Daddy Lessons

“Yes, that’s the plan. If Eddie doesn’t run off again.”

“Good luck,” Jodie said with a smile, then turned and walked out of the garage.

Good luck. Kate knew she’d need it to avoid Luke Simon for the rest of her stay in Ranger Springs. Or, if she got a teaching job here, for the rest of her life. She didn’t want that flustered feeling, she especially didn’t want to get involved with a man, and she extra-especially didn’t want to encourage Eddie’s interest in what should clearly be off-limits—exotic animals and a Harley-riding Californian.

With a sigh, Kate added detergent and started the wash cycle.

THE FOLLOWING Saturday morning after breakfast, Eddie excused himself to play soldier in the backyard. Kate didn’t approve of the game, but Travis had played it with him after Eddie had seen coverage of the war on television. They both claimed that Kate, being a “girl,” just didn’t understand “guy things.”

Kate settled into her couch with her second cup of coffee and listened to Eddie’s new toy gun’s ratta-tat-tat as he ran from tree to tree. He should have a playmate. She hoped he made friends at the elementary school. Perhaps when she got a permanent job, she’d rent a house in town where there were other children his age. She didn’t want her son growing up lonely.

Pushing aside her misgivings about Eddie playing soldier, she picked up a professional teachers organization’s magazine and turned to an article she’d tagged. During her years of marriage, she hadn’t kept up with educational standards and was sadly behind in understanding funding issues, certification requirements and classroom trends. Before long she was immersed in her reading. When she turned the page, she heard…silence.

The ratta-tat-tat had stopped. There was no sound of her son scurrying from tree to tree. Nothing but the chirping of birds.

She hurried out the door onto the small landing at the top of the stairs and called, “Eddie!”

Nothing.

She ran down the steps, calling him again. And again. No Eddie.

Travis stepped outside onto his deck, baby Marsha in his arms. “What’s wrong?”

“I think Eddie has run off again.”

“If you wait, I’ll take you in the pickup.” Travis kept an old truck for driving across his rolling pastures to feed his longhorns, especially in the winters.

“No, he was just outside playing. I think I can catch up with him. Then I’m grounding him until he’s thirty.”

Travis unclipped his cell phone from his waistband. “Take this in case you need to call.”

“Thanks. I keep forgetting mine.”

“You should always have a cell phone with you, Kate. Or a walkie-talkie. I’ll get some for us. Be careful.”

“It’s just a pasture.”

“I know.”

She rushed off, grateful she was wearing a comfortable pair of jeans, a turtleneck and sneakers, her “suburban mom” uniform. At the edge of the backyard she discovered Eddie’s empty juice box. Following the path two little feet had worked into the winter-dry grass wasn’t difficult. Eddie had obviously walked this way many times. Too many times, she silently corrected herself.

By the time she arrived at the wire fence separating Travis’s property from Luke Simon’s ranch, she was out of breath. “I’ve got to start exercising again,” she whispered as she placed her hands on her knees and breathed deeply. Keeping up with one six-year-old was difficult enough, but soon she’d be charged with handling about twenty energetic elementary students on a daily basis. If she got the job.

To her left she heard the faint sound of her son singing his favorite song. Relief swept through her, because although she didn’t doubt that he’d once again migrated to see the odd animals—and their equally mysterious owner—she was now sure he was safe.

She’d just glimpsed his red shirt when the roar of a powerful engine disturbed the nature sounds. Looking toward Luke Simon’s driveway, she saw a large silver crew-cab pickup move toward the run-down ranch house.

Curious, knowing she shouldn’t be, she jogged to the row of trees dividing the pasture and the driveway.

“Luke!” a female voice called from the truck as the engine died. “Where are you?”

A door banged shut. A few seconds later, Luke appeared, dressed in tight, faded jeans and a white T-shirt. His long hair was disheveled and his feet bare.

Kate sucked in a breath. He looked like a movie star. A Greek god. Stop staring at him, she told herself. Concentrate on your son.

Eddie was crouched behind a large oak, also watching the group that had arrived in the noisy pickup, and seemingly unaware that his mother had followed him.

“What the hell are you guys doing here?”

Luke’s clearly disbelieving tone carried through the trees. Just then, a big-busted blonde bounced from the truck, giggling as she jogged toward him. It’s a wonder she doesn’t seriously hurt herself, Kate thought, glancing down at her own modest B-cups.

“Luke! We missed you so much that we had to visit.”

“I can’t believe you moved to the middle of nowhere!” an equally well-endowed redhead squealed, also running over to him. Both women hugged him, one on each side, until Kate thought he might be crushed by silicone. Or whatever doctors were implanting now.

It was Baywatch on the Prairie.

“You don’t like my ranch?” Luke asked.

“It’s so…rural!” the blonde exclaimed.

A California-style cowboy eased around the front of the truck and grinned. Dressed in new jeans and a flashy snap-front shirt, he “wasn’t from around here,” as they said in town. “I couldn’t keep them away,” he said.

“I just hadn’t expected to see you guys in Texas.”

“We’re working on a movie just outside of Austin. We’ve got today and tomorrow off while they add new sets, so here we are,” the man said.

“I’m not exactly set up for guests,” Luke replied.

The blonde hugged him so tight she nearly knocked him off balance. Kate almost snorted at the ridiculous display. But then, Luke was probably used to that kind of attention from that type of woman.

“That’s okay, honey. We can sleep anywhere.”

The redhead giggled. The California cowboy laughed and slapped Luke on the back, and then headed toward the house.

Eddie chose that moment to dart from his hiding place, across the driveway toward the small pasture where the two zebras, their long fuzzy ears twitching, sized up the newcomers.

Luke and the others turned at the sound of Eddie’s tennis shoes crunching the gravel. Kate cringed, knowing she’d have to reveal herself, hoping they didn’t assume she’d been lurking in the bushes, watching the tawdry scene. Which of course was exactly what she’d been doing.

She made a lot of noise rustling bushes, then called out, “Eddie! You come back here right now!”

All eyes were on her as she stumbled out of the tree line, got her balance and dashed across the drive. She hated doing this. Making a scene in front of Luke Simon’s guests. His gorgeous, movie-people guests.

“Sorry for the interruption,” Kate said, breathless. “I’ll just get Eddie and we’ll be gone.”

“Well, aren’t you cute?” The blonde peeled herself off Luke and turned to Eddie, perhaps fifteen feet away near the fence, frozen because he knew he’d been discovered. The little scamp.

Kate rushed over, putting her arm around him before the blonde could crush him to her unnaturally large chest. No telling what trauma would be revealed when he was an adult!

The group followed the blonde until they were all standing there, staring at Kate and Eddie as though they were oddities.

“These animals can be dangerous,” Luke said to Eddie in a surprisingly patient and focused voice. “I told you before that you can’t come over here by yourself.”

“He’s not by himself,” Kate said. “I’m with him now, and I’m taking him home, and he’s not going to bother you again, are you, Eddie?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Oh, isn’t that cute?” the blonde gushed again, reaching for Eddie. “He’s so polite.”

Kate pulled him behind her. “Excuse me. We’ll be going now.”

“Well, sheesh, lady, we’re not going to contaminate him,” the redhead said.

Luke frowned, but Kate didn’t wait for the scene to get any uglier. She grasped Eddie’s hand and said, “Apologize to Mr. Simon.”

“I’m sorry I tried to see the zebras again.”

Luke nodded.

“And I’m sorry we interrupted your…party,” Kate added. She tugged her son across the drive, toward the cover of the trees and the safety of her brother’s ranch.

LATE THAT AFTERNOON, Luke excused himself from his unexpected—and frankly, unwanted—guests to take care of a little business. Or so he told them. He needed to get away for a few minutes. Their arrival, combined with Eddie’s surprise visit and Kate’s even more surprising arrival, had left him shaken. And Kate’s snobby reaction to his friends—more like former coworkers—had clearly defined their differences. She didn’t even want Marlena to touch her son.

Kate would be shocked if she knew how often Luke had thought about touching her. Not that he had any right to think about the woman. It was apparent she was one of those women who never associated with a working guy, and her behavior today had driven that point home. Her brother was rich, and she’d obviously grown up dripping in money. She wore classic clothes and drove a sensible car and had a polite son who just wanted to be a kid.

Well, the hell with her. If she was too good for them, she could just stay on her side of the fence.

Paul, Shelby and Marlena were high-energy, high-maintenance people. When he’d worked on a movie set with them, they’d been tolerable, even fun. Here in the quiet of the ranch, they seemed as out of place as a…well, a zebra in Texas.

As he walked back from the mailbox at the end of his driveway, he speculated that maybe they’d want to go out later. He’d been to Shultze’s Roadhouse several times for a beer and a burger and found the place entertaining. The jukebox played country and western, and Texas-oriented beer signs hung on the walls. Marlena and Shelby would gush at the “authentic” decor. As soon as he sorted the mail, he’d recommend they visit the local hangout. Without him.

Several bills, a handful of catalogs—nothing unusual. Then a carefully hand-printed address caught his attention. He didn’t know anyone in Florida.

He slit the envelope and pulled out a letter. A photo—the kind taken by school photographers—fell to the desk. He picked it up and looked at the little girl’s face. A sense of déjà vu rushed over him, as though he’d seen her before. But he knew he hadn’t, so after studying her sun-streaked dark brown hair and amazingly mature brown eyes, he leaned the photo against the lamp and began to read.

“Dear Mr. Simon,” the letter began, neatly printed like the envelope. “You don’t know me, but nearly nine years ago you knew my sister, Shawna Jacobs.”

Luke’s heart skipped a beat as he remembered his late mother’s former coworker. Shawna had been a pretty, helpful and sympathetic friend when he’d needed one, lending a hand as he sorted through his mother’s belongings after her untimely death. Comfort had turned to passion, and for a week or so he’d shared Shawna’s bed.

He’d been young, the sex fumbling but energetic. She’d claimed she was on the pill. He hadn’t given the consequences a second thought.

He looked back at the photo. No. It couldn’t be….

Chapter Two

Luke continued reading with a mixture of excitement and dread. “My sister tried to contact you after you went away, but she couldn’t find you in California because she thought your name was Moretti, the same as your mother’s. I just found out your real last name and tracked you down on the Internet.”

Luke’s mother, Angela Moretti, had never married. His father, Ronald Lucas Simon, already had a family when he seduced and deserted her. The bastard.

“This will come as a big surprise, but you have a daughter. Brittany is eight years old and in the third grade. Right now, she needs you because Shawna is dead and I’m driving long haul starting in a month.”

No! his mind screamed. Shawna might have been on the pill, but no birth control was one hundred percent foolproof. She could have had his baby. It was possible.

He wished Shawna were alive to ask. He wished he’d thought of her after driving away from his mother’s apartment nearly nine years ago. He was sorry Shawna was dead, but the truth was, she hadn’t meant much to him. He felt especially bad about that now, considering she’d had a child. Maybe his child, he thought, shaking his head.

He knew nothing about children, except that they were frequently loud and often unruly. Just look at Eddie Wooten, who kept disobeying his mother and coming across the fence. Luke had no idea how to stop that child from indulging his fascination with the ponies and zebras. How in the world could he relate to an eight-year-old girl?

Plus, this ranch was barely livable, except for the animals. Their barn was repaired, their fences secure. They had plenty of food and fresh water. But a human, a little girl? He didn’t know how to feed a child, much less bathe and dress one for school.

He may be a father, but he was nowhere near being a dad.

Luke pushed away his panic and continued reading. “You’ll need to get all this approved by a judge. I’ve already contacted the court here in Florida, since my parents are both dead and I don’t have any other relatives. I guess you’ll also want to meet Brittany. I’m hoping you can come to Florida right away.” Shawna’s brother, Andy Jacobs, gave his home and cell phone numbers and asked Luke to call him as soon as he got the letter. He closed by asking Luke not to waste time; the long-haul trucking job he’d taken started in a month and Brittany had nowhere else to go.

If Luke didn’t claim his daughter, she’d become a ward of the state. A foster child. Unwanted. Deserted by the only two people who had cared for her.

He wouldn’t let that happen. Not if she were really his child.

Clutching the letter, Luke sat down on a desk chair that creaked in protest. Of all the things that could have happened to him, of all the twists and turns of his life, this was the most incredible.

He’d never thought about having children. And if he ever did decide to, he certainly would have expected them far, far into the future. Not this month, on a ranch that was barely functional. Not a girl, for pity’s sake, and one already eight years old.

He didn’t know what to do. Except that he would go to Florida to see her, and if she was indeed his daughter, he would claim her as his own.

Paul, Shelby and Marlena burst through the door, laughing and chatting, bringing Luke back to the present. He placed the letter, printed side down, on the desk.

“Say, we’re getting hungry. Is there a place to go out around here? Beer’s on me,” Paul said.

“Shultze’s Roadhouse is on the state highway, just a couple of miles from here,” Luke replied, still seated. He glanced again at Brittany’s photo, leaning against the lamp. She resembled him, he realized. That’s why she’d seemed so familiar. She had his coloring and his eyes. Her mouth and wavy hair were Shawna’s.

“Hey, who’s that?” Shelby asked.

“She’s…that’s Brittany.”

“Cute kid. A relative?”

Luke looked up at his friends. They were completely out of place here in Ranger Springs, just as he was completely out of place as a father. But still, that’s what he was—most probably—and he’d darn well better get used to it.

“She’s my daughter,” he said simply.

“Oh. Oh, wow.” Marlena appeared almost as stunned as he felt. “I didn’t know you had a kid.”

“A daughter. She’s eight.” He picked up the photo and stared at Brittany’s image again, a slow smile forming. “I didn’t know either, until today.” He got up from the chair and turned to Paul. “You guys go on without me. I have to get my ranch ready for a little girl.”

“You sure?” Paul asked. “We could have a good time.”

“I’m sure. It’s been good seeing you again, but things have changed.” He looked down at Brittany’s photo again, thinking about his ranch, his responsibilities, and his vow to live a quiet, low-key life. “Everything has changed.”

AS SHE STOOD on her small balcony watching the sun set over the trees between her brother’s property and Luke Simon’s ranch, Kate mentally kicked herself for her earlier behavior. She’d come across as an incompetent mother for not keeping Eddie at home, not to mention a klutz as she stumbled out of the tree line and into Luke’s little party. They might even think she was a snoop, since she had been listening and watching a private rendezvous. To top it off, she’d offended the grasping Baywatch-like blonde who had almost gotten her hands on Eddie. Kate couldn’t believe that when she’d faced Luke Simon up close, her brain had just stopped working, unable to communicate anything intelligent to her mouth. How she had to have seemed to him and his visitors!

Okay, so Luke Simon’s friends’ opinions of her shouldn’t matter all that much. But she really didn’t want to offend him, especially because Eddie consistently violated the neighborly boundaries. Having a child continually ignore his warnings, plus having that child’s mother invade his privacy, wasn’t any way to welcome a newcomer to town.

Not that she should be a one-woman welcoming committee. She certainly wasn’t on par with the other women in his life. The blonde and the redhead were stunning. They might not be natural beauties, but they were gorgeous nonetheless. He probably knew plenty of Hollywood actors and actresses, and they were far removed from regular people in a small town—except her sister-in-law, Jodie, of course, who was both famous and beautiful.

But Kate knew she was an ordinary-looking divorced mother, one who was barely coping on her own. The last thing—the very last thing—she should do was dwell on her unwilling fascination with their bad-boy neighbor.

Okay, maybe now he appeared more like a cowboy than a biker, but he projected a devil-may-care persona that was completely foreign to her. She’d never known anyone like Luke Simon. She’d never dated anyone remotely as daring and attractive as him. She’d always gone for proper and dependable—and look how well that had turned out!—so why did she think of him so often?

Probably because she was at the point in her life where she’d been forced to change. If Ed hadn’t misused his clients’ money and had an affair, she would have continued with the marriage, at least for Eddie’s sake. Her marriage to Ed hadn’t been even close to exciting in the last few years, but she’d grown accustomed to the blandness and the comfort. Now she was suddenly single and broke, over thirty and starting a new life, and why wouldn’t she be attracted to Luke Simon? He was, like a movie star or fictional character, compelling from afar. She had no intention of getting any closer than the boundary of his fence.

With a sigh, Kate pushed away from the railing at the top of the stairs. The sun was setting, the day almost over, and she had to talk to Eddie about his behavior. She had to make him understand that fences were important barriers—for children and their mothers!

AFTER PAUL, SHELBY and Marlena left the ranch for Shultze’s Roadhouse and to hopefully find a place to stay for the night, Luke got on the phone to check for flights into the Orlando area. Brittany lived in a small town nearby the theme-oriented center of Florida. He wondered if she liked Mickey and the gang, or if she cared more for the new characters he saw on television. Or if she liked video games or stuffed animals more, if she went to movies or would rather play outside.

Maybe there were things kids did that he couldn’t even imagine. He knew nothing of those new MP3 players, for example, and could barely operate a computer. There wasn’t much of a need for high-tech skills in animal training and stunt work. He happily left that stuff to the business types who invested in horses or breeding stock and the movie special-effects folks.

He picked up the phone and dialed his friend Hank, whose land adjoined Travis Whitaker’s to the west. Luke breathed a sigh of relief when Hank answered after the second ring.

“Hank, it’s Luke.”

“What’s up? You getting your zoo all settled in?”

“Yeah, the animals are doing great. Something else has come up, though, and I need your help.”

“Sure, buddy. What can I do for you?”

“I’m going to need some repairs and changes made to the house over here, and I’m going to need them fast. I don’t have any idea who to call.”

“What’s the rush?”

Luke ran a hand around his aching neck. The tension was getting to him. “I just got some news that changed my plans.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “Apparently I have an eight-year-old daughter.”

“Wow. How did that happen?”

Luke chuckled. “The usual way. One man, one woman, faulty birth control.” He’d believed Shawna was on the pill when he’d revealed he had no protection. Now he wasn’t sure what to think.

“Yeah, but why didn’t you know until now?”

“Shawna was a friend of my mother. She assumed my last name was the same as my mother’s—Moretti—and telling her any different would have required an explanation of the worthless piece of—well, just say the man my mother thought she was madly in love with. So I kept quiet and figured I never would see or hear from Shawna again. And I didn’t.” Luke sighed. “I got a letter from her brother today, then I talked to him on the phone. Shawna died in a car accident recently and he’s been taking care of her daughter. Er, my daughter. He’s going to start a new job and can’t look after her any longer.”

“Wow, that’s some story. You must have been shocked.”

“Believe me, I was. I haven’t thought about Shawna, to tell you the truth. We only spent about a week together right after my mother died. She helped me sort through my mother’s things and we got close. Her brother said she tried to contact me, which I believe. Shawna was a nice woman.” He felt bad that she’d died, especially never getting to tell him the news that she’d gotten pregnant.

“So, are you sure the girl is yours?”

“Pretty sure. She looks a lot like me.”

“Still, it might be a good idea to get some tests done.”

“I will, once I go to Florida. I’ll check with her family doctor. I’m sure we can get it done there.”

“Okay. Good thinking.” Luke heard Hank sigh. “So now you’re going to raise your daughter, if she’s really yours?”

“Yes, I am.” Every time Luke looked at the photo, he became more convinced that Brittany was his child. “That’s why I need the house fixed up. I’ve repaired the barn and fences, but not the main house. It’s in pretty sad shape.”

“Yeah, it is, which is why you got it cheap.”

“Right. Personally, I’ve stayed in worse places, and at least the plumbing and electrical work, but I have to get it up to ‘little girl’ standards since I’ll have to be approved by the court to get custody of Brittany. And everything has to be done in a month.”

“I see what you mean. Well, I can recommend Nate Branson, Jimmy Mack’s brother. He just moved back to town due to all the construction in the area. Gina Mae Summers, the Realtor, told me he does good work.”

“I’m having trouble keeping up with all these folks. Jimmy Mack is…?”

“Jimmy Mack Branson. The hardware store owner. We met him when you bought the supplies for the tack room.”

“Oh, right.” Hank had taken him around the town and introduced him to a dozen people, but the ones he remembered most clearly were Kate Wooten and her son, hovered over by her brother Travis Whitaker. “Should I call Jimmy Mack to get in touch with his brother?”

“Why don’t you call Gina? Her office number is listed, and you won’t be bothering her if you call late either, because she’s single.”

“Single? Are you matchmaking? Because I’ve got to tell you, the last thing on my mind right now is women.” Well, any woman except Kate, who kept creeping into his thoughts despite her obvious caution—maybe even dislike—of him and his friends. “I’m not about to mess up my relationship with my daughter by dating any woman.”