A Nanny for the Cowboy Read online

  “Monday?”

  “I have a class.” She glanced at her watch. “In fact, I’m going to have to hurry if I want to get out of here on time.”

  His first thought was to ask if she could stay. He wasn’t feeling secure about taking care of a sick boy on his own, but he quickly realized that, after all she’d done for Brayden and him over the past few days, he had no right to ask more of her.

  “I should’ve remembered,” he answered. “Is there anything special I need to do while you’re gone?”

  Shrugging, she shook her head. “Brayden should be fine. I found a baby monitor in an upper cabinet. We can set it up so you can hear him from down here. When I get back from class, I’ll put the receiver in my room, so you won’t have to get up in the middle of the night.”

  He wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea. “But you’ll have to be running up and down those stairs,” he pointed out. “You know, there’s an extra bedroom up there. It’s right next to Brayden’s room and practically empty. I can move your bed up there while you’re at your class.”

  “That’s too much trouble,” she said, with a shake of her head.

  “No, it isn’t. And I’ll feel better with you closer to him.”

  “But—”

  “Look at it this way,” he said, before she could argue, “I won’t have to worry about you falling down the stairs in the middle of the night. Another trip to the hospital isn’t on my list of something I want to do again for a long while.”

  “Well...”

  The way she dragged out the word, he knew she was tempted. He was sure it wouldn’t take much to convince her. “Those stairs can be treacherous in the dark, especially if you’re not completely awake.”

  “There’s the lamp in the upstairs foyer. And the night-light near the stairs down here, too.”

  He suspected he was losing. “But—”

  “I’ve checked on him before at night, so it’s okay. There’s no need for you to go to any trouble.” She stood and picked up her glass. “I’d better get going or I’ll be late. I should be back in time to give Brayden his next dose of medicine, so you don’t have to worry about that, but he could wake up and need help with something to drink.”

  Knowing that arguing with her wouldn’t help and with time slipping away before she needed to be on the road, he kept his opinion to himself.

  “I have my cell phone,” she said, fifteen minutes later, when she was walking to the door to leave. “I’ll keep it on silent, in case there’s an emergency, and I’ll call you during break to check on how you’re both doing.”

  “We’ll be fine.”

  She was about to step out the door when she turned to him with a smile. “I’m sure you will be. Try to get some rest, okay?”

  Before he could answer, she was out the door and halfway to her car, so there was no sense in mentioning that moving the bed wasn’t a big deal. He wanted to do something to make everything easier for her. She obviously wasn’t going to let him, and he wasn’t sure what he could do about that. Or even if he should try. It didn’t take much to know that his problem was caring too much. And that was trouble, all the way around.

  * * *

  BY THE TIME HAYLEY returned from her class, it was later than she’d planned and past time for Brayden to have his medication. The house was quiet and Luke was nowhere to be seen, so she guessed he’d gone on to bed, as she’d hoped he would. She’d missed Brayden while he was in the hospital, and unfortunately she’d found herself missing his dad, too. That wasn’t something she should be doing, and she needed to remedy that as soon as possible. Once she had her degree, she hoped to find an opening in Oklahoma City. Luke would have to find someone to take care of Brayden, but wasn’t that what the plan had been all along? She’d never considered being a nanny for any longer than she needed to. She was too close to her dream to let anything—even an adorable two-year-old boy and his daddy—keep her from getting it.

  Upstairs in Brayden’s bedroom, she did a quick temperature check. He woke just enough to take the dose of medicine, and then fell instantly back to sleep. Once she was assured he was all right, exhaustion hit her like a sledgehammer, and it was all she could do to go downstairs to her room, slip into her nightgown and slide under the covers. As her eyelids grew heavier, she made a quick check that the baby monitor was on next to her bed, and then finally gave in and fell asleep.

  It seemed as if only minutes had passed when she was awakened by the sound of Brayden crying and calling for her. Still half-asleep, she hurried up the stairs, only to realize halfway there that the usual soft glow of the lamp was missing, and it was pitch-black. Carefully and slowly, she somehow made her way in the dark to Brayden’s bedroom.

  “It’s all right,” she crooned as she stepped into the room, where at least a bit of light from his night-light cut through what would have been complete darkness. Making her way to his bed, she eased down on the side of it and reached for the thermometer she’d left on the small, bedside table.

  He was warm to the touch, but not hot, and she guessed his fever still remained within normal. The thermometer beeped and, with a quick look at it in the light just bright enough to see it, she knew that all was well.

  “Would you like some juice?” she asked him, fluffing his pillow behind him, and he scooted up to lean against it.

  “Jooze,” he answered, his voice raspy with sleep.

  She reached for the small thermos she’d left on the table and poured him half a cup of apple juice. “Here you go.”

  He took it with both hands and drank it all without taking a breath. As she took the cup from him, he struggled to keep his eyes open and finally slipped under the covers again without a request for more.

  Hayley sat with him for a while, watching him and listening to the rhythm of his breathing. When she was sure he was fully asleep, she carefully moved from the bed and stepped away.

  At the doorway, she wondered again what had happened to the lamp Luke always kept on at night. It had been on earlier, shining her way up and down the stairs. Now, even the night-light in Brayden’s room didn’t reach beyond his door.

  For a moment the dark hallway disoriented her, and she reached out to find something that felt familiar. She knew the stairs were on the left, but she couldn’t remember exactly how far. She took a deep, slow breath and remembered that the small table with the lamp was just past the stairway, next to the door that led to Luke’s bedroom. If she walked straight ahead, she could reach it and turn on the light. But she had to be careful. If she took a wrong step and veered too far to the left, she might tumble down the stairs, just as Luke had warned.

  Seconds ticked by as she took tiny steps, her hands stretched in front of her until she touched what she knew were the double doors of the master bedroom. Letting out the breath she’d been holding, she turned to her left and bumped into the table, where the lamp always sat, nearly knocking it over. Just as she let out a small shriek of alarm, she heard a noise and suddenly felt a solid, warm body collide with hers.

  “What the—” came the rough and sleep-laden male voice, as large, strong hands took hold of her.

  Heat shot through her like a bolt of lightning. “It’s— It’s me, Luke. It’s Hayley,” she managed to say.

  “Hayley?” he repeated, sounding as disoriented as she’d felt only minutes before.

  His hands moved on her back in what felt like a caress, and her breath caught, silencing a moan of need that shocked he
r.

  “Hayley,” he repeated in a whisper, and she felt the touch of his lips in her hair.

  “Um, Luke?” she said, alarmed by the sensations racing through her. “Maybe we should turn on a light?”

  His hands stopped moving. “A light?”

  She knew he was fully awake when he quickly pulled away. Somehow she managed to find her voice and hoped that he couldn’t detect the slight wobble in it when she spoke. “The lamp wasn’t on when I came up to check Brayden. And I guess I wasn’t awake enough to give it much thought. At least not until I was ready to go back to bed and realized I couldn’t see where the stairs were. It was foolish of me, I know, but—”

  “Very foolish. You could have taken a wrong step and gone right down those stairs.”

  She felt him move closer again, and his arm brushed against her. She heard the click of a switch, but nothing happened.

  “Bulb must have burned out during the night,” he said. “Stay right here and don’t move. I’ll turn on the light in my bedroom and the bathroom light so we can see where we’re going.”

  The bathroom light! Why hadn’t she thought of it, instead of trying to feel her way in the dark? But she knew the answer. She hadn’t been as awake as she should have been, and she scolded herself for being so irresponsible.

  Blinking at the light filling the hallway, she suddenly realized she’d also forgotten to slip on a robe. While her nightshirt wouldn’t be considered even close to daring, she felt uncomfortable, especially when his eyes raked over her.

  “Thank you. I can make it back to my room now,” she told him, hoping he didn’t notice her embarrassment. She started down the stairs, wishing she could disappear, but stopped when he spoke again.

  “Tomorrow we’re moving your things up here.”

  She turned to look back at him, convinced it would be the worst thing to do. “But—”

  “No arguments, Hayley.”

  From the look on his face, she knew better than to argue.

  Chapter Nine

  “I must have been crazy,” Luke muttered to himself three days later. Things shouldn’t have been much different than they were before he’d helped Hayley move to the upstairs bedroom next to Brayden’s, but they were. And it was taking a toll on him.

  When he finished washing his hands at the sink in the garage, he dried them, and then took a deep, steadying breath, before going into the house and heading for the kitchen. All he wanted was something to drink.

  He’d left Dylan’s as soon as they’d finished filling the last of the big grain bins. It wouldn’t be long until his brother would be leaving, this time for what he guessed would be an extended period. Maybe if he could understand, he could help, but even Dylan hadn’t been able to explain, except to say that he had to get away.

  Luke filled a tall glass with cold water and drank it quickly. The chill of it made him shiver, and he felt more in control of himself. There was no reason he couldn’t walk up those stairs, stop in Brayden’s room to say hello, and then go on to his own room to clean up before supper. Not one single reason.

  Once he was upstairs, he went directly to Brayden’s room, where he discovered his son, totally enthralled in the book Hayley was reading to him. Reading. Something he hadn’t thought to do for far too long. Something he should have been doing every night. How had he forgotten?

  Just as he began to wonder how he would fit one more thing into his already overscheduled life, he looked up to see Hayley warning him to be quiet with a finger held to her lips. With a nod, he stepped out of the room and into the hallway, relieved that he wouldn’t need to stay in the room with her. Since they’d collided in the dark, his already-weakened immunity to her had almost completely disappeared.

  Trying to ignore thoughts he shouldn’t be thinking, he went to his bedroom, where he showered and changed, hoping he could find something to keep him busy and out of the range of Hayley for the rest of the evening. It wouldn’t be completely possible. There was supper to get through, and even if she vanished or he managed to, there was still the knowledge that she was nearby. Very nearby.

  Downstairs in the family room, he turned on the television, thinking he might catch the news. Instead, he got caught up in an old rerun of an oddball comedy he’d enjoyed years before. So involved that he didn’t notice the room growing darker, he came back to reality with a start when a loud crack of lightning lit the room and thunder shook the house. A split second afterward, the television went dark.

  “What the—”

  Except for the next flash of lightning, all light had vanished. The house was as dark and silent as a tomb. It took him a second to get his bearings, and then he hoped the thunder hadn’t frightened Brayden. The little guy was out of danger and doing better, but Hayley had mentioned that until he had his energy back, they needed to try to keep him calm and quiet.

  Walking in what he hoped was a straight line to the kitchen, Luke was grateful for another flash in the sky to illuminate the room. It was enough to get him to the counter so he could feel his way to the drawer where he knew he would find a flashlight.

  Once he had light, he headed for the stairs and bounded up them, afraid to call out for fear that Brayden might miraculously still be asleep. But before he reached the top, he reminded himself of what had happened when he and Hayley had collided in the same hallway, only a few days earlier, and he took the steps slower, checking ahead with the beam of light.

  “It’s okay,” Hayley said from above. “I have some candles.”

  “Is Brayden upset by the storm?” Luke asked, knowing how his son hated lightning and thunder.

  “He’s sleeping, thank goodness.”

  She appeared at the top of the stairs, the candle she held casting a glow over her face. He nearly missed the next step. “That’s good,” he answered, unable to come up with anything else to say at that moment. “There should be a small flashlight in the drawer by Brayden’s bed.”

  She stepped back, giving him plenty of room as he reached the top of the stairs and stood with her in the hallway. “I have it in my pocket,” she answered, “but the batteries must be dead.”

  Aggravated at what seemed to be a run of bad luck with batteries, he grunted. “There’s some in the drawer in the kitchen.” Just to be sure he kept on the straight and narrow with her, he took a step back. “Emergency candles in the pantry, too.”

  “That’s right. I’d forgotten I’d seen them there. I’ll get mine, too. Maybe there will be enough so we don’t run into anything.”

  Or each other, he thought. When she disappeared into her room, he called after her. “I’ll get the candles in the kitchen.”

  While he retrieved them, he found the number for the electric company and called on his cell phone, hoping to find out how long the blackout might last. But the news wasn’t good. One of the main rural stations in the area had been hit by lightning, and it could be as much as three days before power would be restored. He decided not to tell Hayley right away, unless she asked.

  Ten minutes later, after she’d finished placing candles around the big room, he excused himself to check on Brayden. Finding his son sleeping soundly, he stood for several minutes, watching him. He’d never dreamed he’d be raising a child on his own. If anyone had suggested that he might, he would’ve laughed. Yet here he was, doing just that. It wasn’t easy. It never had been. And lately, if it hadn’t been for Hayley... But he knew that going there wasn’t going to make the evening go any easi
er on either of them.

  “I put another blanket on him,” he told Hayley when he returned to the family room, “and grabbed a couple for us. I’ll get a fire going, too. It’s getting colder.”

  “What can I do?” she asked.

  He wasn’t sure what else they might need, but then he remembered one thing. “If you don’t mind, take the flashlight and go out to the garage. By that door in the back that leads outside, there’s a workbench. There should be a radio on it, and it should have fairly fresh batteries. If not, we’ll find some around here somewhere.”

  Nodding, she hurried out of the room, and he heard the door to the garage open and close. While she was gone, he moved the smaller of the two sofas to face the fireplace, where there were still plenty of logs filling the bin.

  By the time she returned from the garage, he was kneeling on the hearth, watching the kindling catch and burn brightly. “It won’t be long,” he said, then turned toward her.

  He’d never denied that she was a beautiful woman, but standing in the candlelight, she looked like an angel. Her head was tilted slightly to the side, and her smile was tentative, almost as if she wasn’t sure it was okay to smile. He started to get to his feet, ready to walk over to her, until the crack of a burning log brought him to his senses.

  Don’t do anything crazy.

  Yeah, that was all he needed to do, and Hayley would be gone in a flash. And just where would lusting after his nanny get him? Looking for a new one and trying to console a two-year-old, that’s where. It was time to get a grip.

  “I turned it on and got some static,” she said, leaning down to place the radio on the small table in front of the sofa.

  Her hair fell forward, and he stared at the slope of her neck it revealed. “What?” Hearing the coarseness in his voice, he cleared his throat and suddenly understood she was talking about the radio. “Then the batteries must be good,” he managed to say with what little common sense he could muster.