One Man and a Baby Read online

  Ashley laughed. “You like all the smooshy, gushing, mushy stuff?”

  “Yeah,” he said, sounding surprised that she didn’t. “Because it’s not about romance or sex with them. The kissing and hugging and catering to each other is a sign of their commitment.”

  Ashley turned and peered out the screen door, catching a glimpse of Elizabeth’s taillights as she roared out of the lane. “And that’s what you want?”

  He sighed. “Actually, Ashley, it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to find what my parents have because I’m not going to look for it. I have a child, who is the granddaughter of a senator who’s technically living a double life. So for me all the rules have changed. I won’t drag another person into my mess.” He paused in the kitchen doorway. “I forgot her baby seat. Would you get it?”

  Having already concluded that the only reason he would run would be if Ruthie were threatened, Ashley didn’t comment on what he’d said and focused on his request that she get the baby seat. She said, “Okay,” then darted back into the living room to grab the baby chair. She brought it to the kitchen and glanced around, not sure what to do. “Where do I put it?”

  “Just put it on the table.”

  When Ashley had done as he suggested, Rick slid Ruthie into the seat. “I give her a side of the table and I take the other side. This way she gets to have dinner with me and I don’t have to worry that she’ll put her foot in my potatoes.”

  Ashley laughed.

  “You laugh.” Rick snapped the safety harness of Ruthie’s seat. “But just wait until you see how she can jump and sputter and make her presence known.” He turned away from the table and pointed at the covered platter on the stove. “That’s probably the chicken. Mom said potato salad is in the refrigerator. There’s a gallon of iced tea in there, too.”

  “Yum.”

  “Plates are in the cabinet beside the stove, so grab a plate and some chicken while I get the tea and the potato salad.”

  Ashley put two pieces of chicken on her plate and two pieces of chicken on a second plate for Rick. She set them on the table then went back to the cupboard for glasses. By the time she sat, Rick had retrieved the iced tea and the potato salad. As Rick poured their beverages, Ashley scooped a spoonful of potato salad onto her plate, then one onto his.

  “Okay, now we’re set,” Rick said, putting a rattle into Ruthie’s hand. She banged it against her chubby little thigh with a yelp.

  “When she yelps like that I always feel like she’s trying to convince me she’s old enough for solid food.”

  Ashley chuckled. “If she can smell this, she probably is.” She took a bite of her chicken and groaned in ecstasy. “Oh Lord this is good.”

  “I thought you said you could cook?”

  “There’s cooking and then there’s cooking. This is obviously the fried chicken of someone with decades of experience.”

  “Yeah, my mom’s good,” Rick agreed, but before he took a second bite of chicken he changed the subject. “So, what did you think of the records you reviewed this morning?”

  “I think we need to extend our vendor list.”

  He pondered that as he chewed a mouthful of chicken, then said, “There’s a loyalty factor to be considered. Because Calhoun Corners is a small town, the surrounding farms support certain businesses like the hardware store. We consistently buy from them so they know they can depend upon us. If we stop supporting them, or distribute our hardware business among several vendors, Bert’s revenues could slip and he could decide to close up shop.”

  “Good point.”

  With Ruthie happily chewing her rattle, they talked about vendors and accounting while they ate the chicken and potato salad and also discovered a chocolate cake that Rick’s mother had obviously made but forgotten to mention.

  After each had eaten a piece of cake, they took Ruthie to her nursery and Rick initiated a discussion of races, as he bathed the little girl. Ruthie splashed and sang and Rick occasionally paused to talk to her and Ashley watched him. The feeling of happiness she had had in the truck returned and this time Ashley recategorized it. It wasn’t happiness. It was more like contentment.

  Here she was, on a chilly fall night, sitting on the window seat of a cozy bedroom, watching a dad care for his happy daughter. And she suddenly understood what he had said about his parents. Right at this moment, if he wanted a kiss, she would kiss him. Not because he was gorgeous, though he was. She wanted to kiss him because of something warm and sweet that seemed to encompass so much more than simple attraction. They had reached so many understandings that day. And that was the difference between this relationship and any other she had had. They’d reached so many understandings. She hadn’t been the only one learning. Rick had been bending, too. He was the first person to really ever understand her.

  Or try.

  “So, should we continue?” he asked, turning away from the crib after tucking in Ruthie for the night. He motioned for Ashley to leave and walked through the nursery door behind her.

  She waited until they were in the hall before she said, “I’m a bit tired.”

  “It is late,” he agreed as they walked down the steps.

  Ashley was struck again by how casual they were. How well they got along. How right it felt to be together. They reached the bottom of the stairs and she turned to face him. “I think I’ll just get going.”

  He smiled. “Okay. See you in the morning.”

  But Ashley didn’t move. He had expressive blue eyes that flashed with fire when he was angry, sizzled with attraction when he caught her in compromising positions, and filled with warmth when he was with Ruthie. Right now, they were filled with that warmth. A day’s growth of beard darkened his chin and cheeks. Solid muscle filled out his workshirt. He was an incredibly attractive man who’d been dealt some of life’s toughest cards, yet he hadn’t become bitter. In fact, he was kind, generous and fair. So fair she was comfortable with a man for the first time since her horrible marriage.

  But she wasn’t entirely relaxed. A sexual tension hummed between them. And their “accidental” kiss suddenly felt like unfinished business. It didn’t seem right to just leave. In fact, if there was something between them, something real, something right, then she wanted it.

  She took a step closer. He didn’t move. She smiled, but rather than return her smile, the warm expression in his eyes shifted to confusion. She didn’t blame him for being confused. The last thing she had expected was that they would fit. But they did.

  She stretched toward him and in the final second before she pressed her lips to his she closed her eyes. Sensation sizzled through her, but not just from sexual chemistry. The knowledge that they fit made her bold, curious. What would it be like to be involved with a man who didn’t hesitate to teach her, to consider her an equal, to love her for real, not just for her money?

  Putting her hands on Rick’s shoulders, Ashley stepped closer, deepening the kiss. At first she thought Rick would resist, but his hands slowly came to her waist, even as his mouth opened over hers. The thought that she could be his equal came to her again, but not in the sense that they would be work partners or even friends, but sexual equals. This was a man who would expect a woman to hold her own in bed and suddenly she realized she wanted to. She wanted to give him everything she had, everything she could be, if he would simply let her open up.

  His hands at her waist nudged her closer. Her arms tightened around his neck until her breasts were flattened against his chest and their thighs were pressed together intimately. A hunger thrummed between them and she realized how desperate she’d been for this minute, for this man.

  He broke the kiss, backed off. “This isn’t right.”

  But the look in his eyes didn’t match his words. Breathless with yearning, Ashley stared at him, knowing there was something between them, something that mixed friendship with passion. Something that felt as if it could be very important to both of them. Maybe the most important relationship of their lives. She
absolutely could not give this up.

  Rather than back away, she kissed him again, not sure if she was testing her instincts or his resolve, and again felt the spiral of arousal that she hadn’t felt in four long years. Though other men had attracted her, none had deserved her trust. That was the key.

  When she pulled back, their lips parted reluctantly, and she knew that even if he didn’t feel the incredible emotion that simmered inside her, he felt the passion. He stepped away from it only with hesitation.

  Holding his gaze, she softly said, “It sure as heck feels right to me.”

  “And in some ways it feels right to me,” he admitted equally quietly. “Different. I know you understand me because you’ve gone through a lot of the same things I have. You’ve been the object of the town’s gossip, and you even embarrassed and angered your dad when you lost half your trust fund, the way I embarrassed and angered my dad with my pranks through high school.”

  “You’re such a sweet-talker.”

  He laughed. “That’s another thing. I’m not afraid to say what I mean with you.”

  This time she laughed.

  Drawing in a long drink of air, he stepped away. “You think what I’m saying is funny or foolish but it’s not. With you I have the thing that was missing with Jen. Total acceptance. And tonight that’s a stronger aphrodisiac than the way you looked in that little pink thing the day I dragged you out of bed.”

  “I’ve never had anybody who understood me, either…”

  “Ashley, don’t.” This time his voice was a desperate whisper. “I don’t have anything to offer you. More than that, I don’t know what’s going to happen with Senator Martin.” He took a breath. “Jen told me some things about her dad, including that her mom had to sign a nondisclosure agreement when they divorced. There’s only one reason for that. He did things he’s ashamed of. Even if I didn’t want to raise my own child, I couldn’t risk that he got custody.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that if it looked like Senator Martin was about to be awarded custody of my child, I would leave. Run.”

  “I know that.”

  “And I wouldn’t take you with me. I wouldn’t ask you to leave your home. I wouldn’t ask you to give up ever being able to contact your dad again. I couldn’t risk that somehow you could be the link that would allow a private investigator or law enforcement to find us.”

  He ran his fingertips across her chin, though, as if he were sorely tempted to kiss her again, and Ashley knew that if she kissed him again, he probably wouldn’t turn her away. They’d end up in his bed because whatever it was that pulsed between them, it was powerful.

  And she wasn’t surprised that he would run to protect his daughter. She’d already figured that out. What surprised her was that he didn’t trust her. He was the first man she’d trusted in years and he didn’t return her trust. Worse, she wasn’t entirely sure he ever could. Not because she wasn’t trustworthy, but because he had been burned. And this time around she wanted somebody who could love her. Totally. Passionately. A person couldn’t love her the way she wanted to be loved, if he didn’t trust her.

  So she walked out of the guesthouse without even a goodbye. There was no sense dissecting their situation anymore, and she didn’t want him to see how much his rejection hurt her.

  Chapter Seven

  The next morning Ashley dressed in a pantsuit, swept her hair up into a ponytail and took a thermal cup of coffee to the barn office, along with a carafe filled with the coffee that had remained in her pot. When Toby walked in, he whistled.

  “Wow. You look great.”

  “And I brought coffee.”

  “That’s part of the reason you look great,” Toby said with a grin as he held out his half-empty cup, looking for a warm-up.

  Ashley laughed and filled his cup at the same time that Rick entered the barn. She glanced over just as he looked at her and their gazes caught and held.

  After two hours of tossing and turning the night before, Ashley had decided he’d been right. He didn’t know her well enough to trust her, let alone ask her to run with him if he needed to leave to protect Ruthie.

  But there was another side to that coin. She didn’t know him well enough to say with certainty that she wanted to give up the farm, her dad, her friends, her life, to hide with him. Not that she thought they would have to go on the run. If they were together, he’d have access to enough money to fight Senator Martin. And if they had a relationship, they would manage the farm together. And as comanager of Seven Hills he would have the respectability that would keep him from losing a custody battle.

  But that actually took them to the real barrier of their situation. If she made him comanager she would never really know if he was falling in love with her for her, or because she made his life easier. Worse, if she offered him the job as comanager, he might leave rather than take it, if only because he refused to be called an opportunist. After the way she had fought for the job, he would know she was only offering it to get him to stay and he wouldn’t let himself be trapped into the identity he’d grown out of.

  So they were stuck. Caught. There was no way to work this out.

  To break the oppressive silence, Ashley said, “I brought coffee.”

  Rick raised his cup of store-bought. “I have my own, thanks.”

  “Great.” Cool and nonchalant, she glanced around the little room, hoping to show him that there were no hard feelings and things could be normal and easy between them. “I was thinking that we should get a coffeemaker for in here.”

  Rick shook his head. “If you buy a coffeemaker, you have to buy coffee. It isn’t a one-time expense.”

  “I’m okay with that.”

  Toby hooted with laughter. “I might just like having a girl in charge.”

  “I’m not in charge yet.”

  Toby brushed off her concern. “You will be when your dad retires.”

  “When my dad retires,” Ashley reminded Toby firmly. “I don’t want you to go around spreading rumors that he’s retiring.”

  Again, Toby brushed her off with a dismissive wave of his hand. “The rumor’s already out.”

  “So, let’s not fuel the fire.” She turned to Rick. “What do you have for us to do today?”

  “More of what we did yesterday.” He reached across the desk and picked up a clipboard. “How was Sweet Potato last night?” he asked Toby.

  “Slept like a baby.”

  “Okay, then. You take care of him this morning. I’ll sneak a peek at him sometime this afternoon. Right now Ashley and I are going to go up to the house and jump back into the books.”

  Toby said, “Sounds good to me,” then he nodded at the carafe Ashley still held. “You might want to leave that coffee.”

  Ashley smiled. “Sure.”

  Ashley and Rick left the barn and walked to her house in silence. She stripped off her suit jacket and hung it on the newel post in the foyer as they passed it on their way to the den.

  Stepping into the dark room, Rick flipped the light switch and pointed at the seat behind the desk. “You get the position of honor.”

  “Thanks.”

  She sat in the tall-backed office chair, turned on the lamp, and pressed the button for the computer monitor.

  Rick leaned his hip on the corner of the desk. “They really like you, you know.”

  She turned to face him. “Who?”

  “All the guys in the barn.”

  He made the observation without emotion, but holding the gaze of his pretty blue eyes, Ashley knew he was talking about more than the employees of Seven Hills. He liked her, too. He seemed to be saying that he was sorry that things couldn’t be different between them.

  She was, too, but she also knew that if he wanted to have a discussion of their relationship, he’d come right out and say what was on his mind. Using backhanded communication was his way of telling her that he regretted the way things had to be but he didn’t want to belabor something th
at couldn’t be resolved with another discussion. She respected his wishes by keeping her reply in the same venue as his comment.

  “It’s good to know I have their support.”

  “With your brains and their support, you’ll do very, very well.”

  Without him.

  More backhanded communication. Turning her attention to the computer, she smiled sadly to herself as she used the mouse to start the program she needed. It was sweet of him to reassure her, but she didn’t need his reassurance, when it came to almost having things and recovering from the wanting, she was an expert.

  “I always do.”

  “Just don’t get cocky.”

  That made her laugh. Again, he didn’t have to warn her. She knew better than to get presumptuous about anything in her life. She’d lost her mother and brother to an accident, her husband to greed and now her dad to retirement. Once her dad returned, even Rick would leave. Nobody stayed in her life.

  They worked until eleven, when Rick announced they needed to go into town.

  “Why?”

  “Randy Dupont is meeting us for lunch at the diner.”

  “My dad’s accountant?”

  He nodded. “After that we’re going across the street to meet with Frank Barnes.”

  She whistled. “Both the accountant and attorney in the same day.”

  “When I say I’m going to do something, I do it. You need to be in good standing with the people who provide professional advice to your dad and by default the farm. You need to know what they do, but more than that you need to establish trust.”

  “I do trust them.”

  He laughed. “They need to trust you.”

  “And how do I accomplish that?”

  “You have breakfast, lunch or dinner with them every few weeks and in casual conversation you tell them what you’re doing at the farm. Eventually they’ll either decide you’re a safe bet or they’ll tell your dad he should look elsewhere for a replacement.”