Lone Star Daddy

Sassy’s smile was conspiring. “The ranch has a gossip grapevine, Alexa. I hear things from the bunkhouse cook.”

“Gus? He’s getting too old to gossip!”

“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Sassy joked, then looked at Alexa with empathy. “And don’t go worrying about the new manager. Your mother will be back soon and everything will get back to normal.”

Long after dark, Alexa was lounging on the back patio, soaking up the cool breeze and thinking about Sassy’s comment. Would things in her life ever get back to normal? she wondered.

In spite of her blowup with Barry, she was excited about the coming baby. Already she loved it with all her heart. In fact, for the past few months, thoughts of her coming child were the only thing that had kept her focused and going. Yet she wondered if she’d ever have the courage to trust another man or, for that matter, to resume her job in Santa Fe.

When she’d left, she’d done so on a leave of absence, with the option to return to Senator Hutchins’s office whenever she was ready. Which had been an overly generous offer on the senator’s part. Alexa appreciated the fact that her job would be there for her if she decided to return. But she wasn’t sure that life in politics was right for her anymore. Barry would still be hanging around the capital, and though he’d been out of her life for months now, she’d not been able to avoid running into him casually.

The whole situation was awkward. But then, she should have never been attracted to Barry in the first place, she thought with self-disgust. She should have been able to see beneath his polished appearance and glib way with words. Once she’d started dating him, her instincts should have picked up on the fact that he was out for himself and no one else. Damn it, he’d been a lobbyist. What more could she expect?

But he’d helped get great environmental laws passed for the state and the good of the people. She’d believed he was a sincere, dedicated man. And she’d been drawn to him because of their shared interests and goals.

With Barry she’d approached their relationship with logic and common sense rather than passion, and she’d felt proud of herself for not swooning and falling into a pit of sexual heat, as she had with Mitch. They had dated and then moved in with each other about a year later. She’d thought they’d shared goals and ideals.

Eventually, when she’d learned she was pregnant, she’d been happy, envisioning the three of them as a perfect family. But only a few days later she’d learned quite by accident—through a stack of paperwork he’d left lying about in their apartment—that he’d been involved in some unscrupulous dealings. And to make matters worse, when she’d confronted him, he’d clearly felt no shame over his behavior.

When she’d announced to Barry that she was leaving, he’d been shocked that she would turn down such a catch as him. He’d considered himself a rising star in the state political arena, and he’d expected Alexa to want to ride on his coattails all the way to the top. But once she’d discovered his underhanded dealings, she’d had no choice but to end everything between them.

She couldn’t live with an immoral man, much less have her child raised by one. Barry hadn’t seen it that way, and for a few weeks he’d made ugly noises about custody rights and using his political pull to take the child completely away from her. That had been his way of forcing her into coming back to him.

But she and Barry had both known that he’d not really wanted her or the child that much. He simply hadn’t wanted to lose the fight.

Fortunately, he’d eventually come to the conclusion that their relationship could never be salvaged. He’d decided that signing his rights to the baby over to her would be much better than Alexa’s exposing his misdeeds to a pack of hungry newspaper reporters.

It was a relief to know that she was free of Barry now, she thought. She only wished she was free of the damage his betrayal had done to her self-confidence, her ability to judge people on the inside, where it really mattered.

A footfall on the concrete patio pulled Alexa from her glum thoughts, and she turned her head to see Jonas Redman standing a few feet away. A duffel bag was thrown over his shoulder, and he appeared tired and dusty. Foolish excitement hummed along her veins.

“Excuse me for interrupting, Alexa. I only wanted to let you know that I’m finally here. I meant to arrive earlier, but things got busy.”

Her heart thumping, Alexa swung her legs to the ground and rose to her feet. “That’s all right. If you’d like to come in, I’ll show you your room.”

Nodding, he followed her through the back door of a small atrium filled with all types of potted plants and cushioned lawn furniture, then into a dimly lit kitchen.

“Sassy is out for the evening,” she informed him. “But Reena, our cook, saved supper for you.”

“No need for that,” Jonas replied. “I can eat with the boys in the bunkhouse. Gus will have something left over.”

She gestured toward an open door that led into a long hallway. “It’s no trouble, Jonas. And someone needs to help Sassy and me eat all the food that Reena prepares.”

At the end of the hallway they turned into what looked to be a living room. On the left side, a wide staircase made of dark, polished wood led to the second floor. Jonas followed at a respectable distance. Until they were nearly to the landing. There, Alexa suddenly sagged against the bannister and clutched it tightly with both hands as though it was all she could do to stay upright.

Leaping up the two steps separating them, Jonas quickly put his hand under her elbow to steady her. As his eyes anxiously scanned her face, he noticed her breathing was labored.

“Alexa! What’s wrong?”

Pressing a hand to her throat, she drew in a long breath. “I—I’m okay, Jonas. I just…got a little winded. That happens when I try to move too fast. All this extra weight pushing against my diaphragm doesn’t make stair-climbing easy.”

She was recovering quickly, yet he was reluctant to loosen his hold on her arm. If she happened to get dizzy and fall backward down the staircase, it would, in all likelihood, harm her and the baby.

“You didn’t need to escort me to my room,” he scolded lightly. “You could have just told me where it was.”

Straightening to her full height, she said, “Don’t be silly. I have to climb the stairs to get to my room, too.”

As Jonas stared at her, he was suddenly struck by how soft her skin felt against his hand, how sweet she smelled and how totally vulnerable she was. It had been a long time since he’d been this close to a woman, a long time since he’d touched one. He’d almost forgotten the tender feelings a woman could evoke in a man.

“Are you having health problems?” he asked. “Something I need to know about?”

Color darkened her cheeks as she shook her head. “No. I’m fine. Really, Jonas.”

Pulling her arm away from his hand, she headed up the stairs, leaving him with nothing to do but follow.

At the end of a wide hallway, she gestured to the right, where a door stood ajar. “This is your room. If there’s anything you need that Sassy might have missed, just let me know.”

Jonas entered the room and was surprised when she followed and switched on a lamp at the head of the bed. Earlier today, he’d gotten the impression that she wanted to avoid being near him at all cost. Maybe she was deciding he wasn’t a threat, after all.

“The bathroom is over there in the right corner,” she informed him. “And the balcony is beyond the open door. You might find it more comfortable to sleep with that door open. The night air cools the room nicely.”

He tossed his duffel bag onto the bed. Everything he’d brought from Texas was in that bag. Including his weapon and Ranger badge. He was going to have to find a hiding place for them. Otherwise, the maid might possibly stumble across the items during her routine cleaning.

“Everything is fine, Alexa. The room is far beyond my needs.” He lifted off his hat and placed it next to the bag. “I’ll be out of here early in the morning, so I’ll try not to disturb you. As for the evenings, I can’t say when I’ll be showing up. I’m sure you remember that ranch days rarely end before dark.”

Nodding, she gave him a brief smile. “Of course. When my father was running the ranch, he was oftentimes a stranger around here. So I don’t expect your schedule to fit with mine. You’re welcome to come and go as you please.”

Strange how she’d done an about-face, Jonas thought. She’d initially been outraged when he’d suggested staying in the house with her. Now she was the perfect welcoming hostess. Was that what being pregnant did to a woman, swung her moods wildly one direction and then another? If so, he was going to be in for a hell of a ride in these next coming days.

She started toward the door. “If you’ll come down to the kitchen in a few minutes, I’ll heat your supper.”

Jonas was hardly expecting her, the heiress of the place, to see to his kitchen needs, but he wasn’t going to argue the point now. If she wanted to extend to him a bit of hospitality, then he was going to be grateful enough to accept it.

“Fine. Thanks.”

She disappeared into the hallway, and he began to put away his things in the long oak dresser. As for his pistol and badge, he pulled out the bottom drawer of the dresser, placed them on the floor beneath, then returned the drawer to its track and shoved it back in place.

Minutes later, after a quick shower, Jonas pulled on a pair of faded jeans and boots and topped them with a white T-shirt before heading downstairs. As he walked toward the kitchen, he was struck by the quietness and reminded all over again that no one was in the house except for him and Alexa.

The smell of roast beef and vegetables met his nose long before he entered the kitchen. The growl of his stomach reminded him that he’d not eaten a bite of food since breakfast.

“I didn’t know whether you would prefer iced tea or beer with your meal,” Alexa told him as he stepped into the room. “So I gave you both.”

A plate piled high with food was already laid out on the table. Next to it was a basket full of bread rolls, an assortment of condiments and the two drinks. She gestured for him to take a seat.

“Aren’t you going to have any?” he asked as he pulled out a chair.

“I would, but I’ve already eaten,” she told him.