The Cowboy's Surprise Baby. Deb Kastner

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      He cut off her question and ground out the rest of his answer.

      “My son.”

Chapter Two

      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?

      Uttered from his frowning lips and tight jaw, the word no longer sounded like a compliment.

      Cole was hardly recognizable from the youth he’d once been. He’d sprung up several more inches in height. His shoulders had broadened and his voice had deepened. His skin was weathered. He was clearly a man who spent his time outdoors.

      But it wasn’t so much the physical changes that had shocked her most. It was his attitude, his bitterness, the ice in his gaze. While it felt as if his emotions were gathered in his eyes and flung right at her, she knew he couldn’t possibly still be carrying that big a grudge against her. Yes, she’d hurt him. She would be the first to admit that. But too many years had passed since then. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was...something else. What had happened to him that had put such a big chip on his shoulder?

      Whatever it was, it wasn’t any of her business. He had a family now.

      She refused to acknowledge any hurt that went along with that news. Why should it bother her? Her feelings for Cole had long since been carefully packaged away, deep in the recesses of her heart. She rarely even revisited them anymore. Mostly. Except for those rare instances when loneliness overtook her and the dark of night stretched before her.

      She snorted and rolled her eyes at her own foolishness. When had she become so melodramatic?

      “Are you okay?” The smooth tenor voice of her friend Marcus Ender, the male counselor at the ranch, came from behind her.

      Tessa hadn’t heard him come in, and she jumped in surprise.

      “Don’t do that to me, you jerk,” she admonished him good-naturedly, laying a hand over her hammering heart. “And to answer your question, yes, I’m fine.”

      She attempted to paste a smile on her face, but Marcus tilted his head and cocked one dark blond eyebrow.

      “Now, why don’t I believe that? Come on, Tessa. I’ve known you too long for you to try to pull one over on me. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

      She swallowed air and nearly choked on it. “To be entirely truthful with you, I kind of have.”

      Marcus’s other brow darted up to join the first.

      “Cole Bishop is in town.”

      Tessa and Marcus had known each other since their undergraduate years, when they were both pursuing psychology degrees, and had been good friends ever since. He knew the whole sad story about what had happened between her and Cole and the way things had been left when they parted.

      “Oh, wow,” Marcus replied with a low whistle. “Do you know how long he’s staying? Is he here on leave to visit his family?”

      Her throat hitched. “No. He’s back for good. He’s got a son—a family. And the worst of it is that Alexis hired him to work at the ranch.”

      “Seriously? Why would she do that? Doesn’t she know the history between you and Cole?”

      “That’s the odd thing. Alexis knows exactly what happened between us. She was there when it all played out.”

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