Lone Star Daddy

by Stella Bagwell

  She reached up and passed a hand across her forehead, and Jonas thought he could see a tremble to her fingers. Clearly the woman wasn’t as independent as she’d first wanted him to believe, and the idea that she was willing to admit that she needed someone was all it took to soften him.

  Smiling gently, she turned to face him. “Yes, I suppose he did.”

  She strode over to where he sat propped on the edge of the desk and extended her hand. “Shall we start over? I’m Alexa Cantrell. Please call me Alexa.”

  He enfolded her soft little hand in his and felt his heart thump in a way that practically startled him. “All right, Alexa,” he said huskily. “I’m Jonas Redman. Call me Jonas.”

  Dimples bracketed her mouth as her smile deepened. “Thank you, Jonas. I’d be very grateful if you’d stay in the ranch house while my family is away.”

  “No, problem, ma’am. No trouble at all.”

  Yeah. Right. Who was he trying to kid? The woman was going to be trouble and then some.

  Chapter Two

  Is Mr. Redman going to be taking his meals here?”

  Alexa, who was sitting at an L-shaped bar at one end of the kitchen cabinets, looked up at the cook. Reena’s question had caught her off guard. Jonas’s meals were not something that had yet crossed her mind. Since she’d left the man’s office a few minutes ago, the most she’d tried to do was convince herself that their paths would rarely cross. “I don’t know, Reena. I suppose I’ll have to ask him. But don’t worry about it. If he does decide to take his meals here instead of in the bunkhouse, then he’ll just have to eat what Sassy and I eat.”

  Reena nodded. “I’ll make plenty to go around.”

  The cook’s remark only reminded Alexa all over again that she was going to have to deal with Jonas Redman being in the house. True, Sassy stayed in a room off the kitchen, but she slipped in and out at all hours of the night. Sassy was young, and so her free time was, more often than not, taken up with social activities. And evenings were exactly when Jonas would be showing up at the ranch house.

  Alexa wasn’t sure if she was excited or annoyed by the prospect. Something about the man left her uneasy. Just a few words from him had made her stop and take a second look at herself, and that in itself was scary. A wandering cowboy from Texas shouldn’t have that much power over her. In fact, he shouldn’t be having any effect on her at all.

  With that thought, Alexa quickly rose from the bar stool. “I’d better check to see if Sassy has one of the guest rooms ready,” she told Reena, then quickly exited the kitchen.

  Upstairs, she met the young red-haired maid in the hallway. A ball of sheets was wadded in her arms.

  “Need something, Alexa?”

  Alexa smiled. “I was just wondering if you’ve finished preparing a room for Jonas?”

  Nodding, Sassy dropped the sheets and motioned for Alexa to follow her. “I’ve tidied up the room next to yours,” she said as they walked toward the end of the hallway. “I hope that’s okay. Since you didn’t say, I thought you’d probably be wanting him near.” She looked at Alexa. “I mean, in your condition you might need help in the middle of the night. If your water broke or something, you wouldn’t want to have to go traipsing across the house to find him.”

  Everything Sassy was saying made sense. Yet the idea of Jonas in such close proximity was definitely going to be a challenge to Alexa’s senses.

  “I suppose you’re right,” Alexa reluctantly agreed.

  The two women stepped into the room, and while Sassy gave another smoothing hand to the bedclothes, Alexa glanced around her. The room wasn’t as large as hers, but with its rustic cedar furnishings, Native American artwork and woven rugs, it was fitting for a man like Jonas. As for Barry, he wouldn’t have fit in anywhere on the Chaparral. He’d been a city boy through and through. Tailored suits, briefcases and wing-tipped oxfords were his everyday staples. Sometimes she wondered if she’d gotten involved with the man just because he had been so opposite from her home life, so opposite from Mitch.

  For a moment, memories of the young cowboy assaulted her, freezing her footsteps and the images in her mind. Mitch had been her first love, and his reckless, carefree attitude toward life had been infectious to a teenage Alexa. She’d thought the world was theirs until one night, after too much beer and partying, he’d wrecked the truck they’d been riding in on a mountain highway east of Ruidoso. The crash had killed Mitch instantly and put Alexa in the hospital for over two weeks. The incident had drastically changed her life, and ever since she’d shied away from anything wearing boots and a sexy grin. Instead of the outdoor girl she’d always been, she’d turned bookish and serious and set her mind on a degree in political science. By age twenty she’d gotten a position on the mayor’s staff in Ruidoso, and two years later she’d gone to work in the state capital building. And there she’d believed she’d put cowboys and the Chaparral out of her mind.

  Now here she was back home, doing something she’d never planned to do again. Thinking about a cowboy.

  “Alexa—is something wrong?”

  Alexa was so absorbed in her thoughts that it took Sassy’s voice a moment or two to finally register with her. When it did, she looked across the room at the maid. “Did you say something?” she asked blankly.

  “Is something wrong?” Sassy repeated. “You looked sorta sad.”

  Alexa did her best to smile. “Nothing is wrong. I was just thinking about something that happened a long time ago.”

  The maid didn’t look too convinced but, thankfully, changed the subject.

  “Oh. Well, I was asking if I should open the balcony door,” she said. “Some fresh air might make the room smell nice.”

  “Go ahead,” Alexa told her. “Jonas can close it later.”

  “And what about flowers? I wasn’t sure about putting fresh flowers in the room.”

  Alexa walked over to the nightstand and wiped a finger over the polished wood. Everything was spotless. “No. I don’t think Jonas will expect flowers. He’s probably not used to such things.”

  Sassy didn’t respond, and Alexa glanced up to see a disapproving look on her face.

  “Just because he’s a cowboy doesn’t mean he can’t appreciate flowers,” Sassy muttered after a moment.

  Alexa opened her mouth to assure the young woman she didn’t mean anything insulting with her remark. Everyone was treated equally at the Chaparral. But Sassy would hardly believe that now. Dear God, it seemed like everything she said today came out sounding wrong.

  “I’d better go get the sheets in the wash,” Sassy said and quickly started toward the door.

  Alexa called out to her. “Wait a minute, Sassy. Please.”

  Alexa’s heart softened as she watched the young woman walk back to the center of the room. Sassy had been orphaned at age seventeen, when her parents had perished in a house fire. After that, Alexa’s parents had taken her in and given her a job here on the Chaparral. She’d become like family, and Alexa wanted her to understand that.

  “You need something else, Alexa?” Sassy asked.

  With a regretful smile, Alexa walked over and hugged the younger woman’s shoulders. “Yes, I need to apologize. For sounding like a—well, like a queen wasp.”

  Sassy laughed. “Oh, Alexa, that’s a terrible thing to say about yourself. I understand you’ve been under a strain. Moving back home like this…it’s gotta be—well, something you’ll have to get used to all over again.”

  Alexa sighed with relief. At least Sassy understood. “Truthfully, Sassy, it’s turning out to be much harder than I ever expected. But I’ll survive. I just wanted to say that bit about Jonas and the flowers—I honestly didn’t want you putting flowers in his room, because I didn’t want him to think I was going out of my way to make things extra pleasant for him.”

  Sassy’s brows pulled together in confusion. “Why? He has to be a nice man or Quint wouldn’t have hired him.”

  The young woman’s simple reasoning made Alexa
feel even smaller. “I’m sure he is. It’s just that—well, it’s kind of awkward for me—having him here in the house. I’ve only just met him and he’s—”

  “Darn good-looking,” Sassy finished for her. “And single.”

  Alexa’s brows lifted. “How did you know that about him?”

  Sassy’s smile was conspiring. “The ranch has a gossip grapevine, Alexa. I hear things from the bunkhouse cook.”

  “Gus? He’s getting too old to gossip!”

  “Don’t let him hear you say that,” Sassy joked, then looked at Alexa with empathy. “And don’t go worrying about the new manager. Your mother will be back soon and everything will get back to normal.”

  Long after dark, Alexa was lounging on the back patio, soaking up the cool breeze and thinking about Sassy’s comment. Would things in her life ever get back to normal? she wondered.

  In spite of her blowup with Barry, she was excited about the coming baby. Already she loved it with all her heart. In fact, for the past few months, thoughts of her coming child were the only thing that had kept her focused and going. Yet she wondered if she’d ever have the courage to trust another man or, for that matter, to resume her job in Santa Fe.

  When she’d left, she’d done so on a leave of absence, with the option to return to Senator Hutchins’s office whenever she was ready. Which had been an overly generous offer on the senator’s part. Alexa appreciated the fact that her job would be there for her if she decided to return. But she wasn’t sure that life in politics was right for her anymore. Barry would still be hanging around the capital, and though he’d been out of her life for months now, she’d not been able to avoid running into him casually.

  The whole situation was awkward. But then, she should have never been attracted to Barry in the first place, she thought with self-disgust. She should have been able to see beneath his polished appearance and glib way with words. Once she’d started dating him, her instincts should have picked up on the fact that he was out for himself and no one else. Damn it, he’d been a lobbyist. What more could she expect?

  But he’d helped get great environmental laws passed for the state and the good of the people. She’d believed he was a sincere, dedicated man. And she’d been drawn to him because of their shared interests and goals.

  With Barry she’d approached their relationship with logic and common sense rather than passion, and she’d felt proud of herself for not swooning and falling into a pit of sexual heat, as she had with Mitch. They had dated and then moved in with each other about a year later. She’d thought they’d shared goals and ideals.

  Eventually, when she’d learned she was pregnant, she’d been happy, envisioning the three of them as a perfect family. But only a few days later she’d learned quite by accident—through a stack of paperwork he’d left lying about in their apartment—that he’d been involved in some unscrupulous dealings. And to make matters worse, when she’d confronted him, he’d clearly felt no shame over his behavior.

  When she’d announced to Barry that she was leaving, he’d been shocked that she would turn down such a catch as him. He’d considered himself a rising star in the state political arena, and he’d expected Alexa to want to ride on his coattails all the way to the top. But once she’d discovered his underhanded dealings, she’d had no choice but to end everything between them.

  She couldn’t live with an immoral man, much less have her child raised by one. Barry hadn’t seen it that way, and for a few weeks he’d made ugly noises about custody rights and using his political pull to take the child completely away from her. That had been his way of forcing her into coming back to him.

  But she and Barry had both known that he’d not really wanted her or the child that much. He simply hadn’t wanted to lose the fight.

  Fortunately, he’d eventually come to the conclusion that their relationship could never be salvaged. He’d decided that signing his rights to the baby over to her would be much better than Alexa’s exposing his misdeeds to a pack of hungry newspaper reporters.

  It was a relief to know that she was free of Barry now, she thought. She only wished she was free of the damage his betrayal had done to her self-confidence, her ability to judge people on the inside, where it really mattered.

  A footfall on the concrete patio pulled Alexa from her glum thoughts, and she turned her head to see Jonas Redman standing a few feet away. A duffel bag was thrown over his shoulder, and he appeared tired and dusty. Foolish excitement hummed along her veins.

  “Excuse me for interrupting, Alexa. I only wanted to let you know that I’m finally here. I meant to arrive earlier, but things got busy.”

  Her heart thumping, Alexa swung her legs to the ground and rose to her feet. “That’s all right. If you’d like to come in, I’ll show you your room.”

  Nodding, he followed her through the back door of a small atrium filled with all types of potted plants and cushioned lawn furniture, then into a dimly lit kitchen.

  “Sassy is out for the evening,” she informed him. “But Reena, our cook, saved supper for you.”

  “No need for that,” Jonas replied. “I can eat with the boys in the bunkhouse. Gus will have something left over.”

  She gestured toward an open door that led into a long hallway. “It’s no trouble, Jonas. And someone needs to help Sassy and me eat all the food that Reena prepares.”

  At the end of the hallway they turned into what looked to be a living room. On the left side, a wide staircase made of dark, polished wood led to the second floor. Jonas followed at a respectable distance. Until they were nearly to the landing. There, Alexa suddenly sagged against the bannister and clutched it tightly with both hands as though it was all she could do to stay upright.

  Leaping up the two steps separating them, Jonas quickly put his hand under her elbow to steady her. As his eyes anxiously scanned her face, he noticed her breathing was labored.

  “Alexa! What’s wrong?”

  Pressing a hand to her throat, she drew in a long breath. “I—I’m okay, Jonas. I just…got a little winded. That happens when I try to move too fast. All this extra weight pushing against my diaphragm doesn’t make stair-climbing easy.”

  She was recovering quickly, yet he was reluctant to loosen his hold on her arm. If she happened to get dizzy and fall backward down the staircase, it would, in all likelihood, harm her and the baby.

  “You didn’t need to escort me to my room,” he scolded lightly. “You could have just told me where it was.”

  Straightening to her full height, she said, “Don’t be silly. I have to climb the stairs to get to my room, too.”

  As Jonas stared at her, he was suddenly struck by how soft her skin felt against his hand, how sweet she smelled and how totally vulnerable she was. It had been a long time since he’d been this close to a woman, a long time since he’d touched one. He’d almost forgotten the tender feelings a woman could evoke in a man.

  “Are you having health problems?” he asked. “Something I need to know about?”

  Color darkened her cheeks as she shook her head. “No. I’m fine. Really, Jonas.”

  Pulling her arm away from his hand, she headed up the stairs, leaving him with nothing to do but follow.

  At the end of a wide hallway, she gestured to the right, where a door stood ajar. “This is your room. If there’s anything you need that Sassy might have missed, just let me know.”

  Jonas entered the room and was surprised when she followed and switched on a lamp at the head of the bed. Earlier today, he’d gotten the impression that she wanted to avoid being near him at all cost. Maybe she was deciding he wasn’t a threat, after all.

  “The bathroom is over there in the right corner,” she informed him. “And the balcony is beyond the open door. You might find it more comfortable to sleep with that door open. The night air cools the room nicely.”

  He tossed his duffel bag onto the bed. Everything he’d brought from Texas was in that bag. Including his weapon and Ranger badge. He
was going to have to find a hiding place for them. Otherwise, the maid might possibly stumble across the items during her routine cleaning.

  “Everything is fine, Alexa. The room is far beyond my needs.” He lifted off his hat and placed it next to the bag. “I’ll be out of here early in the morning, so I’ll try not to disturb you. As for the evenings, I can’t say when I’ll be showing up. I’m sure you remember that ranch days rarely end before dark.”

  Nodding, she gave him a brief smile. “Of course. When my father was running the ranch, he was oftentimes a stranger around here. So I don’t expect your schedule to fit with mine. You’re welcome to come and go as you please.”

  Strange how she’d done an about-face, Jonas thought. She’d initially been outraged when he’d suggested staying in the house with her. Now she was the perfect welcoming hostess. Was that what being pregnant did to a woman, swung her moods wildly one direction and then another? If so, he was going to be in for a hell of a ride in these next coming days.

  She started toward the door. “If you’ll come down to the kitchen in a few minutes, I’ll heat your supper.”

  Jonas was hardly expecting her, the heiress of the place, to see to his kitchen needs, but he wasn’t going to argue the point now. If she wanted to extend to him a bit of hospitality, then he was going to be grateful enough to accept it.

  “Fine. Thanks.”

  She disappeared into the hallway, and he began to put away his things in the long oak dresser. As for his pistol and badge, he pulled out the bottom drawer of the dresser, placed them on the floor beneath, then returned the drawer to its track and shoved it back in place.

  Minutes later, after a quick shower, Jonas pulled on a pair of faded jeans and boots and topped them with a white T-shirt before heading downstairs. As he walked toward the kitchen, he was struck by the quietness and reminded all over again that no one was in the house except for him and Alexa.

  The smell of roast beef and vegetables met his nose long before he entered the kitchen. The growl of his stomach reminded him that he’d not eaten a bite of food since breakfast.