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“Sure thing.” He watched her clip down the hall before turning to Tess. “Thanks for the burgers. And the invite.”
“You’re welcome.”
There was an odd, stretched-out moment where they realized they were alone together with nothing much to talk about. Tess shrugged and looked around the great room behind them. “You know, it’s not at all like I pictured it.”
“How’s that?”
He walked ahead of her into the room. The space had too much dark wood in it—the place needed lightening up in a million ways—but there was a solidness to the property Cooper could see under all the dated fixtures. When the rental manager had showed him the place as “a real bargain,” he’d had this inexplicable sense of him needing it and it needing him. Not that he’d ever voice anything so odd.
“We used to make up stories about the inside of this place when I was growing up.” She looked at the room with just a hint of the long-lost feeling he’d had at his first look.
It couldn’t be her first look—she’d grown up across the road from the place, hadn’t she? “You mean you’ve never seen the inside of the house before?”
“Dad and Mr. Larkey were never friends. My brothers and I used to dare each other to see how close we could get to this house before old man Larkey chased us off. Gunner told me he saw hunting trophies through the windows once, and we made up stories about how he got them.”
“There were two or three on the walls when I got here. I took them down before Sophie arrived.” He looked around the room, finding it still too dark and bare for the place Sophie would grow up.
“She’ll love Martins Gap. Sure, we’ve got some of the small-town gossipy stuff going on, but you’ll find most folks will take to her like ducks to water.” She turned to him, evidently deciding to be direct. “I’ll warn you, those burgers and the supper invitation come with strings attached. My family really wants to know what your plans are.”
That was no surprise. “Texans are a neighborly lot, but two visits in four days tells me y’all are seriously curious.” He used the colloquialism as a joke, but as soon as it was out of his mouth he realized it sounded absurd in his accent.
“Just so you know, you’ll be grilled Saturday night.” She went on. “In the most polite way possible, but grilled none the less. I figured it was fair to warn you.”
“Consider me warned,” he replied as he opened the doors that led out to the patio. She’d made a gesture on her part, he ought to do the same. “So I’ll say this. I’ve got plans under consideration. I’m just not of a mind to share them yet.” He tucked his hands into his pockets. “Will that be enough?”
She raised one eyebrow. “I doubt it.” She exhaled and sat on the low stone wall that surrounded the patio. “But I get what it’s like to not be ready to tell the whole world all your plans. The need to keep secrets. But my brothers are going to make it hard on you. You shouldn’t blame them—they’ve fought hard to keep the Blue Thorn going and to make it a success, and they’re afraid whatever you’ve got planned might be a threat.”
Cooper sat in one of the old wooden chairs that had been left with the property. “So you came to feed me, invite me and warn me?”
She smiled. “Well, yes. You should also know I think Audie could be a great friend to Sophie, and it’ll help if Gunner’s not suspicious of your motives.”
He stretched his legs out, crossing one boot over the other. “And what does Gunner think my motives are?”
“Honestly?”
“Straight up, mate. I’ve probably heard it all before anyway.”
Her back straightened. “He’s worried he’ll wake up one morning to a full-blown Piney fan festival out his front window. He thinks you’ll be bringing the whole TV thing here, complete with crowds and fuss.”
“That I’ll open a souvenir shop in town next to the Blue Thorn Store where he sells his stuff?” he continued, fully aware he was pushing her buttons. “How would that be different from what your family already does? Wouldn’t both offer products to the public that support a family ranch business?”
“I wouldn’t put a single store selling bison meat and yarn in the same boat as a franchise pitching arena shows, DVDs and T-shirts.” When he raised an eyebrow she added, “We don’t have a fan club.”
“So everyone expects me to be the showman Hunter is.”
“And you’re not?”
She had him there. He hadn’t given them any reason to think he didn’t share Hunter’s obsession with a high profile.
Still, that didn’t make his brother the bad guy here. He wasn’t even involved in what this ranch would become—even if he didn’t know that yet. “Hunter is my brother. I owe lots of what I have to him and what he’s done.”
He didn’t quite hide the unspoken “but...” tacked on the end of that thought. She evidently knew a dodge when she saw one. “Is he your partner in this? In whatever it is you’re thinking of doing here?”
He’d heard the Bucktons were stubborn, but he hadn’t expected Tess to be this relentless. And she was the one who seemed to be on his side! Just what was he in for on Saturday?
“I know you don’t owe us an explanation,” she said, softening her tone, “but it would help things if you told us what you aren’t doing here if you can’t tell us what you are going to be doing.”
Cooper didn’t like being pushed, but he also didn’t like starting off on the wrong foot with people who would be his neighbors and hopefully friends to Sophie. He pulled in a breath then let it out slowly. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
She frowned. “That’s not much to go on.”
“It’s not anything I want made public. At least, not yet. So that’s the best I can do. Even at a barbecue.”
“Well, I’m not going to take back the invitation, if that’s what you’re thinking. You’re still invited. And warned.” She paused for a second before offering him a startling smile, completely out of place given the tension of their conversation just now. “I hope you’ll come.”
Chapter Four (#uc92f9a23-bffc-57bf-a886-3c9a261c7cb3)
Cooper’s second thoughts Saturday morning did not meet with Sophie’s approval. His daughter looked as if he’d plunged a knife through her tiny little heart when he suggested declining the Bucktons’ barbecue invitation. “Of course I want to go to the party!” she whined, draping herself across the couch in pint-size devastation. If he put his foot down and begged off, he’d have a miserable night here, that was clear. “I wanna go,” she moaned, limbs stricken akimbo in flailing disappointment. “I hafta go.”
Cooper began picking up the pieces of the game they had been playing. “You don’t hafta go anywhere. And it’s not a party. It’s just a supper.” A supper he doubted would be much fun for him, at least, even if it meant seeing Tess Buckton again. Then again, Sophie would meet Audie, and that was worth enduring the “grilling” Tess had said was coming, wasn’t it?
“It’s a barbecue. A bison barbecue. I’ve never been to one before.” One hand lay across her forehead in such a drama-queen pose Cooper wondered what movies she’d been watching. “And now I’ll never go.”
He tried to swallow his reluctance as he slid the lid onto the game box. “I know you like Miss Tess and all...”
“I love Miss Tess. I wanna meet the little girl at her ranch. She’d said we’d like each other.” Sophie didn’t have to actually say “and now you’re taking it all away” because her eyes screamed it at him. “Why’d you hafta fight with her?”
“We didn’t fight.”
Sophie sat up and crossed her arms over her chest. “She didn’t seem very happy when she came in the kitchen to say goodbye.”
“We had a discussion. Maybe a difference of opinion, but not a fight. That’s different.” He pointed at Sophie. “Just like you and I are having a difference of opinion right now.”
Sophie’s chin practically sank itself into her chest. “No, we’re fighting. Miss Tess invited us to a party and you’re saying we’re not going. Did she take her invitation back?”
Cooper made it a point never to lie to Sophie, which made her ability to ask just the wrong question all the more exasperating. Tess had, in fact, reiterated her invitation despite their tense discussion. “No, she didn’t, but it still won’t be any fun if we go.”
“It’d be fun for me,” Sophie said softly. Her tone pinched his heart hard. What father wants to disappoint his daughter? She was right, though—it probably would be fun for her, even if it might end up torture for him.
She looked up at him with her “sad puppy eyes,” her ultimate weapon against his willpower. Life had denied Sophie so much—a normal body, a mother to grow up with, family to surround her—he hated to be the one to deny her anything else.
“You really want to go?”
Clearly sensing he was weakening, she upped her game. In one move, she flung herself from the couch onto his lap. “More than anything. Pleeeeaaaasssseee can we?”
He knew that tone. The stubborn streak that got Sophie through the aftermath of her accident had a dark side, and he’d just landed in the middle of it. He’d hear that whiny request nonstop until he relented. Still, on things that really mattered, he could dig his heels in and be just as stubborn as Sophie.
But did this really matter? Could he tiptoe his way through a night of relentless Buckton questions if it meant Sophie could make friends with another girl near her age? It couldn’t get that bad—no one would want to launch an argument in front of the kids. If he showed up a bit late and only stayed until Sophie’s bedtime, surely he could stand it. I’ve been stepped on, bitten, thrown, knocked over and kicked by the worst horses on two continents, he reasoned. How bad could half a dozen Bucktons be?
“Okay, we’ll go. Now go and see if Glenno’s ready for you to help set the table.” Glenno had rigged a special backward sort of backpack that allowed Sophie to carry plates and silverware to the table one at a time. It took much longer, but Cooper liked that Glenno was always quick to adapt the standard child chores to Sophie’s abilities. Besides, the fifteen minutes it took Sophie to set three place settings was a bit of peace and quiet he sorely needed at the end of some days.
That peace and quiet was broken by rings from the telephone. Hunter’s tone as he said, “G’day, mate,” told him his unreturned phone call from earlier in the week hadn’t gone unnoticed. “I know you’re supposed to be on holiday, but have you got a minute for some good news?”
Cooper leaned back on the leather sofa. “Sure.”
“The blokes in legal did a good job. We’ve got a signed statement from Lynette Highland. No more worries in that department. If she shows up anywhere near you, we have immediate grounds for a restraining order.”
Cooper sighed. While he didn’t want to talk about his future plans, he wanted to discuss this issue even less. “I’m glad to have that whole thing over with.”
“You and me both, mate. What a circus that was.”
Lynette was a production assistant—a very good, very pretty, production assistant—who had worked on the show. Three months ago she’d taken the very small inch of attention Cooper paid her and tried to run ten miles with it.
Making sure that Cooper had everything he needed was part of her job, and he’d barely noticed at first when she’d dialed up her attentions, constantly checking in with him and flirting all the while. When he had noticed, he’d been flattered and had allowed himself to cautiously flirt back, thinking a little dating might be nice. It had been the first time since Grace that a woman had even halfway appealed to him. Even Hunter had approved of Lynette as Cooper’s “first wade back into the dating pool.” They’d both been stunningly wrong—a Pine Brothers’ first, to be sure.
The first date had been pleasant enough, but afterward her attentions toward him went from flattering to obsessive. Soon it had turned into a nightmare of phone calls, notes, far too intimate emails, even trying to show up at a hotel where he was staying on tour. He’d talked with Lynette. Hunter had sat with her. Even the producer very bluntly telling her she was endangering her job didn’t seem to make a dent in her determination to win him over by every means available—without seeming to realize that all she was doing was frightening him away.
Lynette believed she had “found her meal ticket”—as Hunter began to put it—and didn’t seem to think her job needed to matter much anymore. By the end, legal had had to step in and talk about a court order. The great blessing in it all was that sheer logistics—or God’s mercy, as Cooper saw it—had kept Lynette from ever meeting Sophie. The whole business was the tipping point for Cooper’s decision to leave the Pine Method.
“So now we can get on with the new season without having any of that drama getting in the way. I gave the legal guys a ‘good-on-ya’ bonus for handling it quiet-like. That’s not the kind of press any of us needs.”
The new season is already being planned? You can’t wait forever, mate, you’ll have to tell him soon. But “soon” doesn’t have to mean “now.”
“No new season talk for a bloke on holiday. I’m glad for this news, but the rest can wait.” He ignored the pang of guilt he felt for changing the subject. “What’s this big surprise that’s taking you so long to ship Sophie for her birthday?”
“Should be there soon. She’s gonna love it.”
Hunter had a flair for grand gestures that often defied common sense or, at least, parental wisdom. He relished his role as the indulgent favorite—if only—uncle, and had been known to go a bit overboard. There was a tricked-out, pink-and-purple ride-on Jeep on Hunter’s ranch with “Sophie” painted on the side to prove it.
“Does it require safety gear?” It was only half a joke.
“Not a bit. Smaller than a breadbox, this one.”
“What do they say about big surprises coming in small packages?”
“Relax, mate, you’ll like this one. Although I’ll say this much—it’s something you’d never get her.”
“Well,” Cooper laughed, feeling a bit of the strain vanish between them, “that leaves the door wide-open.”
“I’ll be in on the eighteenth and we can catch up then,” came Hunter’s voice. “Gotta run—we’re heading off to the last location in an hour. Kiss Sophie for me.”
“Will do. ’Bye.”
Cooper sat back after putting the phone down, a bit disappointed in himself for throwing away another opportunity to have his much-needed talk with Hunter—but still glad to know that whole business with Lynette was behind him. He ran his hands down his face, remembering the one mistake of a kiss. He’d been so careful up until then, knowing he was only on the outer edges of his grieving for Grace. He’d kept the loneliness at bay with business, but as Lynette had proved, it hadn’t solved anything.
Will it get worse or better out here, Lord? Help me be more careful. I can handle a problem like Lynette, but Sophie will latch onto anyone I let close.
Anyone like Tess Buckton. Had she already gotten too close? Could he keep things within clearly defined margins where those intriguing blue eyes were concerned?
The barbecue might tell him soon enough.
* * *
Tess’s cousin Witt Buckton raised an eyebrow as he handed a big package of bison burgers over the meat counter window. Officially in charge of the Blue Thorn Ranch’s food truck that sold burgers and sides in downtown Austin, he wasn’t at the Blue Thorn Store very often. Some of that had to do with his professional focus. A lot more had to do with the truck’s pretty chef, Jana. Tess only had to see those two together for a handful of minutes at Ellie’s wedding to know things had heated up in more than the truck’s tiny mobile kitchen. The couple had married last August, and Tess had been sorry not to be able to make it back in for her cousin’s wedding.
“Who’s coming to supper?” Witt asked, noting the large amount of burgers she’d ordered.
“Cooper Pine and his daughter.”
“I heard he’s renting the old Larkey place, but I didn’t know he had a family. Y’all getting a new neighbor?”
“It’s anybody’s guess. He says it’s just him and his daughter for the summer. Gunner and Luke think he’s got plans—maybe to buy the place and make it part of the Pine Method franchise—but Cooper won’t say. I warned him he’ll get more of a grilling than the burgers, but he’s coming anyway.”
Witt laughed. “Brave soul.”
“How’s Austin’s latest foodie power couple?”
Witt nearly glowed. “Will it sound dumb if I say ridiculously happy?”
Everyone within the Buckton family seemed ridiculously happy these days. Everyone except her, that is. It felt almost freakish to be nursing such private, painful wounds among all these gleeful relatives. “You’ve put on a few pounds,” she teased. “Being married to a chef obviously agrees with you.” The spark in Witt’s eye clearly had to do with more than just good cooking.
He came out from behind the counter. “So, Ellie thinks you’re back to stay—are you?”
It was a fair question, seeing how Gunner, then Ellie and then Luke had all returned to the ranch for good. Even Witt, who had grown up only visiting the Blue Thorn from his father’s ranch, had chosen to join the Blue Thorn business. Still, the number of times she was asked that question was beginning to niggle under her skin. She tried to laugh it off. “I’m here for a stretch, between the twins coming and Luke’s wedding. Beyond that, I don’t know.”
She fingered the selection of bison yarn gloves and scarves that hung on a nearby wall, evidence of how her sister Ellie had added to the family business. Now, Ellie was busy putting the final touches on baby blankets and booties. More happiness to envy and not have. She wouldn’t ever be asking Ellie to knit scarves or hats for Bardo. Those joys would belong to his foster parents, not her. She planted a “happy auntie” smile on her face. “I’m in between assignments, so everything’s up for grabs. Could be back to Adelaide, could be off to the Alps.” That wasn’t entirely true. She’d sold nearly all of her equipment to pay the adoption fees her adviser, Jasper Garvey, had required. Jasper had also made her believe he was helping because he loved her. She’d been ready to ditch her globetrotting lifestyle to settle down with Bardo, at whatever job would keep her in one place. She could try to roust up new freelance jobs and the equipment to cover her debts—and probably ought to—but that would take confidence and bravery she no longer felt she had.
Tess changed the subject. “I hear there’s a second big blue bus in the works?” Everyone teased Witt for the bright, almost eye-searing color he’d chosen for the food truck, but no one could deny it stood out, making it easy to spot—an important trait for a food truck in a competitive market.
His smile widened. “Launches in about a month. Jana says Jose is ready, and with Marny coming in the store full-time to fill in for Ellie, we’re ready to expand.”
Jose, who had been a protégé of Will and Jana’s, was about to become a food truck chef in his own right rather than working with Jana as her assistant chef. Marny was a girl Ellie had mentored through a teen program at the church who’d had her share of problems but had made a way for herself thanks to Ellie and work at the Blue Thorn Store.
Gunner, Luke and Ellie were settled and happy. Not that they—or even Gran—hadn’t known hard times. It was just that they’d all come shining through those challenges, and Tess couldn’t clearly see that in the cards for her anymore.
“Are you and Jana coming tonight?”
Witt shook his head. “The truck’s got to be downtown for an event. It’ll be a hot date night in the hot kitchen, I’m afraid.” His words spoke of work but his eyes beamed with the pleasure of working with his bride.
I’m only twenty-five, Tess told herself. That’s too young to feel like that will never happen for me.
“Have fun tonight,” Witt called as another customer came into the store.
“We’ll have something tonight,” Tess replied, recalling the tense nature of her conversation with Cooper Pine. “I’m just not sure it will be fun.”
Chapter Five (#uc92f9a23-bffc-57bf-a886-3c9a261c7cb3)
Tess had once had the opportunity to photograph a famous high-wire act. She’d been allowed up on the platform with the tightrope-walker, given access to the breathtaking perspective from way up high.
