A Baby in the Bunkhouse (16 page)

 

I
T TOOK
J
ACEY FOREVER
to get Caitlin rocked to sleep that evening. Part of it was the excitement in the bunkhouse. The men had outdone themselves, trying to get her baby girl to smile and coo and bat her long lashes at them. And Caitlin had proved herself up to the challenge as she basked in the adoration of the cowboys.

Caitlin was so
used
to being entertained for long periods every evening and first thing every morning, in fact, that Jacey wondered how her daughter was going to react when she didn't have an admiring coterie of males, ready to grant her very wish.

Just as Jacey wondered how she would react when Rafferty was no longer available to pay her the attention
she
couldn't seem to do without.

But, Jacey sighed, that was not her most pressing problem tonight….

“Something wrong?” a low male voice reverberated in the open doorway to Jacey's bedroom.

Heart racing at the familiar sound, Jacey looked up from where she sat cross-legged in the center of her bed, laptop computer in front of her. “You might say that.”

Rafferty ambled closer. She shoved aside the memory of his naked form stretched out next to hers, in this very bed. She did not need to be thinking about warm male skin and evocative lips and hands when she had a fast-approaching deadline to meet and online commerce to arrange. It wasn't like her to be so behind on her shopping. But then, normally, she didn't have a man like Rafferty distracting her.

“Maybe I can help,” he said casually.

She regarded him facetiously and quipped, “That all depends. Can you make a garlic press, a corn stripper, an olive pitter, an avocado slicer and a lemon and lime squeezer magically appear?”

Finally, she'd thrown him off his game.

He blinked. “A…what?”

Jacey patted the mattress beside her, indicating he was welcome to sit down if he wanted. “I finally figured out what I want to get my sister for Christmas.”

“Ah.” The mattress shifted as it accepted his weight. “All the stuff you just mentioned.”

“Right.” Jacey pushed away another onslaught of erotic memory. “The problem is, those things are generally only carried by specialty stores. It's no problem to find a kitchen boutique in the city—they're all over the place—but the closest ones to this ranch are in towns that are at least four hours away.”

“I see your problem,” he said.

Jacey drew a deep, bracing breath. “So, I went online and tried to order them from the Web sites of the two biggest stores in the country, and guess what, they're out of stock until February.”

“You could always give her an I.O.U. and a card.”

“No. I am determined to track down what I need and make this work.”

A wail went up from the adjoining bedroom.

Jacey sighed. “I just put Caitlin down fifteen minutes ago. She's been fed and changed and bathed and rocked.”

Times like this—although admittedly few and far between thus far—made her wonder how she was going to manage on her own.

Thankfully, Rafferty seemed to understand even the most devoted mommy occasionally needed backup. “Want me to get her?” he asked gently.

Trying not to think how wonderful it would be to have Rafferty as Caitlin's daddy, instead of just her lover, Jacey took comfort in his presence instead. “Would you mind walking her around a little bit and just patting her on the back until I finish this?”

 

R
AFFERTY HAD
, in fact, been hoping he would be asked to hang out with Jacey and Caitlin for the evening. “No problem,” he said.

When he came back with Caitlin snuggled contentedly in his arms, Jacey was on her cell phone, talking to a clerk. She had a pencil stuck in her dark hair, just next to her ponytail, a determined expression on her face.

As usual in the evenings, she had changed her nicer clothing for a pair of black jersey lounge pants and a button-up, long-sleeved T-shirt, worn open at the throat. Her feet were encased in cozy wool socks that coordinated with the red of her shirt and the black of her pants. “Okay, I'll hold, thanks.” She stretched out her legs on either side of the computer and wiggled her toes. “The Kitchen Things store in El Paso is going to see if they have any of the items in stock.”

While Rafferty tried not to notice the sexy V of her legs, she went back to listening. “You do, really? Three of them? Thank you…! Any idea who would be most likely to have the rest?” Totally caught up in what she was doing, Jacey grabbed her paper and pen.

Forty-five minutes later, Caitlin was asleep on Rafferty's shoulder, and Jacey was finally done with her shopping.

Cheeks flushed with victory, she pantomimed she was ready for her baby.

Rafferty wished he didn't have to give up the child. He could have held and comforted her forever. But he knew it was important to get the infant settled while she was still deep in sleep, if they didn't want Caitlin to wake again.

A transfer was made, with only slight difficulty. Rafferty watched, his heart full, as Jacey carried the softly snoozing infant back to the nursery and tucked her in once again.

Returning, Jacey did a little Snoopy dance. “I got Mindy everything she's wanted for a long time. All I have to do is drop by the customer-service desks of three different kitchenware stores when I get to El Paso on the twenty-seventh, pick them up, take them back to her place and wrap them.”

This, Rafferty thought, was what exasperated him about knickknacks in general and the holidays in particular. “That's a lot to go through for a lemon and lime squeezer.”

Jacey wrinkled her nose at him and took down her hair. “Clearly, you do not understand the value of specialty kitchen tools,” she accused, running her fingers through her hair.

Rafferty tore his gaze from the silky strands falling across her shoulders. “Okay, explain it,” he commanded.

Oblivious of the effect she was having on him, Jacey went back to the bed and shifted her computer onto her lap. She scrolled back to a photo as she talked. “The corn stripper takes the kernels off quick as you please and the kernels stay inside the little compartment instead of flying all over the place.”

Rafferty tried, but could not be impressed.

She sighed and rolled her eyes in humorous derision. “Clearly, you've never tried to cut corn off the cob.”

Rafferty spread his hands and sauntered closer, glad for another chance to tease her. He liked seeing the playful light come back into her emerald eyes. “Why do that if you can pick it up and eat it right off the cob?”

“Because if you want to cook with fresh corn kernels you have to cut them off the cob first, and it is a messy and difficult job,” she explained.

“Oh.”

“Same with pitting olives. And the same tool for that can also be used on cherries.”

“That's good to know.”

She tilted her head, apparently realizing she was not preaching to the choir. “You don't care.”

Rafferty shrugged. “I like to see you happy.”

Jacey stood and came closer, in a drift of baby-clean scent. “The thing is,” she said even more seriously, “tools like that belong in every kitchen.”

“Did you check with Callahan Mercantile and Feed in Summit? They're the biggest retailer around and carry a lot of specialty items.”

“For camping and ranching. Not cooking.”

“Ah.”

“Hannah—the proprietress—was very helpful, though. She told me she has the same problem whenever she needs something not carried around here.”

“Maybe you should open a kitchenware and cookbook shop in town then.”

“Believe me, I would love to do that, but I can't take on a risky venture like that, now that I have Caitlin to care for.”

“Maybe it's not as much of a risk as you think, given how hard it is to find anything like what you've described.”

Her eyes clouded over. “I know it's a good idea.”

“But…?”

“I'm just not comfortable with putting everything on the line like that financially, not when I have a baby counting on me to support us.”

 

R
AFFERTY SPENT
a restless night and awakened feeling as if he got up on the wrong side of the bed. His mood was not improved by the increasing merriment in the bunkhouse. There was Christmas music playing on the stereo in the main room at 7:00 a.m. Lights twinkling on the tree. Laughter, good cheer and pancakes in the shape of
reindeer.
Not quite the ambience he would have expected, given that the ranch was soon going to be losing the best thing that had ever happened to it. Unless he figured out how to make Jacey happy enough to stay on.

Meanwhile, the cowboys were busy with some sort of plan of their own. Stretch took the lead, announcing as soon as the dishes were done, “Uh, Jacey, we, uh, need your station wagon for the next day or two, depending.”

“On what?” Jacey asked.

“Santa Claus,” Curly quipped. “Seems like he might need a little head start this year.”

“Now you've really got me curious,” Jacey said with a smile.

“Well, don't be too curious,” Gabby warned, “because we all want you to be surprised.”

“Any idea what they're up to?” Jacey asked Rafferty after the bunkhouse emptied out, and it was just him and her and the baby once again.

“None.” Except he was sure it was some way to induce her to stay on as ranch chef.

She threw a blanket over her shoulder and sat down to nurse. “Any guesses then?”

Rafferty shrugged. It had never bothered him to be left out of Christmas preparations. Until now. “They might be having your station wagon detailed for you.”

She bit her lip, thinking. “But it would just get dusty again when they were driving it back here.”

“Good point.”

“So what could it be?” Jacey wondered, mystified.

Rafferty did not know. What he did realize was how excited Jacey was getting at the thought of receiving a Christmas present from the guys. And that, in turn, left him in the ditch, because he had no idea what he should get her. Casually, he turned a chair around and sank into it backward. Folding his arms across the top, he said, “I was thinking I'd like to get Caitlin a gift.” He figured that was a good place to start.

Jacey's eyes sparkled. “Would that be you, Rafferty Evans,
participating in Christmas?
”

She had to know she was wearing him down with her nonstop holiday cheer. He feigned nonchalance. “It could be a happy-you're-seven-weeks-old-and-doing-so-well-kind-of-gift.”

“Mmm, hmm.” She did not look convinced.

Self-consciously, he tried again. “So what do you think she might like?” He really wanted to do this right.

“A play gym.”

Rafferty paused. “To climb on outside?”

Jacey shifted the baby to her other breast, the blanket covering her slipping only slightly. “No. It's a quilted mat that you put on the floor, and it has these contraptions that go up in the air, over the baby, with toys hanging down that the baby can watch and touch. She may be a tad young for it, but I'd really like her to have one.”

“What does she need?”

“Isn't that enough?”

Rafferty shrugged, not sure he could explain how important it was to him that Jacey and Caitlin not want for anything. “My dad and the fellas might want to get her something, too,” he fibbed.

“I think they already have, Rafferty.”

Once again, beaten to the punch.

“But thank you for thinking of my baby girl. I appreciate it.”

Silence fell. Aware all over again just how empty his life had been up to now, Rafferty asked, “Do you have plans for the day?”

“Yes,” Jacey said mysteriously. “I do.”

Longing welled inside him. “Want to share them?”

Jacey shook her head. “It's a secret.”

 

“W
HAT PUT A THORN
in your paw?” Eli asked two hours later.

Rafferty paced the halls of the ranch house. Today being one of the days he had ascribed to compensation time off for the hired hands, he had hoped to spend it with Jacey and Caitlin.

Instead, she had run off to heaven knows where—taking his dad's pickup and her baby—while he was left here, trying to fill the empty hours by working on the spring sale catalog.

Meanwhile…even his father seemed to have gotten in the spirit. Eli was in the kitchen, singing Christmas carols, while clumsily wrapping presents he had bought for everyone on the ranch.

Rafferty examined the talking teddy bear his father had purchased for Caitlin. It was really cute. “That apron for Jacey?” Blue denim, it had Best Chef in Texas embroidered across the front.