The Rancher’s Inherited Family: McCall Ranch Brothers Book One

by North, Leslie

  Still, Lacey longed to see Jade lose some of her painful seriousness. She thought it was still possible to reverse a lot of the damage done, given the right circumstances and the right amount of time. Working at the B&B seemed to be helping, too.

  Lacey could almost say that the little girl was happy, despite the bizarre nature of her current arrangement. However, she also had to keep herself from thinking about the fact that she would also be abandoning the poor girl by year’s end.

  “Lacey!” Jade called her back into the moment, putting one hand on her hip in the perfect image of a much older girl. “What’s funny?”

  "Nothing, sweet girl," Lacey laughed, kneeling before the girl and gently removing the hammer from her grasp. "You're just sweet, that's all."

  “But I can do it!” Jade insisted again, stamping her little cowgirl boot-clad foot on the hardwood floors.

  "I have no doubt about that," Trevor said, sauntering closer with his hands shoved down into his pockets. "Thing is, Lacey and me were talking earlier, and she was telling me she's got some things she just doesn't know how to handle."

  “Really?” Jade said skeptically, eyeing them each in turn.

  “Really,” Lacey agreed quickly, lest Jade hear a pause and take it for trickery. “I’ve got all sorts of decorating decisions to make, and honestly, I think it might be too much for me to handle.”

  "And I can help?" Jade asked. Lacey could tell that she was trying to hold on to her sour mood, but it was impossible for the child to hide her excitement. That touched Lacey's heart more than she could say. Warming her heart even more was the look she caught on Trevor's face when she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

  "Sugar, it's more than ‘can' help her," he said, his eyes wide and his voice deadly serious. "It's need to, if you're willing. She's thinking she could use your eye for color."

  Jade thought about it for a moment, more seriously than Lacey had ever seen a four-year-old think over anything. While the adults waited for her to respond, Lacey's eyes traveled to Trevor. She couldn't help herself. The little voice in the back of her head that spoke for her practical self was screaming at her to stop. He was going to feel her staring, catch her in the act. The problem was, she couldn't help herself. She was finding that to be true more and more these days.

  The three had been going to the bed and breakfast together for a week now, and the changes in Jade, although slow, were readily apparent. Lacey was pleased by the progress, but not entirely surprised. At the end of the day, she believed all children simply wanted to be loved. The effect of the arrangement on Trevor was what really had her shocked.

  At the start, she had been worried that he would have a hard time pretending to be interested in Jade and getting to know the child better. His impassioned speech about how unhappy he was at being Jade's guardian had hit her hard, and she still carried that feeling around inside her heart. Except—if she'd never heard him say those words, she would have thought that Trevor had always wanted kids of his own. He was warming up to Jade a little more every day, and when he looked at the little girl now, Lacey saw a light in his eyes that she'd never seen there before. It seemed to her that he'd made it a personal mission to get to his little cousin's heart. The fact that he was getting to Lacey's, too, was just an unfortunate side effect.

  “You’re a silly, Trevie,” Jade answered, all of a sudden beaming from ear to ear.

  “Trevie?” Trevor asked with a bark of laughter. “Well now, little lady, can’t say I’ve ever had anyone call me that before.” He reared up to his full height and rubbed his chin. “I think I like it. What do you think, Lacey? I look like a Trevie to you?”

  He took his hat off and did a slow spin, balancing on the heels of his boots. Jade laughed and clapped her hands, jumping up and down as if it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. All Lacey could seem to see was the way his butt looked in his blue jeans. All of a sudden, the warm air coming from the furnace ducts was just a little too hot for comfort. She felt as if her body temperature had just shot up about a thousand degrees. She almost dropped the mug of tea she was holding, scrambled to catch it, and then dropped it anyway.

  The cup was more than half empty, but what was left splattered on the newly stained wood of the floor. “Crap!” she said breathlessly, clapping both hands over her mouth as soon as the word was out of her mouth. Jade gave her a very serious, very disapproving look at hearing the bad word. When Lacey looked at Trevor, though, she saw that he was laughing again. She couldn’t recall having heard him laugh this much the entire time they had been growing up. The sound of it made her skin tingle all over.

  "You doing all right over there?" he asked, that lopsided grin still playing across his lips. His eyes shone with mischief as he stopped his spinning and began to move toward them. Lacey had no doubt that twinkle was due to his playing with Jade, but seeing that look in his eye as he approached made her feel like a caged animal. She jumped about a foot in the air, and when she started talking again, her voice was far higher-pitched than it should be.

  “I’m fine!” she squealed, earning herself a smirk from Trevor and a dubious look from little Jade. “I’m just starting to feel a little too cooped up in here. What do you guys think about going into town and getting some supplies?”

  “Sure, we could do that,” Trevor answered slowly, watching her closely as he spoke.

  “Good. Excellent, actually. And before we do anything else, we can get me another tea. I’m driving.”

  Lacey snatched up her purse, almost spilled all of its contents onto the floor, and marched resolutely for the door. She was reasonably certain that a person couldn't die from embarrassment, but if it were possible, her current case would be fatal.

  8

  Trevor watched Lacey scramble for the front door, a bemused smile on his face. He'd had his fair share of women over the years, but none of them had been anything like Lacey Cameron. He should think her innate awkwardness would have driven him crazy—at first, it absolutely had. During their time together working on the bed and breakfast and getting Jade comfortable, though, something had shifted. Now, he wasn't sure what to make of her. He kept asking himself what his impression of her had been when they were young and growing up alongside each other, but he couldn't seem to recall anything at all.

  Not necessarily a knock against Lacey. Plenty about his childhood was hazy or just plain missing from his memory. The one memory that stood out, trumping all others, was being sixteen and determined to finally get to the bottom of what made him so different from his brothers. He remembered going through his father's desk and finding the proof that what he’d always suspected about himself was true. He was not his parents' son—not really. He was adopted, and they had never bothered to tell him. It was the driving moment of his life, and after that, things were faded for him until the day he left home for good.

  “Hey, whatcha thinking about?” Jade asked, grabbing him by the hand and tugging on his fingers.

  “Nothing much, baby girl,” he answered, smiling down at her and pushing the thoughts of his past into the back of his mind where they belonged. “What do you say, want to go to town with Lacey?”

  “Dunno where my shoes are,” she answered, looking doubtfully at her oversized unicorn slippers.

  “No shoes, no problem,” he chuckled, scooping her into his arms and walking them both out the door. “That’s my motto.”

  “No problem!” she crowed triumphantly.

  Trevor strapped her into her safety seat and slid into the passenger seat beside Lacey, who was acting as if she couldn't wait another second for them to get going. Truth be told, he was glad for the break. He was tired from the all-but-relentless physical labor, but that wasn't it. He was used to working hard. He couldn't remember a time when some part of his body didn't ache.

  This was about Lacey. The two of them had been spending most of their waking hours together as of late, and it was getting under his skin, but good. More time in that cozy house o
f hers meant more time for him to speculate about the attraction he felt steadily building between them. Assuming it wasn't one-sided, that was, that it wasn't all in his head, a result of too many changes in too short a time.

  They rode without speaking to each other as Lacey steered them into town, only the soft sounds of America’s greatest oldies and Jade chattering nonstop from the back filling the cab. It wasn’t until they pulled up in front of the local hardware store that Trevor turned in his seat to look at his chauffeur.

  “What gives? I thought we were making a tea stop before anything else?” he asked, trying not to smile. She looked a little too on edge for him to give the impression that he was poking fun at her.

  "Yeah, I know, but on second thought, I think I might have had enough caffeine to last me a while," she laughed, sounding nervous. He saw her glance at her hands, still gripping the steering wheel tightly, and noticed they were shaking. Whether it was from the caffeine she was blaming or something else, he couldn't know. For both their sakes, though, it was best to take her words at face value.

  “Point taken,” he nodded. “Hardware store sounds like a good idea to me. We’ve got plenty of things that need picking up. How do you feel about dividing and conquering?”

  "Sure, I can do that," she answered, smiling and seeming herself for the first time since spilling her tea. "I'll handle the grout. You take the paint. Deal?"

  “Deal,” Trevor said with a chuckle.

  He took his time perusing the shelves of the store, breathing deeply of its smell. This was his place, much more so than taking care of a kid. He was growing to love Jade, despite his best efforts to keep her at arm’s length, but that didn’t mean the idea of getting closer to her didn’t scare the living daylights out of him. The scent of varnish and paint, of wood being cut, the sounds of clanging forklifts and wood saws—places like this made him feel peaceful, although he’d never admit as much out loud. He was so taken in by the whole experience that he almost didn’t recognize Lacey’s voice.

  "I understand," she was saying to a salesperson as Trevor rounded the corner. "But this really is…"

  “No,” the guy interrupted her with a pompous look and an even more condescending tone. “Believe me, that’s not the grout you want. It’s the wrong brand, for starters, and the grain is all wrong.”

  “I’ve worked with it before,” Lacey said, showing amazing reserve. If somebody had been speaking to Trevor that way, he had no doubt that voices would already be raised.

  “Well then, somebody told you the wrong thing, lady,” the man said with a smirk and a shake of the head. “Fortunately for you, I’m here.”

  “Lacey knows lots of stuff,” Jade piped up from her place close beside Lacey, looking up at the sales guy with unmistakable dislike. Her little face scrunched up, looking as if she was seriously considering sticking out her tongue.

  The hardware store employee frowned down at the child, his dislike easily discernable. “If she knew this stuff, she wouldn’t be asking for my help, now, would she?” he said, his tone more condescending than ever.

  "She didn't ask, you just told her," Jade shot back. Now she did stick out her tongue, and Trevor nodded in approval. He also took a step forward, ready to intervene where needed.

  “Little girl, that’s not how you treat your elders,” the man snapped. “And while we’re on the subject of what’s appropriate, you shouldn’t be in here without proper shoes. Slippers are for home, not out in public.”

  Jade’s sweet little face first fell, then crumpled. In less time than it would take Trevor to snap his fingers, she began to cry.

  Trevor clenched his fists and started toward the little trio in earnest. He was just about to open his mouth and put the guy in his place when Lacey beat him to the punch. "I'm sorry, but just who do you think you are?" she demanded. Her voice was calm, but her face reddened considerably, and Trevor could tell that she was good and mad.

  “I’m trying to tell your kid—” the man started, still using that condescending tone that made Trevor’s skin crawl. It must have done the same to Lacey, because she cut the moron off before he had a prayer of finishing.

  “See, that’s the problem,” she shot back. “You shouldn’t be trying to tell her anything. It was one thing when you decided to tell me what I already know. That was bad enough. Jade, though, she was just calling you out on what was basically a lie. You definitely don’t get to act like a jerk with her. Not ever.”

  “Miss, if I need to get a manager—” the guy said, leaning forward in an intimidating way.

  “Please, I wish you would,” Lacey snapped, calling his bluff. “I would love to tell him about our experience here today.”

  They stared at each other for a moment, each waiting for the other to look away first. Trevor hung back where he was, his curiosity over what she would do next overriding his desire to step in and take command of the situation.

  The know-it-all sales guy was the first to look away. He mumbled something in response, so low that Trevor couldn’t catch a word. Lacey turned from the counter with a bag and a smile on her face. She winked at Trevor as she walked past him but didn’t say a word. He hurried after her, feeling like a puppy dog trailing at his master's heels.

  He was, frankly, stunned. The version of her he'd witnessed going up against that jackass was unlike anything he'd seen from her before. That damn fool messing with Jade had made Lacey go all mamma bear, and it was about the sexiest thing Trevor had ever seen. All of a sudden, he was thinking about what a good mom she would make. It was a foreign thing for him to think about at all, but the fact that he was witnessing her loving a girl that wasn't her own hit him even harder.

  What if his beliefs about his own parents had been wrong, all these years? He'd been sure that they didn't love him as much as his brothers, that they couldn't possibly love him as much because he didn't really belong to them.

  Watching Lacey with Jade, though, he wasn't so sure about that. As a matter of fact, he wasn't so sure about a lot of things, and as they drove back to the bed and breakfast, he stared out the window, the smile slowly fading from his face as he realized just how much danger he was in of becoming entangled.

  9

  "Sing me a song!" Jade demanded, crossing her arms stubbornly. Her elbows were still dimpled with baby fat, and her pouting lips looked like a perfect little bow. Lacey was impressed when Trevor kept a straight face. He sat on the edge of the child’s bed, and she saw by his profile that he had put on a serious look as if to give the request due consideration.

  "Aw, honey, I'm telling you right now, you don't want me to do that. I mean, I will, if you twist my arm, but I bet you ain't gonna like it. I've got the kind of voice that could strip paint off a barn."

  "I want a bed song!" Jade insisted, giggling now. She seemed perfectly delighted by the attention she was commanding, and Lacey couldn't say she blamed the little girl. This version of Trevor, happy and cracking jokes, was about the most irresistible person Lacey had ever been around. He had a dangerous level of charisma, making Lacey think the kind of thoughts she'd never entertained about a man before.

  “Sheesh, you hear this, Lacey?” he asked, glancing at her over his shoulder with an expression of mock horror. “She wants a bed song. Doesn’t even care that it’s going to make you both wish you had your ears stuffed with cotton.”

  "No, it sounds like that doesn't bother her a bit," Lacey agreed, smiling and winking at Jade. Jade winked back, a comically large gesture that even a blind person wouldn't have missed, but Trevor pretended not to see it all the same. He was a natural with kids, despite his early insistence that he didn't have a clue what to do with them. Something told Lacey his skill would only get better with time and practice.

  "Stop it," she mumbled to herself, shaking her head as if it would clear the thoughts away. Unfortunately, her brain wasn't an Etch A Sketch, and the gesture did nothing but earn her curious looks from Jade and Trevor.

  “Sorry,” she said q
uickly, glad for the dim light of the nightlight to hide her blush. “Thought there was a fly.”

  “Well, what do you say, Lace? You think I could risk it? Think I should give her the bed song?”

  “I think we both know you’re going to,” Lacey grinned.

  Trevor shrugged, then nodded before turning his attention back to Jade. He began to sing, and just as Lacey knew it would be, his voice was rich, almost hauntingly melodious.

  He sang a Dylan song about staying young, and despite never having heard it before, Jade was enraptured.

  Lacey stood apart and watched, her eyes shining with tears. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been really, truly moved, but Trevor's voice achieved the effect handily. Even after all the bedtime rituals were done, and she and Trevor had relocated to the living room, her legs still felt wobbly.

  “Whew!” Trevor said, blowing out a rush of air. “These days are long, I’ll tell you that. Think they’re some of the longest days I’ve ever had.”

  “They really are,” Lacey agreed, smiling shyly as she headed toward the bar cabinet in the corner. “Which is why I don’t feel guilty about pouring myself this glass of wine. You want one?”

  “Wine, huh?” he said, wrinkling his nose and eyeing the bottle she picked up with obvious skepticism. “You know—why not? I guess I could give it a try. Been doing plenty of unexpected things lately, haven’t I? No reason I can’t add drinking wine to the list.”

  Lacey nodded her approval and poured them both generous glasses, well past the six-ounce mark. She handed his over and settled on the couch beside him, keeping enough distance between them so as to be considered respectable, but not enough to stop her imagining she could feel the heat radiating from his body. She ignored the notion and took a long, satisfying sip. When she lowered her glass, she saw Trevor watching her intently.