A Family for the Rugged Rancher - Sample

Chapter Two

Luke tried to keep his body relaxed as he held open the screen door, but Emily Northcott was making it difficult. Whatever she had put on for perfume that morning teased his nostrils. It was light and pretty, just like her. Her short hair was the colour of mink and curled haphazardly around her face, like the kind magazine cover models had that was meant to look deliberately casual. And she had the biggest brown eyes he'd ever seen, fringed with thick dark lashes.

When he'd first advertised for a housekeeper, Emily was not who he'd had in mind. He'd figured on someone local, someone, well, older to answer his ad. A motherly figure with graying hair and definitely not looking like Emily. Someone who lived nearby who could arrive in the morning and leave again at dinner time. But when his local ads had gone unanswered week after week, he'd put Cait on the job. She'd been getting so clucky and meddling as her pregnancy progressed. He'd thought it would be a good project for her and would keep her out of his hair. It was only the promise of getting outside help that had ceased her constant baking and fussing over the house. Not that he didn't need the help. He did, desperately. But having Cait underfoot all the time had been driving him crazy.

Maid on Demand had seemed like the perfect solution, anonymous and impersonal. Except now he'd ended up worse off than ever—with a beautiful woman with a family of her own, twenty-four-seven.

He should have said no, flat out.

He'd be a bald-faced liar if he said Emily Northcott wasn't the prettiest woman to pass through his door in months. Just the scent of her put him on alert. Not that he was in the market for a girlfriend. But he was human, after all.

But what could he say? No, you can't stay because you're too pretty? Because you're too young? She couldn't be more than thirty. And then there was her son. How could he turn her away for that reason either? He'd have to be a cold-hearted bastard to use that against her. So far, the boy had hardly made a peep. And it was only for a few months, after all. Once things wound down later in the fall, he'd be better able to handle things on his own.

"Have a look around," he suggested, as the screen door slapped shut behind them. "I'm going to wash up. I've had my hands inside the baler for the better part of the afternoon. Then I'll give you the nickel tour."

He left her standing in the entry hall while he went to the kitchen and turned on the tap. The whole idea of hiring help was to make his summer easier, not add more responsibility to it. But that was exactly how it was felt. If she stayed, it meant two extra bodies to provide for over the next few months. Twice as many mouths to feed than he'd expected. And having that sort of responsibility—whether real or implied—was something he never wanted to do again. He liked his life simple and plain and uncomplicated. Or at least as uncomplicated as it could be considering the family circumstances.

He scrubbed the grease from his hands with the pumice paste, taking a nail brush and relentlessly applying it to his nails. The plain truth was that not one soul had applied for the job—not even a teenager looking for summer work. Cait had put the listing with the agency nearly three weeks ago. Things were in full swing now and he needed the help. Luke was already working sun up to sundown. The house was falling behind, and he was tired of eating a dry sandwich when he came in at the end of the day. He was barely keeping up with the laundry, putting a load in when he was falling-down-tired at night.

They could stay as long as it meant they stayed out of his way. He didn't have time for babysitting along with everything else.

When he returned from the kitchen, Emily was in the living room on the right, her fingertips running over the top of an old radio and record player that had long ceased working and now held a selection of family photos on its wooden cover. His heart contracted briefly, seeing her gentle hands on the heirloom, but he pushed the feeling aside and cleared his throat. "You ready?"