Her Cowboy Daddy

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  An understatement if Jeb had ever heard one.

  Trying not to worry how Cady would react, or what message she would take from it, if it turned out she couldn’t handle the kids on her own, Jeb soothed, “I’m sure the boys will be fine once you settle in. In the meantime, why don’t you bring them over to my place for lunch? All my rodeo stock is out at events, but I’ve got a couple of newborn calves they might like to see.”

  Cady perked up. “You sure?”

  Jeb nodded, glad to be of service. “I’ve got a meeting in the morning, but after eleven or so, I’m all yours,” he promised.

  “IS EVERYTHING OKAY?” Suki asked the following morning.

  Cady pressed the phone closer to her ear. Most of what she could hear from Suki’s end of the connection was an annoyingly loud public address system. “Where are you?”

  “Atlanta.” Suki shouted to be heard above the airport din. “Hermann and I are about to get on our connecting flight to Sydney. We won’t be able to call again until we get there, and that will be another twenty-five hours.”

  Cady didn’t envy them their long flight.

  “I wanted to make sure you all were doing all right before we left the country!” her sister added.

  “Tell her everything’s fine, Cady!” Hermann chimed in with husbandly impatience.

  Cady ignored the bits of once fluffy, golden pancake now smashed into the tabletop, chairs and floor.

  From behind her, Finn grabbed the plastic bottle of maple syrup and upended it. Giving him a reproving look, she reached for it. Grinning like the little jokester he was, he dashed off, sticky bottle clutched in his hands. He passed it to the waiting five-year-old Dalton, and together they headed for two-year-old Micah.

  Cady gasped at the trail of syrup being left behind, then groaned as the three boys rounded the corner and darted up the stairs.

  Suki responded with a mother’s radar. “Cady…!”

  “Everything is fine,” she fibbed. Or at least it will be, she amended silently, repeating the mini pep talk Jeb had given her the previous evening, once I settle in.

  “You all have a safe flight now,” she said cheerfully. “Call me when you get to Sydney!”

  “Bye, Cady, and thanks again!” Hermann shouted.

  A click signaled the end of the call.

  Cady put down the phone and dashed in the direction the boys had gone.

  It took everything she had, but an hour later, she had all three of them strapped into Suki’s Escalade.

  By eleven sharp, she was turning the SUV into Jeb’s ranch.

  He was standing in the drive, talking to a man Cady didn’t recognize. The two came to some agreement and shook hands. The tall man waved at Cady, got into a pickup truck bearing the name of a San Angelo, Texas, ranching operation, and took off.

  Jeb strode toward Cady and the boys.

  Finn, Dalton and Micah let out whoops of delight. “It’s Our Friend Jeb!” they yelled in unison, calling him by the name they had given him years before.

  “Hi, fellas.” Jeb opened the rear door and began letting the boys out of their safety belts and booster seats. He ignored the smears of syrup in their hair. “Glad you could come and see me today.”

  “Aunt Cady said we could see the baby cows!”

  “You sure can.” Jeb paused to give Cady a quick, officious hug that as usual managed to avoid the full body contact they’d accidentally experienced the evening before.

  Telling herself it was relief, not disappointment she felt, she watched as he took Finn’s and Dalton’s hands. Cady took Micah’s, and they set off toward the closest pasture.

  There, in the green grass, stood half a dozen baby calves, each about the size of a large dog. “How come they’re all black except for their faces?” Dalton asked with a perplexed frown.

  “Yeah, how come their faces are white?” Finn added, his small brow wrinkling in consternation.

  “Cow,” said Micah. He reached out to shyly touch one of the forty-pound baby calves. “Moooo.”

  Everyone laughed.

  Micah looked up at them, his two-year-old face scrunched in bewilderment. “Cow,” he repeated, as if no one had heard him correctly. “Moooo.”

  “Yes, that’s a cow and it moos,” Cady confirmed gently.

  With Jeb’s assistance, the two older boys petted the baby calves, too. “They’re really kind of soft.” Dalton ran a hand through one’s silky coat.

  “I think they like us,” Finn noted, petting another.

  Jeb smiled in agreement. “I think the baby calves like you fellas, too.”

  Cady’s phone began to ring. She plucked it from her pants pocket and checked the caller ID screen. The Stork Adoption Agency. Her heart skipped a beat. She looked at Jeb. “I better get this.”

  “Go ahead.” He waved her off. “I’ll help the boys out of the pasture.”

  While he lifted them over the fence, she moved a short distance away. What the director had to say was both comforting and disturbing.

  “Everything okay?” Jeb asked when she rejoined him. The three boys romped ahead for the next part of the tour—the barn.

  Glad that once again she had her friend there to lean on, Cady found solace in Jeb’s blue-gray eyes. “Tina Matthews has narrowed it down to me and another couple. She has a few more questions for me and wants to set up a phone interview right away.”

  Jeb cast a glance at the boys, who were hopping around by the barn entrance waiting as ordered for the adults to catch up. He turned back to Cady. “Want me to watch the boys while you make the call?” Understanding colored his low tone.

  Reassured by Jeb’s calm, steady presence, Cady sagged in relief. “Thank you.” There was so much on the line now. She was so close to getting a family of her own. She didn’t want to blow it by giving the matter less than her full attention. “That would be so…”

  Cady stopped dead in her tracks, realizing that once again the boys were misbehaving. “Oh, no,” she murmured.

  “Oh no is right.” Jeb swore as a trio of high-pitched screams split the air.

  Together, Cady and Jeb ran toward the sound.

  JEB DIDN’T KNOW WHETHER to be irritated or amazed that the three boys had gotten into trouble so quickly.

  They were lucky the heifer whose stall they had opened was a lot more interested in chewing her feed than in the three little tykes staring up at her and screaming their heads off in abject terror at the thousand pound, black-and-white mama cow.

  “Hush, now.” Jeb handed Micah to Cady, then scooped the older two boys up in his arms.

  Figuring they’d had enough adventures for a while, he shut the stall door and led the way out of the barn. “You boys are all right.”

  Micah buried his face in Cady’s shoulder and held on to her neck for dear life.

  “Cow scared me,” the toddler wailed between hysterical hiccups.

  “I know she did, and it’s my fault.” Jeb shifted Finn and Dalton into a more comfortable position in his arms and carried them across the yard to his mission-style ranch house.

  Aware this was something Cady could not have done alone, he opened the door and stepped inside.

  “I should never have let you fellas take the lead,” Jeb told the boys sternly. “This is a good lesson for all of us. When you’re here, visiting, you-all need to stay with a grown-up. No more running on ahead of us. Ever.” He paused to make his point. “A ranch can be a dangerous place.” His expression serious, Jeb made prolonged eye contact with each of the children. “Got it?”

  The older boys nodded wordlessly.

  Gently, Jeb set them down on the red tile floor.

  He reached for Micah.

  The toddler went to him reluctantly.

  Jeb cradled the child in his arms, surprised at how good—how right—it felt. The boy laced his own arms about Jeb’s neck and laid his head against his shoulder, his tiny body sagging in relief at the tender, loving protection the cowboy offered.

  Withou
t warning, Jeb felt an unexpected pang of envy for all the people his age who had loving spouses and kids of their own.

  But that was neither here nor there, when Cady had such an important call to make.

  Wanting her to get everything she yearned for and more, he nodded at her officiously. “Go.” Clasping her shoulder, he spun her in the direction of his study. “Shut the door and make your call.”

  She bit her lip and shot him an uncertain look, as if wondering if it was okay to leave him with all three boys, after the way they had just behaved.

  Jeb lifted a staying hand. “I’ve got it covered,” he promised, with a sober look meant to instill her with confidence.

  Still she didn’t move.

  “I’ll help the boys wash up and then we’ll make lunch,” he continued matter-of-factly. “You can join us when you’re done.”

  And then, Jeb added silently to himself, you and I are going to have the talk we should have had last night.

  IT WAS A GOOD HALF HOUR before Cady emerged from the study and went in search of Jeb and the boys. She found them in the family room, at the back of the house. Jeb was working in the adjacent kitchen. Shirtsleeves rolled up to just below the elbow, he looked handsome and at ease as he cut up an apple and divided the thin crescents into three bowls.

  Dalton, Finn, and Micah were sitting side by side on Jeb’s leather sofa, munching sandwiches and chips and sipping from juice boxes.

  All three boys were thoroughly immersed in a TV program. They looked so calm and content and perfectly at home in his bachelor lair that it put her own efforts to care for them to shame.

  Trying not to feel too bad about that, Cady sighed.

  Jeb caught her eye and flashed her a sexy smile. “The Berenstain Bears,” he explained. He delivered the fruit to the boys, then came back to her. “Kurt and Paige recommended it. Said it’s very soothing and works wonders for their triplets when they need to chill out. And as an added bonus—” Jeb leaned down to murmur in her ear “—there’s a valuable moral in every story.”

  Suki and Hermann would appreciate that, too. Cady nodded, letting Jeb know she approved.

  “It was a good idea. The kids have some of their storybooks in their rooms,” she replied quietly, being careful not to disturb the unexpected tranquility surrounding her three nephews.

  He stepped back, putting the usual physical distance between them. His gaze slid past the hollow of her throat to her lips, then her eyes. “How did your call with Tina Matthews go?” Hand on her elbow, he ushered her past the breakfast room to the kitchen.

  As always, Jeb’s ultramasculine presence, the brisk sun-warmed-leather scent of him, made her feel protected and intensely aware.

  In an attempt to regain her equilibrium, she kept her distance as they reached the kitchen. She saw he’d already set out plates on the island bar and filled two glasses with ice and her favorite peach tea.

  She picked one up and took a sip. “Fine.” Briefly, she lowered her glance, adding uncertainly, “I think.” It was so hard to tell in a situation that was this tricky to navigate.

  Jeb gazed at her gently. “When is she going to make up her mind?”

  Trying not to get ahead of herself and celebrate something that might not happen, after all, Cady cleared her throat and said, “Sometime in the next couple of days.”

  Aware that her throat felt parched, and she was very much in need of a hug, Cady took another longer drink.

  Swallowing, she met Jeb’s eyes and found the kind of comfort only he could give. “The director said they would let me know as soon as Tina decides.”

  The corners of his lips turned up in a hopeful smile. He shifted his brows encouragingly and patted her on the shoulder. “You’re getting closer to becoming a mom.”

  Despite her earlier decision to remain cautious, Cady found his optimism contagious. “I hope so.”

  “Which reminds me.” He brought a plate of ham and cheese sandwiches out of the fridge and set them on the counter next to the peanut butter and jelly. He gestured, indicating she should pull up a stool and help herself. “Paige and Kurt also gave me the name of a San Angelo service where they got their nanny. Apparently the agency will arrange short-term gigs as well as long-term placements.”

  Cady glanced up from the lunch he had prepared to stare at him, confused. “Why would I need a nanny? I haven’t even been chosen for adoption yet.”

  “I was talking about now, for the boys,” Jeb interjected amiably.

  Cady’s temper flared. She didn’t need to call in professionals! “Just because you couldn’t last a week…” she countered, incensed that he apparently thought her totally incompetent when it came to caring for her three nephews. So she’d had an unexpectedly rocky start. So what? He’d had to use TV and the soothing entertainment of the Berenstain Bears to rein them in!

  Jeb braced his hands on his hips as if for battle. “How long I could hang in here is hardly the point,” Jeb retorted, looking her straight in the eye. “Although, for the record, I could easily weather two weeks.”

  Which, coincidentally, was exactly the amount of time she was staying in Laramie.

  Narrowing her gaze, Cady slid right back off the stool and stomped closer. “Want to bet?”

  “Yes.” Jeb studied her just as contentiously. “As a matter of fact, Cady,” he drawled, grinning complacently, “I do.”

  Chapter Three

  Cady blinked, unable to believe what Jeb had just said. “Are you serious?”

  An arrogant smile crossed his handsome face. “Have you ever known me not to be, when it comes to a wager?”

  She stared at him, wondering how he could continue to look so cool and confident when she felt so frazzled. She stepped closer. “Better be careful,” she taunted lightly. “I might just take you up on that.”

  And then what would the man famous for his lack of commitment do?

  Jeb shrugged his broad shoulders. “Why wouldn’t you?” he challenged in a husky voice that drew her even deeper into their sudden battle of wits and wills.

  “Unless—” Jeb snapped his fingers, as illumination hit “—you’re afraid of being shown up?”

  She was afraid, all right, but not of that.

  Struggling not to notice how good Jeb looked, with the blue chambray shirt bringing out the blue-gray of his eyes, Cady fastened her gaze on the strong column of his throat and the tufts of sandy hair visible in the open collar of his shirt.

  When she felt composed enough, she returned her glance to his. “Surely,” she commented wryly, “you jest.”

  His eyes lit up the way they always did when he knew he’d gotten under her skin, and hence earned her full attention. He leaned closer, his warm breath whispering across her ear. “We’ve got to face facts here, Cady. I’m in charge and the boys are perfect little angels.”

  With a hand to his chest, she pushed him back, knowing she had to maintain her physical—and emotional—distance in order to make her point. She flashed him a sassy smile she couldn’t really begin to feel, considering the ineptitude she had demonstrated in the parenting department thus far. “They behaved for me, too, for the first hour or so.” She regarded him with a deliberately provoking manner, aware that Jeb—like everyone else she knew—harbored some doubts about the advisability of her plan to adopt a baby as a single mom. “It was after that when it got tough. But clearly,” she continued sarcastically, “you don’t think the same thing would happen to you.”

  “Honestly?” Jeb rubbed his palm across his closely shaved jaw, then lazily dropped his hand again. “No. As a matter of fact, I don’t.”

  “Okay, then, Mr. Smarty Pants,” Cady agreed with a sharp look, her temper igniting. “We’re on.”

  He chuckled, his eyes gleaming wickedly in anticipation. “Or we will be,” he promised huskily, “as soon as we decide the stakes of our wager.”

  “Nothing pedestrian,” she warned.

  He squinted in speculation. He obviously didn’t want to be bo
red, either. “Agreed.”

  It was her turn to snap her fingers. “Then I know what I want,” Cady exclaimed, as inspiration hit. She folded her arms in front of her and rocked back on her heels. “If I win, you have to tell me why you broke up with Avalynne Stone just minutes before she was supposed to walk down the aisle to marry you.”

  Jeb’s gaze swept over Cady’s form-fitting ranch jeans, red cotton shirt, and boots, before returning, ever so slowly and deliberately, to her face. “You already know the answer to that,” he said stoically, with a look that would have warned off a lesser woman.

  Cady squinted right back at him, glad the conversation had shifted from her temporary ineptitude in the mothering department to his continuing incapability in the commitment arena. “I know what you said at the time,” she told him sweetly, not sure why this had always bothered her so, just knowing that deep down it did. The only difference was she had never before had the nerve, or the opportunity, to bring it up.

  She continued holding his laserlike gaze. “And guess what, cowboy? I don’t buy it.”

  Typical bravura replaced the fleeting emotion reflected on his face. He shrugged, all strong implacable male. “I don’t see why not.” He folded his arms, mirroring her posture, then rocked forward on the toes of his boots and lowered his face to hers until they were practically nose to nose. “I’m not the first guy to decide I didn’t want to be shackled to someone else for the rest of my life.”

  Cady didn’t like the conquering look in his eyes, or the presumption in his low tone that said as far as he was concerned this was all a moot point, because he had already won their bet. Determined not to let him shut her out the way he shut out everyone else when this subject came up, she murmured, “And yet…you were upset for months afterward.” Not exactly the response of a guy who had gotten exactly what he wanted, come hell or high water, she thought.