The Rancher’s Second Chance

by Jackson, Mary Sue

  “I’ll meet you here Saturday morning, then?”

  “Sounds fine.”

  Charity watched him as he turned back to the stall. After a moment he must have felt her waiting.

  “Was there something else, Charity?”

  In fact, there was. And here in the sunny mid-afternoon light streaming into the barn, she decided to press her luck a little bit. “Once I make my choice, would you be willing to train my new horse?”

  Trey threw a glance over his shoulder at her, and she saw something like heat flash into his eyes. “Oh, I don’t think so. I’ll be too busy around the farm to add another horse to the roster.”

  She hesitated, feeling the tension lingering in the air between them. Life had taught her that taking risks could pan out, if you took enough of them…but she also knew that sometimes you had to quit while you were ahead. Trey had already agreed to go out of town with her. That would have to be enough for today.

  “All right. See you Saturday.”

  She savored his agreement for the rest of the day on Wednesday, spent Thursday daydreaming about him—though she’d never admit it—and on Friday night she could hardly sleep. It was five hours to the town where the auction was being held, and she’d booked two rooms at a local hotel. It wasn’t quite as sexy as staying in a room together, but at least they’d be under the same roof. That hadn’t happened since her brother was in high school.

  Trey was coming down the stairs of his farmhouse with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder when she parked her truck in the driveway bright and early on Saturday morning, excitement zinging through her like the buzz from a good glass of beer. She rolled down the passenger side window. “Hop in.”

  “Not a chance,” he called back, his voice rolling into the truck on the morning air. “I’m driving.”

  “I’m already in the truck.”

  Trey stepped closer to the window, and even from here, she could smell him—freshly showered, his shampoo and soap manly and clean. “You’re in this truck.” The smile he gave her felt like an inside joke, and her core heated with it.

  “Sure, she’s old, but—” As if on cue, the truck gave a rusty rumble.

  Trey raised both his eyebrows.

  “All right. Where do you want me to park it?”

  “That’a girl,” Trey said.

  Grab your copy of The Cowboy’s Mistake

  Available October 3rd, 2019

  www.LeslieNorthBooks.com

  BLURB

  Finn Henry was once a rodeo star. That was, until life happened. His wife was expecting, his father in law was injured, and the family ranch needed someone at the helm. There seemed no choice but to retire from glory and move back to their hometown to raise their family. When Finn’s wife died suddenly just three years later, it seemed like their twist of fate had given him the twist again: all his dreams were dead. To compensate he’d thrown himself into ranching—losing himself in the grief.

  Callie Winter, has landed her dream job moving to the east coast to work for a prestigious private school, but she’s fallen in love out west...with an adorable kindergartener. Wendy Henry has imprinted on Callie and Callie is scared she’s imprinted right back. Callie knows she should head out in June and get settled out east, but then she finds herself offering her services as a summer nanny after one too many parent teacher conferences gone badly with Finn. Callie’s excuse is to earn the extra money she needs to rent a home in the historical area around the school...but the reality may be that it’s harder to leave the pair than she ever expected.

  Callie’s goal for the summer is to reunite father and daughter so that she can leave and know that the two of them have bonded again. However, as they learn to live together, Callie finds that she’s more involved than ever, as she learns to love the stoic rancher. Suddenly, she’s wondering if maybe her dream isn’t her dream anymore...but is Finn ready to open his heart again?

  Grab your copy of The Rancher’s Unexpected Nanny here!

  * * *

  EXCERPT

  “Wendy! Come back here!” Finnegan Henry growled in frustration as his five-year-old daughter managed to stay out of reach of his outstretched arms. Reaching up to wipe the sweat from his brow, he knocked his Stetson off his head. Bending down to grab it, he smacked it angrily on his leg to shake the imaginary dust off before setting it tight on his head. Getting called in to meet with his daughter’s teacher was not on his list of things to do today. “We’re going to be late to see your teacher,” he warned her but all he got in return was his daughter’s musical laugh. The one that made everything seem okay, even when it wasn’t.

  Eyeing his daughter speculatively, he tried to calculate which way she would run next as he stalked toward her. Her contagious laughter had him smiling as he gave up on being on-time. Getting closer to Wendy, he pretended to go right and quickly jumped to the left catching his daughter about the waist before scooping her up and tossing her in the air. Catching her easily, he gave her a raspberry, which had her squealing with delight. With another quick toss, he had Wendy in a fireman’s carry over his shoulder before covering the distance to the school’s entrance in long strides.

  Entering the school, he headed toward his daughter’s classroom hoping that whatever her teacher wanted to see him about wouldn’t take too long. Stepping into the room, he was surprised to see it empty. Back stepping out into the hall, he looked toward the offices. Wendy’s “Hi Miss Winter” had him whirling around, his daughter swinging behind him as she laughed with glee.

  Without even speaking, he could see the look of disapproval on Miss Winter’s face at how he was carrying his daughter. Feeling sheepish under her scrutiny, he lowered Wendy to the ground before taking his hat off and nodding to her. “Sorry we’re late.”

  She looked like she was expecting him to say more but he was at a loss as to what else to add. Instead, he gestured to her classroom. “Shall we?”

  When she didn’t make a move to enter, he decided he would go ahead of her right as she took a step and they played a momentary game of touch and dodge before he placed his hand on her back and ushered her into the room ahead of him.

  Taking a look around his daughter’s kindergarten classroom, it didn’t look like anything had changed since he was last there. Without being told, Wendy ran over to the library area, grabbed headphones to put on before plugging them in, pulled a book off the shelf and sat down to follow along with the audio. Relieved to see that she was fully entertained, he turned to his daughter’s teacher.

  Looking around at the limited options for an adult of his size to sit, he waited for Miss Winter to take her seat behind her desk before sitting uncomfortably down in a chair that had more give than it should. Finn clasped his hands tightly in his lap to keep from cracking his knuckles as he waited for her to speak. He had no delusions that the two of them were there to commiserate. He'd been to more than his fair share of these things since losing his wife two years ago.

  Before Alex’s unexpected death, it wouldn't have occurred to him that kids as young as his Wendy could even be called in for conferences. Nowadays, as a single father, he knew better. Miss Winter was good at dealing with parents, no question about that. He'd seen enough to know she was a master of keeping her cool. He had an idea of where this meeting was headed, and he just wasn't sure he had it in him to deal with it today. As the thought passed through his head, Miss Winter picked up a stack of papers and considered them studiously as if eager to get the rodeo started.

  “All right, Mr. Henry,” she said conversationally. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I asked you to come by.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t think it was for a visit,” he nodded miserably.

  “Please, Mr. Henry, this is not a bad thing,” she replied earnestly. “I honestly only want what’s best for Wendy.”

  Something in her tone made Finn look at his daughter's teacher, really look at her as a woman, not his daughter's kindergarten teacher. He could appreciate her beauty, even under the
present circumstances. She was on the taller side with a slim figure that curved in all the right places. Her hair fell over her shoulders in loose blonde waves, and her blue eyes sparkled. Pretty didn’t cover it. She was beautiful and way out of his league, which is why he shouldn’t be having these thoughts while discussing his daughter.

  “I know that, ma’am. I can see that you take your job seriously.”

  “Good, then you’ll understand that I want what’s best for Wendy.”

  “What has she done wrong, Miss Winter?” he finally asked, too restless to continue with the pleasant runaround any longer. Giving his daughter a quick look, he was pleased to see she was engrossed in her book and oblivious to what they were talking about.

  Now it was her turn to look uncomfortable. Finn ducked his head at being so blunt, but he was maybe a little angry, too. He couldn't seem to figure out the right way to handle things.

  “I wouldn’t call your daughter’s behavior wrong or bad, Mr. Henry,” she finally answered. “When kids this young act out, they’re doing it for a reason.”

  “Something tells me you’ve got a reason in mind,” he answered, trying not to grit his teeth.

  “I do,” she agreed. “I think she’s bored.” She opened her mouth to say more, and Finn jumped in.

  “I’m sorry, Miss Winter. I’m not in the habit of interrupting ladies. But honestly, I’m having trouble seeing why I needed to be called in to see you in the first place.”

  "I'm sorry?" she asked, her brow furrowing ever so slightly. That, along with the way she was biting her lip, somehow made her sexy as hell.

  Finn shook his head to try to get his head back in the game, which he belatedly supposed she might take as him dismissing her. Miss Winter kept her poker face on, but he thought he caught a flicker of annoyance. He tried again. “Look, I don’t mean to be offensive, Miss Winter. I just don’t see how Wendy being bored is such a problem. When I was going through school, being bored was part of the deal. Parents got called in for the big things.”

  “Big things?” she echoed with a frown, “I’m sorry, Mr. Henry, I don’t follow you.”

  “Bigger things than boredom?” he prompted, genuinely perplexed. “Off the top of my head, I can think of several things.”

  She leaned forward and volleyed right back at him, “Wendy is a bright girl, Mr. Henry. I think she might be exceptionally bright. I think she needs more academic stimulation than she’ll find in a regular classroom.”

  Finn shook his head in bewilderment. “Hell, I’m sure you had your share of snoozers when you were going through school.”

  The use of profanity earned Finn another raised eyebrow. He groaned to himself. The things he wanted to say sounded right in his head, but opening his mouth seemed to cock it all up. He got to his feet and started pacing back and forth in front of her desk. It felt good to do something. Hell, it felt good to do anything other than sit there and feel foolish.

  “I was bored in school myself,” she said gently, her eyes following his progress. “That’s why I believe so fervently that Wendy deserves better. I want to give all my students the best I can.”

  Finn stopped to look at her. “I can see that,” he answered, running his hand through his hair distractedly.

  “Good!” she said brightly, “That’s good! Now we’re getting somewhere.”

  “Good,” he echoed quizzically. “Where exactly are we getting?”

  Her answering smile filled Finn with one part exasperation, one part appreciation. This woman was persistent, that was for sure. She was also clearly devoted to the children, something hard to find fault with. Still, Finn felt like his world was about to get even more complicated than it already was. Seeing as he was trying to raise a little girl on his own while running a ranch he’d never asked to be the caretaker of in the first place, that was saying a lot.

  Grab your copy of The Rancher’s Unexpected Nanny here!