The Cowboy's Little Surprise

by Barbara White Daille

  “And no reason we can’t be friends.”

  After Layne had gone to take care of her customers, Tina sat sipping her tea and thinking of Cole.

  She wished he could believe in himself as much as Layne believed in him.

  The story he had told her about their home life had broken her heart. After listening to that story, after seeing the look on his face and hearing the finality in his tone, she knew there was no point in holding on to her dreams. She would never have her big family with Cole.

  And she feared he could never truly love the son they already shared.

  * * *

  COLE’S WALK DOWN Canyon Road took longer than it would have normally. Scott walked along beside him and stopped every few feet to investigate a store window, sort of like a puppy sniffing every clump of grass.

  At this rate, they wouldn’t get where they were going and back to the apartment before Layne got home from SugarPie’s.

  Knowing he needed some distance from Tina, he had decided to have supper with Scott. Layne was working the evening shift tonight, and he had assured her he could manage to heat up a can of spaghetti.

  The unappetizing meal had turned him off, but Scott enjoyed chasing mini-meatballs around on his plate. Sure he knew what else his nephew would like, he’d stowed the dishes in the dishwasher and said, “Ice cream?”

  And here they were.

  He pulled open the heavy glass door and let Scott scurry in ahead of him.

  At a corner table, he saw Robbie and Rachel. And Tina.

  Robbie spotted them instantly. His huge grin made Cole’s heart thump in a good way.

  Tina’s unsmiling gaze just made his heart thump.

  There was no way for him to avoid her, since Scott had already climbed up into an empty chair at their table.

  “Hey,” he said. “Is this a party?”

  “Just dessert. Ally’s supposed to meet us here at any minute.”

  “We’re out for some ice cream.” Well, yeah.

  “Then you’ve come to the right place.”

  She kept a straight face, but he caught the gleam in her eye. He hadn’t had a conversation this stilted with a female since first grade.

  Come to think of it, that might have been with Tina, too.

  The door opened again, stirring the refrigerated air in the room. He looked in that direction and saw her friend Ally entering the shop. He also saw the man who held the door for her, waiting to make his exit.

  “Excuse me,” he said to Tina and the kids.

  He strode across the room, nodded hello to Ally, then grabbed the door just before it shut.

  Outside, he picked up his pace a notch to grab the shoulder of the man walking in front of him. When he swung him around, the guy almost dropped the white paper sack he was carrying.

  “Out for some ice cream, Terry?” he asked. This time, his words weren’t stilted. The one he muttered under his breath wouldn’t have been fit for the ice cream shop. “It would have been nice of you to think of Scott, considering you’ve stood him up a few times.”

  “I didn’t know if he was home or not. Or if Layne was working.”

  “You ever hear of something called the telephone?”

  “Very funny. Back off, Cole.” Terry narrowed his watery blue eyes and raised his poor excuse for a jaw.

  Cole wondered what Layne had ever seen in him. He took a step forward, herding Terry toward the curb. “You want my cell number? No problem. Then you won’t have to worry about Layne’s schedule, and we can make sure you and Scott have some time together. You want time with Scott, don’t you?”

  Terry said nothing, just sent his gaze toward the ice cream shop.

  Cole sidestepped into his line of vision again. “What kind of man makes promises to a kid and then won’t deliver? What kind of creep invites a three-year-old for ice cream and then doesn’t show?”

  “Hey. I was trying to do Layne a favor and something came up—”

  “Twice?”

  “That’s not even my kid—”

  “That is Layne’s son. All right, he’s not yours. What does that matter? You’ve raised him, you piece—”

  “Cole.”

  “—of crap. What’s your attitude gonna be once the baby comes along?” He moved closer, until Terry backed off onto the street. “You’re divorced—”

  “Cole.”

  “—so you can hand over the responsibility? If I didn’t know the baby was yours, I’d tell Layne to—”

  “Cole!”

  He felt a tug on the back of his shirt and spun around. Tina stood on the sidewalk just a foot from him. Her golden-tan skin had faded to a shade almost as pale as his nephew’s.

  “The kids are watching,” she said in a low voice.

  He shot a glance toward the shop. Inside, all three kids and Ally sat looking through the front window. Luckily, the couple of other customers and the girl scooping ice cream seemed too busy at the counter to notice. He forced a smile and gave the kids a wave.

  They waved back.

  He shot another glance over his shoulder and saw Terry climbing into a pickup truck. He turned back to Tina, resettled his hat and made himself meet her gaze. “Guess I just gave you the perfect example of how much I take after my dad.”

  “Your dad wouldn’t have picked on someone his own size. And you were defending Scott. But as for the way you made your point—”

  “Yeah, well, I suppose I could’ve kept it more civil. I got a little carried away talking to that creep.”

  “So I heard.”

  “How much? Did you hear the part about him promising to take Scott for ice cream and then reneging?”

  She nodded. “That’s about where I came in. Or out, I should say. And that’s what I meant about making your point. You had good intentions, but this wasn’t the time or place—”

  “No? Wouldn’t you have done the same if he’d let down our son?”

  He heard her breath catch. To his dismay, her eyes began to tear.

  “‘Our son?’” She blinked hard and shook her head. “I know this isn’t the time or the place, either, Cole...but I have to tell you this before I say what else I need to say. I love you. I have always loved you. And I won’t believe you don’t already know that.” She crossed her arms.

  He felt his chest tighten.

  “Robbie’s only ‘our son’ to you when it’s convenient,” she said sadly. “I don’t mind at all that you’re spending time with Scott, so please don’t think that’s what this is about. But I want to know—I need to know—what the future’s going to be like for Robbie...with you.

  “Yesterday you told him you were his daddy, and today you weren’t even around to say hello. Is that what he has to look forward to? Like Scott with Terry?” Her voice broke.

  She glanced away from him and took a deep breath.

  He swallowed hard and tried to keep his gaze from the shop window. By the time she looked back at him, he had managed to regain some composure.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly, “so sorry—for what you went through growing up. It sounds like you’re right. It would have been better for you and Layne not to have a father at all.

  “And maybe Robbie would be better off without you, too.”

  The pain in her eyes made him want to reach for her, but he couldn’t seem to move.

  “Layne believes in you,” she said. “I believe in you. But I don’t think you’ll ever be a real daddy to Robbie unless you truly believe in you.”

  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.

  * * *

  COLE 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.”

  * * *

  TINA AND ROBBIE 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 m
ore 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.”