Page 24 of Operation: Return

“You could say that. What do I do with information that I’m not so sure I should have? There’s a lot of private information in Teddy’s office.” Since Gabby was in counseling, she might know.

Gabby frowned and gave her a serious look. “A lot of things at this ranch are confidential. There are some things you absolutely shouldn’t know. If you came across something of that nature while trying to do your job today, the best thing to do would be to try to forget it. Leave it for Lacy, since she’s the one who will make the call where to direct it. She’ll send it on to either Brendon or Connor. Edwyn won’t be in the job he’s in once Connor returns. He's trying to do both his own job as foreman, Connor’s job as manager of the business, and thinking about taking on a client since Wayside gets so many requests that he can’t say no for long.”

Just as she’d suspected, she shouldn’t handle the call, shouldn’t even know about the call. But how could she sort through phone messages? It wasn’t like she could tell what they would be about before she listened. “Maybe I should ask Edwyn to listen to the phone messages. I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”

Gabby nudged the wrapped taco back toward her. “They will be better hot and they’re already cooling down because the drive out here is so long. Eat. Edwyn will get around to listening to them if you ask him to.” She grinned. “It just may take him a while.”

“I had heard Lacy is coming back in a week, is that true?” Shuffling the troubling phone message off to Edwyn made her feel slightly better about doing the job. He would know the threat and it wouldn’t hang over her head.Andshe wouldn’t have to lie, which bothered her the most.

“Yes, I think Victoria mentioned that to me when I talked to her. It will be so good to have her back. She really keeps this place running like a well-oiled machine. We all miss her.”

And when she came back and was caught up, there wouldn’t really be a need for Erica to stay. They wouldn’t need there to be two people to answer phones for a ranch that only had room for six guests. Nor was she vetted to do the research part of the job.

If they did look into her past, they wouldn’t find anything bad, but they wouldn’t find anything good, either. Her entire adult work history was a long string of short engagements followed by either getting laid off, replaced, or outright fired because she couldn’t bend when they needed her to.

She refused to be less than 100% there for Pete. He deserved a full-time parent even if he only had one of them. A small nudge from somewhere deep inside asked a question that took her breath away.What if he has two parents?Trouble was, she only wanted Taylor. Cole was very similar. If he turned out to be Taylor, that would make matters interesting.

She couldn’t stay on a ranch where she couldn’t work and had no purpose. She refused to allow Pete to come to Wayside alone when the whole point of the ranch was for people to heal. If Cole was Taylor and he pushed for parental rights, she would have to fight him which would force her to say why she didn’t want him to have custody in court. Wayside Ranch. The biggest secret of all.

Cole might even walk away from his son just to protect Wayside. The idea of forcing him to choose between his child and his job left her sick to her stomach and she stood up and walked away from the table a few steps.

“Something wrong?” Gabby asked. “I thought the tacos were pretty good?” Her brows furrowed.

“Upset stomach.” It was only a partial lie. When had she become the woman who would possibly keep a man from his child? What about Cole made her change her mind about the thing she literally held the most dear, family.

“Do you know of any way to prove someone is who they say they are?” Erica forced herself to sit back down.

Gabby remained silent for a moment. “Do you mean Cole?”

Erica couldn’t vocalize her answer, so she nodded.

“Fingerprint database. If you can get Cole’s prints, I can try to talk to some people and have them analyzed. There’s no guarantee of a good result. If he’s never had his prints put in the system, there will be nothing to tell you. What does your gut say?”

Her gut was ten kinds of confused because it wanted to believe Taylor had returned from the dead just for her. But logic said that wasn’t possible. However, if she had proof, that was logical. Then she could believe her wayward intuition. “I’ll find a way to get those prints for you.”

“Okay, but just remember that one of the creeds on Wayside is truth. If you want to trust him and you want him to trust you, just tell him you’re struggling and ask for his understanding and cooperation. Cole can be a jerk, but he’s also loyal. If you go behind his back, you might find you don’t like the change in him. He will turn on you if you give him reason to.”

That was a risk she’d just have to take because admitting she needed proof might make him ask her why. Then she’d have to admit Pete was the reason and he’d put two and two together. She wasn’t ready for two and two to equal the three of them just yet.

ChapterTen

Erica unlocked the door to Teddy’s office with Pete at her side. He hadn’t stopped talking about Cole, Trace, or his horse all evening the night before. At least the one silver lining to being there was that he was having the summer experience she’d prayed for.

Her skin tingled to awareness as the faint sound of boots down the hall letting her know Cole was close by. She shook her head. That was ludicrous. How could she know Cole by his footsteps already?

“Cole! You’re here early! I thought I was going to have to sit quietly in Mom’s office all morning.” Pete didn’t bother keeping his voice down.

Cole held up his finger to his lips to remind Pete of the rules and she couldn’t quit staring. Those lips had been pretty amazing when she’d known Taylor. His gaze swept up and met hers, filling her face with heat. Had he realized she’d been staring at his lips and thinking about Taylor’s kiss? Taylor or not, the man sure looked good.

“Morning.” He raised his brows and one side of his lips in a smug smile.

“Morning.” She turned back to her task with fumbling fingers and a heartbeat racing like she’d run there instead of walked. Her presence didn’t seem to have the same effect on him and that irritated her slightly.

She finally unlocked the door and pushed it open. “What will you be doing today?” she asked the obvious because she couldn’t think of any other question.

“Mostly the same as yesterday. Trace will be there too and maybe Scarlet, which means Junior will be there to watch too. We want to make sure we’re there for everyone who needs us.”

He’d practically insisted they come after the danger had come to light, but before that he’d given her the choice. He hadn’t told her how much extra work this would be for him and she’d assumed someone else would be with her son. “Thank you for taking Pete under your wing when now is probably a really bad time to have him here.”

---