by Mindy Neff
And repeatedly admitting that he’d recklessly made a baby wasn’t something he relished. Never mind that Katie was a child anyone could be proud of.
Vera smiled and handed Katie a plastic teething ring to chew on. “You always were a very smart boy, Ethan.”
“Yeah, well next time you see the fearsome foursome, tell them I’m on to their games. I’ve got more than I can handle with that little bundle right there.”
How could those old guys even have thought about trying to match him up with a preacher’s daughter? Where were their minds?
He loaded the basket to the brim with diaper boxes, and nearly cleaned out the shelves of the baby aisle. He paused over the single application enema that claimed to be gentle and noninvasive—if such a thing were possible—then went ahead and tossed it in the cart. You never knew when a baby might get her plumbing stopped up, though based on his recent experience, Katie didn’t have any problems in that area.
The diaper change presented a bit of a problem. He was sure the men’s bathroom didn’t come equipped with changing tables, and though it seemed somewhat unsanitary, Vera suggested he go ahead and use the front counter to accomplish the task, and offered to do it for him, for which he was extremely grateful. He paid close attention to which direction she pulled the tapes and actually preened some more when all the women in the store flocked to coo over the baby and him.
Normally this would have honed right in on his natural flirting abilities, perhaps even behooved him to make a date with one of the great-looking gals in the store.
The problem was, the attention he was getting didn’t seem to appeal. The only woman he wanted attention from was Dora. And she was off-limits.
And that was too bad. Had she been anybody else, he would have enjoyed the relationship they could have had while she was here, a no-strings, adult association between a man and a woman who knew the score and just wanted to spend a little intimate time while circumstances threw them together under the same roof.
But Dora didn’t know the score. For all her grit and spirit, she was still an innocent. And Ethan steered clear of innocents.
He paid for his purchases and retrieved Katie, who was dry and happy. “So where is Vern?” he asked.
“Over at Brewers with the rest of the guys.”
“With the—” Oh, no. Dora was over there, too. An innocent chick just ripe for those four old silver foxes to pounce on and plant ideas. They wanted women and babies in town, and once they realized he wasn’t going to be the easy prey they’d hoped for, they’d likely try to match Dora up with some other worthy cowboy.
He told himself his hurry was strictly for Dora. He owed it to her to save her from the well-intended meddlers. They could be as tenacious as a determined bull after a rodeo clown.
“Thanks for the diaper change, Vera. I’ll catch you later.”
Once he’d stowed his purchases in the Cadillac, he admonished Katie to leave his hat be and entered Brewer’s Saloon. There were quite a few customers in for lunch. He waved at Maedean who was expertly carrying burger-laden trays through the maze of tables covered in red-and-white-checked cloths. He looked around the room but didn’t see Dora.
From behind the chest-high bar, Iris Brewer hailed him. “Ethan!”
He made his way over to her, still searching the booths and tables. “Hey, Iris. Business is booming.”
“That it is. I tell you, I had my reservations about what Lloyd and Ozzie and the boys did with all their advertising, but I’ve got to say the resurrection of this town is quite exciting. And my cash register is happy.” She reached right across the bar, cupped Katie’s pudgy cheeks in her hands and gave a gentle kiss. “I was hoping to see this little lamb again.”
“Again?”
“Yes. The night of the auction. I minded her while Dora came in and bid on you.”
Did the whole town know everything about his business? He’d known there would be speculation, but evidently it hadn’t fully hit him just how uncomfortable it would make him to have folks privy to details before he even had them. “I see.”
“You’re looking for Dora, I’d imagine.”
“Yes.”
“She’s in the back with the men.”
Playing pool, probably. A set of swinging saloon doors separated the dining room and bar from the game room. A jukebox was in the front, but speakers and dance floors flowed into both rooms so folks could two-step between food courses or pool sets. “Thanks, Iris.”
“Uh, Ethan. Why don’t you let me take Katie for you?”
He grinned, realizing Iris was dying to get her hands on the baby, and handed Katie over. Iris had lost her daughter and grandson, Timmy Malone—several years back, and everyone knew how her arms had ached to hold a child again. Thankfully, Hannah Richmond had come to town with her four-year-old son, Ian, and was six months pregnant, to boot. She’d married Wyatt Malone and appointed Iris honorary grandmother. Hannah and Wyatt’s family had been some of the best medicine for the town.
And of course the four old fellas had taken full credit for the union.
Ethan pushed through the swinging saloon doors but didn’t spot Dora at the pool table. The arrangement of the room was different, and it took him a moment to realize just what he was seeing.
The far corner had been cordoned off with a crimson rope and a sign proclaiming it the cigar section.
And there was Dora, smack-dab in the middle of the action, smoking a fat cigar with the four matchmakers of Shotgun Ridge…and the preacher!
His brows shot up so fast his hat shifted, and he felt a swift jolt of jealousy as she leaned in and laughed at something Pastor Dan Lucas said. Dan was young, decent looking and single. A preacher and a preacher’s daughter was a much better match than a playboy cowboy and a preacher’s daughter.
He frowned, wondering if Ozzie and his cronies were thinking the very same thing.
Ethan had to wonder if his playboy persona had somehow undergone a polar metamorphosis due to the broadsides he’d experienced lately. Because he was having an awful lot of prudish, judgmental thoughts where Dora Watkins was concerned.
First finding it inappropriate for her to watch a perfectly natural part of nature—horses mating. And now…well, now he just wasn’t sure what to think.
Smoking with the preacher, of all things.
The woman was just full of surprises. And did she have to lean in quite that close to the holy man?
He stepped up behind her.
“You don’t like the taste of beer, but you’ll smoke a cigar?” he asked, the astonishment underlined with an unfortunate hint of censure.
She whirled around. “Ethan!” She hopped up to grab another chair, her beaming smile completely without guile. “Where’s Katie?”
“With Iris. Evidently she didn’t think a baby’s lungs should be exposed to cigar smoke.”
“And well they shouldn’t,” Ozzie said. “You bet. It’s why Lloyd here set up a special section. You bet.”
Ethan sat down, shook hands with the preacher—grudgingly—and eyed the old men warily. He didn’t trust all four of them in one place. They’d likely talk him into another crazy auction or something.
“Ingenious idea, don’t you think, Ethan?” Lloyd asked, indicating the smoking tables with a sweep of his meaty hand. “I tell you, with all the women showing up, the cowboys are flocking here by the droves. Been the best thing for business. We thought up this smoking-room thing, and danged if the women aren’t partakin’, too!”
Ethan looked at Dora. “So I see.” He glanced at Dan Lucas, shook his head and succumbed to a grin. “Your congregation know about your secret vices?”
Dan laughed. “Since half of them are here, I imagine they do.”
Dora whacked Ethan on the thigh, startling him, and spoke to Dan. “Oh, don’t pay any attention to him. He’s got rigid and ridiculous ideas of how preachers and preacher’s daughters are supposed to conduct themselves. I’m happy to say I’ve popped a good many of his preconceived bu
bbles. So, feel free to aid and abet at being human, Dan. We’ll reform Ethan yet.”
“That sass is going to get you in trouble one of these days,” Ethan said to Dora and plucked the cigar out of her hand to take a drag. He nearly choked at the sickeningly sweet taste.
She giggled. “Designer cigars. Lloyd ordered them all the way from a specialty shop in Texas. That one’s cherry.”
“I figured that out.” When his gaze locked onto hers, he couldn’t seem to look away. She wasn’t like any woman he’d ever met, and that made him nervous. “Seems I recall someone offering to spring for ice cream. Suppose we ought to go retrieve Katie and get some lunch?”
“Sounds good to me.” She stood. “Gentlemen, thank you for the fine company and hospitality. We’ll do it again soon?”
“You bet,” Ozzie said.
“Church on Sunday,” Dan reminded.
“We’ll be there.”
As they walked away, Ozzie poked Vern in the ribs and gave a discreet kick beneath the table to Lloyd and Henry. All four men shared a smug look while Dora and Ethan pushed through the swinging doors.
“Fine-lookin’ couple,” Ozzie commented. “We done it up right.”
“Well, I’m all for taking credit,” Henry said. “But you have to admit that fate had as much to do with this as we did, with her daddy calling to check out Ethan just at the right time and all.”
“Fate, hell—pardon me, Dan,” Ozzie said. “Was the Lord’s work, is what it was.” And his sweet Vanessa’s, but Ozzie figured he’d just keep that part private. “That little filly comes from fine stock, you bet. I know her gramps, Quentin. Served with him in the war, I did. And you can call it coincidence with Dora’s daddy callin’ and all, but if you’ll remember correctly, it was us who took care of the timing and got her to the auction.”
“Good thing she had some bidding experience and enough spunk and money to follow through,” Lloyd said with a barely suppressed shudder. “I suffered a real bad patch there for a few minutes.”
“Now, Lloyd.” Vern blew out a stream of cigar smoke. “Don’t go getting your blood pressure all out of whack again. We already told you that boy was biddin’ on Ethan to go on a date with his sister.”
Henry and Lloyd snorted, Dan smiled and Ozzie held up a hand to bring the conversation back to the main focus.
“Did you see how those youngsters were eatin’ each other up with their eyes?”
“Ethan and Dora?” Henry asked, just to be sure they were all on the same subject.
“Of course Ethan and Dora.” He glared around the table, wondering if he was the only one paying attention. Vanessa, God rest her soul, used to tell him he had the most astonishing blue eyes, and that their very uniqueness could command an audience. Evidently he wasn’t using his God-given qualities to their fullest.
“The boy don’t seem to know he’s a goner…yet. But he’ll figure it out soon enough. Yep, Dora Watkins is just the thing for Ethan Callahan. You bet.”
“Now, Ozzie.” Dan figured he ought to inject the voice of reason. “Matchmaking is commendable on occasion, but you have to be realistic and realize that there are other factors at work. A child’s future is involved.”
“Well of course it is!” Ozzie burst out, drawing the attention of a couple of women at the pool table. He lowered his voice. “I’m surprised at you, the very preacher, being such a killjoy. Where’s your faith? I tell you, if you ain’t performing a ceremony of marriage in a few weeks’ time, I’ll…well, I’ll eat this here cigar. And the boys’ll swallow theirs, too.” If there was one thing Ozzie Peyton was good at, it was dragging his buddies right along with him—for their own good, of course.
Chapter Nine
Dora looked out the kitchen window, riveted by the sight of Ethan, shirtless, his Stetson-covered head tipped back as he poured a cooling canteen of water over his bare, rippling chest. Her breath suspended in her throat and her heart clamored. There ought to be a law against a man possessing that much provocative, spine-tingling sexuality.
Absently she turned on the kitchen tap and ran cool water over her wrists.
Katie was napping, and since she had work to do in the dark room, Dora had offered to stay inside and listen for the baby so Ethan could go out and deal with some of the ranch duties. But she wasn’t getting much work done staring at him this way.
She wanted him to understand the responsibilities of a single parent, but she also wanted him to see the merits of sharing those responsibilities. With a loved one—not a baby-sitter.
And to that end she decided it was time to make sure he didn’t in any way view her as a baby-sitter.
And getting the attention of a man like Ethan Callahan would require clever seduction. So, how hard could that be?
The wall phone in the kitchen rang and she automatically answered. “Callahan & Sons ranch.”
“It’s a dark day indeed when a minister lets his daughter go off into a den of iniquity.”
“Grandpa!” Delighted, Dora twined the phone cord around her fingers and settled back against the counter, glad to have something else to focus on besides Ethan’s blissfully glistening chest muscles. “How are you?”
“Concerned is how I am. Why is it when I call to check on my favorite granddaughter, I have to find out secondhand that she’s living with three men?”
“I’m your only granddaughter,” she pointed out.
“And have standards to uphold because of it,” he groused, love shining through the bluster in his voice. “Playboys, the lot of them, I hear. How’s that sweet little Katie?”
“Growing,” Dora said, a sudden cloud passing over the sunshine of her spirits.
With a shrewdness that made Quentin Watkins the powerful man he was, he picked right up on her undertones. “What’s going on, peaches?”
Tears caught in her throat when he called her that nickname in his soft, gruff tone. How many times had he used that loving voice on her? Come tell Grandpa what’s wrong, peaches, and I’ll fix it.
But Grandpa couldn’t fix the uncertainty of Dora and Katie’s future.
“Nothing’s going on, Grandpa.”
“Now, I’m gonna have to speak with that daddy of yours. Devout man of God not impressing upon his children the merits of honesty. Drummed that virtue into you myself, I did.”
Dora smiled. “It’s good to hear your voice, Grandpa. I’ve missed you.”
“Well.” He cleared his throat. “Heard from a buddy of mine right there in Shotgun Ridge. You’ve met up with Ozzie Peyton, have you?”
“Yes. He’s wonderful.”
“Flew B-17s with me back in forty-two. Quite a belly gunner.”
“Mmm.” Ozzie had told her the same, although he’d expounded more on Grandpa’s piloting skill.
“So, this Ethan Callahan…he the one who’s put that heaviness in your voice?”
“It’s not—”
“Peaches, it’s me you’re talkin’ to here.”
Dora sighed. “Ethan’s a good man, Grandpa. And he’s Katie’s father.” She ignored his censorious harrumph. She imagined Quentin Watkins had already gotten the full story from her father. “I’m in love with him.”
The declaration brought with it several seconds of dead air on the telephone lines. “Mighty quick, don’t you think?”
“You fell in love with Grandma at first sight,” she countered.
“And married her a week later, don’t forget. Didn’t go having her move in with me till there was a certificate of marriage all right and proper. So just what are Ethan Callahan’s intentions, I want to know.”
Dora couldn’t help but smile, even though Ethan’s intentions were somewhat of a pesky mystery. The only thing for certain was that the “preacher’s daughter” label he’d assigned to her scared him silly.
“I’m not living with him, Grandpa. He’s getting to know his daughter.”
Quentin harrumphed again in skepticism. “I’ve a mind to fly out there and see for myself. Those boy
s got a landing strip on that fancy breedin’ ranch?”
“A small one. You can’t fly in here, Grandpa.”
He misunderstood. “What kind of an operation is it, I’d like to know, if you can’t even land a Lear?”
“You can land a Lear, Grandpa. But you won’t.”
“I won’t?”
“No. I’m fine and I have a plan.”
“Now there’s the granddaughter I raised so well. Why didn’t you say so in the first place.”
Dora laughed. “I just did. Now say goodbye, Grandpa.”
“You call me, hear?”
“I’ll call you.” She replaced the phone with a smile. Good thing he didn’t press her on her plans. She didn’t think an admission that seduction was her strategy would go over well with Quentin Watkins. He’d be in the Lear within the half hour.
DORA’S ATTEMPTS at seduction were failing miserably. She was beginning to think she needed to take a page out of the horse-breeding manual and attempt a teasing-rail experiment of her own, because Ethan definitely wasn’t responding to anything else. Every time she got close enough to touch, he practically ran in the opposite direction.
And she had no earthly idea what she was doing wrong.
She’d yet to get him sufficiently worked up enough to have him participating in another of those kisses she’d managed to initiate last week.
The way he was acting, you’d think she was wearing a nun’s habit or something.
Bewildered, she leaned against the stark white wood railing by the exercise corral. Clay had Katie perched on his shoulder as he supervised the cooling down of a recently ridden mare. Grant stood close by, supervising Clay’s handling of Katie. That made her smile.
The activity of the ranch wasn’t as busy today for some reason. She wondered where Ethan was. Each day he got more proficient at balancing his ranching with Katie and was no longer chained to the house. And Katie had charmed every man on the ranch. Between her uncles and the ranch hands, there were plenty of willing arms to hold her, thus freeing up Ethan’s time.
Time and privacy he could have put to good use if he would just notice that Dora was available and willing.