A Baby on the Ranch

Kasey cocked her head, curious as she studied him. “Forgot about what?”

“When Hollis came over in the middle of the night to ask me to look after you, he wanted me to give this to you.” And with that, he handed her the envelope.

She stared at it, then looked up at Eli. “Hollis left me a letter?” That really didn’t sound like the Hollis she knew. He would have made fun of anyone who actually put anything in writing.

“I don’t know if it’s a letter or not, but he left something,” Eli told her vaguely. “Here, why don’t you let me hold on to the little guy so you can open the envelope and see what’s inside.” Even as he made the offer, Eli was already taking Wayne away from her and into his arms.

Really puzzled now, Kasey nodded absently in Eli’s direction and opened the envelope. The letter inside was short and to the point. It was also thoughtfully worded. She read it twice, and then one last time, before raising her eyes to Eli’s face. She looked at him for a long moment.

Swaying slightly to lull the baby in his arms, he looked at her innocently. “So? What did Hollis have to say?”

She glanced down at the single sheet before answering. “That he was sorry. That it’s not me, it’s him. He doesn’t want to hurt me, but he just needs some time away to get his head together. Until he does, he can’t be the husband and father that we deserve. In the meantime, he’ll send money for the baby and me when he can,” she concluded. Very deliberately, she folded the letter and placed it back in its envelope.

Eli nodded. “That sounds about right. That’s more or less what he said to me before he left,” he explained when she looked at him quizzically. “At least he apologized to you.”

“Yes, at least he apologized,” she echoed quietly, raising her eyes to his. Still looking at him, she tucked the letter into her own pocket. There was an odd expression on her face.

Did she suspect? He couldn’t tell. There were times, such as now, when her expression was completely unreadable.

The next moment Kasey took her son back from Eli and sat with the infant on the sofa. A very loud sigh escaped her lips.

Eli perched on the arm of the sofa and looked into her face. Hollis was clearly out of his mind, walking away from this.

“Are you all right, Kasey?” he asked solicitously.

She nodded her head slowly in response. When she spoke, her voice seemed as if it was coming from a very far distance. And, in a way, she supposed it was. With each word he uttered, she closed the door a little further to her past.

He was about to ask her again when Kasey abruptly began to talk.

“I guess, deep down, I knew that Hollis wasn’t the father type. As long as it was just him and me, he could put up with some domesticity, provided it didn’t smother him.”

Her eyes stung and she paused for a moment before continuing. She didn’t tell Eli about the times she suspected that Hollis was stepping out on her, that he was seeing other women. There was no point in talking about that now.

“But then I got pregnant, and once the baby was here, it really hit Hollis that he might have to…” Her voice trailed off for a moment as she struggled with herself, vacillating between being angry at Hollis and feeling disloyal to him for talking about him this way. For once, anger won out. “That he might have to grow up,” she finally said.

“First of all, you didn’t just ‘get pregnant,’” Eli corrected. “Last time I checked, it took two to make that happen. Hollis was just as responsible for this as you were,” he pointed out.

Kasey smiled affectionately at him then. Smiled as she leaned forward and lightly touched his face. Both the look and the touch spoke volumes. But Eli had no interpreter and he wasn’t sure just what was hidden behind her smile or even if there was something hidden behind her smile.

All he knew was that, as usual, her smile drew him in. There were times, when he allowed his guard to slip, that he loved her so much that it hurt.

It would be hard having her here under his roof, sleeping here under his roof, and keeping a respectful distance from her at all times.

Not that he would ever disrespect her, he vowed, but God, he wanted to hold her in his arms right now. And more than anything in the world, he wanted to lean over and kiss her. Kiss her just once like a lover and not like a friend.

But that was impossible, and it would ruin everything between them.

So he rose off the arm of the sofa and got down to the business of making this arrangement work. “If you could just give me that list of things—”

“Sure. I’m going to need a pen and some paper,” Kasey prompted when he just remained standing there.

“Right.”

Coming to life, Eli was about to fetch both items from the same desk he had just used to write that “note from Hollis” to her when there was a knock on the front door.

The first thing Eli thought of was that Hollis had had a change of heart and, making an assumption that Kasey would be here, had returned for his wife and son.

A glance at Kasey’s face told him she was thinking the same thing.

As he strode toward the door, Eli struggled to ignore the deep-seated feeling of disappointment flooding him.

Kasey followed in his wake.

But when he threw open his door, it wasn’t Hollis that either one of them saw standing there. It was Miss Joan and one of her waitresses from the diner, a tall, big-boned young woman named Carla. Miss Joan was holding a single bag in her exceptionally slender arms. Carla was holding several more with incredible ease, as if all combined they weighed next to nothing.

“Figured you two had probably gotten back from the hospital by now,” Miss Joan declared. Her eyes were naturally drawn to the baby and she all but cooed at him. “My, but he’s a cutie, he is.”

And then she looked up from the baby and directly at Eli. “Well, aren’t you going to invite us in, or are you looking to keep Kasey and her son all to yourself?”

Eli snapped to attention. “Sorry, you just surprised me, that’s all, Miss Joan,” he confessed. “C’mon in,” he invited, stepping back so that she and the waitress had room to walk in.

He watched the older woman with some amusement as she looked slowly around. Miss Joan made no secret that she was scrutinizing everything in the house.

As was her custom, Miss Joan took possession of all she surveyed.

“I don’t recall hearing about a tornado passing through Forever lately.” She raised an eyebrow as she glanced in his direction.

Eli knew she was referring to the fact that as far as housekeeping went, he got a failing grade. With a shrug, he told her, “Makes it easier to find things if they’re all out in the open.”

Miss Joan shook her head. “If you say so.” She snorted. “Looks like this could be a nice little place you’ve got here, Eli.” Her eyes swept over the general chaos. “Once you get around to digging yourself out of this mess, of course.” She waved her hand around the room, dismissing the subject now that she’d touched on it.

“Anyway, I got tired of waiting for an invite, so I just decided to invite myself over.” Pausing, the older woman looked at Eli meaningfully. “Thought you might need a few things for the new guy,” she told him, nodding at the baby in Kasey’s arms.

“Oh, I can’t—” Kasey began to protest. The last thing she wanted was for people to think of her as a charity case.

“Sure you can,” Miss Joan said, cutting Kasey off with a wave of her hand. Then she directed her attention to the young woman who had come with her. “Just set everything down on the coffee table, Carla,” she instructed. She shifted her eyes toward Kasey. “I’ll let you sort things out when you get a chance,” she told her. “Brought you some diapers and a bunch of other items. These new little guys need a lot to get them spruced up and shining.” She said it as if it was a prophesy.

Miss Joan was right. She couldn’t afford to let her pride get in the way, or, more accurately, Wayne couldn’t afford to have her pride get in his way.

“I don’t know what to say,” Kasey said to Miss Joan, emotion welling up in her throat and threatening to choke off her words.

“Didn’t ask you to say anything, now, did I?” Miss Joan pointed out. And then the woman smiled. “It’s what we do around here, remember? We look out for each other.” She nodded at the largest paper bag that Carla set down. Because she had run out of room on the coffee table, Carla had deposited the bag on the floor beside one of the table legs. “Thought the baby might not be the only one who was hungry, so I brought you two some dinner. My advice is to wait until you put him down before you start eating.”

“What do I owe you?” Eli asked, taking his wallet out.

Miss Joan put her hand over his before he could take any bills out. “We’ll settle up some other time,” she informed him.

Kasey wasn’t about to bother asking Miss Joan how the woman knew that she was here, at Eli’s ranch, rather than at her own ranch. Even when things were actually kept a secret, Miss Joan had a way of knowing about them. Miss Joan always knew. She ran the town’s only diner and dispensed advice and much-needed understanding along with the best coffee in Texas.

Joan Randall had been a fixture in Forever for as long as anyone could remember and had just recently given in to the entreaties of her very persistent suitor. She and Harry Monroe had gotten married recently in an outdoor wedding with the whole town in attendance. Even so, everyone still continued to refer to her as Miss Joan. Calling her anything else just didn’t feel right.

Having done everything she’d set out to do, Miss Joan indicated that it was time to leave.

“Okay, Carla and I’ll be heading out now,” she announced, then paused a moment longer to look at Kasey. “You need anything, you just give me a call, understand, baby girl?” And then she lowered her voice only slightly as she walked by Eli. “You take care of her, hear?”

He didn’t need any prompting to do that. He’d been watching over Kasey for as long as he could remember.

“I fully intend to, Miss Joan,” he told her with feeling.

Miss Joan nodded as she crossed the threshold. She knew he meant it. Knew what was in his heart better than he did.

“Good. Because she’s been through enough.” Then, lowering her voice even further so that only Eli could hear her, she told him, “I ever see that Hollis again, I’m going to take a lot of pleasure in turning that rooster into a hen.”

Eli had absolutely no doubts that the older woman was very capable of doing just that. He grinned. “Better not let the sheriff hear you say that.”

Miss Joan smiled serenely at him. “Rick won’t say anything. Not with Alma helping me and being his deputy and all. Your sister doesn’t like that bastard any better than any of us do,” she confided. Then, raising her voice so that Kasey could hear her, she urged, “Don’t wait too long to have your dinner.” With a nod of her head, she informed them that “It tastes better warm.”

One final glance at Kasey and the baby, and the woman was gone. Carla was right behind her, moving with surprising speed given her rather large size.

“I didn’t tell her about Hollis” was the first thing Eli said as he closed the door again and turned around to face Kasey. He didn’t want her thinking that he had been spreading her story around.

Kasey knew he hadn’t. This was Miss Joan they were talking about. Everyone was aware of her ability to ferret out information.

“Nobody ever has to tell that woman anything. She just knows. It’s almost spooky,” Kasey confessed. “When I was a little girl, I used to think she was a witch—a good witch,” she was quick to add with a smile. “Like in The Wizard of Oz, but still a witch.” At times, she wasn’t completely convinced that the woman wasn’t at least part witch.

He grinned. “Out of the mouths of babes,” he quipped. “Speaking of babes, I think your little guy just fell asleep again. Probably in self-defense so that he didn’t have to put up with being handled.” He grinned. “Carla looked like she was dying to get her hands on him.” He had noticed that the waitress had struggled to hold herself in check. “But then, I guess that everyone loves a new baby.”

The second the words were out, he realized what he’d said and he could have bitten off his tongue.

Especially when Kasey answered quietly, “No, not everyone.”

He could almost see the wound in her heart opening up again.

Dammit, he would have to be more careful about what he said around Kasey. At least for a while. “Let me rephrase that. Any normal person loves a new baby.”

Kasey knew he meant well. She offered Eli a weak smile in response, then looked down at her son.

“I’ll try putting him to bed so that we can have our dinner. But I can’t make any promises. He’s liable to wake up just as I start tiptoeing out. Feel perfectly free to start without me,” she urged as she walked back to the rear bedroom with Wayne.

As if he could, Eli thought, watching her as she left the room.

The truth of it was, he couldn’t start anything anywhere, not as long as she continued to hold his heart hostage the way she did.

Shaking free of his thoughts, Eli went to set the table in the kitchen. With any luck, he mused, he’d find two clean dishes still in the cupboard. Otherwise, he would actually have to wash a couple stacked in the sink.

It wasn’t a prospect he looked forward to.

Chapter Five

Eli wasn’t sure just when he finally fell asleep. The fact that he actually did fall asleep surprised him. Mentally, he’d just assumed that he would be up all night. After all, this was Kasey’s first night in his house, not to mention her first night with the baby without the safety net of having a nurse close by to take Wayne back to the nursery if he started crying.

Granted, he wasn’t a nurse, but at least he could be supportive and make sure that she didn’t feel as if she was in this alone. He could certainly relieve her when she got tired.

Last night, when it was time to turn in, Kasey had thanked him for his hospitality and assured him that she had everything under control. She’d slipped into the same bedroom she’d used earlier. The crib he’d retrieved from her former home was set up there.

Her last words to him were to tell him that he should get some sleep.

Well that was easier said than done, he’d thought at the time, staring off into the starless darkness outside his window. He’d felt much too wired. Besides, he was listening for any sound that struck him as being out of the ordinary. A sound that would tell him that Kasey needed help. Which in turn would mean that she needed him, at least for this.

He almost strained himself, trying to hear if the baby was crying.

It was probably around that time that, exhausted, he’d fallen asleep.

When he opened his eyes again, he was positive that only a few minutes had gone by. Until he realized that daylight, not moonlight, was streaming into his room. Startled, he bolted upright. Around the same moment of rude awakening, the aroma of tantalizingly strong coffee wound its intoxicating way up to his room and into his senses.

Kicking off a tangled sheet, Eli hit the ground running, stumbling over his discarded boots on his way to his door. It hurt more because he was barefoot.

Even so, he didn’t bother putting anything on his feet as he followed the aroma to its point of origin, making his way down the stairs.

Ultimately, the scent brought him to the kitchen.

Kasey was there, with her back toward him. Wayne wasn’t too far away—and was strapped into his infant seat. Sometime between last night and this morning, she’d gotten the baby’s infant seat out of the car and converted it so that it could hold him securely in place while she had him on the kitchen table.

Turning from the stove, Kasey almost jumped a foot off the ground. Her hand immediately went to her chest, as if she was trying to keep her heart from physically leaping out.

“Oh, Eli, you scared me,” she said, struggling to regain her composure.

“Sorry,” he apologized when he saw that he’d really startled her. “I don’t exactly look my best first thing in the morning.” He ran his hand through his hair, remembering that it hadn’t seen a hint of a comb since yesterday.

“You look fine,” she stressed. No matter what, Eli always looked fine, she thought fondly. She could count on the fact that nothing changed about him, especially not his temperament. He was her rock and she thanked God for him. “I just wasn’t expecting anyone to come up behind me, that’s all.” She took in a deep breath in an attempt to regulate her erratic pulse.

“What are you doing up?” he asked.

“Well, I never got into the habit of cooking while I was lying in bed,” she stated, deadpan. “So I had to come over to where the appliances were hiding,” she told him, tongue-in-cheek.

But Eli shook his head, dismissing the literal answer to his question. “No, I mean why are you up, cooking? You’re supposed to be taking it easy, remember?” he reminded her.

She acted mystified. “I guess I missed that memo. Besides, this is how I take it easy,” she informed him. “Cooking relaxes me. It makes me feel like I’m in control,” she stressed. Her eyes held his. “And right now, I need that.”

He knew how overwhelming a need that could be. Eli raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, cook your heart out. I won’t stand in your way,” he promised, then confessed, “And that does smell pretty amazing.” He looked from her to the pan and then back again. He didn’t remember buying bacon. Maybe Alma had dropped it off the last time she’d been by. She had a tendency to mother him. “And that was all stuff you found in my pantry?”

“And your refrigerator,” Kasey added, amused that the contents of his kitchen seemed to be a mystery to him. “By the way, if you’re interested, I made coffee.”

“Interested?” he repeated. “I’m downright mesmerized. That’s what brought me down in the first place,” he told her as he made a beeline for the battered coffeepot that stood on the back burner. Not standing on ceremony, he poured himself a cup, then paused to deeply inhale the aroma before sampling it. Perfect, he thought. It was a word he used a lot in reference to Kasey.

He looked at her now in unabashed surprise. “And you did this with my coffee?”

She merely smiled at him, as if he were a slightly thought-challenged second cousin she had grown very fond of. “Yours was the only coffee I had to work with,” she pointed out. “Why? You don’t like it?”

He took another extralong sip of the black liquid, waiting as it all but burned a path for itself into his belly.

“Like it?” He laughed incredulously at her question. “I’m thinking of marrying it.”

Outwardly he seemed to be teasing her, but it was his way of defusing some of the tension ricocheting through him. He was using humor as a defense mechanism so that she didn’t focus on the fact that he struggled not to melt whenever he was within several feet of her. Though he had brought her here with the very best of intentions, he had to admit that just having her here was all but undoing him.

“Really, though,” he forced himself to say, putting his hand over hers to stop her movements for a second, “you shouldn’t be doing all this. I didn’t bring you here to be my cook—good as you are at it.”

She smiled up at him, a thousand childhood memories crowding her head. Memories in which Eli was prominently featured. He was the one she had turned to when her father had been particularly nasty the night before. Eli always knew how to make her feel better.

“I know that,” she told him. “You brought me here because you’re good and kind and because Wayne and I didn’t have a place to stay. This is just my small way of paying you back a little.”

He shook his head. “This isn’t a system of checks and balances, Kasey. You don’t have to ‘pay me back,’” he insisted. “You don’t owe me anything.”

Oh, yes, I do. More than you can ever guess. You kept me sane, Eli. I hate to think where I’d be right now without you.

Her eyes met his, then she looked down at his hand, which was still over hers. Belatedly, he removed it. She felt a small pang and told herself she was just being silly.

“I know,” she told him. And that was because Eli always put others, in this case her, first. “But I want to.” Taking a plate—one of two she’d just washed so that she could press them into service—she slid two eggs and half the bacon onto it. “Overeasy, right?” she asked, nodding at the plate she put down on the table.

They’d had breakfast together just once—at Miss Joan’s diner years ago, before she’d ever run off with Hollis. At the time, he envisioned a lifetime of breakfasts to be shared between them.

But that was aeons ago.

Stunned, he asked, “How did you remember?” as he took his seat at the table.

She lifted her slender shoulders in a quick, dismissive shrug. “Some things just stay with me, I guess.” She took her own portion and sat across from him at the small table. “Is it all right?” she asked. For the most part, it was a rhetorical question, since he appeared to be eating with enthusiasm.

Had she served him burned tire treads, he would have said the same thing—because she’d gone out of her way for him and the very act meant a great deal to him. More than he could possibly ever tell her, because he didn’t want to risk scaring her off.

“It’s fantastic,” he assured her.

The baby picked that moment to begin fussing. Within a few moments, fussing turned to crying. Kasey looked toward the noise coming from the converted infant seat. “I just fed him half an hour ago,” she said wearily.

“Then he’s not hungry,” Eli concluded.

He remembered overhearing the sheriff’s sister-in-law, Tina, saying that infants cried for three reasons: if they were hungry, if they needed to be changed and if they were hurting. Wayne had been fed and he didn’t look as if he was in pain. That left only one last reason.

“He’s probably finished processing his meal,” he guessed. “Like puppies, there’s a really short distance between taking food in and eliminating what isn’t being used for nutrition,” he told her.

With a small, almost suppressed sigh, Kasey nodded. She started to get up but he put his hand on her arm, stopping her. She looked at him quizzically.

“Stay put, I’ll handle this.” Eli nodded at his empty plate. “I’m finished eating, anyway.” He picked Wayne up and took him into the next room.

She watched him a little uncertainly. This was really going above and beyond the call of duty, she couldn’t help thinking.

“Have you ever changed a diaper before?” she asked him.

He didn’t answer her directly, because the answer to her question was no. So he said evasively, “It’s not exactly up there with the mysteries of life.”

Changing a diaper might not be up there with the mysteries of life, but in his opinion, how something so cute and tiny could produce so much waste was one of the mysteries of life.

“This has got to weigh at least as much as you do,” he stated, marveling as he stripped the diaper away from the baby and saw what was inside.

Making the best of it, Eli went through several damp washcloths, trying to clean Wayne’s tiny bottom. It took a bit of work.

Eli began to doubt the wisdom of his volunteering for this form of latrine duty, but he’d done it with the best of intentions. He wanted Kasey to be able to at least finish her meal in peace. She didn’t exactly seem worn-out, but she certainly did look tired. He wondered just how much sleep she’d gotten last night.

After throwing the disposable diaper into the wastebasket, he deposited the dirty washcloths on top of it. The latter would need to be put into the washing machine—as soon as he fixed it.

Dammit, anyway, he thought in frustration, recalling that the last load of wash had flooded the utility room.

Served him right for not getting to something the second it needed doing. But then, life on a ranch—especially since he was the only one working it—left very little spare time to do anything else, whether it was a chore or just kicking back for pleasure.