Page 10 of Her Cowboy Baby Daddy
The message had been waiting on her answering machine when Hayley got home. She’d called the Keller Ranch, spoke to Reed, who wasn’t forthcoming with details, then agreed to meet Spence that afternoon. She was mystified. What on earth did Spence want to discuss with her? Try as she might, she couldn’t come up with anything. Did it have something to do with her telling him that he’d never thanked her properly?
She should have lied and said, “Of course you thanked me.”
But he hadn’t, and she was surprised that it still kind of dug at her. She hadn’t liked being invisible, even if she’d been the one to make herself that way, which was why she was the opposite of invisibility now. She wore her red hair loose instead of tightly confined in braids and twists, and wore bright colors, even if those colors sometimes clashed with her hair. Red and purple were a thing, right? When people looked at her, she looked back without ducking her head, and felt good about it.
She’d overcome shyness—at least to the point where she could fake it if she did suffer an attack—but she was still a little edgy about Spence Keller’s upcoming visit. Why?
Probably because she could still recall how he had looked and smelled and filled the cab of her small truck with his presence as they roared down the highway leading to Big Sky for the championship basketball game. Remembered feeling things that she’d never experienced before.
He was your first.
Hayley gave a soft laugh at the ridiculous thought, but in a way, it was true. He was the first guy who’d ever made her feelthatway. A heady mix of lust and longing and forbidden fruit. She hadn’t been confident enough back then to make the first move, but now...
Now she didn’t need to. She knew what she wanted. Two bad relationships in a row had cured her of the need for a partner thing—a lesson her mother never learned. Hayley loved her mother, but she didn’t understand her, and she didn’t want to mirror her life. On the rare occasion where Reba did not do the dumping, she’d been able to pick herself up and move on as if nothing had happened.
Hayley envied her mother that ability.
You have your own talents.
She did, at that. And she was happy living on her ranch, planning her future, and being her own boss. What more did she need?
*
Lone Tree Ranchwas a welcoming place, from the whimsical HOWDYsign on the big gate at the cattle guard to the neatly cultivated garden. The Keller Ranch was well maintained, but the Lone Tree had those little touches that made the place seem well cared for and loved. Spence wasn’t certain how many people Hayley had working for her, or even what the ranch had looked like before she’d taken over, but he was nevertheless impressed.
He caught a movement in the fenced garden next to the house—it looked like she had three or four gardens—and then Hayley stood and stretched her back before turning at the sound of his truck.
Her long red hair was caught in a loose ponytail, which was partially covered by the hat resting on her back and hanging from a string around her neck. She pushed wispy tendrils of hair back from her forehead as he got out of his truck, then she headed to the garden gate, the little dog dancing at her feet.
“Hi, again,” Spence said as he approached the garden, the manila folder with the lease information in one hand. A small rototiller, meant to cultivate between rows, stood near the gate, having obviously just been used.
Hayley tossed a handful of rocks onto the driveway. “Hi,” she said, taking off her gloves and jamming the tops into her back pocket. Her gaze strayed briefly to the folder he carried, before coming back to his face. “I’m getting ready to plant. Every year I think I have all the rocks out of the bed and every year I find more.”
“Frost heaves.” Spence looked past the area where she’d been working to the two identically fenced areas. “You have a lot of gardens.”
“Two vegetable, one flower,” she said. “And the greenhouse.”
“Where?”
“Behind the barn. It’s new this year. Well, this week actually. I’m pretty excited.”
“You must really be into fresh food.”
“And farmer’s markets.”
“Yeah?”
“I was a regular in Livingston, but this year, Marietta is starting their own market, so I’ll be participating there instead.”
“It’s a little closer.”
“And I have friends there.”
“Can I see your greenhouse?”
He was buying a little time before getting down to business, but truth be told, he was curious. His mom had talked about getting a greenhouse, but most of her spare time—not that she had a lot—went toward documenting the history of the ranch and the Kellers in the area. That was how Trenna Hunt came into the picture, since archival work was her specialty, and that was how his brother became engaged to the daughter of their family’s greatest pain in the ass. Carter Hunt did not approve, but his daughter simply did not care. She loved Reed. Full stop.
What would that be like?
