“It’s good to have people on your side,” Jane said. “I couldn’t survive a week of school without Chelsea.”

“Aww,” Chelsea said, taking Jane’s hand and squeezing it. “The feeling is mutual, honey.”

“I admire both of you so much,” Des said. “Being an army brat, I moved around a lot, and I had my share of amazing teachers, and quite a few that sucked.”

Chelsea laughed. “Believe me, Jane and I have seen plenty of both. This summer, I’m one of those teachers who suck.”

“You are not,” Jane said. “You took on summer school this year so I could be with my kids.”

Chelsea sighed. “It’s like the kids are zombies in there. Try to teach math in the summer to a group of high school students who don’t want to be there in the first place. You might as well kill me now. What was I thinking?”

“You were thinking that someone has to help these kids get to the next level,” Emma said. “And maybe they don’t want to be there, but you’ll encourage them to do whatever it takes to pass.”

Chelsea smiled at Emma. “You’re so sweet and naïve, Em. These kids don’t give a shit about math. They’re going to do the barest minimum to get through my class. Which means a C minus. They’d much rather be at the lake. Not that I blame them. I’d much rather be at the lake, too.”

Des laughed. “Summer school is rough. And it’s probably not that the kids don’t want to learn. It’s like you said. They’re frustrated. All their friends are out having summer fun, and they’re stuck in the classroom.”

“You speak from experience?” Chelsea cocked a brow.

Des took a sip of her wine and nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. I had to do a summer of math, too. It was hideous. No offense to either you or Jane.”

“None taken,” Jane said.

“Here, either.” Chelsea shook her head. “By the end of the school year in late May, I’m toast. And then summer school starts up. Every year I say I’m not going to do it. Some years I don’t, but this year for some reason I said I would.”

“Because there was no one else to do it and seven students signed up,” Jane said.

“That’s true. It was either me or Jane. And Jane has kids, and I don’t. So I said yes.”

“There are only two weeks left, Chelsea.”

She lifted her glass and stared at the golden liquid. “Maybe I’ll start bringing wine.”

“For you or the kids?” Des asked.

Chelsea laughed. “I’ll get back to you on that one. In the meantime, why don’t you tell us about Logan?”

Des grabbed the bottle and refilled her glass. “Oh, yeah. That.” She was kind of hoping they could continue to talk about everyone else instead of her. She loved learning more about them.

“The day after the Fourth I spent the day working on the ranch with Logan.”

“Really,” Jane said. “That sounds like fun. Hard work, probably.”

“It was hard. But it was also enlightening. And fun. And hot,” she finished with a laugh.

“I can imagine. It’s one of our typical Oklahoma summers,” Chelsea said.

Des explained everything she’d done that day, from the time Logan got her up before dawn, until they were finished for the day.

“Holy crap, Des,” Chelsea said. “I’m surprised you didn’t throw in the towel by lunch.”

She shrugged. “It was okay, and I thought I was doing well. But Logan didn’t go easy on me. I mean, he treated me like he would any of the other hands that work for him.”

Jane leaned back in her chair and swirled the wine around in her glass. “He was testing you.”

“I guess so. I didn’t figure it out right away, but I believe he was.”

“He’s scared, Des. And he obviously cares about you, otherwise he wouldn’t have pushed you so hard.”

“It’s because of his and Luke’s mother,” Des said.

“He shared that with you?” Chelsea asked.

Des nodded. “He did. And I understand it, but I’ll be damned if I have to pay for her sins.”

Emma laid her hand on Des’s arm. “You shouldn’t have to. What Luke and Logan’s mother did was reprehensible. It scarred both of them, made them wary of getting close to anyone, especially women. But there’s no way you should have to pay the price for her abandoning her children. Logan’s just going to have to wake up and realize all women aren’t like her.”

“It’s not like we were headed down that road anyway.”

“Maybe Logan thinks you are. Maybe he’s in love with you and he’s confused.”

Des slanted a look of disbelief at Jane. “Logan is not in love with me. I don’t think he’s capable of loving anyone.”

“I disagree,” Emma said. “I also agree with Jane. I think he was testing you, working your ass off at the ranch that day to see if you’d bolt. God knows, from what Luke tells me, his mother hated ranch life and never wanted to take part in any of the activities there.”

“Exactly,” Chelsea added. “And here you are, someone who’s the polar opposite of him in terms of lifestyle and career. If he didn’t care about you, he’d never have tested you. He would have given you the standard McCormack Day at the Ranch experience.”

Des lifted a brow. “There’s a McCormack Day at the Ranch experience?”

Emma laughed. “Yes. I think anyone who wants to”—she used air quotes with her fingers—“‘experience life on a working cattle ranch,’ as they call it, they give them a pretty darned easy day. Nothing like what you told us you went through.”

“I survived it, and the worst part about it was, I had fun.”

“Until Logan made it not fun,” Jane said.

“Exactly.”

Emma refilled all their glasses. “So the question now is, what are you going to do about that?”

“I don’t know. I need some advice.”

“Don’t ask me,” Chelsea said, taking a swallow of wine. “Men are a mystery to me. One totally screwed-up mystery. You’d be better off asking Jane and Emma. Obviously they have them figured out.”

Jane laughed. “We do not. We’ve just learned how to live with their idiosyncrasies.”