by Jill Limber
Jolie could tell he was getting ready to bolt. “That’s exactly the way it is, and you know it!” she said, furious at his stubborn attitude.
He didn’t want to see what was perfectly clear. No matter how much he’d been hurt, a child’s well-being was at stake.
He threw his napkin down and stood up. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!”
“You don’t want to face the truth, and because of that a child is suffering.”
Griff got up and slammed out the back door without saying another word.
She watched him go. The man sure was good at leaving. But she knew him well enough by now to know he would always come back.
She would just take her comfort in that.
Chapter Seven
Jolie held dinner for him. She’d gotten over her anger almost before he’d left. The heart-wrenching mixture of pain and grief she saw in Griff when he’d told her about how he’d come to have Riley had stayed with her all afternoon.
She watched him come across the yard. Even tired and bedraggled, he looked delicious.
By now she knew his routine. He came in through the back porch, sat on the bench and removed his muddy boots. Then he changed his shirt. When she did laundry she had taken to hanging a clean shirt on a nail by the dryer.
He washed up in the tub beside the dryer and made his way into the kitchen with a body language that indicated he wasn’t at all sure how he would be received.
Jolie got up from the table as he entered the kitchen.
“Jolie, I’m sorry for what happened this afternoon. I just…I don’t know…” He ran his hands through his hair as his voice trailed off.
She studied him for a moment, took a deep breath, then faced the problem head-on. “You think of what your wife and brother did every time you look at Riley, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do.”
Choking back tears she said, “You can’t take it out on Riley. It isn’t his fault.”
Griff just stood there, not saying a word.
Jolie got a grip on her emotions and plowed on while she still had the courage. She repeated her earlier question. “Would you consider putting him up for adoption?”
“No! He’s family. I’ll give him a home.”
She reached out and put her hand on his arm. “And ignore him for the next twenty years? He needs a parent.”
Griff put his big hand over hers. “He’s got you to take care of him.”
She pulled back. “I’m temporary.”
Oh, how it hurt to say that, more than she would have guessed.
From the look on his face he’d lost track of that little fact. “Then I’ll hire someone else.”
“They’ll be temporary, too.” She tried to hold on to her emotions, but tears were close to the surface again. “Can’t you see he needs love?”
Griff’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t know if I can come to love him.”
She said gently, “Let’s start by working on keeping you both in the same room. Try to see him for who he is.”
Griff stared at her for a moment, then nodded.
Jolie recognized a milestone when she saw one, but curbed her reaction. Matter-of-factly she asked, “Can you come in a little earlier tomorrow? We’ll do this together. I’ll stay with you and if it gets too bad, you can leave. Just a few minutes at first, okay?”
He looked skeptical. “I suppose.”
“It’ll be okay. I promise.” She drew him in for a quick hug, then let go because it felt so good to have him in her arms.
He lowered his big frame into the kitchen chair and leaned back with a sigh as she slid a big bowl of beef stew and a basket of biscuits in front of him.
He looked up and gave her a tired smile. “Thanks. This smells great.”
Jolie went to the sink to scrub the pots and pans, watching him as he worked his way through the huge bowl of stew. Perhaps some of the other men on the ranch could interact with the baby, too. Help Riley become more social. Chris, despite his teasing over the snake incident, seemed like a nice person.
If she could get Griff to work as hard on a relationship with Riley as he did with his cows, things would work out all right.
She dried the last pot then walked to him and laid her hand on his broad shoulder. She felt the warm, hard muscle flex ever so slightly and felt an answering quiver in her own body. Quickly she removed her hand. The attraction was a complication she didn’t need.
“I know how hard you work to keep your ranch running, but you won’t be sorry you took the time for Riley. I promise.”
He glanced up at her and neither agreed or disagreed. “I’ll give it a try. That’s all I can promise.”
She had already discovered he was a man of his word, and she could be stubborn, so between them they would get Riley squared away.
Jolie leaned against the washer, waiting for the cycle to end, and stared out into the yard, deep in thought. Riley had started to crawl today. Once he discovered he could get around, he had taken off like a rocket every time she put him down.
She was elated with his progress, but it did have its drawbacks. Her lower back ached from scooping him up and carrying him around. Although he had nearly fallen asleep in his lunch, he had fought going to bed for the first time.
She smiled as she remembered the indignant yelp upon being put in his crib. Every show of emotion was precious to her.
The ringing telephone made her jump.
She answered. “Circle P.”
“Ms. Carleton?”
“Yes.”
“This is the mechanic over at Winslow’s Garage. Your car is ready.”
The car might be ready, but she wasn’t. She still had so much to do here. “I thought it was going to take another week.”
“Nope. Ready to go.”
“Thank you. I’ll get someone to drive me in.” He hung up before she finished her sentence. A real social guy, that mechanic, she thought with a smile.
As she tossed the wet jeans and T-shirts from the washer to the dryer, she thought how her life was as tangled with Griff and Riley as the clothes she was throwing in.
Would she be able to fold her life into a neat pile, separate from theirs, when she left?
She doubted it.
Her visit to Aunt Rosie could wait, and even when she got home to Seattle, there was nothing important waiting for her. She had agreed to help with the big charity ball in the spring, but there were plenty of other women on the committee.
Her hands stilled on the top of the dryer. Her life since she graduated from college had been Junior League projects, charity projects and trips.
Not an empty life, exactly, but certainly not full of challenge. She’d been just comfortably floating along, waiting to get married. And if Charles hadn’t changed his mind, she’d still have the same life, only now it would contain a husband and a home.
The whole picture she conjured up depressed her. A little voice nagged at her, asking her what she was going to do about it?
She was going to live with courage and find a job as soon as she returned to Seattle from Rosie’s. She realized now she’d had to run from her father, because two weeks ago she didn’t have the courage to stand up to him.
Thinking back, Jolie hardly recognized the girl who had run from Seattle. That made her proud and more than a little scared. She was changing, but she wasn’t sure who she was going to end up being.
One thing for sure, she wanted to put her degree in child development to use. Working with Riley had been the most satisfying thing she’d ever done.
In the future she would guard against getting so involved. The thought of having to leave Riley made her want to cry. She would have to toughen up and not become so attached. She could do that. It was just that Riley had sneaked up on her. She hadn’t been expecting the situation.
The sound of frantic bellowing interrupted her thoughts. She looked up to see a huge red cow wander into the yard, bawling its head off.
D
arn steak-on-the-hoof was going to wake up Riley. Jolie grabbed a dish towel from the top of the dryer and ran out the back door.
“Shoo! Quiet!” She waved the towel in the startled cow’s face.
The huge bovine shook her head, the whites of her eyes showing.
Jolie stopped waving the towel and took a step backward. She had assumed this was a cow, but maybe she had made a major mistake and she was standing out here in the yard waving a towel in front of a bull.
She took another step back. From where she was she couldn’t see the underside of the animal. Even if she could, she wasn’t sure she would be able to tell a male from a female.
Just as she was considering trying to outrun the beast and make it to the back door, the animal stopped bawling and sank down on its knees then settled onto the ground, sides heaving.
Chris and Lem came around the side of the house carrying a tool box and some lengths of board. She hadn’t seen either of them since that incident with the snake.
Chris looked at her, then at the cow, and back to the towel in her hand. He tipped his hat.
“Afternoon, ma’am.”
Jolie nodded at him, then pointed at the animal. “Is that a bull?”
Chris, his lips twitching as if he had some kind of nervous condition, looked down at the animal on the ground, whose sides were now heaving in a very alarming way.
“No, ma’am. That’s a cow.”
She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and spotted Griff headed toward them.
Jolie turned her attention back to Chris. “What is she doing?”
“I think it would be safe to say she’s calving.”
Appalled, Jolie looked from the cow to the cowboy. “You mean she’s having a baby? Right now? Here in the yard?”
Lem nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Appears so.”
Panicked, Jolie couldn’t believe how calm the men were. Griff walked up to the three of them and glanced down at the cow.
Jolie grabbed his sleeve. “What should we do?”
Griff looked at her intently, a slight smile on his beautiful lips. “Boil water and tear up your petticoat for bandages.”
Jolie spun around toward the house to follow his directions, and he caught her by the arm as his words sunk in.
“Whoa. I was kidding.”
He turned back to Lem but still held her arm in his big warm hand. “Isn’t this the same one that had her last calf right outside the cookshack?”
“Yeah, boss. She must like company.”
“Well, you two get to work and I’ll see about her.”
As his men turned toward the porch he dropped his hand. Jolie didn’t miss the proprietary way he’d held on to her in front of his men. To her surprise she liked the feeling of belonging to him.
The cow’s sides were heaving rhythmically now. “Don’t they usually do this in the spring?” Jolie eyed her with some hesitance.
“Usually. But we always have some winter calves. This old girl just loves to be different.”
Griff watched the cow for a moment, then turned to Jolie. “Any chance I can get some lunch?”
Apparently, he was satisfied the cow was okay. Jolie had her doubts, but Griff would know if they had time to eat, wouldn’t he?
“Sandwiches?” Jolie hadn’t eaten yet, either.
“Fine.”
She gestured to the cow. “How much longer will this take?” She wasn’t going to be able to relax until she knew the beast was all right.
Griff walked around to the animal’s hindquarters and waited until she had another contraction. “Not long now. Come here.”
Jolie came to stand beside him. The cow shifted her position and with another huge heave of her sides, the calf slipped from her body, all spindly legs and quivering body.
Jolie stood transfixed as the mother cow struggled to her feet and calmly began to take care of her baby.
“Oh, my.” She breathed, overcome by the suddenness of the birth and the beauty of a new life slipping into the world.
Gently Griff tugged the dish towel out of her hand and used a corner to wipe her face.
She didn’t even realize she was crying.
“Pretty special?”
“Oh, yes. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Come spring, it will happen hundreds of times a day.” He turned her toward the house.
Jolie looked back over her shoulder. Come spring she wouldn’t be here.
She felt a sudden longing for all the things she would miss about Montana, and the big cowboy walking toward the back door was at the top of the list.
Someone knocked on the back door just as she finished feeding the baby his breakfast.
She opened the door to a blast of cold air and found Chris on the back porch.
“Lem and me is going to town for supplies. I wondered if you needed anything.”
She had so much to do this morning it would be great if he could save her a trip to town. “Oh, yes. My car is finished. Could one of you drive it back?”
“Sure.”
“It’s at Winslow’s Garage. Do you know where that is?”
“Across the street from the diner?”
She nodded. “I’ll call and let them know you’re picking it up. I really appreciate this.”
“No problem.” He tipped his hat and took the porch steps two at a time.
She carried Riley to the living room for their morning session. He was making nice progress. Now she needed to ease Griff into the mix and make sure he was comfortable with the baby.
Then…she could leave. Her car was repaired and she had money. There was no real reason for her to stay.
As she handed Riley blocks and encouraged him to stack them, she thought about the next few days. She’d have to talk to Griff about finding a new nanny for Riley.
The thought of someone else taking care of the baby made her heart ache, but he wasn’t her child. Her stay here had always been a temporary thing.
Eyes tearing, she watched Riley manage to stack three blocks. Then he crowed and knocked the stack over.
“Good job, buddy!” Jolie wiped a tear from her cheek and clapped, handing him the blocks again.
She thought of Griff’s kiss and his casual way of touching her. She liked the feel of his hands on her too much.
She needed to keep her distance until she left. They wanted very different things. As it stood now he’d be hard to get over. If she let the heat between them get out of hand, she wasn’t sure she would ever get him out of her system.
When she heard Chris and Lem return from town, she scooped up Riley. She met Chris on the back porch. He’d parked her car in the yard.
“Where do you want me to put it?” He held her key in a tight fist.
She shrugged. “Right there is okay I guess.”
“Outside?” He cast the sporty car a longing glance over his shoulder.
“For now.” She’d ask Griff if there was any room in one of the outbuildings. “Thanks so much. Does it drive okay?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said with a sigh.
Jolie smiled to herself and held out her hand for the key. He passed it to her reluctantly.
“If you want me to move it for you, just holler.”
“Thanks, Chris.”
She forgot about the car and turned back into the house to make lunch. She felt an unwelcome tingle of excitement. Griff would be there shortly.
Griff came out of the barn and stopped and stared at the low-slung silver car gleaming in the noon sun. Did Jolie have a visitor? He immediately thought of the man he suspected she had run from. Had he found her? Was he here to try to force her to go back with him?
He hadn’t considered that she might be in danger, but the thought occurred to him now, and a cold ball formed in his gut.
He broke into a jog and hit the back steps at a run. Skidding to a halt on the porch just inside the back door, he saw her head come up and the startled look on her face.
She wiped her hands on a
towel and yanked open the door. “What’s the matter?”
“Whose car is that?” She was alone in the kitchen.
She glanced past him. “Mine. Why?”
To cover his relief, he turned and looked back at the automobile. This classy woman drove a seriously classy car. “It’s done already?”
She’d said she would stay until her car was repaired. The thought of her leaving hit him like a punch to his midsection, surprising him.
“They finished it faster than I expected. Are you ready to eat?”
“Yeah. I’ll get cleaned up.” He had grease all over his shirt after spending the morning doing some maintenance on the trailer for the old tractor.
“There are clean clothes in the dryer.”
He opened the dryer door and pulled the tangle of jeans and shirts into the basket on the floor. The entire load was laced with one-hundred-dollar bills.
“What the—” He pulled on a clean shirt and gathered up the money, then headed into the kitchen.
“Jolie?” He held out the bills.
She looked at the money in his fist and then up at him. “Is it payday?”
He held ten times what he had agreed to pay her. “Not hardly, sweetheart. I found this in the dryer.”
She gave him a blank look, then laughed. “I must have forgotten to take it out of my jeans before I put them in the wash.”
She took the money from his hand and opened the broom closet, and stuffed it in her purse.
She went back to the counter and finished up the sandwiches. He shook his head as he watched her. Her car, the money, the casual way she accepted both reminded him of the huge gulf between their lifestyles.
He looked around his kitchen. Clean but worn. Old appliances and countertops that had been put in before he was born. The original hardwood floor, complete with the deep gouge in the corner where, as the old story went, his great-grandmother had thrown a hatchet at his great-grandfather during a heated argument.
Jolie looked like an orchid in a weed patch. Cool and elegant and definitely out of place.
Why did she stay?
And what was he going to do when she left?
Chapter Eight
Jolie was upstairs cleaning the bathroom when she heard the pounding on the front door. She pulled off her rubber gloves, stopped long enough to peek at Riley still asleep in his crib and then hurried down the front stairs.