One Man and a Baby. SUSAN MEIER

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 СКАЧАТЬ