The Cowboy's Way

His mother had taken good care of him and made sure he recovered with no problems, but what she hadn’t done was take care of herself. Physically run-down, she developed a case of pneumonia and hadn’t been able to fight off the infection. She died a week later and T.J. had been sent to live with his elderly great-grandmother.

That’s when all hell broke loose and started him on a downward spiral that ended up sending him to the Last Chance Ranch. His great-grandmother had really been too old to oversee what he was up to and who he was with. And he had been too hurt and angry about losing his mother to listen to her anyway. Looking back, he had been ripe for falling in with the wrong crowd and by the time he was thirteen, he had been arrested five times for vandalism and criminal mischief. Shortly after that his great-grandmother passed away and his case worker had decided that placing him with a set of normal foster parents would be more of the same, so he had been placed under the care of Hank Calvert. And even though it had been the luckiest break of his life, he was determined to see that Heather’s little boy didn’t go down the same path he had taken.

Her little boy was counting on his mother to be there for him throughout the rest of his childhood, and for the kid’s sake, T.J. would try to make sure that happened—at least this time. Whether she liked it or not, he was going to take care of Heather and her son while they were sick and flooded out of returning to their home. In the bargain, he’d make sure that her little boy didn’t suffer the same motherless childhood that T.J. had.

* * *

Around dawn the morning after she followed T. J. Malloy home, Heather lay in bed, feeling as if she had been run over by a truck. Assessing her symptoms, she realized that although her muscles weren’t as achy as they had been for the past couple of days, they were extremely weak. Just lifting her head from the pillow took monumental effort. Thankfully her headache was gone, but one minute she was hot and the next she was shivering—indicating that her temperature was still elevated. Thank heavens she had been able to scrape up the money to get Seth to the doctor a couple of months earlier for a flu shot. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about him catching the illness from her.

“Mom-mom,” Seth said, sitting up to pat her arm.

She could tell from the tremor in his voice that he was about to cry and she knew why. For an almost two-year-old, he was a sound sleeper and had slept through the night since he was three months old. But he wasn’t used to sleeping anywhere but his own bed, in his own room, and he was probably disoriented by the strange surroundings.

“It’s all right, sweetie.”

Rubbing his back, she hoped he would settle back down and sleep for a little while longer before he insisted they get up for breakfast. Since coming down with the flu, it had been a real struggle to take care of a toddler, as well as a barn full of horses by herself, and she couldn’t help but want to get a little more sleep while she could. Fortunately, it had been a mild case of the illness or she would have never been able to manage on her own. But without being able to get enough rest, it was taking her twice as long to get over it.

Just as Seth closed his eyes and seemed to be drifting back to sleep, a tap on the door caused him to jerk awake and start to cry.

Shivering from the chills and feeling as if her legs were made of lead, Heather picked up her crying son and got out of bed. Without thinking about the fact that she was wearing nothing more than Malloy’s flannel shirt and her panties, she walked over to unlock and open the door. “What?”

“I thought you and your little boy might like something to eat,” Malloy said, holding out a tray of food.

If she had felt better, she might have tried not to sound so impatient. She might have acknowledged his thoughtfulness. At the moment, just the thought of food made her stomach queasy and she wished he hadn’t disturbed her son.

“Th-thank you, but...” Her voice trailed off when she noticed his expression. “Is s-something wrong?”

“Let me help you back to bed,” he said, brushing past her to set the tray on the dresser. “I’d ask if you still have a fever, but I already know the answer.”

“H-how?” She wished her teeth would stop chattering like a cheap pair of castanets.

Turning back, he took Seth from her, then put his arm around her shoulders and guided her back to the bed. “Just a hunch,” he answered, smiling.

Once she was back in bed, she noticed that Seth had stopped crying and was staring at the tray of food Malloy had set on the dresser. “Mom-mom, eat.”

Groaning, she started to get up, but Malloy stopped her. “I’m assuming that means he’s hungry?” When she nodded, he pointed to the tray. “I’ve got toast and scrambled eggs. Do you think he’ll let me feed him while you rest?”

She barely managed to nod before she pulled the comforter around herself and closed her eyes. If she felt better, she would have asked why he was being so nice to her, instead of thinking about how handsome he was. Her breath caught. Where had that come from?

If she was thinking T. J. Malloy was good-looking, her fever had to have made her delirious. That was the only explanation. If she could just rest for a moment, she’d be able to get up and take over feeding her son, as well as return to her senses.

Two (#u1e912b2f-5c28-5eeb-ad55-b5b450641e5c)

When Heather opened her eyes again, she noticed that the sun was shining through a part in the curtain and Seth was sound asleep on the bed beside her. Looking a little closer, she noticed he was wearing a pair of pajamas she had never seen before and his copper-red hair had been neatly combed to the side.

How long had she been asleep and where had the clothes her son was wearing come from?

Glancing at the clock on the nightstand, Heather couldn’t believe that it was already midafternoon. She had slept for eight straight hours. She couldn’t remember getting that much sleep at one stretch since before Seth was born.

Her heart stalled. Had T. J. Malloy taken care of her son?

She vaguely remembered a knock waking Seth and her opening the door to find Malloy standing on the other side with a tray of food. Had she dreamed that he had helped her back to bed?

When she realized that all she had on was his shirt and her panties, Heather closed her eyes and hoped when she opened them she would somehow be transported to her own bed in the Circle W ranch house and that the past twenty-four hours would prove to be nothing more than a dream. But aside from her embarrassment over a stranger seeing her wearing so little, she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the fact that Malloy had taken care of Seth. She didn’t really know her neighbor and from the previous run-ins she’d had with him, she wasn’t sure he was someone she wanted around her son. When Malloy had brought her stallion back the few times Magic Dancer had jumped the fence between their properties, the man had been the biggest grouch she had ever met.

“The horses,” she murmured suddenly, remembering that she had livestock to feed. Hopefully the water blocking the road had receded. She needed to get home to tend to the horses, as well as make sure the buckets she had left in the utility room to catch the drips from the leaking roof hadn’t overflowed.

As she sat up, Heather realized she felt a lot better than she had that morning. Her fever was gone. Maybe she had turned the corner and was over the worst of the flu. Sleeping all night and most of the day had probably been a tremendous help. It was a shame she hadn’t had the opportunity when she’d first come down with the illness. Her recovery time would have been a lot shorter.

But she hadn’t had that luxury in so long, it was hard to remember what it was like to have help with anything. After she had Seth, she’d had no choice but to let go of the men who had worked for her late father because she couldn’t afford to pay them. It was the only way she had been able to make ends meet on the Circle W. That meant she had to take care of feeding the horses, mucking out stalls and trying to keep up the endless other chores on a working horse ranch, as well as take care of a baby.

Careful not to wake Seth, she started to get up, then immediately sat back down on the side of the bed when her knees began to shake. She might be feeling better, but she was still extremely weak. It was going to be a real test of her fortitude to lift heavy buckets of water and bales of hay while she was in this state.

She tried again, and had just managed to walk over to the rocking chair where she had draped her clothes the night before, when the door opened.

“You shouldn’t be up yet,” Malloy said, entering the room and walking over to her.

She supposed he had the right to just waltz right in without asking if she minded. After all, he did own the place. But she wasn’t happy about it.

She grabbed her jeans and sweatshirt and held them in front of her. “Don’t you believe in knocking?”

“I was just checking on your little boy and didn’t expect you to be awake yet.” He shrugged as if he wasn’t the least bit concerned about it. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m much better and as soon as I get dressed, Seth and I will go home and leave you alone.” She wished he would leave the room so she could take a quick shower before Seth woke up.

“Don’t worry about getting back home,” he said, his deep voice wrapping around her like a comforting cloak. “You really should stay until there’s no danger of a setback.”

Heather shook her head as much to stop the lulling effect of his voice as in refusal. “I appreciate everything you’ve done, but I don’t want to impose.” Feeling her knees start to shake again, she sat down on the rocking chair. “Besides, I need to get my livestock fed.”

“All you have to do is rest and get better,” he said, smiling. “I had one of my crew go over to your place when the water receded around noon to let your men know you and the little guy were okay. Since no one was around, my man took care of feeding your horses for you.”

She looked up at him and was hit with an unexpected observation. T. J. Malloy wasn’t just handsome, he was knock-your-socks-off good-looking. Her breath caught.

The few times that he had brought her horse home, she hadn’t noticed anything beyond his dark scowl and formidable stance as he threatened to take legal action against her if she didn’t keep her horse on her side of the fence. But without his wide-brimmed, black Resistol pulled down low on his brow, she could see a kindness in his striking hazel eyes that she would never have expected. And for some reason she found his brown hair, which curled around his ears and over the nape of his neck, sexy and rather endearing.

She frowned. Where had that come from? And why did she find anything about the man attractive?

It had to be some kind of residual effect of the fever. It was causing her to see Malloy in a different light. Surely as soon as she recovered her strength, she would come to her senses, regain her perspective and see that T. J. Malloy was just as unpleasant and unappealing as ever.

“Are you feeling all right?” he asked, looking concerned.

“Uh, yes,” she said, nodding. “I’m just a little weak.” As an afterthought, she added, “Thank you for having one of your hired hands tend to my horses.”

“No problem.” He gave her the same smile that had caused the illusion of him being amiable. “I assume you gave your men the rest of the holiday weekend off?”

“Since you sent one of yours over to take care of my horses, I assume you didn’t?” she asked instead of answering his question.

She didn’t want to tell him that she’d had to lay off the two men. For one thing, it was a matter of pride. She didn’t want Malloy realizing that the Circle W had fallen on such hard times. And for another, she didn’t like anyone knowing that she and her child lived alone on the ranch. Not that it made a lot of difference, but she felt a little safer with people thinking the hired men were still in residence.