One Man and a Baby Read online

  He rose. “Let’s go get you set up to do some mucking.”

  “Mucking?” Toby gasped.

  “Sure.” Rick smiled at Toby. “Isn’t that how you started most hands when they came to that big farm you ran in England?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “But I’m not really starting here,” Ashley said, turning her smile on Toby. “Right, Toby? I’ve been around my whole life.”

  “Yet, you’ve never mucked a stall,” Rick said.

  She took a breath. “No. But I’m fairly certain I have the principle down pat.”

  “You probably do,” Rick agreed. “But if you really want to become the boss over people who have been here for the decades you were only riding the horses they cared for, you have to let them see that you don’t think you’re better than they are. That you understand what it’s like to work.”

  She held his gaze. More than anything else she wanted her workers’ respect. They would become like family to her, if only because they would be the people she spent the most time with. She needed what Rick was offering her. The chance to prove she believed they were all equal. Family.

  He was right. She had to do this.

  “Let’s go.”

  Ashley wasn’t in the shower until six o’clock that night. The hot water that sluiced over her was like a soothing balm to muscles that ached from the strain of manual labor.

  She pressed her face into the steady stream of hot water. Even her cheeks were tired. Her hair smelled like manure. Her legs were so overworked that her thighs quivered. Her hands had blisters.

  She looked down and tears filled her eyes. Her hands had blisters. Real blisters. No matter how much she had enjoyed the camaraderie of the farmhands with whom she worked, she couldn’t muck stalls again tomorrow. Not unless she wanted to get blisters on top of her blisters and she did not. Somehow or another she had to get out of mucking tomorrow without giving the employees the impression she thought she was better than they were. Because if she couldn’t she might as well quit…

  She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. That was what Rick wanted. He wanted her to quit! It made sense that he would be trying to get her to give up before she was trained so that when her dad came home in February he’d be the only one in the running for her job.

  With water sluicing over from her hair to her neck and aching shoulders, she realized that even if it wasn’t Rick’s intention to get her to quit, he would still win when her dad came home. If he kept her mucking stalls instead of involved in what she needed to learn, he would remain the better choice to run the farm when her dad’s fixation with sailing turned into full-blown retirement next summer. Because she knew it would. She’d already accepted that her dad had moved on. Officially retiring was just the next step. He might come home in February after this three-month sailing excursion, but when he did, she suspected it would only be to pick a replacement.

  And that meant there was no way she could let Rick win.

  She stepped out of the shower, toweled off, blew her hair dry and brushed her teeth. But instead of sliding into the pair of pink silk pajamas—long pants and a shirt in case Rick decided to wake her again—that she’d laid out on the bed, she marched to her dresser and grabbed a pair of jeans and a clean chambray shirt. She pulled on socks and boots and even got out one of her old cowboy hats, deciding that it couldn’t hurt to look the part of the job she wanted, then she ran downstairs and out the back door to her SUV.

  It was only about a quarter mile to the guesthouse. On a day when her legs weren’t still rubbery from exertion, she probably would have walked. But in order to assure that she didn’t crumble on Rick’s doorstep, Ashley drove, pulling her SUV beside his extended cab pickup, then dragging herself up the three steps to the wood plank porch.

  A screen door protected the open front door of the living room. The glow from one of the end table lamps provided enough light that she could see no one was on the floral sofa. There appeared to be a lot of “stuff” on the floor, but nobody around.

  She glanced down the hall and noticed the kitchen light was on and decided somebody had to be inside. Mustering energy she absolutely didn’t have, she lifted her hand to the door and rapped twice.

  No one answered.

  “Rick?” she called through the open screen.

  No answer.

  She knew he was in there. Only an idiot left a house with so many lights on. She frowned. Or maybe he was on the back porch?

  Not about to walk down the three porch steps, around the front of the house to the side and down the length of the house to get to the back porch on her shaky, achy legs, she opened the door, stepped into the living room and nearly tripped over a little chair.

  She peered down at it and frowned. It looked like a baby seat of some sort. One of those carrier things? Maybe a car seat?

  Confused, she stooped down to examine it more closely and two seconds later she heard the sound of feet pounding down the steps. She glanced up to see Rick frozen about midway on the staircase.

  Their gazes caught and held. The shadow of beard on his chin and cheeks said he hadn’t yet had time to shave, but his clean jeans and shirt, and slicked-back wet hair said he’d showered.

  “I thought this house was mine, for my use.”

  Ashley took a breath and rose. “It is. I’m sorry. I saw the lights and assumed you were home.”

  He finished his walk down the stairs. “If you’ve come here to tell me that you’re done playing farmhand,” he said, scooping up the chair Ashley was now positive was some sort of baby chair and tossing it behind the overstuffed green sofa in the corner of the room. “Then I’m okay with you just walking into my house. If not—”

  “If not what?” she asked, her eyes narrowing. “I seem to remember you coming straight into my bedroom this morning, without my permission, when there were no lights on…oh, and, in a house you don’t own.”

  His face hardened. “You might own this one, princess, but you assigned it to me. It’s just like a rental. You can’t come in without my permission.”

  “And you can’t come into my bedroom without my permission.”

  He crossed his arms on his chest. “So, I guess we’ll just call it even?”

  She smiled and strolled over to the floral sofa. “I don’t think so,” she said, pulling the baby seat from behind it. “What’s this?”

  He didn’t say anything.

  She held it up to inspect it. “I’m not a genius. I’m not even a woman who’s particularly familiar with babies, but I’m guessing this belongs to a baby.”

  He still said nothing.

  “And if you didn’t have a baby around here somewhere, right now you’d be saying something. Anything. Like maybe, yeah, it’s a baby seat. I bought it for my sister Tia for when her baby is born.”

  “It’s a baby carrier. I bought it for my sister Tia.”

  She smiled. “Too late. Too, too, late.” She took a breath, glanced at the seat again. “So where is she?”

  “She?”

  “I know it’s a girl.” She pulled a tiny hair clip from a fold in the plastic padding of seat. “There’s no way in hell you’d put one of these on a boy.”

  “She’s upstairs.”

  Ashley’s aching muscles all but cheered with relief. “So, you and I are about to start a little bargaining session.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Oh, I do. The very fact that you slid this chair behind the sofa like I was some sort of ninny who would forget she saw it if you got it out of my sight, proves that you’re hiding your child.” She paused, tilted her head. “It is your child, right?”

  He said nothing.

  “You know,” she said, walking around Rick as if he were a thoroughbred at an auction. “I’m not that good at ferreting out information, but I bet if I called Rayne Fegan and I told her you had a baby in here, she could figure it all out.”

  “Don’t.”

  “So we are bargaining.”

 
; “What do you want?”

  “I don’t want to have to muck out stalls.”

  “Your job can’t be on the table.”

  “My job is the only thing I want on the table!”

  “Forget it. If you really do get to be manager of Seven Hills, the people who work for you have to see you don’t think you’re above them.”

  “Nice try, but one day of sweating and making friends with the staff got that point across. If you keep me mucking any longer I’ll know you’re just doing it so you don’t have to teach me the things I need to know.”

  He shook his head in disgust. “Your dad told me he wanted you trained. Putting you through the paces is my first responsibility, whether you like what I do or not. If you really want to lead, you have to understand the people who work for you, how tired they get so you can balance their workloads.”

  “So you weren’t avoiding training me?”

  “No. What I was really doing was throwing you into the fire. If anything I expected you to accuse me of trying to get you to quit.”

  Her eyes narrowed. That had crossed her mind. “Were you trying to get me to quit?”

  “I don’t think there’s any trying about it. If you’re not cut out for the job, the work will force you out on its own.”

  “If I hadn’t found this bargaining chip it might have.”

  He said nothing and Ashley laughed. “I’ve got you and it’s really fun.” She tilted her head, thinking, then added, “The only thing I can’t figure out is why you need to hide a baby.”

  “Because my dad’s election is in two weeks and Ruthie’s mother abandoned her. I don’t want my mistake to hurt my dad’s campaign.”

  “Not buying it. Even if your baby’s illegitimate, single parent babies aren’t really big news anymore. Your having a baby wouldn’t hurt your dad’s election.”

  Rick said nothing and Ashley sighed. “Okay. Here’s the deal. I don’t want you gone. I need you to teach me. But I can’t have you hiding at Seven Hills if you kidnapped that baby or something. You have to come clean with me.”

  When Rick again didn’t answer, Ashley shook her head in disgust. “I guess this means you’re leaving.”

  “I’m not leaving. Your dad hired me to do a job and I intend to do it.”

  “Then I’m back to asking Rayne Fegan to look for the truth.”

  “Can’t you just let this alone?”

  “No, for all I know you’ve got Britney Spears’s baby in my guest house. I cannot let this alone. If you won’t leave, or tell me the truth, I’ll have no choice but to call Rayne.”

  He drew in a ragged breath. “Ruthie’s mother is Senator Paul Martin’s daughter.”

  “Oh!” Ashley said, picturing the gorgeous young woman who loved to get her face in the paper, flaunting her lifestyle to embarrass her popular, well-loved, conservative dad. “You and Jen Martin were…” She stopped and stared at Rick.

  His face hardened. “Can’t see her with somebody like me?”

  Quite the contrary. Ashley could easily see what Jen Martin saw in Rick. He was sexy. No. He wasn’t just sexy. He dripped sex appeal. Piercing blue eyes. Rippling muscles from real work, not hours at a gym. An attitude that all but screamed trouble. Yeah. She knew exactly what Jen saw in Rick. She just couldn’t quite see what Rick had seen in Jen.

  “You tell Rayne I have a baby and it will take her about ten minutes to discover that Senator Martin’s daughter not only had a baby that she kept secret, but she also abandoned her. Then it won’t be me or Jen who suffers, it will be my daughter whose face will be splattered on front pages all over the country by people trying to unseat Senator Martin.”

  Knowing he was right, and that this situation was more complicated than just a bargaining chip in their fight for a job, Ashley paced away from him. But before she could say anything, a cry issued from upstairs.

  She turned in time to see Rick pivot and vault up the steps, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He took the stairs two at a time and disappeared around a corner, crooning, “It’s okay, Ruthie, Daddy’s here.”

  The affection in his voice was like a shot to Ashley’s heart. A man couldn’t fake the kind of emotion she’d heard in that one short sentence. Curious beyond words, she tiptoed up to the second floor but stopped short of the door. Peeking around the door frame, she saw Rick cradling a small bundle in pink pajamas.

  The little girl sobbed pitifully, not comforted by being cradled. Rick shifted her to his shoulder, putting her tiny face in Ashley’s view. Pretty blue eyes, just like Rick’s, blinked back at Ashley, then the baby quit crying.

  At the same time Rick turned. When he saw Ashley, he sighed. “It’s you.”

  “I’m not leaving until we straighten this out.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not it. I thought she had stopped crying because I’d comforted her. Now, I know she only quit because a woman came into the room.”

  Ashley smiled. “She likes me?”

  “Don’t get too carried away. She’s very curious about women. Probably because she had one in her life and doesn’t now.”

  Studying the baby who was about the prettiest thing Ashley had ever seen with her black hair and big blue eyes, Ashley was again struck by the emotion for the baby she heard in Rick’s voice. She knew most fathers put their children first, but it seemed odd to see Rick Capriotti do it. He’d already admitted he was protecting her from being used as a pawn by people trying to destroy her grandfather’s career. Now, he was worried about her missing her mom. His behavior was so different from what Ashley expected, she couldn’t even address it. She wouldn’t know how.

  “Can I hold her?”

  Rick reluctantly said, “Sure.”

  Ashley took the little girl and her mouth automatically tipped into a smile. “Well, hello,” she said, holding the baby an arm’s length away so she could look at her. Then she peered over the baby’s shoulder to Rick. “What’s her name?”

  “Ruthie.”

  “That’s right. Ruthie.” She smiled at the baby. “Hello, Ruthie.”

  Ruthie gurgled.

  Rick laughed. “She usually yelps at me.”

  The note of pleasure in his voice caused Ashley’s heart to do another flip-flop. His obvious love of the little girl and his honest wish to win her love was incredibly attractive. Luckily Ashley hadn’t been one of his high school groupies or right now she’d probably be swooning.

  “You’re her source. Yelping is how she tells you she needs something. Besides, you know the old saying. You always yelp at the one you love the best.”

  Ruthie giggled.

  Ashley grinned at the baby, then peeked at Rick. “Do you think she understood that?”

  Rick bent to pick up a bear and two dolls that were on the floor in front of the small white crib. “I think babies are a hell of a lot smarter than we give them credit for being.”

  “She looks like you.”

  “Thank God,” Rick said, then he grimaced. “Jen didn’t exactly leave me with a lasting good impression of her. I’d prefer not to see her face every time I look at Ruthie. More than that, though, I don’t want Ruthie to see the mother who abandoned her every time she looks in the mirror.”

  Again his stark honesty hit Ashley right in the heart. He’d been hurt and couldn’t hide it, but more than that he understood that his daughter would suffer when she realized her mother hadn’t wanted her and that hurt him, too.

  That almost brought her to tears and she had to admit something she’d never thought she would. Rick Capriotti had changed. Really changed. Worse, when she added his new personality to his good looks, he suddenly became very attractive to her. With his black hair drying in ringlets, the day’s growth of dark whiskers shadowing his chin and his shirt pulled out of his jeans, he looked sexily disheveled. Like a man who needed to be kissed, then fed dinner.

  Ashley brought that thought to a swift halt. Being attracted to Rick Capriotti was a normal gut-level reaction, but the de
al about kissing him and making him dinner was just insane.

  She settled the baby on her shoulder. “Okay. I’ll keep your secret.” She paced the floor, rocking the baby in a move that suddenly felt very natural. But as quickly as she realized that, she also figured out what was going on. Her dad leaving had made her long for family and Rick and his little girl were a ready-made family. An adorable baby and a sexy man were a deadly combination for a woman whose only real desire in life was to have a home. Intellectually she knew getting attached to this baby or this baby’s daddy was ridiculous. But, emotionally, it was second nature. An honest need coming face-to-face with two people who could fill that need. Her brain wouldn’t overrule her emotions on this one. Especially not if her hormones got involved. Best to get the hell out of here!

  “I’m not keeping the secret for you. I’m doing it for Ruthie. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to roll over and play dead so you get the job as foreman of my dad’s farm permanently.”

  She turned and handed Rick’s baby to him, then locked her gaze with his sexy blue eyes. A frisson of awareness danced along her skin. And she knew it was officially too late. If her hormones hadn’t been engaged before this, they were now.

  “This job is mine.”

  And she was getting the hell out of this room before the man currently at her mercy realized she had a weakness, too…

  Him.

  Chapter Three

  He couldn’t let her leave with her last words hanging in the air. She knew his secret, and allowing her to have the last word could give her a false sense that she had the upper hand. She didn’t. Despite her promise not to tell, he was still the boss. It would be a betrayal of Gene’s trust in him if he allowed Ashley to take control when she was nowhere near ready. Not only that, he didn’t intend to lose this job. It was perfect for him: a quiet farm where he could keep his daughter out of everybody’s line of vision.

  He laid the now-sleeping baby in the crib, then stepped into the hall, closing Ruthie’s door behind him. “Don’t think you’ve got me running scared.”

  Ashley stopped dead in her tracks in the hallway, pivoted and stared at him. “I’m doing you a favor and you snap at me?”