The Rancher’s Unexpected Nanny Read online

  “Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” he agreed, smiling a little as he watched that bow bobbing up and down with his jumpy daughter. Even in the steadily lowering light of the evening, he could see the thing like a beacon.

  ”And I'll tell you what," Callie continued in a musical, soothing voice, "I'll teach her how to make more bows herself this summer, and by the time we're done, she'll have a whole slew of them. You won't ever lose track of her again!"

  “Sounds like a plan,” Finn laughed. “I bet she’d like that. She doesn’t get to do a whole lot of crafting. It’ll be good for her to do something other than just extra studying while you’re with us.”

  "Oh, we'll do all kinds of things!" Callie cried, her face flushing with excitement. "I'm definitely open to suggestions. And please, don't think I'm trying to get in the way of whatever plans the two of you already have. I'm not interested in stepping on toes."

  Finn nodded, but he was pretty sure there was no hiding the dumb, blank look on his face. Truth be told, he hadn't done a whole lot of thinking about what the summer would hold. He wasn't eager to fess up to it, but there it was. At the same time, he'd never been much for coming up with things on the fly. That kind of stuff had always been more his wife's thing. When Alex had passed, many of the social niceties of the Henry household had passed right along with her.

  “It’s okay if…” Callie started to say with a flicker of concern.

  "Sorry, I guess we're not much for planning," Finn said, not even sure what he was apologizing for. "Off the bat, though? We've got a foal set to be born sometime soon."

  “Seriously?” Callie asked, her face lighting up with excitement. “That’s amazing!”

  "Wendy certainly thinks so," Finn agreed, smiling at the thought of his baby girl waiting for a new baby to be born. "She likes to give them their names. Naming the new animals is one of her things. She's good at taking care of them, too. Kind of got a way with them, a sort of gentleness."

  “Yes,” Callie nodded, her eyes shining in the twinkle lights hanging from the surrounding trees, “she certainly does. She’s a special girl, your Wendy.”

  “She is that. Must have got it from her mother, I’ll tell you that much. Not that I’m complaining. And hey, beats her cooped up inside playing with a bunch of dolls day in and day out, don’t it?”

  “Hey!” Callie objected, swatting at him playfully. “Don’t knock playing with dolls. I always loved my dolls. Best, most attentive class I ever had.”

  He stared at her for a moment and then, honing in on the twinkle in her eyes, busted out laughing. Pretty soon the Waters couple wanted to know what was so funny, and not five minutes later the four of them were laughing and talking as if they were all old friends. Something came over Finn, something he wasn’t sure how to describe, except to compare it to a bout of dizziness. When he realized what it was, he might have cried if he had been a different kind of man.

  It was ease. Sitting there and having normal adult conversations while his daughter played with her friends, he was content. He might even be approaching happy, and if that wasn’t a miracle, he didn’t know what was.

  Seven

  Callie was well-prepared to ride the high of the Parents in the Park success for as long as possible. At any rate, it had helped her to get off on the right foot with Finn and their new living arrangement. Feeling useful was important to her—feeling needed. She hadn’t realized how far she was pushing it, getting Finn to skip whatever he’d had planned for the evening to attend that silly picnic.

  In the aftermath, she realized how lucky she was that everything had worked out the way it did. She made sure not to forget how good it had felt to sit beside Finn and the Waters couple and simply have a good time being an adult. In a lot of ways, she thought she probably wasn't like most other twenty-something women. She had no desire to be out at all hours of the night, looking to meet some guy who wouldn't mean anything a week or even a day later. She wanted excitement, adventure, but not that kind. At heart, Callie was more of a homebody than anything else, somebody who enjoyed establishing a routine and then sticking to it. She felt like she was starting to do just that when, on a random Tuesday night while Finn was out playing softball, there was a knock at the door.

  “Whoa, there, bug!” Callie exclaimed, stopping Wendy in the middle of a spirited rendition of her latest favorite show tune. “Who do you think that could be?”

  “That’s Grandma!” Wendy shouted, hopping from one foot to the other and twirling a strand of hair around her finger, “It’s Grandma Night!”

  “Stacy?” Callie said, half to herself, brushing non-existent dust off the palms of her hands and getting up from the couch. “What’s Grandma night?”

  “Not Stacy,” Wendy scolded, wrinkling her nose as if the idea of her grandmother having a first name was the most absurd thing in the world, “Grandma. She watches me while Daddy plays. Sometimes even daddies have to play, that’s what Grandma says. I think it’s silly.”

  "Do you?" Callie asked distractedly as she did a quick once-over of herself in the mirror, checking to make sure there weren't any errant stickers in her hair or anything. “Well, if you want my opinion, I think your grandmother is completely right. Even daddies need to play games every once in a while. It helps keep them fun.”

  “Guess so,” Wendy shrugged. There were two ways to interpret that shrug. One was to assume that Wendy didn’t care about whether her father was fun or not. The other was to figure that Wendy reserved the right to the opinion that her daddy wasn’t all that fun after all. Callie thought it might be well worth getting to the bottom of the issue, but not with Stacy waiting at the front door. Callie flashed Wendy a smile, then opened the door to Stacy’s wide grin.

  “There she is!” Stacy cried, bustling inside with her arms stretched out wide. “If it isn’t the young woman who got my stubborn son-in-law to take a night off and behave like a normal human being!”

  “You heard about that, did you?” Callie asked, shutting the front door again and trailing after Stacy, who was already halfway to the kitchen with Wendy close behind. Because she didn’t know what else to do, Callie followed, feeling like a sore thumb stuck out in the open and with nowhere to go.

  “Of course I did!” Stacy laughed, ruffling Wendy’s hair affectionately. “You think there’s anything I don’t hear about with this little miss around? I swear, she’s just about the best informer there is.”

  “Well, we certainly did have a good time,” Callie stuttered, unsure of what to say. “I think it probably did him some good. Just like I’m sure baseball does.”

  “Oh, honey,” Stacy groaned, rifling through cookbooks and handing a worn-out looking cookie book to Wendy to pick a recipe from, “you have no idea. You think he’s tightly wound now, you should’ve seen him before I convinced to get back to his baseball games. Simply unbearable, he was!”

  “He was a grump,” Wendy agreed solemnly.

  "Which is just another one of the many reasons I've never minded looking after the little stinker while he blows off some steam. Isn't that right, kiddo?" Stacy asked, pulling Wendy into a hug that had the little girl collapsing into a fit of giggles by the end of it.

  “I’m really sorry,” Callie stammered, feeling more like an intruder all the time. “I didn’t know you were coming over—that you guys had these special date nights with each other. Which I think is perfectly lovely, by the way.”

  “Lord, that man!” Stacy groaned, slapping her forehead and rolling her eyes. “If his head wasn’t attached to his shoulders, he would lose it, for sure.”

  “I’m telling you said that,” Wendy said gleefully, grinning wide and showing off a newly missing tooth.

  “All right, sweet pea, if you must,” Stacy said nonchalantly. “I’m only saying, somebody should have told the poor girl. I mean you, Callie! I know if it were me, I would want to know if I had a night off.”

  “A night off?” Callie repeated doubtfully, sure she must look like a deer
in headlights.

  “I know it’s last minute, but I’m sure you can find some trouble to get up to somewhere. And, of course, you’re more than welcome to stay here with us. I just thought—”

  “No!” Callie interrupted quickly. “You’re right! I can definitely find something to do. Thank you for the unexpected time off, Stacy, it’s a real treat!”

  In actuality, Callie could no more come up with spur-of-the-moment plans than she could produce a rabbit from her sunhat. She didn’t have a whole host of girlfriends to call on. Between how busy she had always been with her class and her burning desire to move on to bigger and better things, she hadn’t made time for friends. The only thing she really had going for her in her life these days was being an au pair. That, and preparing herself to make her big move.

  “Are you quite sure?” Stacy asked, looking at Callie with a thoughtful expression.

  Callie could feel herself coloring under the weight of that stare. It made her feel naked, exposed, and left her with a squirmy feeling.

  She put on her best smile, turned it in Stacy’s direction, and nodded her head vigorously. "I'm totally sure!" she said, perhaps bit too enthusiastically, but it was better than sounding gloomy. "I'm going to futz around on the computer for a bit, and then I'm going to head on out. Does that sound all right?"

  “Of course, dear,” Stacy said agreeably enough, although there was still a little knowing something in her eyes that made Callie feel vaguely guilty. “Whatever you like.”

  Callie thanked her, then hurried out of the kitchen, glad to get away. She almost never lied, not to anyone, and the fib she had just told made her feel vaguely sick to her stomach. At the same time, the idea of playing third wheel didn't sit well with her, either. Hovering above it all was the fact that she couldn't think of a single thing to do with herself on a Tuesday night.

  “Come on, silly,” she whispered to herself, “there’s got to be something. Just use your head!”

  Once she got to her bedroom, Callie turned a slow circle, considering her options. All she could think of was the same thing she spent much of her time thinking about. When all else failed, it was time to daydream about her upcoming move.

  “All right,” she said decisively, stretching her fingers and settling down in front of her laptop, “let’s see what there is to see.”

  She powered up her computer and headed directly for Craigslist. Out of all of the zillions of websites so readily available with just the click of a mouse, Craigslist was her absolute favorite. She had always been a big fan of yard sales and resale shops; Craigslist gave her the same feeling, only in a virtual capacity instead of a brick-and-mortar operation. No matter what she might be interested in finding, she had a good chance of finding it there. Sometimes, she even found things she hadn’t realized she would need until they were sitting there in front of her face.

  “Boxes!” she practically shouted to herself in triumph. As soon as the word was out, she clamped her hand over her mouth and looked behind her nervously. She was sure that she had been loud enough that Stacy would appear at her door at any moment, wanting to know what all the fuss was about. Straining to listen, though, she could hear Wendy and Stacy laughing and singing along to oldies as they bopped around the kitchen. Callie sighed with relief and turned her attention back to her screen.

  Why hadn't she considered what it would take for her to move all her stuff to a different city? Sure, she had moved everything from her little apartment to the ranch, but it hadn't exactly been a streamlined process. When the time finally came for her to pick up and go to New York, she wouldn’t have the luxury of taking half a dozen trips to move her things. What she needed to do was start accumulating packing materials so that when it came time to go, she would be ready. As far as she was concerned, nothing was more important than that. The ability to pick up and go, to move to another place unencumbered, gave a person the best kind of freedom.

  She squinted at the listing that had gotten her so excited, ignoring the faint headache settling in due to the glare of the computer screen. The listing that had sparked her interest offered a host of boxes, free if she took the trouble of driving to retrieve them. They were in the next town over, which might have proved a deterrent under different circumstances, but at the moment counted as a plus. It would give her something to do while also moving her closer to her end goal.

  "That's what we call a win-win, children," she said to the empty bedroom.

  Callie grabbed her keys, smiling to herself about the idea of both getting the boxes and finding herself as a person. She had a feeling the second was still a long way from happening. For the time being, she would focus on the boxes and be happy about them.

  “Hey, Stacy, I’m headed out!” she called toward the kitchen. “Do you guys need anything from me before I go? Or while I’m out, for that matter?”

  “No, dear,” Stacy called back, her voice rich with warm laughter, “we’re perfectly fine. Wherever you’re off to, enjoy yourself! We all deserve a little adventure now and again.”

  Smiling to herself, Callie stepped out onto the porch and into the warm night air. She breathed in deeply, reveling in the smell of cedar and rain that had not yet fallen. In her humble opinion, there was no better smell in the world than the Hill Country on a summer night. The seemingly boundless number of stars winking back at her from the sky seemed to nod their agreement, and Callie's throat tightened. As happy as she was to feel she would soon be setting out on her first great adventure, a part of her couldn't help being a little sad. For the first time, it hit her that when she left, she’d have a hole in her heart where her home had once been.

  “Enough,” she whispered to herself, speaking more harshly than she would have spoken to another person. It seemed silly to spend time feeling sorry for herself. Even doing something as mundane as retrieving some free boxes could be an adventure. She just had to look at it the right way.

  Callie managed to hold on to that good feeling until she got to the next town. She didn’t know it well. She had been so sickly as a child that she had rarely traveled. Her parents had been terrified of taking her out the front door, let alone to another town. In their eyes, even a trip that small might as well have been going to the moon.

  “Where am I?" she whispered to herself, peering around with a rising feeling of dread. Not recognizing anything in this unfamiliar town wasn’t what was setting her nerves twanging, but the neighborhood seemed both deserted and menacing at the same time. A little voice in the back of her head was telling her that she had probably gotten the address wrong. The same voice reminded her that, although she was a big fan of Craigslist, more than one crime had been perpetrated through that particular internet medium. To think that what she was doing was without risk could be very dangerous indeed. Nevertheless, when she found the address she was looking for, she parked her car and opened the door. She had one foot out on the concrete when she heard footsteps coming up quickly behind her. Her heart lodged itself in her throat, and for a moment, she was sure she wouldn't be able to stop herself from shouting.

  “Callie? What the devil? Callie, what on earth are you doing here?”

  Callie turned to see, of all people, Finn. She didn’t stop to think about what she did next. She slammed the car door shut and sprinted toward him, throwing her arms around his neck in a vaulting hug.

  Eight

  “I’m going to ask you a favor, although I’m not sure I have any right to.”

  Finn, giving Callie a sideways glance as they walked down the dark street, had to suppress a grin. There were no street lamps, that was true, but there was a big enough moon for him to get the idea that Callie was struggling with an impressive load of embarrassment. He thought that if God were suddenly to turn the lights on, he would have seen her blushing so badly, it would be a wonder her face didn’t catch on fire. Still, when he answered her, he made sure his voice sounded vaguely wounded. No need to make her feel even sillier, assuming a thing like that was possibl
e.

  “Well, that’s not a very good vote of confidence,” he answered, “but go right on ahead, let me have it.”

  "I’m just hoping we can forget all about that hug,” she said, her tone confirming his suspicion that her cheeks were on fire. “I..I was feeling kind of panicky, and I guess I kind of overreacted. It wasn’t very professional of me, I don’t guess.”

  “Please, it’s already forgotten,” Finn assured her, “but I have to say, you’ve got an impressive grip. Don’t think I’ve ever been hugged quite so tightly before.”

  Callie groaned, and Finn lost his self-control. He threw his head back and let out a guffaw, marveling a little at the sound. It had been such a long time since he'd really let a laugh rip, but it seemed to be happening more and more with Callie around. It felt better than good, and he was glad now that she’d unexpectedly shown up near his game.

  “I’m sorry!” Callie said, managing to sound indignant even though she was laughing herself now. “How was I supposed to know I was only two streets away from your baseball game? I wasn’t stalking you, I swear.”

  “No,” he chuckled, “I believe that. You were just offering yourself up to the gods of chance by way of Craigslist. It’s a lucky thing I like to get a warmup in with my walk to the field. Who knows what kind of trouble you would have gotten yourself into?”

  “It’s a strange sort of coincidence,” Callie agreed, continuing, “but I have to say, I’m very glad you were there. And I would be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in seeing this baseball game. It’s so mysterious, you driving to another town to play. Makes the whole thing seem like some big old secret.”

  “Nothing secret about it,” Finn said, although it was his turn to blush this time. “It’s just the only team we could get together. Most of the guys live here, and I don’t mind the drive. Gives me time to clear my head.”