Kitabı oku: «The Rancher's Surprise Daughter»

Chapter One

Nothing like walking into a situation blind.

Lucas Wilder bounded up the lodge steps, the late-July wind that twisted across his sun-scorched arms as dry as aged kindling.

His sister’s text that someone was looking for him in the lodge hadn’t been helpful in the least. And then she’d gone off radar, not answering his request for more info. Was it an employee? Shouldn’t be a ranch guest as last week’s were already gone and a new batch didn’t arrive until tomorrow.

Luc crossed into the comfortable lobby that guests could relax in after a day of ranch activities, scanning the room for whoever had beckoned as his eyes adjusted to the dim interior lighting.

“Lucas.”

The feminine voice slammed into the backs of his knees. He willed his legs not to wobble like a newborn calf’s as he faced her.

Catherine Malory. She sat in the club chair stationed to the side of the front window, sunlight streaming over her shoulder, highlighting rich, dark-chocolate hair.

She looked a hint older than the last time he’d seen her. Worried, and yet somehow the addition of a few lines around her eyes and lips only added to her beauty.

Attraction flared to life, the sight of her like oxygen to an ember Luc was certain he’d stomped out years before.

What was she doing here? It had been years since he’d left Denver and their relationship, yet he’d never been able to fully erase Cate from his mind. Luc handled forty-some guests each week plus a slew of employees. Surely he could handle one conversation with a woman he’d once loved.

“Four years.” His words quaked out, a cross between teenage boy and wounded animal. Oh, man. He was doing an excellent job of handling it so far.

A crease formed between Cate’s slim eyebrows. “I know how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other, Luc. Four years, four months.” So like her to have the details exact.

He simply stared, not knowing how long they analyzed each other before he managed to make use of his voice again. “What are you doing here?”

“I—” Her hands clenched together in her lap. “I need to talk to you about something.”

Ah. This felt like safe ground. She must need something. Help, he could do. Love? No, ma’am. They’d tried that once. There’d been some immaturity on his part—he could admit that—but mostly he’d loved her, and she hadn’t believed him.

“What do you need?” Even after all of this time, after how they’d left things...he wouldn’t turn her away. But hopefully once she said what she needed to, she’d leave. Luc refused to ride that kind of emotional roller coaster again. Since Cate, he’d barely dated. It was easier to focus on work. He had a good life running the guest ranch with his sisters. He was fine on his own. Work might be a lonely companion, but it didn’t leave him shattered like Cate had.

“You’re going to need to sit down.” Her voice came out quiet. Beaten.

“That bad, huh?” Sadness and maybe even a little fear poured from her, and his pulse thundered with curiosity. “Come with me.”

When she stood, he led her down the hall to his office for some privacy since a staff member could come through at any moment. Cate shuffled along behind him as though he was directing her to an execution instead of a cushioned seat.

The small space housed a desk, two filing cabinets, framed photos of his family and the ranch in various stages over the years, plus the Top Twenty Guest Ranch Award they’d received the past two years running. Luc motioned for Cate to sit on the charcoal futon that took up one corner.

She sank down, eyes glazed, almost as though she was in shock.

For a moment Luc considered sitting next to her, but the air in the room was already on short supply. Unwilling to risk the close proximity, he perched back against the desk instead, stretching long legs out to hold him steady.

Cate wore a navy shirt with white capris and camel-colored sandals. And even though she looked put together—gorgeous, which he was nowhere near willing to admit—something was definitely off. Luc was almost positive moisture shone in her soft chestnut eyes.

The silence tortured him. “Just tell me, whatever it is.” How bad could it be? His mind raced with possibilities. Her parents had been pretty tough on her. Could it be something with them? But what would that have to do with him?

She sucked in a breath, apprehension flitting across her face before she opened her mouth and let loose. “My daughter needs to have surgery.” A hand momentarily pressed against her lips as though stemming the flow. “That wasn’t how I planned to say that.”

“You have a daughter?” Her revelation pierced like a stab wound. Luc would expect that Cate had moved on after him, despite the fact that he’d never accomplished the same himself. But even now, after all of this time, she still felt like his.

But she wasn’t. He searched her finger for a wedding ring, but the skin was barren.

Luc shook off the crushing blow. It didn’t matter. Their past—her decisions since then—had nothing to do with him. She had a sick daughter. He’d deal with that now. The rest? He’d wait until after she left to process.

“Do you need money?” Where was the father? Why was she coming to him for help?

“No. I need...you.”

He had to be missing something. It had been a long time since Cate had needed him. None of this made sense.

“I didn’t know until you’d left. I didn’t find out until you’d been gone for over a month that I was pregnant, and then I kept waiting for you to contact me, to try to fix things between us. But you didn’t.”

He resisted a growl. “You told me not to.” What she’d said...how she’d said it...he’d never forget it.

“I know what I told you.”

His gut bounded for his boots like a loose boulder on a steep hill as he processed the rest of what she’d said. I didn’t find out until you were gone that I was pregnant.

“Cate.” His voice was low and barely existent, but he managed to spit out the question rattling his mind while shock and disbelief ricocheted through him. “What are you saying?”

Remorse brimmed again, and Luc read the truth in the soulful depths before she spoke.

“I’m saying...I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. And that she’s yours.”

* * *

Catherine Malory thought she’d understood humility, but she’d never been brought so low as this moment. Who walked into the life of a man she’d lied to, hid a child from for years, and just blurted out that he was a father?

Luc would hate her. And she deserved it. In the beginning she’d felt vindicated keeping Ruby to herself—especially with the way Luc had left and how Cate had grown up being torn between her selfish parents. The feeling of being unimportant had never left her, like a disease that infiltrated her bones.

She’d been attempting to put Ruby first. To protect her. But Luc would never understand that.

He pushed off from the desk, a long, lean giant in a heather-brown Wilder Ranch T-shirt, faded jeans and boots. “I...have a daughter? You’re saying she’s mine?”

His words ached with a misery that resonated in her own chest. What had she done? “Yes. I’m so sorry. I know an apology isn’t enough. I just—”

“Where—” Luc scrubbed a hand through maple hair, though the short cut left little room for mussing. “Where is she?”

“She’s here.”

His head rolled back as if he’d taken a blow to the jaw.

“We came in, and your sister Emma was headed out to the barn. I remembered her from you talking about her, but of course she didn’t know me. She offered to show Ruby the horses after hearing I needed to talk to you. I tried to say no, but Ruby begged to go with her.”

And Cate had realized the conversation would be much easier without Ruby present. She hadn’t processed through that before she’d gotten in the car and trucked out here. But what would she have done with Ruby anyway? She didn’t have family to watch her. A friend would have, but Cate didn’t like to be separated from her daughter. Especially with the girl’s heart condition.

“Emma’s great with kids.” Luc’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Ru-Ruby will be fine.”

Their daughter’s name coming from his lips for the first time sent Cate scrambling to keep her careening emotions under control.

“Why are you here now after all of this time? What changed? And how do I know...?” Luc’s chest expanded. Cate could imagine his heart beating triple time, because hers felt as though it might explode. His heated hazel eyes held hers. “How do I know she’s mine?”

She’d expected it, even planned for it. Still, the sting surprised her. She stated Ruby’s birthday at the end of November. Eight months after Luc had hightailed it out of Denver. “When you first left I thought it was stress making me not feel well. Took me a while to figure it out. By then you were long gone.”

Every last doubt scrolled across his face.

“Ruby was born with an atrial septal defect.”

Luc’s hand splayed against his chest where she knew his own scars were. “Same as me.”

“As to why now, she needs to have the hole closed. And I couldn’t... If something happened to her and you didn’t know she’d even existed...” Cate would never have forgiven herself. She already couldn’t forgive herself for keeping them apart for the first three years and eight months of Ruby’s life.

The familiar rush of fear that came with thinking of Ruby’s surgery and anything happening to her precious daughter blurred her vision. “I knew you needed to meet her before her procedure.” God had been working on Cate’s hard heart, and He’d made that very clear. Almost as though she’d been given a deadline for fessing up.

Since she’d become a Christian about a year ago, Cate had experienced a number of lessons in growing her faith. Trusting God’s insistent nudging to tell Luc about Ruby had been the toughest one by far.

Luc scrubbed both hands across his face as though attempting to wake himself from a nightmare.

“We can do a test to prove you’re her father. Your name’s on her birth certificate.”

Arms dropped to his sides like leaded weights. “If you went so far as to do that...” His voice scraped like sandpaper. Worn. Weary. “Why didn’t you tell me right away?”

The question she didn’t know how to answer. I didn’t want to share wasn’t exactly a mature, adult response.

Luc knew about her childhood—and her parents’ divorce—but would he understand how much their actions had messed with her?

“Never mind.” The bite in his tone sent guilt skimming across her skin. “It’s too late for excuses. Nothing you say is going to matter right now anyway.”

“Okay.” Cate raised her hands. Whatever he wanted, she’d do.

Luc sank to the other end of the futon, miles of agony stretching between them.

“Does she need open-heart surgery?”

“No. Cardiac catheterization. They’ll close the hole with a device.”

His shoulders inched lower, his relief evident that Ruby would only need the less invasive procedure that would involve a catheter from her leg into her heart. Already, even with knowing as little as he did about Ruby and possibly not even believing he was her father, he felt for her. Didn’t want her to go through the same trauma he had as a child.

That spoke volumes about him.

“Did you tell Emma who the two of you were?”

“No. I think she thought I was a potential guest or that I was applying for a job.” Cate had been purposely evasive.

His audible sigh filled the small space. “That’s good. At least for now. Does...Ruby know about me?”

“Lately she’s been asking questions, and I’ve started answering them. She knows you exist, but she doesn’t know we’re here to see you.”

Eyes a mixture of fading green and brown leaves seared into her skin. She half expected to see smoke rise and smell scalded flesh. “In case I didn’t see her? If she’s my daughter, I would never walk away from her. I think you know that, Cate.”

Ouch. That truth stung, as did the if. Though she couldn’t blame him. Even with Ruby having the same heart defect as he did, why should he believe her? She hadn’t exactly proved herself trustworthy over the past four-plus years.

“Do you want to take some time? We can come back. Talk in a few days.” If someone had walked into her life and told her news of this magnitude, Cate would be in a puddle on the floor. But not Luc. How was he so calm? Why wasn’t he raging at her?

“I’m not sure time is going to change my shock. I want to meet her.”

She’d come here for this, but still, her stomach churned. “Are you sure you don’t need some time to process?”

He didn’t bother to answer. Just raised an eyebrow.

“Okay.” If only saying the word out loud would make it true. Cate could tell herself she was okay a million times, but she was afraid the feeling would never follow. “Then let’s go.”

Luc’s boots echoed down the hallway like a death knell on Cate’s conscience. Panicked prayers flitted through her mind as she attempted to keep up with his pace. Cate had been praying for Luc and Ruby since she’d figured out this meeting needed to take place, and she could only hope she hadn’t ruined either of their lives with her selfishness. Somehow she wanted healing. For all of them.

But today she simply prayed for survival. Good thing she believed in a gracious God. One who forgave her when she didn’t deserve His mercy. Because that was the kind of God a girl like her needed.

* * *

Luc should probably take some time to process like Cate had suggested, but since nothing made sense right now, he figured, why wait? If he let Cate and Ruby leave, he might never see them again. Cate already seemed so jittery and nervous that he feared losing them both forever. Not that he had them. He wasn’t naive. Cate could just as easily disappear from his life again, taking any chance of his knowing Ruby with her. And if she was his daughter, Luc wanted that opportunity.

If she was his daughter. Mind-boggling. How had his life gone from mundane to unrecognizable in a matter of minutes?

They headed down the lodge steps just as Emma exited the barn, a girl who must be Ruby next to her. The distance allowed Luc to study her. Short little thing—course, she’d only be three years and eight months if Cate was telling the truth. Ruby wore bright pink shorts and a multicolored T-shirt, her animated motions and whatever she said causing Emma to laugh.

After spotting Cate, she ran in their direction, his sister following behind.

Intuitively, Luc had known Ruby would be beautiful—how could she come from Cate and not be?—but the sight of her almost brought him to his knees. Her silky caramel hair was a shade or two lighter than her mother’s. Closer to his. He had the niggling sensation that if he rummaged for an old photograph, Ruby would look strikingly similar to his twin sister, Mackenzie, at this same age.

Ruby flung her arms around Cate’s legs, and Emma stopped in front of them. “Your girl is a spoonful of honey. We had a good time. Thanks for letting us hang.” His sister pulled her hair back and held it at the nape of her neck as a gust of wind wrapped around them.

“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.