by Donna Alward
Things had to be really desperate for her to agree to move in for a while.
He opened the front door to Sunshine Smiles Day Care and let his troubles drift away. It smelled like sugar cookies and fruit punch and there were happy squeals coming from the playroom. He smiled at the young woman at the front. “Hey, Melanie.”
“Hey, yourself. Amber’s helping clean up from after-school snacks. I’ll get her.”
His daughter was the light of his life. She attended preschool for half days and spent the balance of the day at the day care. There were times he felt guilty about the amount of time she spent with people other than a parent, but it couldn’t be helped. Being a single dad was a hard job. He’d had to get good at things like pigtails and bows. There’d been a lot of tears before he got a handle on the tiny elastics and learned how to make a bow so that the ribbons didn’t sag and droop. Marie had always done the little girly things. She’d known Amber’s favorite colors, foods and preferred toys, sang to her at night and read her favorite stories. It wasn’t that Quinn hadn’t been involved—of course he had. But Marie had been the anchor. The details person, the one who held them all together.
He still missed her every damn day. And not just for the details and day-to-day jobs he’d had to assume. He missed having someone to laugh with, missed hearing her breathing when she slept, her voice when she called out for him to do something, the way she ran her hands through his hair. He was damned lonely and struggling to get through every day.
“Daddy!”
He smiled suddenly as Amber came charging out of the playroom. “Hey, princess! How was school?”
“It was good. We gots to paint pictures of our favorite thing to do in winter.”
He knew what hers was, but he asked anyway. “And what did you paint?”
She twirled in a circle. “Skating!”
Quinn’s skating expertise was limited to hockey skates and a pond scrimmage now and again. This year Amber had wanted to learn, so for Christmas he’d bought her little white figure skates and signed her up for weekly lessons at the rink in town.
“Nice,” he commented, reaching for her backpack while she shoved her arms in her coat. “Come on, let’s go home and get some supper on.”
She was jamming her hat on her head as she peered up at him. “Can we go see Duke and Carrie? I want to show them my picture.”
“Maybe another time.” Quinn swallowed, thinking about Lacey being at the house by herself tonight. She’d looked sort of...lost, he thought. It didn’t really matter that he wasn’t overly fond of her. Losing your job was stressful, especially when you didn’t have a backup plan. She’d been making ends meet on a mediocre salary. He knew how upset he’d be if he lost his job and had Amber to support.
Maybe he was being too hard on Lacey.
“Please, Daddy? I haven’t seen Duke all week.” She pouted prettily as she took his hand and they walked to the door.
“Duke was still out in the pasture when I left. He might not even be back yet. Maybe tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
He helped her buckle into her booster seat in the backseat of his truck and then got in and started the engine. “Hey, pumpkin? Do you remember Lacey, Duke’s sister? The one that was here for Thanksgiving and Christmas?”
He looked in the rearview mirror. Amber was nodding vigorously. “The pretty lady,” she announced. “With the long red hair. Like Ariel.”
Quinn blinked. He wasn’t sure that Lacey looked like Ariel from The Little Mermaid, but there was no question that she had gorgeous hair—when she didn’t have it all pulled off her face and shoved into a tail or bun or braid. He’d only seen it down once, but Amber had hit the nail on the head. Her hair was long and thick, a rich burnished color with just a hint of natural wave. Even disheveled in the morning, as he’d seen her on Christmas Eve, it was stunning.
“Daddy? What about her?”
He was pulled back from his musings. “Oh,” he replied, turning at a stop sign. “Just that she’s going to be staying at the big house for a while. I know I take you with me a lot, so when you’re there you’re going to have to be extra good. It’s not just you and me now.”
“But Lacey is nice. She played with me lots.”
“But she might not want to entertain you all the time, sweetheart. Do you understand?”
Amber shrugged. He could see the exaggerated movement in the rearview mirror and his heart gave a sad little thump again. The gesture was so like Marie. Amber had parts of Marie that she didn’t even realize, because her memories of her mother were already beginning to dim. They should have had Marie longer. She should have been here through all of this. They were like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing. Pieces that could never be replaced.
“How about spaghetti for supper?” he asked, suggesting one of Amber’s favorites. There had to be at least one more container of frozen sauce in the freezer. It wouldn’t take long to thaw it and cook some noodles and throw some garlic bread in the oven. Cooking was something else he’d learned to do over the past year and a half.
“Spaghetti! Yum! I’ll help!”
He smiled then, pushing the maudlin thoughts aside. He might miss Marie, but he was still a lucky man. He had a job he loved, a roof over his head and a daughter he adored. They could muddle through the rest if they had each other.
Lacey, on the other hand, would be sitting at the ranch house tonight all alone. And for the first time, he truly felt sorry for her.
Chapter Two
Lacey was up, showered, and dressed by the time Quinn arrived just before eight. She’d made a point of setting the alarm for six-thirty, though it hadn’t mattered. She’d awakened shortly after five, cold, and had thrown another quilt over top of the blankets in an effort to warm up. By six she gave up trying to go back to sleep and got up, cranked up the heat and ran a hot shower.
Now she had her laptop open, a cup of coffee beside her, and her glasses perched on her nose when she heard the truck drive in and the door slam.
There was a knock on the door.
Frowning, she got up to answer it. Maybe it wasn’t Quinn arriving for the day? When she put her eye up to the peephole, she could see his scowly face on the other side. What the heck?
She opened the door. “Quinn. Why on earth did you knock?”
He stepped inside, bringing a gust of icy air with him. “You live here now. I don’t have any desire to walk in and take you by surprise.”
Her face heated as the possibilities of “surprise” sank in. “Well.” She took a step backward as he toed off his boots. “Thanks, but this place is really more yours than mine.” She realized they needed to set some boundaries with each other and it might as well start this morning. “Tell you what. During work hours, this place is yours. You should be able to come and go as you please and not worry about knocking.”
“It’s a ranch, Lacey. Not exactly a nine-to-five job.”
Did he always have to be so contrary?
“I realize that. But you have to admit, most days you come and go at regular hours. Let’s say...between eight and six, you’ve got free run of the place and I’ll work around you. The rest of the time, it just takes a knock. Okay?”
He gave a short nod. “Okay.”
She smiled. “Good. Now, do you want some coffee? I put on a pot and I shouldn’t drink the whole thing or I’ll be bouncing off the walls by noon.”
He looked surprised that she’d asked, and his face relaxed a little. “That would be good.”
“What do you take in it?”
“Cream and sugar.”
Same as her. Go figure.
She retrieved a mug from a cupboard while he put a lunch bag in the fridge. When he turned around he noticed her laptop on the dining table. “What are you working on so early?” he asked,
accepting the steaming mug from her hands. The pads of his fingers brushed against her knuckles.
She withdrew quickly, alarmed that the thoughtless touch felt so intimate. “I’m sprucing up my résumé. Then I’ll log on to the Wi-Fi and start searching the job sites and boards. I’m a CPA. Surely someone between here and Great Falls could use my considerable accounting skills.” She waggled her eyebrows, trying to keep the mood light. Maybe he could at least give her points for trying.
“I could ask around.”
Another surprise. “Why would you do that?”
He took a sip of his coffee and looked at her over the rim of his cup. “The faster you get a job, the faster you can resume your old life.”
The whisper of intimacy disintegrated. “Harsh.”
“We both know you don’t really want to live here, Lacey. No sense pretending otherwise.”
He was right. But it didn’t mean she hated it entirely. “You realize that you give me crap for judging ranch life but you do the exact same thing with me? You’re just as prejudiced, you know.”
Quinn looked slightly alarmed at that assessment and put his coffee cup on the island. “What?”
“I’m just saying, that sure, I’ve made it no secret that this is not the life I’d choose for myself. But you’re judging me for that. Quinn, I respect that this is your home and your livelihood and you like it. But just because it’s not for me, and I know it, doesn’t make me less than you, okay?”
He stared at her for a long moment. “I just got schooled,” he admitted. “You’re right. I shouldn’t judge. You just...”
“Drive you crazy?”
“Yeah.”
“You push my buttons, too.” Their gazes connected and that strange intimate feeling happened again. She swallowed. “It must be because we’re so different. Oil and water.”
“I’m sure that’s it.”
Another heavy silence. Finally Quinn picked up his cup. “I need to make a few calls before heading out again. And you look like you need to get back to your work. I’ll see you later.”
“Sure.” She folded her arms around her middle, still a bit chilly. “Quinn, one more thing. Do you always keep it so cold in here? I woke up at five this morning darn near freezing.”
He stopped at the entrance to the hall. “I never thought about that. We keep the thermostat turned down, just keep enough heat on to keep pipes from freezing, really. I use a space heater in the office.”
“I don’t mind turning the heat down at night, though maybe not that far down.” She briefly considered an electric blanket, but that wouldn’t solve the entire problem. And she didn’t want to blast the heat in the whole house and run up a huge bill.
“I’ll speak to Duke about it, maybe get some programmable thermostats,” Quinn promised. “In the meantime, do you want me to light a fire for you?”
“I can do it. And I turned up the heat in these rooms anyway. Forget I mentioned it.”
He walked away to his office and she resumed her seat at the table. Even with the heat on, she was glad she’d put on warm leggings and the long sweater. Her coffee was gone before long so she got up and refilled her cup then went back to it.
She was just prettying up her margins and spacing when she looked up and saw Quinn at the end of the hallway, putting on his outerwear. He didn’t realize she was watching, and she let her eyes roam over his long, strong legs and wide shoulders as he put on his boots and jacket. Then his hat and a heavy pair of gloves...and her mouth watered.
Maybe they did get along about as well as cats in a sack. But she was still woman enough to appreciate a fine male form and it was hard to find fault with Quinn’s.
She hurriedly glanced down at her monitor as Quinn looked back towards the kitchen. It wouldn’t do to get caught staring. They could hardly agree on anything. Heck, at Christmastime they’d argued about the correct way to mash potatoes, for heaven’s sake. If he had the smallest inkling she found him physically attractive...well, things were already super awkward around here.
“I’ll be back in later to grab my lunch,” he called, and he was out the door before she could reply.
Surly, she thought. That was the problem with Quinn Solomon. He was surly. It was hard to like a man who hardly ever smiled.
She wondered if he’d smiled more before his wife had died, and her heart turned over a little at the thought. Whether she liked him or not, losing his wife and the mother of his daughter had to be terribly sad. He must have loved her a lot...
She and Carter hadn’t had that sort of love. She’d thought they had, at first. But when put to the test, they didn’t have what it took for a successful marriage.
She pushed her glasses up her nose and focused on the spacing of her résumé. There was no sense worrying about a past that couldn’t be changed. The only thing she could do was look to the future. There were days when even that was difficult, but she had a clean start now. It was up to her to make the most of it.
She was in the middle of bookmarking employment sites where she could upload her CV when Duke blustered in. Without knocking. Ah. Big brothers. Funny. When Quinn had knocked, Lacey had felt she was imposing on him. When her brother entered without knocking, his sense of entitlement got on her nerves a little.
“You made it.” He shrugged off his coat and hung it on the hook.
“Yesterday, as a matter of fact. Thanks for noticing.” She sent him a cheeky grin, making sure to face him straight on. Duke’s hearing was compromised, and he often watched lips to fill in any gaps of clarity, especially if his head was turned a bit the wrong way.
“I was going to come over last night, but Carrie and I didn’t finish until late. By the time supper was over, we were tuckered out.” He’d removed his boots and came into the kitchen in his stocking feet. His face got this weird, soft, moony look about it. “Especially Carrie. I keep telling her not to overdo it, but she’s stubborn.”
Lacey liked Carrie a lot. The former foreman of the cattle operation, Carrie had fallen for Duke hard and fast when he’d come back to Crooked Valley. Now she and Duke were married and she was expecting his baby. Duke was so happy and protective, and Lacey was happy for them. Even so, their happiness and future plans did serve as a painful reminder of the life she would never have. The dream of an adoring husband and a house full of kids was long gone.
“Is Carrie feeling okay?” Lacey sat back in her chair and took off her glasses, putting them on top of her paper tablet.
“The odd morning sickness, but nothing major. And she’s tired a lot. Otherwise, she’s great.” He pulled out a chair and sat down, resting his elbows on the table. “I can’t wait for the ultrasound. We’ll get pictures and everything.”
It was like a knife to the heart, but Lacey never let on. No one except their mother knew that Lacey’d had to undergo surgery—the kind that prevented her from ever having children.
“I’m glad you’re so happy.” That, at least, was the truth.
“And you’re here. That makes me happy.” He grinned at her, his blue eyes sparkling at her. “I always love having a little sis around to torment.”
“Don’t get your hopes up. I appreciate the place to stay, but I’m not really interested in becoming a rancher. Gramps was crazy to split this place up the way he did.”
Duke tapped his fingers on the table. “I used to think that, too.”
“Well, you’re not me. I’m not a rancher. I belong behind a desk somewhere, working with columns of numbers. Not shoveling manure or whatever it is you guys do outside all day.”
Duke laughed. “I forgot you’re such a girlie girl.”
“Yes, well, you haven’t exactly been around much the last few years.” She realized that sounded a bit harsh, so she tempered it a little. “You were deployed, Duke. I don’t blame you in the least. But y
ou must realize that life went on while you were overseas. We all went our own ways.”
She let him off the hook and smiled. “Anyway, I do really want to say thank-you for letting me crash. Losing my job was a big blow. I was living paycheck to paycheck and really couldn’t see how I could keep up with the rent on the town house.”
“What about Carter? Doesn’t he pay you any alimony?”
She nodded. “Yes, but it’s not much. Carter’s alimony is peanuts, really. He’s got his own troubles. I wouldn’t ask him for anything more.”
“You’d be within your rights. He walked out on you and left you with everything—including all the debt.”
As Lacey thought about how to answer her brother, she got up and poured him the last cup of coffee from the pot. She put it down in front of him and then put her hand on his shoulder.
“It was a mutual decision, Duke,” she said softly. “It just wasn’t working. We were both unhappy.” She didn’t feel like mentioning that the debt Duke spoke of was mostly due to her and all her medical tests and treatment that weren’t covered by her insurance. “I just want you to know that I appreciate the chance to stay here while I figure out what’s next.”
Duke smiled down into his coffee.
“What?”
He looked up and his eyes crinkled around the edges. “You sound like me a few months ago.”
She knew Duke wanted her to take on her third of the ranch. If she did, and if they could convince Rylan to take on his third, the ranch stayed as is. But if they didn’t...well, Duke would either have to find a way to buy them out of their thirds, or the place would be sold. It was an annoying thing, what their grandfather had done in his will. And it would have been much easier to brush off if Duke hadn’t decided to stay on.
“I’m not taking on my third, Duke. I’ll help you in any way I can, but not that.”
Duke took a long drink of his cooling coffee. “Well, there’s lots of time to think about it. What are you doing today?”
His whole dismissal sent out a message of “give me time to change your mind” and she ignored it. “I’m sending out my résumé, seeing if I can find any leads to a new job. It’s not an ideal commute to Great Falls, but spring will be here soon and the bad weather is mostly done. I can do it for a while, until I build up some financial reserves. And who knows? Maybe I’ll find something closer.”
