The Rancher's Baby Proposal

“And, of course, you know something about babies,” Tina went on. “You held Emilia yesterday.”

“Held. For a few seconds. That’s a lot different from watching one for an entire afternoon and evening. Maybe for an entire week of afternoons and evenings.” If she were lucky. Or possibly unlucky.

She didn’t know what to hope for anymore. She ran her hands through her hair. Curls bounced in all directions, nearly blocking her vision. She swept them aside.

Tina laughed again. “That’s my Ally, always the drama queen.”

“You know it.” She flounced into the upholstered chair near the couch. Even with her best friend, she sometimes felt the need to pretend. One of these days, The Girl Most Likely to Make You Laugh might have to fess up.

“You’ve also been around from the day Robbie was born.” Robbie was Tina and her husband Cole’s five-year-old.

“Okay, so I’ve played toy horses with him, and racing cars and once—a long time ago—I rolled a ball to him when he was still too little to move out of the way. He couldn’t miss it,” she admitted to Tina. “But I never fed him. Or gave him a bottle. Or—” she shuddered “—changed his diapers.”

Shuddering aside, it wasn’t diapers that bothered her so much as her fear Reagan’s son would react to her the way other babies had. “Little kids and I just don’t get along. The minute they see me, they know they’re dealing with an amateur, and they all turn into howling, stiff-limbed little monsters.”

Why had she ever thought she could take care of Reagan’s baby?

“Ally, that’s just silly. Come here.” Tina sat upright on the couch.

Reluctantly, Ally crossed to take a seat beside her and let her place the newborn into her arms. The blanket-wrapped baby felt warmer and heavier than Ally had expected. Ally smiled down at her.

“See? Not so bad, is it?”

“You’ve got such a treasure here, mi amiga,” she told Tina in a murmur, afraid her voice might startle the child. Better to let her sleep. Her goddaughter had an angelic face with a tiny cupid’s-bow mouth, both of which Ally worried might be deceiving.

“Andi and I can teach you all you need to know.” Tina’s cousin had two small children of her own.

“Oh, right. An entire Baby 101 course, compressed into a couple of days?”

“Sure. You’re a quick study. Piece of cake.”

“Don’t mention cake,” she said with a moan. The baby moved her arm slightly, and Ally lowered her voice again. “I could eat an entire pan of your abuela’s sopaipilla cheesecake right this minute.”

Tina smiled. “I don’t think it’s on the menu tonight. But stay for supper. By the time we’re done, Emilia will need another feeding and a diaper change, and we’ll get you started on some hands-on experience.”

“This might be all the hands-on I can handle. But I suppose I can stay.” Truthfully, the deciding factor was more the thought of Tina’s grandmother’s cooking than it was the lessons.

“What I want to know,” she said thoughtfully, “is exactly where Reagan’s baby came from.”

“Uh...Ally? We covered the birds and the bees in about fifth grade.”

She rolled her eyes. “Not fair, chica. As I always tell you, you’re supposed to be the serious half of this friendship. I get all the funny lines.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t see anything funny about this situation.”

That made her look at Tina in alarm. Her friend always was the serious one. If she were worried, chances were good there was something to be concerned about. “What?”

“Well...” Tina shrugged. “You have a point. Forgetting about the birds and bees, the question still stands. Where did Reagan’s baby come from?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t want to talk about it.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“You mean there has to be a wife somewhere? But he said he wasn’t married.” Her voice had risen, and Emilia shifted in her arms again. “Here. I think she’s waking up. You’d better take her before she opens her eyes, sees me and starts to yell.”

Tina shook her head at Ally but reached for her daughter. “Then maybe Reagan has an ex-wife. Or a girlfriend, either ex or current. Or he could be widowed.”

She gasped. “With a one-month-old baby?” They exchanged suddenly misty-eyed glances. “Oh, I hope not. It would be best if he had gotten a di—” She stopped.

“Divorce,” Tina supplied in a soft voice, “because then Reagan wouldn’t be attached to another woman.”

“Well...” She glanced down at her hands in her lap. Then, sighing, she looked at Tina again. “Yes,” she admitted finally. Feeling miserable, she yanked on one of her curls. How could she wish away a poor defenseless little baby’s mother?

Yet how could she not want a chance at winning the boy she had always loved?

* * *

WITH THE HITCHING POST’S guests all gone up to their rooms for the night, Jed Garland went along the hall of the first-floor family wing. He wandered into the hotel’s kitchen, where Paz, the hotel cook, stood at the counter making preparations for next morning’s breakfast. Tina, the granddaughter he and Paz had in common, sat at the big table with her new baby in her arms.

He settled in his chair across from the pair of them. “You’re starting that little one off with late hours, are you?”

She laughed. “She’s the one setting her own schedule, Abuelo. This baby likes to eat and sleep as she pleases. I just follow along to do her bidding.”

“Well, that’s the way it should be when they’re that young.” He kicked back and laced his fingers together on the tabletop. “I see Ally’s finally showing some maternal instincts.” The girl had come out to the hotel and stayed for supper, then spent the evening in the sitting room with his granddaughters and their kids.

“I don’t know about maternal instincts,” she said doubtfully. “Ally always claims she and babies don’t get along. And of course she won’t admit she remembers all the time she’s spent with Robbie, including when he was an infant. Anyhow, Andi and I need to give her a crash course in infant care. She’s going to be babysitting Reagan’s little boy.”

“So that’s why Reagan wanted to talk with her at Sugar’s.”

“You heard about that already?” She shook her head. “There’s no doubt about it, is there? News really does travel fast in Cowboy Creek.”

“I happened to be at the hardware store when Ally and Reagan ran into each other.”

“Oh, is that so?” She stared him down. He looked back at her, keeping his gaze level. “Funny. I thought Ally said Reagan invited her at the end of their conversation, after you had left.”

“He did. It so happens I had to pick up some supplies in the next aisle, and I overheard what they were saying.”

Both women laughed at that, as he had known they would.

“I’ll bet you did,” Tina said. “I’ll also bet Sugar called you right after they left the shop, didn’t she?”

Now it was his turn to laugh. His youngest granddaughter usually had the knack of seeing right through him. “You won’t let me get away with anything, will you? Yes, Sugar did call. So, Reagan has a child. And a wife?”

“Ally said he told her no on that.”

“Good.” He beamed.

Tina’s eyes narrowed. “Why? You’re scheming again, aren’t you?”