Cowboy Daddy

by Stephanie Brother

  Aria laughs as she comes back into the room. “See, he did want his daddy. Good luck, Noah. I’ve got to get a job.”

  Then she leaves. What the fuck is she talking about? She works here on the ranch. What job?

  I attempt to put little Richard back into his basket. Every time I do, he starts crying. I still need a DNA test. The fact that Richard’s winding me up kind of proves that he’s mine, but it’s not enough to convince me. I can’t do this. Not all day. I’ve got a hangover to get rid of, horses that I need to tend to. My day’s filled with chores, and none of them involve looking after a baby.

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  Fake Daddy

  Book 2 in the Single Daddy series

  Chapter One

  Chad

  Fuck, why are strollers so fucking hard to control?

  I thought that with modern technology they would have made them easier, not fucking impossible. I bet my sister, Olivia, paid a small fortune for this fucking monstrosity. I was an IT guy, I built apps, developed programs, but that was fucking easy compared to trying to fold or unfold a stroller.

  “Do you need a hand?”

  A guy asked, as I parked outside the pre-school for the last ten minutes trying to figure out how to unfold the stroller so I can take my nephew around in peace. I could just hold him. I had the carrier, but as I looked at that in the back, I decided that was just as fucking complicated as trying to unfold the stroller. When Olivia handed it to me, I told her that I wasn’t going to put myself in that straight jacket. Besides, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with Joshua being strapped to me. He was safer in a stroller. If I could fucking unfold the damn thing. Besides I was only an uncle, not a dad. Noah had taken on the role like a duck to water. He could write a book on it, along with Martin. They acted as if they couldn’t breathe if they didn’t know everything there was to know about being a dad. It was like a fucking disease with those two. They fed off each other about the latest bottle warmer, stroller and anything else that came out and they just had to fucking get it!

  “I could do with a hand. These things are so fucking complicated,” I sighed and he looked at me in horror as if I had just spit on his fucking shoes.

  Fucking parents, they hate cursing and anything that’s in line with the real world. I bet he’s already regretting trying to help me out. One button, one swift foot movement and the stroller unfolded so fucking easily. It was like watching Bumblebee from the Transformers change from a car to a robot.

  “It’s easy when you know how to do it.”

  He said it with a smug smile. And then he left my side to join his wife or girlfriend, whatever she was to him. The blonde version of a Stepford wife was covering her baby’s ears. As if he heard or even understood what I said earlier.

  I nodded and said, “Thanks.”

  He didn’t wait for my reply, as with the rest of the parents they started to head into the pre-school like a colony of ants as if their lives depended on it. I stood watching them, forgetting that I was early when I came and now I had a feeling that I was late.

  “Shit!”

  I looked at my watch and realized that I was no longer thirty minutes early. If anything, it was nearly five minutes until the damn tour started and I said that I would help Olivia out today and do the tour of the pre-school.

  I suspected that she asked me because she was desperate. I wasn’t exactly daddy material, but she had it in her head that it would create a good impression for Joshua to see the place now. He was only six months old. I tried getting him to sit up last week and got bored watching him fall back about five times. I knew he wasn’t interested and as much as I love looking into his brown eyes and hoping that his smile was a result of us playing together. I knew that the only time he did smile was when he saw a bottle of milk. That was the only time that I saw him giggling and waving his chubby legs up in the air, ready to take his bottle.

  I didn’t understand the whole thing, they’re only babies. It was as if society put so much fucking pressure on parenthood these days. All Joshua needed was a bottle of milk to make him happy. I heard the way Kylie and Noah talked about Richard, it was as if he was ready for college. They had a fucking map and once in a while they would consult Candy about it. She would simply nod her head and agree with them. She had no fucking choice. Every time I tried to talk to any of them about the pressure that they’re putting these poor babies, through, they would quote the same fucking line like robots, “The children are our futures. We need to make sure that we look out for their futures. Or we are all doomed.”

  I grabbed Joshua in my haste and locked the door of the jeep. I was desperate to make a good impression seeing as I was taking tomorrow’s child around the pre-school. I needed to make sure the six-month old was ready to sleep in a different place while I showed him his future. I couldn’t believe it as I strapped him in and started to head towards the doors.

  Everyone had a fucking carrier, I was the only one with a baby in a stroller. It didn’t take long for the pretty dark-haired lady to point out the obvious. She was wearing a polo shirt and her hair was tied in a bun so fucking tight, I swear her eyebrows were a replica of Dr. Spock. It was fucking frightening.

  “Hi, I’m Sandra Hope. The manager of The Hope School. I’m wondering if it’ll be easier for you if you leave the stroller in the car and you use a carrier like everyone else.”

  I nodded my head, thinking that I feel like leaving the stroller and just getting in the car.

  I fucking give up!

  The reality of why my sister asked me was starting to hit home. Mom was on her cruise. I paid for it because she was helping Olivia out full-time and she was exhausted, the stress lines were written all over her face. Olivia told me off and accused me of being selfish. How was sending our mom on a cruise being selfish? So, I promised to help her out as a result of my selfish act.

  I sighed and the woman whose husband was helping me with the stroller covered her baby’s ears as if she expected me to cuss again. I would do if I weren't too busy thinking about how the fuck I was going to fold it again.

  I gave Doctor Spock’s sister a fake smile as I turned around to get the fuck out of here. I wanted to take ‘tomorrow’s child’ to the ice-cream parlor while I had an ice-cream cone and I would give him a couple bottles of milk. That would be his treat for going out for the day and I would be showing him his real future... eating ice-cream whenever it was too early to have a bottle of beer.

  “Come on Joshua, let’s put you in the carrier.”

  Doctor Spock’s sister ran after me, “Don’t worry about that. Look, I’ve got a spare carrier, you can just put him in that.”

  Again, I put on another fake smile as I looked at the straight jacket that was called a baby carrier.

  “You can just park the stroller over there so it’s out of the way.”

  I push the stroller to the door and I wasn’t looking where I was going, nearly bashing into another stroller.

  She was tall and had dark hair and sky blue eyes. If I wasn’t pissed I would have tried to flirt with her, but I was fucking tired and it was only nine. Shit, I bet the ice-cream store isn’t open yet. Too damn early for all this shit.

  I shook my head, “You can’t go in with strollers. I just wasted ten minutes trying to unfold mine.”

  “I just spent fifteen minutes with mine. But you’ve got the new Bugaboo Donkey Mono Stroller. Nice.” She’s nodding her head, while I stood here wondering if she was speaking English or that secret language parents speak. But then I realized, as we both moved to the side, that she was admiring the stroller from hell.

  “Yeah,” I stood so fucking close to her. Forgetting that I was here for Joshua and I was trying to make an impression.

  Sandra rushed up to us as the mystery sexy lady locked eyes with mine. We stood in the middle of the hallway, not thinking about the tour, but obviously thinking about what we could be doing instead. Shit, with those breasts, all o
f a sudden I felt like drinking fucking milk.

  “The pair of you are disrupting the tour. Can you just leave the strollers and hold the babies? I don’t have time for you to put on the carrier.”

  The sultry dark-haired woman who I was standing next to smiled. The same way that I was doing earlier... fuck it’s infectious.

  “Yes, we can do that.”

  Sandra clapped her hands, “good,” then turned to face the other parents. The same woman who’s husband helped me with the stroller was looking and tutting at me. God, she hated me and she didn’t even fucking know me.

  I smiled at the dark-haired woman and said, “Chad.”

  She nodded, “Ivy.”

  Even her name was fucking sexy. I was going to hate the tour, but now I had the impression that I was going to fucking love it. I had company. Not my baby nephew. But the hot seductress that was by my side. And her name was Ivy.

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  Book 3 in the Single Brother series.

  Accidental Daddy…

  

  I never wanted to be a daddy...now I'm left holding a baby!

  Six months ago, my ex-wife said that she wanted a baby, so I wanted out of our marriage.

  When I saw her back in town, strolling into a fertility clinic, I had to find out what she was up to. I'm no James Bond, but I followed her into the clinic and sat in the waiting room.

  I was too distracted to pay attention to the annoying girl next to me who wouldn't stop talking.

  She announced that she needed to go to the bathroom and I was relieved that she was leaving my side, besides it had nothing to do with me.

  When my ex-came out of the doctor's office, I jumped up and followed. Until the nurse called me and said I'd forgotten something.

  I looked back and realized that she was talking about a baby.

  The girl`s baby.

  Not mine.

  The nurse accused me of being with the girl, just because she saw us talking. I made a snap decision...I picked it up and took it home. Now, I’m a daddy by accident, and I have to find the girl, to return her baby. I didn’t want one with my ex, and I certainly don’t want one with a stranger...or do I?

  Author's Note:

  Dan is Noah's best friend from the novella, Single Daddy. Book 1 doesn't have to be read to enjoy Book 3. They are all standalone novellas. This novella is short and steamy with enough sexiness for you to enjoy.

  Chapter One

  Dan

  My work came tumbling down from the time I admitted that I wasn’t ready for and that was a baby. We’d just gotten married and she wanted us to commit to a date to start trying for a baby. We'd been living together five years before we got married and the topic had never come up. Until, we went on honeymoon and she fucking ruined it by talking about a baby. I froze. My once ever ready cock became dead. It was as if it’d automatically turned off and no amount of batteries was going to get it back up again.

  That was when things started to go bad for us.

  I smiled, put on a face on honeymoon, trying to distract her with the sea, sand and trying to have sex, but I fucking couldn't. Every single time, we were just about to do it, she would smile and say, ‘This could be it!'

  I knew what 'it' meant. She meant that we could conceive right now. And my cock wouldn't go up, but only down. It was as if she had a knack of putting me off every time, just by mentioning it. At one stage, it was so bad that I thought that she was doing it on purpose. Trying to stop me from entering her sweet pussy, which always prevented me from coming. Sex had never been like that before. I'd dismissed in the past when others had said that marriage ruins everything. I thought that was them. Not me. We had everything and Laila was so fucking sexy, I couldn't imagine not wanting her all the time.

  But her demands didn’t stop the moment we came back home. If anything, they got worse. She gave me a week, which turned into a month. A date just to say when we would start trying. I tried to get her to forget it. I even went as far as buying a dog, and I couldn’t stand them. I was fucking happy, when it worked for a little while. But then a couple of weeks later she was on my case again.

  I stayed silent.

  I thought that she would forget it. No, I fucking wished she would, but then I realized that I was kidding myself, especially when she walked out of the door and took the dog too.

  I miss that little fellow.

  The crazy part was I didn't miss Laila. I just missed being alone. I went off the rails, drinking too much, not wanting to sleep at night in a cold bed and before I knew it I was crunching the numbers at work, the wrong way. The balance sheets were over inflated and I wasn't paying attention. But, my boss was and it didn't take long for them to sack me and for me to add another thing to the list.

  Now, I’d lost my wife, dog, and employment status. I should be happy. I was free and I had the whole world as my oyster.

  So, what was I doing?

  The last few months, I had been going to work later and later every single day. Ever since I'd been terminated, I'd been getting up on time. Going to work, but just sitting outside. I would go to Starbucks for coffee in the morning and sit on the park bench. Repeat the same thing lunch time, but get one of their salads, as if I was on a diet and then in the afternoon get another coffee and night time would consist of drinking alone at home, it was fucking cheaper.

  I'd been doing that for three weeks now. No sense of change, that was until today. Today everything was different as I saw Laila walking on by.

  It was as if the light had come on at the end of a tunnel. Laila walked past me. She didn’t even recognize me. I didn’t look good with my overgrown beard that was no longer clean shaven and my eyes hid underneath all the hair that had taken over not only my face, but head too. I used to laugh at guy’s who wore their hair long. I used to think of them as wannabe rock stars. In my case it wasn't even a wannabe rock star look, more of a hobo look.

  Fuck! No wonder the firm sacked me.

  No longer did I feel like eating the tuna salad that was in front of me. The sounds of other professionals around me.

  Eating.

  Laughing.

  Gossiping faded away as I started to stalk Laila.

  I’d thought that she left town. It was as if seeing her meant that maybe she was back in town and there was some chance for us. Something that I didn’t think was possible since she left six months ago, but now seeing her. The same long flowing blonde hair, half-tied up and the same sparkling blue eyes, I wondered if for the first time in six months that fate was smiling down at me.

  She said that she was going to move as far away from me as possible and find a man that wanted the same things that she wanted. A man that could put a ring on her finger and commit to her, not half-heartedly, but completely.

  I watched as she walked into the St. Teresa Clinic. Curiosity got the better of me as I followed her. I knew that she didn’t recognize me and some part of me was relieved about that. She had no reason to suspect that her ex-husband was competing for a part in Hobo’s in Texas a new TV show. There wasn’t such a show, but I knew that if there was, then I would win a part, hands down. Sometimes I didn’t sit on the same bench, I would sit on a different bench. Just to break up the day.

  I watched as she gave her details. I wanted to ask what the fuck she was doing there. But I didn’t. I stared. I watched from a safe distance as I sat at the back of the waiting room. Time was on my hands. It’s not as if I had anything else to do.

  “Is this chair free?”

  This young girl asked me as she held onto her baby seat.

  I nodded my head, thinking that she could see that there were empty seats. Not just the one next to me, but a few rows in front. I didn’t get why she had to sit next to me.

  I looked creepy and as I lifted my arm. I thought about the last time I bathed and knew that it wasn’t this week. Fuck, it was probably on the weekend and it was Wednesday.

  “Do you
know what time it is?”

  I turned to face her. The dark-haired girl was pretty, young and she had an innocence about her, one that made me wonder if that was her child or maybe her baby brother.

  “It’s one-thirty,” I said to her and then she seemed distracted as her eyes darted to the baby and then the bathroom.

  “Do you mind looking after him while I go to the bathroom?”

  I shrugged wondering why she would ask me to look after her baby. There was a couple, even a couple of women with what looked like their moms. I was the worst person to ask, but I nodded. “Sure.”

  Thinking that she must have asked, because she knew that I wouldn’t leave the reception. Then the strangest thing happened, Laila got up and left. I didn’t hear her name being called out, but I didn’t know whether she’d gone through or left the clinic. My eyes were fixated on the shadow of the young girl that had left her baby with me. I wanted her to come out of the bathroom, so I could find out where Laila had gone.

  Fuck it!

  I ran up to the receptionist as if my life depended on it and left the baby by the chair.

  “Laila Hunter, did she get called in?”

  The receptionist looked up and her dark eyes cast over me as she blurted out, “That’s private information. I never saw you come in with her. Besides it’s patient confidentiality. I can’t tell you.”

  I was about to say that I was her husband and then I remembered that I was her ex. If I said that out loud then they would security or even worse the police.

  I sighed as I turned back to see that the baby was still in his chair and his mom hadn’t returned from the bathroom. I realized that I was stupid for following Laila. If she’d moved on then great. All I had done was break her heart. I was about to leave. When the same receptionist, the one that belonged in the secret spy service called out, “What about your baby?”