The Way To A Rancher's Heart

“Yeah,” he said and swallowed again. “I seem to remember her mentioning something about that.” Realizing she still held her hand extended, he closed his fingers around hers and slowly pumped her hand.

“Whew,” she said, laughing softly. “That’s a relief. I thought, for a minute, that either you or I were in the wrong house.” She withdrew her hand to move back to the opposite side of the island. “Penny told me that you’d be returning today, although I didn’t realize it would be quite this early.”

“I decided to drive straight through,” he murmured, still having a hard time absorbing the fact that Penny was gone and had left a stranger in her place. “How long have you been here?”

“Six days. Penny hired me on Monday, stayed until Thursday to make sure I had settled in well and the children had accepted me, then she left.”

And Jase knew why his sister had cleared out before he’d returned from his trip. If he’d been home, he never would have allowed her to take the first step out the front door…at least not without him first putting up one hell of a fight. “Did she say where she was going? How she could be reached?”

“Well, of course she did,” she replied, as if surprised by his question, then wiped her hands across her apron again and turned to the desk behind her. Snagging a pad between the tips of a flour-dusted finger and thumb, she turned and held it out to him. “She said that she was staying with Suzy for a couple of days. You do know who Suzy is, don’t you?”

He frowned at her skeptical tone, though he could hardly blame her for questioning him. Not when he hadn’t even known that his sister was planning on moving out or that she was hiring him a new housekeeper and nanny. “Yeah,” he grumbled. “I know Suzy.” Tearing off the top piece of paper, he stuffed it into his jeans pocket, then tossed the pad on the island before heading for the coffeemaker.

“You never did say how you liked your eggs,” she reminded him, dropping plump rounds of dough into a pie tin. “Fried or scrambled?”

He filled a mug with coffee and turned, gulping a swallow, praying that the caffeine would clear his brain, and he’d realize that this was all a bad dream. Something he’d imagined. Hell, a full-blown nightmare!

But when the strange woman didn’t disappear in a cloud of mist as he’d hoped, but kept right on cutting dough into rounds and dropping them into the pie tin, he muttered, “fried,” and headed for the door that led to the hallway. “I’ve got to make a few calls,” he called over his shoulder. “Holler when breakfast is ready.”

The first—and only—call Jase made was to Suzy’s house and to his sister.

He waited impatiently through four rings before his sister’s childhood friend answered.

“Hello?” Suzy mumbled sleepily.

“Put Penny on the phone,” he growled.

“Well, good morning to you, too, Jase,” she snapped peevishly, then dropped the phone with a clatter and yelled, “Penny! Phone! It’s the bear.”

Scowling at the nickname Suzy had tagged him with years before, he drummed his fingers impatiently on the top of his desk while he waited for his sister to pick up the phone.

“Jase?”

“What the hell were you thinking!” he shouted as soon as he heard her voice. “Running off and leaving these kids with a complete stranger.”

“Annie’s not a stranger,” she said defensively, then added, “Well, not totally, anyway. I interviewed her thoroughly and checked her background and references before offering her the position. She’s perfectly safe and more than capable of taking care of the children.”

“I don’t give a good goddamn if she’s Mary Poppins’s trainer. You get your tail back home where you belong, and I mean now!”

“I’m not coming home, Jase. I’ve already accepted a job in Austin.”

“You’ve what!”

“I’ve accepted a job in Austin. Quite a good one, in fact. I’ll be the executive secretary to the owner of a large computer security company.”

“Quit,” he said, tossing up an angry hand. “Resign. Do whatever you have to do, but you get yourself back here where you belong. I don’t want some stranger raising my kids.”

“Then you raise them!”

Jase jerked the receiver from his ear and stared at it, shocked by the anger in his sister’s voice, and even more so that she would defy him. Scowling, he slapped the phone back against his ear. “Is Suzy behind all this? Is she the one who put these crazy ideas into your head?”

A heavy sigh crossed the phone lines. “No, Jase. Suzy had nothing to do with my decision to leave the ranch.”

“Oh, that’s right, Jase,” he heard Suzy mutter in the background. “Blame everything on me.”

“Well, she’s usually the one who fills your head with these crazy notions,” he snapped irritably. “This isn’t like you, Penny. Running off half-cocked. Leaving the kids with a complete stranger. Hell! What if this woman doesn’t work out? What if she decides to up and leave? Who’s going to take care of the kids then?”

“You,” she informed him firmly. “They’re your children, not mine, and it’s high time you pulled yourself together and assumed your responsibilities as their father.”

He sprang from his chair. “I’ve never shirked my responsibilities as their father! I’ve provided for these kids, haven’t I? I’ve seen that they have everything they need.”

“You give them everything but yourself. Oh, Jase,” she said, suddenly sounding tearful. “They need you. Can’t you see that? They not only lost their mother when Claire died, they lost their father, too.”

After showering and dressing, Jase returned to the kitchen, still furious with his sister for abandoning him and sticking a stranger in his house without discussing it with him first. He heard the sound of his six-year-old daughter’s laughter from the hallway as he pushed open the swinging door. “What’s so funny?” he asked, pausing with a hand still braced against the door.

Four heads turned from the table to peer at him.

In the blink of an eye, Rachel was up and racing across the room to throw her arms around his waist. “Daddy!”

He dropped an awkward hand on her head and scrubbed, frowning. “Hey, dumplin’.”

She caught his hand and gave it a tug. “We’ve got a new nanny. Annie. She’s really cool.”

His frown deepened at the term Rachel used to describe the new nanny, suspecting that she had picked it up from her older brother and sister. “Yeah. So I hear.”

He clapped a hand on his thirteen-year-old son Clay’s shoulder, then dropped down onto the chair at the head of the table. He nodded a greeting to Clay’s twin sister, Tara, and pulled his napkin from beside his plate. He draped it across his thigh while carefully avoiding making eye contact with the new nanny. “Shouldn’t you kids be getting ready for school?” he asked gruffly.

Tara rolled her eyes dramatically, her newest way of expressing what a “dweeb” she thought her father was. “It’s not even seven yet, Dad. We’ve got lots of time.”

Jase reached for the basket of biscuits. “Don’t want you missing the bus,” he informed her. “I’ve got a trailer full of calves to unload and don’t have time to cart you kids’ butts to school.”

Tara tossed her napkin down and shoved back her chair. “Since when do you have time to do anything with us?” she snapped and stormed from the room.

Jase watched her leave, noting the hiking boots, the low-waisted, baggy-legged, faded jeans and the inch of bare skin her cropped T-shirt exposed. “Change into something decent!” he yelled after her. “No daughter of mine is going to school dressed like some tramp.”

He heard her sass something in return, but couldn’t make out her words. Scowling, he spread a heavy layer of butter over his biscuit and remembered his sister’s comments about him assuming responsibility for his kids. Well, he was responsible, he told himself. He had let go of a lot of things over the last couple of years, but he’d never let go of his responsibilities to his kids. To prove it, he asked, “Did you kids do all your homework?”

“Yes, Daddy,” Rachel said obediently.

As he took a bite, he angled his head to look at Clay, who had remained conspicuously silent. Butter dripped down his chin, as he gave it a jerk in his son’s direction. “What about you? Did you get yours done?”

Clay shoved back his chair. “Didn’t have any,” he mumbled and headed for the door and the hallway beyond.

Jase snatched up his napkin and wiped it across his mouth and chin. “I better not be getting any calls from your teachers,” he called after his son. He shifted his gaze to Rachel, who remained at the table, staring at him, round-eyed. “Well? Are you planning on going to school today, or not?”

“I’m goin’,” she replied quickly and slid from her chair. “Thanks for breakfast, Annie,” she said, giving the new nanny a shy smile. “It was real good.”

Annie graced her with a radiant smile in return. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. Don’t forget your lunch,” she reminded the girl.