Six Weeks to Catch a Cowboy

by Brenda Harlen

  “P’za,” she said.

  He smiled. “Yeah, I got that. What do you like on your pizza?”

  “Cheese?”

  “Get half with just cheese and half with whatever else you want,” Kenzie suggested.

  * * *

  So Spencer headed out again, this time to Jo’s for pizza.

  After he’d placed his order, his attention was snagged by a wave from a table by the front window. Recognizing a couple of friends from high school, he raised a hand in response, then made his way over to their table.

  “Join us for a drink?” Brett offered, lifting a half-empty pitcher of beer from the middle of the table.

  Since he had twenty-five to thirty minutes until his order would be ready, he decided “Why not?”

  Gage snagged an empty chair from a neighboring table for him, and Ellis handed an empty glass to Brett to fill.

  Spencer settled in to catch up with his buddies. It didn’t take him long to realize that his friends didn’t want to talk about their lives but preferred to interrogate him about his.

  “It must be exciting, traveling around the country and seeing the sights,” Brett commented.

  “I don’t usually get to see much outside of the arenas,” he said.

  “Arenas filled with pretty ladies wanting to hook up with cowboys?” Ellis guessed.

  “There are lots of pretty ladies,” he confirmed. “Often with their husbands and kids.”

  “Speaking of kids,” Gage said, pouncing on the opening Spencer had given him. “Rumor has it you’ve got one of those now.”

  He wasn’t surprised to learn that his friends had already heard about Dani. Though he’d only told his family and Kenzie, he hadn’t asked anyone to keep the news quiet. Partly because he’d known that such a request would be ignored (his sister Regan couldn’t keep a secret to save her life), but mostly because he didn’t want to give anyone—least of all his daughter—the impression that he was ashamed of her. No doubt the news that he had a child had made the rounds long before she arrived in town.

  “A little girl,” he confirmed.

  “Heard about her mom passing away, too,” Brett said. “That’s a tough break.”

  Spencer nodded. “Yeah, it is.”

  “She living with you now?” Ellis asked.

  He nodded again.

  “So where is she?” his friend demanded.

  “At home, waiting for her pizza,” he said.

  Brett scowled. “You left your kid at home while you came out to get pizza?”

  “She’s almost four—she knows not to answer the door or turn on the stove,” Spencer said, and lifted his glass to his lips.

  His friend’s scowl deepened.

  “He’s kidding,” Gage said. Then, to Spencer, “You’re kidding, right?”

  He swallowed a mouthful of beer, nodded. “Of course I’m kidding,” he confirmed. “Kenzie Atkins is babysitting.”

  “So you strolled back into town and picked up right where you left off, huh?” Ellis said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You and Kenzie.”

  “There was never a ‘me and Kenzie,’” he denied.

  “Ha!” Gage said. “I told you I wasn’t breaking the code.”

  Ellis shrugged. “I guess I was wrong.”

  As Spencer’s gaze shifted from Ellis to Gage and back again, the pieces slowly clicked into place.

  “You and Kenzie?” he asked, the idea settling like a lead weight into the pit of his belly.

  “Well, it wasn’t really all that,” Gage told him.

  “What wasn’t all that?” he demanded.

  “We just went out a few times,” his friend said. “Very casual.”

  Spencer scowled. He knew from personal experience that “casual” didn’t necessarily mean “platonic.”

  “But that shouldn’t bother you,” Brett remarked. “Since there was no you and Kenzie.”

  “It doesn’t bother me,” he lied.

  “Because you obviously had lots of other women rockin’ your world,” Ellis noted.

  “The rodeo isn’t an orgy,” Spencer said dryly.

  But his friend apparently didn’t believe him. “I mean, who knows how many other little Channings are running around in the world?”

  “Zero,” Spencer said firmly.

  Because he was always careful when he was with a woman.

  But he’d been careful with Emily, too, and still there was Dani.

  Ellis poured the last of the beer into his glass, then abruptly stood up with the pitcher in hand. “I’m gonna get a refill on this.”

  As their other friend made his way to the counter, Gage explained, “He’s still touchy because Pam lied about her baby being his.”

  “Pam Morgan?”

  “That’s the one,” Brett confirmed. “When she told Ellis she was pregnant, he immediately put a ring on her finger. But it turned out that she’d been sleeping with Todd Sherwin, too, and the paternity test revealed that Todd was the father of her baby.”

  “I’m guessing Ellis wasn’t relieved by the news?”

  Gage shook his head. “He really thought he was in love with her.”

  “I wasn’t in love with Emily,” Spencer admitted. “But I would have done the right thing.”

  “She didn’t want to get married?”

  “She didn’t even tell me about the baby,” he confided.

  “When did you find out?”

  “Seven weeks ago.”

  “You got the results of the paternity test seven weeks ago?” Brett asked, seeking clarification.

  Spencer shook his head. “There wasn’t a paternity test.”

  His friends exchanged a look.

  “Why not?” Gage demanded.

  “I didn’t think it was necessary.”

  “Not necessary?” Brett’s tone was incredulous. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”

  “Emily put my name on the birth certificate when Dani was born.”

  “Well, then, I guess that’s that,” Gage said sardonically.

  Brett shook his head. “You can’t just take her word for it that you’re the one who knocked her up.”

  “Emily wouldn’t lie about something like that,” he said, certain it was true.

  “We’re not saying that she lied,” Brett allowed. “Just that it might have been a guess more than a certainty.”

  “She also didn’t sleep around,” Spencer said, because she’d told him—when she took him back to her hotel room—that she didn’t usually do that kind of thing. He’d believed her because he had no reason not to and because, truthfully, he’d just cared that he was going to get laid.

  Of course, when Linda first told him that Emily had given him guardianship of her child, he’d been adamant that Dani wasn’t—couldn’t be—his child. And then she’d shown him a picture, and those big blue eyes had winded him like a sucker punch to the gut.

  “Dani is my daughter,” he told his friends. “I have no doubts about that.”

  “If that’s true, then a paternity test will only confirm what you already know,” Brett said reasonably.

  The topic was abandoned when Ellis returned with another pitcher of beer. A short while later, Spencer’s pizza was ready, so he said goodbye to his friends and headed home.

  * * *

  When he walked through the door, he saw Kenzie and Dani were kneeling on opposite sides of the coffee table with some kind of board game between them.

  “I told you that you Daddy would be home before we got to Lollipop Woods,” Kenzie said to her playing partner. Then she looked over her shoulder at Spencer and added, “Of course, I didn’t realize it would be on our fifth turn around the board.”

  “What are Lollipop Woods and why are you going there?
” he asked.

  “’Cuz they’re on the way to Candy Castle,” Dani said.

  It was the most words she’d spoken to him in one sentence and the first time she’d answered one of his questions without additional prompting.

  “We found some books and games in one of Dani’s boxes,” Kenzie explained. “Apparently Candy Land is a favorite.”

  “Well, I hope all that candy hasn’t spoiled your appetite,” he said. “Because I’ve got pizza.”

  “I’ll get the plates,” Kenzie said.

  “C’mon, Dani,” Spencer urged.

  She tipped her head back to look up—way up—at him. At six feet, he wasn’t overly tall, but to a little girl who was about half that height, he probably seemed like a giant. A scary giant.

  He started to offer his free hand, then dropped it back at his side again, unwilling to risk his overture being rebuffed. Again.

  Dani stood up and took a couple of steps toward him, then she reached up and put her tiny hand into his—and somehow squeezed his heart.

  She let him lead her to the table, and even lift her up into her booster seat. Yeah, he knew they were baby steps, but they felt pretty huge to him. And maybe to Kenzie, too, because when he looked over, he noticed that her eyes were shiny.

  But Dani’s eyes were focused on the flat box he’d set in the middle of the table. He lifted the lid to reveal the pizza, and she gave him a shy smile that squeezed his heart again.

  He cleared his throat. “We’ve got half with just cheese and half with cheese and pepperoni. Do you like pepperoni?”

  She looked uncertain.

  Kenzie, settled into a chair across from Dani, put a slice with cheese and pepperoni on her plate, then peeled off a circular piece of meat and offered it to the little girl.

  Dani cautiously nibbled on the edge.

  “Is it good?” Kenzie asked.

  She nodded, then nibbled again and shook her head.

  “Cheese it is,” Spencer said.

  He transferred a slice to her plate, earning another shy smile that gave him hope they were starting to bridge the gap between them.

  * * *

  After everyone had eaten their fill, they wrapped up the leftovers and Kenzie again tried to make her exit so that Spencer could bathe Dani and get her ready for bed. But both father and daughter protested her efforts to leave, so she agreed to stay a little while longer.

  She helped Spencer muddle through the bath routine, which Dani resisted because of the lack of bubbles in the tub.

  “Daddy will get you some bubbles tomorrow—and bathtub toys,” Kenzie said, with an apologetic glance for Spencer. “But you still need to have a bath tonight.”

  The little girl wasn’t swayed by her promises. “No bath.”

  She tried another tact. “The shampoo will make bubbles in your hair.”

  “Lotsa bubbles?” Dani asked hopefully.

  “Yes, we can make lots of bubbles in your hair.”

  The child finally moved closer to the tub, and she even held on to her daddy’s arm for balance as she climbed over the edge.

  Of course, once she was in the tub, Dani was in no hurry to get out again. When she was finally clean and dry and dressed in a pair of too-small pj’s that she’d picked out of her suitcase, insisting they were her favorite, Spencer let her choose which one of the toothbrushes she wanted from the two-pack he’d purchased. She opted for the pink handle with butterflies and dutifully pushed it back and forth over all her teeth.

  “Now into bed with you,” Spencer said, pointing to his bed, having resigned himself to sleeping on the sofa for the next few nights until Dani’s new bedroom set was delivered.

  In the meantime, Kenzie noticed that he’d put Dani’s new comforter on his bed for his daughter. Of course, it was too small to cover the queen-sized mattress, but plenty big enough to cover the little girl who would be snuggled beneath it.

  Dani climbed up onto the bed and settled back against the pillow. But her eyes stayed wide open.

  Since Spencer didn’t seem to know what to do next, Kenzie led the way. “Night night,” she said, and bent down to kiss Dani’s forehead.

  The little girl shook her head. “No night night. Sto-wee time.”

  “Story time?” he looked at Kenzie blankly.

  “There were some books in the box we unpacked,” she remembered. “I’ll go get them.”

  She returned to the bedroom with a pile of books.

  Dani immediately found the one she wanted, appropriately titled The Going to Bed Book.

  She pulled it out of the pile and handed it to Kenzie, designating her the story reader. Then she patted the side of the bed, where she wanted her to sit.

  “Don’t worry,” Spencer teased, sensing her hesitation. “No one aside from the three of us has to know that you were in my bed.”

  Kenzie rolled her eyes at that but eased a hip onto the mattress, leaning back against the headboard and opening the cover of the book.

  But Dani wasn’t looking at the book—she was looking at Spencer, and then she patted the bed on her other side. He didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation.

  Kenzie began to read: “The sun has set...”

  By the time she got to the last page, the little girl was struggling to keep her eyes open. She finished the story, closed the cover and said, “Night night.”

  This time, Dani replied with “Night night.”

  Kenzie kissed her forehead again, smiling as she breathed in the scent of her baby shampoo.

  “Night night,” Spencer echoed. Then he stood up and straightened Dani’s covers and, after a moment, bent to kiss her, too.

  The gesture wasn’t easy or natural, but it was more proof to Kenzie that he was trying hard to be the daddy that his little girl needed.

  “Now can I go home?” Kenzie asked, only half joking, when Spencer followed her out of the bedroom.

  “I’d prefer if you stayed,” he told her.

  “For how much longer?” she wondered, thinking that he wanted to ensure there weren’t any other crises to deal with before Dani fell asleep.

  “Until she’s ready for kindergarten?”

  She laughed softly. “Nice try.”

  “Okay, just tonight then,” he said.

  “You’re serious?”

  “I know I have no right to ask you for anything—especially when you’ve already done so much. I’m just afraid that, if she wakes up in the night and I’m the only one here, she might freak out.”

  “She might,” Kenzie acknowledged, then smiled just a bit. “Or you might. But she needs time to get to know you, to trust you.”

  “There’s a spare toothbrush in the bathroom,” he told her. “It’s got a rainbow on the yellow handle, but it’s yours if you want it.”

  She shook her head. “You’re going to be just fine, Spencer.”

  “But what if I’m not?” he challenged, moving down the hall away from the bedroom. “It’s obvious I don’t have a clue about being a parent. Aside from providing the basic requirements of shelter, food and clothing, I don’t know how to be a dad. And I hate to think that Dani is going to suffer because of my ineptitude. She’s got enough to deal with as it is, grieving for her mother.”

  “You’re not inept,” she denied. “You just need some time to get to know one another. Sure, there are going to be some bumps in the road, but you’ll figure things out as you go along.”

  “I don’t know.” He dropped onto the sofa, obviously weary. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”

  The warmth that had filled her heart as she watched Spencer with his daughter immediately chilled. “You don’t think it was a good idea to take responsibility for the child you fathered?”

  “That’s not what I meant,” he said.

  Kenzie folded her arms across her
chest. “Then what did you mean?”

  “I was referring to the apartment and trying to do this on my own.”

  “Oh,” she said, duly chastened by his response.

  “I would have taken responsibility from day one if I’d known Emily was pregnant,” Spencer assured her.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess it’s just a sensitive subject for me, because I grew up without a dad.” And then, not wanting to delve any deeper into that topic, she asked, “So why did you decide to move in here?”

  “I figured it would be easier to convince Dani’s caseworker that I was a capable parent if I wasn’t living with my own parents,” he said. “That and I didn’t really want to live with my parents.”

  “You’ve sacrificed a lot for your daughter,” she noted. “And someday, when she’s old enough to understand, it’s going to mean the world to her.”

  “But today, she was clearly unimpressed.”

  “You’ve made more progress than you realize,” Kenzie said confidently.

  “With your help,” he told her.

  “It was my pleasure.” She leaned down to kiss his forehead, as she’d done to his daughter, and said, “Good night, Spencer.”

  Then she let herself out of his apartment and headed back to her own, where she wouldn’t be tempted to imagine that she could help father and daughter become a real family.

  Or become part of that family herself, which was an even more dangerous thought.

  Chapter Eight

  After the kiss they’d shared Friday night, Kenzie had decided it would be smart to keep her distance from Spencer. Sure, she empathized with his situation, but it was his situation—it had absolutely nothing to do with her. Her resolve had lasted less than twelve hours, completely melting away when she saw him with his daughter and realized how much he was struggling to find some common ground with the little girl.

  Now, less than twenty-four hours later, she was back at his apartment again—this time dressed in old leggings and an already paint-splattered T-shirt, with her hair tied back in a ponytail, ready to help paint his daughter’s bedroom.

  “As happy as I am to see you, Dani’s going to be even more so,” he said, when he greeted her at the door. “She’s been asking about you since she woke up.”