That kind of deleterious publicity she did not need, particularly since she was determined to continue her husband hunt until she found and married a candidate aeons more suitable than good ol’ Jake. “I thought you liked your privacy,” Maggie interrupted, not about to tell him he had quickly regained the upper hand in their standoff of wills, even though he had.
“Yeah.” Jake grinned, readily admitting this was so. “But I like seeing you squirm more,” he replied, rubbing his jaw with his index finger.
Maggie could believe this was so.
“So what’s it going to be?” Jake asked, dropping his hand to his side. He regarded her wilfully. “You gonna help me or not?”
ONE GOOD TURN did deserve another, Maggie thought, and Jake had helped her reshoe Buttercup. Plus, the inherent mischievousness of his nephews reminded her a lot of her three younger brothers, when they had been growing up. The fact Jake was successfully blackmailing her with bad publicity and could ruin her plans to quickly and efficiently find a husband and by extension, family, for herself had nothing to do with her change of heart, she assured herself sternly.
Maggie removed her flat-brimmed hat. She slapped it against one jean-clad thigh. “Considering your nurse just quit, I suppose I could stay long enough to see that Rusty and Wyatt are okay,” Maggie conceded reluctantly after a moment.
Jake grinned. “But don’t read anything into it,” Maggie warned as the four of them left the barn in tandem and headed for the rear of the ranch house at a leisurely pace.
“No, ma’am, I sure won’t,” Jake drawled, letting her know that he did.
Maggie merely rolled her eyes in exasperation. She was not falling for this cowboy’s tricks! Moving forward, she took Rusty and Wyatt by their grimy little hands. Ignoring Jake, she said, “So, you guys are pretty quick, right?”
They nodded in the affirmative. “We sure are,” Wyatt bragged, carefully adapting the confident male swagger of his uncle Jake.
“How long do you reckon it’s going to take for us to get you cleaned up enough for a swim in the pool?” Maggie asked, well aware Jake was not only letting her take charge of the situation, but falling slightly behind them. In fact, she could feel his heated gaze lovingly caressing her shoulders, hips, thighs…
“Ten minutes,” Wyatt guessed.
“Five,” Rusty disagreed.
Maggie turned to Jake and found his eyes roving her face. She regarded him with defiance. She didn’t care what he thought. No matter what he had on her, he was not going to get the better of her. “You got some suits for these boys?”
The intense male interest in his gaze stripped away the apathy that had been so much a part of her life since her engagement had ended. All at once, she felt thoroughly alive, challenged. Like the possibilities for happiness were endless. “They’re in the cabana, next to the pool,” he replied.
She tore her eyes from his mocking half smile. “Then I’ll let you be in charge of the changing while I take care of rinsing them off.”
“I CAN’T BELIEVE you hosed them down and got them changed in less than ten minutes,” Jake said, as his two nephews jumped into the shallow end of the pool and began swimming and playing energetically. Reduced to the role of spectator by her take-charge manner, he moved beneath the shade of the patio umbrella and dropped into a comfortable white deck chair.
“It’s simple.” Maggie took a sip of her iced tea and set it on the table between she and Jake. “You just have to get them interested in cooperating first.”
“How’d you do that?” Jake poured himself a glass of iced tea.
“Charm. You ought to try it sometime.”
Jake merely grinned at her and continued sipping his iced tea.
“How long are you in charge of your nephews?” Maggie asked.
“It’s hard to say,” he admitted with a concerned tone.
Maggie lifted a brow, curious.
Jake continued reluctantly, in a low voice only Maggie could hear, “My sister, Kelsey, the boys’ mother, is in the midst of a personal crisis. She asked me to take care of them for a few days.”
Judging from the look on Jake’s face, it was some crisis. “How long have they been here?” Maggie asked.
“Two weeks, so far.”
“That must be hard on the boys.” Maggie couldn’t help notice Rusty and Wyatt as they slanted sly looks at Jake and surreptitiously edged—or so they clearly thought—toward the deep end of the pool.
“It has been and is,” Jake confirmed, still keeping an eye on his nephews. When they continued on their path, he stood and waved the two imps toward the shallow end. “Guys, you know the rule. I don’t care how well you learned to swim this summer. You can’t be in the water over your head unless an adult is in the pool with you.” He waited until they had headed toward the shallow end before he continued, “They’ve never been without their mom for this long. I think that’s one of the reasons they’ve been giving all the nurses such heck.”
“All the nurses?” Maggie queried bluntly. Exactly what was going on here?
“Nurse Ratchet was number five,” Jake told her, chagrined. He shoved a hand through the wind-tossed layers of his sable brown hair. “I don’t think I can get another one out here.”
“Maybe you should look for a governess instead,” Maggie suggested, taking another sip of tea.
“My thoughts exactly,” Jake agreed. He looked at her as if drawn to her in a way he hadn’t thought possible. “So, are you interested in the job—for more than ten minutes?” he asked casually.
Maggie blinked. She had started out here as an annoyingly forward trespasser in his view. Or had he forgotten? “You’re kidding, right?” she drawled, wondering what he was up to now.
But Jake only shook his head and slapped the brim of his Stetson against his muscular jean-clad knee. “I wish to heck I was.” He nodded at the pool. “You can see for yourself what a handful these two little fellas are. Harry can’t handle them and I still have a ranch and numerous businesses to run.”
Maggie shrugged. “So take a few days off,” she advised, giving him a long steady look that let him know she accepted no excuses for deliberately letting someone down. She knew all the reasons why people shirked their duty to the family, and firsthand how much sacrifice it took to personally fulfil them. She also knew it was worth it, in the end, knowing you’d helped your family in every way you possibly could.
“I’ve already done that, between nurses.” Jake paused. He leaned closer, his voice low. And sexy, in a disturbingly sensual way. “I’d pay you well,” he promised softly, “if that’s what’s worrying you.”
Maggie stiffened as she kept her eyes on his nephews, as they paddled and splashed about. “I can just imagine the fringe benefits you have in mind.” She refused to meet the suggestive promise in his eyes.
Jake grinned and stroked the ends of his mustache in a way that let her know he did indeed have loving her on his mind.
“But I am no governess,” Maggie continued.
“Ah, but you do know how to handle little boys.”
“I should. I reared my three brothers.”
“Really?”
“Yes, though from a much older age.”
“Great. I knew there was a reason I thought you were perfect.”
Judging by the heat of his gaze, Maggie was not so sure that was it.
“And as you can see,” he concluded in a hurry, clearly anxious to wrap up this deal, “I’m desperate, so name your price.”
Maggie swiveled toward him, so their knees collided, and set him straight. “It’s not money I’m interested in, Jake.”
“Then what?” He made no move to draw away from her.
Determined to show him she was no cowering schoolgirl but a self-made woman who could meet him on equal terms, she made no move to draw away, either. “I want a husband and a family of my own.”
This information neither pleased nor surprised Jake, she noted.
“But he has to be
rich,” Jake ascertained, some of the light going out of his dark brown eyes.
“For a lot of reasons,” Maggie conceded cautiously, determined to be perfectly truthful in her dealings with Jake and any other man, “yes, he does.”
Jake was silent a long moment, thinking and weighing the situation, she guessed, just as she had. Finally, he gave an indifferent shrug she was not sure she entirely believed.
“Well, then, I’ll help you find that rich husband you are looking for, if you’ll help me out meantime,” he said.
“How will you help me?” Maggie queried, fearing there was a catch to this newfound cooperation from him.
“I’ll introduce you around, personally. After all, I know a lot of rich ranchers and businessmen,” he said.
Maggie paused, studying the ruggedly handsome contours of his face. “You’d do this for me, knowing that I want to snare one of them?” She focused on the golden hue of his suntanned skin.
“Sure, I will,” Jake promised with an easy grin and a subtly taunting sheen in his eyes. “I’ll just preface the introduction with the fact you’re on the lookout for a rich husband.” His sexy smile deepened. “Forewarned is forearmed, in my opinion.”
“So is she gonna stay and baby-sit us, Unka Jake?” Rusty yelled from the pool.
“They know what we’re discussing?” Maggie interrupted in astonishment, not sure how she felt about that, except maybe pressured. She did not want to let the cute little boys down.
“I told ‘em I’d ask you, when they were changing into their swimsuits,” Jake replied. He looked at his nephews and held out both palms in a gesture that said it could still go either way. “Don’t know yet,” he shouted.
“How come?” Wyatt yelled, looking perplexed.
“She’s not convinced we need her yet,” Jake replied loudly. He turned to Maggie and locked eyes with her deliberately. Ever so sexily, he added in a low voice that said he did indeed have bedrooms and long, hot, Texas nights on his mind, “But you-all will be glad to know I’m working on that…”
“I can see that you are.”
Silence fell between them.
The boys looked at Maggie and Jake. They said something to each other. Then began to play again, diving down for colorful weighted swim rings.
Still sipping her iced tea, Maggie watched as Rusty dove after a swim ring. Seconds passed. When he did not immediately surface in the shallow end, she stood to see what he was doing. So did Jake. Rusty wasn’t in the shallow end, as he was supposed to be, he had covered the length of the pool in one long breath and was swimming toward the deep end.
“Rusty, get back up here!” Jake commanded loudly.
“I’ll get him, Unka Jake!”
“No, Wyatt,” Jake said.
Too late. Holding his nose closed with two fingers, Wyatt dove down after his brother. He tapped Rusty on the shoulder, both kicked their feet and shot upward. Maggie and Jake both simultaneously sighed their relief as the two boys broke through the surface of the water. Their relief was shortlived as Wyatt, abruptly struggling and looking as though he was suffering a major cramp, went under again.
“Help!” Rusty yelled frantically as he too began to panic and thrash about. “Unka Jake, Maggie, help!” He went under, too.
“Oh, my God,” Maggie breathed, already kicking off her boots, right alongside Jake. “You get one, I’ll get the other.” Together, knowing there was no time to waste, they both jumped fully clothed into the deep end of the swimming pool.
As Maggie and Jake hit bottom, a safe distance from the boys and each other, the boys rocketed to the surface. By the time she and Jake came up for air, Wyatt and Rusty were both treading water with ease. It was easy to see that whatever had been going on, they had not been and were not now drowning. Maggie was immediately very relieved and very furious. And so was their uncle Jake.
“The shallow end! Now!” Jake ordered sternly.
The boys exchanged apprehensive looks. Heads down, they headed for the other end of the pool, swimming obediently, not stopping until they reached the other end. Jake followed, swimming with smooth purposeful strokes, as did Maggie. “What the heck do you guys think you were doing?” he demanded of his nephews as soon as he’d set them both up on the side of the pool, so they were sitting on the edge, their legs dangling in the water, from the calf down.
“We were just playing,” Rusty defended himself, slicking his wet red hair away from his face.
“Yeah, we didn’t mean to make you mad,” Wyatt added, slicking his hair back, too, and looking as if he thought that should be the end of it.
“Well, I am mad,” Jake shouted emotionally, not about to let his reckless nephews off so easily. “You two scared me to death! I thought you were drowning! Maggie and I both did!”
“Are you mad at us, too, Maggie?” Rusty asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
“I’m not mad,” Maggie said calmly. I almost had a heart attack but I am not mad. “And neither is your uncle Jake. We just don’t like being scared, that’s all. And you guys really, really scared us,” Maggie told them both emphatically.
“You have to quit clowning around like that,” Jake said sternly as he surged out of the pool, stalked to the table and handed the boys each a thick beach towel. “Or else sometime you might really be in trouble and people’ll just think you’re goofing around again and no one will even try to help until it’s too late.”
“Kind of like the little boy who cried wolf in that story,” Rusty explained, quite unnecessarily it seemed to his brother.
“Right,” Jake said.
“Okay,” Wyatt said cheerfully.
“Yeah,” Rusty added, looking equally happy and trouble free, despite the scolding. “We won’t do it again. We promise.”
“I DIDN’T GET THROUGH to them, did I?” Jake said, after he’d sent the boys into the house to put on dry clothes.
“Judging by the happy looks on their faces just now,” Maggie drawled as she accepted his helping hand out of the swimming pool, and pulled her damp clinging clothes away from the defining outline of her breasts, “I don’t think so, no.” Aware her nipples were contracting in the cooler air, she wrapped the towel he gave her around her shoulders and concentrated on the problem at hand. “Is this the first prank they’ve pulled?” she asked, a little breathlessly.
Jake tore his eyes from her soaked clothing, and all it revealed. “I wish.”
Aware she was dripping water everywhere, Maggie sank into a deck chair. “You’re worried about them?”
“Very much so.” Jake rubbed a towel over his face and hair. Then sat too, and stripped off his socks. “It’s not really that they’re bad,” he said as he began to unbutton his sodden shirt, “just that they need constant watching and looking after. I don’t know,” he mused in a low, troubled voice, opening his shirt and peeling it off, to reveal a tanned muscular chest with a mat of dark hair that was reminiscent of Tom Selleck in his Magnum P.I. days. “Maybe it is just the age. Maybe it’s the fact that they’re still a little upset by all the turmoil in their family and are acting out their unhappiness about it, but I can’t believe how much trouble they can get into in so little time.”
Maggie paused. With effort she tore her eyes from the magnificence of Jake’s chest, and the long, muscular legs beneath his clinging jeans.
She could leave Jake. After all, he was very much capable of taking care of himself. The two little boys were something else.
“I’ll stay and help you out, but only for a couple of days,” she said, qualifying her response and worrying even as she did so that she was making a mistake by getting further involved with the swaggering cowboy, even for a little while. “And only until you find someone else.”
Chapter Four
“You’re really going to take me up on my offer?” Jake said, looking amazed.
Maggie lifted the edge of her towel from her slender shoulder and delicately blotted her face. “I’ve never been able to turn my back on a chil
d in need, and those two nephews of yours need to be closely watched if they are going to stay out of trouble.” As she studied him briefly, she raked her teeth across the pouty softness of her lower lip. “Meantime, I expect you to hold up your end of the bargain,” she admonished.
“No problem,” Jake said easily, already regretting the hasty pledge he had made. “I’ll help you find the husband of your dreams.” Though why he was doing this, he didn’t know. “But first, I have a couple of questions of my own.”
“Such as?”
Jake let his gaze rove the water-dampened strands of her long golden blond hair. Her peaches-and-cream complexion was flawless in the brilliant September sunlight. “A beautiful woman like you, who’s modeled all over the world…How come you haven’t married before?” He paused, awaiting her reply, even as he saw her blush slightly and hesitate. “Or have you?”
“I haven’t,” Maggie replied quickly, turning her glance away, to the shimmering blue of the boot-shaped swimming pool.
He wanted her full attention—badly. Jake narrowed his eyes at her. “You’ve been asked before,” he said, astonished that no one had won this beauty’s hand in marriage.
Maggie turned to him, composed now. And slightly aloof. “More than once, in dozens of ways,” she affirmed, as casually as if that happened to every woman every day.
“But you weren’t serious,” Jake guessed.
Maggie’s mood turned visibly sad and reflective as she knotted her hands together and recalled, “Once, I was.”
And yet she hadn’t married, Jake surmised. He was very curious, unusually so. Jake asked bluntly, “What happened?”
Maggie shrugged, the sad look remaining on her face. “Three days before the wedding, I found out my fiancé didn’t want to get married after all.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “He was just getting married to please me.” The barest hint of hurt and depression colored her low tone. “I didn’t like feeling that way, like marriage to me was something my future husband felt he had to do, not something he wanted to do. So I broke it off and I promised myself that I would never marry anyone who didn’t want to get married as much as I did,” she finished matter-offactly, having composed herself again.
One Hot Cowboy Page 5