Operation Cowboy Daddy

He looked at her grandmother in surprise. She’d asked him a question he didn’t seem to know how to answer.

“Grandmother, behave yourself,” Mary said with a small laugh.

“I’m old enough that I don’t have to behave myself anymore,” Halena replied. “I’ve earned the right with age to do and say what I want. If I wish to dance naked in a rainstorm, I will. If I decide to wear a winter hat in July, it’s okay. And that’s that.” She looked at Mary and then at Tony, as if daring either one of them to disagree with her.

“And that’s that,” Mary agreed with amusement.

Tony’s eyes lightened and his lips twitched, as if he was controlling a smile. He filled his bowl and then slathered a piece of corn bread with butter.

It was the first hint of a smile she’d seen since he’d arrived here earlier in the day. She wasn’t sure she wanted to see a real smile. She remembered when he’d come to visit with Amy those couple of times and how that expression had lit up his face and created a warmth in her...a warmth she had no right to feel. She still didn’t have that right.

“Do you have any idea where Amy might be now?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I know she was living in Oklahoma City and I’m hoping she’s still somewhere in that area,” he replied. “She doesn’t have any relatives that she ever mentioned. I know her parents are dead.”

“They were both addicts,” Mary replied. “When we were young, Amy spent most of her time at my parents’ house. She was like an adopted daughter to my mother and father and then to my grandmother.”

“She was broken as a child and she’s still broken,” Halena said. “Why would you choose to date a woman with such problems?”

Mary knew the answer. Amy was beautiful, and when she was clean and sober, she was effervescent and funny and loving. Any man would be drawn to her.

Tony set down his spoon and met Halena’s gaze. “When I first started dating her, I had no clue about the demons she was fighting. I made it clear to her from the very beginning that I wasn’t looking for marriage and I had no wish for children. She told me she was on the same page as me and we were both just enjoying each other’s company. It was only as the relationship went on that alarm bells began to ring in my head.” He frowned and looked beyond Halena’s shoulder to the window, as if he was reluctant to say anything bad.

“She started lying to you,” Mary said softly. “And she became unreliable. She didn’t show up where she was supposed to, and when pressed about where she was, she became combative.”

Tony looked at her in surprise. “Yes, exactly.”

“I love Amy like a sister, but I know the pattern. I only hope she didn’t use during her pregnancy,” she replied.

Tony’s eyes widened. “Do you think it’s possible that she did? Maybe I should make an appointment for the baby to see a doctor to make sure everything is okay.”

“That might not be a bad idea,” Mary agreed, although during the hours she’d been with Joey she hadn’t seen anything that concerned her.

“And while I’m at it, I’ll have Dr. Rivers do a paternity test.” Tony’s cheeks flushed with faint color.

That might not be a bad idea, either, Mary thought, although she didn’t say it aloud. Just because Amy had told her that Tony was the father didn’t necessarily make it true.

“You make baskets,” he said, as if eager to change the subject.

“We make traditional items to honor our heritage,” Halena replied.

“It’s what I do for a living,” Mary said. For the next twenty minutes as they ate, she told him about Mary’s Choctaw Culture Inc., the business that had paid her bills for the last ten years.

In turn he talked about his life and work on the Holiday ranch and it was obvious by his tone that he loved what he did and had a fierce allegiance to Cassie Peterson—big Cass Holiday’s niece, who now owned the ranch.

They had just finished eating when Joey cried out from the living room. Tony shot a frantic look at her. It would have been easy for her to take the burden off him and go attend to the little guy, but she met his gaze levelly.

For now they had to function on the assumption that he was the father, and if that was the case, then Tony needed to step up and take responsibility, no matter whether he’d wanted children or not.

“Why don’t you go tend to him and I’ll clear the dinner dishes,” she said.

“And I’m going to write a blog about tornadoes and tin men,” Halena announced as she got up from the table and headed out of the room.

Tony looked at Mary curiously. “Don’t ask,” she said.

It was only when he left the kitchen that Mary realized his presence in the house had her just a bit breathless. It was ridiculous how acutely aware of him she had been while they’d eaten.

He not only had a strong and handsome countenance, but he also had hands that were big and capable, with calluses that proved he was a hard worker.

Halena’s outlandish comments during the meal had made him laugh out loud twice and his laughter had been deep and rich, and invited anyone around him to join in.

She finished up in the kitchen and went into the living room. Joey was in the bouncy chair on the floor facing Tony, who sat on the edge of the sofa and dangled a colorful plastic ring of keys in front of the baby. Joey kicked and waved his hands with a happy smile on his face.

Tony’s features held a combination of quiet horror and awe. He looked up and smiled as she entered the room. It was a smile that pooled a touch of unwanted heat in the pit of her stomach.

“Are all babies this happy?” he asked as she sat next to him.

“I’m certainly not an expert on the matter, but yes, I would guess that most babies are naturally happy as long as they have a full tummy and a clean diaper.”

She should have sat in the chair across from him. She should have never sat next to him, where she could smell his evocative male scent, where his energy seemed to wrap around her and leave her with that breathless feeling once again.

“I haven’t been around any babies before,” he said as his focus once again returned to Joey.

“Is there a specific reason why you don’t want any children?” she asked.

His eyes immediately shuttered and his shoulders stiffened slightly. He set the plastic keys on the coffee table and then scooted back deeper into the sofa. “It’s just a decision I made a long time ago. It’s not like I hate kids or anything. I’ve just never seen myself as a father.”

She knew he was one of the cowboys that several not-so-nice people in Bitterroot referred to as the lost boys. They were men who had been hired on when they’d been young teenagers, mere boys who either had been thrown away by their families or had chosen to run away.

She couldn’t help but wonder what Tony’s story was and then she reminded herself she shouldn’t even be interested. Within the next day or two Amy would show up or he’d find her and then she’d never see Tony Nakni again.

Chapter 3

Tony walked out of Mary’s front door at just after eight thirty. He’d given the baby a bottle and then he’d changed his diaper and clothes and placed him in the playpen for bed.

Mary accompanied him out to his truck. “What time should we expect you tomorrow evening?”

“About four thirty or five,” he replied.

The deep shadows of approaching night clung to her features, emphasizing her straight nose, her high cheekbones and the dark depths of her eyes. God, she was beautiful in moonlight and shadows, he thought.

“We’ll hold dinner until you arrive.”

“You don’t have to do that,” he protested. “You’re already doing so much for me.”

She smiled. “Setting another plate on the table is no big deal.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and stepped back from her. “I don’t think your grandmother likes me very much.”

Her smile widened. “If she’s giving you a hard time, then she likes you. If she isn’t speaking to you at all, then you have to worry.”

He frowned. “She didn’t have a lot to say to me.”

“That’s because you were interrupting our usual routine. Sunday and Wednesday nights are always movie nights for us, complete with popcorn and theater candy.”

“Why didn’t you say anything? I could have taken the baby into the bedroom so that you two could have gone about your normal routine.”

Once again she smiled at him. “A little shake-up in the routine isn’t always a bad thing. Now, you’d better get back to the ranch and we’ll see you tomorrow evening.” She didn’t wait for his reply but instead turned and headed into the house.

He got into his truck and took off for the Holiday ranch with Mary on his mind. She’d smelled of dark and mysterious spices, so different from the light floral scent that Amy had always worn.

He’d cared about Amy and he worried about the trouble she might be in now, but something about Mary Redwing stirred him on a level no woman had ever done before. Amy had been like a delightful teenager, but Mary was definitely all grown-up woman.

And something about her scared him just a little bit. A lick of desire burned in his stomach when he got near her and he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes where she was concerned.

Just a couple of days, he reminded himself. He needed her now because he had no other alternative. He was just grateful that she’d agreed to help him out.

Why wasn’t she already married? She must be in her early thirties. She was beautiful and was a successful entrepreneur and she even knew how to cook. Why hadn’t some man already snapped her up to build a family?

As he turned onto the long Holiday ranch drive that would take him to the shed where the men parked their vehicles, his thoughts shifted back to Amy. Maybe while he’d been gone today she’d come back here. Maybe she was sitting in the cowboy dining room right now just waiting for him to return with Joey.

Although he didn’t see her car anywhere it didn’t douse the modicum of hope that rose up inside him. She might not be here right at this very moment, but it was possible she’d been here earlier in the afternoon. Hopefully, if she’d been here and gone, she’d spoken to several of the other cowboys and had given somebody a phone number where Tony could contact her.

That hope carried him from the shed to the back of the cowboy motel, where he knew a few of the men would still be up in the recreational area of the large dining room.

Before he even entered, the dulcet tones of Mac McBride’s guitar drifting out on the cool night air met his ears. The man could make magic with that musical instrument and he sang as well as he played. Most evenings ended with Mac entertaining the men with a few songs before bedtime.

Mac stopped playing and set his guitar down next to him when Tony entered through the door. Mac wasn’t alone in the room. The ranch foreman, Adam Benson, was there, along with Sawyer, Brody and Clay.

“You didn’t have to stop playing,” Tony protested.

“It’s all right. We were about ready to call it a night anyway,” Mac replied easily.

“The men told me about the baby,” Adam said.

“Yeah, I’ve arranged with Mary Redwing to watch him during working hours until I get back in touch with Amy. I don’t suppose anyone saw her around here today while I was gone?” Tony’s heart sank as the men all shook their heads.

“What are you going to do, Tony? How are you going to find Amy?” Sawyer asked.

Tony swept his hat off his head and released a deep sigh. “I’ll wait another day or two and then I suppose I might talk to Dillon to see if he has any contacts in Oklahoma City who might help me locate her.”

“Aren’t you afraid she’ll get in trouble if you go to the police?” Sawyer asked.

“She didn’t abandon the baby someplace on the street, so there shouldn’t be a legal issue,” Tony replied. “If I have to, I’ll hire a private investigator to help me find her.” He eased down in one of the chairs that faced the sofa.

What he wanted right now was just a little male small talk. His head had been filled with women all day long. One woman had pulled forth old bittersweet feelings and the other one had evoked new, exciting feelings that he definitely didn’t want.

“Anything new going on around here?” he asked.

“Cassie informed me this morning that she’s going to hire on another ranch hand or two,” Adam said.

“I hope it’s somebody who fits well with all of us,” Sawyer replied.

“We could definitely use more help around here,” Mac added.

“But it’s good news for all of us that she’s hiring on somebody,” Tony replied. “That implies that she intends to stick around here.”

Since the moment the New York artist had taken over the ranch, the fear had been that Cassie would sell it and displace all the men who had called it their home for so many years.

The ranch wasn’t just their home—the men had also formed a family unit based on common pasts and a fierce loyalty to each other that had been branded into them by the tough, but loving, Cass Holiday.

“I still can’t get a feel for if she intends to stay here forever or eventually sell the place and head back to New York,” Adam replied.

“Have you gotten a feel for anything else about her?” Clay asked with a teasing glint in his eyes.

A flush of color rose up in Adam’s cheeks. “Cassie and I have a strictly professional relationship.”

“Who are you kidding? We all know you have the hots for her. When are you going to get up the nerve and ask her out?” Sawyer asked.

“When I feel like the time is right,” Adam replied curtly. He turned to look at Tony. “Have you spoken to Chief Bowie today?”

“Yeah, I saw him right after noon in the café.” A touch of anger stirred in him as he remembered the encounter with the men from the Humes place.

“Did he mention to you that they’ve identified one of the skeletons that was found here?”

Tony sat up straighter in the chair. “No, in fact I asked him if there was anything new on the case and he told me there wasn’t.”

“He must have gotten this news after he saw you,” Adam replied. “He was here at dinnertime asking if anyone remembered a fifteen-year-old boy named Tim Hankins.”

Tony frowned. “We’ve all told him over and over again that there were no other boys here other than the twelve of us.”

“Well, apparently Tim Hankins was here at one time or another, since his bones were found under the shed and his skull was the one Dusty fished out of the pond,” Clay replied.

Tony’s blood chilled as he remembered the day Dusty had brought his girlfriend, Trisha, and her young son to the pond for a day of fishing fun only to have it tainted by the gruesome catch.

When the bones had initially been dug up and studied by Dr. Patience Forbes, it had been discovered that a skull and finger bones were absent. Dusty had found the skull in the pond, but the finger bones had yet to be found.

“Was he a lost boy, too?” Tony asked.

Adam nodded. “According to Dillon he was a runaway from Tulsa.”

“I wonder how he got here from Tulsa,” Tony said.

“I wonder who killed him and all those others with an ax or a meat cleaver to the back of their heads,” Sawyer replied in a darkly somber tone.

The men were all silent for several long moments and Tony knew they were thinking about the seven boys who had been murdered right here on the property so many years ago.

The worst part of it all was the thread of suspicion that had been planted among the men who had basically grown up together, the men Tony considered his brothers. Everyone knew that Dillon suspected one of them of being the potential killer.

Tony had no idea what the others thought, but he couldn’t believe any of the other men who worked on the Holiday ranch were capable of such a heinous act. He definitely didn’t want to believe it.

“Did Dillon talk to Francine Rogers about him?” Tony asked. Francine had been a close friend of Cass’s and was the social worker who had brought all the boys to the Holiday ranch for a chance at a new life.

“I asked him that and he said Francine has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and has no real memories or notes from fifteen years ago,” Adam replied.

Tony sighed in frustration. Everyone wanted this solved to lift the pall that had settled over the ranch since the skeletons had been found.

“I think it’s time for me to call it a night,” Adam said and got up from his chair.

“Yeah, me, too. Morning comes early.” Mac stood from the sofa and grabbed his guitar.

Clay and Tony followed them out of the building and then Adam locked the door. Cord Cully, aka Cookie, would open the dining room door again in the morning when he came in to fix them all their morning meal.

They talked about chores for the next day as they went around the building and then each of them disappeared into their respective rooms.

Tony walked into his and spied a yellow baby blanket that must have fallen out of the suitcase before he’d packed it up to take it to Mary. It was a bright splash of sunshine against his dark brown bedspread.

He picked it up and then sat on the edge of his bed and thought about the baby who might or might not be his. He couldn’t quite believe Amy had gotten pregnant by him, although he supposed she could have lied to him about being on the pill and it wasn’t unheard of for a condom to break.

He’d never wanted to be a father, but if Joey was his, then Tony would man up and try to be a decent parent. It was the right thing to do.

What he didn’t want was in any way to get attached to him without knowing the truth. Amy could reappear at any moment and confess to him that the baby wasn’t his. She could snatch him away and Tony would never see him again.

First thing in the morning he’d make an appointment to take Joey into Dr. Rivers’s for a checkup, and while he was there, he’d have the doctor do a DNA test.

The odds were Amy would be back long before the test results ever came in, but at least Tony would have the peace of mind in knowing the truth.

If he didn’t hear anything from Amy by Tuesday night, then first thing Wednesday morning he’d have a talk with Dillon and see if he knew a private investigator who worked the Oklahoma City area.

He folded the baby blanket and placed it next to his hat and his gun and holster on the top of the chest of drawers, then took off his clothes and got into bed.

He stared up at the dark ceiling as his mind worked to process everything that had happened since the night before, when the frantic knock had sounded at his door.

An unusually high level of adrenaline had gotten him through the day and now his body relaxed into the familiar mattress as a wave of exhaustion overtook him.

He closed his eyes and was almost asleep when a disturbing thought stabbed through his brain. He hadn’t mentioned Amy’s parting words to Mary.

Protect him from evil.

* * *

“You are such a happy baby,” Mary said to Joey as she changed him into a clean white T-shirt and a pair of tiny jeans. Joey gurgled and cooed and then laughed in response.

Tony had called earlier to tell her that he’d made a four-thirty appointment with Dr. Rivers to give the baby a checkup. It was now four fifteen and she expected Tony to arrive at any moment.

First thing that morning Mary had gotten on her computer and printed off a sample sleep-and-feeding schedule for a three-month-old. None of them knew for sure exactly how old Joey was, but according to everything she had read he was doing things that a three-to four-month-old would do.

Halena had laughed at her for needing a piece of paper to take care of a baby, but Mary hadn’t been around many babies before and certainly had never been in charge of one. Even though this was a temporary arrangement, she didn’t want to screw things up.

She scooped up Joey from her bed and went into the kitchen, where Halena was on dinner duty for the night. Ground beef, onions and spices simmered in a skillet. “Hmm, something smells good.”

“Enchilada pie and it will be ready around five thirty,” Halena said and picked up a wooden spoon to stir the meat.

“That should be perfect,” Mary replied. “Tony should be back from the appointment by then.” She was unsurprised by Halena’s choice of a dish. Halena loved Mexican food as much as she loved action movies, and on the nights she cooked, the fare was always from south of the border.

A knock sounded on the door. “That should be Tony,” Mary said. Just knowing she was going to see him danced a bit of shimmering light through her, a light she didn’t want to shine at all.

She opened the door and Joey laughed and leaned out of her arms toward him. “Whoa,” she said and tightened her grip around his sturdy little body. “Hi, Tony. I know you need to get to the doctor’s office. The car seat is in the spare room if you want to get it.”

“I’ll just go grab it.” He swept by her and she caught the scent of minty soap and the pleasant cologne she’d noticed the day before.

He returned with the car seat in hand. “I’ll carry him out,” she said.

He stared at her, his dark eyes radiating both surprise and a touch of alarm. “You aren’t coming with me?”

“I hadn’t planned on it. Tony, I’m just the babysitter,” she reminded him.

“Of course,” he replied.

She carried Joey out to his truck, where he secured the car seat in the back of the king cab. “You’ll be fine,” she said as she handed Joey to him and watched as he buckled in the boy. “And dinner will be ready when you get back here. I hope you like Mexican. Grandmother made an enchilada pie.”

He nodded. “Sounds terrific. I’ll see you in a little while.” He got into the truck and pulled out of the driveway.

“It was a good decision for you not to go,” Halena said when Mary returned to the house. “It’s important for you to remember your place in all this.”

“I know.” Mary sank down in a chair at the table. “But it’s difficult to maintain distance when Joey is so beautiful and happy and obviously bright.”

“And he’ll be gone before too long.”

Mary eyed her grandmother with a touch of amusement. “But didn’t I see you leaning over his playpen at nap time whispering to him?”

Halena frowned. “You shouldn’t be spying on an old woman.”

Mary laughed and then sobered. “Don’t worry, I’m very aware that this is all temporary. In a couple of days things will be back to normal.”

Halena grinned at her, the familiar wicked twinkle in her eyes. “Normal has never had a place in our home.”

Mary laughed again and then together they made a big salad to go with the evening meal. Talk of Tony and the baby was replaced by conversation about the craft fair that was approaching far too quickly.

It was five fifteen when there was a knock at the door once again. Tony was back and Joey was asleep in the car seat. “He got a clean bill of health,” he said in obvious relief. “And I had Dr. Rivers do a paternity test.”

“How long does it take to get the results back?” Mary asked. How she wished being in his presence didn’t free more than a few butterflies to whirl around in her stomach. This whole arrangement would be easier if she didn’t find Tony so darned attractive.

“Four to six weeks,” he replied. “No matter what happens with Amy, I need to know if I’m his father.”

“Of course you do. Now, come into the kitchen. Grandmother has dinner ready to go on the table.”

He followed her into the kitchen, where Halena already sat in her chair. “I can tell by the light in your eyes that things went well at the doctor’s,” she said to Tony. “I could have told you there was nothing wrong with that child. His eyes are clear and his spirit is eager to embrace life.”

Tony nodded and sat down. “Dr. Rivers assured me of the same thing.”

Halena nodded. “The leaves on the trees told me the baby was fine. The tree leaves often tell me important things.”

Tony nodded and shot a quick, uncertain glance at Mary. She simply smiled. If he was around for any length of time, then he would quickly learn Halena’s quirks.