She tossed back the rest of the shot before she answered. “No, and I haven’t pushed it because anything that any of us says right now will only fan the tabloid flames.”
Lawson agreed. Maybe Kellan would work with that same theory and stay out of sight while nursing his bruised balls.
“Does Lucian want me to move off the ranch?” she asked.
Because both Eve and he knew Lucian well, Lawson had figured the question was coming. “Probably. But that’s no reason for you to go. It’s nice to see Lucian irritated about something not going his way.”
She made a sound of agreement, took the spoon from him and had a bite of the ice cream.
“I heard about Darby’s offer to contact the dean.” Eve handed him back the spoon. “Or rather Cassidy heard about it when she went into town to get some groceries.”
So, that was on the gossips’ agenda. Surprising, since there were so many other tidbits to spread around.
“It was nice of Darby to offer,” Eve went on, “but I’m worried it’ll come with strings attached. Strings for you.”
He would have loved to deny that, but as a general rule Lawson didn’t like to fudge the truth to himself. Darby might indeed see this as a way back into his life especially since she thought that Kellan was Tessie’s father. That might cause Darby to believe that Lawson would be free to take up with her again.
“I’ll text Darby and tell her thanks but no thanks,” Lawson assured her. It was something he’d strongly considered doing, but he hadn’t wanted to get rid of a possible lifeline if Eve felt it was a good one.
She stood, recapped the whiskey. “I should be leaving so we can both get some rest.” He stood, too, but she didn’t move, and there seemed to be a whole lot of hesitation in her eyes. Maybe because she was going to launch into the kissing and sex that Lawson had already ruled out.
Or not.
“I decided not to sell my California house,” she said, throwing that out there. “In fact, I’m thinking if Tessie does get expelled, then Aiden, Cassidy, her and me will move back there for a while.”
And with that bombshell, she turned to leave. Hell. Was this goodbye? But she stopped and looked at him over her shoulder. Maybe now she would say she was just kidding or that it was the whiskey talking.
Or not.
“Lawson, I really am sorry for screwing up your life,” Eve added before she hurried down the steps and disappeared into the night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
TESSIE FIGURED THIS visit was going to get her into even more trouble—especially since she hadn’t been completely honest with her mom about where she was going. Tessie had told her that she was going for a ride on the chestnut mare named Nelly, which she’d borrowed from Dylan. And it was a ride.
All the way to the Granger Ranch.
It’d been a while since she’d been on a horse and never for the five miles or so it would take to reach the ranch. By the time she reined in at the Granger barn, she was sweaty, sore and rethinking this idea of seeing Lawson. Especially when she didn’t even know if he was there. He could be on a business trip.
Or avoiding her.
She couldn’t blame him if he did that because she hadn’t exactly been a ray of sunshine in his life. And then there was the shit-storm with Kellan and her mom. Lawson might be trying to avoid her mom, too.
She got off the horse and glanced around. No sign of Lawson, so she went looking for him. She didn’t see him, but she sure heard him.
“Shit on a son of a bitching stick,” he growled.
Lawson came limping in through the back opening of the barn, and he kept belting out some really bad words. There was a cut just over his right eyebrow and what appeared to be the start of a bruise on his jaw. When he saw her though, he immediately straightened, quit cussing and used his hat to knock off some of the dirt that was on his jeans.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Horse threw me.” He said it like someone who was super embarrassed. And super mad. But if so, it was measly compared to the embarrassing crap she’d done.
His attention went from her to the mare. “Dylan’s,” he grumbled.
She nodded. “He said I could borrow her.”
He kept knocking off the dirt, wincing with some of the movements as he walked closer to her. “Two questions. Are you still grounded, and does your mom know you’re here?”
Like the day in Austin, he sounded a little like a cop again. Or a dad. “Yes to the first. No to the second. But she won’t mind me coming over.” At least Tessie didn’t think she would. “You might want to do something about that cut above your eye. You’re bleeding.”
He touched it, cursed under his breath when he did indeed see blood and headed to the tack room. “Did you hear back about school?” he asked, taking out a first-aid kit.
“Yeah.” Since his hands were dirty, Tessie nudged him aside and took over. She poured some hydrogen peroxide on a gauze pad and dabbed at the cut. It gave her something to do other than looking him in the eye when she told him the rest. “I got kicked out of school. I can reapply but not until next semester.”
She braced herself for his reaction, figuring it’d be similar to her mom’s. Her mom had gone very silent and had said something about her maybe going to another college in California. Her mom hadn’t yelled, cried or gotten pissed off. It was as if hearing it had broken something inside her. Her mom had managed a smile, a hug and had added that it would be all right.
But Tessie knew that was a lie because she certainly wasn’t feeling all right, not by a long shot.
By drinking and then running off, she had made it so that it would never be the same between her mom and her. And now she was going to put a big wedge between Lawson and her when it sank in that she’d been expelled. Not that Lawson had ever cared about her the way her mom had, but Tessie didn’t want him seeing her with that same broken look that she’d gotten from her mother.
“Is Eve moving you back to California?” he asked.
She lifted her shoulder. “She’s talking about it.” A lot.
He dragged in a breath that was a little uneven maybe because the antiseptic cream that she smeared on the cut was stinging. “All right. Until then, I’m grounding you. This is separate from your mom’s grounding. You might say it’s an additional sentence to the one you already had.”
She stared at him. He did sound a little pissed off, but he wasn’t all sad and drowning in doom and gloom.
“That doesn’t mean sitting around in your room feeling sorry for yourself,” he went on. “Until your mom makes up her mind about moving, you’ve got to tend the horses. That includes mucking out the crap in the stalls.”
Yes, he was pissed off all right, but for some stupid reason it didn’t make her feel bad. She hadn’t broken him, maybe because he’d had to put up with less of her mess than her mom had. Or maybe because he thought there might be some hope for her after all.