Cowboy In Charge

“All right, then. I wanted to see my son.”

“My son,” she corrected. “For all the contact you’ve had with him, you could have been a sperm donor.”

* * *

JASON STOOD IN the doorway of the kids’ room and watched his son rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Sitting in the middle of the double mattress, he looked so young and innocent. So small. Almost as small as the stuffed teddy bear and dilapidated panda taking up space on either side of him.

A minute ago, he had heard Scott calling for him and come at a run, hoping to keep the boy’s cries from wakening the baby and, in turn, the baby from wakening Layne. Considering the occasional sounds of Layne’s bedsprings creaking and, once, of her footsteps padding to the bathroom and back in the early hours, it had taken her till daybreak to get to sleep again.

“Morning now?” Scott asked.

“Yeah,” Jason confirmed.

This morning had come fast and furiously for him, with no sleep at all once he had left Layne’s room.

Furious couldn’t begin to describe his reaction to her verbal slam. Sperm donor. A helluva thing to say to a man. Even if there had been one grain of truth in it, she had no call to dump the full silo load of responsibility on him. He wasn’t the only one involved in how things had turned out.

He reached for the teddy bear for something to occupy his mind and hands. The bear looked well loved, with its fur matted in some places and its cloth body worn bare in others. Had Scott gotten the bear as a birthday gift? Had he slept with it ever since? Did he like it better than the panda he had just grabbed from the bed?

“Have to hug Teddy,” Scott said.

“What?”

“Morning now. Have to hug Teddy,” Scott said again. He wrapped his arms around the panda hard enough to squeeze the stuffing from it. “See?”

Jason froze. He was a rodeo rider and a hard-riding wrangler, and he didn’t hug anything that wasn’t female and wearing a dress and willing to hug him back. He didn’t do stuffed animals.

“Have to hug Teddy,” Scott said yet again.

He could hear the slight tremor in the boy’s voice and see his puzzled frown. Evidently, Layne had made those early-morning hugs a family tradition. He swallowed hard, trying to ease the lump in his throat. “Yeah,” he mumbled. “Hug Teddy.” Feeling like a fool, he wrapped his arms around the little cloth body. Feeling worse, he watched the smile brighten his son’s face and wished he could hug his boy instead.

How many mornings like this had he missed over the years? He didn’t want to think about it, refused to count the days. There would be too many for him to handle and way too many for him ever to replace.

Scott glanced toward the crib. Jason looked in that direction, too, and saw Jill staring wide-eyed at the mobile of puppies and kittens hanging at one end of the crib. Could babies her age even see that far? She looked only a few weeks old.

Scott threw aside his covers and crawled to the edge of the bed. “Morning now. Mommy says time to do the diaper. De-e-e,” he said in a singsong. “Time to do the diaper.”

Jason frowned, knowing he’d have to draw the line there. He’d just mastered the task of tucking Jill into her crib without waking her, and even that had about taxed his skill.

But Scott padded over to the small white dresser and pulled a diaper from the bottom drawer. He returned to stand in front of Jason with the diaper held out toward him and with the same expression of expectancy as when he had wanted him to hug the bear. A look of complete trust.

He suddenly wished Layne would look at him that way.

Even better at the moment, he wished Layne would wake up and walk into the room.

“I’m green at this, pardner,” he admitted, taking the diaper.

“Green?” Scott said, looking at him with his mouth open, probably expecting to see him turn into an alien before his very eyes.

“A greenhorn,” he explained, feeling foolish again. How could he explain that concept to a three-year-old? How could he explain anything when he’d never had the practice? The chance? All he could do was try. “It means I’m new at this. A beginner. Someone who’s just learning.”

“I learn my ABC’s!” Scott grinned.

He smiled back at him. “Yeah, that’s it. Just like you learn your ABC’s. I’m a greenhorn at doing diapers.”

“De-e-e,” the boy chanted again. “Greenhorn at doing diapers.”

This time, Jason laughed aloud and ruffled the boy’s hair.

Why couldn’t he be such a quick study?

It was a sobering idea. Especially when he connected the thought to getting what he wanted from Layne.

In the years he’d been gone, once he’d stopped sending her those envelopes she kept returning, he’d given up worrying about her. She was an adult. She could take care of herself—as she had made all too plain to him. No doubt about it, the woman had a way with words.

But the boy...

When he’d left, the child hadn’t been close to being born yet, hadn’t even made his appearance evident in the swelling of Layne’s belly. Hadn’t, somehow, been real to him. Now, his son was very real, as smart as a whip and as loving as his mama. A little boy his daddy could be—and was—proud to know was his.

But could he be the kind of man, the kind of daddy, to make his little boy proud of him?

* * *

FOR THE TENTH time already that morning, Layne sighed. Her comment to Jason last night about being her son’s sperm donor had been cruel—and yet it certainly had been truthful. In any case, Jill’s fresh cries to be fed had saved her from having to hear his response. He had left the room at a speed she would have found laughable...if not for the thoughts that assailed her as she watched him walk out the door.

He had taken one look at her getting ready to nurse and had bolted, just as he’d done in the living room earlier. The sight made her think of so many shoulds, her heart hurt. Instead of running, he should have felt comfortable watching her feed the baby. He should have had that experience with Scott. He should have been in the delivery room the day their son was born.

The one thing he never should have done was leave.

After she had finished nursing, returned the baby to her crib and staggered blurry-eyed back to her own bed, it had taken her almost till dawn before she was finally able to fall into an exhausted sleep. She felt grateful it let her forget the memories. At least, until she had woken up to find them at the front and center of her mind again.

As she dressed, she left a terse message on a friend’s cell phone. She hated to call Shay O’Neill. Though they hadn’t been in many of the same classes all through school, they had gotten closer during the past year or so. Shay worked just down the street from SugarPie’s at Cowboy Creek’s ice cream parlor, the Big Dipper. After she closed up the shop, she would often stop in at SugarPie’s. On a quiet night, the two of them would spend some time chatting. Right now, Shay had enough on her mind. But Layne desperately needed some help to send Jason on his way.

In the kids’ room, she found both the bed and the crib empty. As she went down the hall toward the kitchen, she heard Scott’s voice raised in question and the deep rumble of Jason’s reply. The sound of his voice made her chest hurt.

Yesterday, her first sight of him standing in the hall had stolen her breath. He looked good, so good. Better than she ever remembered him looking, from the day he had first walked into her classroom in grade school. Even then he had been gorgeous, and with that one glance at him, her fate had been sealed.

Seeing him so unexpectedly last night had shaken her. She couldn’t deny it.

But she couldn’t do anything about any of this now except send the sights and thoughts and feelings and memories—and her oh-so-sexy-looking ex—back to the past where they all belonged.

In the kitchen, Jill lay in her carrier on the table. Scott knelt on a chair, his attention focused on one of his coloring books.

Frying bacon scented the air, and a bowl of beaten eggs sat on the counter. Jason stood at the stove. He wore a snug blue T-shirt and had tucked a red-checkered hand towel into the waist of his jeans. His dark hair waved and tumbled, free-falling in the way that had always made her breath catch to see it. After they made love, he would comb his fingers through the strands to tame them, then laugh as she rumpled them again.

He eyed her from across the room. A familiar stubble darkened his jawline. The set of that jaw told her he wasn’t completely overjoyed to see her.

He gave her a tight smile. “You’re just in time for breakfast.”

Thank goodness, her stomach didn’t roil at his words. She nodded and took her seat at the table.

Also thank goodness, having both Jill and Scott in the room would keep Jason from following the conversational path he had attempted to lead her down the night before. It was pointless for him to tell her why he was here. It was just as senseless for her to obsess about shoulds. There was nothing between them, and the sooner she saw the last of him, the better.

“I’ll have these done in just a minute.” He beat the eggs and poured them into her largest frying pan with a practiced ease that surprised her.

“When did you learn to cook?” she asked.

He laughed. “I might say the same about you if you made that soup from scratch.” He eyed her questioningly, and she nodded. “Not bad. But neither of us was too handy in the kitchen a while back, were we? I learned out of necessity since I have to take a turn in the bunkhouse. I’m still not so hot at it, so the boys let me get away with handling only breakfast. But I do a darned good omelette.” He stirred the eggs in the pan, then looked sideways at her. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. Much better.”

“You didn’t get a lot of sleep.”

“Enough. Believe me, lately, a two-hour stretch is a marathon.” She eyed Jill’s fresh jumper and noted the lumpiness of the diaper beneath it. Jason must have made an effort. Tears rose to her eyes. She blinked them away. “You changed the baby?”

“Me and Jason did,” Scott said. “De-e-e. Greenhorn at doing diapers.”

Last night, she had noticed how quickly her ex had gone from that man to Jason. This phrase was also a new one for her son—and for her. She stared at him, then glanced at Jason. “‘Greenhorn at doing diapers?’” she repeated.

“It’s a guy thing.”

“Right.” She turned back to Scott. “Oh, dear—a dirty diaper?”

“A danged dirty diaper,” Jason said.

Scott laughed till he almost toppled off the chair. She wondered if he had told Jason about their game.

“I don’t imagine you’ll be up for doing a lot yet.”

She stiffened. He couldn’t insist on staying here all day. Or could he? He’d been adamant enough last night. “I’ll be fine. I told you, I’m feeling much better. And a friend of mine is stopping by this morning.” Shay would listen to the phone message she had left and would pick up on the tension in her voice. She wouldn’t let her down.

Not the way Jason had.

He transferred the bacon to a paper-towel-lined platter. “Between being sick and having no one to watch the kids, seems like you’re going to have to miss the wedding,” he said. “Who’s getting married, anyhow?”

“Pete Brannigan.”

“You’re kidding. Thought he’d already gone down that road before we...before.”

“He did. He’s going down that road again.” Just the way she had. Unlike her, Pete had made a much better choice his second time around. “He’s Jed Garland’s ranch manager now, and he’s marrying one of Jed’s granddaughters.”

She touched Jill’s tiny fist. “Pete has two young kids of his own. He and Jane will understand that I can’t make it.” She gave a half laugh. “It’s Jed who will be upset if everyone in town doesn’t show up for the ceremony and the reception afterward. He and his family reopened the banquet room at the Hitching Post. They’ve started holding weddings there again, too. He’s so happy all three of his granddaughters are walking down the aisle right there on Garland Ranch. Well, one already has. Jane will be the second.”

“Too bad they weren’t back in the wedding business when we got married.”

She looked at him in surprise. “We couldn’t have afforded a reception there—or anywhere else, for that matter. We were lucky to have rings and enough left over for me to buy a dress.” Lucky. Or so she had thought.

She stared down at the tabletop.

At the time, she had been so in love with Jason, she would have worn ragged jeans and flashed a beer can pop-top for her wedding ring.

Despite everything, she couldn’t regret that ceremony. Her marriage had given her Scott, and she could never wish away her son or her daughter.

Still, she should have known better than to marry her high-school sweetheart. She should have waited till the heat of the moment—the heat of their relationship—had burned itself out, as it had always been bound to do.

Speaking of burning...

She caught the distinct scent of breadcrumbs beginning to char. Rising, she said, “I’d better grab the toast. That old thing’s getting temperamental.” She popped the lever of the toaster and removed the slices to a plate.

This far from the table, she could talk to Jason without Scott overhearing. “Thanks for starting breakfast,” she said in a low voice. “I’ll take over from here. I don’t want to hold you up, and I’m sure you’d much rather eat in peace and quiet at SugarPie’s.”

He frowned. “I’m willing—”

“Thanks,” she repeated firmly. “I appreciate all you’ve done, but I’m fine now. Really. A few solid hours of sleep were all I needed. And I won’t be alone. I told you, I have a friend dropping by.”

She had called Shay deliberately to give herself an out this morning. Maybe it was the coward’s way out. She couldn’t help that now.

Ordinarily, she would stand up for herself and her kids and send Jason packing. But somehow, she couldn’t seem to gather the strength to do that. Or to face another argument with him and all the memories that would surface along with it.

The flu, of course. No matter how much better she felt this morning, she wasn’t quite herself yet, and she could—and did—blame her weakness solely on the flu bug.

“So,” she continued, “you’ll be able to go on your way.”

As if on cue, the doorbell rang.

She swallowed a sigh of relief and plucked the spatula from his hand. “Since you’re so willing to help, you can do me one last favor, please. Answer the door.”

Chapter Four

At the Hitching Post Hotel, Jason paced from the long, waist-high reception desk, across the lobby to the wide doorway of the sitting room opposite, and back again. On his drive to the hotel, he had fought a mix of anger and irritation that had gotten stronger by the mile. Now he’d arrived, he wasn’t sure what had brought him here, except the determination not to leave town yet. Not to let Layne have the last word—again.

“That’s new flooring,” a familiar voice drawled from behind him. “It’d be a shame to wear grooves into it this soon.”

Jason turned to face the tall white-haired man now standing alongside the reception desk. He returned the familiar smile. Jed Garland had once been like a father to him.

Jason nearly staggered from the slap on his shoulder the older man gave him and found his hand engulfed in Jed’s.

“It’s been quite some time, boy. I thought maybe we’d never see you back on this ranch again. You looking for work?”

He shook his head. “No. I’m here for a place to stay.”

Jed raised his white eyebrows. “How long are you planning to stick around?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “It’s complicated.”

“Life can be. All we can do is our best.”

“Yeah.” Lately it seemed he’d fallen down in that regard a long time ago. At Jed’s level stare, tension tightened his belly. Who knew what Layne had told folks about their split and his disappearance. The memory of the comment she’d slammed him with last night—about his contribution to their son’s birth—kicked up his tension a notch.

Damn, she didn’t pull any punches. She never had. The worst of it was, he deserved the hit.

“Follow me.” Jed led the way toward the doorway behind the registration desk. “We’ll take over Tina’s office and sit for a while. The girls are all getting ready to head to town to prepare for Jane’s big day tomorrow.”

As Jed closed the door behind them, Jason took a seat in the guest chair, leaving the one behind the desk for Jed. “I hear Pete and Jane are tying the knot. And that you had a hand in roping them together.”

The older man laughed. “They are, and I did. This is wedding number two, and the third one won’t be too far along the road.”

“I’ll have to track down Pete and say hello.” The two of them had once worked together as wranglers, being broken in while under Jed’s supervision.

“He’ll appreciate seeing you, I’m sure.” Jed leaned back in the swivel chair with his hands linked behind his head. “I didn’t realize you’d kept up with the goings-on in Cowboy Creek after you left town.”

“I...saw Layne. She filled me in on everything.”

“I also didn’t realize you two kept in touch.”

He didn’t fall for Jed’s apparent innocence. The man had always had his ways of finding out anything that went on in Cowboy Creek, and everyone understood if there was one thing Jed Garland was famous for, it was knowing. It wouldn’t have come as a surprise to learn Jed had already heard about his arrival in town yesterday. “We don’t keep in touch. We hadn’t even spoken to each other in years until last night.”

“Another of life’s complications, huh? You and Layne seemed to deal with more of those than most kids.”

He’d always felt comfortable talking with Jed back in those days. The man had been good at keeping confidences to himself, and Jason would risk betting that was still true. “I spent the night at her place,” he said. “She wasn’t feeling well and needed somebody to help her out.”

“That was nice of you.”

“Yeah.” So anyone would think. Except Layne. He’d done his best to care for her and the baby and their son. And what had that gotten him? A sucker punch that had nearly knocked him to his knees.

My son, she had stressed last night. She had been as quick to draw the line about that as she had in throwing her verbal right hook about his lack of involvement with Scott. Knowing she was right hadn’t made him feel any better. “It was just to help her out for the night,” he clarified. “And now, I’m looking for a room.”

“So you said. Well, we’re nearly full up with everyone here for the wedding. But we’ll fit you in...somehow. You also said Layne’s sick, though, didn’t you? Has she got the flu that’s going around?”

“Yeah. But she said she was feeling better this morning.” The minute she had claimed that, the second she’d found someone else to help her, she had tossed him out.

“From what I hear, folks don’t recover too quickly from it.” Jed’s piercing blue gaze made him want to break off eye contact, but he managed to hold the man’s gaze. “And you just went off and left her?”

“No. Shay O’Neill’s with her. I thought you could pass along the word to her brother that she could use a hand.”

Jed shook his head. “Cole won’t be around. He and the other groomsmen are off to Santa Fe with Pete, helping him get through his last day as an unmarried man.”

Jason tried to hide his grimace. “I wouldn’t think there’d be any ‘getting through’ about it. Being unmarried’s a good thing.”

“Not always. Not when you’re a single parent like Pete. Or like Layne.”

“Jed—” He clamped his jaw tight.

The other man nodded. “Good choice. There’s no sense trying to argue your way out of that one when you haven’t been around to see what’s going on. Now, you know darned well that whenever we talked in the past, I never pulled any punches with you. And I’m not about to start. I never steered you wrong, either, so I’ll tell you this flat-out straight. Cole’s not here to look in on his sister and the kids. My girls have their day planned, too. And I happen to know Shay’s joining them all for lunch at SugarPie’s.”

Jed rose from his seat. Automatically, Jason stood, too. “I’ll hold a room for you, no worries there, but if I were you, I’d seriously consider hightailing it back to Layne’s and seeing what else you can manage to help her out with. It’s the only decent thing to do.”

He nodded. He recognized Jed’s thinly veiled attempt to shame him into doing what the man wanted. An easy agreement to the suggestion might have looked like he was giving in. But so what? He’d already come to the same conclusion himself.

Even as he’d driven away in the white heat of anger, he had known he wasn’t going for long. He had to see Layne, because his plans had changed. His intention had been to get her to take the child support she had always refused to accept. But after seeing the boy—after spending time with his son—after connecting with Scott the way he had done that morning, no matter how brief the link might have been, the situation had changed. Now he wanted more.

For his son’s sake and his own, he wanted contact with his child.

* * *

“WHAT ARE YOU up to, Abuelo?”

At the sound of his youngest granddaughter’s voice, Jed Garland started. He pushed aside his coffee mug on the Hitching Post’s kitchen table and glanced at Tina. “What makes you think I’m up to anything?”

Grinning, she took a seat. “The last time you had that look on your face, you were plotting how to get Mitch and Andi together. So I’ll ask again, just what are you up to?”

He grinned back. He loved all his granddaughters equally, but Tina had grown up in this very hotel and they knew each other best—which, come to think of it, didn’t always work to his advantage. But today he definitely saw the benefits to their relationship. “While you girls were all upstairs, I had a visitor. A new hotel guest, actually, and you’ll never guess who.”

“So tell me.”

“Jason McAndry.”

Tina’s breath hitched. “You’re kidding. What is he doing home?”

“Seeing Layne, for one thing. When he stopped in, he’d just come from her apartment.”

“Have you told Cole?” Coincidentally, Cole was both Layne’s brother and Tina’s husband.

“No, I haven’t, and for now, I think that’s something we’ll need to play close to our vests. If Cole hears Jason’s back in town, it’ll ruin all my plans.”

“Plans? You mean...? You’re not thinking about Layne and Jason as a couple, are you?” She shook her head. “You’re a wonderful matchmaker, Abuelo, but there’s no chance you’ll get those two back together.”

He frowned. “You’re a fine one to say that, after the state you and Cole were in not so long ago.”

“That was different. Layne and Jason have already been married. And divorced.”

“And you think as a wonderful matchmaker, I haven’t already considered that?” He reached across the table to pat the back of her hand. “Haven’t you learned a lot yourself about the redeeming power of love?”

“Yes, I have,” she said softly, “thanks to a little help from my own private matchmaker.”

“Then trust your old grandpa, won’t you, and return the favor. I want to keep Cole from finding out for a bit. Give these kids a chance for more time on their own.”

“But you said Jason planned to stay here. He and Cole will see each other at breakfast tomorrow.”

“No, I don’t believe they will. When Jason left again this afternoon, he was headed back to Layne’s...thanks to a little nudging, I might add. He’d already spent the night with her.” Tina’s jaw dropped, and he laughed. “Not what you’re thinking, girl. I played dumb with Jason, but you and I both know Layne’s down with the flu. He kept an eye on the kids for her so she could catch up on her sleep. Now I’ve got him back there, I need to keep him there. I can’t get you involved, at least not just yet.”

“That’s true. Not if you plan to leave Cole out of the loop.”

“And I surely do. We need to get someone else to pull the strings for a bit, while we stay in the background. Someone to be our eyes and ears, at least, and keep us in the loop.”