The Rancher's Christmas Promise. Allison Leigh

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СКАЧАТЬ with one hand and holding her hair off her neck with the other. Instead of asking about Layla first thing, though, she stopped near the front bumper of her car. “It overheated. I saw steam coming out from the hood and pulled off as soon as I could.”

      He joined her in front of the car. He knew the basics when it came to engines—enough to keep the machinery on his ranch running without too much outside help—but he was a lot more comfortable with the anatomy of horses and cows. “How long have you been sitting out here?”

      “Too long.” She plucked the front of her blouse away from her throat and glanced at the watch circling her narrow wrist. “I thought someone would stop sooner than this. Ali’ll think I’m deliberately late.”

      The only heat from the engine came from the sun glaring down on it. He checked a few of the hoses and looked underneath for signs of leaking coolant, but the ground beneath the car was dry. “Why’s that?”

      “We’re throwing a surprise baby shower for Maddie today. I’m supposed to help set up.”

      “Didn’t know she was pregnant.” He straightened. It was impossible to miss the sharpness in Greer’s brown eyes.

      “Why would you, when you’ve been avoiding all of us since March?”

      “Some law that says I needed to do otherwise?” He hadn’t been avoiding them entirely. Just...mostly.

      It had been easy, considering he had a ranch to run.

      She pursed her bow-shaped lips. “You know my family has a vested interest in Layla. At the very least, you could try accepting an invitation or two when they’re extended.”

      “Maybe I’m too busy to accept invitations.” He waited a beat. “I am a single father, you know.”

      If he wasn’t mistaken, her eye actually twitched.

      She’d always struck him as the one most tightly wound.

      It was too bad that he also couldn’t look at her without wondering just what it would take to unwind her.

      He closed the hood of her car with a firm hand. “You want to try starting her up? See what happens with the temperature gauge?”

      He thought she might argue—if only for the sake of it—but she opened the passenger door. Then he had to choke back a laugh when she climbed across and into the driver’s seat, where she started the engine. Her focus was clearly on her dashboard and he could tell the gauge was rising just by the frown on her face.

      She shut off the engine again and looked through the windshield. “Needle went straight to the red.” She climbed back out the passenger side.

      “Something wrong with the driver’s-side door?”

      She was looking down at herself as she got out, tweaking that white skirt hugging her slender hips until it hung smooth and straight. “No, but I don’t want it getting hit by a passing vehicle if I open it.”

      He eyed the distance between the edge of the road and where she’d pulled off on the shoulder. “Real cautious of you.”

      “I’m a lawyer. I’m always cautious.”

      “Overly so, I’d say.” Not that he hadn’t enjoyed the show. She was a little skinny for his taste, but he couldn’t deny she was a looker. He pulled off his cowboy hat long enough to swipe his arm across his forehead. “I can drive you into town, or I can send a tow out for you.” He didn’t have time to do both, because he had to be back at the ranch before the nanny left or his housekeeper, Mrs. Pyle, would have kittens. “What’s your choice?”

      * * *

      Greer swallowed her frustration. Considering Ryder Wilson’s standoffishness since they’d met, she was a little surprised that he’d stopped to assist at all.

      As soon as she’d realized who was driving the enormous pickup truck pulling up behind her car, she’d been torn between anticipation and the desire to cry what next?

      It was entirely annoying that the brawny, blue-eyed rancher was the first man to make her hormones sit up and take notice in too long a while.

      Annoying and impossible to act on, considering the strange nature of their acquaintance.

      All she wanted to do was ask Ryder how Layla was doing. But Maddie had been insistent that none of them intrude on him too soon.

      They’d all been wrapped around Layla’s tiny little finger and none more than Maddie, who’d been caring for her nearly the whole while before Ali discovered Ryder’s existence. Yet it was Maddie who’d urged them to give Ryder time. To adjust. To adapt. They knew Ryder was taking decent care of the baby he’d claimed, because Maddie’s boss, Raymond Marx, checked up on him for a while at first, so he could report back to the courts. Give Ryder time, Maddie insisted, and eventually he would see the benefit of letting them past his walls.

      Didn’t mean that it had been easy.

      Didn’t mean it was easy now, not dashing over to the truck to see Layla.

      She didn’t know if it was that prospect that made her feel so shaky inside, or if it was because of Layla’s brown-haired daddy. She wasn’t sure she even liked Ryder all that much.

      Yes, he’d been legally named Layla’s father and yes, he’d taken responsibility for her. But there was an edge to him that had rubbed Greer wrong from the very first time they met. She just hadn’t been able to pinpoint why.

      “If you don’t mind driving me into town,” she managed, “I’d be grateful.”

      The brim of his hat dipped briefly. “Probably should lock her up.” He started for his big truck parked behind the car.

      She watched him walk away. He was wearing blue jeans and a checked shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Except for when he’d briefly swiped an arm over his forehead, he appeared unaffected by the sweltering day.

      “Probably should lock her up,” she parroted childishly under her breath. As if she didn’t have the sense to know that without being told.

      She retrieved her purse and briefcase from the back seat, looping the long straps over her shoulder, then warily lifted the trunk lid higher. The shower cake that she’d nestled carefully between two boxes full of work from the office amazingly didn’t look too much the worse for wear. It was a delightful amalgam of block and ball shapes, frosted in white, yellow and blue. How Tabby Clay had balanced them all together like that was a mystery to Greer.

      She was just glad to see that the creation hadn’t melted into a puddle of goo while she’d waited on the side of the road.

      She carefully lifted the white board with the heavy cake on top out of the trunk and gingerly carried it toward Ryder’s truck. Her heart was beating so hard, she could hear it inside her head. The last time she’d seen Layla had been at Shop-World in Weaver, when she’d taken a client shopping for an affordable set of clothes to wear for trial, and Ryder had been in the next checkout line over, buying diapers, coffee and whiskey.

      Layla had been asleep in the cart. Greer had noticed that her blond curls had gotten a reddish cast, but the stuffed pony she’d СКАЧАТЬ