Single Dad Cowboy

She waved back and headed for the house. She made it to the front porch and sat down on one of the old rocking chairs that had been recently painted a pretty poppy color. Her mother loved bright colors.

The chairs matched the brightly colored geraniums and gerbera daisies blooming in the flower beds. Everything looked cheerful. It looked the way it had years ago when she’d spent happy summers here.

She rocked, enjoying the soft, late summer breeze that blew across the porch, cooling the air. There were no more sounds of laughter from across the field.

Only silence.

For a moment it felt like peace. And in the midst of that peace she remembered that she had just aligned herself with Dylan Cooper. She guessed eventually she’d have to tell him that she was accepting his offer.

* * *

Dylan pulled in to the parking lot of the Mad Cow Café and immediately spotted the Audi driven by Harmony Cross. The only empty space was next to the silver car. He groaned to himself, because if he groaned out loud, he’d have to explain why to Callie. These days she asked a lot of questions. Her favorite words were why and what and how.

When he’d left Harmony an hour earlier, he hadn’t expected to see her back in town so soon.

“Dylan, why are you frowning?”

He glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled at the little girl that he’d known since she was a baby. She smiled back. He couldn’t hide anything from her. She was always watching and saw a lot more than most kids.

“No reason. Just wondering what I’m going to have for supper. What do you want?”

“Chicken strips. And Cash wants tater tots and green beans.”

“Green beans?” He laughed. “Why do you get chicken strips and he has to eat the green beans?”

“Because he’s little.” She said it with the appropriate roll of her eyes that basically told him even a moron would know that a little kid needed green beans.

“I think you should both eat green beans.” He climbed out of the truck and pushed the seat forward to reach in the back. He really needed to get a car or a new truck, one with an extended cab and four doors. The two doors had been fine when it had been just him and a dog traveling around the country.

Car seats and kids changed everything.

He unbuckled Cash from his seat and Callie unbuckled herself. She came in real handy, that kid did. She was his little helper. He hiked Cash onto his hip and reached to help Callie down from the truck. Together the three of them headed toward the diner. And then he heard the door of the Audi open. He hadn’t realized she’d still been sitting in that car.

He watched her climb out of that car like it took every last ounce of strength she had to move. A wounded Harmony Cross was the last thing he needed right now. He’d been at Katrina’s side for the past year, and everything inside him was pretty much wrung out like an old kitchen rag. He had enough energy for himself and the two kids she’d left him to raise. Her kids, not his. But they were his now and he wouldn’t let them down.

Katrina’s husband had died in a truck accident coming home from a long haul to California. He’d been heading to Katrina’s side as she’d gone into labor with Cash.

As much as he wanted to ignore Harmony and walk into the Mad Cow, he waited, watching Harmony’s painful steps across the parking lot. Her long, curling blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she had changed from jeans and a T-shirt to a sundress. The stubborn female had left her cane in the car. He saw the grimace of pain around her mouth. He saw the flinch with each step.

“Are you trying to get your picture put in the dictionary next to stubborn?” he asked as he waited.

She looked up as if she hadn’t noticed them there. Her gaze landed on Callie, not him, and she smiled. Man, she was thin. He hadn’t noticed earlier. He’d had more on his mind than Harmony and her too-skinny horse. He guessed they both needed fattening up. But saying that would definitely break the truce between them.

“I’m not stubborn.” She shifted her eyes from Callie to him. She was still pretty. Tired-looking, but pretty. It had been a long time since he’d paid attention to a woman, but he was positive those weren’t the words she wanted to hear.

“So what are you if you’re not stubborn?”

“Strong.” She lifted her chin as she said it, the glint in her smoky-blue eyes unmistakable.

“Right.” He stuck his right elbow out for her to take hold of. “Allow me, miss.”

“How very, um, chivalrous of you, Mr. Cooper.” But she took his elbow, her hand holding tight. With her other hand she reached for Callie.

He guessed that’s how you made a truce.

It was also how rumors got started, he realized as they walked through the front doors of the Mad Cow, the cowbell over the door clanging loud to announce their arrival. There were about a dozen customers and they all turned to watch Dylan, the kids and Harmony Cross.

Harmony dropped his arm and moved away from him. “Thanks for the lift, neighbor.”

“Anytime.” He watched as she retreated taking a seat in a booth. He guessed she wanted to avoid rumors, too.

He sat at a table with Callie and Cash. But his eyes kept straying to Harmony sitting alone. She probably needed a friend. He looked at the two dirty faces sitting across from him. He had plenty of friends. And family. Cash reached for the sugar and Dylan moved it out of his way. Callie tried to slap the little guy’s hand.

“Hey, Cal, let’s not do that, kiddo.” He smiled at her, and she wrinkled her little nose and gave him a big-eyed innocent look that said he didn’t know what he was doing.

He was tired.

Cash reached for the napkins. He moved those out of the toddler’s reach, too. The waitress, Breezy, headed their way with menus and the coffeepot. She smiled and easily moved everything within reach to another table. She put crayons and a coloring placemat in front of the kids and filled his cup.

“You look worn-out, Dylan.”

He smiled up at her. Pretty as she was, he felt nothing but sisterly affection. After all, she was his adopted sister Mia’s biological sister. And didn’t that make her family?

“I’m feeling about fifty years older than I am,” he admitted.

She smoothed a hand over Cash’s buzzed blond hair and grinned. “Good thing you’re still cute. Maybe you can find a wife to help you out with these two.”

“I think I’ll pass for now.”

“Oh, I wasn’t proposing.” Breezy winked as she said that. “But I could help you find someone.”

Even Breezy was in on it now. This was exactly why he’d made that proposition to Harmony.

Vera, owner of the Mad Cow Café, walked out of the kitchen. She spotted him and headed his way. “Dylan, those are two cute babies you’ve got there.”

“I’m not a baby,” Callie informed Vera, her little mouth turning in a serious frown. “I’m four.”

Vera took the seat next to Callie. “Well, that makes you almost grown, doesn’t it? And what are you going to eat today, Sugar Plum?”

“I’m having chicken strips and fries. Cash needs green beans.”

Dylan pulled off his hat and swiped a hand through hair that needed to be cut. His gaze shifted from the little girl sitting across from him to the woman on the other side of the restaurant.

He should invite her to sit with them. Even if she didn’t want to take him up on his offer.

“What are you looking at, Dylan Cooper?” Vera leaned in a little. Nothing got past Vera.

“I was thinking I should invite Harmony Cross to sit with us. We have an extra chair—” the one Vera was occupying “—and she looks pretty lonely.”