Page 5 of A Baby for the Billionaire Cowboy

“That still leaves Xander,” Rhonda said triumphantly. “He’s a little odd, but he’d make a good husband.”

“I’m sure he would,” Ava said dryly.

“He’s hardly dated, as far as anyone in town knows.” Rhonda frowned. “I suppose he does like girls?”

“As I said, I don’t interfere in my sons’ relationships.” Ava’s lips still curved in a smile, but the set of her chin suggested she wasn’t as soft inside as she might appear from the outside.

“If he’s a bit peculiar, that only means he’d probably be happy for us to find him a girl,” Rhonda went on. “And he’s twenty-five, an entirely appropriate age for Daisy Mae. Old enough to be ready to settle down and be a steadying influence, but not so old that he’s set in his ways. And of course he has plenty of money to take care of Daisy and the child. It seems only fair that some of the lottery money goes to help my family.”

“Have you been enjoying the weekly cleaning service I got you last Christmas?” Ava asked.

Daisy’s face burned. It was bad enough that her aunt was trying to set her up with anyone. Worse that she was targeting the family that had won a huge lottery. By all accounts, the brothers were handsome and hard-working as well as rich, so they could have any single woman they wanted, and probably a number of the married ones. What would one of them see in plain old Daisy under normal circumstances, let alone when she was pregnant?

She forced herself to meet Ava’s gaze, hoping the woman would see how uncomfortable this made her and not blame Daisy for the idea. To her surprise, Ava’s eyes danced with laughter.

Daisy managed to smile back. “What I really want is a job. I’ve imposed on my aunt long enough.” Meaning she’d had about all she could take of Auntie Rhonda. “I’d really like to be able to take care of myself, and the baby, of course, when it comes.”

She wasn’t sure she’d keep the baby, but it had started kicking, making it somehow more real. If she wanted to give the baby up for adoption, she should be looking into that already, and she hadn’t been. Maybe part of her already knew the answer, but the thought of living here with Auntie Rhonda while she tried to raise a child... Daisy didn’t even want to imagine it. She’d rather give up the baby and join a nunnery, and she wasn’t even Catholic.

“I’ve put in some job applications, but they take one look at this”—Daisy gestured at her bulging belly—“and I can see they’re not going to hire me. The closest I got was a job as a bagger at the grocery store. They said if I started there, I could work my way up to checker and maybe eventually management. I bagged for two weeks, but then I found out the checkers aren’t allowed to sit down while they work, and I didn’t think I could handle that in my current state. Anyway, I’d have to wait until one of the current checkers quit, and they’ve all been there for years, and none of them have been made managers.”

Rhonda sniffed. “I told you that manager was leading you on. All the checkers are women, and all the managers are men. That should tell you everything you need to know.”

Daisy shrugged. “I didn’t have a lot of options.”

“You know you’re welcome to stay here as long as you need.” Rhonda reached over to pat Daisy’s hand. “Long as I got a biscuit, you got half.”

Daisy gave her aunt a grateful smile, because she’d be in so much trouble without Rhonda’s help. Still, she didn’t know how much more she could take. Rhonda monitored everything Daisy put in her mouth and made sure she followed every little piece of advice for pregnant women, even as she admitted that “back in her day” she drank beer and caffeine while pregnant, ate deli meat, and cleaned the cat’s litter box, but “of course women were tougher back then.” So Rhonda read up on everything anyone said pregnant women should or shouldn’t do and made sure Daisy did or didn’t do it.

The attention was thoughtful and generous, and pretty soon Daisy would run screaming from the house. Or worse, be tempted to go back to William, because he might boss her around too, but at least it would make a change from the last three months, which felt more like three years.

“You know, I think I can help,” Ava said.

Rhonda’s eyes lit with triumph. Daisy imagined being dragged to the courthouse and forced to marry this peculiar man who apparently couldn’t get a date on his own. Talk about jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Well, they couldn’tmakeher do anything.

“You can come work for me,” Ava said. “We could use a good administrative assistant, especially since I’ve been gone and the work has piled up.”

“Really?” Daisy was tempted to fall to her knees in thanks, but it would be so hard to get back up again.

Rhonda gave a little grunt of annoyance.

“You can start right away, on a trial basis,” Ava said. “If it works out, and you like the work, we can talk about a permanent position.”

Daisy would make sure it worked out. She’d be the best employee ever, even if it meant working through the last months of pregnancy and figuring out how to nurse a newborn while employed.

“You know,” Ava said, “we don’t always work normal hours. It’s a family business, so sometimes we wind up meeting in the evenings, after the boys are done with their ranch work.”

“That’s fine.” It wasn’t ideal, but maybe they’d pay her extra for the odd hours. How long would it take her to save up enough money to move into an apartment? A few months at least. She could survive that, as long as she saw hope at the end.

“We have empty rooms at the house with most of my sons gone,” Ava went on. “They’ve built a new office on the property. It would be awfully convenient if you lived right there, so you could be available as needed, and you’d only have to walk fifty feet from home to work. What do you say to room and board along with a small salary?”

Daisy felt like the heavens had opened up and angels were singing. “I say yes and thank you and I promise you won’t regret it. I’ll work really hard.” And now she was going to cry. Darn pregnancy hormones.

“Oh, sweetheart.” Ava’s smile was gentle. “I’ve been pregnant four times. I’m sure you can do a lot, if you have to, but don’t wear yourself out. You just need to tell us when you’re struggling and what you need.”

Tell people she was struggling? Ask for what she needed? Daisy was tempted to agree to anything, but if she was going to be living and working with this woman, she didn’t want to start off by being untruthful. “I’ll try, but I’m not sure I’m very good at that.”

“Well, we’ll give you some practice.” Ava stood. “Come out tomorrow morning, and we’ll sort out some details.” She yawned. “Make it ten a.m. I’m not back on Texas time yet.”

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