouldn’t make snap judgments,” he said.

“I don’t. As you might remember from school, I’m the one who analyzes everything.”

“Yeah, I do recall that.”

When he approached the counter, she hid her dismay behind a frozen smile. Any second now, Robbie might come down the hall.

The minute she had seen Cole in the lobby, she had thought of what Jed had said. Her abuelo had been on edge for weeks, but Cole’s arrival couldn’t be the surprise he had referred to.

She couldn’t forget what Cole had told her the other day. Jed had invited him to the ranch and then hired him again. It was odd Jed hadn’t said a word about that to her beforehand. As the bookkeeper, she should have been told about a new hire. Maybe he had intended to spring Cole’s return on her, after all.

Unfortunately, his secret would pale by comparison once he learned about hers.

She couldn’t let the impending disaster make her forget her obligations—no matter how eagerly she wanted to run to the kitchen, grab Robbie and head for the hills. She took a deep breath and said, “Welcome back to the Hitching Post.”

“Thanks. Are you managing the place now?”

“I’m the assistant manager. And bookkeeper for both the Hitching Post and the ranch.”

“Bookkeeper, huh? That fits. You always were good at math.”

“What can we do for you? I know you can’t be looking for a room.”

“Why not?”

Her fingers tightened, crumpling the long-forgotten brochure she still held. “You’re staying with Layne at her new apartment, aren’t you?”

“How did you know that?”

“It’s a small town.”

“Yeah.” For a moment, he looked irritated. “And speaking of small, that describes Layne’s couch. Now you mention it, the idea of taking a room here doesn’t sound bad at all. It would get me off the hook for minding Scott, too.” He laughed and shook his head. “And before you take me too seriously, I’m just kidding about that. But let me tell you, babysitting is not the gig for me. When I swore off marriage and kids, I should have added extended family to the list.”

The statement hit her like a fist to the chest. “You don’t mean that. And you wouldn’t say it if you’d never had a sister or brother.” Or if you already had a child.

Would learning about Robbie make any difference?

“In any case,” he said, “I’m not looking for a room. Jed wanted me to stop by to fill out some forms.”

“Why? New hires usually do that on their first day of work.”

He shrugged. “Beats me. He wanted me to come by. Since I had some time as well as the kid on my hands, I thought I’d take care of it today. Is that a problem?”

“Not at all.” With the rate of turnover of temporary wranglers, she always kept a blank set of employment forms on a clipboard in Jed’s credenza.

“You know where Jed is?”

“In his den.”

“I’ll just head down there, then. Keep an eye on Scott for me, will you?”

She nodded, willing to do anything to get some space from him.

Leaving the crumpled brochure on the desk, she crossed to the sitting room and smiled at Scott. He ducked his head shyly.

Sighing, she watched him play with Robbie’s favorite toys.

And she thought about Robbie’s daddy.

No matter how she felt about Cole, she had to tell him the truth. What he did once he heard the news would be up to him. She had no doubts about what she had to do. Her job was to protect Robbie.

She also had to tell Abuela and Jed. They loved her son, had helped her raise him from the moment he was born. She owed them so much, and she wanted them to hear the news first.

* * *

BY THE TIME Cole returned to the lobby, Tina stood behind the registration desk again, waiting. “All done?” she asked.

“Yep.”

“Good. Now you’ve taken care of your business with Jed, I’m sure you’ll want to head back to town. It’s getting late, and Scott’s hungry. He said you’re all going out to dinner tonight.”

“That’s right.”

“Scott,” she called. “Your uncle’s ready to go.” Turning to Cole again, she added, “I’ve got to go help Abuela in the kitchen.”

Almost sighing with relief, she began to move from behind the desk. The sound of sneakers slapping on the hallway floor froze her in place again.

“Mama?” Robbie entered the lobby and ran up to the desk. “I didn’t know where you was. Hey!” His blue eyes widened. He pointed across the reception area at Scott, who now stood in the doorway of the sitting room cradling a toy Appaloosa. “That’s mine.”

She couldn’t manage to force a word past her tight throat.

“It’s okay,” Cole said, sounding as though he had trouble speaking, too. “He’s not doing your horse any harm.”

She kept her gaze fastened on her son. Robbie stared up at Cole, then looked toward her. After a deep breath, she said quickly, “That’s right, Robbie. Scott’s just playing with the horse, the way all the kids who come here do.”

“He’s ’sposed to keep the ponies in there.” He pointed toward the sitting room. “That’s the rules.”

“He doesn’t know that,” Cole said. “Why don’t you and Scott go in there with the horses? You can explain the rules to him...while your mama explains a few things to me.”

“Okay.” Robbie headed toward the younger boy.

Tina reached for the crumpled brochure and began smoothing it on the desktop. She could feel Cole’s angry gaze on her, could feel the rush of her own anger and confusion spreading through her. Again, she fought an overwhelming desire to hurry over to Robbie, grab him by the hand and flee the hotel.

Running wasn’t the answer—not that she would choose that way out, anyhow. Neither was this light-headed, weak-kneed, schoolgirl-with-a-crush reaction. She squared her shoulders. If the time had come to tell Cole the truth, to make the explanations she’d spent five long years dreading, she’d stand straight and tall and look him in the eye.

And if it came down to a battle between them, she would give him the fight of her life—and Robbie’s.

For what seemed like forever, Cole stood staring at the boys in the sitting room.

Then he turned back to the desk, placed his palms flat on its surface and glared at her. “When were you planning on telling me?”

“About what?”

“About you-damned-well-know what.” To his credit, he kept his voice low and even. Unfortunately, he also leaned in closer, probably to make sure she wouldn’t miss a single word. “You didn’t think I’d take one look at that kid and make the connection?”

“That kid is my son,” she snapped.

“Mine, too, judging by the looks of him. He’s about a year older than Scott, isn’t he? Which means he’s four.”

The accuracy of his guess made her flinch.

“I knew it.” Though he gave her a smug smile, his face had paled. “You might’ve always been the math whiz in school, Tina, but I can danged sure add—”

“Stop,” she whispered.

Jed was approaching from the direction of his den.

Cole shot a look over his shoulder, then turned back to her. “We’re not finished,” he said harshly.

“You still here?” Jed asked. “Thought you’d be long gone by now.”

Cole pushed himself away from the desk. “On our way. Tina was just planning to walk us out to my truck so we could finish our conversation.”

“Fine,” Jed said, smiling.

“No,” she blurted. “I mean...I told Cole, I’ve got to go help Abuela in the kitchen.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Jed said. “Maria’s in there. They’ve got everything covered. But I’ll head on back and tell them you’ll be there in a bit. Robbie, you come along with me.”

She wanted to protest, but one look at Cole’s narrowed eyes and set jaw told her he wouldn’t leave the hotel without her—and if she refused to go, he would blurt out the truth right here.

* * *

OUTSIDE, COLE SQUINTED against the blinding sun hovering at eye level. The strong rays showed up every faded patch of paint on his road-worn truck.

“I’m over there.” He gestured to the lone vehicle.

“Come on, Scott,” she said. “Let’s get you into your seat so you can go and have your dinner.”

As they walked ahead of him, the sun highlighted the silky length of dark braid hanging almost to Tina’s waist. He’d always wanted to unravel that braid and run his fingers through her hair. She hadn’t allowed him that pleasure the one time they’d been together...

He ran his hand over his face, wanting to wipe away the memory. She wasn’t the only one to blame for what had happened that night. Or the only one responsible for what had come of it.

Why hadn’t she said something years ago?

At the truck, while Tina strapped his nephew into place, he turned away to plant his butt against the side of the pickup. He tugged his battered hat down, blocking the sun from his eyes.

He didn’t want that glare to keep him from getting a good look at Tina’s face while they talked. Didn’t want her finding a way to hide anything from him.

Anything else from him.

Irritation and resentment roiled inside, tightening his chest.

He looked over his shoulder. Tina must have caught the movement through the cab window. She looked up and stared right at him, her mouth closed in a firm, straight line, as if telling him she didn’t plan to say a word.

No problem. He had enough words for them both.

He turned his back on her again and crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn’t going anywhere until he’d said what he had to say. Yet he couldn’t deny he had some pressing questions for her. For himself, too.

Most important, how was he going to handle this news that had finally sunk in, leaving him ready to keel over from the shock?

He had a son.

Memories slammed into him, bombarding him with parts of his past he’d thought long forgotten. Scenes from the rare occasions his dad bothered to notice he was alive. Times his dad would hurl nothing but scathing words his way...

You’re a disgrace as a son.

You’re no good.

You’re worthless.

He’d never bothered to dispute anything his father said. Fighting back would only make things worse for him. Or make his dad turn his anger on Layne.

For most of his life, he had struggled not to believe anything his old man had thrown at him. But one thing was true.

With a role model like that, he didn’t have a chance in hell of being a good dad.

Yet, he now had a son.

Chapter Four

Tina paused near the hood of Cole’s truck and took a deep breath, trying to prepare herself for a conversation she didn’t want to have.

She walked around the truck and had barely come to a stop in front of Cole before he exploded.

“Does everyone in Cowboy Creek know what you never took the trouble to tell me?”

She forced herself not to recoil from the venom in his tone. “No. Nobody—” Thinking of the confidences she had always shared with her best friend, she choked off her automatic response.

“And what have you told your boy? My boy?”

“Don’t call him that.” Her heart thudded at his easy assumption. “Robbie’s my son.”

“And mine. But we covered that already. Let’s move on to something new. Why didn’t you contact me? You must have known you were pregnant before I left town. Hell, you probably knew before graduation.”

“What if I did? Why would I think you’d want to hear the result of our one-night stand?”

Her breath caught in her throat at what she had just inadvertently called her son.

She couldn’t let Cole reduce her to this.

All her life, she’d been the straitlaced, logical, rational Tina that Ally always teasingly encouraged to loosen up. All her life, except one time with Cole. A time she could never regret, since it had given her the greatest gift she had ever received.

But she needed to rely on the logical, rational Tina now. She couldn’t let her emotions get in the way. She had to protect her son.

The reminder allowed her to breathe deeply and evenly again. It helped her to stay calm. “After our weekend together, you made it clear you weren’t interested in me. Why would you care that I was going to have a baby?”

“Because it wasn’t just yours.” The muscles in his neck tightened as he swallowed hard. “Did you ever plan to tell me?”

His question vibrated with restrained emotion. The lines around his eyes deepened as if it had hurt him to ask the question. As if he were bracing himself for her reply.

An unwanted burst of compassion filled her.

She forced herself to look away and harden her heart. Where was his compassion when she’d needed it?

She glanced into the truck’s rear seat. Scott sat flipping the pages of a coloring book. “If you had stayed in town,” she murmured, measuring her words, “there might have been a chance you’d have found out then.”

He laughed harshly. “You’re in the wrong profession, Tina. You should’ve become a politician—except you’d have to practice maintaining eye contact. All right. Forget the double-talk. Forget I even asked. The point is, I know now. And you can just keep the news to yourself.”

“I need to tell my grandparents.”

“But nobody else.” He shifted his Stetson and ran his hand through his hair, then stared off into the distance. “I’ll need some time before we start telling other folks.”

“I didn’t plan to tell anyone else.”

“Yeah, that’s obvious,” he said, his tone cold. “But I sure do.” When she gasped, he narrowed his eyes. “What? Did you think I’d just walk away from this?”

This.

Forget watching what she said. Forget compassion. Now his words, tossed out so offhandedly, struck at her deepest fear.

“This what?” she demanded. “This confrontation? This situation? This child that’s my life—not yours? I’ll tell you the truth, flat-out straight, as Jed would say. Yes, I thought you would walk away. That’s always been your style, hasn’t it? And I want you to go. There’s no reason for you to come back.”

“Except that I’ve got a job here. And,” he added, his voice dangerously soft, “now I’ve got other obligations.”

A chill ran through her. She wrapped her arms around her middle. “You have no obligations. Not as far as I’m concerned.”

“And the boy?” he said. “What about where he’s concerned?”

“I’ll take care of Robbie.”

Yet, how could she do that completely on her own?

She had spent so much of her life with unanswered questions about her own parents...why they didn’t want her, why they didn’t love her, why they had left her behind for Abuela to raise.

Eventually, Robbie would have questions about his daddy, too. Questions only Cole could answer.

As if he sensed her uncertainty, as if he wanted to take advantage of her—again—he said flatly, “I couldn’t have fulfilled my obligations in the past, since I never knew about the child. But now I do, I’ve got a lot of time to make up for.”

“I won’t let you—”

“‘Let?’” He shoved his hat back on his head and leaned so close she could almost count each and every dark lash rimming his eyes. “You’re not letting me do anything. And I’m not waiting for you to give your permission. Considering your track record, who knows how long that might take.” His voice was low, deepened by emotion again. “I’m going to get to know my son.”

* * *

ON HIS FIRST day of work, Cole parked outside the corral and walked toward Jed’s barn. He couldn’t keep from looking over toward the hotel. Not that he expected to see...anyone. At this early hour, the sun had barely begun to rise.

What he did see was a lighted window in the kitchen, where Paz was mostly likely getting things in order for her day. Jed and everyone else in the place ought to be sleeping.

He found the barn almost empty. Of humans, anyhow. The stalls were filled to capacity, as they always had been. Jed kept enough stock on hand to accommodate all his men and a hotel full of guests.

Half-inside one of the stalls, with his back to him, stood a man holding a shovel.

Cole paused in the doorway. Five years earlier, when he’d left the ranch without giving notice to Jed, he had walked away from Pete Brannigan and the other wranglers, too. No telling how any of them would take the news of his return to work here.

But when the man turned, Cole saw only a smile. He nodded at Pete. “Don’t tell me Jed makes his ranch manager muck out stalls.”

“Hey, Cole.” Pete set the shovel aside and crossed the space between them to offer his hand. “He told me you were back in town and starting work today.”

“That must’ve come as a surprise.”

“What? Jed hiring someone on and telling me after the fact? No surprise there. He might call himself retired, but he’s still got a strong hand on the reins.”

“Always did have.”

“True. Hang on a minute.” Pete went into the small room partitioned off as an office and returned with a hammer and an old tin can filled with nails. “There’s a pair of gloves on the workbench in the tack room. Go grab ’em.” As they made their way outside, he added, “We’ve got some rails out by the corral that need patching. It’ll get you limbered up for this afternoon. I’ll be sending you out to the south border to check on the stock. You’ll need to take a look at the fencing there, too.”

“Trouble?”

Pete shook his head. “Just maintenance and some overly adventurous cattle. You know the drill.”

At the corral, Cole wrestled a split and warped rail into submission while Pete hammered it into place.

“As for Jed and his tight rein,” Pete said, “I wouldn’t have it any other way. He might be past seventy, but he’s still sharper than a tack. In case you were wondering.”

“Should I be?”

Pete shrugged. “No idea. Just throwing that out there for old time’s sake.” They moved on to the next rail. “Now, your return to town, that did come as a surprise. I always figured you for having itchy feet. But maybe you scratched them enough.”

“Maybe.” Just the thought of tying himself down permanently in Cowboy Creek made him want to head out of town.

On feet that weren’t itchy, only damned cold.

Pete swung the hammer a final time, sending the nail into place. “Let’s head in, and I’ll take you through the barn. Jed wants you working the corral, giving lessons to the guests as needed.”

“Then I’ll have to get familiar with everything you’ve got.”

Pete nodded. “You can pick out a mount for today’s ride, and another for tomorrow. You’ll see a few familiar faces. But even with the new stock, we don’t have anything you can’t handle.”

Cole followed him back toward the barn.

Jed had told him the ranch manager had a couple of kids of his own. Lucky for Pete, he’d found out about his kids at the usual time—before they were born.

He wondered how the man would deal with a situation like one he was facing. A situation he’d already managed to mess up. Yeah, he’d stood his ground with Tina. Had argued over his right to spend time with his son. Had talked the talk...

And then when the time had come to walk the walk, he’d gotten those cold feet. He hadn’t come near the ranch since the night of their conversation.

No matter how much he might wish otherwise, this change in his life wasn’t something he knew how to handle. Hell, he understood horses more than he did kids.

What if he couldn’t be the daddy his son deserved?

* * *

IN THE HOTEL’S roomy kitchen on Sunday morning, Tina ironed the load of cloth napkins she had just removed from the dryer. She had kept herself as busy as possible for the past few days...to keep from thinking of Cole.

He had started work on the ranch, as scheduled, and she had spent those long days waiting for him to reappear at the hotel. He hadn’t. Whether that meant she should thank her good fortune or worry about what revenge he was plotting, she didn’t know. Either way, the uncertainty had left her barely able to close her eyes the night before.

It didn’t surprise her a bit that his interest in her son hadn’t lasted very long. Neither had his interest in her, years ago. She was grateful in both cases.

Seeing him again had made her recall the girl she’d once been, the girl who’d forever had the bad luck to have a crush on him. The girl who’d once wanted a family with him.

They’d had a child together, though Cole hadn’t known that.

Till now.

Neither had anyone else.

Of course, everyone in Cowboy Creek knew four-year-old Robbie. She could just imagine their well-meaning but frantic conversations when they had found out she was pregnant.

Do you think the daddy’s one of Jed’s full-time ranch hands?

Or a wrangler who worked there only for a season?

Maybe he was a guest who stayed at the Hitching Post and never came back again.

She didn’t know what conclusions they had come to. After telling Ally the truth, she had left everyone else to speculate all they wanted—and hoped they would never stumble upon the truth. Soon, thanks to Cole, they would never have to guess again.

She regretted only that she had never told her grandparents. But now the time was coming for her to let them know the truth about Robbie—and Cole—she wasn’t sure she would ever find the right words.

“I’m glad we had a few people in the dining room this morning,” Abuela said.

Happy for the distraction from her worries, Tina nodded. Luckily, they usually did get a small crowd for their Sunday brunch. Today had been no exception, although the dining room had cleared out now.

Things were looking up for the hotel, as well. A young couple had checked in the night before, and two other parties had booked rooms for the coming week.

They would fill a couple of rooms with family, too. Her cousin Jane had already arrived, and Andi and her children were due in from the airport at any time.

With so many people around, Tina hadn’t found the chance to talk to her grandparents alone.

“Of course, you’re glad to have guests in the dining room, Abuela. You’re always happier when we have more mouths to feed.”

“That’s what I do,” Abuela said simply. “But I’m sorry you had to take Maria’s place.”

The waitress who usually worked the morning shift on the weekend attended classes part-time at the community college. In a panic, Maria had taken the day off to study for an upcoming midterm exam.

“Maria is a good girl,” Abuela said, “but when it comes to her schoolwork, she’s not very organized at all. I’m so happy you were always dependable, never waiting till the last minute to study for your tests.”

Tina stared down at the napkin she was pressing.

Yes, she was dependable and reliable. As Jed often said, she was as steady as they made them—which meant her one slip had always been so much harder to explain.

“Filling in around here is what I do,” she said lightly. Waitress, maid, ranch hand for some of the dude ranch activities—she’d done all those jobs and more. Running a family-owned business meant pitching in whenever you were shorthanded. “I’m just glad I never had to fill in for you. I’ll never be the cook you are, no matter how many lessons you give me.”

“That’s not a bit true. You are an excellent cook. And someday you will be an excellent wife.”

Tina flinched. Quickly, she covered her reaction by grabbing a few more napkins from the basket.

Abuela couldn’t know how much those words had hurt.

She loved both her grandparents and knew how much they loved her. Unlike her parents, they had always been there for her.

For a while after learning her parents had abandoned her, she had felt lost and alone, except with Abuela and Jed and at her home here at the Hitching Post. The attic room upstairs became her sanctuary. The hotel she loved, with its hundred years of history, became her connection to the past. And her dreams of the future were filled with images of the family she had with Cole.

* * *

A SHORT WHILE LATER, hearing Jed’s footsteps approaching the kitchen, Tina managed a smile.

He entered the room grinning. “We’ve got a couple more guests in for brunch. Cole and his sister’s boy.”

His words startled her, but she fought to behave naturally.

She unplugged the iron and went to return it to the shelf in the walk-in pantry. Over her shoulder, she said, “The dining room’s closed.”

“Not for old friends, it isn’t. Go see what he wants to eat, will you?”

Like it or not—and she didn’t—she had to face Cole.

On her way out of the room, she picked up an order pad from the china cabinet near the kitchen door. She forced herself to walk down the hall and through the reception area.

From the dining room, she heard Cole’s deep voice followed by her cousin’s husky laugh.

At the doorway, she stopped. In the otherwise vacant room, Cole and Jane were seated at a table for four near a sunlit window, and Robbie and Scott knelt on chairs at a large table in one corner of the room.

Delaying the inevitable, she focused on that corner table. To her dismay, the boys had already pushed aside the cutlery and lined up a row of plastic farm animals on the tabletop between them. She would have a hard time tearing Robbie away from his play.

She could understand her son’s interest in Cole’s nephew. Other than an occasional guest at the hotel, Robbie was almost as cut off from companionship his own age here at the ranch as she had been as a child. The ranch manager had a couple of kids, but as far as Robbie was concerned, Pete’s five-year-old daughter was “too bossy” and his two-year-old son was “no fun.”

Reluctantly, she tore her gaze away from the boys and looked at Cole.

Jane spotted her standing in the doorway. “Tina,” she said brightly, “where have you been? You’ve got a hungry man waiting here.”

“Have I?”

“Yes. I hope you’re ready to take his order.”

In answer, Tina held up the pad.

“Then I’ll turn him over to you.” After smiling at Cole, Jane rose from the table. As usual, Tina’s older cousin wore black from head to toe and had shoulder-length dark hair. From the chair beside the one she’d been sitting in, she lifted one of the two cameras she had brought to the ranch with her. “Think I’ll go shoot some local color.”

As she left the room, Tina plastered a professional smile on her face and went toward Cole’s table.

In all the years since he had left Cowboy Creek, she had never let herself imagine him here at the ranch again. That would have been too poignant a reminder of the dream that would never come true.

Now that he was sitting in front of her, he was a reminder of all she needed to protect. “What are you doing here?” she demanded, keeping her voice low.

“Layne’s working this morning, so I thought I’d give her a break and bring Scott over for brunch. Since I was headed here, anyway.”

She didn’t miss the unstated warning. He intended to make good on what he had told her the other night. He intended to see Robbie whether she wanted him to or not. She looked from the pot of coffee in front of him to his comfortably sprawled position at the table. Both told her he wouldn’t be in a rush to leave.

He gestured to the empty chair across from his. “Join me?”

“I’ve already eaten.” She clamped her hands around the order pad. She had work to do. A long list of reasons to stay away from him. A longer list of reasons to take Robbie out of this room. She had an even more pressing need to find out what Cole was up to. “Robbie is only a four-year-old,” she said, speaking softly but struggling to keep her tone even. “You can’t just walk in here out of nowhere and turn his life upside down.”

“You really think that’s what I’ve come to do?” He waved as if to brush the question away. “No, don’t answer that. I think I already know.”

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