The Cowgirl's Forever Family

by Helen Lacey

  Ash moved around the counter to look at the screen. “Oh...my...that’s a really handsome face. Does the rest of him look as good?”

  “He’s a condescending jerk,” Brooke said again.

  “He’s really rubbed you up the wrong way, hasn’t he?” Kayla remarked, smiling.

  “He hasn’t ‘rubbed me up’ in any way,” Brooke said, ignoring the innuendo. “He turned up on my doorstep last night with a baby he says is my niece and demanded to see Matt. This morning all I did was suggest he stay at the ranch while we wait for Matt to make contact and he wouldn’t even consider it. I know for Cara’s sake I have to be civil, but being nice to him makes me want to smack him over the head with a shovel.”

  Both women laughed and it made Brooke grin.

  “It’s been a long time since any man has made you have this kind of reaction,” Kayla said. “Or any reaction, come to think of it. Since Doyle.”

  Brooke huffed out a breath. The last person she wanted to think about was her ex-fiancé. Both women had been there for her when Doyle Sharpe walked out the door. Sprinted out, really. Five years together—three on the show circuit and two back in Cedar River—and she thought they would settle down and make a home together. But it wasn’t to be. Doyle wanted something else. Something more. Children. The one thing she could never give him. One surgery after another when she was younger had made that impossible. He’d told her it didn’t matter...that he was prepared to forgo children if it meant they could be together. Until Deedee Price, his former girlfriend, showed up in town with a six-year-old son in tow. A child that was his. Doyle had hung around for three days before he packed up his things and followed Deedee to Texas.

  “Let’s not bring that up. And I haven’t had a reaction to him. All I want is for this lawyer to realize that as Cara’s aunt I have some rights and would like to spend some time with her. All I have to do is get him to agree to come and stay at the ranch.”

  Kayla frowned. “Are you sure you want him living with you?”

  “I don’t want him,” she replied hotly. “This is about the baby. She’s a Laughton and she belongs at the family ranch. With me, until Matt gets here. After that...well, we’ll work it out as we go along. Except Tyler Madden is being stubborn and hateful.”

  “He’s only doing his job,” Ash said gently. “You know that, right? I’m sure it’s not personal.”

  Maybe not, but it sure felt personal. “She’s my niece,” Brooke said. “My family. Not his. She’s nothing to him.”

  “But they clearly come as a package deal,” Ash said. “If he’s her legal guardian and he won’t simply leave her there with you, what can you do? He has the law on his side, and he’s a high-powered attorney with a whole lot of resources.”

  “I’m not about to kidnap her,” Brooke reassured her friend. “So you won’t have to arrest me anytime soon. I just have to get him to see that living in town in a hotel isn’t what’s best for Cara. And that living at the ranch with me is.”

  “So, you need to change his thinking?” Kayla suggested.

  “Precisely.” Brooke raised her brows toward her friend as an idea formed. “If only I could influence Liam O’Sullivan in some way so that he’d kick Mr. Corporate Lawyer out...like, say the room has been double booked or something and there are no other rooms available in the hotel all week?”

  Kayla grinned. “Liam would never go for that. Unless...”

  “Unless?” Brooke prompted.

  “Unless he didn’t know about it.”

  Ash shook her head. “I don’t think I should be listening to this.”

  Kayla laughed. “Oh, where’s your sense of adventure. It’s not illegal...and it would really only be a teeny white lie.”

  A teeny white lie...

  Brooke could live with that.

  Chapter Three

  Double booked?

  Tyler stared at the tall blonde who was standing at his door. She wore a loose-fitting corporate jacket with the name of the hotel on the pocket and had just spent over two minutes explaining about some mix-up involving a conference that had been booked months in advance and the guests were due to check in today, which meant a mess of double bookings—and no free rooms.

  She looked vaguely familiar but he was certain they’d never met before. By the time she was done speaking his patience was frayed. Under normal circumstances he would have argued the point, demanded a full refund or asked to speak to the hotel manager. But he’d spent an hour trying to get Cara to take a nap and was inexplicably rattled by Brooke’s visit, and hadn’t done any one of those things. He was tired, irritable and simply wanted to rest for a while. With everything else he had to deal with, Tyler wasn’t about to get strung out about a hotel room.

  He grabbed his cell phone and looked up the numbers of other motels in town. There were two, plus a place called Rusty’s and a pub called the Loose Moose that each had a couple of rooms to rent. He called them all. But nothing. Rusty’s no longer rented rooms, the Loose Moose was under renovation and the two motels were fully booked. Not one room available.

  Right. What now? The next closest town was thirty-odd miles away and he certainly didn’t want to be that far from Cedar River if Matthew Laughton decided to turn up.

  He looked at Cara’s things, all packed up and ready to go, still amazed at how much stuff a baby needed to get through the day, and then headed downstairs. The tall blonde was nowhere to be seen and the clerk at reception seemed confused by the whole double-booking scenario.

  “Are you and your daughter leaving us already?”

  Tyler was two steps from the reception desk when a man spoke to him. He stopped and turned. A suit. And an important one by the look of things. He was about to explain that Cara was not his daughter, but figured it didn’t matter. And the less people who knew about his reason for being in town, the better. The man in front of him didn’t wear a hotel jacket, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out he was probably the owner or manager.

  “I’m sure the pretty blonde with the nice smile and the ill-fitting jacket can explain it to you.”

  “Blonde?” The man frowned and looked at the clerk behind the desk.

  The fifty-something woman shrugged and the suit walked around the desk and talked to the woman at length before he looked back up toward Tyler and then promptly apologized for the mix-up.

  And it took about two seconds for Tyler to figure out that he had been royally played.

  And he knew by who.

  Ms. Indigo Eyes had some serious explaining to do!

  Tyler propped Cara on his hip and headed out.

  He had his car brought around to the front of the hotel and quickly buckled the baby into her car seat, then drove off in search of a drugstore. He needed a few things for the baby and when he found a shop on the main street he quickly pulled up outside. But when he came back out a female cop was standing by his car.

  “Is this your car?” she asked, her gaze flicking from the car to the baby in his arms as she regarded him suspiciously.

  “It’s a rental.”

  She had a scowl on her face. “Do you realize you’re parked in a loading bay?”

  He was? Tyler looked toward the hood and saw that the front of the vehicle was pushing barely a foot in the loading bay. “Really? Looks okay to me.”

  “It’s not. We have laws in this town. Can I see your license and registration, please?”

  “It’s a rental,” Tyler explained impatiently and placed Cara in her car seat. It had stopped snowing by now, but the air was chilly and he didn’t want to keep her outside unnecessarily.

  “License and registration,” she said again, tapping a booted heel. “Or I’ll have to get this vehicle towed.”

  Was she serious? He didn’t like his chances of getting another rental car on a Satur
day afternoon. Cedar River was either the most uptight town on the map or it had to be a joke. Or a scam. Just like the fake double-booked hotel room. He got a good look at her face and quickly realized he’d seen her before. Just like the blonde at the hotel.

  The photo on the mantel.

  “You know, Officer, you and your blonde accomplice will need to get better at this kind of subterfuge if you’re going to be truly convincing,” he said and handed over his license.

  “What?”

  “There’s a picture of you both on Brooke Laughton’s mantel. There was another woman in the photograph too...a curly haired brunette. What was her part in this plan?”

  “I don’t know what you—”

  “Tell Indigo Eyes she’ll have to do better than that,” he quipped.

  The officer smiled, caught out and unapologetic. “It’s strange, I’ve known Brooke for twenty years and never realized her eyes were exactly that color.”

  They were...and they’d been haunting him for twenty-four hours.

  “Can I go now, Officer?” he asked.

  She half smiled and handed back his license. “Well, we gave it a shot.”

  “The other hotels?” he asked. “How did she manage that?”

  “Her cousin Brant owns the Loose Moose—and he’s engaged to the curly haired brunette,” she explained. “And she knows the owner of Rusty’s. It’s a small town...and small town folk stick together.”

  Yes, they certainly did. “What exactly is she after?”

  “You,” the officer replied and hooked a thumb toward the back of the car. “And that cute baby. She wants you to stay at the ranch while you’re here. It’s not such a big ask, is it, Counselor?”

  He nodded at her badge. “You know very well that in cases like this the less personal involvement, the better.”

  “I know that people aren’t cases,” she replied hotly. “You’d know that, too, if you stopped thinking like a lawyer for a moment and thought like a human being. She’s a good person...she’s honest and loyal and has a heart as big as this state. Brooke wants to bond with her niece... You’d realize that was a good idea if you could get out of the way of your own ego and stop acting like you’re in the courtroom.”

  It was quite the accusation and he was tempted to ask the redhead exactly what Brooke Laughton had told her. But he didn’t. Brooke had friends...allies...people willing to go to bat for her. It was admirable. He looked at the baby happily gurgling in the backseat and saw the same chin as her aunt’s. He had to do what was best for Cara...and was beginning to suspect that for the moment, Brooke Laughton was exactly that.

  He watched the cop walk away and grinned a little. After getting into the car, he drove back to the hotel and checked out. Then he headed for her ranch.

  * * *

  Brooke was finishing up repairing the chicken run out the back of the stables when she heard a car pull up. She instinctively knew who it would be. Ash and Kayla had both given her a heads-up. She dropped the tools and walked around the building, eager to see Cara again. But not so eager to see Tyler Madden.

  Because he’d be as mad as hell with her for starters.

  And he had every right, if she were being honest with herself.

  She shouldn’t have tried to swindle him into coming to the ranch. He was too smart for that kind of underhanded approach. And as much as she appreciated her friends coming to her aid, she suspected she’d made a bad situation worse.

  She harrumphed under her breath and squared her shoulders when she spotted his car parked in her driveway. He was resting against the hood and had the baby in his arms. Cara was wrapped in a pink coat and blanket and had a fluffy hat on her head. Her cheeks were bright and against the backdrop of snow on the ground, the two of them made an enchanting picture. In jeans, boots and a dark wool jacket, Tyler Madden looked relaxed and way too gorgeous for her peace of mind. The dogs were jumping around, clearly delighted to see him again and not threatened in the least. Brooke stopped about ten feet from him and planted her hands on her hips.

  “Um...hi there.”

  He didn’t say a word. But he looked at her. Out of his suit he possessed a kind of innate confidence that unnerved her. It took her about two seconds to figure out she wasn’t immune to it. Or to him. She’d been under a rock for two years, off the grid when it came to men and dating and sex. But right then, in his low-riding jeans and with the baby on his hip, Tyler Madden was just about the sexiest and most attractive man she’d ever seen. And her hibernating libido was immediately kick-started out of its slumber.

  She knew it was foolish. She didn’t know anything about him. He’d said he didn’t have children but he could certainly be married. Or at the very least have a girlfriend. She glanced at his left hand. It was bare. Still, plenty of married people didn’t wear rings.

  “You wanted me,” he said, not moving, not doing anything other than keeping his blistering gaze connected with hers. “So, you have me.”

  “I don’t know what you—”

  “You know perfectly well,” he said, cutting her off. “Your friends both gave award-winning performances today. The cop also gave me an earful of advice and said you wanted me here...so, I’m here.”

  Brooke’s breath caught. “It’s about Cara,” she said breathlessly, taking the need and the want out of the conversation. “And my friends—”

  “Care about you,” he said, cutting her off. “Yes, I can see that they do.”

  Shame crept up her neck. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have involved them in this. It’s complicated enough without—”

  “I’ll stay.”

  Brooke stilled instantly. “You’ll stay?”

  He nodded. “You went to a lot of trouble to get me here. So, yes. I’ll stay. We’ll stay.”

  It should have made her day. And part of her was delighted—but another part was nervous. She’d lived alone for two years and the prospect of sharing her home with a man, a stranger, tied her belly in knots.

  This is about Cara...not him.

  “You’re not angry?”

  “I’m not angry.”

  “And you’ll stay for a week?” she asked.

  He nodded again. “Have you heard from your brother?”

  Unease pitted in her chest. “Not yet. But he’ll call... I know it.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  Ignoring the cynicism in his voice, she stepped forward and held out her arms. Cara reached for her immediately and Tyler passed her over—hesitantly, Brooke could tell. She was such a placid, adorable baby and Brooke’s heart melted a little more each time she held her.

  “Thank you for agreeing to this,” she said to Tyler. “If you want to get your things I’ll show you to your room.”

  He pushed himself off the hood and walked around the car. He looked as good from the back as he did from the front and her wayward belly immediately did another loop-de-loop. She took a deep breath, ignored the feelings and headed inside.

  The ranch house had four bedrooms and she walked down the hall to the room opposite hers. Next door to that was a smaller room, where they could set up the crib. She waited while he came in behind her and dropped a bag at the end of the wide bed. He looked around the walls and at the two glass cabinets filled with trophies and awards.

  “Yours?” he asked.

  She nodded fractionally. “I used to be a barrel racer,” she explained. “My parents had a thing for keeping all my awards.”

  “They were proud of you,” he said and dropped his keys on the bedside table. “Understandably.”

  She smiled. “I suppose. I thought we could put the baby in the room next door to this. It used to be my mom’s sewing room but I cleaned out all of her things and now it’s the office. Or we could use Matt’s room.”

  “Next door
will be fine,” he said and roped the baby bag over his shoulder. “I have a portable crib, a playpen and a stroller in the car.”

  He followed her to the adjoining room and dropped the baby bag on the desk before he disappeared outside. When he returned he had the crib and stroller and quickly set the crib up in the room.

  “Looks like you’ve had plenty of practice doing that,” she remarked.

  He stopped what he was doing and looked at her. “I guess so. I’ve spent a lot of time with Cara over the past few months.”

  She nodded. “The other night you said you came from a large family.”

  He finished expanding the crib. “I said that?”

  Brooke shrugged. “I think so.”

  “It was more of an extended family,” he said and put sheets and blankets in the crib.

  “You’re so lucky. I only have an aunt and a couple of cousins in town,” she said and sat on the chair in the corner, holding Cara close. “And of course Matt. I would have loved one of those big extended families, though, especially around this time of year. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family very much. Although, since my parents were killed and Matt left town, there’s only about half a dozen of us when we all get together.” She swallowed hard as a surge of loneliness swept through her. Five years on and she still missed her parents and only sibling. “But, Thanksgiving and Christmas time is always filled with lots of laughter and love. But with a big family you must have had a happy childhood?”

  He stopped what he was doing and looked at her. There was a sudden gust of awareness in the room, an intimacy that defied logic and made her feel hot all over. His gaze held her captive and for a moment she thought how mesmerizing he would be in the courtroom. No wonder he was such a legal hotshot. That green-eyed stare of his riveted her in the chair. She couldn’t look away. She couldn’t do anything other than stare back.

  “My life isn’t up for discussion,” he said flatly. “I’m here because of Cara.”

  Brooke raised her chin. Boy, he might be gorgeous, but he was also incredibly uptight. “You don’t need to scold me in your best lawyer voice. I wasn’t being nosy. Tell me, or don’t... I have no opinion about it either way.”