Kitabı oku: «The Borrowed Groom»

Chapter One

“Terri!”

The roar of a frustrated man’s voice penetrated the warm happiness of Melissa Kennedy’s kitchen, bringing alarm to her guest’s face.

The young girl gasped and leaped to her feet. “That’s my dad!” She seemed prepared to race out of the house.

“I’ll invite him in,” Melissa said, motioning with her hand for Terri Hanson to sit back down. She didn’t like the look of apprehension on the child’s face. If this man abused his daughter, he’d have her to deal with.

After all, her dream, one she’d been able to realize when her aunt Beulah had died and left her and her sisters a fortune, was to protect children. She’d built her new home here on the family ranch, a few yards from the original homestead, so she’d have room for the foster children she hoped to care for.

“Mr. Hanson?” she called, after stepping out onto the porch, staring at the man standing in front of the nearby manager’s house, his hands cocked on his hips, his hat pulled low. “Terri’s here with me.”

At first she thought he wasn’t going to move. Then he covered the ground between them quickly. Though he was a handsome man, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, he wasn’t happy. The urge to back up a step or two struck her, but she held her ground.

He stopped at the bottom of the steps and touched his hat with his fingers. “Ma’am. Would you please ask Terri to come here?” His face was stern, unyielding, his gaze cold.

“I have a better idea. Why don’t you join us? I’m Melissa, Abby’s sister. Terri is having a snack with us. I think there are a few cookies left over.” She gave him her best smile. Abby, her older sister, had told her that she had hired Rob Hanson to manage the cattle operations of the family ranch.

“No, ma’am. My daughter, please.”

As if she were holding Terri hostage!

“I’ll be glad to call your daughter, Mr. Hanson, but I wanted to discuss a…a proposition with you.” One that had struck her when she saw how well Terri dealt with the two young foster children who had arrived last night. “It will be more comfortable if we hold our discussion inside.”

He stood there frowning at her, and she considered that he might stay that way until Terri appeared. She tried again. “I’m sorry I didn’t meet you and Terri yesterday, but I had business to take care of. Please let me extend a welcome to you now.”

“Thanks. What proposition?”

A man of few words.

“I think we should discuss it inside.” She could be as stubborn as the cowboy. Turning her back to him, she walked into the house, leaving the door open.

Damn! Just what he didn’t need. A woman. A soft, feminine woman, wanting something.

The last time he’d given in to a woman’s softness, let her have her way, he’d been left with a three-month-old baby to raise. He’d vowed then and there to keep his distance.

But Rob Hanson liked his new job. Abby Kennedy seemed a fair woman, a woman who thought like a man. He needed a place to settle down for a while, give Terri some stability after uprooting her. He didn’t want to leave.

So he’d best make amends with the boss’s sister.

He strode up the steps, across the porch and into the house, removing his Stetson as he did so. He was immediately struck by the homeyness of the place. The kind of home a man dreams about. Cool, quiet, inviting.

This was worse than he’d thought it would be.

“In here, Mr. Hanson,” that warm voice called, luring him deeper and deeper into the trap.

The kitchen was large, bright, filled with mouthwatering scents…and three girls. He stared at his daughter, his gaze conveying his displeasure.

“Hi, Dad. Melissa invited me to have cookies and milk with her and the girls, and I didn’t think you’d mind.” Terri spoke quickly, obviously hoping to get her excuses in before he ordered her back to their new house.

“I told her I thought it would be all right since I’m Abby’s sister,” his hostess added.

A lot of things sprang to mind to tell the woman, but he decided it would be safest to ignore her. If he could. She was mighty distracting. “I was worried about you,” he said to his daughter. The emotion, the panic he’d experienced when he found his daughter missing, burred his voice.

Terri slipped from her chair and ran to slide her arms around his waist and give him a hug. She thought she was getting too old for hugs these days, but he wasn’t. He still needed to hold her close.

“Sorry, Dad,” she whispered.

“I know, baby. It’s all right,” he whispered in return.

Over Terri’s shoulder, the two little girls stared at him, scared looks on their faces.

“I didn’t mean to growl so,” he said both to them and his hostess.

Terri pulled away. “This is my dad,” she said.

He loved the pride in her voice. He wasn’t sure he deserved it, but it kept him standing a little straighter.

“Let me introduce Jessica and Mary Ann,” Melissa Kennedy said, moving to stand beside the two girls. “They’re staying with me.”

Rob said his hellos, adding a smile to convince them he wasn’t a bad guy. He didn’t succeed.

“Terri, would you mind taking the girls upstairs and helping them wash up? I think they have chocolate all over their faces.”

“We didn’t mean to!” one of them protested.

Rob turned sharp eyes on his hostess. Was she one of those neat freaks, not wanting a thing out of place?

Melissa bent over and kissed first one child’s cheek and then the other little girl’s. “Of course you didn’t. I made messy cookies. And it won’t take a minute to clean up.” Even as she smiled at the girls, she looked at Terri, a question in her gaze.

“Sure. It’s okay, isn’t it, Dad? It won’t take long.”

“Okay.”

The children went eagerly with Terri. He didn’t know if it was his daughter’s charm or fear of him that motivated them, but they were quickly out of the room.

Melissa gestured to one of the chairs at the table. Reluctantly, he moved to it and stood waiting for her to join him.

She placed a new plate of cookies on the table. “Did you want milk with the cookies? Or I have soda or coffee.”

“Milk will be fine.”

He wondered if he could resist the cookies. Home-baked cookies were rare in his life. But they were part of the trap. The scent of fresh cookies laced with chocolate drifted up to him and he knew resistance wasn’t going to happen.

Melissa set a glass of milk in front of him, then pulled out the chair next to him and sat down.

After he lowered himself onto the chair next to her, she nudged the plate closer to the empty saucer she’d given him. “Help yourself.”

Maybe if he only ate one it wouldn’t be so bad.

She leaned toward him and he discovered something more tempting than warm, homemade cookies. Green eyes, laced with dark lashes, faced him. Beneath them was a soft, kissable mouth, faintly pink. Smooth skin, framed by a halo of dark curls, added to the picture.

He stopped, with the cookie halfway to his mouth. Putting it back down, he said carefully, “What is it you wanted to talk to me about?” He had to get out of there—quick.

“I wanted to offer Terri a job.”

He stood, reaching for his hat where he’d hung it on the chair. “My daughter doesn’t need to work.” He kept his voice polite but firm. Then he made his escape.

He’d almost made it out of the kitchen, ready to shout for Terri, when Melissa caught hold of his arm.

“Mr. Hanson, let me explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain. I don’t know what she told you, but Terri’s only twelve.” He glared at her.

“I know that. But I need help with the kids, and I thought she might be bored this summer, since she’s new to the area.”

She needed help with two little kids? Yeah, right. She expected someone else to do the work while she sat around watching television, he guessed. He hated those kinds of women. “Sorry. You find someone else to be your slave. It won’t be my daughter.”

She seemed taken aback by his vehemence. Good. He didn’t want anyone taking Terri’s childhood away from her.

“You don’t understand. It wouldn’t be all day. I could hire her for three or four hours a day.”

“Hire me?” Terri said, tumbling down the stairs in excitement, clearly having overheard the woman. “You want to offer me a job?”

Rob silently groaned. He knew what was coming. “Now, Terri, it’s time for us to get out of Ms. Kennedy’s way. Let’s go.”

“But, Dad—”

“Mr. Hanson!”

“Thank you, ma’am, for your kindness. Terri.” He spoke his daughter’s name with all the authority he possessed. He knew she wouldn’t want to go. Already she’d been taken in by the woman’s trap.

But not him.

Hell! He hadn’t even tasted one of those cookies.

“Yes, Dad,” Terri said, her chin dropping.

He hated to disappoint her. But it was for her own good. He slapped his Stetson onto his head, took hold of Terri’s hand, and led her out of that den of motherhood designed to capture the unwary.

Melissa spent the entire afternoon thinking about Rob Hanson and his daughter.

If she hadn’t seen the way he’d softened, the way he’d wrapped his arms around Terri when she’d hugged him, Melissa might think the man was an ogre.

But she’d seen the love in his eyes.

So, he hadn’t understood her offer. Somehow he suspected her of wanting to take advantage of Terri. Instead she’d had the girl’s best interest at heart.

Well, she’d benefit from Terri’s working for her, of course. But a twelve-year-old girl, stuck on her own all summer, not knowing anyone, would be bored to tears. And lonesome.

She wanted to help Terri if she could. But most of all, she wanted to fulfill her dream. When their aunt Beulah had taken her and her two sisters in after they were orphaned as children, she’d saved them from what they considered a fate worse than death.

Social Services had intended to split the sisters up, placing them in three foster homes. After the tragedy of their parents’ deaths, they hadn’t thought they could bear losing each other, too.

After sixteen years together on the ranch, where Aunt Beulah had taught them about life, she’d died last summer. And they’d been shocked to discover Aunt Beulah had had a lot of money, invested when the oil boom had struck Oklahoma.

The three sisters, her, Abby and Beth, the youngest, had decided to keep the ranch, but each sister would be free to follow her dream. Beth had thought she wanted to be a barrel racer, following the rodeo circuit.

Melissa smiled. That dream had been exchanged for Jed Davis. He’d been Beth’s instructor in barrel racing. Now they were man and wife, living across the road, on Ellen Wisner’s old farm. Ellen had come to work for the Kennedy sisters as housekeeper. After buying it from her, Jed was turning it into a highly respected training center for rodeo horses and riders.

Abby seemed content running the ranch. She worked hard, riding all day and studying books on ranching into the night. Melissa worried that she might not be happy, but Abby had the right to make her own choices.

Melissa had always been more interested in home-making than ranching. She loved to cook, to clean, to decorate. She had known immediately what she wanted to do with her share of the inheritance. After finding Ellen to replace her at the homestead, she’d set about building her dream house near Aunt Beulah’s home.

Then she’d gone to Social Services to apply as a foster parent. She wanted to take in siblings, like her and her sisters, who otherwise might be separated. She wanted to do for other children what Aunt Beulah had done for them.

Charles Graham, the local head of Social Services, however, didn’t like the idea of a single woman taking in children. Though he couldn’t legally refuse her, she knew she’d have to struggle with his prejudices.

When Jessica and Mary Ann Whitney had been abandoned, he’d had no option but to give them to Melissa because he had no other openings. So her dream was coming true.

With Terri’s help, the two little girls would relax, feel more at home. And if she was successful with these two children, maybe Mr. Graham would have more faith in Melissa’s abilities. She was having to play it by ear with the children because they didn’t have any background information. They’d been abandoned by people who were apparently passing through town.

It hadn’t taken Melissa long to figure out the little girls had been mistreated. Their fear of punishment if they made any noise or caused any trouble made her want to cry.

Only when Terri had joined them had the two little girls smiled and relaxed a little.

After dinner, she bathed the little girls, who seemed surprised that they would take another bath so soon after last night’s, and tucked them into bed. After reading them a story, she had them repeat the simple prayer she’d learned as a child. Then she tucked the cover under their chins.

“Do you remember meeting Ellen today?” she asked, naming the housekeeper at Abby’s house.

They nodded, their eyes big.

“She’s going to come stay with you for a few minutes while I go talk to Terri’s daddy, to see if she can come play with us again.”

The girls’ eyes grew even bigger. Jessica raised up on one elbow and whispered, “He’s big.”

Melissa blinked. “Well, yes, he is, but—”

“He might hurt you.”

She took in a deep breath. “Did your daddy hurt you?”

Mary Ann scooted closer to her sister. Jessica stared at her. Finally she whispered, “He said we were bad.”

“Oh, darling,” Melissa whispered, leaning over to hug both girls. “Your daddy was wrong. And Mr. Hanson isn’t going to hurt me. You want Terri to come play, don’t you?”

Both girls nodded.

“Then don’t worry about me. Ellen will be here if you need anything, and I’ll come see you when I get back.” She figured they’d be asleep, but she hoped her promise would keep them from worrying.

She returned to the kitchen to retrieve the plate of cookies she’d offered Rob Hanson earlier. He’d seemed interested, but her question about Terri had put him off.

“Melissa? May I come in?”

Melissa hurried to let Ellen in. “Thanks for coming, Ellen. The girls are still a little nervous about being here.”

“No problem. Are they in bed?”

“Yes. I promise I won’t be long.”

Darkness came late to Texas in summer. It was almost nine o’clock and the sun had gone, but a soft evening glow had settled over the land. It was Melissa’s favorite time of the day.

She rapped softly on the door of the manager’s house. It hadn’t been used in a while, and she wondered how the man and his daughter had settled in. If she hadn’t had the girls arrive, she would’ve offered to help clean it up, but she suspected Ellen had helped out.

The door swung open and Rob Hanson stared at her.

“Mr. Hanson, I wondered if I might talk to you.”

He wanted to send her on her way. She could read that message on his handsome face.

He said quietly, “Terri’s already asleep.”

“Good. We could talk out here, on the porch.” She waited patiently for him to respond, but she worried that he might reject her overture.

With an abrupt nod, he stepped out and closed the door behind him. Using a gentlemanly gesture, he waved toward the steps.

As she sat down, she held the plate, covered with foil, on her lap. She’d said nothing about her peace offering, but she noted his gaze on it.

“You didn’t get a chance to have a cookie today. I brought some for you to eat later.”

He frowned at her. “Lady, I can’t be bought with cookies.”

She arched one eyebrow. “I never thought you could, Mr. Hanson.” Even frowning, the man was handsome. Did he realize it? She figured he did. Most men knew when they appealed to women.

“What do you want?” he asked abruptly, shifting away from her on the step.

“I wanted to explain my job offer to Terri.”

“We’re not interested.” He stared straight ahead of him, refusing to look at her.

“I think you didn’t understand my reasons for wanting to hire Terri. She’s—”

“You don’t want to look after your own kids. That’s why you wanted to hire her, and I don’t approve.”

Melissa was slow to anger. She’d always been the peacemaker in her family. But this man was beginning to grate on her. She was tired of being accused of something. She wasn’t sure what.

“Mr. Hanson, first of all, those are not my children.”

He slewed around to stare at her. “Then why are they living with you?”

“I’m their foster mother.”

“I thought you were single. Miss Abby said—”

“What has that got to do with anything?”

“Foster mothers usually have foster fathers.”

She felt her cheeks heating up but she refused to look away from his hard stare. “Most of them do. I don’t.”

“Why did you volunteer if you don’t want to do the work?”

She slowly counted to ten, keeping her breathing even. “Mr. Hanson, I have no problem with the work. But Jessica and Mary Ann relaxed for the first time today when Terri joined us. I thought if she came over every day and played with them, they would feel more comfortable. And I thought Terri might enjoy it, too.” She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for the man’s apology.

Rob wished she wouldn’t cross her arms like that. It brought attention to a certain part of her anatomy he’d rather ignore.

“Well?” she finally prompted.

“Well, what?” He’d gotten distracted and wasn’t sure what she expected him to say.

“Aren’t you going to apologize?”

“Apologize for what?”

She glared at him, but he scarcely noticed. She’d changed from her jeans into a soft pink dress that framed her dark prettiness, and he could barely keep his mind on their conversation.

“For accusing me of wanting to mistreat Terri. As if I would!”

He shrugged his shoulders, trying to force his thoughts back to his daughter. She’d talked a lot at dinner about Melissa Kennedy and the two little girls. He knew she’d like to go back over there again.

“She has chores to do.”

“Maybe you’re the one who mistreats her,” she challenged.

He leaped to his feet. She’d touched his sore spot. “Ms. Kennedy, you can take your cookies and your softness and trot right back to your perfect house. I don’t need some do-gooder telling me how to raise my daughter!”

She rose to stand in front of him, almost nose to nose, except she was shorter than him. “All I’m trying to do is help three little girls be happy! Don’t you care about Terri’s happiness?”

“Of course I do!” he yelled. “I love my daughter!”

“Then how can you condemn her to sit in this house all alone for the rest of the summer? Even you, a hardheaded male, can see how unhappy she would be.”

“A hardheaded—” he sputtered, unable to finish.

“What would it hurt for your daughter to spend some time with us?” Her voice softened and she added, “I promise she’ll enjoy herself.”

The difficulty was, he’d already realized Terri was going to be bored. And he hadn’t known what to do about it. Now he was being offered a solution, but he didn’t want to accept it. He didn’t want his daughter falling into the trap of thinking she had a…a…a mother figure.

Once before, a woman had courted him through Terri. His daughter had been badly hurt when things hadn’t worked out.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he muttered.

“What?” Melissa asked, leaning closer to him.

He stepped back. “Three hours a day?”

Her face brightened, as she realized she’d won. He backed up again. There was so much warmth coming from her, he figured a man would never be cold around her.

“She could come for lunch every day. There’s no point in her having to fix a meal for herself when it’s so easy to add one to our lunch. Then, I’ll make sure she’s home by four. Will that be okay?”

She was practically bouncing on her toes, beaming at him. Lord have mercy, what had he done?