Her Cowboy Daddy

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “Will you be here in the morning when we wake up?” Dalton asked Jeb.

  He nodded, looking as happy and content as Cady felt at that moment. “I will,” he said in a soft, sure voice that sent ripples up and down Cady’s spine.

  AN HOUR LATER, when all three boys were fast asleep in their beds, Cady joined Jeb in the family room. He had taken off his boots and kicked back in the daddy chair, his feet propped on the ottoman. His sandy-brown hair was delectably rumpled, and the shadow of evening beard lined his handsome face.

  Cady could only wonder how he would look come morning, when he tumbled out of bed, dressed in who knew what.

  Her guess was he’d appear even more masculine, sexy and relaxed.

  And that could mean the kind of trouble neither of them needed if they were to end this bet with their friendship intact.

  Which was why she needed to do whatever she could to diffuse the false intimacy of the situation.

  “Are you sure being here in the morning, first thing, is a promise you can keep?” Cady walked around, shutting blinds and turning on extra lights, despite the fact it wasn’t entirely dark outside yet. “Don’t you have to take care of your herd or something?” Wouldn’t it be better if he joined them later, say, after both had showered and donned the day’s armor?

  He lowered the newspaper he had been reading. “I do, but that can be done at any time during the day, and I can take you and the boys with me during chore time.” He shrugged laconically. “At least that was the plan….”

  Silence fell. Cady became aware it was only eight o’clock. The night loomed ahead of them, like a pitfall to be avoided.

  “We did pretty well this evening,” Jeb continued, studying her as if trying to read her sudden change of mood.

  Cady nodded and continued to roam the room self-consciously, straightening a book here, a pillow there. “That’s because there were two of us to ride herd on them,” she said, feeling his eyes trail over her from head to toe.

  Just because she was attracted to Jeb didn’t mean he was attracted to her…

  “And,” she continued in the most even voice she could manage, “it probably felt more normal to them, having both a mom and a dad here at dinner and bath time. Suki and Hermann are a really good team.”

  Jeb’s eyes gleamed with self-effacing humor. “We aren’t so bad, either, Cady.”

  No, they weren’t.

  Still, she warned herself not to read too much into that, any more than she should read anything into Jeb’s apparent contentment being with her and the boys this evening. “Beginner’s luck.”

  “Maybe,” he allowed.

  And maybe, he seemed to be thinking but didn’t say, it’s more than that.

  Or was that wishful thinking on her part? Cady wondered, feeling even more off balance and ill at ease. Which was ridiculous, really. She and Jeb had been alone together plenty of times. Maybe they hadn’t spent the night together under the same roof, but—

  Her phone rang.

  Jeb’s brow furrowed. “Suki again?”

  Cady shook her head. “They won’t be landing until tomorrow morning. It’s probably work, wanting to know if I’ve had time to look at the male spokesmodel candidates for the Hanover Horseshoe campaign yet.”

  But it wasn’t work, Cady discovered as she retrieved her phone and glanced at her caller ID. It was someone much more important.

  And, as it happened, the news was all she could have wished for.

  “Well?” Jeb said, minutes later, when Cady ended the conversation and finally put down the phone.

  He got to his feet and came toward her. “What happened?” he asked with concern. “Why are you crying?”

  “Because,” Cady gulped, unsure whether she was more happy or shell-shocked. All she knew was that she couldn’t have had better news. She drew a stabilizing breath and looked deep into Jeb’s eyes. “I’m finally getting what I have wanted for a very long time.”

  Recognition dawned. “The baby,” he said hoarsely.

  “Yes!” She did a brief, ecstatic happy dance. “Jeb! Tina Matthews chose me!”

  Jeb wrapped Cady in a hug. She hugged him back hard, joy flowing through her.

  It was only when she drew back and looked up into his face that things changed. The happiness morphed into something else, something stronger and far more life-altering. And in that instant, as their eyes locked and their breathing hitched, even before Jeb’s head lowered inevitably toward hers, Cady knew that he felt it, too.

  Chapter Four

  Jeb had promised himself he wouldn’t kiss Cady or let things get out of hand, but when she launched herself against him without reservation, all previous declarations were off.

  All he knew was how she felt—soft and warm and right. All he knew was how she tasted—sweet and hot and womanly.

  Had she not surrendered so completely to the pressure of his mouth against hers, had she not opened her lips and tangled her tongue with his, maybe the kiss would have been quick and efficient…and a heck of a lot easier to walk away from.

  Instead, she went up on tiptoe, wreathing her arms around his neck, pressing her whole body against his. Softness to hardness, woman to man… It was, Jeb thought as he continued kissing Cady with everything he had, as if the wall around her heart had lowered just enough to let him in.

  He was beginning to let his guard down, too, when Cady came abruptly to her senses, broke off their kiss and pulled away.

  Tense seconds passed as they stared at each other in confusion.

  Cady flushed. She pressed a hand against her trembling lips and drew a deep, bolstering breath. “I am…so sorry…” she said.

  “I’m not.” Now that the door had been eased open, Jeb wasn’t about to back down. He looked her straight in the eye, unwilling to tell anything but the truth. “That kiss was hot.”

  She grinned sheepishly. “Tell me about it. But that doesn’t make it right. I used you just now…”

  “Used me?” Jeb echoed in stunned amazement.

  Running both hands through her hair, she backed away, putting even more distance between them. “Yes. I mean…” She paused and bit her lip. “I had all this emotion with nowhere to put it….”

  He favored her with a deadpan look and finished her thought for her. “So you planted one on me.”

  Another shimmer of tension floated between them. “I don’t want to do anything that would ever harm our friendship.”

  “I don’t, either.” That did not mean a door hadn’t been opened….

  She scowled, her frustration apparent. “Hooking up…would ruin everything.”

  Resisting the urge to take her right back into his arms and swiftly prove otherwise, he inclined his head and asked, “Was that what we were about to do?”

  Her elegant brows arched in wordless censure. “We’re both adults,” she reminded him tersely. She paced back and forth, her hands knotted in front of her. “We know where passion like that—if left unchecked—leads.”

  Jeb could not deny the yearning building inside him, any more than he could refute the pressure in his groin. “And you don’t want to go there.”

  Cady paused, her brief hesitation telling him more than any of her denials. “I have a lot going on right now. Three children to take care of. Work to do. An adoption to plan for…”

  It was easy to see why she felt overwhelmed in the moment. “You’re right,” he agreed gently. “The timing is lousy.”

  Her cheeks pinkening, Cady swallowed. “So we’re agreed?” She searched his eyes. “No more kissing?”

  Jeb gave her the reassurance she obviously craved. “I’ll be the perfect gentleman the rest of the evening. I promise.”

  After that, once things settled down, was a different matter entirely.

  WITH THE KIDS ASLEEP and the evening dragging out, Cady decided to catch up on her email.

  While she set up her laptop computer in the family room, Jeb drove down the road to his ranch, checked on his herd and br
ought back his own laptop and a backpack full of files.

  He had obviously showered and changed while at home, and the fragrance of soap and shaving cream clung to his skin. His still-damp hair curled at the nape of his neck.

  “I didn’t realize ranching required so much paperwork,” Cady murmured, ignoring the way her heart skittered at his nearness.

  He stopped setting up long enough to give her a warm smile. “Normally, it doesn’t, but I’m in the process of getting out of rodeo stock boarding.”

  Here he went again, Cady thought unhappily, recalling that Jeb never stayed with anything for long.

  Two years into agricultural college, he’d dropped out, hit the rodeo circuit and become a star. After several years, he grew bored with competing and went on to a second university, this time with a business major. During that time, he invested his winnings in the stock market, graduated with a degree in finance and attempted to marry Avalynne, before changing his mind about that and leaving his fiancée literally stranded at the altar. The lawsuit from her family followed but was swiftly settled out of court, and Jeb left Laramie County once again. A stint working as a broker in Dallas combined with his investment income earned him enough money to purchase a ranch. Bored with city life, he returned to Laramie, bought property and christened it the Flying M Ranch and then began boarding and transporting rodeo stock for friends. Now, apparently, he was tired of that, too.

  But was it a good business decision to just get out? Cady wondered. “I thought that was what paid your mortgage.”

  “It’s what has paid off the mortgage on my ranch,” Jeb corrected with a smile. “Now that I own my land and house outright, I want to expand my breeding into a much larger operation. I’ve got plenty of customers for black baldie calves. Just this morning, I had a request for five hundred of them over the next two years.”

  Cady recalled the man he’d been meeting with when she and the boys arrived at his ranch that morning. “That’s a lot,” she said, impressed.

  Jeb moved to sit beside her on the sofa. He settled his computer on his lap so she could see the screen, too. “I’ll have to purchase at least two hundred and fifty cows or heifers and decide whether to invest in a couple of bulls or continue breeding the way I have been thus far, via artificial insemination.”

  Jeb went on, explaining the pros and cons of both, using different internet sites to further illustrate his points.

  “Sounds like a big decision,” Cady said, surprised by the depth of his knowledge and consideration.

  He nodded. “It is. I could make more money in the long run from a bull, but the up-front cost is daunting, and there’s no guarantee his genetics would be as good as what I could currently buy.” Jeb glanced over at the picture on Cady’s laptop. “And here I thought what I was doing was interesting,” he drawled.

  JEB WASN’T THE KIND of guy to feel jealous. But he definitely felt a twinge of something when he noted the dozen shirtless, jeans-and-hat-clad hunks currently appearing on Cady’s computer screen.

  She sighed. “It’s an attachment, sent to me by my assistant, Marissa Adams. The advertising branch at Texas Star Marketing Group is pushing the marketing division to make a recommendation on the spokesmodel for the Hanover Horseshoe account, sooner rather than later, and everyone wanted my opinion.”

  Happy their old camaraderie was returning, Jeb teased, “And what is your opinion—having seen all the guys give their best come-to-bed-with-me looks?”

  She grinned at his droll assessment and shook her head in exasperation. “First of all, sex always sells and you know it. And so do the models and their booking agents, hence the tone of the portfolio photos.”

  Which was, even Jeb had to admit, pretty darn sexy.

  She clasped her hands together and lifted her arms above her head, stretching languidly. “Second, I don’t have an opinion, at the moment.” Having apparently worked the kinks out, she dropped her hands back to her lap and continued. “We’re going to have to talk to them. Find out who can memorize a script and be disciplined enough to sit for the photos for the print campaign, as well as be reliable enough to travel around to the trade shows, and county and state fairs, for however long this campaign runs.”

  Jeb studied her delicate profile. “Sounds grueling.”

  Her soft lips pressed together. “It will be. But that’s not my biggest worry right now.”

  Cady signed out of the email function, shut the lid to her computer and leaned forward to set the laptop on the coffee table. As she did so, the hem of her khaki shorts rode up, giving him a nice view of her sleek, lissome thighs.

  Jeb shifted his glance, only to encounter her curvaceous calves and slender ankles. She had slid off her flip-flops when she sat down, and her bare feet and pink toenails were feminine and pretty.

  Wishing he could give in to his desire, haul her onto his lap and kiss her again, Jeb recalled his promise not to put the moves on her again tonight, and asked instead, “What is your biggest worry right now, then?” And why, he wondered with concern, did she suddenly look so stressed?

  Obviously, oblivious to the nature of his thoughts, she lay her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes, her hair fanned out like a silk halo. She drew a deep breath, her breasts pushing against the cotton of her T-shirt, then rubbed the bridge of her nose, opened her eyes and turned her head to face him. “I have to decide whether or not to let my bosses know that I may soon be requesting a work-mostly-at-home schedule in lieu of an actual maternity leave.”

  Jeb put his computer aside, too, and turned toward her. His knee nudged her thigh, so he adjusted his leg so they were no longer touching. “You think it will be a problem?” He wished he didn’t know how soft her lips were.

  “No. They know I’ve been trying to adopt for several years now. And they’ve said it won’t be an issue if I want to keep working and bringing in income instead of taking unpaid time off.” She sighed. “I’ve been there long enough. They know what I can do and will work with me.”

  Jeb imagined that was so. Cady was one extraordinarily capable businesswoman. “Then…?”

  She rubbed at an imaginary spot on her shorts. As an afterthought, tugged the hem down toward her knees. “I’ve come so close, several times, and dutifully informed the human resources department at work, only to see it all fall apart for some reason or another.”

  Jeb could see how that would be embarrassing as well as disappointing.

  Cady swallowed, her anxiety evident. “I know I should go ahead and talk to them again, but I’m afraid doing so will jinx the adoption, and that I won’t get the baby, after all.”

  He caught her hand in his and tightened his grasp. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”

  She bit her lip. “These situations are always fraught with peril, even under the best of circumstances,” she told him with a catch in her voice.

  Jeb sent her a reassuring look, gave her hand another squeeze and reluctantly let go. “If it’s meant to be, it will happen, Cady.” And if it wasn’t, he was sure she would find another way to get what she wanted. In fact, he would see to it.

  Cady shot him a glance from beneath her lashes. “You’re full of clichés tonight,” she murmured, not seeming to mind the intimate turn the conversation had taken.

  He shrugged, aware he didn’t object, either. “I don’t know a lot about adopting babies. But I know this. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And someday soon you’re going to be one fantastic mother.”

  CADY WENT TO SLEEP shortly thereafter, Jeb’s encouragement still ringing in her ears.

  She woke to the sound of her cell phone and the sight of sunlight streaming into the guest room. Groaning, she grabbed the telephone and put it to her ear.

  “Hello,” she whispered, hoping the boys hadn’t been awakened by the chimes.

  “Well, we’re finally in Sydney!” Suki announced from the other end of the connection.

  “Hey, Cady,” Hermann chimed in.

  She yawned and
struggled to sit up. Hard to believe her sister and brother-in-law had been traveling all that time. “You must be exhausted.”

  “Very,” Hermann confirmed. “Neither of us could sleep on the plane.”

  “How are the boys?” Suki inquired with maternal anxiety. “I miss them so much that I wish I could come home already!”

  As if on cue, Dalton popped his head in Cady’s room. Finn followed. Then Micah. “Is that Momma?” Dalton asked.

  “And Daddy,” Cady confirmed with a grin. “Want to say hello?”

  Bedlam followed as the three boys jumped on her bed. Cady switched on the speakerphone. Then everyone talked at once until, bored, Dalton jumped back off the bed. “Where’s Our Friend Jeb?” he asked loudly.

  “Yeah, I’m hungry,” Finn stated, following his brother.

  “I hungry, too,” Micah added.

  Without further ado, they dashed out.

  “Did they say…Jeb—as in Jeb McCabe?” Suki asked in shock.

  Cady cringed and switched off the speaker. She had been hoping to avoid that part of the story until Suki and Hermann returned home.

  “Jeb is there…at this time of day?” her sister persisted, not bothering to mask the faint note of disapproval in her tone.

  Hermann cleared his throat and said, “Honey, I’m going to see where our town car is.”

  Suki used her husband’s absence to continue the third degree. “Cady, what is going on?” she demanded sternly.

  Cady cringed, imagining the well-meant but misguided lecture sure to follow. “Jeb offered to help me out with the boys.”

  Her sister huffed. “Probably on the spur of the moment, unless I miss my guess.”

  Cady ran a hand through the tangles of her hair, then got up to find a brush. “What’s wrong with that?” She climbed back into bed and began to brush her hair with her free hand.

  “Cady, I know you’ve always had a secret thing for him…”

  She rolled her eyes. “I have not!”

  “Okay. Deny it if you must. But when it comes to anything but simple friendship, Jeb is a very bad bet. Just ask Avalynne Stone.”