One Man and a Baby

She turned in time to see Rick pivot and vault up the steps, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He took the stairs two at a time and disappeared around a corner, crooning, “It’s okay, Ruthie, Daddy’s here.”

The affection in his voice was like a shot to Ashley’s heart. A man couldn’t fake the kind of emotion she’d heard in that one short sentence. Curious beyond words, she tiptoed up to the second floor but stopped short of the door. Peeking around the door frame, she saw Rick cradling a small bundle in pink pajamas.

The little girl sobbed pitifully, not comforted by being cradled. Rick shifted her to his shoulder, putting her tiny face in Ashley’s view. Pretty blue eyes, just like Rick’s, blinked back at Ashley, then the baby quit crying.

At the same time Rick turned. When he saw Ashley, he sighed. “It’s you.”

“I’m not leaving until we straighten this out.”

He shook his head. “That’s not it. I thought she had stopped crying because I’d comforted her. Now, I know she only quit because a woman came into the room.”

Ashley smiled. “She likes me?”

“Don’t get too carried away. She’s very curious about women. Probably because she had one in her life and doesn’t now.”

Studying the baby who was about the prettiest thing Ashley had ever seen with her black hair and big blue eyes, Ashley was again struck by the emotion for the baby she heard in Rick’s voice. She knew most fathers put their children first, but it seemed odd to see Rick Capriotti do it. He’d already admitted he was protecting her from being used as a pawn by people trying to destroy her grandfather’s career. Now, he was worried about her missing her mom. His behavior was so different from what Ashley expected, she couldn’t even address it. She wouldn’t know how.

“Can I hold her?”

Rick reluctantly said, “Sure.”

Ashley took the little girl and her mouth automatically tipped into a smile. “Well, hello,” she said, holding the baby an arm’s length away so she could look at her. Then she peered over the baby’s shoulder to Rick. “What’s her name?”

“Ruthie.”

“That’s right. Ruthie.” She smiled at the baby. “Hello, Ruthie.”

Ruthie gurgled.

Rick laughed. “She usually yelps at me.”

The note of pleasure in his voice caused Ashley’s heart to do another flip-flop. His obvious love of the little girl and his honest wish to win her love was incredibly attractive. Luckily Ashley hadn’t been one of his high school groupies or right now she’d probably be swooning.

“You’re her source. Yelping is how she tells you she needs something. Besides, you know the old saying. You always yelp at the one you love the best.”

Ruthie giggled.

Ashley grinned at the baby, then peeked at Rick. “Do you think she understood that?”

Rick bent to pick up a bear and two dolls that were on the floor in front of the small white crib. “I think babies are a hell of a lot smarter than we give them credit for being.”

“She looks like you.”

“Thank God,” Rick said, then he grimaced. “Jen didn’t exactly leave me with a lasting good impression of her. I’d prefer not to see her face every time I look at Ruthie. More than that, though, I don’t want Ruthie to see the mother who abandoned her every time she looks in the mirror.”

Again his stark honesty hit Ashley right in the heart. He’d been hurt and couldn’t hide it, but more than that he understood that his daughter would suffer when she realized her mother hadn’t wanted her and that hurt him, too.

That almost brought her to tears and she had to admit something she’d never thought she would. Rick Capriotti had changed. Really changed. Worse, when she added his new personality to his good looks, he suddenly became very attractive to her. With his black hair drying in ringlets, the day’s growth of dark whiskers shadowing his chin and his shirt pulled out of his jeans, he looked sexily disheveled. Like a man who needed to be kissed, then fed dinner.

Ashley brought that thought to a swift halt. Being attracted to Rick Capriotti was a normal gut-level reaction, but the deal about kissing him and making him dinner was just insane.

She settled the baby on her shoulder. “Okay. I’ll keep your secret.” She paced the floor, rocking the baby in a move that suddenly felt very natural. But as quickly as she realized that, she also figured out what was going on. Her dad leaving had made her long for family and Rick and his little girl were a ready-made family. An adorable baby and a sexy man were a deadly combination for a woman whose only real desire in life was to have a home. Intellectually she knew getting attached to this baby or this baby’s daddy was ridiculous. But, emotionally, it was second nature. An honest need coming face-to-face with two people who could fill that need. Her brain wouldn’t overrule her emotions on this one. Especially not if her hormones got involved. Best to get the hell out of here!

“I’m not keeping the secret for you. I’m doing it for Ruthie. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to roll over and play dead so you get the job as foreman of my dad’s farm permanently.”

She turned and handed Rick’s baby to him, then locked her gaze with his sexy blue eyes. A frisson of awareness danced along her skin. And she knew it was officially too late. If her hormones hadn’t been engaged before this, they were now.

“This job is mine.”

And she was getting the hell out of this room before the man currently at her mercy realized she had a weakness, too…

Him.

Chapter Three

He couldn’t let her leave with her last words hanging in the air. She knew his secret, and allowing her to have the last word could give her a false sense that she had the upper hand. She didn’t. Despite her promise not to tell, he was still the boss. It would be a betrayal of Gene’s trust in him if he allowed Ashley to take control when she was nowhere near ready. Not only that, he didn’t intend to lose this job. It was perfect for him: a quiet farm where he could keep his daughter out of everybody’s line of vision.

He laid the now-sleeping baby in the crib, then stepped into the hall, closing Ruthie’s door behind him. “Don’t think you’ve got me running scared.”

Ashley stopped dead in her tracks in the hallway, pivoted and stared at him. “I’m doing you a favor and you snap at me?”

“You’re only paying back the favor I did for you this morning.”

“I would have preferred that you explained that situation to Toby this morning. I wanted the air cleared,” she said, but her voice shivered oddly and Rick frowned. Surely she wasn’t afraid of him. “I wanted the truth out. Unlike you, I don’t keep secrets.”

She turned to run down the steps, but again Rick couldn’t let her go. It was one thing for her to fear him as her boss. Quite another for her to be “afraid” of him.

He stopped her by grabbing her wrist, and her gaze leaped to his. Her pretty green eyes widened and she shivered, and it was all Rick could do to keep from laughing out loud. She wasn’t afraid of him. She was attracted to him. That was why she was running. She wanted to get away before he noticed, but it was too late.

“I get the distinct impression that you might have a secret or two.”

To her credit she held his gaze. “I don’t.”

Rick ignored her words and focused on her feathery, breathless voice. He skimmed his index finger over her wrist and was rewarded when her breathing stuttered.

“I could kiss you right now and you wouldn’t run.”

“Not until after I’d kicked you.”

He laughed and leaned forward just a bit. She didn’t move. Didn’t shrink back. If nothing else, the kid had backbone.

“But you’d like it.”

“So would you.”

This time it was his breath that froze in his chest. The hell of it was she was right. Staring into her fiery green eyes, feeling her soft skin against his palm, he couldn’t deny it. He would enjoy kissing her, so for that very reason he stepped back.

“Go home. We have a busy day tomorrow.”

She turned and headed for the steps.

Just to make sure they were clear about their situation, Rick added, “Don’t think your job will be any easier because you know about Ruthie. As far as I’m concerned we’re even.”

Halfway down the steps she turned again. “You came into my bedroom. I came into your house. That’s even. But not the part about the baby secret. You owe me on that one.”

“And I’m paying you back by keeping the secret that you’re attracted to me. So once again, we’re even.”

She shook her head with disgust and started down the steps. But Rick knew two things. First, she hadn’t seen that he’d reacted to her, too, or she would have had a snappy comeback. Second, she had gotten his message. They both knew she was attracted to him and they both knew that was enough to keep her in line at least until she grew accustomed to it.

Marching up the sidewalk to the hardware store the next morning, Ashley didn’t even let herself think about how she looked—or smelled. She knew what was going on. Rick might not be the finagler he was in his misspent youth, but they were in competition for a job and sending her into town was an easy way to embarrass her and clearly illustrate that if she got this job this would be her life. A sweaty, smelly farmworker. Dressed in the oldest clothes she could find in her drawers. Her hair matted into ringlets from sweat. No makeup.

But contrary to what Rick expected, she refused to be embarrassed. Not just because she wouldn’t let him win, but because she accepted that this was her life now. She wanted to be the farm manager. She wanted to care for the horses, dicker for new mares, negotiate the sale of foals, hire hands, settle small battles, maintain the property. She wanted to be connected to the land and the people of her small town as one of them. No longer an outsider, or her father’s daughter, but one of them.

She pushed open the hardware store door and the bell rang, alerting Bert Minor to her arrival. “Hey, Bert,” she called striding down the aisle. “I’m here to pick up the part Rick ordered this morning.”

The tall, round, hardware store owner scrambled out of the back room, drying his hands in a brown paper towel. “Hey, Ashley. How’s it going?”

“It’s going great, but apparently Rick or somebody needs some part and I was elected to pick it up.”

He looked pointedly at her oversize gray T-shirt and threadbare jeans, apparently not realizing that in some parts of the world she’d be in style.

“They must all be super busy.”

“We are super busy,” she said, emphasizing the “we” so Bert would start thinking of her as one of the workers, not just a resident of the farm. “That’s why I didn’t have time to change clothes. Besides, you might as well get used to me looking like this. Right now I’m learning as much as I can about running the place, and when my father retires I hope to be the one who takes over.”

He smiled approvingly. People in Calhoun Corners weren’t fond of outsiders and they liked it when a farm passed from one generation to the next. “Yeah. Your dad told me he was retiring.”

Though Ashley had suspected her father would probably officially retire when he returned in February, hearing that he’d already announced it in town froze her breath in her lungs. Still, she schooled her features, not so much to prevent Bert from seeing that it hurt her to hear it from him but so that he wouldn’t guess that her dad seemed to be telling everybody but her.

“He called the day before he left to go sailing and put Rick’s names on all your accounts,” Bert said, examining the screen of his computerized checkout system, subtly alerting her to the fact that everybody knew Rick was in the running for the manager job, and to him it looked as if Rick was in the lead.

She only smiled.

“So, you don’t have to sign for this or anything.” He handed her a brown bag that held something heavy. “Just don’t drop it.”

“Right.”

“And good luck with learning the ropes. I’m pulling for you.”

“Thanks.” She walked out of the hardware store and directly to her black SUV. She carefully set whatever the hell was in the bag on the floor in front of the passenger’s seat, then slammed the door closed. Rounding the hood, she passed the dress shop and stopped suddenly.

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