The Cowboy's Surprise Baby (Cowboy Country Book 3) by Deb Kastner Page B

expression on Tessa’s face, Cole guessed she must have been thinking the same thing and come to the same conclusion he had.
    “I don’t want to see anything like this happen again. One more prank and you guys will be out of here, sporting fluorescent orange vests and picking up trash along the side of the highway. Are we clear?”
    “Yes, ma’am,” the boys said in unison. Cole bit back a smile. Tessa would have them marching a straight line yet. He had to admit it was impressive to watch her with her teenage charges.
    “And just to make sure you understand the severity of your actions, you’ve earned extra stable duties. You’ll both be mucking
all
of the stalls every morning for a week. Up at dawn, no excuses. The rest of your friends will enjoy a break from that particular chore, which I’m sure they’ll appreciate. They’ll probably want to thank you,” she concluded with a wry smile.
    Tessa certainly knew what she was doing, Cole thought as he assisted the boys back onto their mounts. She’d helped those kids—all of them—and had taught them an important lesson. He had no doubt they would be better off for it.
    He was amazed to find he barely recognized the woman she’d become. He’d once known a shy girl whose only extroverted act was giving life to her characters on a theater stage. Now she was a leader, mentoring new groups of teenagers on a monthly basis, and that was no easy feat. Not something he ever wanted to do. Tessa had obviously learned a lot in college and in her work at Redemption Ranch. She cared—really put her whole heart into her work. He knew it, and the kids knew it. She made a genuine difference in the world.
    Which gave him pause. Sure, he’d done his time in the navy. He’d do a respectable job as a wrangler here at the ranch. But what good had he done in the world?

Chapter Five
    T essa sighed and leaned back on her heels, pressing her palms into her thighs and stretching the small of her back. She’d been hunched over piles of sheet music for what felt like hours now, although in reality it had been more like forty-five minutes. She and Cole were meeting in another half an hour to go over their ideas for the teenagers’ musical performance for the June BBQ, and so far she had nothing.
    It didn’t help that she was completely distracted. How could she not be, with Cole in the picture? She shook her head at her perceived weakness. She and Cole had talked very little during the past week, other than when she’d phoned him to set up an appointment to solidify their plans for the barbecue. That had been one awkward and stilted conversation, with her stammering and stuttering and him answering every one of her questions with the fewest words possible.
    She’d never felt so mixed up in her life. Up, down, sideways and backward—and it was all Cole’s doing. That he could affect her that way annoyed her to no end. How could a man she hadn’t seen in over a decade have the ability to rattle her so completely, making her equal parts flustered and giddy?
    Yes, okay, they had a history together, but they had both matured. She was not the flighty young girl she’d been when she’d last seen Cole, and he was not the green youth who had left Serendipity to join the navy and see the world. She needed to get a handle on her emotions and she needed to do it now, before they—before
he
—started affecting the quality of her work. The young men and women currently residing at the ranch needed
all
of her attention, not a counselor whose head was too often in the clouds.
    Cole was in her mind even when she was purposefully going out of her way to avoid him. She hoped no one else saw her confused behavior. She’d never before had the inclination to drop her girls with the wranglers when it was time for them to work with the animals and pick them up when they were finished, but now she was making excuses for why she needed to be elsewhere.
    Simply put, she wasn’t quite ready to face