Cowgirl Makes Three

by Myrna Mackenzie

  The women automatically began to exclaim that of course they would love to have Lily join them.

  And, of course, he was reluctant to leave her in the company of women she really didn’t know. Lily was adventurous to a point. With Marta not there, his child would most likely enjoy herself until she realized that no one she knew was in the room. Plus, these women were busy. Who would keep Lily out of trouble and safe?

  No one seemed to think of that, and he didn’t know what to do. As a male, his presence would be taboo. He would just have to take Lily elsewhere. Probably crying at being denied a treat.

  “I think…maybe a male opinion on our progress would be a welcome addition, too,” Ivy suddenly said. “I mean, how can we know if we’ve achieved our goal of looking our best if we don’t have any guys to critique our work?”

  The look she gave him was both mischievous and determined. She must know that he was going to be like a ship without a sail offering his opinion on women’s beautification techniques, but it was almost as if she’d read his mind regarding Lily. The idea that Ivy could read his thoughts was unnerving. If that were true, she’d know what he was thinking right now was that she looked incredibly beddable in that long white silk robe she was wearing. He wondered what she had on underneath.

  Noah tried to blank the thought from his mind. “Always glad to be of service,” he said. “Thank you for accommodating Lily, ladies.”

  Cries of “she’s a love, she’s adorable, of course we want her here” were uttered, and Noah soon found himself seated in his living room, which had been transformed into something he didn’t even recognize. The women had brought folding tables, draped them in white cloth and set up makeup stations. There was a makeshift changing area behind a room divider.

  The atmosphere was cheerful. Ivy was fully in charge, too, he noticed. For once, she held the power. “Alicia, be bolder with that lip color. You have the complexion to carry something bright. Melanie, look! You have gorgeous cheekbones, and now we can see them. Here, try this teal dress on. It’s your color.” And “Sandra, not too much liner. A bit more subtle. There, that’s perfect.”

  The women asked questions. They were almost like children. At one point Melanie even pulled on Ivy’s arm to get her attention.

  At that, he grinned, and Ivy gave him a look. “No more feed and seed for you,” she said. “I must have been insane.” Even though she seemed to be enjoying herself.

  “What?” Melanie asked.

  “Nothing. Just a stupid joke,” Ivy said, and Noah noticed that Sandra gave her an evil glare. He hoped Sandra didn’t try to cause trouble for Ivy. She’d had enough heartache in her life already. So he was glad when Ivy smiled. Then she raised one brow and mouthed “Payback.” Or at least that’s what it looked like.

  Indeed, in the next minute Ivy turned to Noah. “What do you think?” she asked, having Melanie try on another outfit. “The black leather jacket or the white one?”

  She was laughing at having trapped him. Her eyes glowed. It was the lightest he had seen her since she’d arrived, so of course he had to play along. She’d thought she was going to discombobulate him. Two can play at that game, Ivy, he thought.

  “Well,” he said, rubbing his neck as if he was nervous, “if I was a woman, I’d probably choose the white one. But I’m a man.” He gave Ivy a long, long look. “And if I were Bob, I’d choose the black leather. Maybe pair it with a short, tight black leather skirt and some thigh-high boots.”

  The way he looked at Ivy, he knew that she knew it was her he was imagining in that outfit. Her color got high and she tilted her chin up. He thought he had cowed her.

  Then she licked her lips, and heat shot straight through his body.

  Quickly she turned to Melanie. “Well, there’s a man’s opinion, Melanie. What do you say?” she asked, her voice all innocent, just as if she hadn’t done that lip-licking thing at all.

  “I think that Bob’s eyes would drop right out of his head,” one woman said with a laugh.

  “He’d be blind,” another added.

  “But he’d be happy,” Noah pointed out. Melanie was blushing.

  “I couldn’t wear that,” she said.

  “Oh, you could and you shall,” Ivy said. “I’m taller than you, but we’re close to the same size otherwise. And while I don’t have exactly what Noah suggested, I have something close. Might be fun. I think Noah could be right.”

  “You’d lend your clothes to me?”

  “They’re just clothes.”

  But Melanie was looking happy. It occurred to Noah that Melanie had never been the type to look happy. Now she was, all because of Ivy.

  At that moment Lily reached for something red. “Oh, no, you don’t, stinker,” he said.

  “Stink,” she said, giving him one of her most beatific smiles, the kind that just melted his heart.

  “She’s such a cutie,” Alicia said. “My little Taylor would love her. Ivy…remember what we talked about…”

  Noah looked at Ivy, who had apparently lost her sass. She looked decidedly uncomfortable. Still, she gazed right into his eyes.

  “The women…that is, we could hear you and Lily talking in the other room, and we were thinking that…a playdate would be nice.” Her voice trailed off, but she didn’t look down.

  “A playdate.” He said it as if he’d never heard of the term, though of course he had.

  “Yes.” Now she was looking bolder. “You know, a chance for Lily to try her wings and mingle with other kids a little. You. Lily. Other parents. Other kids.”

  “Oh, and you, Ivy. We’d want you there, too. We would never have thought of this if you hadn’t brought us here.”

  She blinked. She was going to balk. Retreat into her hide-from-life shell, but Noah could see what this event had done for her. It had given her something she’d never had here before. Female companionship. Justice.

  And hadn’t he just been wondering if she hadn’t been right about him keeping Lily on too short a rein?

  “Name the time and place,” he said. “We’ll be there. We’ll all be there.”

  “I don’t think—” Ivy began.

  “Part of your job,” he said.

  “I hired on as a ranch hand.”

  “I don’t remember discussing your duties.” They hadn’t.

  “I just assumed I would only be tending to the ranch.”

  He looked around at the room full of women attending model-school-for-a-day. It was her day off, but…she got the picture.

  “Tell me when and where,” she said, too brightly.

  “Oh, we’ll want you to help plan,” Alicia said. “Right, girls?”

  And Ivy got roped into the deal, but later after everyone had gone home and Lily was in bed, Ivy knocked on his door. “We need to talk,” she said when he let her in. “Someplace private.”

  No, I need to kiss you, he thought.

  “Talk. Right,” he said. “Let me make sure that Marta knows I’m leaving, and we’ll walk.”

  When he came back, he held the door open for Ivy and then followed her out, jamming his hands into his pockets. If he couldn’t access his hands too easily, he’d be less likely to touch Ivy.

  Ivy had changed back into her jeans, and she felt more comfortable. She loved nice clothes and dressing up, but functional clothing centered her. Unfortunately, staring up into Noah’s eyes turned everything upside down and obliterated any calm the jeans might have lent her. She walked until they were out of earshot of the house, then turned to him. “I didn’t mean to step on your toes with Lily today. I just—”

  “Thought you saw a lonely little girl.”

  Ivy crossed her arms. “It’s obvious that she’s happy. She adores you, and rightfully so.”

  “But you think I’m holding her back.”

  To his surprise, Ivy chuckled. “From what I’ve seen of Lily, there’s no holding her back. She’s a little whirlwind. I just thought…it’s only one day, Noah. If she doesn’t like playing with the
other kids, or you don’t like how it works out, you can always make it a one-time thing.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Noah, she’s only two. Okay, almost three, but she’s not going to run off and leave you anytime soon.”

  Bingo. She’d hit a nerve. “I don’t like…not being in control.”

  “I know. Some people are like that.”

  He swore. “I’m not like your father…or your husband, who wouldn’t slow down when you wanted him to.”

  “I never said you were.”

  Noah glared at her. “You are an infuriating, pushy woman. You pushed until I hired you. Now you’ve roped me into this.”

  “Sounds like I’m the controlling one.” Ivy frowned. She shoved her hands into her back pockets. “I don’t like to be controlling. You can back out. I’ll make some excuse for you.”

  He shook his head. “Dammit Ivy, no. The thing is…you’re most likely right. I’m never sure I’m doing the right thing with Lily. She didn’t come with an operating manual, and she’s so outside the sphere of what I’m used to. She’s not a horse or a cow or even a blizzard that snows us in and threatens the ranch. If the other kids have playdates, then Lily is going to have one, too.”

  Ivy smiled. “And you’ll take my place in planning it? After all, you’re the father.”

  He laughed. “Not a chance. I don’t have the slightest clue what goes on at a playdate, and I’d just end up making someone mad. Anyway, you’re the instigator.”

  “You just want to see me twist in the wind.”

  It was tempting to tease her some more. Instead he reached out and brushed his fingertips down her cheek. “I want you to get to know these women. When you leave, I hope you won’t hate Tallula so much. Maybe you’ll even have some good memories of those of us who are rooted here.”

  She stared at him. “Why are you doing this for me? The workshop? This? Clearing a path for me with the women?”

  “I’ve experienced injustice. So I want to help you get your just due from the town. Maybe…I don’t know. Maybe my reasons are also partly because I can’t seem to ignore you, and making you a project is better than the alternative.”

  “What’s the alternative?”

  “I think you know the answer to that. But just in case you don’t…”

  He leaned down and kissed her, no touching other than their lips. Both of them had their hands in their pockets. It shouldn’t have been so erotic…but it was. He nibbled at her lower lip.

  She opened her mouth slightly, inviting him inside.

  He tasted her.

  She moaned. The kiss turned hotter, deeper, more frantic, and just when he knew he was going to have to wrap her in his arms, she put her palms on his chest and pushed lightly.

  Immediately he stepped away.

  “You win,” she said. “I can’t do this. I have to work for you. Then I have to go.”

  And he had to let her go. He couldn’t risk his heart or Lily’s.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to force myself on you like that.”

  “Get real, Noah,” she said. “I was all but on the verge of asking you to take me to bed. But this is wrong for both of us. I’ll keep myself busy with work and organizing this playdate at night. I don’t know anything about playdates, either. But I’m going to do my best to make this the best one in the world.”

  “No pressure, huh?”

  “Tons of pressure. I don’t want you to have any excuse to tell me I was wrong. Or to have any regrets.”

  But as she headed back to her cottage, Noah was having all kinds of regrets. He regretted hiring this fiery, beautiful woman who tempted him to do something heartbreaking and tragic again. And he regretted Ivy not asking him to take her to bed.

  He was going to remember her saying that for a long, long time.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  IVY LOOKED at her bank account, relieved that she was closer to her goal. Things were getting out of hand, on so many levels. She cursed herself for getting too involved in Noah’s kiss. The man just made her want to grab him by his lapels, tear his shirt open and run her hands over his chest, and that had never been her style. She had always been the hide-behind-a-mask type. Sometimes that mask had shown up as a mouthy attitude when she felt threatened, but this frantic desire for physical contact was new. She’d been grateful to Alden for discovering her, and he’d wanted a trophy wife, but there hadn’t been this frantic heat.

  What’s more, what was she doing, agreeing to help with this playdate? True, she had wanted it for both Lily and Noah, because she knew he sometimes felt inadequate as a father and she hated people criticizing him when anyone could see that he would take a bullet for Lily.

  Still, the nighttime playdate sessions were getting crazy.

  “Um…we’ve moved the playdate to the community center,” she told Noah a few days later. “And…well…it’s turned out to be more of a party.”

  To her surprise, he didn’t look upset. He looked amused.

  “Losing the battle with the ladies, are you?” he asked.

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “I just reminded Alicia that this was kind of an event for you and Lily, and before I knew it, more kids were coming—I think some of them are even coming from two towns over. And someone decided that we needed more playground equipment than we—I mean you—have here, and then things went south. Kind of.”

  “So…it’s just been moved to another venue. That’s not such a big deal.”

  “And there’ll be a huge, lavishly decorated cake.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “And a pet parade.”

  “Hmm, that’s starting to get more involved.”

  “With some costumes. Some of the kids—and maybe even the pets—will be in costume.” Ivy groaned. “I read about a town that had one of those and—I don’t know—the idea just popped out of my mouth and before I knew it…”

  He held up one hand. “I get the idea. Is that all?”

  She raised her brows. “Isn’t that enough?”

  “Ivy,” he said, coming toward her and tipping her chin up, “Why are you doing all this?”

  Okay, it was time to get stubborn. Noah couldn’t back out now. “I want this to be spectacular. It’s your first. And I want you to…to make memories.” She tried not to think of how few memories she had of Bo. “I want you to get the best-dad award. Figuratively speaking.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t need that.”

  “Yes, you do. I know you want to be the best dad. You already are, in Lily’s eyes. I want you to know that no one else will ever be able to question you, either. No one likes to think that their child will hear not so nice whispers about their parents.”

  Which was probably revealing far too much. “Your father?”

  “Not really. He was a bad dad, but my mother was just a lost soul. A weak person. Not bad.”

  He looked grim. “I lie awake nights worrying that I’ll mess up and wreck Lily’s life. I can’t begin to imagine what I’ll say when we finally have to have the talk about Pamala and her motivations. I know the temptation for me to lie will be there. I’m hoping I can think of something good to say about her.”

  “You’ll think of something. You chose her for good reasons. And without Pamala, there wouldn’t be any Lily.”

  “That’s the best thing about Pamala, at least to me.”

  “See? There was a reason for Pamala.”

  “But I have to be much more careful from now on. For Lily’s sake.”

  “Good. I’m glad you’re putting her first, before your own inclinations.”

  “That doesn’t mean those ‘inclinations’ aren’t very difficult to ignore.” The smoldering look he gave her made her weak in the knees.

  “I’ll try to help. I’ll keep my distance.”

  “From Lily.”

  “From you. Or at least from all the kissing and touching.”

  “Ivy?”

  “What?”

  �
��I think I’d better go now. All this talk is making it difficult not to touch.”

  She nodded. “You’ll be at the playdate tomorrow?”

  “Your wish is my command,” he teased before leaving.

  Ivy stood there, just breathing, trying to control her reaction to Noah. She knew he’d been trying to make her laugh with his last comment, but…she’d never had a man who even pretended to accede to her wishes. Her heart flipped around like a helpless fish on land. She wanted to run after him, talk to him, be with him.

  This was so impossible. She couldn’t stay. Her luck with men was…well, Alden had courted her and tried to please her, but after they were married, he had dismissed her needs and wishes. And he had not slowed the car down when she’d begged him to. The conviction that if she had been more proactive, grabbed the wheel, not stayed with him, she might have still had Bo, alive and sweet and beautiful, kicked in again.

  But this wasn’t about her mistakes with Alden. It was about not making any mistakes with Noah. At least Noah had made it clear from day one that his main commitments in life were to the ranch and Lily. He would devote himself to loving his child, nurturing her property and protecting her from anything that might hurt her, including women on the run. Ivy knew right where she stood with him. He desired her; she desired him right back, but there was no possibility of a future for them. Eventually their paths would lead them in completely different directions.

  Needing solace, she went out to the corral and spent some time with Bruiser, another outsider who didn’t really quite fit, one who was probably living on borrowed time. She’d been visiting him every day, and the big horse no longer seemed even slightly nervous when she was near. He let her touch him freely while standing perfectly still. He even nuzzled her now and then. If she stayed here, someday she would ride him.

  Of course, that wasn’t going to happen any more than she was going to spend a night in Noah’s arms.

  Noah felt as if he had radar where Ivy was concerned. At the playdate-turned-party, she was all over the place. Organizing food, making sure the crepe paper decorations stayed up and out of the reach of little hands that might stuff pretty much anything into their mouths.