The Cowboy's Little Girl

by Kat Brookes

  As she crested the hill behind them, Autumn discovered not a sloping descent, but a slight grassy grade that spilled out onto an expanse of land dotted with flowering bushes. Tucker stood a few feet away with Blue by his side, shrieking in delight as she watched a cloud of brightly colored butterflies hovering above the clusters of yellow flowers that were abloom atop the leafy green bushes.

  Autumn gasped as she took in the sight before her. Never in her life had she seen so many butterflies gathered in one place. Breathtaking didn’t even come close to describing the beauty God bestowed before her at that moment.

  Tucker glanced back over his broad shoulder. “Worth the climb?”

  She moved to stand beside them, her gaze fixed on the fluttering of colorful wings in front of her. “Worth the climb.”

  They stood in silence for a moment longer before Tucker looked her way. “Last evening when you said you weren’t surprised Summer hadn’t told me about you, why is that?”

  Her lips pressed together for a moment before replying, “Summer and I were twins, but we were two very different people. I secretly envied my sister’s ability not to take life so seriously. I always felt the need to shoulder everyone else’s problems. But it seems my sister harbored some feelings of jealousy toward me as well, resenting the way people would turn to me when they needed something, especially our grandma, who Summer felt loved me more.”

  “Did she?” he asked, his tone casting no judgment.

  “No,” she answered. “Our grandma loved us both the same. I just happened to be the one who was good at caring for sick people, or handling situations that might arise.” Eyes tearing up, she said, “Summer only opened up to me about the resentment she felt toward me when her condition worsened. She wanted me to know how grateful she was for the time we had spent together these past few years raising Blue. She was right. It allowed us to reconnect as sisters and friends.”

  “I’m glad the two of you were able to strengthen your relationship.”

  “Me, too.” So very glad.

  Tucker’s gaze trailed after his daughter. “How long will you and Blue be staying in Bent Creek?”

  She watched her niece, who was now standing amid the gathering of colorful butterflies, and felt an unexpected pang of loss. She hadn’t lost Blue to Tucker. And maybe she never would if the Lord answered her prayers. “I’ve cleared a month from my work schedule to bring Blue out here to meet you and, if your schedule permitted, get to know you better,” she told him. “If we end up staying that long, we might have to shop for some additional clothes to wear.” It was important that she spend the time to really get a feel for the kind of man Tucker Wade was beyond the research and newspaper clippings her sister had on him. “But I’m not promising we’ll be here for the full month. Too many factors come into play.” Like his not being the man her sister thought him to be. She needed to know that Summer’s faith in Tucker, a man she had chosen to walk out on, was well and truly deserved.

  He gave a nod. “Understandable. Then we’ll take it day by day. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to get to know my daughter while you and I sort things out.”

  She didn’t want to be there “sorting” things out. If it were up to her, she’d be on her way back to Cheyenne that very moment. But her sister had wanted this, with her dying breath she had wanted this, and so far Tucker Wade was turning out to be a very likable man. One who appeared to be truly eager to spend some real heartfelt time with the daughter he’d never known existed.

  “You don’t have to worry about Blue and I imposing on you any more than we already have,” Autumn said. “I’ve made a few calls and there are a couple of bed-and-breakfasts nearby that are able to accommodate us during our stay.” She hadn’t made any concrete reservations before setting out for Bent Creek, unsure of how things would go once they’d gotten there. Tucker could have easily rejected the idea of being a father, even argued that he wasn’t Blue’s daddy, but he hadn’t. He’d taken one look at his baby girl and he’d known.

  “Your being here isn’t an imposition,” he said, keeping his voice low.

  She looked up at him, arching a skeptical brow. “You’ve slept in the barn for two nights now.” Guilt gnawed at her for putting him out of his own house, even if she hadn’t been the one to suggest it.

  “Like I told you yesterday morning, it wasn’t the first time.”

  She tilted her head. “So it’s customary to move to the barn when guests arrive here in Wyoming?”

  “Not exactly,” he answered with a grin. “I’m just saying that when my brothers and I were boys we’d sleep in the barn some nights. There and in the pasture under the stars.”

  “But you’re not a boy any longer,” she pointed out. “You’re a full-grown man.”

  “Can’t argue that,” he teased.

  “Tucker,” she said in exasperation.

  He tempered his smile, his expression turning more serious. “If sleeping in the barn means I’ll have my daughter close by, then I’m more than willing to do so. I want you and Blue to feel comfortable. Say you’ll stay on here at the ranch.”

  “Tucker...”

  “Please.”

  She appreciated his giving up his own comfort for theirs, but if they stayed on she wouldn’t spend her days feeling guilty for chasing him out of his own house. “I won’t have you sleeping in the barn on our account,” she said firmly. “If we decide to accept your hospitality for our stay here, you have to promise me you’ll sleep in your own bed and not out in the barn.”

  “I promise.”

  “Then we’ll stay.”

  He smiled down at her. “Just so you know, I would’ve agreed to sleep in a briar patch if that’s what it took.”

  Before she could reply, Blue exclaimed excitedly, “Now I know why the rocks wanna come up here. They would get to live with butterflies!”

  Autumn felt the confidence she’d had in Blue’s wanting to remain with her in Cheyenne slipping just a notch. But her niece wouldn’t be living up on a hill surrounded by butterflies. She’d be living on a ranch with strangers, relatives or not, surrounded by horses which she was now painfully leery of.

  Blue giggled, drawing Autumn’s attention her way. A blue-and-green butterfly had come to rest on her niece’s tiny shoulder. Blue’s gaze shot up to Tucker as it fluttered away. “He thought I was a flower,” she exclaimed.

  “Because you are,” he replied. “Bluebells are among the prettiest of all flowers.”

  Her niece’s face lit up at her daddy’s compliment.

  Autumn fought to suppress a groan. It was no wonder her sister had been so taken with this man and his sweet words. How was she supposed to compete with uncles and grandparents, blue skies filled with rainbow-colored butterflies and a daddy who was such a smooth-talking cowboy he always seemed to know just the right thing to say?

  Chapter Four

  Tucker pulled up to his house, relief sweeping over him when he saw Autumn Myers’s sporty little car still parked in his drive. While he had set out early that morning to tend to ranching duties, just as he had for the past several days, it was the first time he’d felt a nagging sense of unease about leaving. His gut told him that Autumn, who seemed to have enjoyed their outing to see the butterflies three days earlier, had even agreed to stay on at the ranch for an undetermined amount of time, was having second thoughts about her decision to remain in Bent Creek.

  It hadn’t been anything she’d said. It was more in her actions. After their playful hike up the hill in search of some blooming rabbitbrush and the butterflies he knew would be hovering around it, Autumn had been less free with her smiles when it came to him. As if she had decided to put up some sort of emotional wall between them. He supposed he couldn’t really blame her. In her eyes, he was the enemy. The person who could take away the very thing she loved most. And there was nothing he could say that would
ease her worry, because Blue was his daughter. She belonged with him. That didn’t mean he wanted to push her from Blue’s life. Far from. Family was, and had always been, important to him and Autumn was all that remained of Blue’s mother’s side.

  That morning, before he’d headed to the main barn, which sat on his parents’ property a few miles down the road, Autumn had been unusually quiet. Not that his daughter’s excited ramblings over the stray kitten that had shown up the day before, no doubt Garrett’s doing, had left much room for anyone else to speak. More concerning, however, was Autumn’s avoidance of any sort of eye contact with him during breakfast that morning.

  So, as he’d gone about his ranch work that day, his thoughts had been centered largely on Autumn, wondering if she would just up and leave without a word like her sister had. It was that worry that had Tucker sending a fair share of prayers up to the Lord that day. Whether it had been divine intervention in answer to those prayers, or simply Autumn’s decision to remain, his daughter and her aunt were still there.

  Tucker didn’t think he could bear having his daughter brought into his life only to have her taken away from him again. He didn’t even know how to contact them if they had been gone. All he knew was that they lived in Cheyenne, a city with a population somewhere around sixty thousand.

  Shutting off the engine, he stepped from the truck and started for the house. Three strides in, the front door opened, followed by the screen door as his daughter shot outside to greet him. “Daddy!”

  Tucker’s heart squeezed at the exuberant greeting. The sight of his baby girl awaiting him at the edge of the porch, a blanketed bundle in her arms, had a grin spreading across his face. He’d never given much thought to having children, not with his still being legally wed to Summer, and he’d be the first to admit that suddenly finding out he was somebody’s father scared the daylights out of him, but he couldn’t thank the Lord enough for this precious gift He had bestowed upon him.

  Tucker picked up his pace as he cut across the yard. “Did you grow taller since I left to check on the horses this morning?”

  His daughter giggled and shook her head, causing the mass of chestnut curls pulled up into a ponytail at the back of her head to swing to and fro. “Nope.”

  “You sure?” he teased as he reached the porch where Blue stood waiting at the top of the steps. “You look taller.”

  “That’s ’cause I’m standing up here and you’re down there.”

  He couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride at her response. His baby girl was a bright little thing. “Ah, that must be it,” he replied with a chuckle as he started up the few stairs.

  As soon as he stepped up onto the porch itself, Blue set the bundle in her arms down on the floor beside her and then turned to wrap her tiny arms around his legs in an affectionate hug. “I missed you.”

  There was no stopping the moisture that gathered in his eyes as he stood there, soaking up the love of his baby girl. A pure, trusting love that took time to grow between adults, but seemed to come so easily for children.

  “I missed you, too,” Tucker managed past the knot in his throat. He glanced down past his daughter to the tiny head that had just popped out from beneath the covering of the old lap blanket. “Well, look who’s still here.”

  “Bitty was taking a nap,” his daughter announced with a smile.

  “Bitty, huh?” Tucker returned her smile, making a mental note to thank his brother for the tiny calico kitten he’d left on the front doorstep for Blue in a small wooden crate. Not that anyone had seen Garrett dropping the kitten off, but Tucker had seen that very same crate in his brother’s office two weeks past.

  The sleepy-eyed calico stepped free of its covering and gave a long, yawning stretch.

  His daughter nodded. “I called her that ’cause she’s itty-bitty.”

  “That she is,” Tucker agreed, glancing down to watch as the kitten wound its way around his leg as if in greeting and then wandered off across the porch.

  “Where’s she going?” Blue said in a panic as she watched her kitten go.

  “I’m sure Bitty’s hungry after her nap,” he told her. “She’s probably off to hunt for some field mice. She’ll be back.”

  The screen door creaked open behind them, drawing both of their gazes away from the departing kitten.

  Autumn stepped out to join them on the porch, that smile he’d been wishing for taking him by surprise as it moved across her face. “Hello,” she greeted.

  “Hello,” he replied, thinking that this was what his life could have been like if Summer hadn’t taken it all away. A family there to welcome him home when his work was done each day—affectionate little kitten included. But that wasn’t his life. And Autumn wasn’t his wife. In fact, she was turning out to be nothing at all like her sister had been. He couldn’t help but wonder what his marriage might have been like if Summer had been a little more like her steadfast, loving twin.

  “You’re early,” she said a little anxiously.

  Tucker nodded. He had cut his day a little short because of fears that now seemed to have been unfounded. Autumn hadn’t run off like Summer had. But placing his trust in another woman didn’t come easy for him. His wife had seen to that. “Ranchers don’t keep the usual business hours.”

  “I should’ve known that,” she said almost apologetically.

  “I wouldn’t expect you to.” He noted that she hadn’t taken the time to put on her jacket. Instead, she stood, arms folded as she braced against the gentle bite of the fall air. A dish towel dangled from one of the hands curled about the sleeves of her blouse.

  Following the line of his gaze, she said, “I was doing up some dishes when I heard Blue go outside.”

  Blue looked up at her. “I saw Daddy’s truck out the window.”

  Noting that his daughter wasn’t wearing a jacket either, he mentally scolded himself for not noticing sooner. Scooping Blue up, he said, “Let’s get the two of you back in the house. The air’s a little brisk outside today.”

  Autumn nodded in agreement and then turned to hold the door open as Tucker carried his daughter inside.

  Once there, he lowered Blue to her feet and turned to Autumn. “I wasn’t so sure you’d be here when I got home today. And I want you to know that if I’ve done or said anything to make you feel even the least bit uncomfortable, I’m sorry.”

  She shook her head. “You haven’t done anything. If I’m a little out of sorts, it’s because of everything going on in my life right now. At times, it can be overwhelming.”

  “Understandable. Know that I appreciate your choosing to see this through.”

  “I’m doing this for Blue. She deserves to have the chance to get to know her daddy,” she said, glancing down at her niece.

  He looked to Blue and smiled. “Her daddy is so happy to have her here.”

  Blue returned his smile. “Aunt Autumn said we get to keep living with you!”

  Autumn shook her head. “Not live with, sweetie. We’re only visiting with your daddy for a spell.” She looked up at Tucker, meeting his gaze. “I—” The sound of approaching vehicles outside drew her gaze toward the narrow windowpanes that lined the front door.

  Tucker looked past her and then rolled his eyes with a groan. “I told them they’re becoming pests.”

  “Told who?” Autumn asked.

  “My brothers,” he grumbled.

  “My uncles!” Blue exclaimed as she raced over to one of the windows to peer out.

  “I’ll take care of this,” Tucker said as he moved toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Autumn asked as she started after him.

  “To send them on their way.”

  “Why do they gotta leave?” Blue whined.

  He stopped, turning to his daughter. “Because they’ve dropped by nearly every day since you’ve been here. I told them bo
th that they need to give the two of you some breathing room.”

  “I don’t need room,” Blue said. “See.” She drew in a deep breath and then let it out.

  “Tucker,” Autumn said, reaching out to place a staying hand on his arm. “I’d like for you to invite them to stay for supper.”

  “Yay!” Blue exclaimed, clapping her hands excitedly.

  Tucker searched her face. “You sure about that?” He didn’t want her to feel more overwhelmed than she already was, which his brothers in their eagerness to interact with their niece might have a tendency to do.

  She smiled. “I’m sure. Besides, it’ll give me a chance to see how they are with Blue for a longer period of time than the brief visits they’ve made here this week.”

  That was precisely what he was afraid of. Dinner might not work out in his favor if that were the case. Jackson and Garrett, whose hearts were in the right place, were every bit as clueless as he was when it came to children. Put the three of them together and Autumn was bound to focus on all the reasons not to leave Blue in their care instead of the most important reason—they were family. And family stayed together. They loved each other unconditionally, had each other’s back and held strong in their faith.

  “I’ll extend the invite,” he said, praying they wouldn’t send Autumn running for the hills with his daughter in tow. “Dinner won’t take long to put together. I picked up a couple of boxes of spaghetti last time I was at the grocery store. Should be enough to feed all of us, and I can whip it up pretty quick.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Autumn told him. “I’ve already prepared this evening’s supper. I’ll just go preheat the oven and stick it in to warm for a spell.”

  His brows shot up. “You did?”