Cassie's Cowboy Daddy

“Funny you should mention that,” Ginny said, grinning. “Hank and I were talking just this morning about how much you’ll have to do to get things straightened up.”

“Tell me about it,” Cassie said dryly. She sneezed again. “This place has dust bunnies the size of buffalo.”

Ginny nodded. “And you’re going to need help. If you don’t mind putting up with me for another week or two, I think I’ll call the office and ask for more time off.”

“Oh, Ginny, I hate for you to use your vacation helping me clean.” Cassie took the cap, tie and sunglasses from the moose’s head. “But I’m not going to turn you down if you really want to stay.”

“Good.” Ginny’s grin was a little too bright, considering the task before them. “I’ll go find Hank and ask him if he’d mind moving some of this heavy furniture so we can clean under it.”

Ginny couldn’t hide the color in her cheeks or the sparkle in her eyes that had nothing whatsoever to do with thoughts of cleaning. It did, however, have everything to do with finding Hank.

Cassie truly felt sorry for her best friend. An incurable romantic, Ginny still believed in finding her knight in shining armor and living happily-ever-after.

But thanks to her late husband, Stan, that was a myth Cassie had abandoned a long time ago.

A knot of disappointment formed in her stomach at the thought of the man she’d vowed to cherish until death. When they married, Cassie had taken for granted that Stan would settle down and work with her to build a future. Unfortunately, that hadn’t been the case.

They’d been married only a few months when Cassie realized that it had been Stan’s self-centeredness, not immaturity, that prevented him from accepting the responsibilities of marriage. Even if he hadn’t died, they wouldn’t have stayed together.

She blinked back tears and shook her head. No, happily-ever-afters happened only in fairy tales.

Cussing a blue streak, Logan pitched a bale of straw over the side of the loft. Four more followed in rapid succession. When each one burst open from colliding with the dirt floor below, he gritted his teeth and barely suppressed the urge to growl. Instead of lessening the frustration burning in his gut, he’d only created more.

“Logan, you’re bein’ a real pain in the ass. I wish you’d get off your high horse.” Hank propped his fists on his hips and nodded at the broken bales at his feet. “Now I’m gonna have to get the wheelbarrow so I can get this bedding down to Nicoma’s stall.”

“Maybe it’ll keep you busy enough to avoid making a fool of yourself over the blonde,” Logan shot back.

“Somebody in this barn is makin’ a fool of himself, all right. But it ain’t me.” Hank laughed. “At least I’ve got the good sense to admit the scenery around this old place has improved a hell of a lot since yesterday.”

Logan gripped the ladder and started down. “But for how long?”

He knew he was being irrational. But after tossing and turning all night from the memory of Cassie’s soft body pressed against his, being reasonable wasn’t an option.

Skipping the last two rungs, he jumped to the ground and jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the open doorway. “Just how long do you think it’ll take before the boredom sets in with those two?”

“Maybe it won’t. Not all females are like Andrea.” Hank shook his head. “I never could see the two of you together. I doubt she would survive living anywhere that didn’t include a mall and a four-star restaurant.”

Snorting, Logan ignored the man’s comment about his lapse in judgment. He didn’t intend to waste time thinking about the past. It was Cassie Wellington and the present that bothered him. A lot.

“Once the widow and her friend figure out just how remote this place is, they won’t be able to get away from here fast enough,” Logan said, marching to the end of the barn. He grasped the wooden handles of the wheelbarrow and rolled it next to the broken bales of straw. “Just think how they’d react when winter hits and we’re all snowed in for days at a time.”

“That’s when it starts to get interestin’,” Hank said, his grin wide.

The thought of himself and Cassie stranded for several days, alone in the house with all those bedrooms to choose from, made Logan’s mouth go dry.

Disgusted with himself for giving the notion a second thought, he spoke as much for his own benefit as for Hank’s. “Stop thinking with your hormones and start thinking with your head. I doubt either one of them could make it to the first frost without going stir-crazy.”

“Then what are you worried about?” Hank asked. He grabbed a pitchfork leaning against the wall and forked straw into the cart. “If what you say is true, Cassie and the babies should be packed up and on their way back to St. Louis by the last of the month.”

Logan shook his head and guided the wheelbarrow to the end of the barn. “It’s not that easy.” Stopping at the open stall, he turned to face Hank. “I always thought Silas was a few cards shy of a full deck, but I never realized the old codger had a mean streak to go with it. He knew about my mother dying because we couldn’t get her to the hospital in time and the hell that broke loose afterward. But before he died, he filled Cassie’s head with the idea that this place is some kind of Shangri-la for raising kids.”

“Well, it’s where I intend to raise my kids,” Hank said, shrugging.

“Hank?”

Logan watched Hank’s face split into a wide grin at the sight of Ginny walking down the center aisle of the barn.

“And here comes the mother of those future kids,” Hank said, his voice low.

“You just met the woman,” Logan muttered.

“Doesn’t matter.” Hank handed him the pitchfork and headed toward Ginny. “I know what I want.”

Logan stared as Hank met Ginny halfway up the long corridor, took her into his arms and kissed her like a soldier returning from war. An image of Cassie in his arms, clinging to him as he kissed her, flashed through Logan’s mind, and an unfamiliar feeling twisted his gut.

When Hank finally let her up for air, Ginny sounded breathless. “Cassie…and I…have been…cleaning the living room. Would you…mind helping us move some of the furniture?”

“Not at all.” Hank tucked Ginny to his side and, staring down at her, added, “I’d be more than happy to help you do anything, honey.” He kissed her forehead. “All you have to do is ask.”

Logan felt the knot in his stomach tighten further when Ginny giggled and wrapped her arm around Hank’s waist. Following the enamored pair into the house to see what the two women had done to his home, Logan refused to acknowledge the sensation as anything other than hunger. It was getting close to lunchtime and he’d skipped breakfast.

Envy for the freedom Hank had to give his heart to a woman was an emotion Logan didn’t feel. Ever.

Cassie watched the men pick up the massive couch as if it weighed nothing and move it to the far side of the room. They’d both rolled up their shirtsleeves, and she found herself fascinated by the play of muscles on Logan’s forearms, the bulges tightening the fabric around his biceps.

Ginny walked in from the kitchen, and her brown eyes sparkled with admiration as she whispered, “Well, I’m in love.”

“It takes more than bulging biceps and brute strength to impress me,” Cassie said just as quietly.

Ginny gave her a knowing look. “Uh-huh. Sure.”

“Really.”

“Whatever you say, Cass.”

Saved from further defending her little white lie by the distant cries of her unhappy daughters, Cassie looped her arm through Ginny’s. “Come on. You can go back to enjoying Hank’s brawn later. Right now I need help getting the twins downstairs for lunch.”

“I don’t know what Hank has, but if he could bottle and sell it, I’d buy a whole case,” Ginny said, looking over her shoulder at the men while Cassie pulled her along.

“I don’t think you’ll have to,” Cassie whispered. “Unless I miss my guess, you’ll get all the free samples you want.”

“And I’ll take all I can get.” Grinning, Ginny added, “Just remember, I saw Hank first.”

Climbing the stairs, Cassie laughed. “You’re welcome to him.”

I’m more attracted to Logan.

The unwarranted thought made her stumble. Now, where had that come from?

She shook her head to dislodge the silly notion. She was about as interested in Logan Murdock as she was in rotating the tires on a car.

Ten minutes later, Cassie had Chelsea and Kelsie strapped in their high chairs and had just removed the warmed baby food from the microwave when she turned to find Logan standing in the doorway, watching her.

“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” he said, referring to the huge bowl of beef stew on the table.

Cassie shrugged as she spooned the baby food into divided plates and set them on the table. “We had to eat, and I like to cook.” Turning back, she took a towel from the counter, opened the oven door and bent to remove a pan of freshly baked bread. “I hope you like what we’re having.”

“Uh…yeah, it’s fine.” The air in Logan’s lungs stalled and he had to force himself to exhale.

Oh, he liked what she had, all right. Her loose khaki camp shorts were by no means tight, but bent over as she was, they clung to her shapely little backside and caused a certain part of his body to come to full alert. Damn! As bottoms went, the Widow Wellington had the best-looking rear he’d seen in a month of Sundays. Maybe ever.

When the babies slapped their trays and let out high-pitched squeals, she turned to grin at them. His heart stopped right then and there. Dimples. Cassie had tiny little dimples denting her porcelain cheeks. Why hadn’t he noticed them yesterday?

Damn! Ever since he’d sat next to Rosie Collins in second grade, he’d been a sucker for females with dimples. And that didn’t bode well. Not well at all.

The toothless grins the twins flashed back at their mother revealed they both had dimples, too. As far as little kids went, they were cute. Real cute.

Logan felt a chunk of the wall he’d carefully constructed around his heart fall away. The little girls almost had him wishing for kids of his own. But that was ridiculous. Having kids wasn’t, and never would be, an option for him.

Sliding into the chair at the head of the table, he felt sweat pop out on his forehead and he cursed himself as nine kinds of a fool. So Cassie had a pretty smile, a shape that would tempt a eunuch and cute little kids. So what? She was trying to take over his ranch. He’d better not forget that.

“What do you lovely ladies have planned for this afternoon?” Hank asked, entering the kitchen with Ginny.

“I have to return the rented trailer before I’m charged for another day,” Cassie answered. Logan watched her tie bibs around the twins’ necks, then seat herself in the chair facing them.

“I’m driving down to Bear Creek for supplies. I could take the trailer back for you,” Hank offered, holding Ginny’s chair. He sat next to her. “By the way, do you think you could spare Ginny for a few hours this afternoon? I’d like to show her around town.”

“I really should help Cassie,” Ginny said. “She’ll need me to watch the babies while she finishes the living room.”

As distracted as he was by Cassie and her killer dimples, even Logan could detect the lack of enthusiasm in Ginny’s voice.

He watched Cassie spoon lumpy-looking orange stuff into one twin’s mouth, while she held a bottle for the other. No wonder the babies were slapping their trays. He would, too, if he had to eat that unappealing stuff.

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