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
