“Come see me again?” She directed the question to Ruby, who answered with an emphatic nod. After a thank-you from Cate, Emma was off, light brown locks once again twisting in the high-powered breeze as she headed back to the barn. His little sister ran the Kids’ Club at the ranch. She was a kid-wrangling, child-whispering rock star.
“Mommy, can we get a horse-y?”
Cate’s laugh was strangled. “Our apartment doesn’t allow dogs, let alone horses, sweets.”
Ruby looked up, noticing him. “Hi.” Big brown eyes—just like Cate’s—held his.
A rush of emotion clogged his throat, but Luc managed a response. “Hi.”
“I’m Ruby. What’s your name? Do you live here? Do you have a horse-y?”
Her questions ignited a grin. “Luc.” He glanced at Cate, and she shook her head in response to his unspoken question. Ruby must not know his name to be able to create the link to him being her father. Probably a good thing at this point. “And yes, I live here and I have a horse.” Or should he say “horse-y”?
He sank to bended knee in front of the girl, partly to be closer to her height, partly because his legs were about to give out.
The blood in his veins thrummed a rhythm that whispered mine. As though it knew without a test or proof that Ruby was his daughter.
Why he believed Cate, Luc didn’t know. Course, the heart defect seemed a blatant link. When he’d been a child, they hadn’t considered it genetic, but in the years since, they’d proved it often was.
Still, he should be careful until he knew for sure.
Yet even with that logical thought backing him up, everything in his body hurt. He wanted so badly to reach out, to hug her, to somehow know everything about her in one instant. He fisted hands at his sides. The idea that Ruby was his, that he’d missed so much time if Cate was telling the truth, made every muscle tense.
“Any chance you want to ride one of the horses?” Everything was better on a horse. Plus, it would give him a chance to get to know Ruby a little.
Her chocolate eyes lit up with excitement, head bobbing fast and furious. She definitely had a sense of adventure. Must drive Cate crazy. The thought warmed him.
“Luc—”
“She’ll be fine.” He stood, earning crossed arms and a scowl from Cate. Her thin, dark eyebrows joined together in obvious agitation, somehow only managing to highlight her beauty. Luc had never had a problem being attracted to Cate. It was in the mature, getting-along department that they’d struggled.
Luc waited an extra beat to see if Cate added any additional protest. He didn’t want to be careless with Ruby, but most often her condition had very few symptoms and just needed to be fixed.
When silence reigned and Cate’s shoulders drooped as if relinquishing control, Luc put a check in the victory column. Missing almost four years of Ruby’s life definitely gave him an upper hand at the moment.
The three of them headed for the corral, and Luc directed them to Buster, one of the smaller palomino quarter horses with a calm temperament, who was already saddled and ready to go. He hoisted Ruby up and made sure she felt comfortable. Told her where to hold on. Her face shone with wonder and excitement as she commented about how the color of the horse reminded her of caramel popcorn.
“I’m going to walk with you and lead Buster the whole time, and anytime you want to stop or get down, you just tell me.”
“I can’t do it by myself?”
Adventurous little thing. “Not until you’ve had more experience. We’d have to get you started on a pony—”
Cate’s wide eyes cut him off, communicating all kinds of warning signals and flares. Luc tempered his amusement. He’d probably been getting ahead of himself a bit.
“We’ll be back in ten minutes,” he said to Cate, lips quirking at her squeak of indignation and the fact that she was, most definitely, not invited.
She’d had Ruby to herself for three-plus years. Luc deserved some time with her away from Cate’s hawk-like attention.
Copyright © 2018 by Jill Buteyn
ISBN-13: 9781488090660
Her Cowboy Reunion
Copyright © 2018 by Ruth M. Blodgett
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