A Nanny for the Cowboy

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Picking up the crowbar, Luke set it against the feed mixer he’d been working on and wiped his hands on his jeans, doing his best to keep his temper in check. “I’ve had a lot on my mind, what with you running off and leaving the ranching to me. Add that I didn’t expect you back for another week, and I sure wasn’t ready for somebody to come sneaking up on me.”

“Okay, okay,” Dylan said, scowling. “Next time I’ll come whistling a tune.”

Luke recognized his brother’s mood and knew better than to push it. Stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans, he leaned against the mixer. “Did you see Erin?”

Dylan shook his head and joined his brother, leaning his hip against the machine. “Nope. I didn’t make it that far. I got as far as Dallas, spent a few nights in a motel and decided that leaving you with all the work isn’t fair.”

“I’ve always managed okay.”

“I never figured you couldn’t.”

Luke could see the worry in his brother’s dark eyes, but he suspected it didn’t have anything to do with how he’d managed with the ranch. “Wanna talk about it?” he asked, prepared for a blast of mind-your-own-business from Dylan.

Shoving away from the mixer, Dylan shook his head. “Nah. Nothing to talk about.”

Luke watched his brother walk away, but couldn’t let him go. “Why don’t you stay for supper?” he called to him. “There’s usually plenty.”

Dylan turned back. “Plenty? I’ve never known you to keep anything more than the makings for a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a few cans of beer in the fridge.”

“Hayley always makes a big supper.”

One dark eyebrow arched above Dylan’s eye. “Hayley?”

“Brayden’s nanny.”

“So you hired her, huh?”

Luke shrugged. “It wasn’t like I had a choice.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“So you’ll stay for supper?”

Dylan shook his head. “Not tonight. Maybe another time.”

Luke knew better than to insist. “Typical Dylan,” he muttered under his breath as he watched his brother leave the building. Dylan was a grown-up, and Luke knew he shouldn’t worry, but he did. He’d hoped his brother might come home a changed man, but that was asking too much. At least he was home again, and that would ease the workload. It would also mean there’d be more time spent with Hayley around, and Luke knew that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

* * *

HAYLEY LEANED BACK in her chair, stretching her arms above her head, and smiled to herself, thinking of how, in just one week, she and Brayden—and even Luke—had fallen into a comfortable schedule. With Brayden still sleeping since they’d arrived home from lunch at the café, she had to admit that she enjoyed his nap time as much as a mother would. It was her quiet time of the day, when she could clean up the kitchen, straighten the clutter from playtime or concentrate on her studies, without interruption.

But her alone time was shattered when she looked up to see Luke walk into the family room, through the sliding glass door that led to the deck. “Is something wrong?” she asked, when he turned to silently stare out the glass.

He turned to look at her. “No, I don’t think so.”

She marked her place and closed her book. “You don’t sound convinced.”

He stared outside at the deck again. “My brother is back, but I don’t know if that’s good or bad,” he said, more to himself than to her.

“Seems to me it would be good,” she answered.

Luke turned to look at her again, his face set in a deep, worried frown. “I’m not sure. Something is wrong and has been for a long time. I just wish I knew what.”

She folded her hands in front of her. “Why don’t you ask him?”

Luke snorted. “Ask him? Sure, if I want him to bite off my head.”

She shrugged and stood, moving to the sink, her back to him. “What makes you think that?”

“You have to know Dylan. He’s... He’s broody. And that’s normal for him. But lately he’s just been— I don’t know.”

She turned on the faucet to fill a glass of water, and replied, “I guess you’d know that better than me.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?”

He sounded a little bewildered. And close. Without turning around, she cleared her throat. “And that’s a bad thing, why?”

“It just isn’t Dylan, that’s all. You’d probably have to know where he’s coming from to understand.”

She felt more than heard him move away and relaxed. Shutting off the water, she began putting a few odds and ends in the dishwasher, then closed the door to it before turning to look at him. “What do you mean? Coming from where?” She didn’t miss his frown. “Or maybe I shouldn’t be asking.”

He shook his head as he walked back to the sliding door. “It’s a long story.”

“I have time, if you want to share. Sometimes it helps just to talk it out.”

Luke’s sigh was heavy with worry. “I wish Dylan would talk it out or at least try. I don’t know exactly what it is, but he’s been like this for a long time. This year, he’s been more quiet than usual. He’s always been quiet, but...” He turned to look at her. “I guess that sounds pretty crazy.”

“Not really.” She returned to her seat and waited, wondering if it might be better to let this go. After all, it wasn’t her problem, except that what affected her employer might also affect her and her job. She chose her words carefully. “Everybody reacts to things differently. Obviously something about him has you concerned. While others might not notice, for someone who knows him well, any small shift in his usual behavior would bring up a red flag.” She looked up to see him studying her.

“You’re pretty smart, you know that?”

She felt her face heat with embarrassment. “Not really, but I’ve taken some psych classes. And growing up in a big family gave me a little personal insight.”

“I’ll bet it did.”

She didn’t know if she could help him with his brother, but she hoped she could. From her own experiences, she knew that, in a family, one person’s mood often affected others. “There are three of you in the family?” she asked.

He nodded and joined her at the counter. “Erin is the oldest, then Dylan, then me. Our folks—” He avoided looking at her and ran his hand through his hair. “Well, that’s part of the story, I guess.”

“Aunt Rita said you lost your folks in an accident when you were in high school.”

“I was fifteen.”

It was clear that he still carried a lot of emotional pain from his parents’ deaths. She knew she’d been lucky. Everyone in her family was alive and fairly well, except for the usual ranching-related broken bones and cuts along the way. Her younger brother had been in a car accident two years before and her father had suffered a stroke the year before that, but as a whole, they were all doing well.

“That must have been hard. For all of you,” she said quietly.

“Yeah. But it was hardest on Dylan. He still takes time off every year near the anniversary of when it happened.” He clasped his hands on the table in front of him and looked at her. “He was a senior and captain of the baseball team, so he left early for the first game of the season. The game was canceled though, when a storm moved in, but by the time they thought the storm had passed, Dylan hadn’t come home. He was usually pretty responsible about that sort of thing. When they didn’t hear from him, they went to look for him. They didn’t know that a second storm behind the first was even worse. The rain was so bad, they could barely see the road, and they were broadsided by a semitruck.”

Hayley’s throat constricted with emotion. “I can’t even imagine what it was like for you all.”

“The phone lines were down in town, so Dylan had stayed at the school with a few friends, waiting out both storms. When the rain began to let up, he started home and came upon the accident, just as the emergency crews arrived.”

“Oh, no,” she whispered, imagining how Luke’s brother must have felt.

He looked up at her. “He’s never gotten over it, and he refuses to talk about it. He quit the baseball team and devoted himself to the ranch and to finishing school. He’d been offered a college scholarship, but wouldn’t take it, and nothing anyone said could change it. Erin stayed around and took care of us both, until I graduated, then she started traveling the rodeo circuit full-time.”

“Aunt Rita mentioned she’s a barrel racer.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, until Luke pushed away from the table and stood. “I ought to drive over to Dylan’s and make sure he’s doing okay.”

“And I need to check on Brayden.” Hayley stood, unsure of whether to say something about what he had shared with her or to just let it go.

“Wait a second,” he said. “What with all this stuff about Dylan, I forgot something. Let me get my checkbook and I’ll pay you for this week, before I go.”

His words were a reminder to her that she was supposed to be doing her job, not telling her employer how to deal with his brother. She was there to take care of his son. She obviously had a problem, but Luke wasn’t it. She was. Hadn’t she spent the past five days denying her attraction to him? And wasn’t that beyond foolish of her? Especially since she wasn’t interested in a relationship with anyone. Not after Nathan and definitely not at this point in her life.

While she silently scolded herself, Luke returned to the room, holding a check in his hand. “You’re great, Hayley,” he said. “With Brayden,” he added quickly.

For a reason she didn’t want to explore, disappointment hit her. Swallowing a sigh, she turned to leave. But a hand on her arm stopped her and she turned back.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Luke said. “I guess I don’t know how to handle this kind of situation.” He released her and raked his hand through his hair. “It’s just been Brayden and me for so long, and having you here, taking care of him— Well, it’s changed a lot of things. I guess I’m just having trouble...”

“Adjusting?”

A smile lit his face. “That’d be the word.”

Her heart skipped a beat and without thinking, she took a step forward. “That makes two of us.”

His eyes darkened as he looked at her. “We’re a couple of misfits, I guess.”

His voice was husky, sending a shiver of warmth through her, until she realized what was happening. Giving herself a hard, mental shake, she stepped back immediately. Was she crazy?

“You—you’d better get going,” she managed to say. Clutching the paycheck in her hand, she brushed past him, headed for her room. If she wasn’t careful, she’d have to quit her job. And she’d have no one to blame but herself.

* * *

“SORRY ABOUT THE INTERRUPTION,” Dylan told Hayley that evening, “but I need to get these cattle records. I’m glad I got to see Brayden before bedtime, though. Makes me wish I had a little one so I’d need somebody like you to look after him.”

Luke opened his mouth to tell his brother that Hayley was already taken, but he stopped and clamped it shut. One or the other of them would take it wrong, when all he meant was— He didn’t mean anything. Not a damn thing, and if his brother wanted to start up with her, he wasn’t going to stop him. After all, she was his son’s nanny, not some woman he had a thing for.

Hayley shrugged. “I grew up the only girl in a family of five kids. My mom needed help, so I was the one to do it. In fact, as soon as I was old enough to put a knife, fork and spoon on the table, I was in the kitchen.”

“Nothing like Erin, right, Luke?” Dylan asked.

Luke thought about his sister, whose skills leaned more toward horses than cooking. Way more. “Erin has her own talents,” he reminded his brother.

Hayley helped Brayden down from his high chair and looked at Luke. “Not every woman enjoys cooking.”

“Or being a mother,” Dylan said. He immediately ducked his head and glanced at his brother. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“Forget it,” Luke answered, brushing off the comment, and stood. He knew Dylan had been as taken in by Kendra as he had. Erin, too.

Taking Brayden by the hand, Hayley turned to them both. “Cooking and nurturing aren’t for women only, you know,” she said, then hurried past them.

Luke watched her take Brayden from the room, unsure of what to say.

Dylan took a step in the same direction. “She seemed kind of upset. Maybe I should apologize.”

“Leave her alone for a few minutes. She’ll cool down, and I’ll go make sure everything is okay.”

Dylan’s expression was repentant. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings or whatever. I just— I guess I should’ve kept my mouth shut, but I was trying to compliment her.” He turned to look in the direction where she’d disappeared. “I sure blew that, didn’t I?”

Luke approached him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. She has an independent streak.”

“Like Erin.”

Luke had to smile. “In a way, yeah, I guess. Don’t let it bother you. She’ll be fine.”

But he wasn’t convinced she would and he didn’t stay around to explain it to his brother. The evening had been pleasant, but he’d felt a reserve about Hayley that had bothered him. Whatever had caused it, he knew he should probably find out so he wouldn’t repeat it. This nanny thing was new to him, and he wasn’t sure what was expected of him.

He found her upstairs in his son’s bedroom. As he stood, watching from the doorway, she pulled out a small pair of pajamas from the bureau drawer. Placing them on the bed, she bent to give Brayden a hug.

“Bath time,” she announced, “and then you can get in your clean jammies.”

“No,” Brayden said, running to hide behind the closet door.

She didn’t say anything for several seconds, until Brayden peeked out at her. “Maybe your daddy will let you go back down to tell your uncle Dylan good night. Would you like that?”

Brayden stepped out from behind the door, bobbing his head in an eager nod.

Luke cleared his throat so he wouldn’t spook her. “Go on down then.”

The look of joy on his young son’s face was priceless as the boy sped past him out the door. “Slow down on the stairs, Brayden,” he called to him. “We’ll be there in a minute.”