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Tess’s glance bounced among Copper, Sophie and Glenno before she sat. “They look like Lolly’s,” she offered, tilting a smile toward Sophie’s eager eyes. Actually, Glenno’s eyes looked just as eager.
“But do they taste like Lolly’s?” he encouraged, sitting beside Tess so that she was between him and Sophie. “That’d be the million-dollar question.”
With all three sets of eyes fixed on her, Tess picked up the square and had a bite. It seemed like ten minutes went by, even though Cooper was pretty sure it had only been seconds, before she smiled.
“Mr. Glenno, I think you lived up to your reputation.”
Glenno beamed. Sophie giggled happily. The tension Cooper had felt tighten his chest all day in how he was going to give Sophie the best day he could unwound a bit at the culinary victory.
“These are ninety-nine percent Lolly’s. And I couldn’t rightly say that the lacking one percent isn’t just pure loyalty to Lolly.” She took another bite as Sophie leaned in to watch.
Cooper made a big show of absconding with one of the blondies from the plate and began eating.
“Hey!” Sophie cried out. “No fair. I can test again, too, can’t I?”
As if he could deny Sophie anything on her birthday. Cooper slid the plate toward her while Glenno gave a grunt of victory and picked up the last confection. For a moment everyone ate in blissful silence. Cooper sent a prayer of thanks heavenward for the tiny, spontaneous party.
“You can’t tell her you’ve done this,” Tess said eventually. “I love Lolly too much to let her know you’ve figured out her recipe.”
“I promise you,” Cooper said, not bothering to hide his grin, “she’ll never know.”
“I’d never undercut the woman who made these,” Glenno said. “I’m not out to get anyone. I just like the challenge.”
“I just like the results,” Cooper said as he licked his fingers.
“I just like the eating,” Sophie said, sending them all into laughter. “Glenno, you’re the best. You should do Miss Tess’s brownies next.”
Tess shot Cooper a look. Cooper shot his daughter a look. “Sophie, hon, I promised Miss Tess we wouldn’t let Glenno swipe her grandma’s recipe.”
“Brownies?” Glenno looked intrigued and put out at the same time.
“I saw Dad hide ’em in the hall cabinet.” Sophie pronounced. “Want me to go get ’em?”
She began to slide off the stool until Cooper popped up and snatched the crutches out of her reach. “We’d better have another little chat about the virtues of discretion.”
“Dis-what?”
“Not telling secrets that aren’t yours to tell,” Cooper explained. “What do I always say?”
“Everybody doesn’t need to know everything.” Sophie turned back around and plunked her elbows on the counter. “But you love Uncle Hunter and you say he likes everybody to know everything.”
Proving my point exactly. Sophie was a little sponge, picking up on everything he said whether he liked it or not. “I do love Uncle Hunter. But I don’t always agree with him. Brothers are like that.”
“How would I know?” Sophie had been on a rant lately about not having siblings. He hated how lonely her childhood had been. He had good reasons to keep her from the Pine Method fans and fans from her, but that made for more seclusion than Grace would have ever wanted for their daughter.
Grace, God rest her soul. He seemed to miss his late wife more than ever these days. Back when it had been the three of them, their family unit had felt perfect and complete. But now he was constantly aware of just how thoroughly he’d let Grace carry the burdens of parenting—and how inadequate he was to handle it without her, even with Glenno’s help. There just weren’t enough hours in a day to be the Pine Method professional the world expected him to be and the father Sophie needed him to be at the same time.
And it wasn’t like there was other family to turn to. Hunter had no interest in domesticity and with Grace’s parents halfway around the world and his own folks gone, family was in short supply. Cooper didn’t really feel connected anywhere.
And that was going to change. He pulled Sophie into a hug, ruffling the curls that were so much like her mother’s. “You don’t know, that’s why I’m telling ya.” It was one of the reasons he was trying to get off the Pine Brothers’ tour so he could make a go of settling down somewhere good for her. It had been different when she was very small and Grace was around, but hopping from tour to tour with Glenno and him was proving no way to grow up.
“Do you have brothers, Miss Tess?”
“Two of them. And a sister, too.” She’d caught on to Sophie’s pout, for she added, “They’re not as much fun as you think some of the time.”
“Miss Tess here’s a twin.”
As diversionary tactics went, it was a fine one. “No fooling! Does she look just like you?”
Tess laughed. “I hope not. My twin is my brother Luke. My older sister, Ellie, she’s having twins and they’ll be a boy and a girl, too. Luke and I are going to be their godparents. They’ll be here in June, and I’m sure they’ll be cute as buttons.” She turned her eyes to Cooper. “Will you be here in June?”
“We’ll be here forever,” Sophie cut in.
He really needed to watch what details he gave that girl—or at least make her understand which ones to keep to herself. They still needed to play this close to the vest until he could get over the hump of extracting himself from Hunter.
“Forever?” Tess repeated. She’d caught the split-second exchange of glances that flashed between him and Glenno. “So you are buying?”
Sophie said, “Yep!” at the same time Cooper said, “Maybe.”
How to cover that? Cooper wasn’t foolish enough to doubt his secrecy led to speculation within the Texas community. It was perfectly reasonable for folks to think this ranch would simply take its place on the Pine Brothers’ tour the way Hunter’s ranch north of Houston had. Clearly, the Bucktons wouldn’t be lining up to buy tickets.
This would all be better once he told Hunter. He just had to play it quiet until he could settle it within the family. Then he could exit the show and move forward with his plans to open a therapeutic horse ranch for kids like Sophie
For now he just nodded at his daughter and said, “How about those braids now?”
Chapter Three (#uc92f9a23-bffc-57bf-a886-3c9a261c7cb3)
“So...” Ellie said as she eased her swollen frame next to Tess on the overstuffed wicker couch on Gran’s front porch the next day. “What’s Cooper Pine like?” Ellie and her husband, Nash, had a house in town near the office where Nash was sheriff, but on days when Nash was on duty Ellie often came out to the ranch house where Gran loved to fuss over her very pregnant granddaughter.
“I’m just taking care of my girl,” Gran would always say—even though at eighty-five Gran ought to start letting other people take care of her. Some days it was hard to judge which woman’s body gave her more grief; swollen Ellie or aging Gran.
“He’s nicer than he looks on television,” Tess offered.
Gran gave a scandalous wink. “That must be pretty nice. Those Pine brothers are some fine-looking men. Good horse trainers, too,” she added when Ellie rolled her eyes.
“His little girl is darling,” Tess explained.
“So he’s not married—or not married anymore—but a single dad?” Ellie asked. “How come no one knows about his little girl?”
Fishing for the right words to explain the girl’s situation, Tess offered, “I hope it isn’t her disability. She doesn’t seem to let the fact that she has one leg slow her down a bit.”
“One leg?” Gran’s eyes popped. “Like an amputee?”
“I don’t know,” Tess answered. “She was wearing a frilly dress long enough that it was hard to tell anything beyond the fact that there was only one boot and that she walked with crutches. I didn’t think it was right to ask. She wasn’t wearing a prosthesis, though, and it certainly wasn’t a new injury. She was faster than me on those things.”
“I had no idea,” Ellie said. “Like I said, they never mention a daughter on the show. Yes, I watch,” she admitted when Tess gave her a look. “I have to spend a lot of time off my feet these days and they’re entertaining when they bicker. Reminds me of Luke and Gunner.”
“Or Luke and you, for that matter,” Gran said to Tess. “There were days I thought you two would skin each other alive the way you fought. Did you find out his plans for the place? Is Gunner right to be worried that it will become some tourist attraction?”
Tess thought about the way Cooper had dodged her questions about his long-term plans. “Sophie said they would be there ‘forever,’ but he only said a very vague ‘maybe.’ Why hide plans no one would object to? I got the clear impression he isn’t eager to tell anyone what he’s up to.”
“Well, he hasn’t bought yet.” Gran stirred her iced tea and looked out over the Blue Thorn pastures. “That gives us some time to figure out what’s going on.”
Tess followed her gaze, seeing the ranch with fresh eyes after being gone for as long as she had, traveling around the world on freelance photography assignments for a collection of travel guides. Over a hundred bison now roamed the grassy stretches Gran and Grandpa and then Dad had worked when the Blue Thorn was a cattle ranch. Gran had a right to be fiercely protective of what happened around the Blue Thorn. Bucktons had fought long and hard for generations to keep this ranch up and running, and no one wanted it to become the sideshow to a Pine Brothers’ publicity circus.
Gran set down the glass. “We should get to know him. It’s the right thing to do, and useful besides. How old did you say his girl is?”
“Six as of yesterday. Although she reminds me of Audie—a lot smarter and more mature than her years. I get the feeling nothing gets by that girl.”
“Even better. You go on back over there tomorrow, bring them some bison burgers, and invite them to supper Saturday. Audie won’t have school so the two girls can meet, and we can throw us a barbecue like he’s never seen.”
Tess laughed. “They barbecue in Australia, Gran. They barbecue in Korea, for that matter. And he’s spent a fair amount of time in Texas. I think he’s seen barbecue.”
Gran grinned. “Not ours. The man’s already tasted my brownies—how could he possibly turn us down?”
Tess envisioned Glenno dissecting Gran’s brownies behind Cooper’s back and just gave her grandmother a sigh. A second unannounced visit to Cooper and Sophie? Would that look odd? It wasn’t like they had a phone number she could just call. She was pondering about how to word her invitation when she became aware of silence on the porch, and Gran’s eyes fixed on her. “I’ll go over there tomorrow.”
“That’s fine and dandy, but let’s talk about you.” Gran picked up her knitting—a baby blanket in cheery blocks of turquoise and white. Ellie was working on a sweater of the same color combination from her spot on the couch. “I’m glad you’re back, but you still haven’t really said why.”
“I’m home to see Ellie’s twins being born. To do the whole godparent thing with Luke. For Luke and Ruby’s wedding. There are plenty of reasons to be here, so why wouldn’t I visit now?”
Ellie shifted her weight on the couch. “You came home with four suitcases and two cameras. This isn’t a visit.” After a moment Ellie added, “Is it?”
How could she give an answer she didn’t yet know herself? It was so, so good to be home and yet at the same time, she didn’t know what her place was here anymore. Her other siblings had settled so thoroughly into the running of the ranch and its side businesses. Where did she fit? Tess felt like the missing piece in a nearly finished puzzle—everything else was in its place but her. “I’m staying through the wedding, but I don’t know my schedule after that.”
That was a very sketchy way of glossing over the fact that she’d sold all the rest of her equipment and her furniture, walked out on an apartment lease and didn’t have new work lined up. “I don’t know my schedule” was miles away from “my life is in total collapse because of what happened in Adelaide.”
Gran let the knitting fall to her lap. “Don’t get me wrong, sugar, I’m thrilled to have you back on the ranch. I just get the sense there’s more to why you’re here than babies and weddings. I know you. You won’t tell me till you’re good and ready. But I just want you to know I’m ready to listen when the time comes.”
She’d have to tell them eventually. Gran was right—she always did in the end. But sharing this story would be harder than anything she’d ever had to confess before. She’d loved sending back reports from exotic places all over the world, swooping in for short stays where she could dole out bits of news at her own speed. The months she’d spent in Adelaide had turned her life upside down—in both good and bad ways—and she hadn’t yet come up with the words to tell even these people—who loved her—what had transpired. Both intertwined stories were long, emotional tales, and she couldn’t find the words to start the telling. Or to whom.
Should she confide in Luke, who knew her best despite their long estrangement, which had now ended? Gunner, who’d become such a wise leader of the family she hardly recognized him from the rebellious teen who’d left before their father died? Compassionate Ellie, who knew what it was like to have a relationship go sour on a grand scale? Or Gran, who would never judge no matter what Tess revealed? Gran would understand how you can love in an instant for no good reason, how someone can yank the foundation out from under your life in ways you never saw coming.
She could start with Gran, but not here and not now. This had to go in bits and pieces, one bit at a time—only she couldn’t figure out which bit to tell first. For a split second Tess thought it might be easiest to tell Audie, whose “soul was far beyond her years” as Gran used to say. But Audie was far too young to hear about how people you thought you loved could rob you blind.
Tess thought about Bardo. How could she ever explain the way her heart had moved when she’d looked into the little boy’s sweet brown eyes? How he’d told her his name meant “river”? How the orphan’s sadness clung to her in a way she knew would never subside? Four was far too young to be so old and sad. She thought back to yesterday, when she’d seen Sophie all dressed up for her birthday and radiating happiness at her presents. Watching that little girl’s joy only made her ache for the little boy from the Australian foster home she’d met on a photo shoot.
He’d stolen her heart in a single afternoon. Tess had started visiting every week, then twice a week, then every other day. The fierce craving to be Bardo’s mother—something that made no sense and was for all practical purposes nearly impossible—came out of nowhere. The Aussie foster home system worked so well that orphan adoptions of any kind were all but nonexistent. Less than one hundred per year to Aussie families. A twenty-five-year-old, single, American woman didn’t stand a chance. How could she explain how she’d thrown herself and all of her savings into trying anyway? At the urging of a man she thought loved her but turned out to just want her money? The failure felt too big to speak. Too humiliating to share, even with the people who loved her best.
I came home to family because all of a sudden I need to be a family but can’t. Because I lost a lot of money trying. Because Bardo needs my love and I need his but a thousand rules and regulations won’t ever let that happen. Because I’ve been fooled by a man I never should have trusted. Because I’m deep in debt and grieving for something I never had and can’t ever have. I have to figure out what’s next, but I haven’t a clue where to go from here.
Gran’s eyes softened as Tess realized her eyes burned with tears. The old woman reached out and squeezed Tess’s hand—a wordless comfort for a wordless plea.
“I’ve got some things I need to work through.” She fumbled the words out, afraid if she said more the whole story would come rushing out of her before she was ready.
Gran gave her hand another squeeze and offered a sad smile. “Don’t we all, child. Don’t we all.”
* * *
Cooper looked up from some landscaping sketches to peer out his office window at the sound of a vehicle coming up the drive. Who would...?
At the same time he heard Sophie racing down the hall. “Dad, Miss Tess is back!”
He’d told Glenno not to let just anybody in when the intercom buzzed—but he was hard pressed to say this interruption bothered him. Still, why was she back?
Sophie appeared in his study doorway, grinning. He was an introvert, craving his privacy, but clearly Sophie took after her extroverted mother. Her face fairly lit up at the prospect of company. “Well, you ought to go get the door then, girlie.” He stood as Sophie took off toward the front door.
She practically squealed her hello to poor Tess. He was relieved to hear Tess laugh at the enthusiastic greeting—Sophie was a bit much at times, but he loved her exuberance. He’d always thought it God’s gift to a little girl who’d have to scale a mountain of obstacles in life. When he made it to the front door, Tess and Sophie were sitting on a hallway bench while Sophie peered into a brown paper bag.
“What’cha got there, Sophie?”
Sophie looked up with wide eyes. “Bison burgers.” She thought for a moment then asked, “What’s a bison?”
He knew the Blue Thorn Ranch had been revitalized from a failing cattle ranch into a thriving bison ranch by Tess’s older brother Gunner. “It’s another name for a buffalo.”
Sophie looked at Tess. “You can eat ’em? How do they taste?”
“Delicious. You can eat their meat, you can wear their hides, you can even make yarn out of their coats.” Tess leaned in. “You just can’t pet them. Or ride them.”
That made Sophie giggle. He’d pointed the huge brown animals out to Sophie on the rare times they’d gone off the ranch together and some of the Buckton family’s animals stood near the road that separated their ranches.
“Actually, I’m rather glad you haven’t met them yet. There was a time when a few of our bison were known to wander over to this land. The former owner used to get rather steamed about it.”
Another reason Paul Larkey wasn’t everyone’s favorite neighbor. Would that help the case for what he wanted to do when he shifted from tenant to owner of the ranch? Or hurt it? You have to buy it from the foreclosure bank first, which means you have to tell Hunter first, he reminded himself. “Nope,” he offered. “We’ve not had any bison come to visit that I know of.”
“You’ve got a lot of open land here,” she said. “Larkey used to raise cattle, but I expect you know that.”
She was polite enough not to go on to “So what are you going to raise?” but it was clear she was thinking it. It made him wonder what prompted today’s visit. Was this a Buckton family fact-finding mission?
He must have scowled because she got to her feet. “I came with an invitation.”
“And bison burgers,” Sophie added as she handed the bag to Cooper and maneuvered to her feet.
Cooper was impressed that Tess didn’t try to help Sophie up. Sophie could do most things for herself, and was never shy about asking for help if she needed it. Anyone who treated his little girl like every other little girl won points with him. “An invitation?”
“To dinner Friday night. You and Sophie and Glenno, if he promises to keep quiet about any recipe swiping. And...anyone else here.”
Was she fishing to see if there was a Mrs. Pine? “Just the three of us.” In truth, clients would eventually visit on therapy days, but he opted out of mentioning that complication. Two months ago it felt like he couldn’t breathe word of the equine therapy services he wanted to provide, but he was slowly feeling an urge to let it out. Hunter had to be the first to know—but it sure would be nice to hear someone else say, “You’re not crazy. An equine therapy ranch is a good thing, and you should do it.”
“Well,” Tess replied to his earlier comment, “then we’d like ‘just the three of you’ to come to supper Saturday night.”
Cooper had to ask, remembering the suspicious looks Luke had given him in Lolly’s not two days ago. “And your brothers are okay with this?”
“It was my grandmother’s idea, and Gran trumps everyone on the Blue Thorn. Besides, I think getting to know each other is a better idea than throwing each other frosty looks in town, don’t you think?”
So she had noticed. And it felt like she was on his side. Cooper wasn’t prepared for how that wrapped itself around him. His much-lauded instincts told him she wasn’t being nice to him just because he was Cooper Pine. It startled him how refreshing he found the realization.
Sophie dragged him from his thoughts by tugging on his arm. “Can I go bring these to Glenno? Can we have them for lunch?”
