Branded

Jake held his wrist up to the light. “At one o’clock in the morning? Somehow I doubt that very much.”

She seemed to regain control of her emotions, long enough to blow her nose. “I’m sure she’ll be okay for a day or two until you find someone to look after her.” Tiffany looked around the patio vaguely, no doubt wishing she was anywhere but here. “I, uh, hadn’t realized it was so late. Ed and his driver have been so patient, waiting hours for you to come home.” She gave him a half smile. “Sorry if I broke up a hot date with one of the local yokels.”

Despite her words, she didn’t move away. Instead, she continued to stand there, warily watching him.

“I meant what I said, Tiffany. I’m not going to punish this child by moving her back and forth between us at your convenience.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I know, Jake. I love her so much, but I’m really not cut out for the whole mother thing, you know? I was horrified when I found out I was pregnant after being extra careful all those years. I didn’t know what to do. Gram talked me into having her, promising me to help with her, and I’m not sorry I did. Honestly, I’m not. It’s just that…” She paused as though searching for words. “I’ve always been high-strung, and trying to deal with her has just been too much for me. My nerves can’t stand the pressure day in and day out.”

She dropped her eyes and slowly turned away.

He made no comment as she left the patio. She’d almost disappeared around the corner of the house when she stopped and said, “I almost forgot, Jake. I brought all the necessary papers you’ll need for her—her birth certificate, a record of her shots, that sort of thing. I’d already packed them, thinking she’d need credentials to go overseas with us. I also brought her clothes and other belongings. She’s familiar with them and I hope they’ll help her to adjust.” She looked at him through the shadows. “Goodbye, Jake. Take good care of her.”

Jake continued to stand there on the patio without moving. He was numb with all that had happened tonight. In a few moments, he heard the purr of a well-tuned engine and watched as headlights swept across the driveway.

The silence of the country night returned.

Now that she’d gone, he needed to face what had happened. If Tiffany was telling the truth, he had a daughter. A daughter he’d discovered long after he’d finally accepted that he would never have a family of his own.

That was the good news. That was the great news.

The bad news was that he had a daughter who would be waking up in the morning in strange surroundings without a familiar face to reassure her that she was safe. He had a daughter who would probably be afraid of him, at least at first.

Jake rubbed the back of his neck and picked up his empty bottle. He walked into the kitchen, tossed the bottle in one of the recycling bins on hand and looked around, trying to force his mind to wrap around the idea of instant fatherhood.

A large manila envelope he hadn’t noticed before lay on the kitchen bar. He sat down on the bar stool Tiffany had used and opened the envelope.

Her birth certificate was on top. Her name was Heather Anne Crenshaw and she’d been born on Sept. 28, which meant she would be four years old in a little over six weeks.

He was listed as her father.

He stared at the document until it grew blurry. He hadn’t been there when she was born. He hadn’t been there when she learned to sit up, to stand, to take her first step or say her first word. He hadn’t been there to watch the infant turn into a little girl.

He’d already missed so much of her life.

Jake removed his hat and hung it on the rack beside the door, turned out the lights downstairs and went up to his room. After he sat on the side of his bed and removed his boots, he returned to Heather’s room in his stockinged feet. She had shifted and now lay on her side, still clutching her bedraggled rabbit. He noticed several more stuffed animals sitting at the end of the bed. She looked so innocent lying there, sleeping so soundly. She had no idea how her world had changed yet again. Her great-grandmother’s sudden illness must have been devastating to her. And now this.

Eventually he quietly checked the closet and chest of drawers. Yes, Tiffany had amply provided for her, he was thankful to see.

What was he supposed to do now? Come morning, this sweet-looking child was going to wake up and face new people and new surroundings. Of course she would be afraid. She would need to be dressed and fed and…

He froze. Was she housebroken? How would he know? Raised with three brothers, his only experience around little girls was watching Ashley grow up.

Ashley.

She would know what Heather needed, wouldn’t she? Would she be willing to help him out for a few days? He hadn’t seen much of her in the past several years, not since she’d gone off to Texas A&M, but at one time they’d been the best of friends.

He certainly needed a trusted friend about now.

Would Ashley be able to help him?

She was a doctor, wasn’t she?

Sort of. She was a veterinarian. That was close enough, wasn’t it?

She was a woman, besides. She’d know what to do with a little girl, since she’d been one herself.

At the moment, he didn’t have many options. He was desperate. Surely she would be willing to do whatever needed to be done for his daughter.

Jake returned to his bedroom, looked up her number and called her.

Three

Ashley Sullivan unlocked the door to her small apartment in time to hear her phone ringing. She groaned. It was the middle of the night and she was exhausted. Because this was her weekend on call, she’d already been out on two emergencies tonight, once for a mare having trouble with a breech birth and the other to check out a steer whose owner thought had been bitten by a snake. And this was only Friday night.

A call in the middle of the night was always ominous.

She dropped her medical bag and grabbed the phone.

“This is Dr. Sullivan,” she said, her voice weary.

“Uh, hi, Ashley.”

She sank to the side of her bed, shaken by the realization of who was calling her.

When she didn’t immediately respond, he added, “This is Jake Crenshaw. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

As if she wouldn’t know the sound of his voice. Adrenaline shot through her as she thought of possible reasons he would be calling her at this time of night.

“What’s happened?” she said with dread. “Is it Dad?”

“No, no. Nothing like that.” He paused and she wondered what was going on. She hadn’t spoken to Jake in years. “I, uh, I’ve got an emergency on my hands out here. I hate to ask this of you, but would you mind coming out to the ranch?”

She checked the time and winced. “Now?”

He cleared his throat. “I know it’s late but I really need you.”

“What’s wrong?” She had never heard those words from Jake before and they shook her.

When he didn’t answer right away, she wondered if he’d hung up. When he did answer, he was frustratingly vague. “I’d rather show you once you get here, all right?”

It was her turn to pause and think about his request. She was exhausted and therefore vulnerable. Let’s face it, she would be vulnerable around him no matter when she saw him.

“I’d like to help you out, Jake, but I’ve been working nonstop since seven this morning. Can this wait until tomorrow?”

“No, it can’t.” He sounded impatient and irritable, which meant he was being his normal and oh-so-charming adult self, not the boy she’d grown up with. When she didn’t reply, he said, “This is something personal. You were the first one I thought of when I knew I needed help.”

Ashley put her hand over her heart and tried to breathe. She wasn’t prepared for this. Someday, maybe, when she was…oh, sixty-something…she’d be able to deal with her reactions where Jake was concerned.

“I’m sorry—” she began when he interrupted her.

“I know we haven’t been as close these past few years as we once were, Ashley,” he said.

Ashley pulled the phone away from her ear and frowned at it in disbelief. Talk about understatement!

He continued to speak and she forced herself to listen. “I hoped that you would be willing to help me out based on the friendship we once shared.”

Wasn’t that just like a man? Oh, yeah, I carelessly trampled on your heart with my size thirteen boots, but, hey, you’ve patched it up just fine, so how about giving me another go at it.

“Jake,” she began, “I really don’t think—”

“Ashley,” he said, suddenly sounding panicked. “I just received the shock of my life tonight. Tiffany was here earlier and told me that we have a daughter who will soon be four years old. She left her here and I haven’t a clue what to do for her or about her or with her.”

Ashley was glad she was sitting down. Jake had a daughter? She struggled to breathe around the sudden constriction in her throat.

“The thing is,” he continued, “she’s going to wake up in a few hours in a strange place to see a man she doesn’t recognize.” His voice deepened. “I’m hoping you’ll come out and be here when she wakes up.”

Oh, dear. She was definitely in trouble here. That low, intimate tone of his had always melted her heart. This conversation was not going well at all. “You mean stay at Dad’s?” she finally asked.

“I mean stay here with me and Heather. That’s her name, by the way. Heather Anne Crenshaw.”

Ashley closed her eyes. What should she do? She was too exhausted to think straight. Being anywhere around Jake—and in his home, no less—would be so painful for her.

But this wasn’t about Jake.

He has a daughter. The daughter she’d dreamed someday they would have together. Sure, she’d been a naïve kid at the time who’d thought his casual acceptance of her in his life meant more than it had. Harsh reality had set in years ago, but his having a daughter seemed to trigger a whole bunch of memories she’d hoped she’d buried.

“All right,” she finally said, resigned to the coming ordeal. “I wouldn’t want to be the one responsible for scarring her for life because she had to face you first thing in the morning.” A hint of a smile hovered on her lips.

She heard the relief in his voice. “Thank you, Ashley. I promise you won’t regret this.”

Oh yeah? She was already regretting it, but he’d hit a weak spot she’d always had for children. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she said and hung up.

She glanced down at her clothes and wearily shook her head. After a day in the office and an evening around large animals, she had to clean up before going anywhere. Although she’d scrubbed up at each place, her clothes were far from clean.

Ashley walked into the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror. She was glad she’d had her hair cut last year, saving her precious time and worry with her busy schedule. The short style was definitely a wash-and-wear hairdo.

Deep shadows beneath her eyes reflected her weariness. She closed them briefly. You can do this. Dredge up some energy somewhere and do it.

She stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the shower, letting the water flow over her while she did her best to make her mind blank.

Instead, more memories flooded her.

Jake at twelve, following their dads everywhere they went, with her four-year-old self trailing along behind. Riding in front of him in the saddle, asking jillions of questions, making him laugh. He’d been tall for his age, with a shock of thick blond hair that invariably looked untidy, the most gorgeous eyes that changed from a smoky blue to a silvery gray, depending on his mood, and a smile that could stop a female’s heart at twenty paces.

Not that any of that registered with her at four years old. All she knew then was that she didn’t want to let him out of her sight.

By the ripe old age of seven, she’d known that this was the person she would marry someday and told everyone who would listen. Now she wondered how fifteen-year-old Jake had dealt with the teasing he must have gotten back then. If he’d been embarrassed by her remarks, he’d never let on to her.

Jake had made her childhood magical. He’d taught her how to ride a horse, rope a calf and how to safely handle and shoot a rifle. He’d cautioned her never to leave the settlement alone without protection from the wild animals that lived in the hills. They’d spent many hours following various animal tracks until she could recognize what had made them and how to avoid the dangerous ones.

He’d been in college when Ashley was twelve and her mother left. As soon as he heard about it, Jake had come home to check on her and make sure she was able to cope. With his help and the ongoing concern of his family and her dad she’d eventually adjusted to being left behind.

Her childhood ended when her mother left. She wondered what she would have done during that time without her dad and the Crenshaw family.

Her love for Jake grew steadily stronger as the years went by.

She’d looked forward to her sixteenth birthday for years, having decided that sixteen was the time when she would be truly grown up, the time when Jake would see her as a woman, when he might declare his feelings for her and promise to wait for her until she was finished with school and they could be married.

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