“Where do you see ponies, baby?” he asked, kneeling beside Lea and giving Sara an apologetic smile when she turned her attention to them.
Lea didn't answer but pointed, her finger moving emphatically and her eyes practically bulging out of her head. Austin turned to follow her indicated direction, and when he saw the object of her desire, he broke out into a grin. It was so easy to forget how little of the world very small people had seen. There was something magical about seeing something as banal as a county fair's carousel through a two-year-old's eyes. Even with a glance, he could see that Sara felt the same, and he felt a wave of appreciation for the kind of woman she was.
“That’s called a carousel, sweet girl,” he said, standing up again and taking Lea by the hand. “And as far as I’m concerned, you can ride it as many times as you want. This day is about fun and nothing else. No work, no nothing. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
Lea crowed with delight and started hopping up and down, the most explicit show of excitement Austin had ever seen her display. It was more than he had dared to imagine just days before, and as the three of them moved towards the dancing ponies and their happy carnival music, it wasn't lost on him that he likely owed it all to the woman walking beside him. The woman he could feel himself starting to want, whether he wanted to or not. Up until this point, his only saving grace had been that he was almost positive that the feelings were one-sided, but now he was starting to wonder if that was true. It might all be in his imagination, but he thought she had leaned into his body during horseshoes more than was strictly necessary. With every step he took, he tried to convince himself that he was being stupid, but then he would look over at Sara just in time to see her look quickly away and start wondering all over again.
"You come," Lea said when they stood in front of the brightly colored carousel, all three of them looking up at its glory with child-like wonder. Austin and Sara both turned to look down at her, then smiled at each other over the top of her head. It was the smile of people who could appreciate the little victories in life, and Austin was more grateful for it than he could say.
“Oh, she’s got to be talking about you,” Sara laughed, brushing a strand of shiny blonde hair out of her face. “You’re going to get up there with her, aren’t you?”
“Please,” Austin scoffed, waving her off with one hand while ruffling Lea’s hair with the other. “There’s no way she’s talking about me. I think she’s looking for a girls’ day out.”
"Oh, what's the matter, Austin? Are you worried that you won't be able to tame one of those stationary horses?" she shot back, giggling and giving him a look he would have been certain was flirting if it had come from anyone else. He was overcome by an almost overwhelming desire to say the hell with decorum, take her in his arms, and kiss her right then and there. Instead, he shrugged and gripped Lea more tightly by the hand, nodding his head in the direction of the carousel currently coming to the end of one of its rides.
“What do you say, baby?” he asked. “Want to tackle the ponies with daddy?”
Lea nodded vigorously, sending another jolt of love so acute it was almost painful straight to his heart. He nodded back, and after giving Sara a mock salute, father and daughter made their way to the line. While they waited, he pointed out all of the different horses, keeping in mind what Sara had taught him about creating a dialogue with Lea instead of blasting her with a bunch of rapid-fire questions. When he came around to the purple, sparkly number, Lea clapped her hands and pointed at him with a wide, expectant smile on her face.
“You, daddy!” she cried, her sweet little voice more assertive than he had ever heard it before. “That you!”
"You want me to take the purple horse?" he asked, raising his eyebrows with surprise. When he had become a single father and sole caretaker, he had known the day would come when he would need to do girly things in the vein of tea parties and fingernail painting, but he hadn't expected it to come so soon. Even so, when Lea nodded, the excitement in her face growing, he knew without question that he would do what she wanted. Forget being daddy's little girl. He was pretty sure that the power dynamic between them was reversed. He settled Lea on top of one of the horses beside his, a much more masculine one that would have made more sense for him, and turned back to his mount. He was pleasantly surprised to find Sara lifting a leg to straddle the horse on his other side, lifting the hem of her full-length dress to do so and flashing a heart-stopping piece of thigh.
"Oh, look at this," he said, trying not to stare and failing miserably. "I'll be honest; I didn't think you had it in you."
“Oh, please,” she said, rolling her eyes dramatically and sliding her feet into the stirrups. “Are you kidding me? I’ve been riding on every carousel I could get my hands on since I was just a little bit older than Lea.”
“I have no doubt,” he chuckled, struck by a flash of an image of Sara as a little girl. “And it’s a good thing, too, because you look good on a horse.”
He didn't mean to say it. He never would have if he'd been thinking straight, but he was caught up in the moment, the glimpse of her milky-white thigh lingering in his mind's eye. He had tried so hard to be careful with her, careful not to cross any boundaries, and now with one off-hand comment, he had jeopardized everything. He was almost too afraid to look at her for fear of what her reaction might be.
“I do, don’t I?” she said, her voice so full of a smile that he raised his eyes to her face despite his lingering embarrassment. “I make this horse look sort of great.”
One look was enough to drive most of Austin's concerns right back out of his mind. Far from being offended by the offhand comment, Sara appeared to be pleased, playing it up, even. While he watched, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and arched her back, giving him a wicked grin as she did so. The way the sun shone on her cornsilk hair, glistening against her golden skin, made him want to throw caution to the winds and take her into his arms. He might have done it, too, if the ride hadn't chosen that moment to grind to an abrupt halt.
“Well, will you look at that?” Sara said with what sounded like disappointment, although Austin knew it might be his imagination. He had learned not to trust his instincts when it came to women. “Ride’s over already.”
“So it is,” he said stupidly, swallowing hard and squinting into the sun. He was more than happy to keep staring until he went blind if it meant not having to see the obviousness of his desire reflected in Sara’s eyes.
“Again!” Lea shouted from her little horse, startling Austin out of his heated thoughts. “Ride again!”
“We’ll see, darlin’,” he chuckled, his voice a little louder than strictly necessary. “It might be nice to get something to eat, don’t you think? I saw some soft pretzels a little ways back that looked like they would make a mean snack.”
It wasn’t the fact that Lea didn’t answer that surprised him. They were still at the point when her words were more startling than her silence. It was how quickly she dismounted her stationary horse that got his heart thumping, making his limbs feel too clumsy and heavy to follow after her.
Maybe if he hadn’t been so caught up in making eyes at Sara, he would have anticipated Lea’s movements before they were made. As it was, he was unable to do much but shuffle after her, still trying to get his head in the game as she sprinted for the ride’s exit gate.
"Stop her, Austin!" Sara called as she attempted her own awkward dismount. He could hear some laughter in her voice, but it sounded strained, and he was pretty sure it was just for his benefit.
As he threaded his way through the maze of horses that must have been frighteningly easy for Lea to get around, Austin tried his best to concentrate on his breathing. He told himself that he was being extra nervous because he was still new to the single father game.
It was a thought he held to tightly until he got to the exit gate and found that Lea was not standing there waiting for him. When he saw that, he stopped dead in his tracks, turning in a
tight, panicked circle, his wild eyes trying to look everywhere all at once.
"Lea!" he shouted with no regard to the curious looks from passersby. "Lea, where are you, honey? You need to come to Daddy's voice, and you need to do it right now!"
Eight
“Lea? Lea, honey, where are you?”
Sara pushed through a crowd that seemed to be growing exponentially. Everywhere she looked, there were people dressed in their brightly colored summer clothes, swarming along the fair's pathways. Moments earlier, she had enjoyed the controlled chaos, enjoyed the sound of a whole lot of people having a good time. Now it felt like she was being swallowed whole, and the panic was threatening to overwhelm her. It was only the thought of Lea, lost somewhere in that sea of people all on her own, that kept Sara moving forward.
"Lea, sweetie, you don't need to worry about being in trouble, okay? Just show us where you are, and everything will be just fine. Just give me a hint, please."
“Do you see her?” Austin demanded, stopping short behind her and grabbing onto her arm. “Please tell me you see her somewhere.”
“No,” Sara said miserably, her heart lodged in her throat and her stomach churning. “I don’t see her anywhere.”
“She’s not going to ask for help, Sara,” he hissed desperately, his fingers digging painfully into her flesh. “You know she won’t. She’s so shy, and she’s still hardly speaking more than two words to us. There’s no way she’s going to be willing to talk to a stranger!”
Sara swallowed hard, searching for a reply and coming up empty-handed. She wanted to tell Austin that everything was going to be okay, but the truth of the matter was, he was right. Even under the best of circumstances, Lea was still tentative about speaking, even to the people she trusted most in the world. Expecting her to walk up to a complete stranger and ask for help was like asking her to expound upon Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It wasn't going to happen.
“Excuse me!” Austin exclaimed gruffly, turning his attention to the crowd, his voice straining to the furthest boundaries of self-restraint. “Excuse me, we need to get through. We’re looking for a little girl!”
He let Sara’s arm go as he plowed through the people, and Sara struggled to keep up with him, all the while working overtime to keep herself from crying. There was no room for her emotions here, but that didn't stop her from mentally beating herself up.
Austin was still learning how to be a full-time parent, which meant that he was still adjusting to keeping a constant watch on his child. Sara, on the other hand, had spent her entire adult life working with young children. She should have known better than to devote anything less than her full attention to Lea. She would have done, too, if she hadn't been so caught up in flirting with Austin. How silly she had been, playing around on that stupid horse for Austin's appreciation. She had been diverting both of their attention from where it needed to be, and if something happened to Lea as a result, she would never be able to forgive herself.
The fairground seemed terrifying in its vastness compared to the size of one little lost girl. Searching the entire expanse of the grounds would take hours, and every minute Lea was without them was a minute when she was in danger.
To make matters even worse, all of a sudden there were little children everywhere. They had been there before, of course; fairs were exactly the kind of place children wanted to spend the endless summer days. It was just that none of them was the child Sara and Austin were looking for, which made them almost painful to look at as well as being in the way.
“Oh my God, is that her?” Sara suddenly cried, causing Austin to whip around so quickly that he almost bowled over an unsuspecting fair-goer.
“Where?” he demanded as he stepped to Sara’s side.
But she was on the move again before she could be troubled to answer, pushing past people now and praying that the little girl, who had her back to them, was really Lea before dropping to her knees beside her.
"Oh, Lea," she half-sobbed, half-laughed. "Oh, honey, it's really you. Thank God!"
Lea turned her head just long enough to give Sara a sweet, if a little curious, smile before returning her attention to the main attraction. Her eyes grew so wide when she looked up at the sparkling picture of cotton candy again that Sara burst into a fresh peal of laughter. There was something a little manic about the sound, but giggles were still a whole lot better than tears.
“Pretty,” Lea said, her musical voice awestruck as she pointed one chubby finger at the sign. “Pretty pink.”
“That’s right, sweetie, it’s pink,” Sara agreed, her body beginning to tremble now that some of the adrenaline was starting to wear off. “And it’s very pretty, but Lea, you can’t do that kind of thing, okay? You scared us. When your daddy and I couldn’t find you, it scared us so badly!”
Lea cocked her head to the side, considering Sara with a little frown that said she didn’t quite understand what all of the fuss was about. Then she nodded her partial understanding before returning the whole of her attention to the confectionery sweets.
“Pretty pink,” she said again, reaching for the picture longingly.
“Not nearly as pretty as you, sweet girl,” Sara said, suddenly dangerously close to crying. “Now, do you think I might be able to have a hug? Would you mind that?”
Instead of using words to answer, Lea’s whole face lit up with a sunny grin and she held both arms wide open, ready to be embraced. Sara laughed and shook her head, trying not to think of what Lea would have done if it had been a stranger who found the little girl instead of a friend. All she knew was that she was going to make sure she never had to find out the answer to that awful question. If Sara had anything to do with it, Lea wasn’t going to be out of her sight again until the poor girl was eighteen.
"How are my two girls?" Austin spoke up from behind where Sara sat in the dirt, her summer dress pooled around her, and Lea's hot little arms wrapped tightly around her neck.
"We're good," Sara said, unable to keep the tremor out of her voice. "Everything's good now, and we've already talked about how we're never, ever going to do something like this again."
“That’s good enough for me,” he answered shakily, extending a hand down to help her up, Lea still tucked safely against her chest. “Right now, it’s just about the best thing I’ve ever heard.”
Sara nodded and accepted the hand, almost toppling over with the force Austin put behind getting her to her feet. Before she had the chance to so much as laugh about it, though, Austin folded both her and Lea up into a massive bear hug so tight it should have been enough to take her breath away.
The funny thing was, the feel of his heavy, muscled arms holding her close did the exact opposite. For the first time since realizing that Lea was gone, Sara felt like she could breathe again. She knew that was something she would have to deal with later down the line, but at the moment, she didn't care. Right now, she only wanted to inhale his scent and pretend that the three of them were the only people that mattered in all the world.
It wasn't proper, strictly speaking, the way he was holding Sara so close. For the time being, though, he didn't give a damn. His daughter was safe, and Sara had been the one to find her. The fact that he wasn't spinning her around and giving her a big ol' kiss was showing a remarkable amount of restraint.
For what it was worth, she didn't seem to mind being in his arms. She was too busy hugging Lea close to her chest and making a noise that sounded halfway between a laugh and a cry. Austin shut his eyes and rested his chin on the top of her head, pulling in a deep breath of her honeysuckle-scented hair. It wasn't real, this feeling of a perfect little family unit, but it still felt better than he would ever have imagined, and he wasn't quite ready to let that go.
When their group hug finally broke up, it was because Lea started to squirm, having reached her two-year-old's tolerance for gratuitous shows of affection. Sara pulled back from her, laughing, and Austin removed his arms from them both reluctantly. Lea took a moment
to beam up at them both before returning her full attention to the image of the tasty treat that had distracted her in the first place. She pointed at the picture of the confection with an expression so full of awe that Austin couldn't help but grin.
"You want some cotton candy, huh?" he asked, ruffling her hair affectionately.
She nodded and actually licked her lips in anticipation of the taste, which started Sara giggling all over again and made Austin grin wider.
“Okay, we can do that,” he said when he had the somewhat wild-feeling laughter under control. “But before we get a treat, I need you to promise me something. Can you do that?”
Lea nodded, making the same frowning expression that her mother always had when she was really concentrating on something.
“I need you to promise me that you won’t run off like that again,” Austin said, his voice grave now. “I don’t know what would happen if I lost you. I don’t want to think about it.”
“Promise, Daddy,” Lea said immediately, her eyes wide, the expression befitting the solemnity of Austin’s words.
Austin looked at Sara’s face over the top of Lea’s head and found her nodding her approval. It was a small thing, that nod, but for him, it made all the difference. It helped him to remember that he wasn’t that same terrified dad all alone with a daughter he had no idea how to raise.
For as long as Sara was with them, he had her on his side, and he could see by the look on her face that she had been every bit as scared as he was by Lea's disappearance. It was good not to feel alone, even if he hadn't really thought about it before. Her investment in his kid was also sexy as hell, but that was a topic better left unexplored.
The Rancher’s Tempting Nanny Page 6
