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“Take as much time as you need.” Griff closed the office door behind him.
Cole winced. He didn’t need any time at all. Not one single second. He had nothing to say to Tessa. They might have had something to say to each other years ago, but now there was nothing.
Still, there was no sense standing in front of the closed door. He used his free hand to pry her palm from his chest, feeling as if it were glued there. He removed his hat and tossed it onto the desk, eyeing the chair Griff had vacated. At least that would put some distance between them—distance he desperately needed right now.
He’d thought all it would take to put Tessa behind him was time. Time and the distraction of serving on a United States Navy aircraft carrier.
But looking into her eyes, he might as well have been in high school all over again. His gut flipped and his head spun, just as they had when he’d been a foolish teenager who’d imagined himself in love.
What was wrong with him?
Tessa had caught him off guard, that’s what it was. And then she’d gone and cornered him in this office. It was no wonder his thoughts were bouncing around like a loose racquetball in a closed court.
What did she expect him to say now that she had him penned in here?
Hey, how are you? What’s been happening since we last saw each other?
He scoffed. He had nothing—nothing—to say to her.
He crossed his arms, rocked back on the heels of his boots and waited.
And waited.
Tessa looked equally uncomfortable, shifting her weight from foot to foot as her gaze darted everywhere except him. Tension mounted between them, the strain thick and palpable and tight as a wire.
He shook his head. She looked as if she didn’t want to be here, and he most certainly did not. One of them was going to have to break the silence, and if she wasn’t going to do it, then he would. Better to get this unexpected confrontation out of the way. He had much more important things to do than stand here waiting for her to collect her thoughts.
He narrowed his gaze, growling the question that was highest on his list.
“What do you want, Red?”
* * *
Tessa’s heart skipped a beat and it was all she could do not to gape at him. She hadn’t heard that nickname since the last time they’d been together. A lifetime had passed since then.
One look at Cole confirmed he felt the same. Gone was the smiling, blond young man whose luminescent blue eyes made her feel as if she was the most beautiful woman in the world and the only one for him.
In its place were hard angles, raw muscles, rough edges. He stood with his legs braced and his arms crossed over his massive chest in a universally defensive position. His gaze was cold and hard on hers, his scowl low and ominous. The tic in the corner of his jaw suggested he wasn’t happy about waiting for her to answer his question.
Only she didn’t know the answer. She’d been caught so completely off guard when her eyes had first met Cole’s that every thought had flown from her head. He’d made no apology when he’d tried to excuse himself, clearly anxious to be rid of her. And for some reason she couldn’t explain even to herself, she’d held him back.
What did she expect?
Nothing. Not from Cole Bishop.
Maybe it was the knee-jerk reaction of her more sensible, professional self, already trying to work out the sticky details of this new challenge. Better that than the sheer, foolish impulse on her part of wanting to be near him, if only for a few more seconds.
Nope. She’d go with the rational explanation.
As unfortunate as it might be, their lives had once more intersected. He was working at the ranch now, side by side with her. They’d be forced to interact with each other on an almost daily basis. She couldn’t think of anything more potentially disastrous. With their history...
Sparks were bound to fly. And not the good kind, either.
“So you’ll be wrangling here,” she blurted out, a fact already confirmed by Alexis. But she had to start somewhere.
“Yep.” His gaze narrowed even more.
Well, that was helpful. Tessa tried again.
“You’ve been discharged from the navy?”
He frowned and jammed his fists into the front pockets of his worn blue jeans. “Yep.”
She was beyond frustrated at his cold reception, but she supposed she had it coming. She could hardly expect better when the last time they’d seen each other was—
Well, there was no use dwelling on the past. If Cole was going to work here with her, he would have to get over it.
So, for that matter, would she.
She’d always known there was the possibility Cole would return to Serendipity, but he’d made the navy his career, and she’d assumed that by the time they finally met again, they would both have moved on, would have had spouses and children. He must have returned to Serendipity a few times over the years to visit his family, but he’d obviously gone to great lengths to stay off her radar.
The fact that she hadn’t been able to connect with any other man long-term was irrelevant—as was the way her heart had skidded the moment her eyes met Cole’s.
“I was given to believe you were making a career out of the military,” she said, alluding to the question she wanted to ask without really putting it out there.
“I was.” His brow lowered. There was that tic in his jaw again, the period at the end of his sentence. Clearly he didn’t want to talk to her about himself or the navy, but the questions lingered in her mind.
Why hadn’t he reenlisted at the end of this particular tour of duty? Why had he left the service before he had enough years to draw a pension? What had changed?
She had no right to ask.
But this standoff, or whatever it was, just wasn’t going to work for them. Even if they walked away today without resolving anything, there would be tomorrow—and the next day, and the day after that. Did he not realize they would be interacting with each other on a frequent basis during each of the Mission Months?
“You do know we have to work together?” She couldn’t help it if her question sounded acerbic.
He shrugged. “I don’t see why. You’re not a wrangler.”
It wasn’t a question, exactly, but at least he was talking, so she decided to answer, anyway. “No. No, I’m not. I’m a counselor, actually.”
“A what?”
“Redemption Ranch isn’t exactly a cattle operation. Well, there is plenty of stock to care for, as I’m sure you’ve seen, but there’s much more going on around here than that. Alexis brings in youth who’ve gotten into minor trouble with the law. Instead of community service cleaning trash off the highways, they come here to learn honest work and real love.”
Those words sounded wonderful and positive in theory. If only they worked out so well in practice—but they didn’t. Not always. She would have liked to think she made a difference in the girls’ lives, but sometimes everything she gave just wasn’t enough.
“Juvenile delinquents?”
Tessa chuckled. “That’s one way of putting it.”
“I don’t get it.” He shoved his fingers through his thick blond hair and shook his head. “I thought you wanted to be a lawyer.”
“Daddy wanted me to be a lawyer.” That was a topic for a different discussion, and she wasn’t going to get into that with him now. “When I went to college, I discovered my real interest lay in psychology. I received my master’s degree and then returned to Serendipity to work here at Redemption Ranch.”
“Why?”
“Why did I choose psychology?”
“Why did you come back to Serendipity?”
“I never intended to leave Serendipity in the first place. I thought you knew that.”
His eyes clouded with confusion but quickly froze to an ice blue.
“You were the one who wanted to leave,” she pointed out. She hadn’t realized that at the time, when they were dating as teenagers. She should have seen the signs, but didn’t, hadn’t heard what he was trying to tell her. Cole had thought the navy would be a way of escaping what, to a restless teenage boy, must have seemed like a dull and dreary existence. The polar opposite of what her heart ached for. As an army brat who’d never known a sense of community before she and her father had landed in Serendipity, Tessa had been, and still was, on the totally opposite end of that spectrum. She loved what Serendipity offered.
Just as she hadn’t realized the depth of his desire to leave, Cole hadn’t recognized her need for stability in her life—something the military couldn’t offer. He’d wanted to take her with him on his worldwide adventure. Planned to take her with him, in fact. As his wife.
Wow, had they ever gotten their wires crossed. Talk about a serious lack of communication.
But back then, they’d both been immature teenagers with their heads in the clouds, floating along on the wings of love. Now their feet were on solid, unforgiving ground, anchored there by the weight of reality.
“Still seems to me it won’t be hard to avoid each other,” he said, his voice gravelly.
Especially if we’re trying.
It was what he’d left unspoken that stung her emotions like the crack of a whip. Well, he didn’t need to get so personal. And he was still laboring under a mistaken impression about how often they would have to be in each other’s company.
“I take it Alexis hasn’t run down your job description with you yet. She hasn’t shared the particulars of what the wranglers are expected to do here?”
He scoffed. “We were interrupted before we could finish our conversation,” he reminded her with a bite to his tone. “Anyway, what’s to know? I’ve been riding and roping since before I could walk. Not like I need on-the-job training or anything.”
“Yes, but—” She started to tell him that the wrangling he’d be doing at Redemption Ranch had much more to do with the teenagers than it did with the cattle, but it wasn’t really her place to inform him of his official job description.
Who knew? Maybe Alexis had something different in mind for Cole—something that wouldn’t require them to suffer through the perpetual awkwardness Tessa knew would remain between them.
“Well, I won’t keep you,” she said, reaching back to open the office door. “I just wanted to make sure we had an understanding about how our professional relationship here at the ranch was going to go.”
He scowled at the word relationship and slammed his dark brown Stetson on his head.
“Just came as a surprise, is all,” he muttered.
“I’ll say,” Tessa agreed.
“Didn’t expect to be back in Serendipity for a few years yet. Maybe ever.”
He sounded so bitter that Tessa cringed. What had happened to the boy she’d once known? Who or what had darkened the sunshine that had once shone so brilliantly in his eyes?
“Cole? Why did you come back now?” She knew she was taking a mighty big risk asking such a personal question, but it seemed to her that he’d been the one to open the door to the subject. She held her breath and waited for an answer.
He tipped his hat and started to walk past her without speaking, and Tessa thought she’d pushed him too far. Whatever his issues were, they were his business, and clearly she was the last person on earth he’d talk to about them even if he was inclined to share.
He was almost out the door when he suddenly swiveled around to face her.
“Grayson.” His gaze narrowed on her as if weighing the effect of his words on her.
She scrambled to put his answer in some kind of context but came up with nothing.
“Who—”
He cut off her question and ground out the rest of his answer.
“My son.”
Chapter Two (#ulink_d7ae4a9c-50dc-5676-9af5-81e9703363ca)
Yesterday at the Haddons’ office, after throwing the curveball that emotionally knocked Tessa right off the mound, Cole had walked away without another word.
She walked down the row of pinewood beds within the girls’ dorm, absently making small corrections to the square corners of the sheets as she went. The room was silent and empty now, but tomorrow morning it would be filled with the chitter-chattering of adolescent females, none of them happy about being pawned off into Tessa’s care. At least, at first they wouldn’t be. Tessa’s experience was that the young ladies under her supervision eventually adapted, and she liked to think they left Redemption Ranch better people than when they first arrived.
Now that it was morning, she was bone-weary from lack of sleep and from fighting all the emotions stirred up by Cole’s unexpected pronouncement.
Cole had a son?
Probably a wife as well, although he hadn’t mentioned her.
He had a family.
She let the thought sink in, rest for a moment deep in her chest until her breath evened out.
Why had his news taken her so very much by surprise? It shouldn’t have, and she was a little ashamed by her lack of forethought and her response. Just because she was single and unattached didn’t mean Cole wouldn’t have found someone to settle down and share his life with. That the thought hadn’t even occurred to her at the time explained why she’d been shaken up.
She needed to get her head together. Her newest young charges were arriving for their Mission Month tomorrow, and she had to make sure everything was ready for them. A stab of pain and regret sliced through her gut. She prayed every day that she’d make a real difference in the teenage girls’ lives, but no matter how hard she tried, no matter what she did, it wasn’t always enough. Her mind strayed for a brief moment to Savannah, a girl who’d visited the ranch last summer. Savannah had shown a great deal of promise during her stay. Her attitude, once bitter and angry, melted under Tessa’s tender love and direction. By the time Savannah left, Tessa was certain she was destined for a better future.
She’d been wrong. Shortly after leaving Redemption Ranch, Savannah had become pregnant, and her parents had thrown her out on the street. Tessa had lost track of her then. She didn’t know what had happened to Savannah or her precious baby.
Being the female counselor at the ranch, Tessa was responsible for her teenage girls nearly twenty-four-seven during what the Haddons termed their Mission Months. Ten months a year with little breathing space between groups of kids. It was a hard position to be in and a heavy load to carry, yet Tessa’s heart was completely in her work. She softly whispered another prayer for the six young ladies who’d soon be arriving, asking that this time she’d reach them all.
She groaned and pushed her hair off her forehead with the palm of her hand. If only it were so easy to push the melancholy thoughts from her mind.
Focus.
The humidity was even higher than usual today, and her long, thick locks were unwieldy on the best of days. As a youngster she’d been teased about her frizzy red mop, and she’d always been self-conscious about her hair—until a blue-eyed boy with a smile that could melt glaciers came into her life and made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world, both inside and out.
When Cole had first coined the nickname Red, he had made it sound like the best kind of compliment, his own special name for her, said with the utmost affection. She hadn’t dreamed such love existed—at least not for her. Even as a boy, Cole had changed everything for her.
But yesterday when she’d wandered into the Haddons’ office with her mind on the incoming teenagers, she’d discovered that boy had become a man.
And Red?
