Page 6 of A Baby for the Billionaire Cowboy

Aunt Rhonda escorted her to the door. When she returned, she grinned. “Well. It’s not quite what I hoped for, but I knew that was a long shot. At least you’ll get in there and have a chance to impress the boy. You might land a Tomlinson yet.”

Daisy smiled back. She wouldn’t argue with her aunt, but she didn’t care about landing anyone. She was simply happy to have a job. Last Stand would be her fresh start. She’d work hard, keep her head down, and be as little trouble as possible.

Chapter Three

Xander drove homewith a box of rabbits. He didn’t need more rabbits. He didn’t particularly want more rabbits, except insofar as he liked them and always welcomed new ones. But he really wished people would be more careful about putting rabbits together when they weren’t one hundred percent certain of the sexes. Otherwise they wound up with extra rabbits and had to find homes for them. The 4-H kids only needed so many rabbits in a given year. So Xander now had another six rabbits barely old enough to leave their mother.

He put the box on the porch so he could use the number pad on the lock. They’d installed it after it became clear that certain family members weren’t going to overcome years of habit and learn to lock the door.

The door opened before he got the numbers in. “There you are,” Mama said. “Come and meet Daisy.”

“What?” He picked up the box and carried it inside.

A young woman sat at the big table. She turned sideways, put one hand on the table and the other on the back of her chair, and stood. Her pregnant belly explained why she’d needed the extra support getting up.

Xander quickly put down the box. He would’ve told the woman not to get up, but it was too late now. She smiled warmly and held out a hand. He stared at it for a second. How clean were his hands? Was there any danger in transmitting something if he’d been handling the rabbits?

Her fingers curled and she looked confused, or maybe upset. Women didn’t shake hands as often as men did, but when one offered, a gentleman responded in kind. He didn’t want to insult her by refusing.

He grabbed her hand and squeezed gently. “Hello. It’s nice to meet you.”

She opened her mouth. Then she closed it again and frowned. Finally she said, “Nice to meet you too.”

She was short and plump, pregnant plump anyway, with rounded cheeks and full breasts and hips to go with the belly. She wore her hair pulled back in a snug ponytail and had a very pretty smile that reminded him of someone.

“Daisy will be working for us,” Mama said.

Daisy was a good name for her. She seemed somehow both delicate and sturdy, down to earth and not exactly beautiful, but with a shy warmth.

“That’s nice,” Xander said.

She bit her lip and glanced down at the box where little bundles of brown and gray fur wriggled. “Oh!”

He shrugged at his mama. “More bunnies.”

Daisy slowly crouched down, one hand on the wall and one on her thigh as she lowered herself. Xander hovered, wanting to help, but he wasn’t about to grab a pregnant woman without her permission.

She stared into the box. “Aren’t they sweet? They look so soft.”

“Yes.” Should he tell her she could hold one? Would it be safe? He had a lot of experience with pregnant animals, but not with pregnant humans. Of course, humans were animals, but they seemed to need a lot more help with pregnancy. Human babies had those big skulls to hold their big brains.

Mama covered a yawn. “Goodness, I’m still not on the correct time.”

“It takes a day to adjust for every hour of difference in time zone. That means you’ll need about a week to get back on Central Time.” Xander had never really traveled beyond driving to farm expos around Texas or nearby states, but he’d helped Mama research her trip.

“I was telling Daisy how we run the ranch and the family foundation,” Mama said. “I know y’all got behind on some of the paperwork while I was gone, so I figured I’d hire someone instead of having to catch up myself.” She helped Daisy stand. “Xander, why don’t you take those rabbits wherever you’re going to put them, and then you can get Daisy started.”

Get started with what? Yes, they had some paperwork backed up, but nothing he and Mama couldn’t handle between them in a few days. Carly was working on the family fund almost full-time now and supervising the accountants and financial advisors. Xander and Mama mainly handled the ranch accounts, which he’d been doing for years, although Xander had extra ranch chores now that TC had moved out to his own place.

But maybe Mama didn’t want to do the paperwork anymore. She’d just returned from her first vacation in... well, her whole life, as far as Xander knew, other than an occasional weekend away and maybe a honeymoon thirty-five years before. She might have decided it was time to retire.

Xander picked up the box and carried it to his room. He’d keep these rabbits in quarantine before mixing them with the others, girls and boys in separate pens until they got spayed or neutered.

Mama murmured something to Daisy before following Xander down the hall.

“Mama, before I forget, I’m trying to schedule a meeting with a geologist about the windmills. I found a man who’s semi-retired but still does short contract jobs, and he’s supposed to be really good with mapping.”

“Okay. Put it on the shared calendar.” She glanced back down the hall and lowered her voice. “I want you to take good care of Daisy. I’m sure you’ve noticed she’s pregnant, and I gather she hasn’t been treated real well and doesn’t have much of a family to count on.”

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