Her Cowboy Daddy

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “Suki and Hermann have had a lot of practice parenting. Five years, to be exact.”

  Okay, so that was true. “And what’s your excuse?” she quipped, knowing full well that Jeb had never come close to that level of commitment to anything except remaining a footloose bachelor.

  He shrugged offhandedly. “I’m a McCabe.”

  Of course. Cady sighed in mounting frustration and averted her glance. “So you’re just naturally good at taking care of children,” she murmured. Like everyone else in his family.

  He tucked a hand beneath her chin and guided her face back to his. “I’m not naturally good at anything, Cady,” he told her pensively. “I have to work at everything.”

  The compassion in his eyes made it easy to confide, “You’d never know it by the way you are around the boys.” Her throat was thick with emotion.

  Jeb brushed his thumb across her cheek, then dropped his hand. “I’m at ease because I’ve been around kids of all ages as long as I can remember.” His deep voice sent another thrill coursing through her. “When I was growing up, I had to watch over and entertain my younger brothers and sister, and all four of us had to mind our cousins whenever the extended family got together, which was pretty often. So I just learned. By doing. Just as you will.” He reached over and gave her hand another reassuring squeeze. “I mean, wasn’t that the plan of this two-week babysitting gig to begin with?”

  How was it, Cady wondered, that Jeb always made her feel better? Feel as if she didn’t have to live in anyone’s shadow?

  “Cady!” Finn shouted from the very top of the pirate ship.

  Dalton joined him.

  Down below, Micah was sitting in the sand around the base of the ship completely oblivious to everything as he concentrated on pushing the sand around with a stick and a rock.

  And then everything changed, as two more cars pulled up in the lot. Doors opened and half a dozen pretty little girls, ranging in age from three to eight, piled out.

  JEB WOULDN’T HAVE believed it if he hadn’t seen it.

  The jaws of all three boys dropped in awe as the giggling, shouting girls raced toward the ship, their moms following. For a long second, Cady’s three nephews simply stared, as if they’d been hit by Cupid’s arrow.

  Trying not to notice how right it felt to be sitting here on the picnic table bench like this, with his arm around Cady’s shoulders, Jeb leaned over to whisper in her ear. “I think they’re in love.” He chuckled, wishing attraction and affection were as simple for adults as for kids. Because if they were…if nothing else stood in the way…he and Cady would have been an item a long time ago.

  Bemused, she was watching the interplay. “The boys are, anyway. I don’t think the girls are quite as smitten.”

  “That’s because girls are much choosier when it comes to guys—at least at that age.”

  Cady wrinkled her nose. “Seriously?”

  Jeb liked the idea of her leaning on him, even if it was just for information. He shrugged. “When you’re five, a pretty girl is a pretty girl. I don’t think there’s a lot of distinction.”

  She crossed her legs at the knee and ran a hand down her calf. “How about at your age?”

  Jeb watched the restless swing of her foot beneath the shapely curve of her leg. “A pretty girl is just a pretty girl.” And Cady, in his view, reigned supreme among those.

  He paused, taking in the dissenting twist of her lips. Suddenly, it was all he could do not to pull her over onto his lap and kiss her.

  Still studying her, he inclined his head. “You don’t believe me.”

  She stood and shoved her hands in the pockets of her trim, knee-length shorts. “I didn’t say that.”

  Jeb tore his gaze from the way the cotton fabric tightened across her derriere. He quaffed the rest of his soft drink and stood, too. “Something is on your mind.”

  Cady swung back around to watch the kids.

  Finn tagged a little girl and raced off. His freckle-faced quarry followed, dashing over the wooden ramps of the play-fort until she caught up with him and tagged him back. He wailed in excitement, then tagged her again, and on and on they went.

  Cady crossed her arms beneath the soft curves of her breasts and nodded at the action. “It’s interesting how, with a dozen kids over there, Finn only has eyes for that one pretty little girl, and she only has eyes for him.” Cady swallowed and continued drolly, “They just keep going back and forth. He chases and catches her, they split up, then she chases him—”

  Abruptly, Jeb had an idea where this was leading. “Are we talking about the kids now?” he interrupted, shifting so Cady had no choice but to look at him. “Or me and Avalynne Stone?”

  Cady flushed. Guilty as charged. She ran a hand through her hair, pushing the thick strands off her face. “What makes you think…?”

  Jeb lounged against one of the pillars supporting the open-air picnic shelter, and tilted his head toward her. “I saw the look on your face when I talked to Avalynne in the Main Street Salon.”

  Cady ran the sole of her sandal across the cement floor, but kept her gaze on him. “It’s pretty clear Avalynne still has…if not exactly ‘the hots’…then some feelings for you.”

  Once again, Jeb thought, Cady had his number.

  He frowned, torn about what he wished he could confide but had promised not to reveal.

  “It’s not what you think,” he said finally. “There is nothing going on between Avalynne and me, no romantic pursuit.”

  Cady went very still. “Then what is it?” she asked curiously.

  “We’re friends,” Jeb stated honestly, as a fresh wave of guilt and resentment washed over him.

  And, unluckily for him, coconspirators as well.

  Cady looked at him as if she was aware he was holding something back. Then she sighed.

  And just like that, the barbed wire fence went up around her heart again.

  She adopted a brisk, businesslike demeanor. “Our bet won’t be impacted by your personal life or professional obligations. Just as it won’t stand in the way of anything that I have to do.” She shrugged. “Wager or no, we still have to carry on with our lives and meet our respective responsibilities.”

  Which in turn made Jeb wonder. “Do you have appointments scheduled, too?”

  “Actually—” Cady smiled “—I do have something set up for this afternoon.”

  Chapter Six

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Cady asked, keeping one eye on the boys. Finn was still playing chase with the pretty girl. Dalton was climbing to the lookout of the wooden ship. Micah was scooping sand.

  “Like what?” Jeb asked, waving at Dalton when the little boy reached his perch.

  “Like you think I’m making a mistake, commissioning a mural for the baby’s room.”

  Jeb turned back to Cady. “It’s not a mistake,” he said carefully. “Plenty of parents do that for their babies.”

  “So…?” Cady pressed, sensing his skepticism.

  He turned his pensive gaze on her. “I just figured you’d want to buy the clothes and diapers and crib first. Unless you’re planning to borrow all that from your sister?”

  Cady shook her head. “Except for a few keepsakes, and the baby things Micah is still using, it’s all been donated to charity.”

  Jeb ran his palm across his jaw. “So you’ll be starting from scratch.”

  She nodded, not sure why she suddenly needed Jeb’s approval so badly, just knowing that she did. “Which is why I want to talk to the artist who painted Suki’s boys’ rooms.” I want to start making this reality instead of just a long-held dream….

  Jeb clamped a reassuring hand beneath her elbow. “Then we’ll make sure it happens,” he promised.

  Soon after, they rounded up the boys and took them to the Daybreak Café for lunch. From there, they went to Jeb’s ranch, and “helped” him care for his baby calves and mama cows. Cady captured a cute video on her cell phone, to send to Suki and Hermann, and th
en they all went home together.

  Jeb took over supervising the boys while Cady prepared for her meeting with Gratia Hernandez. The fifty something artist was as warm and personable as Cady recalled.

  “I’d love to do this for you,” Gratia said, after the two of them had settled in the kitchen and gone over the particulars. “There are only two problems. First, I’m booked solid for the next three months, so the soonest I could get to your baby’s mural would be the middle of September.”

  “I can live with that,” Cady said. It would give her more time to figure out the design.

  “And two, I don’t travel outside of Laramie County anymore, so…”

  “I have a solution for that as well.” Cady poured them both some more iced tea. “I was thinking…since I probably won’t be staying in my current loft for more than the first year…that I’d like to have the work done on a large canvas that I could take with me.”

  Gratia clapped her hands together. “That’s a marvelous idea! Then, yes, I would love to do it for you.”

  The two talked a little longer about possible little girl motifs, and then Cady walked her to the door.

  “I’m so happy for you,” the artist said, engulfing her in a hug. “I didn’t know you were adopting. Suki didn’t tell me—”

  Suki!

  At the realization, it was all Cady could do not to groan out loud.

  “Is there a problem?” Jeb asked, when she walked back inside.

  Cady looked at all the boys, who were busy playing trains on the wooden track he had helped them set up in the family room. It was amazing how well-behaved they were when he was around.

  She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead and headed to the kitchen, with Jeb beside her. “I can’t believe I forgot to tell Suki and Hermann, when I talked to them this morning, that I’m getting a baby.”

  Jeb’s glance trailed over her lazily. “There was a lot going on.”

  She gathered up the iced tea glasses and spoons from her meeting with Gratia and carried them to the dishwasher. Suki would not have kept something like this from her, even accidentally.

  A guilty flush started in Cady’s chest and spread to her neck. “I didn’t tell them at noon when I forwarded the call phone video from the park, either.”

  Jeb lounged against the counter and plucked a snickerdoodle cookie from the jar. He munched contentedly. “You’ve had a lot on your mind.”

  That wasn’t it, either, Cady realized in mounting alarm.

  He narrowed his eyes and downed more of his own iced tea. “You could text them now.”

  She certainly could. The only problem was…

  She paused and bit her lip.

  Jeb leaned closer still and asked ever so softly, “Is there some reason you don’t want to tell them?”

  FOR A SECOND, Jeb thought Cady wasn’t going to answer him. She finished putting everything in the dishwasher, then grabbed the watering can and filled it with tap water.

  She walked over to the window and began methodically watering the potted plants.

  In a low voice, she confessed, “Hermann hasn’t weighed in on the subject—and he wouldn’t. He’s always thought I should live my own life, my own way. But Suki thinks I’m making a mistake.”

  Jeb could guess how much that hurt. Cady adored her older sister and wanted her approval more than anything.

  He inhaled the fragrant scents of mint, basil, oregano and sage. “Because you’re not married?”

  “Because she thinks—as always—that I’m foolishly limiting my options and selling myself short. That if I just wait awhile, I’ll find the perfect man to marry, and have kids the old-fashioned way, just like she did. And you and I both know that’s just not going to happen for me.”

  This was the old Cady—the wallflower—talking. Jeb hadn’t seen this part of her emerge in a while. He didn’t like it.

  He studied the sober lines of her mouth. “Is that why you’re adopting?” He edged closer, speaking just as quietly. “Because you’ve given up on finding anyone who would love you?”

  Cady set down the empty watering can. They were standing beneath the air-conditioning vent, and a sudden blast of air had her clamping her arms in front of her, warding off the chill. “Why did you think I was doing it this way?”

  Jeb turned his glance away from the sudden tautening of her nipples beneath her blouse. He adjusted his posture to ease the pressure against the front of his jeans. “I don’t know.” He shrugged and concentrated on the darkening hue of her beautiful brown eyes. “I guess I just figured that you preferred to go solo, sort of the way I do—only you wanted kids and didn’t want to be pregnant.”

  Turbulent emotion tautened her pretty features. “I would love to be pregnant,” she admitted.

  He watched her, unsure how to help. “Then?”

  Cady made a face. “The idea of a strange donor… It has such an ick factor for me. I can’t do it.”

  Jeb had to admit he didn’t like the idea, either. And how weird was that? It shouldn’t matter—and he shouldn’t be thinking about it, either.

  “Plus, I’ve got only one ovary…”

  He blinked, certain he hadn’t heard right.

  She let out a shaky breath, met his eyes and reluctantly explained, “I had surgery a few years ago on an ovarian cyst that got infected. They had to remove it and the fallopian tube on that side. Which leaves me with only a fifty percent chance of getting pregnant, under the best of circumstances.”

  Cady had been in the hospital? She’d had surgery and he hadn’t known anything about it? He looked at her in shock. “You didn’t tell me that.”

  She lifted a hand with a mixture of apology and regret. “Because I knew if I had you would have come to Houston. Truth was, I really didn’t want you to see me then, because I was a hormonal wreck and I looked and felt terrible. Besides, Suki and Hermann were there.”

  Jeb put his hands on her shoulders and held her there when she would have run away from what was happening between them. “I wouldn’t have cared if you were a mess, emotionally or physically.”

  “I know.” She sighed and made no move to extricate herself from his protective grip. “That’s what made it so hard.” Her mouth curved ruefully as she conceded in a low, trembling tone, “The fact that you would have been so understanding. If I’d looked at you then…” Her voice caught as she started to get choked up. She blinked rapidly, reining in her tears, and continued determinedly, “I probably would have…”

  He let his hands fall to her waist and brought her even closer. “What?”

  Cady’s lips parted.

  Jeb had the strangest sensation she wanted to say something to him that she considered forbidden, and then at the last minute, couldn’t find the words.

  Or maybe just wouldn’t, he realized in frustration.

  Swallowing, she edged away and continued, “I would have cried on your shoulder. And I didn’t want anything that sad entering into our friendship. I didn’t want us to become closer because of something like that, because a lot of times—from what I’ve seen—that kind of illness-induced intimacy just doesn’t last, and it leaves the two people involved feeling awkward.”

  Jeb wouldn’t have wanted Cady’s embarrassment to come between them, either.

  And the truth was, if he had seen her falling apart, he would have wanted to rescue her.

  Later, she might have resented him for it.

  Or just been mortified, and hence, angry about that. “I understand,” he said gently.

  He still wished he could have rescued her from that and any other kind of pain. It didn’t matter whether his gallantry was misplaced or not.

  All he knew for certain was that his desire to protect Cady went a lot further than simple friendship.

  “SO THERE YOU HAVE IT,” Greg Savitz said, hours later, as he concluded his presentation.

  “Thanks for taking the time to break it down for me,” Jeb said to the agricultural insurance agent.


  “You’ll let me know what you decide to do?”

  Jeb nodded. “It should be sometime in the next seven to ten days.” They shook hands, left the office, then stopped when they saw who was waiting outside.

  Avalynne was standing next to Jeb’s pickup truck. Dressed for an evening out, in a short skirt, sequined top and heels, she was clearly expecting him.

  Aware that anyone who drove past the corner of Main and Oak could see them, he hurried over. “About time you wrapped that up,” she teased.

  The thing Jeb had always liked best about his ex was her independence. The trait he’d liked least was her need to always be the center of attention. “How’d you know I was here?”

  Avalynne tossed her head. “I was on my way home after dinner with the gals, and I saw your truck. I figured this was as good a time as any for us to arrange for a time to make the transfer.”

  They had been doing this for years. Why then was Jeb suddenly so uncomfortable about what was a simple transaction conducted in secret? “Can’t you just put it in the mail?”

  Avalynne scoffed. “Seriously?”

  She had a point. That probably wasn’t the wisest option. “Okay, then. I’ll put a key under the welcome mat and you can leave it at my ranch house.”

  “I’m not comfortable with that, either.” Avalynne pouted. “I like handing it over in person. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.”

  Of all the times for her to be more difficult and demanding than usual, this was the worst. Jeb regarded his ex-fiancée evenly. “We’re not kids anymore, Avalynne.”

  “How well I know that!” she exclaimed. “It’s all my parents point out to me now when I visit. Why aren’t I married? Why haven’t I gotten over you?” She sighed, the depth of her frustration apparent. “And on and on.”

  Jeb was frustrated and tired of the cloak and dagger aspect to their relationship these days, too. He thought about Cady and how she would take all this.

  He exhaled and suggested matter-of-factly, “Maybe we should call it a day. Let it be over, once and for all.”