Page 100 of A Rancher's Heart
Fine. She’d take this back to where she knew they were in one hundred percent agreement. The girls.
“I don’t think it’s a great idea to drop a bomb like that. They like me plenty at the moment, but I’m their nanny. If you simply announce we’re together, they might get all scared that mothers are different than nannies, and they need to know that I’m stillme, and not the title behind my name. That things aren’t going to go back to how they were with Wendy.”
He nodded, shifting back on the bed. “Ideas?”
“We go slow.” For his sake as well. Maybe a bit of time would be enough for him to figure out what he’d missed in that lame-ass excuse for a proposal. “Give it another month or so. Switch things up around Valentine’s Day.”
Hint, hint.
He nodded, but she could tell he wasn’t happy with the idea.
“We can sneak away sometimes to be together,” she suggested.
“I thought you wanted to keep this quiet. No way that’s happening if we’re caught sneaking around.”
“It’s all I’ve got,” she said.
He kissed her, hard. Demanding a response, and before he left her bed she was once again a wet noodle, sated and happy.
But he left the room as well, taking his clothes with him, and she stared at the closed door and wondered how long it was going to take to break through those final barriers. Wendy had hurt the girls, but she’d done a number on Caleb as well. It might take a while for them to finish the healing process.
Tamara did the next thing. She got up and made cookies. A triple batch, so she’d have extra to send home with whoever dropped off the girls. Then she retreated into the office to finish updating, using the information she’d gotten from Caleb during the ride home.
Dealing with the financial side of things was a distraction of a whole different sort. Caleb’s comment when he’d asked her to take over the task came back to her—that he’d probably hire a bookkeeper only to find out there wasn’t enough money to keep them on.
After an hour with the paperwork, she had to agree. Silver Stone was going to have to batten down the hatches. Nothing terrible, at least not yet, but when she compared this year’s bills summary with previous, expenses were up and income down just enough to make keeping in the black uncomfortable.
A knock on the door to the office brought her gaze up to meet Walker’s. She waved him in. “What’s up?”
He strolled in, glancing around the room. “Wow, you cleaned up the hurricane damage.”
“It wasn’t quite that bad, but yeah. There’s a floor. Who knew?”
He turned a grin on her. “Hey, Caleb forgot his phone. Wanted you to know when the girls arrive, bring them to the barns. He’ll be working with Josiah.”
“Sounds good.” She eyed him. “I enjoyed your Christmas present, by the way. You’re good.”
A flush hit his cheeks. “Thanks.”
“You planning on doing anything more with your music? That was a demo tape, right?”
For a grown man Walker was suddenly fidgeting like a kid. “Sort of. Just a decent recording a friend made. I don’t know—getting into the music industry is pretty time consuming, and so’s rodeoing. It’s probably not a good idea to try and do it all. I’ve got Silver Stone to help take care of, as well.”
“No reason you can’t make an attempt. The ranch will be here. You know your brothers wouldn’t want you to give up on a dream because you felt obligated to hang around.”
He dipped his chin. “Don’t know if it is my dream, or something I fell into. Still figuring that part out. What’s important, what’s just fun. What my goals are long term. You know, the tough decisions.”
Yeah, she could appreciate the difficulties more than he probably guessed. “Well, I hope you have fun while you’re deciding.”
“No problem there. I always have fun.” He tipped his hat then left the room, and she got back to work.
But she was waiting on the front porch when one of her family’s trucks pulled into the yard. Tamara admitted it—she’d missed the girls. As much as she’d enjoyed time alone with their daddy, the sensation of happiness welling in her belly as Sasha and Emma dropped from the truck and raced toward her was strong and addictive.
Lisa strolled forward, basket in hands. “Hey, is this the right place? I’m looking for the Heart Falls Zoo. I’ve got two monkeys for delivery.”
Sasha stopped short of throwing herself into Tamara’s arms, twisting to offer Lisa ahah, hah, very funnyexpression. “I amnota monkey.”
“Lion? Tiger?” Lisa let her eyes get big and wide. “Was I transporting dinosaurs without a permit? I’m glad I didn’t get stopped by the RCMP.”
