on,” Jed urged, “everyone take a seat. You girls and this little guy must be hungry after your travels. Tina, you get them all settled in while I go tell your gran that Andi and the kids have arrived.”
Jed left the room with more spring in his step than Cole would have expected from a man his age. Obviously, having his granddaughters visit had made his day.
Reluctantly, Cole grabbed his mug and the coffeepot and moved to the center table.
From the corner, Robbie called, “Mama, Scott and me are gonna go play with the ponies, okay?”
She nodded. “All right, but stay in the sitting room with them.”
“I know. That’s the rules.”
He rushed across the room, leaving the plastic animals he’d been playing with scattered all over the tabletop. Cole had trouble holding back a smile. Naturally, any kid of his would choose horses over a handful of other animals.
Scott hotfooted after Robbie as if the pair were best buddies. As they might have been, if things had been different.
No, as they might very well be. How the hell would he know?
He swallowed another wave of resentment at Tina.
Suddenly, he thought of Layne. Had
she
known and kept quiet about Tina’s pregnancy, too?
He refused to think that of his own sister.
But he wouldn’t put anything past Tina.
* * *
O NCE R OBBIE AND S COTT had left the dining room, Tina didn’t know where to look. At her cousin Jane. At her other cousin Andi and her children. Or at Jed, who stood beside the table in the center of the room.
She definitely didn’t want to make eye contact with Cole, who had just taken the chair next to hers.
She glanced down the length of the table, where Jed stood beaming at Andi’s children. Her little boy was now almost three and her baby only a few weeks old. Neither Andi nor Jane had visited for quite a while, and though Jed seldom complained how infrequently he saw them, she knew how much he missed them all.
“Well,” he said, “first, I’ve got to give these great-grandkids of mine a big hug.”
At Jed’s words, the boy hid behind his mother. Smiling, Andi reached up to place her daughter into Jed’s waiting hands. The sight of him cradling his infant great-granddaughter made Tina blink back tears. It seemed like only a few short months ago he’d held Robbie the same way.
Jed took his seat, still holding the baby.
Abuela came from the kitchen with a platter of her sugary sopaipillas. She hugged Andi and exclaimed over Andi’s children. Then, to Tina’s surprise, she gave Cole a warm welcome and a glowing smile.
The unexpected brunch turned into a fiesta, a celebration for everyone except Tina, who struggled to ignore Cole.
“I remember you.” Andi smiled at him. “You used to work for Grandpa, didn’t you?”
“I did, back in high school.” Though he returned the smile, Tina could hear the strain in his voice. “And as of last week, I’m back to working here again. Looks like Jed just can’t get rid of me.”
Neither could she.
For some reason this family gathering seemed to have made him uncomfortable, which made her think of his remark about swearing off family. Maybe he hadn’t been joking about his feelings, after all. How much time had he spent with Layne and Scott, his own family, over the past few years?
He hadn’t come back to town during that time, but she knew from things Sugar had said that Layne occasionally had gone to visit him. Did she miss her brother, the way Jed missed his sons and their families?
In all these years, had Cole missed Layne and Scott?
If he left Cowboy Creek again, would he ever think about Robbie?
Tina didn’t add much to the conversation flowing around her. She usually stayed quiet in crowds. But as the minutes ticked away, she forced herself to follow the comments. Anything to keep from thinking of what would happen when she and Cole left the room.
He had come here today determined to spend time with Robbie, and he would want to go look for her son.
She
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