easily to her face. “I know. They’re among my favorites. But another of my favorites is my grandmother’s brownies, and she insisted I bring some over when she learned there was a birthday girl in the house today.”
“I’m six now,” pronounced Sophie with regal emphasis. So the birthday was hers. “That means I go to first grade in the fall.” She shifted on the crutches to show off her solitary boot. “Do you like ’em? They’re my birthday present.”
There was something brave and bittersweet in how the child referred to her single boot as a pair. Tess liked her immediately, feeling guilty for her momentary stumble. “Mighty nice,” she said. “I’ve always felt white boots were extra special. Never had white ones myself—you must be extra special.”
She’d called a little boy in Adelaide “extra special”—a little boy she’d never get to buy birthday presents for now—and the words sat bittersweet on her tongue.
Sophie, oblivious to Tess’s memories, somehow executed a twirl on the crutches. It flounced her ruffled skirt out in girly splendor. “Thanks. Daddy says so all the time.”
Still no mention of a “Mommy.” And this “Daddy” was not the Cooper Pine of the Pine Method empire or the man with the gleaming toothy smile from the television show. His off-camera persona was quieter, calmer, less imposing, but still in full possession of the charisma she imagined made him a star. And probably won him the heart of some strawberry-blonde who had given him this beautiful daughter. So where was the mother? The noise and chatter at their doorstep would have sent most women Tess knew out to see what was going on.
“Good for Dad,” she said. “I don’t mean to interrupt if you’ve got a party planned.”
“Can you braid?” the little girl asked.
“Huh?”
Sophie tugged on her curls. “Braid. Hair.”
Cooper shrugged. “I’m kind of out of my league here, and someone wants birthday braids.”
But wouldn’t her mother...? Oh, Tess thought with a momentary shock of understanding, remembering being a little girl herself with no mother to fix her hair anymore. Apparently this precious child was Cooper’s one and only little lady, after all.
Tess stared down at those sweet eyes. “Birthday brownies and braids, that’s me.”
“Well, then,” said Cooper as he gestured her inside, “come on in. As a matter of fact, your timing is downright great. Glenno will want to know if we got the blondies right, and you’re just the taste-tester we need.”
“You’re right!” Sophie cheered, suddenly taking off down the hallway in a tumbling three-legged canter that Tess had to admire. “Glenno! Glenno!” Her cries echoed as she disappeared to another part of the house.
“Our cook, among other things,” Cooper explained as he relieved Tess of the basket. “I call Glenno our culinary lyrebird. Likes to figure out other people’s recipes and imitate them. I gave him one of the blondies yesterday.” He looked down at the basket. “Um...these aren’t a secret family recipe, are they?”
Tess felt a little knot pull at her stomach. “As a matter of fact...”
Cooper pulled open a door on a hallway credenza and slipped the basket in. “I’ll hide ’em for now. Later, Sophie and I will dig in on the sly.” He tapped the door shut with his cowboy boot. “No point baiting Glenno’s curiosity.”
Tess heard the click-click-clop of Sophie’s boot and crutches long before the girl popped up from around a corner down the hall. “Are you coming yet? Glenno thinks he got it on the first try.”
Tess threw a sideways glance to her “host.”
“I doubt Lolly will be happy to hear that.”
The resulting grin did belong on a charming television star. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
* * *
By the time Cooper led his short-order hairstylist to the kitchen, Sophie was seated on one of four stools in front of a kitchen island, her crutches dispatched to a nearby corner. She spun on the stool’s swivel seat, her leg swinging in anticipation.
“I’ve got a niece not too far from your age at Blue Thorn, you know,” said Tess. “You’d like Audie.”
A friend? Cooper pondered the possibility. His travel schedule hadn’t afforded Sophie many chances to make friends—one of many things he was set to change—and one just across the road would be a blessing. All Sophie really needed was one soul her age who would see past the crutches to the treasure that was his darling daughter.
“Miss Tess,” Sophie said in an amusingly formal tone, “this is Glenno. He’s kinda everything.”
“G’day to you.” Cooper watched Glenno chuckle at the “job description” as he extended a hand in greeting. “From the Buckton place, eh?”
Cooper had heard bits and pieces of the past tension between the former owner of this property and the Buckton family. Sophie neither knew nor cared about such neighbor relations. She simply grabbed the plate from one end of the counter and pulled it toward the middle open stool. “Taste ’em.”
Tess’s glance bounced among Copper, Sophie and Glenno before she sat. “They look like Lolly’s,” she offered, tilting a smile toward Sophie’s eager eyes. Actually, Glenno’s eyes looked just as eager.
“But do they taste like Lolly’s?” he encouraged, sitting beside Tess so that she was between him and Sophie. “That’d be the million-dollar question.”
With all three sets of eyes fixed on her, Tess picked up the square and had a bite. It seemed like ten minutes went by, even though Cooper was pretty sure it had only been seconds, before she smiled.
“Mr. Glenno, I think you lived up to your reputation.”
Glenno beamed. Sophie giggled happily. The tension Cooper had felt tighten his chest all day in how he was going to give Sophie the best day he could unwound a bit at the culinary victory.
“These are ninety-nine percent Lolly’s. And I couldn’t rightly say that the lacking one percent isn’t just pure loyalty to Lolly.” She took another bite as Sophie leaned in to watch.
Cooper made a big show of absconding with one of the blondies from the plate and began eating.
“Hey!” Sophie cried out. “No fair. I can test again, too, can’t I?”
As if he could deny Sophie anything on her birthday. Cooper slid the plate toward her while Glenno gave a grunt of victory and picked up the last confection. For a moment everyone ate in blissful silence. Cooper sent a prayer of thanks heavenward for the tiny, spontaneous party.
“You can’t tell her you’ve done this,” Tess said eventually. “I love Lolly too much to let her know you’ve figured out her recipe.”
“I promise you,” Cooper said, not bothering to hide his grin, “she’ll never know.”
“I’d never undercut the woman who made these,” Glenno said. “I’m not out to get anyone. I just like the challenge.”
“I just like the results,” Cooper said as he licked his fingers.
“I just like the eating,” Sophie said, sending them all into laughter. “Glenno, you’re the best. You should do Miss Tess’s brownies next.”
Tess shot Cooper a look. Cooper shot his daughter a look. “Sophie, hon, I promised Miss Tess we wouldn’t let Glenno swipe her grandma’s recipe.”
“Brownies?” Glenno looked intrigued and put out at the same time.
“I saw Dad hide ’em in the hall cabinet.” Sophie pronounced. “Want me to go get ’em?”
She began to slide off the stool until