Page 33 of Operation: Return

Her heart leapt. He had to know Pete was his. There was never any other man. “You have, but there’s time to catch up. We have time to take this slowly. I have a job here for now and Pete is happy. When Lacy returns, we’ll figure something out.”

“I can’t tell you what it does to me to hear you talking about staying.” Cole’s gaze dropped to her lips and he inched forward agonizingly slowly.

Erica’s blood raced through her body, igniting her senses. She leaned forward and his lips tantalized hers. Passion should’ve been a distant memory but came back like a gasoline doused flame. She remembered all the reasons they’d moved so deeply into their relationship, and how quickly. Their passion hadn’t lessened over time. If anything, it had steeped in the silence of the years in between.

His arms flexed and pulled her in closer. A soft groan escaped her lips. If she didn’t back away soon, she would be fully engulfed, intoxicated by Cole. Just as she had been in the past, with Taylor. With gentle resolution, she edged back, caressing his cheek as he’d done to her. The stubble of his jaw played against her heady emotions.

“I can’t go any further.”

He swallowed and nodded his agreement. “I know. I’d forgotten, or maybe just thought I could control myself better with age. I should’ve known better.”

“I didn’t have a relationship with Jesus before Pete. I can’t be that woman now.” She slid back a little more and took a deep breath.

“My faith is the only part of Cole Bradly I would never give up.” He raked his hand through his short hair. “I hope I didn’t scare you. I didn’t mean to.”

She touched his arm and squeezed. “You didn’t. Part of why I can’t accept you as Taylor is the change. But I’ve changed too. Taylor might not have liked the Christian Erica. But now we are both new in Christ and can start over, as we are.” She hoped that was good enough.

“I want that very much. I’ve been hoping and praying you would believe me since I arrived on your doorstep. I can’t imagine losing you again.” He hung his head. “At some point we’ll have to broach the subject of Pete. I want to know everything.”

Her mouth went dry. He was responding just like she’d assumed he would if Pete was his. “Of course. I have everything you could possibly want to know back at my house, his baby book, everything.” There was so much to tell him. So many things he’d missed. She hadn’t always had a cell phone or camera, so pictures weren’t as plentiful as she would like, but she had some. She couldn’t believe Pete would have a father who would want to see his baby pictures.

“I should go. It’s getting late and I want to give Junior and Gabby a little time tonight after her ordeal. Will you walk with me?”

He stood up and held his hand out to assist her. The moment she was on her feet, he took her in his arms and kissed the tip of her nose. “We have a lot to talk about and I can’t wait to get to know you again.”

His smile was contagious and soon she was grinning back. “I can’t wait either.”

As they left, she wondered if he would skip a goodbye kiss because Pete would be there. Would Pete wonder or would he be excited? Pete had never asked for a dad like other kids had, but she suspected he’d always wanted one.

Maybe she was greedy for wanting another kiss so soon so Pete could be excited too. So be it.

ChapterThirteen

Cole strode out to the barn and found Sam waiting for him. He’d been trying to avoid people to give himself time to think after being with Erica last evening and the kiss that kept replaying in his head. If Sam was out here, he wanted or needed to talk, so Cole reined in his focus.

“Morning.” Sam nodded toward the corral. “I see Eric has a new trainee,” he snorted.

“Morning.” Cole leaned against the fence and avoided commenting about the horse fixing to stomp Eric into the dirt. A week ago, he’d have made a wise crack. What was stopping him?

“I talked to the vet about that dog from yesterday. He was microchipped.”

“What?” That was unexpected. A dog that beat up rarely had any way to track them.

“Yup, but the dog was stolen a year ago from a yard in Minnesota. After so long, they assumed he was gone and they adopted another dog, one that isn’t good with other dogs.”

“So they can’t take it back.” Cole frowned, but understood. If a dog wasn’t found within a day or two, the likelihood of finding it was slim. They had moved on.

“No. I’ll wait until Connor gets back to give his okay, especially after you brought Bubbles, but I suspect we’ll be keeping him. I don’t know if they drugged him or just beat him into a frenzy, but a little food and time and he’s calm now. Oh, and I guess his original name was Zeus.”

“Calm. Right.” Unlike Cole who didn’t like the idea of keeping the dog at all. What if something had happened and he hadn’t been watching so closely? What if Trace or Scarlet had been out there at the time? Just seeing a dog attack could hurt any progress they’d made. No one knew the entirety of their history or what they’d been through.

“There’s a lot that could’ve gone wrong in this situation. I know you want to heal every dog and protect them from kill shelters, but you can’t save all of them.”

Sam snorted. “Says the guy who rescued a dog from a parking lot. I don’t have permission to keep Bubbles yet, either.”

He nodded, then frowned. “If Connor won’t keep him as a working dog, I’ll ask if I can keep him as a personal pet.”

Sam made a disapproving noise in his throat. “We’ve never had that come up. Wonder what he’ll say.” Sam frowned as he watched Eric slowly work the agitated horse closer and closer to him.

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