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

his learning curve on babies was tighter than a hairpin turn on a mountain road, but Tessa didn’t have to agree with him. If his success rate with Grayson was anything to go by, he’d never be able to figure out how to help a teenager, and it sounded as if they expected him to be very involved in the process.
    Mentor.
    That was a big word.
    “We’ll start you off easy,” Alexis assured him. “The teens arrive tomorrow, and then we’ve got a trail ride scheduled for the morning after. Nothing fancy. You can take the time between now and then to familiarize yourself with the land and pick a route you’d like to take. Or ask any of the other wranglers, and they can suggest something for you.”
    Cole nodded and cleared his throat, feeling as if he should be rejecting this agreement but finding himself completely without words. It didn’t matter what he said, anyway. He wasn’t going to be able to walk away now. Not and keep his dignity.
    “There are twelve kids in this lot, nine of whom have indicated they have never ridden a horse before, so you’ll want to keep that in mind when you’re selecting their mounts. You’ll need to get acquainted with our stable full of horses. Most of our stock are so gentle a toddler could ride them—or in this case, a city kid who has never seen a real live horse before, which, trust me, is close to the same thing.”
    “Sometimes worse,” Marcus joked.
    Cole ignored Marcus and his attempt to be witty. His gaze widened on Alexis as she pelted directions at him. How was he going to remember all this?
    As if she could read his mind—or maybe his expression—Tessa tore a few pages of yellow paper from her legal pad and handed them to him, then clicked a blue pen open and tossed it his direction.
    Thankfully his reflexes worked faster than his brain, and he caught the pen with no problem. That was all he needed, to have the thing bounce off the table so he’d have to crawl around on the floor to get it. It was bad enough that Marcus had his eye on him, but the one who really mattered was Tessa.
    He’d thought he’d reached the very dregs of personal humiliation with Tessa many years ago, before he’d left for the navy, but now that he was back in town and in front of her again, he had to wonder. Would the awkwardness between them dim with time? Was she even feeling the tension and chemistry inherent between them, or was it all in his imagination?
    Probably. He scoffed at himself.
    Pulling his mind back to the task at hand, he scribbled a few notes about what Alexis had said. At least she’d paused so he could catch up.
    “We own twenty horses in addition to those owned by the wranglers and counselors. You’re welcome to board your own horse here, as well. I know it’s going to take some time for you to get to know the idiosyncrasies of each of the mounts, but I have every confidence that you’ll be able to match up the right horses with the right teenagers.”
    “It’s as much about the attitudes of the youths as it is their riding abilities or the temperament of a particular horse,” Tessa explained.
    Cole remembered once being responsible for choosing Tessa a mount from Serendipity’s public stable, the very first time she’d ever ridden a horse in her life. He’d been the one to teach her, and they’d spent many hours together exploring the countryside. She’d apparently continued riding after he left, if she was now in possession of her own horse.
    His chest tightened. A lot of time had passed since their dating days. He experienced the odd sensation of a gap, the lost time, opening like a large black cavern before him.
    So much in Serendipity had stayed the same, and yet so much had changed.
    Tessa
had changed.
    “I know horses,” he admitted. “But how am I supposed to know what the kids are going to be like, much less what kind of ride to give them?”
    Tessa and Marcus burst out laughing simultaneously.
    “Trust me,” said Marcus with the annoying grin