The Double Heart Ranch. Leanna Wilson

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Maybe he wanted sex. And she’d just suggested he hire out…Oh, heavens!

      His grip on the coffee mug turned his knuckles white. He had hard, calloused hands, accustomed to hard labor. She wondered if his heart was as battered as his hands. “I want a mother for my daughter.”

      His answer stunned her, knocking her back against the seat. Suddenly she saw this man in a whole new light. He was a single father, probably frustrated with his role, irritated with the stranglehold of family obligations. He probably wanted to dump the burden on some unsuspecting female. Rankled, she said, “Then hire a nanny.”

      “Been there already. I need someone more permanent than a hired hand who can up and leave at the drop of a hat.”

      Maybe he was thinking about his kid more than himself. Maybe. Then again, more than a wife he might need a whack on the head for a good attitude adjustment. “How old is your kid?”

      His eyes brightened, the deep blue turning the color of a radiant summer sky, at the mention of his daughter. Then he smiled. Really smiled. Elise felt her heart lurch. She’d been right—he did have dimples. Which made her stomach flutter.

      “Haley’s five going on sixteen,” he said.

      As suddenly as her animosity had risen like a churning river, emotions dammed her throat. Her own father had never shown such pride in speaking about her. In fact, he’d never done anything for her but dump her at an orphanage when she was twelve days old and make darn sure she could never find him or her mother again.

      But this man Cole…this rancher…smiled when he talked about his daughter.

      She cleared her throat, trying to dull the dazzling effect of his smile. But she couldn’t forget the shimmer of joy in his eyes or the vibration of pride in his voice when he spoke of his precocious child.

      Remembering the way she’d given the nuns fits with her own antics, she gave a soft chuckle and fingered the apron around her waist. She could tell that Cole’s daughter had wrapped her father around her little finger. It made Elise long for what she’d never had—would never have. “I was described the same way when I was a kid.”

      Cole’s smile faded into a worried frown. He tapped his fingers anxiously on the table. “She needs a mother. Not a nanny. Not a maid.” He paused, and the sparkle in his eyes dimmed. “She needs more than I can give her.”

      The raw pain in his voice sounded like disappointment and made Elise’s insides clench with understanding. She resisted the urge to reach out and touch this stranger, to reassure him, to soothe his troubled brow. This wasn’t any of her business. Why did she always get too involved?

      “Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “Haley’s the best. She never gives me any trouble. But I know she’s not happy.” He ducked his head, as if ashamed of his confession.

      Elise recognized despair when she saw it. She’d lived with it as a child. She’d learned to cope and face each day with a bright outlook, because she only had herself to rely on. To survive she had had to ignore the weak emotions of disappointment and overcome rejection and pain. If she hadn’t thought something better was always around the corner, then she never would have survived puberty. “How do you know she’s unhappy?”

      “She told me.” He gave a slight shrug, making his chambray shirt pull tight across his well-muscled chest. “Not in so many words. But well…she wants a ‘happily ever after.”’ He looked at her then, the blue of his eyes darkening with sorrow and regret. “You know, like in fairy tales. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that doesn’t happen in real life.”

      Elise understood Cole then—the hope he’d once had and the heartbreaking reality he’d experienced. Much like her own. She suspected he had a soft, compassionate heart beating beneath that rock-hard exterior. At least where his daughter was concerned. “So, you’re going to give her as close a version as you can?”

      “I’m going to try my damnedest.”

      The conviction in his voice made her believe him. Her heart clenched into a tight knot as she met his determined gaze. His firm, square jaw told her he could do anything he set his mind to. For some crazy reason she wanted to help him. Uneasy with her attraction to the rugged rancher with the soulful eyes, she tapped her finger on his pad of paper. “Then you’ll need a damn good ad. Maybe we should start with what paper you were thinking of advertising in? Desert Springs?”

      “Not a smart move. I need a more populated place.” He lowered his voice as if Chuck might overhear in the kitchen. “Where folks don’t know me.” He shook his head. “Not because I’m embarrassed or worried about what they might think. I simply want the marriage to look real. If folks here learn the truth, then it will only be a matter of time before Haley figures out it’s all a charade.”

      An emotion Elise hadn’t felt in far too long tightened her chest. This man would do anything for his daughter. His sweet tenderness touched her in a way no one had in years. “That seems wise. So maybe you should advertise in Dallas or Houston.”

      “Both, probably.”

      “Okay.” She reached for his pad of paper and pen. “What kind of a wife are you looking for?”

      His brow furrowed, pulling his dark eyebrows together. “Well…someone who likes kids. Obviously.” He clasped his hands together, tapped his thumbs nervously. “Someone who’s kind, sincere. Who’d be content to live on a ranch. A down-to-earth woman, who’s not caught up in fashion or getting her nails done every week.” His gaze locked on Elise’s and made her swallow hard with anticipation. “A woman who wants to be a part of a family.”

      His answer struck a vulnerable nerve in Elise, and she felt the resonating pain all the way through her soul. Her heart pumped as if it might burst loose from the confines of her chest. He hadn’t said “pretty, able to do backbreaking work and a good cook.” He was offering a family. What she’d always wanted.

      Trying to concentrate, paraphrasing his words, she scribbled notes on the page. The letters blurred as hot, aching tears pressed against the backs of her eyes. Ashamed of her weakness, she blinked them away as she had so often in her life and clenched the pen tightly.

      Pushing back a glimmer of hope, she managed to ask, “Anything else?”

      He nodded. “Someone who can make a commitment and stick with it.”

      She wondered if he were looking for the impossible. She’d learned long ago that promises were meant to be broken. At least by others. When she’d wrestled her turbulent emotions under control, she looked up at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “And what do you have to offer this make-believe marriage?”

      This time he sat back against the seat. “What?”

      “You want some woman to move out here and live with you as man and wife, tend to your child, and I assume do her wifely duties like cooking and cleaning and…” Heat stung her cheeks and she glanced away, unable to meet his intense gaze.

      A palpable pause thrummed between them. Elise toyed with her pen, turning it over and over between her numb fingers. Why had she gotten involved with this man’s problem? Why did he make her yearn for something she’d long ago given up on?

      She didn’t care if he found a wife or what he and this new wife would or would not do in an intimate setting. Good grief! What had gotten into her?

СКАЧАТЬ