Page 35 of Operation: Return

“There’s a little room right back here, like a big closet. It looks like Teddy used it as a break room. There’s a television in there and a fridge. I put a few bottles of water in there for you. I know I told you I wanted you away from screens this summer, but I’m giving you permission today to watch TV.” Erica led him inside and showed him where the remote was. For a boy so young, he often picked up how to use things like that better than she did.

Pete snorted unapologetically. “I’ve been outside all day for the past few days. I’ve earned an hour or two.”

She wasn’t sure she agreed but there were no other people around to watch Pete who weren’t working. The ranch only hired people who worked every day and she was sure it ran even better when Connor and Lacy were there.

She’d just closed the door to the hideaway when Gabby knocked on her open office door. “Morning! How did things go with Cole?”

Gabby was usually off working by then and it was odd having her around to talk to. “Good. We got a few things covered from before that were definitely standing between us. Are you working from home?”

She frowned and leaned against the door. “I have a number of clients who wanted to still work with me from when I had my practice in Cheyenne. I’ve done their appointments through video call since I moved, so they won’t notice any change. I’ve also gained a few clients from here in Piper’s Ridge. They’re still new to seeing me and the idea of having sessions over a computer feels less personal to them. I tried explaining it to a few this morning and so far, it’s been nothing but frustration. I really can’t wait to get back in my office.”

Erica was confused. “Soyoudon’t want to go to the office, or you can’t?” She’d wondered how Gabby would handle work after what had happened in the parking lot.

“I didn’t want to. Not when I had to go alone. But even if I had, Edwyn is closing off the ranch right now. There’s just too big of a chance that someone could get hurt or something could go wrong.”

Erica mentally shivered. That could harm Pete or Cole.

Their kiss brought up a lot of emotions and feelings she’d forgotten about, but could it lead anywhere? Cole worked at Wayside, a place that wasn’t safe for Cole without her around. She couldn’t just allow Pete to follow Cole all the time. If she could, that’s where he’d be now instead of sitting in front of a television.

He had to live on the ranch because Connor tried to keep coming and going to a minimum. Gabby was the first person to leave daily and she’d also been the first one to have something happen to her. If something sparked between her and Cole, she’d have to live on the ranch.

“Erica?” Gabby’s brow furrowed as she tilted her head and waved her hand in front of Erica’s eyes. “Don’t spend too much time worrying. It will be okay. My clients will understand, or they’ll find a counselor who can meet their need to be in person. You don’t have to worry about me.”

While Gabby had misunderstood her concern, Erica wasn’t about to pile her own worry on Gabby when she’d already almost been kidnapped and was now dealing with her business in upheaval. “I know, it’s just a lot to deal with. I’m sorry.” She’d fooled herself over the last few days into thinking the ranch was as safe as it felt. It wasn’t.

She turned and strode to her desk chair, telling Gabby without saying a word that she was ready to start her day, even if she was feeling as disordered as the return bin at the library. Gabby gave her a hesitant smile then waved and left.

With a long sigh, Erica pulled out the middle desk drawer and got out a notepad. She needed to think, and her brain was too full of emotions to do so clearly. At the top, she wrotestayon one side andgoon the other.

She tapped the paper, then decided to just write whatever came to her scattered brain. Under the stay side, she wrote that Cole was used by the military, and they never made it right. He might not look at it that way, since he’d enlisted knowing he was a number, but that’s how she saw the situation.

On the opposite side she wrote danger. There was inherent danger in staying here. She’d known that from the moment that car had followed them. Cole had tried to play it off as nothing before they’d slashed his tires, but she’d felt the worry pouring off of him. Now she was in danger she couldn’t escape.

He was also basically alone. When they were together, he acted different with her, like he trusted her. He treated the other people on the ranch with barely disguised apathy if not disdain. Like their kindness almost hurt him. Maybe it did. He had to have lost friends in the incident they’d used to cover his death so they could make him a new person. They couldn’t have done that if no one had died.

A thought hit her that she couldn’t ignore and she closed her eyes to keep her tears from falling down her cheeks. It was quite possible that men he trusted had turned out to be the very men who were putting him in danger in the first place. Maybe Cole didn’t keep friends at bay because he’d become someone new. Maybe he did it because he couldn’t trust himself to make friends he could trust?

If she told him, point blank, no veiled conversations, that Pete was his child and she took him, she’d be doing just what his friends from the past had done. She’d be stealing his identity as a father and proving that he couldn’t trust her when he obviously wanted to.

“Erica? You alright?”

She jumped at Cole’s voice in the doorway. Her own squeaked in reply, “Yes, sorry.” She ripped the sheet off the notepad and crumpled it. He couldn’t see what she thought or he would have written proof that Pete was his. He might know already, part of her wanted to believe he did without saying a word. The mere thought that he might assume Pete was someone else’s cut like a dagger. She couldn’t even imagine being with anyone else, yet, what else could he think if he didn’t know?

“I’ve been standing here a minute. How are you? How is Pete?” He tugged his hat off and ran his hand though his hair.

She loved the ridge around his head where his hat band had been. For some reason, that imperfection made Cole even more likeable, reachable, human. “I’m sorry. I was distracted. Thinking.”

He chuckled. “I’ve been guilty of that in the last twelve hours or so, too.”

Heat rushed to her cheeks knowing he was hinting at the kiss that must have been keeping his mind busy like hers. “Pete’s doing fine. I let him watch the television in Teddy’s breakroom.”

Cole laughed. “That’s where Teddy and Lacy used to sit and watch afternoon soap operas. The two are hooked. They’ve had daily meetings in there since before I even got here. Victoria teases Teddy about his obsession with his ‘daily’s’.” Cole snorted. “I’m sure they’ll start right back up when she comes back.”

Erica couldn’t help snorting back. “Teddy watches soaps? I wouldn’t have ever guessed that.”

Cole gave one of those half grins that turned her heart to mush. “The guy is a softy, but he looks like he could bust concrete with his head. That’s usually one of the first things we have to tell the people who stay here, none of the guys act like they look.”

She was starting to understand the rules posted everywhere. Those rules were to let those living here know that just because the men surrounding them looked as tough, or tougher, than the men who’d held them before, this place was different. “What about you? Could you break concrete with your head?”

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