Her Cowboy Daddy

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Jeb was right, Cady realized with sudden sympathy. The way he had once ditched his bride at the altar was still on everyone’s mind, some ten years later.

  “He has the attention span of a gnat,” Suki continued.

  Cady thought about his changes he had planned for his career, yet again, and tried not to sound defensive. “He likes to shake things up every once in a while. So what?”

  “So,” Suki retorted archly, “you are a planner.”

  Cady switched the phone to her other ear and resumed brushing tangles from her hair. “We’re only talking about two weeks,” she said heatedly.

  A longer pause followed. “He’s planning to stay with you and the boys for two weeks?”

  Cady swore at her obvious misstep. The less her sister knew, the better. “If he wants to win his bet. It’s a long story.”

  Hermann’s voice mumbled in the background.

  “Okay, okay,” Suki said, sounding irritable. “Our car is here, honey. We have to go check into the hotel. I’ll call you later.”

  She wished Suki wouldn’t, but given that she was watching the boys, there was no way she could avoid it. “Talk to you then.” Frowning, she hung up.

  Jeb appeared in the doorway. He, too, looked as if he had just awakened. A golden-brown shadow rimmed his face, and his hair was tousled. He wore a pair of gray-and-white-striped cotton pajama pants, slung low on his hip, and a marine-blue T-shirt that brought out the sexy hue of his eyes.

  “The boys wanted cold cereal and milk. Is that okay?” He came in for a closer look. “Are you okay?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” Flushing self-consciously, Cady jumped out of bed. They had turned the thermostat down before going to sleep, and it had gotten chilly overnight. Acutely aware of the way her lace-edged camisole pajama top was clinging to her breasts, Cady struggled into a matching pink cotton cardigan.

  “I don’t know.” Jeb watched her rummage around for her flip-flops, one of which had gotten shoved under the bed. “You sounded upset just now, on the phone.”

  Cady stood and slid her feet into her sandals. “You know Suki,” she muttered bad-temperedly. “No one is ever good enough for me.”

  “Meaning me,” Jeb supposed. “Or someone else?”

  Cady winced, realizing that, in her highly emotional state, she had just blurted out way too much. “Meaning…my sister wants me to have something amazing like what she and Hermann have found together. But the odds are stacked against me, since I am not currently dating anyone and haven’t been for a while. And for the record,” Cady added in a rush before Jeb could interrupt, “I did not intimate to Suki that you and I are or will ever be anything more than friends.”

  A corner of his mouth lifted in a speculative grin. “Meaning you didn’t tell her we kissed,” he drawled in a low, sexy tone that had her wishing he would throw caution to the wind and take her in his arms all over again.

  “Kissing!” Three young voices shouted in unison as her nephews stumbled into the room. Gagging noises followed. “Blech! Yecchh! Gross!”

  Cady propped her hands on her hips. Now Suki would know and have to weigh in on this, too. Unless, Cady thought quickly, she could make the boys forget what they had accidentally overheard. “Did you boys all finish your cereal?”

  “Yeah, and we’re still hungry.” Dalton scowled.

  “Can we have cookies?” Finn asked.

  Jeb smothered a laugh.

  Cady mimed her astonishment. “Cookies!”

  The boys exchanged glances. “Momma lets us have them,” Dalton declared audaciously.

  Cady knew that was true. Later in the day, anyway. Figuring she would prefer to have her dietary indiscretion revealed the next time the boys talked to their mom, rather than her momentary lapse where Jeb was concerned, she nodded. “One each. And then we’re getting dressed and going into town to accomplish the first thing on Momma’s to-do list.”

  Dalton stood up straighter while Finn bounced on her bed. “What’s that?”

  Cady caught Finn before he could bounce off into the nightstand. She lifted him in her arms. “Get haircuts.”

  Jeb reached down and plucked Dalton and Micah, who were both begging to be picked up, too, into his arms. He held them against his chest. “Does that have to be this morning?” he asked.

  Unable to see what the problem was, Cady nodded. “Suki made three simultaneous appointments for them at the salon, for nine-thirty.” She rubbed Finn’s back while he rested his head on her shoulder. Keeping her eyes meshed with Jeb’s, she asked, “Do you have something scheduled?”

  “I was supposed to talk to an insurance agent in town at nine-thirty, about the cost of insuring a bull, should I want to go that route. I was hoping we could all go together, and that can still happen if I reschedule.”

  Cady caught his arm before he could head for his phone. “There’s no need for that. You can drop us at the salon and go on your way….”

  Jeb glanced at her fingers, which were curled around his biceps. With his blue-gray eyes crinkling at the corners, he drawled in a low, sexy voice, “You wouldn’t be trying to make me lose the bet, now, would you? By encouraging me to part company and be disqualified?”

  Abruptly aware she had held on far too long, Cady let go of his arm. “Not a chance.” Still savoring the feel of his warm solid muscles, she stepped back and continued cheerfully, “I’m as curious as you are to find out if you can go the distance.”

  And more importantly still, if I can keep my distance from you!

  Chapter Five

  Jeb parked in front of the Main Street Salon, slid out of the SUV and swiftly circled around to help Cady out of the passenger seat.

  Clasping her elbow, he steadied her as her sandals hit the sidewalk. “You sure you can handle this?” he said quietly, inclining his head at all three boys, who were still safely strapped into their booster seats.

  “Positive,” Cady said.

  He remained skeptical.

  “Seriously, they have calmed down so much in the last twenty-four hours! Plus I think it really helped them to talk to their mom and dad this morning on the phone. To know that even though Suki and Hermann aren’t here physically, they are still only a phone call away.”

  “As am I. So,” Jeb said. “If you need me, just call, and I’ll cut the meeting with Greg Savitz short. Otherwise, I’ll meet you at the park across the street in an hour. Or sooner, if the session wraps up more quickly than anticipated.”

  Together, Cady and Jeb got the kids safely out of the car and into the salon. The three stylists were waiting. Jeb smiled and his wide shoulders relaxed. “I’ll see you in a while. Boys, be good for your aunt Cady.”

  “Where is Jeb going?” Dalton asked unhappily as he climbed onto the swivel chair designated for him.

  Finn stopped just short of his seat and twisted around to look in the direction Jeb had disappeared. The four-year-old’s lower lip slid out into a pout. “Yeah. How come he’s leaving us?”

  “He has to see an insurance agent. He’ll be back in a little bit,” Cady said, realizing too late she and Jeb should have gone over with the boys what the plan was for the morning, before he departed.

  Cady took Micah to the stylist who was waiting for him.

  As soon as he saw the cartoon-decorated plastic cape and the booster seat in the salon chair, he shook his head and grabbed on to Cady for dear life. “Noooo!” he wailed in sudden panic. “Don’t want haircut…”

  Cady plucked him off the floor and held him in her arms. “Honey, it’s all right, I’m going to be right here.” She patted him soothingly on the back. “This is Sally, and she is just going to cut your hair.”

  “Noooo!” Micah screamed hysterically, wreathing his arms in a noose around Cady’s neck.

  Finn and Dalton looked over in alarm. Simultaneously, they attempted to pull off their capes. “If he’s not doing it, I’m not doing it!” Dalton eluded the reassuring touch of the stylist and scrambled down from his chair. />
  “Me, neither!” Finn shouted in solidarity.

  It was all Cady could do to hold Micah, never mind make a grab for his brothers. “Boys!” she shouted as they dashed for the exit.

  And that was when two people Cady really did not want to see walked in.

  Looking as incredibly gorgeous as ever, with her deep tan, wildly curling auburn hair and slim, toned body, Avalynne Stone came toward Cady with outstretched arms.

  The squirming Micah in her grasp made a hug hello impossible. Which was just as well, Cady thought. Had she hugged Jeb’s ex-fiancée hello, propriety would have required that she also hug Avalynne’s mother, Dorothy—who was standing there, as dour and disapproving as ever.

  Cady held on to the now silent but still furiously wiggling Micah. “Hello, Avalynne.”

  The young woman smiled. “Cady.”

  Dorothy Stone merely nodded.

  In the meantime, the salon receptionist made it to the door before the two older boys could dart past the group of adults and escape. Sally joined her and stood in front of it, arms outstretched, blocking the way. The other two hairdressers came to claim their errant young customers, who only dug in their heels all the deeper.

  Cady adapted the demeanor her sister used on such occasions. “Finn and Dalton, please stop misbehaving this instant and get back up in those chairs,” she ordered sternly.

  The boys refused to budge. “No way,” Dalton said rebelliously, taking the lead.

  “Not unless Jeb comes back and gets his hair cut, too!” Finn declared loudly.

  To emphasize their rebellion, the two boys slumped on waiting area chairs and started kicking the magazine table.

  Cady reached out a hand to try and stop them, but could do little without putting Micah down.

  Sensing victory, Finn and Dalton glared at her and kicked so hard the magazines went flying.

  Cady gasped at the mess.

  At the continuation of the mutiny, Micah buried his head in her shoulder and resumed wailing with earsplitting authority. “I. Want. My. Mommy!”

  The Stones backed up with a mixture of dismay and disapproval.

  The receptionist looked horrified. She sent a look at Cady that said, Can’t you please get those children under control? Then slipped back behind the appointment desk at the front of the salon. “Can I help you?” She had to shout above the din.

  Avalynne put both hands over her ears and shouted back, “Mother and I were going to see if we could get walk-in appointments this morning.”

  “Obviously,” Dorothy said stiffly, looking irked by Finn and Dalton’s truculent behavior and Micah’s sobbing, “this is not a good time. We’ll make appointments and come back. When it’s quieter.”

  “It’ll have to be soon, though,” Avalynne said, leaning over the check-in counter to be heard. “I’m only going to be in town a few days.”

  And then once again, the door opened, the customer bell sounded…and Jeb McCabe walked in.

  Silence fell in the salon.

  Finn and Dalton immediately stopped kicking and sat up in their chairs, and Micah, taking his cue from his older brothers, stopped crying as abruptly as he had started.

  And this time, Cady noted, there was no stopping Avalynne. She closed the distance between them and gave Jeb a warm lingering hug. Her mother, on the other hand, looked at him much as she had the day he had left her only daughter at the altar. As if she wanted to punch him in the face.

  “Well, hi, stranger,” Avalynne purred.

  Jeb hugged Avalynne cordially and then drew back.

  “We should get together,” she said meaningfully, looking deep into his eyes.

  “You’re only in Laramie for a short while,” Dorothy reminded her.

  Avalynne ignored her mother’s disapproval with the same deliberation she always employed. “I always have time to see Jeb, Mom. So…” She smiled again in a way that said she had eyes only for the sexy cowboy in front of her. “Call me, will you, stranger?”

  His expression congenial but otherwise inscrutable, Jeb nodded.

  Avalynne and Dorothy finished making their appointments for later that day and walked out.

  Jeb turned to the boys. He surveyed them with an inquiring look that spoke volumes about his disapproval. “What’s going on here, fellas?”

  Micah launched himself out of Cady’s arms and into Jeb’s.

  “We don’t want to get our hair cut,” Finn and Dalton explained in unison.

  “I don’t think you guys have a choice,” Jeb said, speaking to them with the respect he would have given an adult. “Your mom made those appointments. She asked Aunt Cady to bring you here today, in her place. Your mom is going to expect you to follow through.”

  Finn and Dalton sighed. “All right.”

  “But before you do that, you need to pick up all these magazines and put them neatly on the table. And apologize to the ladies in the salon for making such a ruckus.”

  “Okay.” Sighing, the boys did as commanded, while Cady looked on with a feeling of ineptitude and embarrassment.

  Finished, Finn and Dalton climbed back up into the barber chairs they had bolted from.

  Micah hid his face in Jeb’s neck.

  Jeb looked at Cady. She shrugged, not having a clue.

  “He usually sits on Suki’s lap,” the stylist explained.

  Jeb patted Micah’s back. “You want to do that, fella? Sit on Aunt Cady’s lap?”

  “No!” the little boy said, rearing back to look into Jeb’s eyes. “I want to sit on yours!”

  Everyone turned to Cady to see what she thought.

  Masking her hurt, she lifted her hands in surrender, not about to argue. Anything, she mused fervently, to end this humiliation. Even if it meant handing the bulk of the substitute parenting over to Jeb.

  “SO WHAT NEXT?” Jeb said, as they walked out of the Main Street Salon.

  Finn held on to the left side of Jeb’s belt, Dalton the right. Micah was nestled in his arms. All looked cute as could be with their new, neatly layered hairstyles.

  Cady walked beside them, trying not to feel discouraged that her three nephews so clearly preferred Jeb to her.

  At ten-thirty, the temperature was in the low eighties. The sun was shining overhead in a cloudless blue sky. It was a perfect June morning and the boys were still full of unspent energy.

  “How about the playground on the other side of the town square?” she suggested finally. “It’s not too hot yet. They could run off a little steam.”

  “Yeah!” the boys cried in unison.

  Jeb nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

  Carefully, they walked to the corner, waited for the light to change and then crossed the street. Five minutes later, all three boys were climbing on the massive wooden pirate ship and fort in the playground.

  Jeb purchased cold drinks from a vending machine and he and Cady hung out under a tree, watching the boys play.

  “So what happened to your meeting with the insurance agent?” Cady asked, knowing it couldn’t have been completed that quickly.

  Jeb’s sexy grin widened and laugh lines appeared at the corners of his eyes. “I rescheduled for nine o’clock this evening.”

  Cady didn’t know whether to be grateful or annoyed that he had so little faith in her ability to manage the children, although his lack of faith had turned out to be warranted….

  She frowned, pushing back the unwanted emotion welling up inside her. “That’s awfully late.”

  He kept his eyes locked with hers. “Greg Savitz was okay with it. I told him I wanted to make sure the boys were asleep first.”

  She stiffened her spine and glared at him. “He knows you’re helping me out?”

  Jeb stretched his long legs in front of him and rested an arm on the picnic table behind her. “It’s not as if it’s a secret.” He leaned close enough for her to inhale the brisk masculine fragrance of his aftershave. “Is it?”

  Should it be? Cady wondered. She ignored the comforting
warmth of his body so close to hers and stretched her legs out, too. “You are taking this bet seriously.” She curled her toes in her sandals, flexed her feet.

  Jeb followed the restive movements, then returned his glance to hers. Mischief and suppressed desire glimmered in his eyes. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”

  Wasn’t that a loaded question, Cady thought drily to herself. If the contemplative looks he had been giving her all morning were any indication, he wanted to triumph in their wager, as well as follow his more primitive instincts and get her into bed. And that they could not have. Not and maintain their age-old friendship, anyway.

  “Well…” She drew a deep breath and attempted to get the conversation back on a more sober track. “Thanks for coming back to help out with the haircuts.”

  He accepted her gratitude with a nod.

  The kids popped up at the top of the pirate ship. Heads barely visible above the wooden side, they lifted their arms in energetic waves.

  Jeb and Cady smiled and waved back, offering dual admonishments to be careful. The kids nodded in understanding and took off again.

  Jeb’s mouth crooked up as he watched the three boys go down the slide, one after another. “I figured getting their hair cut was going to be difficult.”

  Cady did a double take. “Why?”

  Jeb shrugged. “Friends who have kids have talked about how some children are traumatized beyond belief by the barber’s chair, so I assumed the worst.”

  Cady scowled in renewed embarrassment. “Suki never said anything about it being such an ordeal. I mean, I don’t think they ever give her any trouble.” Not the kind they give me, anyway.

  Which in turn made her wonder what kind of mother she was going to be. The kind who just naturally did everything right, like Suki, or the kind who struggled with literally everything? And if that was the case, how was she going to manage completely on her own?

  Jeb cupped her shoulders and gave them a companionable squeeze. “Come on now. Of course they give your sister plenty of grief, too.”

  Finally beginning to see why others might have such a problem with her adopting as a single mom, Cady replied, “No, they don’t. She and Hermann are real pros at handling the kids. Just like you.”