CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
TESSIE FIGURED THIS visit was going to get her into even more trouble—especially since she hadn’t been completely honest with her mom about where she was going. Tessie had told her that she was going for a ride on the chestnut mare named Nelly, which she’d borrowed from Dylan. And it was a ride.
All the way to the Granger Ranch.
It’d been a while since she’d been on a horse and never for the five miles or so it would take to reach the ranch. By the time she reined in at the Granger barn, she was sweaty, sore and rethinking this idea of seeing Lawson. Especially when she didn’t even know if he was there. He could be on a business trip.
Or avoiding her.
She couldn’t blame him if he did that because she hadn’t exactly been a ray of sunshine in his life. And then there was the shit-storm with Kellan and her mom. Lawson might be trying to avoid her mom, too.
She got off the horse and glanced around. No sign of Lawson, so she went looking for him. She didn’t see him, but she sure heard him.
“Shit on a son of a bitching stick,” he growled.
Lawson came limping in through the back opening of the barn, and he kept belting out some really bad words. There was a cut just over his right eyebrow and what appeared to be the start of a bruise on his jaw. When he saw her though, he immediately straightened, quit cussing and used his hat to knock off some of the dirt that was on his jeans.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Horse threw me.” He said it like someone who was super embarrassed. And super mad. But if so, it was measly compared to the embarrassing crap she’d done.
His attention went from her to the mare. “Dylan’s,” he grumbled.
She nodded. “He said I could borrow her.”
He kept knocking off the dirt, wincing with some of the movements as he walked closer to her. “Two questions. Are you still grounded, and does your mom know you’re here?”
Like the day in Austin, he sounded a little like a cop again. Or a dad. “Yes to the first. No to the second. But she won’t mind me coming over.” At least Tessie didn’t think she would. “You might want to do something about that cut above your eye. You’re bleeding.”
He touched it, cursed under his breath when he did indeed see blood and headed to the tack room. “Did you hear back about school?” he asked, taking out a first-aid kit.
“Yeah.” Since his hands were dirty, Tessie nudged him aside and took over. She poured some hydrogen peroxide on a gauze pad and dabbed at the cut. It gave her something to do other than looking him in the eye when she told him the rest. “I got kicked out of school. I can reapply but not until next semester.”
She braced herself for his reaction, figuring it’d be similar to her mom’s. Her mom had gone very silent and had said something about her maybe going to another college in California. Her mom hadn’t yelled, cried or gotten pissed off. It was as if hearing it had broken something inside her. Her mom had managed a smile, a hug and had added that it would be all right.
But Tessie knew that was a lie because she certainly wasn’t feeling all right, not by a long shot.
By drinking and then running off, she had made it so that it would never be the same between her mom and her. And now she was going to put a big wedge between Lawson and her when it sank in that she’d been expelled. Not that Lawson had ever cared about her the way her mom had, but Tessie didn’t want him seeing her with that same broken look that she’d gotten from her mother.
“Is Eve moving you back to California?” he asked.
She lifted her shoulder. “She’s talking about it.” A lot.
He dragged in a breath that was a little uneven maybe because the antiseptic cream that she smeared on the cut was stinging. “All right. Until then, I’m grounding you. This is separate from your mom’s grounding. You might say it’s an additional sentence to the one you already had.”
She stared at him. He did sound a little pissed off, but he wasn’t all sad and drowning in doom and gloom.
“That doesn’t mean sitting around in your room feeling sorry for yourself,” he went on. “Until your mom makes up her mind about moving, you’ve got to tend the horses. That includes mucking out the crap in the stalls.”
Yes, he was pissed off all right, but for some stupid reason it didn’t make her feel bad. She hadn’t broken him, maybe because he’d had to put up with less of her mess than her mom had. Or maybe because he thought there might be some hope for her after all.
“Can I ride the horses if I take care of them?” Tessie bargained as she put the bandage on Lawson’s head.
He thought about that for a couple of moments before he nodded. “Yeah, but not that Appaloosa bi...witch that just threw me. Oh, you can name her, too, as long as it’s something mean like...” He sputtered out some syllables, probably because he couldn’t think of anything that didn’t involve cuss words.
“I’ll keep the name PG-rated,” Tessie grumbled. But she did like the idea of naming a horse. Even a mean one.
She put away the first-aid kit and followed Lawson out of the tack room. He was still hobbling a bit, making her wonder if he needed to go to the hospital.
“You rode that mare all the way over here?” he asked.
Tessie nodded.
“How sore are you?” he added.
“Sore.” Though she hated to admit it. It sounded prissy, and she doubted Lawson would want his kid to be prissy. If he ever thought of her as his kid, that is. She wasn’t sure either one of them actually wanted that.
“If you want, I can drive you home, and one of the hands can take the mare back,” Lawson offered.
“It’s okay. I’ll do it.” And then she’d be hobbling as bad as he was. But it felt like the right thing to do, and she needed to do something right. Not for Lawson or her mom but for herself.
“I wasn’t always a screwup,” she said. “I got all As in school and never busted curfew. Not until the blowup with my mom about her lying to me.”
“I figured as much.” When they made it back out of the barn, he stopped and turned to her. “This is one of those life-lesson stories. I don’t tell them very often, so listen up. I was the middle child of five kids and was nothing special. I definitely didn’t stand out in a sea of Grangers who were smarter, nicer and better looking than me, so I tried to be as good as I could be. The perfect kid.” He lifted his shoulder. “That all went down the drain when my folks got divorced. I was angry and blamed both of them for messing up, and that’s why I messed up, too.”
She waited for him to add more to the life lesson, but he just kept staring at her. “So, you understand why I did what I did?”
He made a face. “Hell, no.” Then he made another face. “I mean, heck, no. I didn’t understand why I was doing it then or why you did it now. It’s like we put these big targets on our feet so we can shoot ourselves there, and it doesn’t help squat. It only hurts and pisses people off, and in my case, it hurt someone a lot.”
Tessie didn’t think he was talking about her mom. This was about the friend who’d died. The one her mom still cried about.
“So, you’re telling me not to make the same mistakes you did?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s what life lessons are all about.” He started walking again, and Tessie fell in step beside him. “Don’t expect a lot of them from me though, because I meant what I said about not giving them very often.”
Tessie didn’t get a chance to say anything about that because they suddenly realized they weren’t alone. Tessie went stiff when she saw the dark figure step out from the side of the barn. Lawson reacted, too. He hooked his arm around her, pushing her behind him.
“Who the hell are you?” Lawson growled, and he sounded very mean.
The guy came out, his hands in the air, and when Lawson and she got a better look at him, they both groaned. Because it was one of her mom’s fans dressed like a stupid Swaron warrior.
“I’m Todd,” the guy said. His voice sounded shaky, probably because Lawson was scowling at him as if he might tear his leg off.
“You’re trespassing,” Lawson warned him.
Todd’s nod was shaky, as well. “I just wanted a picture of Stavros and Ulyana’s daughter.”
The twerp had his phone aimed and ready to take a photo that Tessie was pretty sure Lawson wasn’t going to let him take.
“She’s not Stavros’s daughter,” Lawson said. Tessie wasn’t sure how he managed to do it, but he sounded even scarier than he looked. “She’s mine.”
Todd swallowed hard, nodded, but he didn’t look as if he was buying that. Not until Lawson maneuvered her out from behind him. Once Lawson and she were side by side, Todd nodded again. This time, for real.
“Take your damn picture,” Lawson ordered. “Put it on every social network site you can find with the caption ‘Tessie Cooper with her father, Lawson Granger.’”
Todd gave another nod. An eager one, this time.
“You’re sure you want to do this?” Tessie whispered to Lawson.
He looked her straight in the eyes. “Yeah. You’re my daughter, and I want everyone to know it.”
That felt a lot better than Tessie had thought it would. “Even with all the trouble I’ve gotten into?” she pressed.
“Even then.” Lawson brushed a kiss on her cheek and put his arm around her for the photo that Todd snapped.
“So, you’re not an ass after all?” she muttered to Lawson.
“Only on occasion. By the way, you’re still grounded.”
* * *
EVE FIGURED SHE looked like a crazy person. She was crying and smiling at the same time—and both were genuine emotions. That’s what she got for taking Aiden with her to visit Brett’s grave.
Aiden was in a great mood, cooing and smiling, and it was impossible for her not to smile back and make goofy sounds that only another parent would understand. He was her precious little man, and she loved every ounce of him.
What she didn’t love was the grief that bubbled up inside her when she saw Brett’s shiny gray marble tombstone. Of course, she’d known what it would say. His name along with the dates of his birth and death. She hadn’t known about the quote on it though.
In our hearts forever.
Eve was certain his parents had chosen those handful of words, and they were true. Brett would indeed always be in her heart. Too bad she couldn’t keep him out of her nightmares, but she had to hope that one day those nightmares would turn to dreams. Dreams of the good times they’d had with Brett and not just the miserable mistake of that night.
Aiden made an especially loud coo and started kicking and flailing his arms. When Eve followed his gaze, she spotted Lawson making his way toward them. Her son was certainly overjoyed to see him, but Eve was feeling a little less enthusiastic. That’s because she needed to give him the bad news about Tessie.
“I saw your car parked out by the cemetery gate,” he said.
When he got closer, Aiden immediately reached for him, and with all the ease of a veteran parent, Lawson took him. The kiss he brushed on top of Aiden’s head looked plenty natural, too.
“No farting on me today,” Lawson told Aiden, and the boy laughed the way someone would at a fine man-joke that he completely understood.
There was no trace of the joke though when Lawson looked at her. “Are you okay?”
Eve hadn’t forgotten about the fresh tears in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. “It’s my first time here.”
He nodded as if no other explanation was necessary. “It gets easier after a while. The visit, I mean.”
Yes, the rest would never fall into the easier category. “What about you?” She tipped her head to the bandage above his eye. “Are you all right?”
“I lost a battle of wills with an Appaloosa.”
She figured that had to sting—not just his ego but literally. At least it didn’t look serious.
Eve took a deep breath, prepared to tell him about Tessie, but Lawson spoke before she could say anything.
“Tessie came by the ranch a couple of hours ago. She rode Dylan’s horse there.”
Her first response was to groan. “She was grounded. She shouldn’t have gone there without permission.”
He acknowledged that with a nod. “I grounded her again. She’ll be tending the horses for me.”
Again, she wanted to groan. “You know that’s not much of a punishment for someone who’s horse crazy like she is?”
“No, but mucking out the stalls will be.” He paused. “I’ll lift the punishment if you want. Or if you’re leaving anytime soon.” Lawson hadn’t changed his tone with that last bit, but Eve knew it was a question.
A question she didn’t know how to answer. She wasn’t even sure where to start, but she went with the most obvious one. “If Tessie came to see you, then you must know she got kicked out of school.”
“She told me. I think she’s sorry it happened. Sorry for what she did.”
Yes, Eve thought that as well, but it didn’t mend things. And Tessie wasn’t the only issue here. “It’s all over the tabloids that I’m a liar. ‘Slut’ has been mentioned, too. It’s cost a lot of donations for my foundation for teen mothers.”
A muscle tightened in Lawson’s jaw. “How much has it cost you?”
She sighed. “You’re not going to try to fix this with Granger money.”
“I’ve got a trust fund I’m not using.”
“You’re not going to try to fix this with Granger money,” she repeated and hoped it got through. “But you can see the problem I’m having. I don’t especially want to go back to my old life, but I’m ruining things here. I’m creating a big distraction for you, your family and everybody else in town.”
She wasn’t sure how he was going to respond to that, but she wasn’t expecting him to do what he did. Lawson hooked his hand around her neck, dragged her to him and French-kissed her. It was scalding hot but caused Aiden to laugh and bop at them with his fist.
Even with the bopping, she could feel all the right things. The slight stubble on Lawson’s jaw. The gentle but firm grip on her neck. The way the left half of his body landed against hers. And that scent. Ah. Saddle leather and cowboy.
When Lawson had left her breathless, confused and giddy, he pulled back, met her eye to eye. “You’ve always been a distraction to me. As for everybody else, screw them. And notice, I didn’t use the f-word because of little ears.”
Eve had definitely noticed, and she smiled before she remembered there wasn’t anything to smile about. Well, other than that tingly feeling the kiss had given her.
“Things might not get better before they get worse,” she reminded him.
“Yeah. About that.” His forehead bunched up. “A Swaron named Todd trespassed onto the ranch and took a picture of Tessie and me together. I told him that Tessie was my daughter. By now, it’s probably been uploaded pretty much everywhere.”
She had no trouble getting rid of the smile when she heard that, but Eve did have some trouble talking. “Was Tessie okay with that? Were you okay with that?” And was she okay with it?
“Tessie’s fine. So am I. We knew that sooner or later the press would learn the truth. This way, the latest crap-storm should have blown over by the time Tessie starts back to school in January.”
He had a point, and it was a point that made Eve see she was okay with it. For this moment, anyway, but she really did need to sit down and work out what was best for everyone.
“I’ve got to go,” he said, passing Aiden back to her. “I need to sign for an order at the feed store.”
“I should get back home, too.” So that she could have a long talk with Tessie.
He kissed Aiden’s cheek, dropped a kiss on her mouth and got moving. He didn’t say anything else though until Eve and he started walking. “Will you go on a date with me Friday night? I can pick you up at eight at your house.”
Again, he’d surprised her, but that didn’t leave her nearly as tingly as the kiss. “A date?” she questioned.
“Not sex,” he clarified. “Though that’s always an option. I’m asking you out on a...dance date.”
Eve repeated that last part to herself to make sure she hadn’t misunderstood. “You don’t dance,” she reminded him. “Or at least you didn’t when we were teenagers.”
“I still don’t. That doesn’t mean we can’t go on a dance date.”
She wanted to point out that was exactly what it meant, but he just continued.
“I want you to wear the dress you bought eighteen years ago for the Sadie Hawkins dance,” he added when they made it to his truck. It was parked right next to her car, and she put Aiden in his seat in the back. “The dance we didn’t get to go to because you left town.”
There was no need for him to clarify that last part. “How’d you know I had a dress?” But then she huffed. “Cassidy blabbed. What else did she tell you?”
“That the dance meant a lot to you.”
It had. Oh, the hours she’d spent planning for that one night. There was no way the actual dance could have lived up to the hype she’d given it.
Lawson leaned down, forcing eye contact with her when she looked away. “Did Cassidy have it right? Did the dance mean a lot to you?”
She nodded. He was clearly waiting for her to add more. And she did. But she waited until she was behind the wheel of her car and ready to drive off. Because what she had to say was best said as an exit line.
“The dance was important,” she said, “because I was going to tell you that I loved you and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you.”
The exit line would have been a lot more effective if her car hadn’t stalled when she hit the accelerator. The engine bucked and died, which meant she couldn’t escape now that she’d said a word that would never set well with him.
Love.
Thankfully, Lawson didn’t say anything. Probably because she had stunned him into silence. He was almost certainly rethinking that dance date now. And with the confusion widening his eyes, Eve finally got her car started and drove away.