“Not allowed?” she asked with a raised eyebrow as she stood and headed into the kitchen.
Brandon followed. “My father thinks Tyler set up this entire babysitting scenario so that he can corner me for information about Geoff Burris. Taylor Beef and Abernathy Meats are major competitors and both want Geoff to sign on to promote the company in an ad campaign.”
“Ah,” she said. “Your dad doesn’t really believe Tyler set this up, does he?” She slid Maeve into the baby seat rigged to the table, then went to the refrigerator and took out a small container and a baby bottle.
“Oh, he probably does. Two plus two always equals a lot more than four with my dad. He has all sorts of equations to make facts add up the way he wants. All he needed to hear was that I was going over to your place to help babysit an Abernathy.”
Cassidy smiled. “Maeve is totally innocent!”
“He figures Tyler will jump out of the woodwork at some point to get me to talk about my secret plan to sign Burris.”
“Landing the biggest rodeo star in Montana would be major,” she said. “Do you have a secret plan?”
“Well, I’ve tried every business tactic I’ve learned over the years and that didn’t get me past his ‘team,’ so yes, I now do have a secret plan that I will put into effect tomorrow.”
“Can I hear it?” she asked, pouring the contents of the container into a small pot and turning on the burner.
“Sure. It’s called ‘I knew you in high school.’”
Cassidy laughed. “Will that work with him? If it were me in his shoes, I would sign with Abernathy Meats just to spite you.”
He grinned. “Yes, you would have. Before you re-knew me. Admit it, now you’d sign with Taylor Beef.”
“Well, I am going to have a little Taylor, so yes,” she said.
His gaze went right to her belly, still completely flat. But in there was a tiny, growing mix of the two of them. He swallowed and suddenly had to sit.
He pulled out a chair and sank down on it, right next to Maeve, who was banging her bunny on the tray top of her seat. I get you, Maeve, he said silently to her. You’re a little frustrated, just like I am, so you’re slamming your bunny. If it were okay for me to do that, I would. She swiveled her big blue eyes to him. Not that I don’t like babies. I’m gonna have one in, what...eight months? Sometimes that sinks in and scares the bejesus out of me, Maeve. Again, no offense.
“So we’re okay?” he asked the baby.
“Ba la!” Maeve said and flung the bunny across the table.
She let out a giggle before her face crumpled and her eyes got teary. Boy, did her face go from its normal complexion to bright red.
“Just in time!” Cassidy said, bringing over a little plate of mac and cheese.
Maeve’s expression changed in a snap at what was before her. Cassidy slid a baby spoon into one piece of macaroni and brought it up to the baby’s lips. Maeve gobbled it up.
Looked easy enough. “I’ll feed her,” Brandon said. “You cooked, so I’ve got this.”
Cassidy smiled and handed him the spoon. “I’ll get her peaches cut up.” She walked over to the refrigerator again, her back to him.
Again, he got the feeling that something was wrong, that something was bothering her. Ask? Don’t ask?
“Everything okay?” came tumbling out of his mouth, even though he probably should have just let her be with whatever was going on inside her head. He didn’t always want to answer that very question whenever it was asked of him. In fact, he never did. So he should extend the same courtesy to Cassidy.
She turned toward him with a tight smile. He could see something was warring within her. Her hazel eyes seemed half happy and half upset. “Of course,” she said—too brightly—then got busy with a knife and the peach slices.
Brandon nodded and turned back to Maeve, feeding her another little cheesy macaroni, then another and another. She batted the next spoonful at his face, and the gooey pasta clung to his chin. “Oh, thanks, Maeve.”
Cassidy laughed, so hard that he couldn’t help but laugh, too. Then she stopped, kind of suddenly, and looked like she might burst into tears.
As he wiped the macaroni off his face, he thought about his sister telling him to find out what Cassidy needed and that once he did, he’d become indispensable and then she’d come around to marrying him. Whatever it was that she needed, she wasn’t getting it right now. That was for sure.
Something was definitely bothering Cassidy. And he was going to find out what.
* * *
Yes, something was wrong, she thought as she watched Brandon settle onto the sofa with Maeve on his lap. After he fed the baby, Cassidy had changed Maeve into her jammies, a soft cotton one-piece with blue moons and yellow stars. While she’d done that, Brandon had taken the storybook from Maeve’s bag and flipped through it. Now, with Maeve reclining against him, her head in the crook of his elbow, he began reading aloud from Doolie the Duck’s Big Adventure.
A few pages in, he noticed the baby’s eyes drooping and his voice lowered, the sound almost lulling Cassidy to sleep, too. “Well, Maeve, I only got to read you four pages. Maybe next time I’ll get to find out if Doolie and the beaver become buddies.” He smiled, gently pushing back a baby curl from near Maeve’s eye.
This. This was what was wrong.
The man was a revelation. She kept expecting him to revert to the Brandon Taylor she’d thought he was the past fifteen years. An arrogant hotshot leaving behind the ole trail of broken hearts, used to getting whatever he wanted because of his family name, looks and money, not caring about anyone but himself. But she certainly hadn’t met that guy. Maybe for a few minutes in the stables, right after they’d made love, when she’d thought he’d been dismissing her. She’d come to realize he hadn’t been. He’d truly had to get back to his brother’s wedding; he was a groomsman and was supposed to be there, not cavorting in the barn with a guest-slash-the-help. She’d been the one to insist they arrive back separately. And then what had he done? Asked her to dance quite a few times.
He’d also asked her for a no-strings romance.
And a platonic marriage.
So here was a truly great guy, sweet to babies and to the mother of his child, but who could not, would not, commit to a relationship.
So was he great or not great at all? The answer: not great for her. The more time she spent with Brandon, the more she liked him. No, she more than liked him. She was falling for him hard, despite all her warnings not to let that happen. But there was powerful stuff going on outside of her control.
He’d been her first love, even if it was just a few months of a high school romance and all they’d done was kiss. It made him special. Unforgettable. That he was so insanely good-looking and sexy, his dark eyes equally intense and playful, made him impossible to ignore. And that he was so thoughtful and made himself so available to her touched her deeply. She’d missed having “a person,” someone who’d be there in a heartbeat for her, who’d drop everything if she needed them, as she’d do for them. Her “person” had always been her mom, and her loss had left a gaping hole inside Cassidy’s heart that she hadn’t even fully understood until Brandon Taylor came along and started filling it in.
“Someone’s asleep,” Brandon whispered, pointing a finger down at Maeve. He then brought that finger up to his lips in a shh gesture.
And somehow, that was all it took for a little voice inside her to say I love you, damn it.
Uneasy as that thought ping-ponged around her head, she bolted up. “I’ll settle her in her bassinet.” She reached out to take Maeve, but Brandon stood.
“I’ve got it,” he said. “Transferring her to you and then to the bassinet might wake her. This way we skip a step.” He looked at her for agreement, his dark eyes so warm it was hard to look away.
“Good point.” She backed away, glad to h
ave a moment to compose herself. You don’t love him, you just really like him. He’s a surprise is all. And your baby’s father. It’s not love, it’s not love, it’s not love.
Maybe she’d snap out of it by the end of the night like Olympia Dukakis’s character thought her daughter should do in the movie Moonstruck.
Cassidy led the way into her bedroom, where she’d had Tyler put the bassinet. Brandon easily settled Maeve, her little bunny beside her. The baby stirred, but then let out a sigh, her eyes remaining closed, her chest slowly rising and falling with her sleeping breaths.
“That went better than I thought,” he said. “I’m not half bad at this.”
She smiled. “Not half bad at all. Were you worried? Did you think she might barf all over you or that she’d scream every time you tried to hold her?”
“Yes, actually. I did. I never would have considered myself baby friendly.”
“Me, either,” she said. “But you’re consistently full of surprises.”
“In a good way, I hope.”
She felt her smile fade. Not in a good way for her well-being. Or for her heart.
Once again he was staring at her, his gaze soft. He reached out a hand to her hair and tucked a swath behind her ear. “I hope our baby gets your eyes. So pretty.”
She swallowed. She couldn’t say anything.
He moved closer, the hand moving to her cheek. “So beautiful,” he murmured.
You, too. You, too. You, too, she thought, unable to take her eyes off his face. He was so close. And so irresistible.
In moments she was backed up against the wall, their mouths fused, his hands in her hair, hers on his rock-solid chest.
She could feel him pulsating against her. All she had to do was to keep kissing him, to keep touching him, to say yes, and they’d be in her bed.
Back away from the hot man, she told herself. All getting naked with Brandon again will do is leave you wanting more from him. And he’s told you he’s not up for grabs.
“You drive me wild, Cassidy,” he whispered into her ear, and she closed her eyes, giving herself a few more seconds of such delicious pleasure.
But she couldn’t exactly tell him they had to stop when she was so busy kissing him.
Chapter Seven
Cassidy came to her senses in the nick of time, her T-shirt in a heap at her feet, his jeans unsnapped.
“Brandon,” she said as his lips grazed her neck and his hands traveled across the lacy cups of her bra. “We can’t do this. First of all, we’re babysitting. What if Tyler and Callie stop by to pick up Maeve early and we’re naked in bed? They asked me to babysit—not fool around while taking care of their daughter.”
There. A very good reason to stop this craziness. They weren’t in high school, making out on a couch while her little charge was fast asleep. They were adults and this was wrong on too many levels.
“Tomorrow night then?” he asked, reaching down to pick up her shirt for her.
She sighed and hurried into her T-shirt. “We’d better talk.”
“My least favorite words,” he said.
Her heart went south. This was the Brandon she’d been expecting all along. The one who wanted sex but not romance or love. The one who wasn’t interested in the details, such as every messy step of what they’d gotten themselves into with the pregnancy. He was more big picture. She was pregnant, therefore he’d buy out pricey Baby Central in Lewistown and stash her in a luxe cabin on his property, wearing a wedding ring to a point, which would let him come and go as he pleased.
No sirree. Not with this woman.
She smoothed her hair and lifted her chin. He snapped his jeans.
She needed to make sure he understood that she was vulnerable to him—without saying it outright. She hated that he had the control here. He was the one who wasn’t interested in a real relationship. Or love. She could either accept that or ignore it like an idiot, give in to her attraction for him, and end up potentially so hurt that it created a terrible rift between them. As parents, they couldn’t afford that. They needed to be Team Baby.
So just stop it, Cassidy. You know how he feels. There’s really nothing to talk about.
Except, as she watched him tiptoe over to the bassinet and check on Maeve, who was sleeping soundly, she was struck by the fact that this man had hidden depths he wasn’t aware of. He could love; he simply chose not to. There was more to it than his family history. She’d experienced parental abandonment just as he had, but she knew her heart was open to love. Guarded, sure. But open to it. With the right person. Brandon was completely closed.
She suddenly realized that he must have been very hurt by previous romantic relationships. All that meant was that he’d been willing once to let himself feel everything. Therefore, he could do it again.
“Wow,” he said, standing at the bassinet in the dimly lit room and looking down at the sleeping baby. “Look at that. Everything awaiting her, the entire world, all the possibilities.”
Oh, Brandon. If it takes me every single day until my due date, I’m going to get that heart of yours back and running.
He turned just as she put her hands on her belly. Her expression must have been a mixture of a million things because he said, “A thousand pennies for your thoughts.”
“Inflation or the Taylor riches?” she asked, shaking her head with a smile.
“Li’l of both.”
“Just what you said. Our baby will have the whole world waiting for him or her. I want to do everything right by this little one.” Suddenly, tears poked at the backs of her eyes. “I don’t want to make mistakes and I know mistakes are easily made.” She turned away, overcome by a burst of fear.
“Hey,” he said, coming over and slinging an arm around her shoulder. “We’re all human. No one’s perfect, so yes, we’re going to make mistakes. But mistakes can be healthy and teach us how to be better.”
She nodded, the tears drying up. The man needed to take his own wisdom to heart.
“You’re going to be a great mom, Cassidy.”
A warmth spread inside her and she truly felt better. One minute he could make her feel there was no hope for them, and a second later, remind her that he just needed time to turn his heart around.
“Thank you. That means a lot to me. And you’re going to be a great dad. I can see that in everything you do, Brandon.”
“Am I blushing?” he asked, touching his cheeks with a twinkly-eyed smile.
He could be jokey all he wanted, but she knew she’d touched him as deeply as he’d touched her.
She did want to talk—though where the conversation would lead she had no idea—and doing so over dinner might help. “I have a ton of food, as you know.” She headed to the doorway of her kitchen. “Want to try the lasagna?”
“I never turn down lasagna,” he said with a bright smile. Trying to make nice, to make light. Diffuse the tension.
In the kitchen she poured herself a glass of her new decaf iced tea, took a gulp and instantly felt better. She poured another for Brandon and handed it to him.
He parked himself in a chair at the table, his gaze on her. “I guess we do have a lot to talk about,” he said then took a long sip of the tea.
She let out a breath. “Yeah, we do.”
He set the glass down on the table. “What do you need?”
“Need?” she repeated, glancing at him before reaching into the refrigerator for the container of lasagna.
“I just want to make sure I’m there for you. Here for you. I’ve been accusing of being dense when it comes to women and what they want. Or need. Maybe what you need is for me not to kiss you. Maybe you need a really solid friend. Whatever it is, I want to be there for you.”
She really didn’t know what to make of that. Not kiss her. Solid friend. She wanted him to fall for her the way she was falling for him,
damn it. But clearly, he wasn’t. “You’ve been very kind, Brandon. So—”
“Thanks, but what do you need from me?”
“That’s hard to answer.” It really was. If he proposed a real relationship, the two of them really trying to make this work because they were about to share a child, she would be all-in.
“I’m not sure what I need from you,” she said. “You’re here, you’re committed to the baby.” She bit her lip. She wanted a hell of a lot more than that.
“And that’s what you need?” he asked. “Me to be there for both of you?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” she said, feeling a frown form. There was a whole universe in that question of his.
He looked at her, sort of biting his lip, his expression somewhat confused. What was he trying to get at?
“What I need is kind of a big question, Brandon. I mean...what do you need?”
He leaned back in his chair, hooking his thumbs into his jeans’ pockets. “I guess it is harder to answer than it seems. Maybe you could just give me a list of tangibles. What you’d like to start getting for our baby. A bassinet like Maeve’s, a crib, pj’s, stuffed animals. Whatever you want.”
Was that what he was talking about? Stuff?
“Need and want are different,” she said, turning and sliding the lasagna into the oven.
“Are they really, though?” he asked when she spun around, his eyes steady on her.
“Yes. Very. There’s a lot I want but don’t need.”
“Like what?” he asked.
She held back a sigh. She’d started this conversation and she just wanted to end it. They weren’t on the same page. Or in the same realm.
“Come on,” he said, taking a sip of his drink. “Like what?”
Fine. Though it annoyed her to explain something so basic that anyone who wasn’t filthy rich would understand. “Like...the gorgeous, long red wool coat I saw in a shop window. That coat stops my heart every time I pass that shop. But it’s way out of my budget. I have a perfectly nice wool coat already. And a down jacket. I don’t need that red coat. I just want it. See?”
The Most Eligible Cowboy Page 9