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.”
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
