Cowboy Crescendo (Dynasties: The Danforths Book 7)

by Cathleen Galitz

  “I’m pleased to meet you,” she offered, feeling an immediate kinship with the man.

  “The honor is all mine.”

  Words that might sound stilted on the page warmed Heather from the inside out. The man appeared to be a true Southern gentleman through and through. For the life of her, she couldn’t imagine why Toby would want to leave the affection of such a loving family to strike out on his own. Fearing she might even get attached to these people herself if she wasn’t careful, Heather was glad that her job would likely occupy her time for the duration of her stay.

  It was impossible to tell which of the children running about were related to one another and which were merely friends of the family. With an estate of this size, it certainly wouldn’t be any trouble accommodating a full-scale nursery school. Heather would cheerfully volunteer to run it, if it meant she wouldn’t be asked to put in a polite appearance at Abraham Danforth’s big campaign party. She’d had enough of strained social functions in which she felt compelled to vie for the attention of wealthy patrons of the arts. It would be nice to fade into the woodwork for a change.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a child’s squeals as he came ricocheting toward her from out of nowhere. Gathering her wits about her, Heather spied a boy of about Dylan’s age sliding down a fantastic spiral staircase by way of a banister polished by the seats of children for over a century. Startled, she jumped aside, fearing if she didn’t move that she might well prove to be the boy’s landing pad. Taking the opposite tack, Toby stepped forward to catch the boy in midflight.

  “And just who do you think you are?” he asked, peering into a face that took him back into time. The child was the spitting image of his brother Jacob at that age. “Peter Pan perhaps?”

  The boy giggled. “Not Peter Pan—just Peter!”

  His father stepped forward to ruffle the boy’s hair. “Toby, let me introduce you to your nephew.”

  The pride in his voice was as unmistakable as his affection for the child. Unaware that Jacob himself had only recently discovered the son he didn’t know he had, Heather simply assumed that Toby hadn’t had the privilege of meeting his impish nephew. She liked the way he connected with all children, not just his own. She supposed such a man would have more than enough love to accommodate more than one child. Dylan would surely love having brothers and sisters to fill the void that his mother had left behind.

  Not that Heather was eager to marry Toby off or anything. Just the thought of it brought a blush to her cheeks.

  “The boys will be good for each other,” she overheard Jacob telling his brother. “A few months ago, Peter was as reserved as Dylan and almost as quiet. Living together as a family has really brought him out of his shell.”

  Older than Dylan by only a year, Peter grabbed the younger boy by the hand and urged him, “Come on. Let’s go play.”

  When Dylan looked hesitantly at Heather, she smiled at the pair of them and offered to accompany them.

  Toby placed a restraining hand gently on her elbow.

  “If you’d like to stick around, I’m sure I can locate somebody to baby-sit while the adults get settled in. You look exhausted.”

  “I don’t mind.”

  The thought of going with the children and escaping the familial chaos definitely appealed to Heather. Hoping to maintain a low profile for the duration of her stay at Crofthaven, she was eager to begin exploring the grounds herself. The possibility of meeting up with that mysterious lady beneath the big oak tree held a weird fascination for her.

  Besides, Heather asked herself, what good could possibly come of a mere peasant mixing with America’s royalty? She imagined such behavior could earn her the label of a gold-digger among Toby’s relatives. Having been coached how to “work a room” by her instructors, Heather was hoping never to need to put that particular skill to use again. No matter how likable they might be, why should one bother trying to forge ties with people she was likely never to see again?

  Heather could think of only one good reason: it would undoubtedly help her to understand Dylan better—and his perplexing father. For the life of her, she couldn’t understand why he was looking so displeased with her at the moment. The stubborn set of his jaw didn’t bode well for any argument Heather might set forth.

  “It’ll do the boy good to make some friends his own age,” Toby insisted.

  “Oh, let her go,” Genie chided her brother before turning her attention to Heather. “Why don’t you familiarize yourself with the place while we catch up on old times? I’m sure you’d be bored with the exaggerated tales my brothers are sure to spring on my new husband in hopes of embarrassing me.”

  Heather shot Toby’s sister a grateful look. She hadn’t expected anyone so privileged to make it easy for her.

  “But,” she continued in a honeyed drawl, “I do expect you to accompany Toby to the festivities. If he shows up alone, he’s sure to start a stampede of unattached Southern belles in his direction that will upset Uncle Abe by taking attention away from the big political announcement he’s scheduled to make.”

  Toby’s protests fell on deaf ears as she continued teasing him. Their playful banter diverted Heather’s attention from the matchmaking glint in Genie’s eyes.

  She attempted a feeble rebuttal. “But don’t you think Dylan will—”

  Genie cut her off with the same mulish set of her jaw as her big brother’s. The delicate-looking lady was living, breathing proof that Southern women hadn’t acquired the steel magnolias nickname for nothing. Her husband Sheikh Raf ibn Shakir preferred working with his Arabian horses to socializing with the jet set, but he promised his wife he would make an appearance at the family reunion later in the day. He was looking forward to comparing training techniques with his brother-in-law.

  “Don’t worry about Dylan. He’ll be just fine. Uncle Abe’s hired a score of qualified baby-sitters for all the children in attendance. There will be everything from clowns to magicians to giant inflatable toys to keep them happily occupied during the festivities.”

  Like a cool breeze, Miranda swept into the conversation with a soothing presence that had settled so many squabbles over the years. “Of course you’ll want to stay close enough by to check on Dylan if he needs you for anything, my dear. That would put my mind at ease, as well, but we would consider it a privilege to get to know you better. After all, as Dylan’s nanny, we consider you part of the family now. And as such, we would be honored to have you stay at our home. It’s just down the road a ways. With all the political hullabaloo going on here at Crofthaven, it will provide a calmer atmosphere for us to get better acquainted with our grandson.”

  There was no way of sidestepping such a gracious invitation. It made Heather feel all the more keenly her desire for a mother who went out of her way to make a stranger feel at home. Even though she knew that Miranda Danforth was simply being cordial, her words put a lump in her throat. All she had ever known of family was outrageous demands and strict compliance to what others deemed in her best interest. Miranda’s suggestion that people might actually want to get to know her as her own person was flattering in itself. Her invitation to consider herself part of the family when Heather’s own had turned so viciously against her was salve upon an open wound.

  “If you’re sure I won’t be in the way,” Heather said, lowering her voice so as not to betray her feelings on the matter. “I would consider it a privilege to attend.”

  A chorus of responses assured her that she would not be in the way at all. In fact, if the conspiratorial look exchanged between mother and daughter was any indication, Heather was about to find herself the center of attention whether she wanted to be or not.

  Five

  Toby refrained from tugging on the tie he was convinced was invented to maintain a choke hold on mankind in general. Though no longer the same little boy who so vigorously resisted being forced to attend such stuffy affairs as this particular fund-raiser in the heart of old Savannah, Toby still pr
eferred the smell of horseflesh to the cloying perfumes wafting through the lobby of the elegant Twin Oaks Hotel. Nor had his palate ever evolved enough to appreciate the taste of caviar, which was heaped in crystal bowls strategically placed around ice sculptures. He’d still take fried chicken packed in a picnic basket any day over black fish eggs that looked better suited for bait than dinner. Not to mention how much better a beer quenched a man’s thirst compared to the dry champagne in the flute he held.

  His glass froze halfway to his lips as an enchanting creature swept into the room. His heart thumped hard once, twice, three times in a rapid staccato before skidding to a complete halt. Had a pair of misty-gray eyes not sought his out at that very moment and shocked his poor heart back to working order, he might have made a complete fool of himself by spilling that fancy champagne all over himself and his brother Jacob, who was attempting to have a conversation with him.

  “Then she said…”

  Toby feigned an interested expression and nodded as if he was actually listening. He did not, however, take his eyes off the vision in blue who was making her way across the crowded room. Even though he’d mostly seen her wearing casual jeans and baggy T-shirts, he would have to be blind not to have noticed how pretty his son’s new nanny was. The gown she chose for tonight’s gala affair was not nearly so unassuming. Its satin fabric hugged her figure and accentuated her womanly beauty in such a striking fashion that every eye in the room was drawn toward it. Or rather to the woman wearing it.

  In such a gown, Heather looked no more like a nanny than Cinderella looked like someone destined to sweep hearths for the rest of her days. If anything, Heather reminded Toby of an ice princess as she coolly made her way toward him. The way her gown so lovingly caressed her curves made him believe it had been designed expressly for her. Classic in design, the garment was a shimmer of sequins and beads that glittered with each step she took.

  The hemline was deliberately angled from below one knee to midthigh on the opposite side. At five foot two inches tall, Toby had no idea Heather’s legs could look so long and shapely in a pair of strappy silver shoes designed to make a man want to hang himself with his necktie. Her legs went on forever. He tore his gaze away from the sight only long enough to glare at the other men whose gazes were transfixed on the heavenly apparition floating across the wide expanse of the lobby.

  Jacob jabbed his brother in the side and asked, “Where the hell’s that one been all your life?”

  “Presumably checking on Dylan,” Toby answered dryly.

  He took inordinate pride in the fact that he managed a swallow of champagne without choking on it. He drained the flute and set it on a passing waiter’s tray. Not wanting his brother to see that his hands were shaking, Toby shoved them deep into his pockets and leaned against a marble column for support. He struck a pose of accidental insolence.

  “That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Jacob countered. “Not all women are like Sheila, you know.”

  “Don’t tell me Genie’s twisting your arm to get you involved in one of her harebrained matchmaking schemes.” His groan conveyed more than words alone ever could.

  Though the smile that crossed Jacob’s face might be considered sly, his manner was so sympathetic that it invited Toby to open up as he used to when they’d shared their deepest secrets from their bunk beds after the lights were turned off.

  “I don’t believe in pushing a man into something he doesn’t want, but I’ve got to tell you, little brother, that after fighting it tooth and nail for way too long, marriage is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m not much for giving advice, but I’m going to tell you something that I hope you take to heart. Don’t let one bad experience scare you away from happiness. It’s one thing to carve a niche out for yourself in the wilds of Wyoming and quite another to hide from life completely.”

  Since those words came from his brother and because they were motivated by sincere concern, Toby chose not to hit him square in the mouth as he would any other man who would presume to chastise him. As it was, he simply stepped aside when his sister-in-law Larissa linked her arm through her husband’s and drew him to the dance floor with an apology to Toby. The sight sent a tiny twinge of jealousy through him.

  It was all well and good for Jacob—barely back from his honeymoon—to lecture him on the glory of wedded bliss, considering the fact that he had never been divorced. His marriage wasn’t based on deceit. His wife hadn’t lied about using birth control and deliberately gotten pregnant in hopes of “snagging” a good catch. Jacob had never had a hole punched through his heart. A hole so big that the wind whistled through it whenever he stepped outside. Never had a woman stolen his son’s voice from him in her haste to move on with a more cosmopolitan life.

  Or stolen his own faith in marriages like the one his parents shared for so many wonderful years. It was the kind of permanence he had taken for granted growing up. That his wife wasn’t willing to work through their problems still stung. Toby didn’t wish his brother ill. He just longed to find something as amazing as Jacob had. Fearing that was impossible, it was far easier to turn his back on love altogether than to risk being hurt again.

  “Is anything wrong?” Heather asked, stepping beside him and studying the furrows lining Toby’s brow.

  She wore her hair loosely pinned at her nape and swept up in a style that was utterly feminine and flattering. A few loose tendrils framed a face that appeared unaware of its own beauty.

  He shook his head as if to clear it of old cobwebs and resisted the urge to test the texture of a silken tendril between his fingers. “Nothing, except that you take my breath away. If you’ll just be so kind as to stand beside me for the rest of the evening, your beauty should discourage all the single women my mother has lined up in hopes of fixing me up. Ever since the whirlwind romance that picked Genie up and deposited her in front of an altar with the man of her dreams, she’s been wanting to duplicate the experience for me.”

  Heather crooked an eyebrow at him. “I take it you don’t believe in whirlwind romances.”

  Who would have thought that a man who looked so at ease in saddle-worn blue jeans could look so fabulous in a tailor-made suit? Had he the inclination, Heather supposed Tobias Danforth could make a living as a model. Not one of those pretty-boy types who bounced a beach ball over a volleyball net, he would be better suited to sales that required a man of rough edges. Heather could picture him in an advertisement that juxtaposed a close-up of the character lines in his face against the backdrop of the Grand Tetons. Or playing blackjack in Monte Carlo wearing the same tuxedo he donned for tonight’s festivities.

  Or in a pair of underwear that left little to the imagination and shamelessly played on his sex appeal to sell their product…

  A glass of champagne looked like a tempting way to wash away the dryness that had settled into her throat like a desert. Heather nonetheless politely refused the one offered her. She met Josef in a similar setting and, as she recalled, complimentary champagne had done nothing then but cloud her judgment regarding the man who came to be her mentor first—and later her tormentor.

  She could sympathize all too well with Toby’s cynicism.

  “You’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little sour on the subject of romance at the moment,” he told her.

  “There’s no need to apologize.” Certainly not to me, she added to herself.

  Having no desire to pry into her boss’s private life, Heather hoped to be accorded the same respect in regard to her personal affairs.

  Affairs being the operative word, she thought bitterly to herself, wondering why she hadn’t simply worn a hair shirt for the evening instead of something soft and feminine.

  Sensing the change in her demeanor, Toby obliged by changing the subject. “How’s Dylan doing?” he asked.

  Heather smiled when she thought of Dylan and Peter chasing each other through an inflatable playground that had been set up in an adjoining courtyard.

  �
�You were right. He’s still not talking, but he and Peter are inseparable, and they seem to understand each other well enough without words.”

  “Who’s to say that relationships don’t function best that way? Words damned sure didn’t keep Dylan’s mother from turning her back on the two of us, and I guarantee there were plenty of words between us.”

  Heather could tell Toby regretted his words as soon as he’d said them. His angry outburst explained much and softened her heart toward him even more. The fact that he kept a photograph of Dylan’s mother on the piano back home made her wonder if he wasn’t still in love with her.

  “You didn’t have an amicable divorce?” she asked softly.

  “That’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one,” Toby replied.

  “Sheila’s decision to leave tore our family apart. It was especially hard on Dylan.”

  “Except for the day you arrived, he hasn’t spoken a word since his mother left.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Heather’s heart went out to him. Not demonstrative by nature, she didn’t stop to think about the ramifications of putting a hand gently to the side of his cheek. Just shaven, his jawline felt smooth and solid against her palm. A gesture born of compassion turned suddenly reckless, producing shock waves so intense in the pit of Heather’s being that they nearly doubled her over. Every nerve ending in her body surged in response to skin touching skin.

  Toby flinched and drew a hand from his pocket to encircle her wrist. Heather braced herself. There was no doubt the man could have snapped her wrist in two, had he wanted to, or simply have exerted enough pressure to let her know she had stepped over an invisible line between employer and employee. He applied only enough to let her know he would not release her until he was good and ready to. Heather was not so much frightened as exhilarated in some unfathomably and undeniably sexual way. The strength in his grasp was matched by the sudden flash of desire that turned his eyes the color of thunderclouds rolling across an expanse of blue skies.