Wyoming Cinderella

by Melissa Senate

  Chapter Seven

  Zeke had spent all night thinking about the kiss—and what it meant. He’d still be thinking about it right now, at eight thirty Sunday morning, but he was presently surrounded by children of all ages, and man, were they loud. He couldn’t think if he’d tried.

  He peered over the white railing that separated the infant area, where he stood, from the rest of the huge Kid Zone space in the ranch’s lodge. Toddlers. Preschoolers. Big kids. Teens. They whipped around the room in happy shouts and giggles, sending foam balls into three-foot basketball hoops, building towers of blocks—his two-year-old nephew Danny was among those—coloring pictures, playing soccer, making crafts. Zeke’s sister-in-law Maisey, head nanny of the ranch’s babysitting service, had called him in a panic an hour ago—one of her employees had a family emergency and Maisey had a full house and no one was available. Could he spare two hours to keep an eye on the two sleeping babies, both his little relatives, if that made it less scary? It definitely did. So he’d donned the Dawson Family Guest Ranch staff polo shirt Maisey had presented him with and found himself spending the morning wondering how the babies slept so peacefully amid all the noise and action.

  A little cry came from one of the babies—his sister’s son, Tony, who was seven months old, but it was a false alarm and the little guy went right back to sleep. In the bassinet beside him was Maisey’s daughter, eight-month-old Chloe. Maisey had said the little girl was a champion napper and she definitely was. A toddler let out a shriek that could crack glass, but Maisey didn’t stir.

  Tony, on the other hand? Suddenly screaming his little head off.

  “Hey there, you’re gonna wake up your cousin,” Zeke said, lifting out his nephew and holding the baby against his chest. He gave Tony’s back a rub and the tyke stopped crying and grabbed his ear instead. Ow. What was with babies and Zeke’s ears?

  Which of course made him think of Lucy, which made him think of Molly, which made him think of the way her lush hair had fallen down around her last night. Her hair, her face, her body, their ease of conversation, their laughter... He’d touched that curl and something inside him had given way. He’d wanted to kiss her, hold her, feel her against him.

  Molly—his admin. Was he completely insane? Not okay, not appropriate. If they were coworkers on equal footing, fine. But he was her boss.

  So now what? Even after just a week he knew she was a great admin, a great person, and he was damned lucky to have her, so he’d just better tamp down his attraction and somehow try to make it go away.

  He shifted Tony in his arms, turning toward the two toddlers climbing a minimountain on a cushy mat so that the baby could have a fun view.

  Last night, in his bed in the cabin that Ford had vacated, Zeke had tried hard to “make it go away.” First, he’d berated himself for acting without thinking and just kissing her. Then he’d grabbed his high school yearbook and looked at Danica Dunbar’s photo, waiting to feel that conk on the head, the bolt of lightning, the cartoon hearts shooting out of his chest as if he were Pepé Le Pew. Nothing.

  And instead of planning his long-awaited date with Danica in his head—a great restaurant in Prairie City, him in a blue shirt—all he could think about was Molly. Molly sitting across from him, the little vase of red tulips between them. Clinking on tacos. Sharing stories. Touching that long, wild curl.

  Wanting to kiss her. Wanting, wanting, wanting. And then doing so.

  The more he’d looked at Danica’s little square photo, the less connected to her, to the old dream, to the old him, he was. But he’d tried to focus, tried to remember how the thought of her would rally him. All so that he wouldn’t be romantically interested in his administrative assistant. His good friend. The gift from the heavens.

  What was he supposed to do with this? He’d just have to ignore his attraction. No other way. First of all, even if it was appropriate to kiss his subordinate, which it was not, Molly was a mother. A package deal. And Zeke wasn’t meant for fatherhood.

  “When are you going to make me an uncle?” said a familiar voice.

  Zeke turned to find his brother Axel grinning at him. “You are an uncle. A few times over.”

  “Yeah, but look at you,” Axel said, gently caressing Tony’s light brown hair. “A natural.”

  Zeke raised an eyebrow. “No clue why. But babies do seem to love me.”

  “Well, babies did not seem to love me and I never thought I’d have kids—same as you. Then whammo—Danny, a missing toddler I rescued from a mountain—decides I’m his hero and suddenly I’m not only married to his mother but now we’re expecting a baby.”

  How was this happening? Zeke wondered. One by one, all the Dawsons were changing diapers and singing lullabies, happily committed to the family life as if it was a natural next step. It wasn’t. Not for any of them.

  “There’s something in the water,” Axel added. “Turns commitment-phobes into family men walking around with babies in their arms and singing ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider.’ Like you were doing.”

  Had he been? He’d been so lost in thought he hadn’t even realized.

  “What is it, really?” Zeke asked. “I mean, I know there’s not a magic potion in the water supply. So what is it? How did four out of six—so far—Dawsons end up married with kids?”

  Axel was staring at his brother as though Zeke had grown an extra head. “Why do you sound like you’re asking that seriously?”

  Zeke narrowed his eyes at Axel. What was he missing here? “I am. So how?”

  “Duh, bruh. It’s a very simple concept. Maybe you’ve heard of it—love.”

  “So if I fall in love I’ll magically want to be a dad?” Zeke asked. “Come on.” Though that did seem to work for the rest of them.

  “More like, if you fall in love, that thing in your chest expands in ways you never thought possible. Walls come crumbling down.”

  Well, he had figured the right woman could change his mind about having children, so this wasn’t a new concept.

  “Anyway,” Axel added, “I’m here to relieve you. I’m back from leading a wilderness tour and have nothing planned for another hour, so you can take off if you want. And I’m figuring you want.”

  Zeke snuggled his baby nephew against his chest and kissed the top of his head. “I actually have some thinking to do and it’s kind of loud in here. So I’ll take you up on that.”

  The moment he transferred Tony into his brother’s arms, he missed the soft weight of him, the baby shampoo scent of his hair. God, what was happening to him?

  “Watch out, guys!” Axel called over to a few preschoolers who were playing tag and were about to collide. Saved in the nick of time. “I’ve been filling in in the Kid Zone since last summer, and I never stop freaking out about kids getting hurt on my watch.” He mock-shivered. “I wish they’d all sit and color. The teenagers, too.”

  “I’m trying to imagine Dad pinch-sitting at the Kid Zone for even fifteen minutes,” Zeke said, his father’s face, beer to his mouth, filling his mind.

  “Yeah, I can’t picture that, either. It’s amazing how much we all look like Dad but none of us are like him.”

  Zeke stared at his brother. “Meaning what? How could we not be like him? He raised us.”

  “I’m not a negligent parent,” Axel said. “I mean, here I am, worried about a foam soccer ball ending up smashing into someone’s nose. We’re all responsible, concerned people. Dad never worried about anything.”

  “I’m just being preemptive, then,” Zeke said. “Not giving myself something to worry or not about. If that makes any sense.”

  “You think you’re immune?” Axel asked. “Ha. I thought I was, too. It’ll get you. And when it does? You won’t know what knocked you upside the head. Much harder than a foam soccer ball kicked by a four-year-old.”

  Kind of the way he felt now. Kicked upside the head. By his feelings
for Molly Orton.

  And in just a few hours, he’d be showing her and her baby around the petting zoo barn, laughing at the goats as they jumped on their logs, smiling at the piglets.

  He’d cancel but he couldn’t stop thinking of her expectant face as she’d confirmed the time last night. One p.m. at the petting zoo...

  Zeke couldn’t stop thinking of her face, period.

  * * *

  Molly couldn’t take it. She wasn’t going to confess to being in love with Zeke, but she had to ask Danica for advice on what to wear. It was forty-nine degrees, still cold even though not the usual freezing for February. Did she wear her big trusty puffy coat that gave her zero sex appeal? She had a camel-colored wool peacoat. Maybe that? But was that ranchy?

  She called Danica. Her friend would think she just wanted to make a good impression on her boss. And she’d have perfect advice.

  “Hmm, the puffy coat would keep you warm on the tour for sure,” Danica said. “But the peacoat has that more professional vibe and it’s almost fifty, so I say the peacoat. And wear your cute flat brown boots—the knee-high ones. You have that one pair of dark skinny jeans that fit you so well. Wear those with any sweater that makes you feel happy and you’re set.”

  Oooh, her skinny jeans generally stayed way to the side of her closet in favor of less “formfitting” ones. But they did look good on her. Live a little, Molly! “Okay, sounds good. And I was thinking the off-white cashmere my parents gave me for Christmas. Or is that too much for a petting zoo? I mean, this is dressy for me. But this is my boss and his whole family, really, so I do want to look nice.”

  “Cashmere is always a yes.”

  “Hair up or down?” Molly asked.

  “Hmm, toughie. Normally I’d say up so that Lucy won’t be grabbing at your curls but I love your hair when it’s in all its loose glory.”

  So does Zeke, she thought, remembering the touch of his hand on her hair, on her face. A fluttering warmth gathered in her stomach.

  Molly stared at her ho-hum face in her closet mirror. She’d always thought of it as a serviceable face, a perfectly nice face, but just nothing that would ever turn a head. And yet, this face, these ordinary features, had turned the head of the man of her dreams. She smiled, again remembering, almost able to feel the imprint of his warm, soft lips.

  “Should I wear a little makeup?” Molly asked. “I do to the office, just a little powder and mascara so I don’t look like I just rolled out of bed. But this is a Sunday afternoon at a dude ranch. I’ll be petting goats and piglets.”

  “Either way sounds good to me. You can’t go wrong with your unadorned pretty face or with a little polish.”

  Molly liked unadorned. But Zeke was used to seeing the slightly improved her from nine to five every day.

  Hey, wait a minute. Last night, when Zeke had come over to check out the menu board, when he’d kissed her, she hadn’t been wearing a stitch of makeup. She’d change her outfit and fluffed her hair, but there’d been no powder, no mascara. Just a little dab of her favorite solid perfume on her wrist.

  And he’d seemed to like all that—all that nothing—just fine. She grinned, the warm flutter getting hotter.

  Huh. She was her own fairy godmother, after all. Well, with a lot of help from her best friend.

  “Your day sounds so nice—I know you’ll have a great time,” Danica said. “I’m having a dog-walking date in the park with a welder named Jack. He seems great on the phone and the pics of his dog are so cute. Some kind of fluffy Australian shepherd. Oh, and the guy himself is pretty cute, too.”

  Please fall madly in love with Welder Jack so that you’re too in love to even notice Zeke’s blue eyes tomorrow at your Realtor meeting. Though would any woman not notice Zeke’s gorgeousness? “Ooh, a cute dog guy. Sounds promising.”

  “I’ll let you know. So far, every date has been a major fail on the nice meter.”

  Welder Jack, please be a mensch, Molly prayed to the fates of the universe. The good guy Danica deserves. So we can both be happy!

  An hour later, in her Danica-approved outfit and bare face, hair loose, Lucy buckled into her car seat, Molly arrived at the Dawson Family Guest Ranch at a few minutes to one. Zeke had said he’d meet her just past the front gates at the Welcome Hut. And there he was, standing beside the cute green structure, waving at her as she drove in. He wore that sexy black leather jacket and Stetson, with jeans and cowboy boots.

  He gestured her into a parking spot and came over to the car. “No dogs, today, unfortunately. Both Dude and River are at the vet for checkups.”

  “Well, we’ll have plenty of animal companions,” she said, excited to see the piglets.

  He nodded. “We can walk everywhere from here. What are you thinking—stroller, too, or just the chest carrier?”

  Hmm, if he kissed her again, it would help to have Lucy in her stroller so that the baby didn’t get smushed, right? “Definitely both.”

  He nodded, lugging out the stroller from the cargo area. Every time she didn’t have to do that herself, she gave thanks. Of course, the only other time she wasn’t doing the lugging was when she was with her dad.

  “Hi, Lucy!” Zeke said as he unbuckled Lucy’s harness and took her out. The baby stared at him. “You’re gonna see the cutest goats today. And two alpacas. And sheep and piglets and cows and horses. And lots of land with snow covering the mountains beyond. There’s no more beautiful place than right here.”

  “Ga ba!” Lucy said with a grin, grabbing Zeke’s ear.

  “Babies love my ears,” he said as he put Lucy in the stroller and buckled her harness. “I thought it was me but it’s just my ears they love.”

  Molly laughed. “Better you than me.”

  He reached toward her with an evil grin to pretend-grab at her ear, but he got her curls instead and practically turned white. “Sorry—trying to be funny and, here I am, touching you again.”

  Maybe he did mean what he’d said last night—that the kiss wouldn’t happen again. That he wouldn’t let it even if he wanted to.

  Lighten the mood, Molly. Fast. “Hey, I get it. You can’t resist this crazy mane.” She gave it a shake, his eyes following the swish-swish.

  “I can’t,” he said quietly. “That’s a problem.”

  The breath whooshed right out of her. Had she heard that right? Was she dreaming? She knew something had shifted between them last night, something big, but given his reaction and the way he’d run out of her house, she’d figured he’d avoid any mention of the kiss.

  “You can’t resist this?” She grabbed gobfulls of the wild curls that had given her grief from age six when the bully sitting behind her in class would pull on them, to middle school when she dreamed of smooth, straight hair like most of the girls seemed to have.

  Now is not the time to be cracking jokes, Molly. The man is being serious. Don’t ruin the moment with insecurity and nerves.

  “I’d have thought the kiss last night was a dead giveaway,” he said.

  Not only didn’t he avoid it, he’d brought it right up! They were going to talk about it—and talking about it was good. “And the problem you mentioned?”

  Because by that, and with my lighthearted expression and little lilt to my voice just then, I’m clearly telling you, there is no problem.

  His hands were firmly on the stroller handles. “Our relationship has to be strictly professional, Molly. I’m your boss. There’s a line I can’t cross. Won’t cross.” He shook his head. “This is nuts. I shouldn’t have said anything just now. Also unprofessional. I guess I’m thinking out loud and you’re so truly my right hand that I clearly need your take on things too much. You’re too indispensable.”

  She laughed. “Well, guess you can’t fire me, then.”

  “No. Even if you were the worst administrative assistant in Wyoming I couldn’t fire you because I kissed
you. You’d be perfectly in your right to sue me for wrongful termination and sexual harassment, Molly. Boundaries are vital in the workplace, and I take them seriously.”

  “So the reason you won’t kiss me again, the only reason, is because you’re my boss?” She held her breath and waited.

  He stared at her for a second, his grip getting tighter on the stroller handles. He glanced away, looking up toward the path. “No. Not the only reason. For another, you’re a parent, and you know my take on having a family of my own, so getting involved would be wrong.”

  “I thought you said the right woman could turn you around, change your mind,” she countered, her stomach churning. She was going to lose in this back-and-forth.

  “You’re not the right woman, Molly. You can’t be. Because you’re my administrative assistant. End of story. Shall we go?” he added...tensely.

  “In a second. I just want to understand. You kissed me last night because...?”

  He let out a breath and looked down at the ground...well, Lucy’s pink-hatted head. “A little crush, I guess. I like you, clearly we have a great rapport and you’re lovely, Molly. I acted without thinking and I had no right.”

  She was swooning. Lovely. Lovely. Lovely.

  “And for the reasons I stated,” he added, “that kiss, our rapport, any of it, can’t be explored further. But it’s all right because I’ve already figured out a solution.”

  She almost puckered up. Go ahead, kiss me passionately. If you’re thinking that’ll get me out of your system, you’re so wrong, bucko.

  “I’m going to ask out Danica at our meeting tomorrow,” he said, deflating the hope-balloon that had risen inside her. “I’ll just focus on the plan—which has always been to win her heart. I’m sure when she says yes, thanks to your great tips and advice, my silly little crush on you will vanish. I mean, my feelings for Danica go way back.”

  Molly bit her lip, her heart sinking and falling over. Glunk.

  Oh, now it’s a silly little crush?

  And his feelings for Danica were real? Um, had they not just gone over this last night in great detail?