Читать книгу The Rancher's Baby Proposal - Barbara White Daille - Страница 11

Chapter Three

No wonder Reagan didn’t want to make the trip into town and back again twice in one day.

Ally had visited his family’s ranch once and knew it was small compared with most of the properties around Cowboy Creek. The narrow rectangular piece of land lay tucked between two larger spreads. But the ride had been longer than she remembered.

As she pulled the car up to the ranch house, she peeked into her rearview mirror at the car seat Reagan had left for her at Mrs. Browley’s house. Luckily, she had gotten instructions from Tina on the right way to install the seat in the car and then how to fasten the baby safely inside.

Another mirror suction-cupped to the back window reflected the infant’s image. In the frequent quick peeks she had taken on the drive to the ranch, she hadn’t seen him stir. Now, his eyes were open, blinking in the light, staring up at the mirror.

“Hey, baby,” she said softly. “So, you’re awake. Listen, the two of us are going to get along great. No tricks, no temper tantrums on your part. And only first-class care on mine. I promise you that. After all, I’ve been trained by the best. There’s nothing like learning your trade from a brand-new mama.”

She winced. As far as she knew, the baby didn’t have a mama. Had he ever heard the word before? How would he react at hearing it from her?

But he lay still in his seat, blinking lazily.

She took a deep breath and let it out again. Now or never. She would rather never, but that hadn’t been the agreement she had made with Reagan.

She went to the rear passenger door and knelt on the back seat to unhook the safety harness. “This is only your first time out here at the ranch, isn’t it?” Her hands shook just a tiny bit. So did her voice.

The baby looked up at her. He had slept through the entire ride, as if the bouncing of her car on the frequently uneven road had soothed him. Maybe the wobbly sound of her voice had the same effect. If that was the case, she would let her nerves take over and talk to him all day long.

She transferred him to his baby seat and strapped him in. “I’ve only been out to the ranch once before. My mama and the other ladies of the women’s circle sometimes have special Saturday meetings. And one Saturday a long time ago, when Mrs. Chase, your abuela—your grandma—had the meeting here, she invited all of the ladies to bring their kids along.”

After hoisting her purse and the diaper bag onto one shoulder, she picked up the baby in his carrier.

So far, so good. Keep talking.

“This was when I was in junior high school. You’ll find out all about school someday. Anyway, that Saturday, I got to see your daddy.” The memory made her voice suddenly rise. She looked at the baby in alarm, but he simply stared up at her. “He was grooming his horse outside the barn. And would you believe, I got hit with an attack of shyness. Me, Ally Martinez, The Girl Most Likely to Make You Laugh. Crazy, isn’t it? Well. I sat on the darned corral fence for almost an hour, never even saying hello, just watching him work.”

As she went up the steps to the house, she shot a fond glance toward the corral. Then she looked down at the baby. Sean seemed transfixed by her story. Maybe there wouldn’t be much to this babysitting, after all.

Reagan had told her the kitchen door at the back of the house would be open. She went inside and took the baby over to the table.

She hadn’t gotten her fill of Reagan that day long ago, but it was the first time she had ever been able to sit and stare at him unnoticed by anyone. Including him, unfortunately.

“Your daddy’s a couple of years older than I am,” she explained. “Well...probably closer to three, and I guess he thought I was just a little kid. He never did pay much attention to me.” Leaning closer to the baby, she whispered, “But let me tell you, things are going to change now. What do you think of that?”

The baby looked up and instantly gave her his answer. He stiffened his arms and legs, scrunched up his face and let out a screech.

“Hush,” she said hurriedly, rocking the seat slightly. The movement did no good and even seemed to upset the baby more. “Shh-h-h. Shh-h-h. Don’t cry, baby. Your daddy will hear you and fire me on the spot.”

“I already hear him.”

She jumped and let out a screech even louder than Sean’s.

Reagan’s voice had come from the other side of the kitchen. Reluctant to turn and face him, she stared down at the baby, whose face was getting redder by the minute. So was hers, judging by the heat flooding her cheeks. Reagan had heard the baby crying. But had he also heard anything she had said to the baby?

Suddenly, Reagan was standing beside her. He had sturdy hands with long fingers, and in seconds he had unfastened the straps around the baby. “When a kid’s this wrought-up,” he said, “rocking the seat’s not going to help. He needs out of here.” He lifted Sean and placed him against his shoulder.

She noted he cupped his hand around the back of the baby’s head just the way Tina had taught her.

“Let me guess,” he said. “Mrs. B fed him not long before you went to pick him up.”

She nodded. “That’s what she said. But he was fine in the car. He didn’t let out a peep the entire trip.”

“He’s making up for it now.” He patted the infant’s back. “He’s probably battling some gas from his formula.”

Again, she nodded. In the past, she had heard both Tina and Andi say something similar about one of their babies. Obviously, it was common with little ones. Why hadn’t she thought of that herself now?

She hadn’t been in the house two minutes yet, and already she had given Reagan reason to think she couldn’t handle the job he needed her to do.

* * *

SEAN SQUAWKED IN Reagan’s ear. “Shh-h-h,” he said, the way Ally had done. The baby quieted, but only a daddy with zero experience would expect that to last.

“Come on,” he said, “while we can hear ourselves talk, let me take you up and show you where to find all the baby’s things.” Leading the way, he left the kitchen and went to the stairs.

He was having trouble getting an image out of his mind, the sight of Ally leaning over the baby seat and whispering to his son. He had overheard the tail end of her one-sided conversation, and he was having trouble forgetting what she had said right before she had lowered her voice.

I guess he thought I was just a little kid. He never did pay much attention to me.

She meant him. And she was right. He hadn’t paid her much mind years ago. Three years’ difference, give or take, made a big gap between a grade-school girl and a kid in junior high. The division between junior high and high school had caused a greater divide. Then, it had seemed like a big reason to avoid her. Not that he’d had any interest in her, anyway. He had thought of her as just a kid.

But as he looked at her now—

Sean let out another squawk.

Good boy, trying to get his daddy’s attention back where it belonged.

He cleared his throat and deliberately faced forward as they went along the upstairs hall. “Ignore the mess downstairs. When I was out here the other day, I got as far as cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, and that’s it. You might’ve seen the baby’s playpen in the corner of the kitchen.”

“I did.”

“I moved a portable television into that area, too, and a stack of magazines. You should avoid the other rooms downstairs until I have a chance to give them a good going-over. Upstairs, I’ve only tackled one bedroom and the bathroom. So this little guy and I are bunking together in my old room. The memories might remain, but at least the dust is gone.”

A dumb statement. He hadn’t meant it to come out sounding so pathetic. It was too late to take the words back and too late to stop Ally from following him into the room. He turned as she stopped short just inside the doorway and looked around.

He let his glance rove over what she was seeing. The baby’s portable crib. The pine bedroom set. The shelves still filled with memorabilia from his childhood interests and high school days.

“Is this the way the room looked when you were a kid?” she asked. “With the football and baseball pennants and the autographed balls, the 4-H ribbons and all the trophies?”

“Yeah,” he said sheepishly. “When I left for school, my mom wanted to leave everything the way it was. I think she believed I’d want to come back and relive the memories of all my school years.”

“Those were the days,” she said drily.

Was she thinking again about the times he hadn’t paid attention to her?

Blinking, she gave him a small smile. “I’m sure she missed you a lot while you were gone.”

“Yeah,” he said gruffly. “You know...only child, and all that.”

“Me, too. But unlike you, I never left my mama.”

Again, he wished he could go back and change the past. If not for his fight with his dad, he might have gotten to see his parents a lot more in those years after he left for college. By the time he had earned his degree, he had lost any chance to see his mom at all. Then, a year ago, he had learned he’d never have the opportunity to mend fences with his dad.

He yanked a diaper from the sack in the top dresser drawer and laid a towel on the bed. It took him only a minute to show Ally where he had stored Sean’s clothes and blankets.

While he changed the baby, she moved around the room, checking out the trophies. “Baseball,” she said. “Football. Softball. Track. No wonder you were named all-around athlete the year you graduated.”

When he glanced up, he found her looking at him. He turned his attention back to Sean. “You remember that?”

“I was there in the stadium the day they gave out the awards. Along with three-quarters of Cowboy Creek.”

He remembered that day, too, and not because of the standing ovation.

“Is there any sport you don’t play?” she asked.

“Not really,” he said, grateful for the question and the chance to change the subject. “How about you? What’s your favorite sport?”

“Telephone tag.”

He laughed. She did, too, a low, sexy laugh very different from the high-pitched giggles he remembered hearing from her and her friends.

Sean let out another squawk.

“I guess he gets the joke, too,” she said. “Smart baby.”

“Yeah.” Blinking, he focused again on his son.

An attraction to his boy’s babysitter was something he hadn’t expected. Something he sure didn’t need, considering he planned to have her help him out as often as she could in the next week or two.

“I’d better get back to the job.” Suddenly it seemed even more important to make progress. The sooner he finished up everything he needed to do here at the ranch, the better. “I spent most of this afternoon working in the barn and want to keep at it while the light’s still good.”

“That makes sense.”

“Yeah.” Luckily, she didn’t comment on what would have made the most sense, tackling the house first so he could get it ready to sell. But if his bedroom held so many dusty memories, he hated to think what he would discover once he went through the rest of the rooms, the closets, the cubbyholes. “My dad has a lot stored out in the barn—tack and farm tools and all the other equipment you need to run a ranch.”

“Like everything we sell at the store,” she said. “He was a regular.”

“Yeah. Of course you know all about farming and ranching equipment.” She also probably knew more about both his parents’ later years than he did.

He lifted Sean from the bed and rested him against his shoulder again.

She stood inspecting a couple of faded photographs tacked to a bulletin board above his student desk. He looked at the photos and couldn’t help shaking his head. His mom had stuck them there just before graduation. Since he’d come home, he hadn’t had the heart to take them down.

Ally turned and flashed him a brilliant smile. “Prom king. That was another pretty impressive announcement.”

“Old times,” he said shortly. “Things change.”

“So I see.” She gestured to the other photo, the one he’d looked at more times in the past couple of days than he could count. “This is you and your parents when you were a kid, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. One of my mom’s favorite pictures, from a vacation we took to California.”

“I guessed that from the big black mouse ears you’re wearing. Maybe someday, you’ll get Sean a pair of those.”

“Maybe.” Memories crowded his mind. Ally’s light perfume stirred his senses. Suddenly feeling closed in, he said abruptly, “I’ll show you where everything’s at downstairs before I head back to the barn.”

Then, until it was time for her to leave, he would stay there, working by the exposed overhead lights. Heck, by kerosene lamp, if he had to.

* * *

IN THE QUIET of Reagan’s kitchen, it didn’t take Ally long to grow bored.

While the baby slept in his crib, she kept the television volume turned low. She watched more than she wanted to of late-afternoon comedies and early-evening news. The television stations were beginning their prime-time shows before she realized how late it was. At the same time, Sean woke up.

She moved him into his carrier on the kitchen table.

“I’m getting pretty good at these straps and buckles, aren’t I, baby?”

He looked up, his mouth pursed tightly, as if he were giving serious thought to what she had said.

“Oh, everybody’s a critic,” she told him. “I’m not expecting anything less from you than two thumbs-up.”

A peek through the window over the sink showed her the light streaming through the open doors of the barn. She turned to the baby again. “Your daddy’s still out there, and you know what? I don’t believe he’s ever coming back inside.”

It was her turn to purse her lips for a moment. “He wasn’t happy about those pictures in his bedroom, was he? Or maybe he wasn’t happy about the fact that I saw them. I guess I can’t argue about that. It has to be so hard for him, losing both his mama and daddy. Like you...” She peered down at the baby and asked softly, “Where’s your mama, little one?”

Naturally, he didn’t reply.

“Well, maybe you’ll tell me someday.” She smiled. “Your daddy said he’s an only child, like me. But he has you, and that’s a very good thing. I’ll bet he misses you, too, while he’s in the barn working all by himself. Let’s go see.” She picked up the carrier.

Outside, the night was still warm from the day’s heat. It wasn’t pitch-dark yet, but the moon already cast a faint glow against the dimness of the sky. “There’s a man in that moon up there,” she told Sean, “and one day, your daddy will show him to you.”

As they approached the barn, she heard a noise she recognized from the store, the familiar sound of wooden planks thudding against one another. Through the doorway, she could see Reagan piling lumber in one corner near the stalls. He was so intent on his work, he didn’t hear her enter, not even when she cleared her throat to get his attention.

Oh, well. She had done what she could, hadn’t she? It wouldn’t be fair to call out his name and startle him.

Instead, she stood there getting a good look. She took in the sight of his threadbare jeans, his sweat-dampened back, his muscles bunching and flexing as he shifted one load after another of scrap lumber.

It wasn’t until she stood admiring his pecs and abs that she realized he had turned and stood looking at her.

Oops.

Recovering quickly, she gave a wolf whistle. “You need to apply for a job at the store. Think what having you on the payroll will do for our profits. After one look at you, all the women in Cowboy Creek will instantly become do-it-yourselfers.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Oh, but I do. Keep in mind I’m comfortable making the suggestion because I get paid by the hour. You wouldn’t have to worry about cutting into my commissions.”

“With all the wranglers who must stop in just to see you, I’d probably have to worry more about you cutting into mine.”

“A compliment, Reagan Chase?” she said archly, batting her lashes like one of the actresses from her mama’s favorite late-night movies. “How unexpected. But I’m flattered.”

He looked as if he had had second thoughts about what he had said. Maybe she’d overdone it on the exaggerated flirting attempt.

“Yeah. Well.” His smile seemed forced. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Oh, I won’t.” No chance of that. His words had gone straight to her heart. Obviously, she had been foolish to think he had meant them.

Afraid he might read the truth behind her teasing, she looked down at the baby for just a moment. “Sean and I were wondering if you were planning to eat tonight.”

“Eat?” His gaze went to the open doorway behind her. “What time is it?”

“Sevenish.”

“Dang.” He ran his hand through his hair, giving her another look at flexing muscle. “I lost track of time. And I showed you the baby’s formula, but I didn’t tell you what food I’d stocked in the kitchen for grown-ups, did I?”

“No.”

“Sorry. I stopped at the L-G this morning after I dropped Sean at Mrs. B’s.” The Local-General Store in the heart of town served most of Cowboy Creek. “I didn’t pick up a full order yet, but there’re sandwich fixings in the refrigerator and a loaf of bread in the box near the toaster. Help yourself.”

“You’re not planning to eat?”

His gaze sliding away from her, he shook his head. “I’ve still got a lot to do out here.”

“Won’t you wear yourself out if you don’t pace yourself?”

“Who, me? I’m an all-around athlete, remember?”

“I’ll never forget.” She had attempted her arch tone again, but the words rang embarrassingly true, at least to her.

Judging by Reagan’s suddenly blank stare, he noticed her mistake, too.

As she had told Sean, his daddy either didn’t want to resurrect memories or didn’t like the idea of sharing them with her. A shame, really.

She shifted the baby carrier on her arm, making an effort to remember she wasn’t here for fun and games, reminding herself Reagan wasn’t interested in flirting.

An even bigger shame, because that was what she did best. She didn’t intend to give it up at this crucial point—though, of course, she’d cut back on the fake vampiness from now on.

Experience had taught her flirting was guaranteed to get a man’s attention. And she definitely wanted to capture Reagan’s.