The Texas Rancher's New Family

“Just so you know, you’ll be grilled Saturday night.” She went on. “In the most polite way possible, but grilled none the less. I figured it was fair to warn you.”

“Consider me warned,” he replied as he opened the doors that led out to the patio. She’d made a gesture on her part, he ought to do the same. “So I’ll say this. I’ve got plans under consideration. I’m just not of a mind to share them yet.” He tucked his hands into his pockets. “Will that be enough?”

She raised one eyebrow. “I doubt it.” She exhaled and sat on the low stone wall that surrounded the patio. “But I get what it’s like to not be ready to tell the whole world all your plans. The need to keep secrets. But my brothers are going to make it hard on you. You shouldn’t blame them—they’ve fought hard to keep the Blue Thorn going and to make it a success, and they’re afraid whatever you’ve got planned might be a threat.”

Cooper sat in one of the old wooden chairs that had been left with the property. “So you came to feed me, invite me and warn me?”

She smiled. “Well, yes. You should also know I think Audie could be a great friend to Sophie, and it’ll help if Gunner’s not suspicious of your motives.”

He stretched his legs out, crossing one boot over the other. “And what does Gunner think my motives are?”

“Honestly?”

“Straight up, mate. I’ve probably heard it all before anyway.”

Her back straightened. “He’s worried he’ll wake up one morning to a full-blown Piney fan festival out his front window. He thinks you’ll be bringing the whole TV thing here, complete with crowds and fuss.”

“That I’ll open a souvenir shop in town next to the Blue Thorn Store where he sells his stuff?” he continued, fully aware he was pushing her buttons. “How would that be different from what your family already does? Wouldn’t both offer products to the public that support a family ranch business?”

“I wouldn’t put a single store selling bison meat and yarn in the same boat as a franchise pitching arena shows, DVDs and T-shirts.” When he raised an eyebrow she added, “We don’t have a fan club.”

“So everyone expects me to be the showman Hunter is.”

“And you’re not?”

She had him there. He hadn’t given them any reason to think he didn’t share Hunter’s obsession with a high profile.

Still, that didn’t make his brother the bad guy here. He wasn’t even involved in what this ranch would become—even if he didn’t know that yet. “Hunter is my brother. I owe lots of what I have to him and what he’s done.”

He didn’t quite hide the unspoken “but...” tacked on the end of that thought. She evidently knew a dodge when she saw one. “Is he your partner in this? In whatever it is you’re thinking of doing here?”

He’d heard the Bucktons were stubborn, but he hadn’t expected Tess to be this relentless. And she was the one who seemed to be on his side! Just what was he in for on Saturday?

“I know you don’t owe us an explanation,” she said, softening her tone, “but it would help things if you told us what you aren’t doing here if you can’t tell us what you are going to be doing.”

Cooper didn’t like being pushed, but he also didn’t like starting off on the wrong foot with people who would be his neighbors and hopefully friends to Sophie. He pulled in a breath then let it out slowly. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

She frowned. “That’s not much to go on.”

“It’s not anything I want made public. At least, not yet. So that’s the best I can do. Even at a barbecue.”

“Well, I’m not going to take back the invitation, if that’s what you’re thinking. You’re still invited. And warned.” She paused for a second before offering him a startling smile, completely out of place given the tension of their conversation just now. “I hope you’ll come.”

Chapter Four

Cooper’s second thoughts Saturday morning did not meet with Sophie’s approval. His daughter looked as if he’d plunged a knife through her tiny little heart when he suggested declining the Bucktons’ barbecue invitation. “Of course I want to go to the party!” she whined, draping herself across the couch in pint-size devastation. If he put his foot down and begged off, he’d have a miserable night here, that was clear. “I wanna go,” she moaned, limbs stricken akimbo in flailing disappointment. “I hafta go.”

Cooper began picking up the pieces of the game they had been playing. “You don’t hafta go anywhere. And it’s not a party. It’s just a supper.” A supper he doubted would be much fun for him, at least, even if it meant seeing Tess Buckton again. Then again, Sophie would meet Audie, and that was worth enduring the “grilling” Tess had said was coming, wasn’t it?

“It’s a barbecue. A bison barbecue. I’ve never been to one before.” One hand lay across her forehead in such a drama-queen pose Cooper wondered what movies she’d been watching. “And now I’ll never go.”

He tried to swallow his reluctance as he slid the lid onto the game box. “I know you like Miss Tess and all...”

“I love Miss Tess. I wanna meet the little girl at her ranch. She’d said we’d like each other.” Sophie didn’t have to actually say “and now you’re taking it all away” because her eyes screamed it at him. “Why’d you hafta fight with her?”

“We didn’t fight.”

Sophie sat up and crossed her arms over her chest. “She didn’t seem very happy when she came in the kitchen to say goodbye.”

“We had a discussion. Maybe a difference of opinion, but not a fight. That’s different.” He pointed at Sophie. “Just like you and I are having a difference of opinion right now.”

Sophie’s chin practically sank itself into her chest. “No, we’re fighting. Miss Tess invited us to a party and you’re saying we’re not going. Did she take her invitation back?”

Cooper made it a point never to lie to Sophie, which made her ability to ask just the wrong question all the more exasperating. Tess had, in fact, reiterated her invitation despite their tense discussion. “No, she didn’t, but it still won’t be any fun if we go.”

“It’d be fun for me,” Sophie said softly. Her tone pinched his heart hard. What father wants to disappoint his daughter? She was right, though—it probably would be fun for her, even if it might end up torture for him.

She looked up at him with her “sad puppy eyes,” her ultimate weapon against his willpower. Life had denied Sophie so much—a normal body, a mother to grow up with, family to surround her—he hated to be the one to deny her anything else.

“You really want to go?”

Clearly sensing he was weakening, she upped her game. In one move, she flung herself from the couch onto his lap. “More than anything. Pleeeeaaaasssseee can we?”

He knew that tone. The stubborn streak that got Sophie through the aftermath of her accident had a dark side, and he’d just landed in the middle of it. He’d hear that whiny request nonstop until he relented. Still, on things that really mattered, he could dig his heels in and be just as stubborn as Sophie.

But did this really matter? Could he tiptoe his way through a night of relentless Buckton questions if it meant Sophie could make friends with another girl near her age? It couldn’t get that bad—no one would want to launch an argument in front of the kids. If he showed up a bit late and only stayed until Sophie’s bedtime, surely he could stand it. I’ve been stepped on, bitten, thrown, knocked over and kicked by the worst horses on two continents, he reasoned. How bad could half a dozen Bucktons be?

“Okay, we’ll go. Now go and see if Glenno’s ready for you to help set the table.” Glenno had rigged a special backward sort of backpack that allowed Sophie to carry plates and silverware to the table one at a time. It took much longer, but Cooper liked that Glenno was always quick to adapt the standard child chores to Sophie’s abilities. Besides, the fifteen minutes it took Sophie to set three place settings was a bit of peace and quiet he sorely needed at the end of some days.

That peace and quiet was broken by rings from the telephone. Hunter’s tone as he said, “G’day, mate,” told him his unreturned phone call from earlier in the week hadn’t gone unnoticed. “I know you’re supposed to be on holiday, but have you got a minute for some good news?”

Cooper leaned back on the leather sofa. “Sure.”

“The blokes in legal did a good job. We’ve got a signed statement from Lynette Highland. No more worries in that department. If she shows up anywhere near you, we have immediate grounds for a restraining order.”

Cooper sighed. While he didn’t want to talk about his future plans, he wanted to discuss this issue even less. “I’m glad to have that whole thing over with.”

“You and me both, mate. What a circus that was.”

Lynette was a production assistant—a very good, very pretty, production assistant—who had worked on the show. Three months ago she’d taken the very small inch of attention Cooper paid her and tried to run ten miles with it.

Making sure that Cooper had everything he needed was part of her job, and he’d barely noticed at first when she’d dialed up her attentions, constantly checking in with him and flirting all the while. When he had noticed, he’d been flattered and had allowed himself to cautiously flirt back, thinking a little dating might be nice. It had been the first time since Grace that a woman had even halfway appealed to him. Even Hunter had approved of Lynette as Cooper’s “first wade back into the dating pool.” They’d both been stunningly wrong—a Pine Brothers’ first, to be sure.

The first date had been pleasant enough, but afterward her attentions toward him went from flattering to obsessive. Soon it had turned into a nightmare of phone calls, notes, far too intimate emails, even trying to show up at a hotel where he was staying on tour. He’d talked with Lynette. Hunter had sat with her. Even the producer very bluntly telling her she was endangering her job didn’t seem to make a dent in her determination to win him over by every means available—without seeming to realize that all she was doing was frightening him away.

Lynette believed she had “found her meal ticket”—as Hunter began to put it—and didn’t seem to think her job needed to matter much anymore. By the end, legal had had to step in and talk about a court order. The great blessing in it all was that sheer logistics—or God’s mercy, as Cooper saw it—had kept Lynette from ever meeting Sophie. The whole business was the tipping point for Cooper’s decision to leave the Pine Method.

“So now we can get on with the new season without having any of that drama getting in the way. I gave the legal guys a ‘good-on-ya’ bonus for handling it quiet-like. That’s not the kind of press any of us needs.”

The new season is already being planned? You can’t wait forever, mate, you’ll have to tell him soon. But “soon” doesn’t have to mean “now.”

“No new season talk for a bloke on holiday. I’m glad for this news, but the rest can wait.” He ignored the pang of guilt he felt for changing the subject. “What’s this big surprise that’s taking you so long to ship Sophie for her birthday?”

“Should be there soon. She’s gonna love it.”

Hunter had a flair for grand gestures that often defied common sense or, at least, parental wisdom. He relished his role as the indulgent favorite—if only—uncle, and had been known to go a bit overboard. There was a tricked-out, pink-and-purple ride-on Jeep on Hunter’s ranch with “Sophie” painted on the side to prove it.

“Does it require safety gear?” It was only half a joke.

“Not a bit. Smaller than a breadbox, this one.”

“What do they say about big surprises coming in small packages?”

“Relax, mate, you’ll like this one. Although I’ll say this much—it’s something you’d never get her.”

“Well,” Cooper laughed, feeling a bit of the strain vanish between them, “that leaves the door wide-open.”

“I’ll be in on the eighteenth and we can catch up then,” came Hunter’s voice. “Gotta run—we’re heading off to the last location in an hour. Kiss Sophie for me.”

“Will do. ’Bye.”

Cooper sat back after putting the phone down, a bit disappointed in himself for throwing away another opportunity to have his much-needed talk with Hunter—but still glad to know that whole business with Lynette was behind him. He ran his hands down his face, remembering the one mistake of a kiss. He’d been so careful up until then, knowing he was only on the outer edges of his grieving for Grace. He’d kept the loneliness at bay with business, but as Lynette had proved, it hadn’t solved anything.

Will it get worse or better out here, Lord? Help me be more careful. I can handle a problem like Lynette, but Sophie will latch onto anyone I let close.

Anyone like Tess Buckton. Had she already gotten too close? Could he keep things within clearly defined margins where those intriguing blue eyes were concerned?

The barbecue might tell him soon enough.

* * *

Tess’s cousin Witt Buckton raised an eyebrow as he handed a big package of bison burgers over the meat counter window. Officially in charge of the Blue Thorn Ranch’s food truck that sold burgers and sides in downtown Austin, he wasn’t at the Blue Thorn Store very often. Some of that had to do with his professional focus. A lot more had to do with the truck’s pretty chef, Jana. Tess only had to see those two together for a handful of minutes at Ellie’s wedding to know things had heated up in more than the truck’s tiny mobile kitchen. The couple had married last August, and Tess had been sorry not to be able to make it back in for her cousin’s wedding.

“Who’s coming to supper?” Witt asked, noting the large amount of burgers she’d ordered.

“Cooper Pine and his daughter.”

“I heard he’s renting the old Larkey place, but I didn’t know he had a family. Y’all getting a new neighbor?”

“It’s anybody’s guess. He says it’s just him and his daughter for the summer. Gunner and Luke think he’s got plans—maybe to buy the place and make it part of the Pine Method franchise—but Cooper won’t say. I warned him he’ll get more of a grilling than the burgers, but he’s coming anyway.”

Witt laughed. “Brave soul.”

“How’s Austin’s latest foodie power couple?”

Witt nearly glowed. “Will it sound dumb if I say ridiculously happy?”

Everyone within the Buckton family seemed ridiculously happy these days. Everyone except her, that is. It felt almost freakish to be nursing such private, painful wounds among all these gleeful relatives. “You’ve put on a few pounds,” she teased. “Being married to a chef obviously agrees with you.” The spark in Witt’s eye clearly had to do with more than just good cooking.

He came out from behind the counter. “So, Ellie thinks you’re back to stay—are you?”

It was a fair question, seeing how Gunner, then Ellie and then Luke had all returned to the ranch for good. Even Witt, who had grown up only visiting the Blue Thorn from his father’s ranch, had chosen to join the Blue Thorn business. Still, the number of times she was asked that question was beginning to niggle under her skin. She tried to laugh it off. “I’m here for a stretch, between the twins coming and Luke’s wedding. Beyond that, I don’t know.”

She fingered the selection of bison yarn gloves and scarves that hung on a nearby wall, evidence of how her sister Ellie had added to the family business. Now, Ellie was busy putting the final touches on baby blankets and booties. More happiness to envy and not have. She wouldn’t ever be asking Ellie to knit scarves or hats for Bardo. Those joys would belong to his foster parents, not her. She planted a “happy auntie” smile on her face. “I’m in between assignments, so everything’s up for grabs. Could be back to Adelaide, could be off to the Alps.” That wasn’t entirely true. She’d sold nearly all of her equipment to pay the adoption fees her adviser, Jasper Garvey, had required. Jasper had also made her believe he was helping because he loved her. She’d been ready to ditch her globetrotting lifestyle to settle down with Bardo, at whatever job would keep her in one place. She could try to roust up new freelance jobs and the equipment to cover her debts—and probably ought to—but that would take confidence and bravery she no longer felt she had.

Tess changed the subject. “I hear there’s a second big blue bus in the works?” Everyone teased Witt for the bright, almost eye-searing color he’d chosen for the food truck, but no one could deny it stood out, making it easy to spot—an important trait for a food truck in a competitive market.

His smile widened. “Launches in about a month. Jana says Jose is ready, and with Marny coming in the store full-time to fill in for Ellie, we’re ready to expand.”

Jose, who had been a protégé of Will and Jana’s, was about to become a food truck chef in his own right rather than working with Jana as her assistant chef. Marny was a girl Ellie had mentored through a teen program at the church who’d had her share of problems but had made a way for herself thanks to Ellie and work at the Blue Thorn Store.

Gunner, Luke and Ellie were settled and happy. Not that they—or even Gran—hadn’t known hard times. It was just that they’d all come shining through those challenges, and Tess couldn’t clearly see that in the cards for her anymore.

“Are you and Jana coming tonight?”

Witt shook his head. “The truck’s got to be downtown for an event. It’ll be a hot date night in the hot kitchen, I’m afraid.” His words spoke of work but his eyes beamed with the pleasure of working with his bride.

I’m only twenty-five, Tess told herself. That’s too young to feel like that will never happen for me.

“Have fun tonight,” Witt called as another customer came into the store.

“We’ll have something tonight,” Tess replied, recalling the tense nature of her conversation with Cooper Pine. “I’m just not sure it will be fun.”

Chapter Five

Tess had once had the opportunity to photograph a famous high-wire act. She’d been allowed up on the platform with the tightrope-walker, given access to the breathtaking perspective from way up high.

It rather felt like tonight’s barbecue.

She was watching Cooper balance his way carefully through a barrage of questions, dancing over the heights of her family’s barely veiled curiosity. Were it not for the instant friendship that sprung up between Sophie and Audie, she wasn’t sure how the evening would have gone.

“Daddy didn’t want to come,” Sophie admitted as Tess and Audie gave her a tour of the barns and led her up to the fence that held Daisy and Russet, the only two bison on the ranch that were safe for human contact. “Safe human contact” was a relative term, meaning animals on one side of a very strong fence, humans on the other. But unlike the animals out in the pasture, it was possible to get close to these bison, and even to pet them, without spooking them.

I can just guess he wasn’t eager, Tess thought. “But you’re here.” She made sure to say it with a smile.

“I convinced him after you had the different of opinion,” Sophie pronounced, clearly quoting her father’s words. She was either unaware of the level of her frankness or didn’t especially care that she was revealing information Cooper probably didn’t want Tess to know. She’d known Sophie for less than a week and was already one hundred percent charmed by the girl. As to her father? The jury was still out on him.

“Russet got his name from me on account of his color,” Audie explained. “Bison babies are rusty colored when they are born. They only turn brown when they grow up.” Audie leaned in toward Sophie. “Gunnerdad thought I was going to give him a girly name like Rainbow Sparkle when he let me name her.”

“That’s silly!” Sophie said as the pair of girls burst into laughter.

“He said nothing on his ranch would ever have that name,” Audie shared through giggles.

The sound of two girls’ laughter, even at the expense of her brother for his now-infamous worry over Audie’s naming choice, melted Tess’s heart. If joy had a sound, Tess thought it would be very much like those two right now. Did Bardo have friends to laugh with?

“What’s so funny over here?” came Cooper’s voice from behind them. “And who’s this big fella?”

Tess let Audie, who never tired of introducing Daisy and Russet to guests, do the honors. “He’s Russet,” her niece said, pointing to the young male bison.

“Audie named him,” Sophie offered. “And not Rainbow Sparkle.” More giggles.

Cooper raised one eyebrow and scratched his chin. “I’m guessing there’s a story there?” he said to Tess.

“I’ll fill you in later,” Tess replied.

“And this is Daisy.” Audie continued. “She’s the bison who kept going over to visit your ranch when the mean man owned it.”

“I’d heard a few of your bison took a shine to wandering about,” Cooper said to Audie with a teasing tone and a wide smile. The first smile Tess had seen on him tonight, as a matter of fact.

“The cat in the barn had kittens two weeks ago,” Audie said to Sophie. “Wanna go see if they’ll play with us?”

No little girl on the planet could say no to that request. Within seconds Sophie and Audie were racing off toward the barn, chatting and laughing as if they’d known each other for months instead of hours.

“She ratted you out, you know,” Tess said as they watched the pair amble off.

Cooper merely adjusted his hat on his head and made a grunting sound.

“According to her, ‘Daddy didn’t want to come.’ And we had a ‘different of opinion.’”

Cooper put one boot up on the corral fence. “Well, I was warned.”

“You were also invited. And they’re having a ball, Sophie and Audie.”

He looked at her. “I’m glad for that, really I am.”

He didn’t have to say that he wasn’t sure it was worth the full-out inquisition he was putting up with tonight to give Sophie that fun. His aggravation with the questioning was clear to everyone—except, maybe, Sophie and Audie.

Tess didn’t want this to be the last time Cooper Pine set foot on the Blue Thorn Ranch. There had to be a way to bridge the gap between her family and his. “Honestly, Cooper, I don’t get the secrecy. It’s only hurting you, making folks suspect the worst.”

She should have kept her mouth shut. Cooper’s face fell sharply. “I don’t owe you—any of you—more explanation than what I’ve said. No matter how nice you are to Sophie.”

Tess pushed off the corral fence where she’d been leaning. “I would not use Sophie to get to you, ever. I’m not that kind of person, and we’re not that kind of family. Sophie will always be welcome here no matter what kind of circus you decide to put on over there.”

“It won’t be a circus.”

“Then what will it be?” Why did they always end up back at this impasse?

Cooper pushed off the fence and turned toward the barn. “Maybe we need to end this right here.”

Tess put her hand out to stop him. “No, don’t. I’m sorry. Let the girls have their fun.”

“I’m glad someone’s having fun this evening.”

Tess forced herself to seek a way to save the evening. “Tell me about the Method. Does it work on any animal or just horses? Could you train a bison?”

He looked toward the enormous beasts. “Never tried. But it’s specific to horses, not camels or cattle or bison...” He hesitated just a moment before he looked back at her and added, “Or people.”

“But because of your training experience, are there things you see in animals—like Daisy and Russet here—that we can’t see? Behaviors and such?” She was making an effort here. The least the man could do was to try to meet her halfway.

Cooper walked back to the portion of the fencing where Daily and Russet stood. “Can I tell that Daisy here is more comfortable around humans than the rest of your herd? Well, I expect even you can see that.”

“Well, sure.” Tess reached out and stroked the soft brown fur of Daisy’s enormous head. It never ceased to amaze her how soft the fur was, or how sweet it smelled despite the animal’s size and time in the pasture. “Here, feel her.”

She watched Cooper reach out and touch the bison. It was always fun to watch people interact with Daisy. “She is soft. And huge. Must be at least a thousand pounds of animal in there. How’d she get so acclimated to people?”

“Gunner got her when her mother was killed in an accident. He was with her constantly in those first few days. She was almost newborn, so she bonded with him instead of her mother. I won’t say she’s a pet, but she’s comfortable around us. It helps to have an animal we can show visitors up close.”

“She’s a fine specimen. I can tell Gunner cares a lot about his herd.” Daisy gave a great snort and thrust her big black nose up against the fence, making Cooper laugh. “And the lady recognizes a compliment.”

Tess offered a small smile. “All women do. Even Sophie. I think she’s amazing.”

Cooper looked over to the barn where the girls were surely immersed in a kitten love-fest. “She is, at that. Some days I feel like I’d offer up a leg of my own if it’d help ease the way for her, you know?”

Maybe it was talking about Daisy’s lost mother, but Tess found herself asking, “Tell me about Sophie’s mom.”

Cooper’s whole body changed at the request, his shoulders losing their defensive stance, his eyes casting back into memory. “Ah, Grace. That’s where Sophie gets her amazing. Gone three years now and not a day goes by that I don’t think of her.” He put his hands up against the fence, brushing against the top of Daisy’s head, as if touching the mama bison offered up some kind of connection to the mother of his daughter. “She didn’t make it through the accident that took Sophie’s leg. Gone before she made it to the hospital, before I could see her or say goodbye.”

“I’m so sorry.” To have someone taken from you so quickly like that? Leaving so much sadness in their wake? Tess found herself wondering if she’d even survive such a blow. She was rocking after something much less, after all. Cooper Pine must be a strong soul to have kept going like he had and to have raised Sophie, as a single dad, to be so full of joy despite her circumstances.

“After the accident,” Cooper went on, “there was so much awfulness everywhere I could hardly breathe. Grace gone. Sophie so small and in so many surgeries. Police reports, funeral and such. I count it a blessing Sophie doesn’t remember most of it. She couldn’t even attend her own mama’s funeral. Black, hard day that was. Just a giant wall of pain and sorrow.”

He swallowed hard at that, and Tess felt tears tighten her own throat at his obvious pain. “That’s awful. Was the accident far from home?”

Cooper nodded. “Two miles from our house. If I had been home, I probably would have heard the crash. Come running. Maybe been there for Grace’s last moments.”

He paused for a moment, pulling himself together, making Tess wince from the sense of asking too painful a question. “I can’t even begin to imagine.”

“No,” he said without judgment, “you can’t—no one can. The bloke in front of her had some kind of seizure, lost control of his car, spun around and T-boned Sophie and Grace at fifty miles an hour. Grace lost her life. Sophie lost her leg. I felt like I’d lost everything. Spun out of control myself for a few weeks, but I couldn’t stay in a funk—Sophie needed her daddy.”

“How’d you make it?”

Cooper looked at her. “Hunter. He’s the only reason. I mean, Grace’s folks were wonderful, but they were drowning in their own grief. My parents have been gone awhile, so it really was all Hunter. He dragged me back into life before I was ready, before I even wanted to try to face my responsibilities. Physically came over and hauled me out of bed some mornings, driving me to the hospital. He made me keep going. He kept saying ‘Fake it till you feel it,’ and it worked. I wasn’t kidding when I said I owe a lot of who I am and what I’ve got to him.”

“Family can pull you out of a dark place.” She shouldn’t have said that. Too much of her own dark place showed up in how she said the words.

He noticed. “Is that why you’re home? You need pulling out of a dark place?”

She shook her head. “Nothing like yours. I’m just...having trouble figuring out what’s next.”

“You know,” he said, straightening as if to physically pull himself out of the memory, “loads of people go through life without ever needing to know what’s next. They just wait for ‘next’ to show up. For themselves...or their neighbors.” He made his point, but he did it with more of a smile in his eyes this time.

Tess sighed as she looked into Daisy’s huge brown eyes. “You know, I’ve just never been one of those people who can wait and see what will happen. It’s a Buckton thing.”

“Like to have it all mapped out, do you?”

“Let’s just say I feel better at least knowing the general direction. Gunner, he’s more of a specifics kind of guy. Luke is the full-speed-ahead, take-no-prisoners one of the bunch, like Gran. Nobody dares to cross Gran. Only Ellie comes close to making it up as she goes along.”

“And all those Bucktons want to know what I’m up to.”

“Well, some more than others.” Given what she had just heard, she was inclined to trust Cooper a bit more with the privacy of his future plans, but she was sure Gunner wouldn’t see it that way.

Cooper turned to face her. “I’ll make you a deal, Tess Buckton. When I’m ready, you’ll know.” He held out his hand.

She took it, but the gesture had more to it than a simple handshake. “Deal.”

He didn’t let go of her hand but held it firm as he held her gaze. “Just in case you were wondering, I’m not ready.” His tone was unshakable, making it clear this was a battle the Bucktons would not win. At least, not today.

She realized, feeling his firm grip on her hand, that she’d have to trust his character on this. And she’d spent the last two months paying for misjudging a man on his character. Tonight’s supper was supposed to make things better, but Tess couldn’t say they hadn’t made things worse. She was coming to genuinely like the man who could throw the Blue Thorn Ranch under—or maybe just right next to—a very Piney bus.