The Rancher's Secret Son

This wasn’t good. He hadn’t had a chance to talk to Cody or do more than text the other counselors the news of the fill-in help. Hadn’t had a chance to tell Brady the turn of events.

Hadn’t had a chance to wall up what was left of his heart.

“I’m here.” Emma set her wheeled suitcase on the dusty ground at her feet, looking as if she thought simply being there would have to be enough. Good thing Max had turned off the idea of more a long time ago. Somewhere around the time she disappeared from his life, maybe. But no, it’d taken a lot longer than that.

Still was taking time, if he were painfully honest.

He shot a glance at Brady and let out a long sigh. The inevitable had arrived, right on time. “Welcome back.” He focused his smile on Emma, hoping he successfully hid the nerves wringing his stomach. “This is Brady, a neighbor and friend. And, Brady, this is the temporary counselor I was telling you about—Emma.” He swallowed, darting a glance as Brady automatically reached down a hand to shake hers. “Emma Shaver.”

Chapter Five

Emma had no idea why Max’s friend Brady seemed to lose his tan right before her eyes when they were introduced. Or why his friendly grip on her hand seized up like a vice.

She pulled it free and fought the urge to rub off the lingering pressure. “Nice to meet you.” Mostly, anyway. She shot Max a quizzical look, but he was staring at Brady beneath the rim of his cowboy hat, as if waiting for a bigger reaction. Suddenly she got it.

Brady knew about her. About her and Max.

Her face flamed and she reached down to pick up her suitcase. She’d been through enough the past few months—standing here like a circus sideshow wasn’t going to be next on her list. “Sorry I’m early, just needed to go ahead and get settled.” And get away from her mother’s prying, never ending questions before the truth erupted from her soul like a jet stream. “I’ll just get out of your way, as soon as you tell me where to unpack.” Too bad that couldn’t be back in Dallas. But no, she was here for Cody. And now these female campers.

Definitely not for anything else.

“No problem. The female dorms are there, and the girls are probably finishing up their rest time. Faith’s in there.” Max pointed to the temporary building behind the barn. “I make a point not to go inside those dorms, to avoid any negative appearances. But once you go through the front door, you’ll be standing in an entryway. Bedrooms are to the left, bathrooms to the right.”

“I’m sure I can figure it out from there.” Anything to leave the awkwardness hanging in the air like a noose. Yet whose neck it was destined for, she wasn’t sure.

She adjusted her grip on her suitcase and risked another glance at Brady, who finally had the decency to look away and pretend as if he hadn’t been staring. Though staring was putting it mildly. He ogled as though she might have just arrived from six feet under instead of via a used SUV.

What exactly had Max told his best friend? And why did it matter a decade later?

Refusing to ponder either question any further, she began to roll her suitcase toward the dorm, but Max interrupted. “Brady was just leaving. Broken fences wait for no man. Right?”

Emma caught the look he shot his friend, and Brady immediately caught on.

“Right, right. The fence.” Brady held up the tool in his hand and forced a laugh. “Duty calls.” He glanced at Max, then back at Emma as he proceeded to urge his horse forward. “Nice to, ah, meet you, Emma.” He started to say more, then shook his head and rode away, dirt stirring beneath his horse’s hooves.

She raised an eyebrow at Max. “That was subtle.” The guy who’d stolen her heart along with a variety of goods from the Broken Bend General Store once had apparently lost his ability to be sneaky.

He rubbed his jaw, either hiding a smile or he’d acquired a new nervous tick since they’d last parted. “He had a fence situation.”

“And a staring problem.”

Max snorted. “He was surprised to see you, that’s all. Sort of like—”

“You were?”

“Trust me, Brady’s a good guy. The one responsible for, well...” He held out both arms to his sides. “Me.”

There were so many potential sarcastic responses to that, she wasn’t even sure where to start. She opened her mouth then shut it. She wasn’t that girl anymore, and Max wasn’t that guy. Being snippy wouldn’t solve anything but prove her master’s degree didn’t make her as mature as she’d thought. Stress didn’t give her the right to be rude. She was better than that.

Most days.

He shot her a knowing smile. “Dinner’s at six in the main house.” He hooked one finger through the belt loop of his jeans, projecting a confidence his tone didn’t complement. Did her sudden appearance this afternoon throw him off as much as seeing him had startled her yesterday? She should have kept to the plan to come tomorrow. But her mom...

Emma blew out her breath. “I’ll be there.” She paused, manners taking over—partly from years of training and counseling, and partly from guilt over the mental debate she’d just processed. “Do you need anything before then?” Please no, please no. She needed space. Time to debrief. Time to figure out how she was going to put up a wall thick enough to keep Max and the memories at bay, while allowing the girls she was in charge of access. They’d see right through the facade. She had to be real and honest with them in order for any progress to be made in their lives.

But Max didn’t get that privilege.

And who was she to assume he’d even want it?

Her pulse pounded in her temples, and a dull headache began to creep down her neck and into her tight shoulder muscles. She reached up to rub it.

“No, dinner is fine.” Max shifted his weight, his body language a telltale giveaway of how uncomfortable he felt around her. Well, that made two of them. “That gives me time to get the kids settled into barn chores this afternoon and explain to Cody your presence here. Hopefully before he sees you.”

Cody. Her heart twisted as the headache roared to a full blaze. “I didn’t think about how you hadn’t had a chance to warn him yet.” Though everything else she’d have to eventually tell Cody paled in comparison to this. She briefly squeezed her eyes shut and opened them to find Max’s face lit with concern.

“You all right?”

“Just a headache. Been getting them a lot lately.” Oops. She hadn’t meant to reveal that part. She didn’t want Max’s worry, and she knew the headaches were only because of stress and her own inability to handle everything. She had to get it together. For Cody’s sake, and for her own. She wasn’t useful to anyone like this. How would it look if she not only failed with her own son, but with the girls at this camp, too? No, she had to prove she could overcome.

Prove that she was enough.

“There’s some pain meds in the main house if you’d like some Tylenol.” Max’s forehead crinkled as he studied her, his cocoa eyes bright and piercing beneath his hat. He’d always been able to see too much. That was part of why she refused to lay her sights on him again after her decision to leave had been made.

He’d have read—and changed—her mind.

She looked away. “I’ve got medicine in my bag.” She never traveled without it anymore these days, considering the frequency of her headaches.

“That’s fine, but if it’s anything stronger than Tylenol, I’d prefer you lock it in the medicine cabinet in the house.” Max gestured toward the dorms. “So it’s not a temptation for the campers.”

He was right. She needed to get her head in the game. Though the reference to drug use rang some sort of ironic bell. Did he even remember all that he’d put her through? No doubt Max had come a long way from his past.

But if that was true, why did it still feel like yesterday?

She swallowed the memories and accusations daring to burst free and nodded briefly. “No problem.” Once she steeled her heart, she met his gaze and boldly held it, hoping to be dismissed. Until Max’s expression softened completely off cue.

“I’m really glad you’re here, Emma.”

A warning sounded deep in her stomach, and she drew a breath so fast and tight her chest hurt. She squeezed the handle of her suitcase to hide her suddenly shaky hands. He said that as if he meant it. As if maybe the past decade wasn’t so far away for him, either.

Max’s eyes widened. “You know, as a counselor. It’s a big help.”

Right. The camp. Her breath released from her body in a sudden whoosh of air, and she steadied herself with her suitcase. Who was she fooling? Besides, she had no doubt he’d take back the sentiment if he knew exactly who he was in Cody’s life—and that the role went a lot deeper than counselor at a therapeutic camp.

If the secrets she accused Max of having in the past were bad, what exactly did that make hers?

Guilt tied her quivering emotions into a tangled knot, and for a brash moment, she considered blurting it out. All of it. She could get her whole point across in about two questions. Remember that night after the party on the Bayou, when you told me you were a different man because of me? Well, do you care to guess when Cody’s birthday is?

What would happen if he knew? Right now, before anyone got any deeper into this mess? Would he send Cody home? Would it be considered too close of a conflict for him to stay?

Would Cody have a chance elsewhere?

She wanted the best for her son, which is why she booted Max out of their lives in the first place. But how could she keep digesting this secret for a month without completely self-destructing?

Suddenly, the door to the girls dorm opened, temporarily solving her dilemma. Three teens piled outside into the afternoon sunshine, followed by a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties, shiny brown hair pulled up high in a ponytail. She wore a whistle around her neck and a smile that made even Emma want to confide in her.

“There’s Faith, now. She’s great and will be here helping you out as much as her part-time schedule allows.”

Emma nodded, though she wasn’t sure which burned worse. His compliments and obvious admiration of Faith—or the fact that she even noticed.

“The campers are Stacy—” Max pointed discreetly to the older, curly-haired blonde Emma remembered from dinner the night before “—Katie and Tonya. Katie’s the short one, and Tonya is the tall one. Stacy is seventeen, Katie and Tonya are fifteen. They’re both from Texas, while Stacy is from south Louisiana. Faith can fill you in on the rest.”

She couldn’t help but be impressed with Max’s attention to detail, especially without the campers’ files as a cheat sheet. Hopefully she could get to know the girls as quickly. Faith already had a huge one up on her. But this wasn’t a competition. She and Faith, as perfect as the younger woman seemed, were on the same team.

Still...she watched as Faith led the campers toward the barn. “Is Faith married?”

Max frowned, revealing his confusion as to why it mattered, but didn’t question it. “Yes, and she has two small children at home. That’s why she’s only part-time.”

Emma refused to admit why that suddenly made her a lot more open to having Faith as a friend.

* * *

After unpacking her suitcase, downing her headache medicine and dozing off for a half hour, Emma felt ready to face the world. Or at least her ex-boyfriend, his perfectly perky counselor and three sullen teen girls.

On second thought, maybe she should have napped longer.

She opened the dorm’s front door and was nearly barreled over by Stacy, Tonya and Katie as they hurried inside. She stepped back, offering an easy smile despite the teens’ instant suspicion.

“Who are you?” Tonya crossed slim arms over her chest, frowning. “And why are you in our dorm?”

“Silly.” Katie hip-bumped Tonya out of the way and grinned at Emma. Her red hair and freckles made her seem younger than Max had indicated, while Tonya’s flawless, cocoa-colored skin and braided locks made her appear years older. “She’s one of the moms. Remember?” She snapped her fingers. “That cute little guy.”

“You’re Cody’s mom?” Stacy, who had shouldered past on her way toward the bedrooms, stopped and looked back with surprise. “They allowed parents here again? I thought all of y’all left yesterday.” Her eyes widened as if worried her own guardian might pop back up unannounced.

Emma sighed. Apparently Max hadn’t been able to make the announcement during her nap, or at least not in front of all the campers. All the more reason she should have stuck to tomorrow’s plan. Hopefully he’d at least been able to warn Cody.

She forced a smile she didn’t feel, ignoring the fact that she very likely might already be in over her head. “Yes, I’m Cody’s mom, but that’s irrelevant right now. Max needed a full-time counselor for you girls, so he asked me to step in. I’ll be taking over for the woman that went on maternity leave.”

“You’re the replacement?” Tonya snorted. “Maybe that’s why Cody looked so bummed earlier. I’d be, too.”

Katie nudged her, mouth open in overly dramatic shock. “Don’t be rude!”

“Just being honest.” Tonya held up both hands in defense.

Yeah, Emma knew that kind of honesty—and it wasn’t steeped in truth. She tightened her smile. “Cody will be fine. Besides, I’m here for you girls. I’m a licensed psychologist.”

“Who obviously can’t control her own son.” Stacy smirked and pushed open the door leading to the bedrooms. “Come on, girls. Dinner’s almost ready.” She peered over her shoulder as the door began to shut. “Better hurry before Ms. Psychologist tries to shrink our heads.”

The click of the door separating her from the teenagers felt like an insurmountable wall, and for a long moment, Emma considered turning and leaving. She swallowed the dismay bubbling in her stomach and worked to keep back the familiar tears of failure. Dinner might be almost ready, but she already felt as if she’d been chewed up and spit out.

But no. This was her chance. The girls were baiting her, testing her. Especially Stacy, who already demonstrated leadership influence on the other girls by being the oldest in the camp. If she let them pull rank now, the next month would be torture on her—and useless for them. They’d all lose.

She shoved aside the personal barb and followed the girls inside, briefly wondering where Faith was and why the girls were even walking around the ranch alone in the first place. Was that against the rules? She’d have to ask Max. So much she didn’t know.

But she knew how to handle this.

Her heavy footsteps brought all three girls’ heads up. Stacy, where she perched on the edge of her bed changing her shoes; Tonya, where she examined her complexion in the room’s only full-length mirror; and Katie, who rummaged through her top dresser drawer.

Emma took advantage of their surprise and squared her shoulders. “Here’s how it’s going to be.” She lifted her chin and crossed her arms, purposefully coming across defensive in her body language. First step, lay down the rules. Set the standard. “I’m in charge here, whether you girls like it or not, and whether you think I deserve to be or not. That’s not your decision to make, it’s Max’s. And it’s been made.”

She drew a breath, maintaining eye contact with them all, especially Stacy, whom she had the farthest to go to reach. Second step, initiate heart. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Personally, I’d like to have fun with you girls. I’m not here to braid hair and paint fingernails and be your best friend. But I really don’t want to be a dictator, either.”

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