Home on the Ranch

“I’m sorry.”

Belle shivered. She tugged away from his hold, that wasn’t really a hold at all when Cage let go of her so easily, and she was grateful she hadn’t betrayed the way he made her feel.

“I’m sorry, too,” she whispered.

About so many things.

She walked out, leaving Cage standing there in the barn, surrounded by weights and mats and bars and bells, all procured with the intention of helping his daughter walk and run and dance again.

Just then, however, it felt to Belle as if she and Cage were the ones in need of walking lessons.

Dear Reader,

It’s that time of year again—back to school! And even if you’ve left your classroom days far behind you, if you’re like me, September brings with it the quest for everything new, especially books! We at Silhouette Special Edition are happy to fulfill that jones, beginning with Home on the Ranch by Allison Leigh, another in her bestselling MEN OF THE DOUBLE-C series. Though the Buchanans and the Days had been at odds for years, a single Buchanan rancher—Cage—would do anything to help his daughter learn to walk again, including hiring the only reliable physical therapist around. Even if her last name did happen to be Day….

Next, THE PARKS EMPIRE continues with Judy Duarte’s The Rich Man’s Son, in which a wealthy Parks scion, suffering from amnesia, winds up living the country life with a single mother and her baby boy. And a man passing through town notices more than the passing resemblance between himself and newly adopted infant of the local diner waitress, in The Baby They Both Loved by Nikki Benjamin. In A Father’s Sacrifice by Karen Sandler, a man determined to do the right thing insists that the mother of his child marry him, and finds love in the bargain. And a woman’s search for the truth about her late father leads her into the arms of a handsome cowboy determined to give her the life her dad had always wanted for her, in A Texas Tale by Judith Lyons. Last, a man with a new face revisits the ranch—and the woman—that used to be his. Only, the woman he’d always loved was no longer alone. Now she was accompanied by a five-year-old girl…with very familiar blue eyes….

Enjoy, and come back next month for six complex and satisfying romances, all from Silhouette Special Edition!

Gail Chasan

Senior Editor

Home on the Ranch

Allison Leigh

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ALLISON LEIGH

started early by writing a Halloween play that her grade-school class performed. Since then, though her tastes have changed, her love for reading has not. And her writing appetite simply grows more voracious by the day.

She has been a finalist in the RITA® Award and the Holt Medallion contests. But the true highlights of her day as a writer are when she receives word from a reader that they laughed, cried or lost a night of sleep while reading one of her books.

Born in Southern California, Allison has lived in several different cities in four different states. She has been, at one time or another, a cosmetologist, a computer programmer and a secretary. She has recently begun writing full-time after spending nearly a decade as an administrative assistant for a busy neighborhood church, and currently makes her home in Arizona with her family. She loves to hear from her readers, who can write to her at P.O. Box 40772, Mesa, AZ 85274-0772.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Epilogue

Chapter One

“He is not an ogre.”

Belle Day flicked her windshield wipers up to frenzied and tightened her grip around the steering wheel of her Jeep. She focused harder on the unfamiliar road, slowing even more to avoid the worst of the flooding, muddy ruts.

It wasn’t the weather, or the road, or the unfamiliar drive that had her nerves in a noose, though. It was the person waiting at the end of the drive.

“He is not an ogre.” Stupid talking to herself. She’d have to keep that to a minimum when she arrived. Not that she did it all the time.

Only when she was nervous.

Why had she agreed to this?

Her tire hit a dip her searching gaze had missed, and the vehicle rocked, the steering wheel jerking violently in her grip. She exhaled roughly and considered pulling over, but discarded the idea. The sooner she got to the Lazy-B, the sooner she could leave.

Not exactly positive thinking, Belle. Why are you doing this?

Her fingers tightened a little more on the wheel. “Lucy,” she murmured. Because she wanted to help young Lucy Buchanan. Wanted to help her badly enough to put up with Lucy’s father, Cage.

Who was not an ogre. Just because the therapist she was replacing had made enough complaints about her brief time here that they’d found a way through Weaver’s grapevine didn’t mean her experience would be similar.

That’s not the only reason. She ignored the whispered thought. The road curved again, and she saw the hooked tree Cage had told her to watch for. Another quarter mile to go.

At least the ruts in the road were smoothing out and she stopped worrying so much about bouncing off into the ditch. The rain was still pouring down, though. Where the storm had come from after weeks of bonedry weather, she had no idea. Maybe it had been specially ordered up to provide an auspicious beginning to her task.

She shook her head at the nonsense running through it, and slowed before the quarter-mile mark. It was raining and that was a good thing for a state that had been too dry for too long. She finally turned off the rutted road.

The gate that greeted her was firmly closed. She studied it for a moment, but of course the thing didn’t magically open simply because she wished it.

She let out a long breath, pushed open the door and dashed into the rain. Her tennis shoes slid on the slick mud and she barely caught herself from landing on her butt. By the time she’d unhooked the wide, swinging gate, she was drenched. She drove through, then got out again and closed it. And then, because she couldn’t possibly get any wetter unless she jumped in a river, she peered through the sheet of rain at Cage Buchanan’s home.

It was hardly an impressive sight. Small. No frills. A porch ran across the front of the house, only partially softening the brick dwelling. But the place did look sturdy, as the rain sluiced from the roof, gushing out the gutter spouts.

She slicked back her hair and climbed into her Jeep once more to drive the rest of the way. She parked near the front of the house. Despite the weather, the door was open, but there was a wooden screen. She couldn’t see much beyond it, though.

She grabbed her suitcase with one wet hand before shoving out of the Jeep, then darted up the narrow edge of porch steps not covered by a wheelchair ramp. A damp golden retriever sat up to greet her, thumping his tail a few times.

“You the guard dog?” Belle let the curious dog sniff her hand as she skimmed the soles of her shoes over the edge of one of the steps. The rain immediately turned the clumps of mud into brick-red rivulets that flowed down over the steps. Beneath the protection of the porch overhang, she wiped her face again, and flicked her hair behind her shoulders. Of all days not to put it in a ponytail. She couldn’t have arrived looking more pathetic if she’d tried.

She knocked on the frame of the screen door, trying not to be obvious about peering inside and trying to pretend she wasn’t shivering. Even sopping wet, she wasn’t particularly cold. Which meant the shivers were mostly nerves and she hated that.

She knocked harder. The dog beside her gave a soft woof.

“Ms. Day!” A young, cheerful voice came from inside the door, then Belle saw Lucy wheel into view. “The door’s open. Better leave Strudel outside, though.”

“Strudel, huh?” Belle gave the dog a sympathetic pat. “Sorry, fella.” She went inside, ignoring another rash of shivers that racked through her. It was a little harder to ignore Strudel’s faint whine when she closed the screen on him, though.

She set her suitcase on the wood-planked floor, taking in the interior of the house with a quick glance. Old-fashioned furnishings dominated mostly by a fading cabbage rose print. An antique-looking upright piano sat against one wall, an older model TV against the other. The room was clean but not overly tidy, except for the complete lack of floor coverings. Not even a scatter rug to quiet the slow drip of water puddling around her.

She looked at the girl who was the reason for her waterlogged trek. “Your hair has grown.” Too thin, she thought. And too pale. But Lucy’s blue eyes sparkled and her golden hair gleamed.

Lucy dimpled and ran a hand down the braid that rested over her thin shoulder. “It’s dry, too. Come on. We’ll get you some towels.” She turned her chair with practiced movements.

Belle quickly followed. Her tennis shoes gave out a wet squeak with each step. They were considerably louder than the soft turn of Lucy’s wheelchair.

She glanced through to the kitchen when they passed it. Empty. More than a few dishes sat stacked in the white sink. The stove looked ancient but well preserved.

“This is my room.” Lucy waved a hand as she turned her chair on a dime, stopping toward the end of the hall, unadorned except for a bookshelf weighted down with paperbacks. “Used to be Dad’s, but we switched ’cause of the stairs.” She smiled mischievously. “Now I have my own bathroom.”

Belle’s gaze drifted to the staircase. “And up there was your old room?”

“Yeah, but the bathroom’s in the hall. Not the same. There’s an empty room up there, though. You don’t have to sleep, like, on the couch or nothing.”

Belle smiled. “I know. Your dad told me I’d have my own room.” She hoped the two upstairs rooms were at least at opposite ends of the hall.

She walked into Lucy’s bedroom. It may have been temporarily assigned because of Lucy’s situation, but it bore no sign that it had ever been anything but a twelve-year old girl’s bedroom. There was pink…everywhere. Cage had even painted the walls pale pink. And in those rare places where there wasn’t pink, there was purple. Shiny, glittery purple.

Hiding her thoughts, she winked cheerfully at Lucy and squished into the bathroom where the towels were—surprise, surprise—pink with purple stripes. As she bent over hurriedly scrubbing her hair between a towel to take the worst of the moisture out, she heard the roll of Lucy’s chair. “Is your dad around?” She couldn’t put off meeting with him forever, after all. He was employing her. He’d hired her to provide both the physical therapy his daughter needed following a horseback-riding accident several months ago, and the tutoring she needed to make up for the months of school she’d missed as a result.

Lucy didn’t answer and she straightened, flinging the towel around her shoulders, turning. “Lucy? Oh.”

Six plus feet of rangy muscle stood there, topped by sharply carved features, bronze hair that would be wavy if he let it grow beyond two inches and eyes so pale a blue they were vaguely heart stopping.

“I guess you are.” She pushed her lips into a smile that, not surprisingly, Cage Buchanan didn’t return. He’d hired her out of desperation, and they both knew it.

After all, he loathed the ground she walked.

“You drove out here in this weather.”

Her smile stiffened even more. In fact, a sideways glance at the mirror over the sink told her the stretch of her lips didn’t much qualify for even a stiff smile. “So it would seem.” It was easier to look beyond him at Lucy, so that’s what she did. “Sooner we get started, the better. Right Lucy?”

For the first time, Belle saw Lucy’s expression darken. The girl’s lips twisted and she looked away.

So, chalk one up for the efficiency of Weaver’s grapevine again. Judging by the girl’s expression, the rumor about Lucy’s attitude toward her physical therapy was true.

Belle looked back at Cage. She knew he’d lived on the Lazy-B his entire life. Had been running it, so the stories went, since he’d been in short pants.

Yet she could count their encounters in person on one hand.

None of the occasions had been remotely pleasant.

Belle had had her first personal encounter with Cage before Lucy’s accident over the issue of Lucy going on a school field trip to Chicago. Lucy had been the only kid in her class who hadn’t been allowed to go on the weeklong trip. Belle—as the newest school employee—had been drafted into chaperone service and had foolishly thought she’d be able to talk Cage into changing his mind.

She’d been wrong. He’d accused her of being interfering and flatly told her to stay out of his business.

It had not been pleasant.

Had she learned her lesson, though? Had she given up the need to somehow give something back to his family? No.

Which only added to her tangle of feelings where Cage Buchanan was concerned. Feelings that had existed long before she’d come to Weaver six months ago with great chunks of her life pretty much in tatters.

“Did you bring a suitcase?”

She nodded. “I, um, left it by the front door.”

He inclined his head a few degrees and his gaze drifted impassively down her wet form. “I’ll take it upstairs for you.”

“I can—” But he’d already turned on his heel, walking away. Soundless, even though he was wearing scuffed cowboy boots with decidedly worn-down heels.

If she hadn’t had a stepfamily full of men who walked with the same soundless gait, she’d have spent endless time wondering how he could move so quietly.

She looked back at Lucy and smiled. A real one. She’d enjoyed Lucy from the day they’d met half a year ago in the P.E. class Belle had been substitute teaching. And she’d be darned if she’d let her feelings toward the sweet girl be tainted by the past. “So, that’s a lot of ribbons and trophies on that shelf over there.” She gestured at the far wall and headed toward it, skirting the pink canopied bed. “Looks like you’ve been collecting them for a lot of years. What are they all for?”

“State Fair. 4-H.” Lucy rolled her chair closer.

Belle plucked one small gold trophy off the shelf. “And this one?”

“Last year’s talent contest.”

Belle ran her finger over the brass plate affixed to the trophy base. “First place. I’m not surprised.” Belle had still been in Cheyenne then with no plans whatsoever about coming to Weaver for any reason other than to visit her family. Her plans back then had involved planning her wedding and obtaining some seniority at the clinic.

So much for that.

“Won’t be in the contest this year, that’s for sure.”

“Because you’re not dancing at the moment?” Belle set the trophy back in its place. “You could sing.” She ignored Lucy’s soft snort. “Or play piano. I thought I remembered you telling me once that you took lessons.”

“I did.”

“But not now?”

Lucy shrugged. Her shoulders were impossibly thin. Everything about her screamed “delicate” but Belle knew the girl was made of pretty stern stuff.

“Yeah, I still take lessons. But it doesn’t matter. If I can’t dance then I don’t want to be in the contest. It’s stupid anyway. Just a bunch of schoolkids.”

“I don’t know about stupid,” Belle countered easily. Most talented school kids from all over the state. “But we can focus on next year.” She took the towel from her shoulders and folded it, then sat on top of it on the end of Lucy’s bed. She leaned forward and touched the girl’s knee. The wicked scar marring Lucy’s skin was long and angry. “Don’t look so down, kiddo. People can do amazing things when they really want. Remember, I’ve seen you in action. And I already think you’re pretty amazing.”

“Miss Day.”

Belle jerked a little. Cage Buchanan was standing in the doorway again. She kept her smile in place, but it took some work. “You’d better start calling me Belle,” she suggested, deliberately cheerful. “Both of you. Or I’m not going to realize you’re talking to me.”

“The students called you Miss Day during the school year,” he countered smoothly.

“You’re not a student, Cage.” She pointedly used his name. More to prove that she could address the man directly than to disprove that whole ogre thing. The fact was, she knew he was deliberately focusing on her surname. And she knew why.

She was a Day. And he hated the Day family.

His eyes were impossible to read. Intensely blue but completely inscrutable. “I need a few minutes of your time. Then you can…settle in.”

Belle hoped she imagined his hesitation before settle. Despite everything, she wasn’t prepared to be sent out on her ear before she’d even had a session with Lucy. For one thing, she really wanted to help the girl. For another, her ego hadn’t exactly recovered from its last professional blow.

She was aware of Lucy watching her, a worried expression on her face. And she absolutely did not want to worry the girl. It wasn’t Lucy’s problem that she had a…slight…problem with the girl’s dad. “Sure.” She rose, taking the towel with her. “Then I’ll change into something dry, and you—” she gently tugged the end of Lucy’s braid “—and I can get started.”

The girl’s expression was hardly a symphony of excitement. But she did eventually nod, and Belle was happy for that.

She squeaked across the floor in her wet sneakers and, because Cage didn’t look as if he would be moving anytime this century, she slipped past him into the hall. He was tall and he was broad and she absolutely did not touch him, yet she still tamped down hard on a shiver.

Darned nerves.

“Kitchen,” he said.

Ogre, she thought, then mentally kicked herself. He was a victim of circumstances far more than she was. And he had painted his bedroom pink for Lucy, for heaven’s sake. Was that the mark of an ogre?

She turned into the kitchen.

“Sit down.”

There were three chairs around an old-fashioned table that—had it been in someone else’s home—would have been delightfully retro. Here, it obviously was original, rather than a decorating statement. She sat down on one of the chairs and folded her hands together atop the table, waiting expectantly. If he wanted to send her home already, then he would just have to say so because she wasn’t going to invite the words from him. She’d had enough of failure lately, thank you very much.

But in the game of staring, she realized all too quickly that he was a master. And she…was not.

So she bluffed. She lifted her eyebrows, doing the best imitation of her mother that she could summon, and said calmly, “Well?”

Interfering, Cage thought, eying her oval face. Interfering, annoyingly superior, and—even wet and bedraggled—too disturbing for his peace of mind.

But more than that, she’d managed to make him feel out of place. And Cage particularly didn’t like that feeling.

But damned if that wasn’t just the way he felt standing there in his own kitchen, looking at the skinny, wet woman sitting at the breakfast table where he’d grown up eating his mother’s biscuits and sausage gravy. And it was nobody’s fault but his own that Miss Belle Day—with her imperiously raised eyebrows and waist-length brown hair—was there at all.

He pulled out a chair, flipped it around and straddled it, then focused on the folder sitting on the table, rather than on Belle. This was about his daughter, and there wasn’t much in this world he wouldn’t do for Lucy. Including put up with a member of the Day family, who up until a few years ago had remained a comfortable distance away in Cheyenne.

If only she wasn’t…disturbing. If only he hadn’t felt that way from the day they’d met half a year ago.

Too many “if onlys.” Particularly for a man who’d been baptized in the art of dealing with reality for more years than he could remember.

He flipped open the folder, reining in his thoughts. “Doctors’ reports.” He shoved a sheaf of papers toward her. “Notes from the last two PTs.” Two different physical therapists. Two failures. He was running out of patience, which he’d already admitted to her two weeks ago when he’d flatly told her why the other two hadn’t worked out; and he was definitely running out of money, which he had no intention of ever admitting to her.

He watched Belle’s long fingers close over the papers as she drew them closer to read. He pinched the bridge of his nose before realizing he was even doing it. Maybe that’s what came from having a headache for so many months now.

“Your last therapist—” Belle tilted her head, studying the writing, and a lock of tangled hair brushed the table, clinging wetly “—Annette Barrone. This was her schedule with Lucy?” She held up a report.

“Yeah.”

She shook her head slightly and kept reading. “It’s not a very aggressive plan.”

“Lucy’s only twelve.”

Belle’s gaze flicked up and met his, then flicked away. He wondered if she thought the same thing he’d thought. That Annette had been more interested in impressing her way into his bed than getting his daughter out of her wheelchair.

But she didn’t comment on that. “Lucy’s not an ordinary twelve-year-old, though,” she murmured. The papers rustled in the silent kitchen as she turned one thin sheet to peruse the next. Her thumb tapped rhythmically against the corner of the folder.

“My daughter is not abnormal.”

Her thumb paused. She looked up again. Her eyes, as rich a brown as the thick lashes that surrounded them, narrowed. “Of course she’s not abnormal. I never suggested she was.” She moistened her lips, then suddenly closed the folder and rested her slender forearms on top of it, leaning toward him across the table. “What I am saying is that Lucy is highly athletic. Her ballet dancing. Her riding. School sports. She is only twelve, yes. But she’s still an athlete, and her therapy should reflect that, if there’s to be any hope of a full recovery. That’s what you want, right?” Her gaze never strayed from his.

He eyed her. “You’re here.”

She looked a little uneasy for a moment. “Right. Of course. You wouldn’t keep hunting up therapists who are willing to come all the way out here to the Lazy-B on a lark. But my point is that you could just drive her into town for sessions a few times a week. She could even have her tutoring done in town. All of her teachers want to see her be able to start school again in the fall with her class, rather than falling behind.” Her lips curved slightly. “The cost for the therapy would be considerably less if you went into town. You could have a therapist of your choice work with Lucy at the Weaver hospital. I know the place isn’t entirely state of the art, but it’s so new and the basics are there—”

“I’ll worry about the cost.” That faint smile of hers died at his interruption. “You’re supposed to be good at what you do. Are you?”

Her expression tightened. “I’m going to help Lucy.”

It wasn’t exactly an answer. But Cage cared about two things. Lucy and the Lazy-B. He was damned if he’d admit how close he was to losing both. Like it or not, he needed Belle Day.

And he hoped his father wasn’t rolling over in his grave that this woman was temporarily living on the ranch that had been in the Buchanan family for generations.