The Rebel Cowboy's Baby--A Clean Romance

by Sasha Summers

  “Oh, I did, Miss Martha.” He aimed for earnest as he added, “But I appreciate the clarification. Nothing worse than a miscommunication, after all. I wouldn’t want to go around thinking you thought well of me all of a sudden. Or, worse, that you’d grown fond of me.”

  Miss Martha snorted. “No fear of that.”

  “Now, now, there is no need for things to get...unpleasant.” Miss Ruth’s attempt to smooth things over was half-hearted at best.

  “Who’s unpleasant?” Miss Martha snapped. “We’re done here.” But she gave him another hard look. “I know you live for being the center of attention, but Brooke works hard, she lives a quiet life, and people respect that about her—something you know nothing about. But she is a handsome single woman, living in a small town, and if a fella starts coming and going and he’s missing clothes?” She was flustered now. “People will talk. I’m wasting my breath on you, I just know it, but this needs to be said. You go on and keep making a mess of your life, but you leave Brooke Young out of it. Or you will answer to me.” She shook her finger at him, as if she were disciplining a child. “And keep your clothes on, boy.” With that, she whirled and stalked back to her car, Miss Ruth trailing behind.

  From his place on the porch, he waved them off, then put the food inside Brooke’s front door before reaching his truck and starting the drive home.

  You go on and keep making a mess of your life, but you leave Brooke Young out of it.

  He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to leave Brooke out of his life now that they were tied together by Joy, but he got what she meant. And, surprisingly, he appreciated the sentiment behind it. He hadn’t thought about the repercussions of running out of her house, shirtless, when it was clear no one else was home. People would jump to conclusions. Most likely, none of those conclusions would involve rice cereal and applesauce.

  By the time he parked in front of his sprawling family home, his shirtfront was crunchy and dry.

  His brother Webb was heading out the front door right as Audy was going in. “I heard you went and got yourself a baby—” Webb broke off, his nose wrinkling as he gave Audy a once-over. “What happened to you?” He poked at Audy’s shirt. “What is that?”

  “Haven’t you ever seen rice cereal with applesauce before?” Audy shook his head, his tone dripping disbelief.

  “No. And I hope I don’t see it again anytime soon.” Webb shuddered. “Since you’re here, can I get some help replacing the wire? Or are you just gonna change and hightail it out of here?”

  “I’m all yours until four thirty. Then I have to clean up and head back over to the Young place.” This time, he’d be sure to take extra clothes just in case his on-the-job training led to more messes.

  “You’re gonna wind up putting a whole lot of miles on your truck.” Webb headed down the front steps. “I’ll see you out there, then.” He yelled back over his shoulder.

  Audy headed inside to find Harvey, tail wagging, waiting to greet him. “Morning, boy.” He stooped to give his dog a good rubdown. “I guess I’ll talk to Brooke tonight, see about taking you along tomorrow. If you promise to behave, that is?”

  Harvey yawned.

  “Now, don’t get too excited on me.”

  That’s when Harvey caught a whiff of Audy. Harvey was a big dog, a big dog that loved to eat. Audy was squatting, so all it took was a nudge for Harvey to knock Audy onto his rear for a closer inspection of Audy’s shirt.

  “Now, see, this is exactly what I’m talking about.” Audy pushed at the massive dog’s shoulders and stood. “That’s not polite. You can’t just go around knocking people over. And you shouldn’t try to eat a man’s shirt—especially when he’s still wearing it. You hear me?” He paused. “You pull that kind of thing over at Brooke’s house and you’ll never be welcome there again.” He sat up, patting Harvey’s back. “And just so you know, there’s pie there for no particular reason. You play your cards right, I can make sure you’ll be the one cleaning out the pie tins.”

  Harvey was more interested in sniffing Audy’s jeans and circling him, looking for an opening, all the while making a low whimper at the back of his throat.

  About that time, Uncle Felix came out of the kitchen holding a large cup of coffee. “What’s gotten into Harvey? He looks ready to maul you.”

  “He just loves me, I guess.” Audy grinned and stood.

  “Uh-huh.” Uncle Felix snorted, his eyes fixed on Harvey as the dog made another slow circle around Audy, before shifting to look Audy over. “What’s all over you?”

  “Applesauce and rice cereal.” Audy bobbed his eyebrows. “Apparently, babies like to eat it. I don’t get it. I am not all that fond of the smell.”

  Harvey was still grunting and sniffing.

  “Harvey doesn’t seem to mind.” Uncle Felix sipped his coffee. “Did you forget to feed that dog? I know you’ve been busy with...everything. Might want to carve out some time to take care of things here, too.” Uncle Felix wasn’t just talking about Harvey. He was telling Audy he expected a full rundown of what was going on. “I’m thinking Forrest has told me the important stuff?”

  “Probably. But I should have told you. About Kent.” Audy swallowed the lump in his throat. Not just for missing Kent, but for letting down his uncle. Uncle Felix didn’t ask for much, Audy shouldn’t be expecting Forrest to play messenger.

  “Sad thing, losing Kent.” Uncle Felix stared into his coffee. “Good boy. Good man.” He shook his head.

  Audy agreed, one hundred percent.

  Harvey sat, staring up at him and whimpering.

  “I fed you and you know it.” Audy sighed, noting the smile Uncle Felix was wearing. “He’d never have let me out of the house otherwise. But he’d eat 24/7 if I let him. Don’t let those big brown eyes of his guilt you into giving him more, either.” He gave Harvey a stern look.

  “No dog’s going to guilt me into anything.” Uncle Felix gave Audy an odd look. “He’s a dog.” He took another sip of coffee, his gray-blue eyes settling on Audy’s shirtfront once more. “If you were feeding the baby, I’m thinking you might need a little more practice.”

  “That I do.” Audy chuckled. “Not just with the feeding, either.”

  “You were all mostly walking and talking when I came to care for you, I got to skip all that.” He pointed at Audy’s shirt. “This little one? Her name is Joy?”

  Audy nodded. “Yes, sir.” Or Miss Muffet. But that one was just for him.

  “Forrest says, well...she’s a Briscoe now.” Uncle Felix waited for Audy to nod before going on. “Might not hurt for you to consider bringing her out here sometime. Be nice to lay eyes on her, get to see who’s doing this.” He pointed at Audy’s shirt.

  “I can do that.” It made sense to have Brooke here, get her take on things—for Joy. Might be easiest to ask both Brooke and Tess to dinner. Beau would love that. Brooke, on the other hand...

  “Mabel called last night and she is plumb over the moon about the little girl. She said it’s about time there was another woman on the ranch. I guess I’d never thought about it that way. She was set to come home but I told her to finish up her work... It’s not like the baby’s going anywhere, now, is she?”

  “No, sir.” His poor sister, Mabel, had grown up in a house full of loud, ornery, overprotective men. As a result, she had the patience of a saint, didn’t rattle easily and tended to keep to herself. Which is probably why she spent so much time with horses growing up. And why he could see his sister and Joy taking to one another. “I’m sure she and Joy will get on like two peas in a pod.”

  “About that...” Uncle Felix took another sip of his coffee, peering at Audy over the rim, before he finally said, “She has all sorts of ideas for Joy’s room. Mabel kept calling it a nursery.”

  “She does?” Audy hadn’t gotten that far. Of course Joy would need her own room. Here. Under this roof. “That
’s good.” What did he know about putting together a room for a baby? A baby who would grow into a little girl... The thought knotted his stomach. “I’ll let her take charge of that.” He’d have to look over the child protective services checklist Mr. Vincent had included in their packet. Whatever Mabel decided to do would have to keep in line with those requirements—or Brooke would eat him alive.

  “You know that little one will wind up a horse lover like Mabel, then?” Uncle Felix shook his head.

  “I can think of worse things.” Audy liked the idea of Joy following in Mabel’s footsteps. “But that’s a way down the road. Right now, all she does is eat, sleep, cry and mess her diaper. She makes all sorts of nonsense noises, too—though Brooke acts like Joy’s carrying on a full-blown conversation. Brooke’s got the whole baby thing down.” He shrugged, an image of Joy with one of her shy smiles popping into his head. “But she’s real cute, I can tell you that much.” He grinned at his uncle. Not that I’ve spent much time looking at babies...

  Uncle Felix was studying him closely. A little too closely. “Brooke? Or Joy?”

  “No denying Brooke’s a fine-looking woman but I was talking about Joy.” Audy chuckled. “I gotta get myself cleaned up or Webb will likely wind up tangled in the new fence line.” Which was only partly a joke. His younger brother was as independent as they came. Too many times, he’d dive into something headfirst instead of waiting for help. Too many times, he’d wind up needing help getting out of or fixing the thing he’d dived into without waiting for help. “I’m thinking Webb and razor wire won’t make for a good combination so I should be there from the get-go.”

  “That boy.” Uncle Felix sighed. “Not much sense in cleaning up now? Change your shirt and get after him before he winds up in the emergency room again and Forrest has already set off for the south pastures.”

  “Yes, sir.” Audy was tugging off his shirt as he ran down the hall to his room. He tossed it onto the floor, grabbed a work shirt from his drawer and tugged it on as he was headed back down the hall and into the great room where Uncle Felix was now sitting, enjoying his coffee.

  “Be careful, now,” his uncle called out, making Audy pause.

  “Yes, sir.” A rush of words clogged up his throat. From “I’m sorry” to “I’ll try harder” to “Thank you for putting up with me,” he wasn’t sure where to start. Audy not sitting down and explaining the whole co-guardianship to him, man-to-man, was plain disrespectful.

  Respect... Something you know nothing about. Miss Martha’s words rang out loud and clear, taunting him. It didn’t matter that he was floundering and still adjusting to all the changes while trying to process his grief and newfound guardianship. There was no excuse. Uncle Felix had been there for him, always. He needed to take an example from the man who’d stepped in to raise him and his siblings. No more excuses.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  FOR FOUR DAYS, Audy showed up on time—with an extra change of clothes—and tried. He helped Brooke with all the babyproofing and fixed the front porch step. Joy still made Audy nervous and he couldn’t bear it when she cried, but now he smiled when she smiled and he laughed when she laughed. Sure, it took him four times as long to bathe Joy, he wound up wearing whatever he was feeding her, and diaper changes still triggered his gag reflex, but she thought they were making progress.

  Dara and Kent’s funeral had been nice, though Brooke didn’t remember much of it. She’d been too numb to do much but cuddle Joy and try not to cry.

  Two days after that, they’d had their first surprise visitation. Brooke didn’t know what to expect but Mrs. Elaine Trenton wasn’t it. Audy had compared the old woman to a turtle, all hunched up and wrinkled. Brooke had chastised him for being rude but, in her mind, she saw the resemblance. Mrs. Trenton took a total of ten minutes poking around the house before she asked them five questions, glanced at Joy—saying he was a sweet boy—before leaving. While Brooke wasn’t sure what to make of the whole thing, Audy seemed to think they had nothing to worry about.

  But now that her time off was over and she had to go in to work the next day, Brooke couldn’t help but worry. And, for the first time ever, she dreaded it. Not the work itself, but leaving Joy—even for a half day. “You’re sure you’re ready for tomorrow?”

  Audy opened his mouth wide as he spooned yogurt into Joy’s mouth. “I was feeling ready, but now that you’ve asked me that four times, I’m beginning to think you don’t think I’m ready?”

  Brooke sank into the chair across from them. “No...no, I do. I’m sorry, Audy.”

  “He’ll do fine,” Tess said, looking up from her pre-calculus book long enough to give Brooke a disappointed frown.

  “You’ll do great,” she agreed. Her little sister was right. She had to stop shortchanging Audy. When it came to Joy, so far, he’d done everything he said he would. That was worth acknowledging. She propped an elbow onto the table and smiled as Joy picked up a piece of cooked carrot, mashing it between her little fingers, then eating it up. “Good stuff, isn’t it, Joy?”

  “Num-mum.” Joy smiled widely.

  “Nothing like cold, squishy carrots to make my meal.” Audy chuckled, scooping up more yogurt.

  Brooke giggled, watching. The closer the spoon of yogurt got to Joy, the wider Audy opened his mouth. It might be her imagination, but Joy seemed to be watching, too. She’d stare at him, grinning, with wide eyes and wait until the very last minute—when Audy’s mouth was stretched as wide as it could get—before opening her little mouth for the bite. At times like this, she almost forgot this Audy was the same Audy she held in such contempt.

  This Audy was adorably awkward and uncertain.

  This Audy panicked at the first sign of Joy’s distress.

  This Audy now wore a towel like a bib whenever he was feeding Joy—without batting an eye.

  This Audy dozed off while holding Joy in the rocking chair last night...

  Joy offered Audy a carrot, her little fingers stretching out as she opened her mouth—just like Audy—in encouragement. Audy’s smile wavered and he eyed the mushy vegetable with mounting concern, but Joy wasn’t going to give up. And Audy, well...

  Tess’s indrawn gasp sounded just as shocked as Brooke felt.

  He did not... He did. He ate the carrot.

  It was a struggle, Brooke could tell, but he managed to swallow it. Those crystal-blue eyes pinched shut and that chiseled jaw clamped down, but he did it. And that’s when Brooke’s chest felt heavy and there was a sort of...tug... It was so unexpected and alarming that Brooke wasn’t sure it had really happened. But if it had?

  “Goo ja. Goo ja,” Joy said, clapping her little hands and flinging bits of mashed carrots and cereal all over her high chair tray and Audy’s towel.

  “Good job, huh?” Audy chuckled and took a long sip of his iced tea. “Thank you, Miss Muffet.”

  “Daba,” Joy babbled.

  Tess burst out laughing. “You two.”

  Audy shuddered. “One thing’s certain, Joy, you have reaffirmed my lifelong commitment to avoiding cooked carrots.” He made a face and took another sip.

  Joy giggled.

  “Yeah, you are cute.” The corner of his mouth cocked up and a dimple appeared. “No denying that. Why else do you think I ate that carrot?”

  Tess started laughing all over again. “I’m not sure I could have done it.”

  Brooke tore her gaze away. It was all a little too...much. All of it. It seemed like only yesterday she and Audy were driving to Houston and yet, everything was different. Part of her was delighted with how easily Joy had settled into things. The other part of her worried about what happened once real life intruded into the little world she, Audy, Tess and Joy had built in such a short period of time.

  “You okay?” Audy asked.

  Brooke looked up, startled by the question.

  “You look...sad.” Those blue eyes
seemed brighter than normal. No, not brighter. Warmer?

  Brooke stared down at her Formica-topped kitchen table, ignoring the undeniably real tug in her chest. Hopefully, he didn’t pick up on the waver of her indrawn breath. “I’m only sad I didn’t record that.”

  Tess, however, had not missed it, and her light brown eyes were taking an all-too-thorough inventory.

  Audy chuckled. “That was your one chance, too. Cute or not, that’s a hard pass for me from here on out.” He glanced at Harvey, snoozing in a patch of sunlight by the all-glass back door. “Some help you are.”

  “Daww.” Joy stressed the w as she strained to peer around the high chair at Harvey.

  “Yep,” Audy said. “That’s a big, old, good-for-nothing daw, all right.” He pronounced dog exactly like Joy.

  Joy nodded.

  The two of them, nodding at each other like they were sharing some sort of deep moment of understanding, was a little too much for Brooke. The sheer adorableness of it all. Both of them. This big, beautiful man, wearing a towel, and this sweet angel of a baby girl... It’s good. The two of them were bonding. That was wonderful.

  It was only bad because it caused another tug in her chest, from a region far too close to her heart. Nope. Audy Briscoe wasn’t going to have any effect on her heart. Not now. Not ever. She pushed out of her chair and headed for the sink and the single pot needing to be washed.

  “I think Brooke’s worried,” Audy said to Joy. It was something he’d started doing, talking to Joy about Brooke—instead of directly addressing Brooke. “I think she thinks I’m going to make a mess of things and she’ll come home to me and you crying, surrounded by dirty diapers.”

  “Now, that’s a picture,” Tess murmured.

  It was safe to smile, her back was to him. Which was good because she was smiling. The image he painted was just too—

  “Did you know there’s a window over the sink, Joy? And that I can see Brooke’s reflection? Like now. When she’s smiling at something I said.”