Operation Cowboy Daddy. Carla Cassidy
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In the few adult relationships he’d had with women, when he sensed the expectations were getting too big, when he believed his heart or the woman’s heart might be getting involved, that was when he walked and never looked back.
Still, he’d wanted to kiss Mary the other night. He’d wanted to kiss her desperately, hungrily, but it hadn’t happened. He thought he’d sensed desire in her as the evening had wound down, but he wasn’t sure and he didn’t want to make a mistake where she was concerned. Last night he’d scooted out of her house before he could do anything foolish.
He needed her. He needed the arrangement he’d made with her and the last thing he wanted to do was screw up things. He gave the reins a flick and headed toward the stable.
It was time to call it a day here and head to Mary’s. Tonight was movie night and he planned to stop in town on the way to her place and pick up some microwave popcorn and candy. He was certain the gesture would please Halena. What he couldn’t figure out was why he even wanted to please the old woman.
When he rode into the stable, Brody was inside brushing down his horse. “Feels like it’s going to storm,” Tony said as he dismounted.
“We could use whatever rain we get.” Brody guided his horse into a stall and then turned to look at Tony. “We’ve missed you at dinner the last couple of nights.”
“I feel like I’m living a double life right now,” he admitted as he pulled off the saddle.
“By day a rough-and-tumble cowboy and by night a daddy in distress. Better you than me, my man,” Brody said with a dry laugh.
“It’s not all bad,” Tony replied. “Joey is a good baby, I’m eating great dinners and I’m in the company of a beautiful woman.”
“Right, and her crazy grandma.”
“Halena is definitely interesting,” Tony replied with a small laugh. “But this arrangement with Mary isn’t going to last forever. Tomorrow I’m contacting Dillon to see if he knows somebody in Oklahoma City who might be able to find Amy.”
“What are you going to do? Find her and then drag her back kicking and screaming and make her be a mother?” Brody’s eyes flashed darkly. “A woman who abandons her kid shouldn’t be found. You, of all people, should know that, Tony.”
“I just need to find out what’s going on in her life and if she needs help,” Tony replied.
“You can’t help somebody who doesn’t want your help.”
Tony sighed with a touch of frustration. “Are you trying to depress me on purpose?”
Brody gave him a wry grin. “You know me, I’m the hard-nosed realist in the group. And now I’m heading in for a shower and some dinner. I heard Cookie made his famous chili tonight.”
Tony watched the tall, dark-haired man leave the stables. Brody was the resident hard-ass and pessimist. In all the years that the men had worked for Cass, he’d never shared any details about what had driven him to be living on the streets at the age of fifteen.
Of course, Tony hadn’t shared many of the horrors of his own childhood with any of the other men. There were some things you just didn’t speak of, wicked things that had scarred the heart too deeply for mere words.
By five o’clock he was on his way to Mary’s place. He’d stopped and picked up the goodies for movie night and was surprised by how much he looked forward to the evening.
Mary greeted him at the door and looked lovelier than he’d ever seen her. Instead of her hair being braided down her back, it was a long curtain of darkness around her shoulders that made his fingers itch with the desire to lose themselves in it.
“I come bearing movie-night gifts,” he said and thrust the paper bag he carried into her arms. “There’s microwave popcorn with extra butter and chewy candy, crunchy chocolate and licorice.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” she replied and took the bag from him.
“It’s the very least I could do.” He followed her through the living room, where Joey was asleep in his bouncy chair, and into the kitchen. There was no sign of Halena.
Mary motioned him to sit at the table. “I guess you still haven’t heard anything from Amy.” She began to unload the bag.
“Nothing. I had intended to call Dillon this morning to see if he could help, but I didn’t get a chance. Both Mac and Sawyer woke up with stomach-flu symptoms and so we were a bit shorthanded for the daily chores.”
“I hope they feel better. Maybe you should call Dillon after dinner tonight.” Mary turned from the counter to look at him, her expression unreadable.
“I’ll do that,” he said. He had to remember that he and Joey were a disruption to her life and he needed to either find Amy, or make different arrangements for the baby sooner rather than later. “I know there’s a day-care center in town. Maybe I should check in to them watching Joey during the day.”
She frowned. “That means you’ll have him in the bunkhouse during the nights. That doesn’t sound like a great idea. I’m good having him here for a while longer, Tony. Hopefully Dillon will be able to find Amy and then whatever arrangements you make for Joey will be between her and you.”
And then he’d have no more reason to see Mary anymore. He was surprised that the thought depressed him a bit. The past few nights of spending time in her home had been far more pleasant than he’d ever anticipated.
There was a calm quiet about her that he found attractive. There was a peace in the air that surrounded her, a serenity that called to something deep inside him.
He couldn’t deny that he was intensely attracted to her, but she had given him little indication that she might return the feeling.
Joey cried out from the living room and Tony jumped up to attend to him. He unbuckled him from his seat and pulled him into his arms.
Joey immediately stopped fussing and instead gazed at Tony for a long moment and then smiled, a rivulet of drool sneaking down his chin.
What will you write in his book of life?
An unexpected fierce protectiveness swelled up inside Tony. It was a feeling he’d never experienced before. A lump formed in the back of his throat as he stared into Joey’s bright eyes.
One thing was for certain—nobody would scribble the vile ugliness in this child that had been written in Tony’s book of life.
* * *
Ash stared out his car window. He was parked down the street from the beige house where his child was inside. It had taken him two days of following the cowboy from the Holiday ranch to this home to confirm that little Joey was in there.
He wouldn’t be there for long.
Ash and his men had yet to locate Amy. At the moment she was the last thing on his mind. All he cared about at this moment was getting his kid back where he belonged. Joey was his and nobody took what was Ash’s.
In the two days he’d been watching the house he hadn’t seen any man present other than the cowboy, who came every evening and left around twilight. He’d seen the old woman and the younger one, but no man.
There also didn’t appear to be any alarm system at the house. All of that was going to make it so much easier for Ash to get what was his.
He tightened his hands around the steering wheel. He’d prefer to get in and get Joey without anyone getting hurt, but he’d do whatever it took to get his boy back.
Tonight Joey would sleep in his own crib, in Ash’s home. And when he finally found Joey’s mother, she was a dead woman.
* * *
Tony called Dillon just after dinner and the lawman arrived at Mary’s house twenty minutes later. She invited him into the living room, where Tony and Halena sat on the