Page 60 of Her Cowboy Baby Daddy
She put her hand over her abdomen, then abruptly took it away when Henry followed the movement with his gaze.
Surely, he didn’t know.
Of course not. Hayley worked up a smile. “I’m really glad you’re here, Henry. Should we discuss pay now?”
Henry waved a hand. “Just let me help for a few days.”
Hayley gave a slow nod. “All right, Henry. I will.”
*
Minnow Lake wassmaller than Spence remembered, but just as beautiful, looking very much like a blue gem set in a small granite basin. He and his siblings had spent a lot of time camping and fishing at the lake which, although situated on federal land, wasn’t stocked with farmed fish and barely showed up on the map. Few people bothered to visit—but some did, so Spence surveyed the banks from where he’d stopped hiking at the top of the hill leading down to the basin. No sign of life. Just the reflection of the stands of trees that surrounded the lake on three sides, and a few ducks swimming along the periphery.
Cool.
He shifted his backpack and continued down the hill. Reed had dropped him at the end of the road leading to the lake before continuing on to Bozeman with Lex. He’d offered to drive him in, but Spence had preferred to walk, as they’d done when they were kids. Reed would join him later that afternoon with food and beer. In the meantime, Spence would set up the small tent, then fish until his brother showed. He desperately needed to calm his brainwaves after his talk with Hayley the previous evening.
A classic case of wanting what you can’t have.
He wasn’t certain that was one hundred percent true, but he was going with it. Somehow it stung less than admitting that he’d fallen for a woman who didn’t reciprocate. Sending Henry to the Lone Tree in his place had been a stroke of genius. As he’d discussed with Reed the night before, they had a few slack days on the ranch, and Henry had jumped at the chance to make himself useful when Spence approached him with the idea.
It wasn’t like he was going to avoid Hayley. He’d stop by, say goodbye, then as soon as Cade guaranteed him that he’d be the guy staying on the ranch, Spence planned to spend the remainder of the summer on the road. He’d already sent Millie a text, and he fully expected a call when he returned to the ranch, having warned her that he’d have no cellular service for a day or two.
When he arrived at the campsite where Cade and Em had terrorized him and Reed during the night, he pulled in a deep breath of alpine air, smiling at the memory. Was this where Hayley and Bella’s tent had blown away?
Being the largest and nicest place to camp, he imagined it was.
And he also imagined that he was going to have to come up with a way to keep thoughts of Hayley from bombarding his tired brain. Things weren’t going to work out because she wasn’t going to let them. She had a different agenda—a life on her own with a kid. A life where that kid wasn’t threatened by the trauma of a broken relationship, something Hayley had firsthand experience with.
He admired her intentions, but he wished that those intentions weren’t ruining him like they were.
He wasn’t even going to get a shot.
*
“So you see,I can’t live with Thalia.”
Hayley leaned on the posthole digger while Henry loosened the soil at the bottom of the shallow hole with a heavy bar, giving a small grunt every time the heavy bar struck home. This was going to take time, but they couldn’t get the tractor and auger to this part of the hill, and that meant digging the holes in the rocky ground by hand.
Hayley and Henry were close to the same size and, while he was in remarkable shape, she was beginning to think that she should have handled weed control with Connor and sent muscular Ash with Henry. But she hadn’t, and the plus side of the marathon hole-digging process was that she was getting to know Henry.
Henry’s daughter, who lived close to Browning, had a full house—grown children, grandchildren, a few assorted nieces and nephews. She wanted Henry to move in with them, but he wasn’t so sure that was a good idea.
“I mean,” Henry said, as Hayley began removing loose debris from the hole with the posthole digger, “she has a big house and all, and everyone seems really happy. They all have jobs and are pulling their weight, but... a guy can’t live like I have for forty years, then suddenly move into a... group.” He leaned on the bar. “I like my solitude in the evenings. And the mornings. I also like to keep busy.”
“No hobbies?” Hayley dumped a load of dirt on the pile next to her boots, then stabbed the diggers back into the hole.
“Why would I want a hobby? I love taking care of the ranch.”
“Then why did you say you were going to retire?” Hayley stepped back to let Henry have his turn at the hole.
“I dunno.” Henry stabbed the bar deep, brought it up, and stabbed again.
“Just... thought it was the thing to do?” she asked.
“I announced on my seventieth birthday, and yes, I thought it was the thing to do. I figured out pretty soon that it wasn’t.”
“Daniel will probably let you keep living on the ranch if you don’t want to go to Thalia’s place.”
