A Nanny for the Cowboy Read online

  The house was eerily quiet as she walked downstairs to her room. Instead of turning on the light, she dressed in the dark, slipped into her pajamas and crawled into bed, determined to fall asleep quickly.

  She didn’t.

  In spite of trying not to think about what had happened with her employer earlier, her mind was filled with it. Even worse, if she dared to be truthful, she’d have to admit she’d enjoyed it. Far too much. Especially for something that had been so very, very brief.

  Though she warred with herself, she soon fell asleep, only to be awakened later by the sound of thunder. That was soon followed by what seemed to be hail hitting her window. Because the sky was beginning to lighten and she obviously wasn’t going to sleep well, she reluctantly decided to start the day, not at all sure how it would play out.

  She’d put a load of Brayden’s play clothes in the washing machine and was heading back to the kitchen, when she heard someone descending the stairs. Instead of stopping as she usually would have done to greet Luke, she hurried on, making sure she was busy and had her back to him when he approached the kitchen. She knew she was being foolish, but she couldn’t even imagine making eye contact with him. Not yet.

  “I’ll grab some coffee later,” Luke said from somewhere behind her. “The weatherman says there’s danger of some of the creeks flooding, so we need to get the cattle moved, just in case.”

  She sensed it wasn’t the only thing bothering him, since he hadn’t made eye contact with her, either. “I’ll fill a thermos with coffee for both you and Dylan.”

  “You don’t have to do that. You’re Brayden’s nanny not—”

  “I’m offering,” she insisted. “Never look a gift horse in the mouth.”

  She smiled as she glanced up at him and wished she’d said nothing. He was looking directly at her mouth.

  He made a choking sound and ducked his head. When he looked up again, it was to glance out the sliding doors. “I’ll hunt down my rain gear and be back for the coffee.”

  When he’d left the room, the last thing she wanted to do was think about the conversation they’d just had. Turning on the radio beneath the cabinets, she hoped the news, if not the music, would distract her thoughts, at least until Luke left to do chores.

  The thermos was filled and ready when he returned. Doing her best to pretend nothing had happened—and never would—she leaned over the counter to hand it to him.

  At that moment, their gazes met, and she couldn’t force herself to look away. There was something in his eyes.... Contrition? The same embarrassment she was feeling? Whatever it was, they were both very careful when he took the paper bag from her.

  “Tell Dylan he’s welcome to join us for lunch,” she said, when they’d both taken a step back.

  “I will.”

  He turned around without looking her way, and she watched as he strode through the family room to the door that led to the garage. She hadn’t expected to feel the relief that swept through her. She should’ve known that he would be as embarrassed about what had happened as she’d been. If she’d thought there might be a problem with falling for her employer—or he for her—when she’d applied for the job, she wouldn’t have accepted it in the first place. Besides, she told herself, there really wasn’t a problem, unless either of them made that regretful incidence into one, or repeated it. She knew she wasn’t going to. She suspected he wasn’t, either.

  The rest of her morning was filled with Brayden, who was raring to go the second he jumped out of bed. For a little boy who’d hidden behind his daddy, barely a week before, he’d definitely come out of his shell quickly.

  “Want jooze!” he shouted, as he stopped scribbling on the pad of paper Hayley had given him.

  Looking over her shoulder at him, she reached for a plastic cup in the cabinet. “Only a little juice,” she told him. “And you need to sit in your chair to drink it.”

  He shook his head, and his lower lip jutted out. “No.”

  She laughed at herself for thinking only a few days ago that he might be one of the few two-year-olds who wouldn’t go through what was known to mothers around the world as The Terrible Twos. She’d obviously been dreaming.

  “Climb into your chair, Brayden, and I’ll give you your juice.”

  “No.”

  Without replying, she replaced the pitcher of juice she’d pulled from the refrigerator. Arguing with a two-year-old was foolish, at best, but she also wanted him to understand that rules were rules. It was something she’d noticed his father was lax about. Brayden was a sweet little boy, and all he needed were a few simple boundaries.

  “Want joo-o-o-ze!”

  The shriek caused her to jump, but before she could respond, a male voice replied, “What’s wrong, buddy?”

  She looked up to see Luke enter the room, and she quickly explained. “He’s voicing his disagreement about sitting in his chair while drinking his juice.”

  Luke leaned down and picked up his son, swinging Brayden up to settle the little boy on his shoulders. “Do what Hayley says, buddy, so you can have your juice.”

  Hayley ignored how her body had reacted with a ripple when she’d heard his voice, and now she tensed in anticipation of more of the same. In spite of her determination not to let what had happened cause any more problems, she didn’t seem to be able to carry through with it.

  “I’ll be right back,” he told his son. “I have to get something for Uncle Dylan.”

  She hated the feeling of relief she felt when he disappeared. Somehow she’d have to find a comfort zone where she felt safe and could deal with the turmoil that being around him was causing. Oh, she’d been aware of Luke from the moment they’d met, but she hadn’t worried about it. After his initial aversion to hiring her, it seemed they’d come to a mutual place in their relationship that was comfortable. Boy, had she been wrong.

  When Luke returned, he lifted his son into his seat, and she immediately poured Brayden’s juice. When she placed the cup in front of him, it sloshed when he hurried to pick it up, but she simply smiled. Little messes were expected.

  Luke sat at the counter next to Brayden, looking through a booklet of some kind. Tension made the air heavy, but Hayley didn’t know what to do to lighten it.

  “Down,” Brayden shouted, when his juice was gone.

  Luke chuckled and was helping his son down from the chair when Dylan walked in through the sliding doors. “I forgot to mention that Dylan would be here,” Luke explained.

  Dylan nodded in greeting to Hayley, then walked to stand by Luke. “We’ll just have to wait until the rain stops to do anything else.”

  Luke nodded. “At least the cattle are moved, so that’s one less worry.”

  “And fed,” Dylan added, “but we’d better plan to take some hay out this evening, or we’ll be wishing tomorrow that we had.”

  “Maybe we need to sit down and figure out what else we need to do if this keeps up.”

  “Good idea.” Dylan started to move away, but stopped. “Sorry. I forgot that spare room is in use now.”

  Hayley felt his gaze on her and prayed that he didn’t notice her embarrassment. “Give me a couple of minutes, and you can work here.”

  She quickly cleared the countertop of Brayden’s crayons, then she reached into a drawer near the phone and pulled out a pad of paper and two pens, placing them on the counter. Without a word, she moved out of the kitchen and walked past both men to where Brayden was playing quietly at the far e
nd of the room with his toys.

  “Let’s take your toys upstairs,” she said, reaching her hand down to him.

  “No.”

  Her heart sank. Of all the times she needed him to be cooperative, he had to choose that moment to be contrary. Now, not only would Luke be around most of the day, but his brother—who she was convinced had been a witness to the incident—would be, too.

  “He’s okay,” Luke said from behind her. “We’ll keep an eye on him. We’ve done it plenty of times before. As long as he’s playing, it isn’t a problem.”

  She opened her mouth to argue, but suspected to do so would be inviting more trouble. “If you say so.” She wondered if she should thank him, but thought better of it. “I’ll be in my room. He’ll probably be ready for a nap before too long, so when he starts getting grumpy or tired, just let me know.”

  Both men assured her that they would, so she escaped to her room. Once there, she couldn’t enjoy her alone time. Relaxing was out of the question, and all she could think about was that she wasn’t doing her job. Finally, she scolded herself for wasting the gift of private time she’d been given and settled on the bed, where she opened the book she’d been trying to read.

  Sometime later, she opened her eyes, shocked and ashamed that she’d fallen asleep. A quick look at her watch told her she’d slept much longer than she should have, and she wondered why no one had tried to wake her. After checking her hair in the mirror to make sure she wasn’t a mess, she hurried out to the family room, in a panic that she’d find Luke and Dylan gone, Brayden alone and the house a disaster. Instead, the two men were watching television, Brayden nowhere to be seen, and the room as neat as it had been earlier.

  “Um, where’s Brayden?” she asked, her voice a sleepy croak.

  They both turned to look at her. “He fell asleep, so I took him up to bed,” Luke answered.

  Her panic increased. “Then he’s been asleep—”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head and glancing at his brother. “It was a short nap, then we all had a bite to eat, and I put him to bed for the night about fifteen minutes ago.”

  When his attention returned to the television, she didn’t know what to think or what to say. “I’m sorry, I should have—”

  “Look,” he said, getting to his feet, “we never discussed your days off, and you haven’t had one in over a week. When it comes to Brayden, I’ve taken care of him for the past year and a half on my own. An afternoon and evening isn’t going to kill me.” He looked at his brother, and then turned back to her with a smile. “Or him.”

  “Maybe I should go check on him.”

  “No need. I’ll do it. This is officially your half day off. Go do whatever you want to do.” He started to walk away, but turned back. “The only thing is, with all this rain, I wouldn’t try to drive anywhere.”

  “Oh, of course not,” she answered, completely bewildered.

  When he was gone, she went to the kitchen, still embarrassed that she’d fallen asleep and shirked her nanny duties.

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  She spun around to discover Dylan standing on the other side of the counter. Opening her mouth to reply, she realized she had nothing to say.

  “He isn’t mad at you,” he said. “We all need some time off. Some of us more than others.”

  “I guess we do,” she admitted, and decided then and there to put worries of her long nap behind her.

  “And in case you’re wondering,” he continued, “if anyone asks, I didn’t see anything.”

  “You...what?”

  “Yesterday. I didn’t see anything. Not anything you should be upset or embarrassed about, I mean. Something like that is kind of...natural, I guess. And my brother deserves good stuff, after what he’s been through.”

  Hayley wasn’t sure how to answer. Obviously Dylan had witnessed Luke kissing her. And just as obviously he had taken it the wrong way. Quitting her job would be the right thing to do, considering. But she needed the money for school so she could finish her degree. Without it, finishing wouldn’t only be difficult, it might prove impossible.

  No, she couldn’t quit. She’d have to find a way to get beyond the kiss she’d shared with her employer.

  * * *

  “SO WHAT HAPPENED AFTER I left?” Dylan asked.

  Luke kept his attention on dumping feed in the long trough where they were working at Dylan’s place. He knew exactly what his brother was getting at, but he’d hoped the subject wouldn’t come up between them. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “With Hayley,” Dylan supplied.

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing? Damn, Luke, the air fairly sizzles when the two of you are in the same room.”

  Luke looked at him out of the corner of his eye. “You’re imagining things.”

  There was a short moment of silence before Dylan answered. “Am I?”

  Luke bit the inside of his cheek to keep from groaning. This was becoming more serious than he’d imagined. “Yeah, you are,” he finally managed to answer. “There’s nothing going on between us, and definitely not on my end.”

  “So she grabbed you and kissed you the other night?”

  “Damn it!” Luke tossed the empty feed bucket to the ground, where it bounced twice and then rolled to settle in the mud. “It was a crazy thing to do. I don’t know what came over me. It happened before I knew what I was doing.”

  “And you don’t regret it, do you?”

  The groan slipped out before he could stop it this time. Luke leaned against the side of the barn, the damp wood feeling cool beneath his work jacket. “Yeah, I do, because it’s changed everything. I know I shouldn’t have done it. But the worst part is, she’s been acting like I have the plague or something.”

  “Give her some time.”

  Luke looked up at him. “And how do you know this?”

  Dylan ducked his head. “I guess I don’t. At least not from personal experience.”

  Sighing, Luke pushed away from the barn. “But I do have experience and should know better.”

  “If it’s bothering you that much—and her, too—maybe if you apologized...”

  “But I’m not all that sorry,” Luke admitted. “And she might be able to see through it, if I tried to lie. No, the best thing to do is to just let time take care of it.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  “Yeah, that and avoiding her as much as possible, at least for a while.”

  “Not so easy to do.”

  Luke blew out a long breath of air. “No kidding? I guess I can always hide out here at your place.”

  It wasn’t as if Luke had to look for extra work to keep him from having to return home too early. The amount of rain the day before alone meant more chores. Those added to the usual ones meant they had their hands full.

  They worked until early evening. “Maybe you should just talk to her,” Dylan said, as they sat on the porch of the house where they’d grown up. “Get it all out in the open.”

  Luke shook his head. “I can’t risk losing her.” When Dylan turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised, Luke hurried on. “Finding someone else to take care of Brayden would be hard enough. Finding someone who does it as well as she does would be impossible.”

  “But she seems like a reasonable person—”

  “She’s a woman.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. And considering how little I know about
that kind of thing, I’m sure not the one to be giving advice.”

  Surprised at what Dylan just said, Luke had to hunt for the right words. “There’s nothing wrong with your advice,” he assured his brother. “And the right woman is out there for you. Somewhere. Count on it.”

  Dylan nodded, but said nothing else, and Luke knew it was time to go and face the music. Maybe Hayley would have had enough time to either forget that he’d kissed her or least not be so darned jumpy about it. By the time he reached home, he’d almost convinced himself that all would be well, if he’d just pretend nothing had happened.

  But when he stepped into the house, Hayley was waiting in the family room, her arms crossed in front of her, and a scowl on her face. He was definitely in trouble for something.

  “What did I do?” he asked.

  * * *

  HAYLEY HAD SPENT the past half hour waiting for Luke to return so she could leave for her class. Now that he was finally home, she was so angry, she was almost speechless, as she watched him peel off his jacket and then stand in front of her as if he was completely innocent of everything.

  “You really don’t know, do you?” she asked.

  “Would I be asking if I did?”

  Grabbing her big bag, she slung the strap over her shoulder. “Do you remember me telling you the very first day that I had classes that I absolutely couldn’t miss on Mondays, Wednesday and Friday evenings, and that I’d have to leave by six o’clock?”

  The color drained from his face. “It’s Wednesday.”

  “Yes, it is. And it’s almost six-thirty. I’m going to be late for class.”

  “Hayley, I’m sorry. There’s no excuse. I didn’t think about it. But it isn’t like you’ll be locked out of the classroom or anything, is it?”

  She felt like crying. Or hitting something. But she did neither. “Being sorry isn’t going to make up for the class time I’ll miss, and I can assure you that my grade for tonight will reflect my tardiness. All because you forgot.”