The Cowboy's Little Surprise (17 page)

Chapter Nineteen

After breakfast, Tina went to her office to gather the files she needed.

It had been three days since her trip to town, and she hadn’t seen Cole at all. That night, after his run-in with Terry and then his conversation with her, he had purchased a container of ice cream to go at the Big Dipper, then he and Scott had left the shop.

Robbie and Rachel had gone to a separate table close by, leaving Tina and Ally in the quiet corner.

When Ally asked, Tina repeated most of what had happened between Cole and Terry. She didn’t say much at all about her near-monologue with Cole afterward. Ally would have seen it, but she didn’t press for details. Out of sympathy, Tina knew—although Ally did spend a while sharing details of her own.

As her best friend had put it, “We’re a great pair, Tina. Your cute cowboy is marriage-shy, and my cute wrangler is already married.”

She had proceeded to drown her sorrows in her triple-dip fudge sundae.

Tina’s ice cream cone hadn’t provided any comfort at all. She doubted anything could.

She grabbed the file folders from her desk. Jed, who had watched her so closely for days now, had noticed something wrong. Though she wasn’t looking forward to her upcoming meeting with him, she didn’t have a choice.

When she tracked him down in his den, she found him sitting with a file folder of his own on the desk. “Wanted to talk to you about something,” he said gruffly.

“Okay.”

“The other day, Cole made me an offer regarding the hotel.”

For a moment, her
abuelo
’s flat-out straight delivery method left her breathless. When she could finally speak, her words came out in a croak. “An offer?”
To
buy
the hotel?

Her hopes soared.

Did his offer to Jed prove he cared about her? Had he made this effort to show her what he couldn’t seem to tell her?

But serious, level-headed Tina had to squash those emotion-filled questions. “What kind of offer?”

“An investment to help with the renovations.”

“I see.”

She listened, half her mind taking his words in as he explained Cole’s plan to pool resources with some friends. The other half of her mind could barely cope with the knowledge she had left herself vulnerable to Cole yet again.

“I told him I’d give him an answer in a few days.”

She nodded.

“And I’m turning down their offer. They can keep their money.”

She frowned. “I hope you’re not making that decision because of something to do with me.”

Jed waved her concern away. “If that boy doesn’t have the brains he was born with, how could I trust him or his friends?”

“Then we’ve got a problem, Abuelo. We’re not going to be able to afford a third of the renovations you want done—unless you’re willing to take a look at this proposal.” She slid the paperwork from the file folder and placed it on the desk in front of him.

He barely glanced at the file. “Run it by me.”

“I’ve worked up a budget, but it’s based on a short-term loan. I know you won’t be happy to hear it’s got interest attached. But I’ve got a great rate we should be able to handle easily. And the loan amount is enough to see the hotel through to completion.”

“If you say it’s what we need, that’s good enough for me.”

She sighed. She
needed
more than that. Much more. And it had nothing to do with the hotel.

Still, she was glad for his acceptance, as it would make everything go more smoothly for the renovations.

One of them, at least, would have a dream come true.

* * *

C
OLE
BROKE
DOWN
the last of Layne’s packing boxes and looked at her across the living room. She stood at an ironing board, pressing curtains.

“Now that I’m finally getting these up,” she said, “the place might start feeling like a home.”

She and Tina had the same nesting instincts. “It already feels like a home to me.”

“Thanks.” She smiled. “If I had known you were planning to spend your Saturday with us, I wouldn’t have set up a play date for Scott today. I can call Tina and cancel.”

“No, don’t do that. I’m glad the boys get to see each other. They get along well.”

“It’s nice for Scott to have so many new cousins, too.”

She transferred the curtain to a rod and handed it to him. As he came down the ladder, she gestured around the room. “What do you think? Haven’t we done a great job?”

“You’ve done most of the work. I was just the helper.”

“Oh, no, you weren’t. You were here every step of the way. You’ve always been here for me. I don’t want to push, but I hope you know, I’m here for you, too. And in case you’re wondering, when I’ve seen Tina at the shop this week, she hasn’t said a word about you.”

“That supposed to make me feel good?”

“You know what I mean.”

He paced toward the end of the living room to look through the kitchen doorway. Scott sat at the table, busy for the moment with his coloring book.

The chance to talk to Layne alone was too good to pass up. He paced back toward her.

Nothing could ease his need to move. He just wished he had more space in the small living room. Like that one afternoon by the corral when he’d had the boys pretending to be lions, he wished he could run off to the jungle.

The art of pretending seemed to run in his family.

She frowned. “Everything all right? You seem tense.”

“I am tense.” He tried to ease his tight jaw. “When I first found out about Robbie, I told Tina I wanted him to have the chance to get to know me before I told him I was his daddy. That’s as far as we got.” Loath to bring up a touchy subject for Layne, he hesitated, then finally admitted, “We never talked about support. But naturally I’m going to be responsible for my kid.”

“Of course you would feel that way. Unlike a lot of other men.”

He winced every time he thought of how he’d confronted her ex at the ice cream shop. But once she heard the story, Layne told him she was writing Terry off. She had to think of Scott. And to consider her pride.

Tina had her pride, too, and lots of it. Like Jed, she would probably want to settle things with a handshake. He wouldn’t accept that.

But to tell the truth, he didn’t like the thought of discussing these subjects with her at all. He didn’t like the idea of anything that would raise more barriers between them.

No matter how much she’d stressed to him that her concerns were for their son, he could see that forever look in her eyes. Or maybe he just wanted to know she still believed in forever.

Then he thought about what she wanted
him
to believe...

And made himself stop right there.

“I’ve told her the truth all along,” he said. “I’m not marriage
or
daddy material.”

“Please don’t sell yourself short.” Layne’s voice broke. “You always do, and I know why. But it’s not true. Don’t you see that taking care of me, watching out for me the way you did, trained you be a wonderful husband and daddy?”

She brushed at her eyes. Then she gave him a wry smile. “Listen, I may have picked a couple of bad apples in the past, but at least that’s taught me how to look for the good ones in the barrel. And I’ve never had trouble seeing you’re a great man.”

“I don’t know about that.” He gestured at the room around them. “Maybe if I’d done a better job saying no to you the first time, you’d wouldn’t be in this place now.”

“That’s on me, not you. You can’t let my bad choices worry you. And if you hadn’t let me make those choices, I wouldn’t have Scott.”

“There is that,” he agreed. “You’re a good mom.”
Like Tina.
He had to be truthful about that.

“And I’m going to be a good wife to somebody again.” She crossed the room and rested her hand on his arm. “Mom and Dad are long gone. But if we refuse to hold out hope for happy-ever-afters, we’ll be letting them ruin our lives. And our kids’ lives. And,” she said very softly, “you’ll be ruining Tina’s life, too. We can’t let any of that happen, Cole. We’re
all
worth more than that.”

* * *

T
INA
AND
R
OBBIE
arrived ahead of schedule at the miniature golf course on the outskirts of Cowboy Creek. She had taken a seat in the shade near the registration desk.

During the past fifteen minutes, Robbie had run to the grassy strip beside the parking lot more times than she could count.

“Here you go, Robbie. Why don’t you buy our scorecards?”

“For Scott and his mama, too?”

“Yes.” She handed him the exact change and watched as he walked to the registration desk. As usual this early, the golf course was quiet. The transaction didn’t take long, and he started toward the parking lot again.

“Running back and forth isn’t going to bring Scott and his mom here any faster,” she called.

Running every conversation she’d had with Cole through her head over and over wouldn’t bring him back, either. And still, she couldn’t stop herself. She couldn’t keep from wondering where he had been all week, either. Since Monday, he hadn’t come for dinner in the dining room at all. More than likely, he ate at Layne’s or SugarPie’s or even the Lucky Strike.

When she had tried to find out from Jed, he had muttered something about absence making her heart grow fonder. She didn’t tell Abuelo her heart had already broken.

“You’re wrong, Mama!” Robbie shouted. He ran up to her, his eyes wide in astonishment. “I brought Scott
and
I brought my daddy.”

“Oh, honey, I don’t think so.”

“Yes, Mama. Look right there.”

Despite warning herself that Robbie had to be mistaken, she couldn’t stop the way her miraculously restored heart raced. She turned to look and saw Cole and Scott approaching.

Scott ran ahead of Cole, and both boys went to get their golf clubs.

Cole stopped a few feet away and shoved his hands in his back pockets.

“I...didn’t expect you,” she said. “Are you planning to stay or just dropping Scott off?”

“Staying. If you’re not afraid of being compromised.”

She hesitated, then finally said, “There are a few things I’m afraid of, but being compromised by you isn’t one of them.”

“Sounds good.” He looked at the desk. “Clubs over there?”

“Clubs there. Scorecards here.” She held up the extras.

He plucked them from her hand.

“Is Layne okay?”

“Yeah. I told her I’d fill in for her today.”

“Oh. I didn’t know when I’d get the chance to talk to you again. I’m glad you’re here.” She clutched the second pair of scorecards. “Before we join the boys, I just wanted to say I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I owe you an apology for not telling you about Robbie. You were right. I could have reached you through Layne. And I should have.”

She took a deep breath, then continued. “I meant what I’d said to you. It breaks my heart to think I don’t know how much you’ll ever be capable of loving Robbie. But you
are
his daddy. And I won’t stand in your way. No matter how big or small a role you want to play, you deserve to be a part of his life.”

“I do want a part in his life. A big one.”

His admission thrilled her. “I’m glad for that, too. Sincerely.”

The boys ran up to them. Over their heads, Cole smiled at her and she smiled back.

She’d spent her entire life, or so it seemed, loving Cole and letting him see everything she was thinking. Everything that was in her heart. But she never could read him the same way. And she wouldn’t jump to conclusions about what he wanted now.

Robbie took her hand. “C’mon, Mama. C’mon, Daddy. You’ve gotta get your sticks.”

There wasn’t time for any personal conversation as they worked their way around the course. Cole helped Robbie with his putts and Robbie in his turn helped Scott. She followed them, happy to be with them all.

When the first game was finished and the boys wanted another, Tina agreed but said, “I’ll sit this one out.” She took a seat on the bench in the center of the course and watched.

After a while, Cole told the boys to go on ahead of him. He came over to sit beside her.

“You play as well as the boys do,” she said.

“Well, I’m not up to par today.”

She groaned. “Bad pun.”

“I am a player, though. Or at least, I was. That’s something you were right about in school. Calling me a playboy.” He tapped the toe of his boot with his club. “All I wanted was to play. To have fun. To avoid getting serious. All I lived for was the day I could get out of Cowboy Creek. Now you know about my family, maybe you can understand.”

“I do.”

He shook his head. “And then there was you. The most serious girl I’d ever met.

“Even in grade school, I used to see you looking at me with those big brown eyes, all solemn. And as they say, I could read you like a book. I wasn’t kidding about seeing you were a forever kinda girl. And after seriousness, if there was one thing I didn’t do, it was forever.

“Then we got thrown together in high school, and things led to those nights we spent talking in the truck. The night we slept together, I knew I was in big trouble. Because you’d gotten me started thinking about the future.”

He tapped his boot again, looked over at the boys, shifted his Stetson and, finally, gave a heavy sigh.

“Tina, the next day, when you asked me to the Sadie Hawkins dance, I panicked. Because I knew what you expected, and it was so much more than a dance and so much more than I could ever give you.

“My dad drummed that into me, telling me over and over again I wasn’t worth much.”

“Just because he said it doesn’t mean it has to define you. I used to think, because my parents had abandoned me, I wasn’t worth loving. I wasn’t worth anything. I know that’s not true. And I always knew Abuela and Jed loved me. But I convinced myself no one else would. I had to learn to believe in myself.”

He shrugged. “Well, I guess I never got to that stage, till now. But while I was working on getting there, hearing you say the other day that you believe in me was one of the best things that ever happened to me.” He reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers. “Telling me I deserve to be part of Robbie’s life is, too.”