The Housekeeper's Daughter

His father turned his kind gaze on her, too, while they waited for an answer.

“Fine,” she murmured. “I’m just fine.”

“Back not hurting?”

The question sounded so intimate, she felt as if he were making love to her right there at the table. The awful blush started again. “No. Excuse me. I have to be at the Hopechest soon.” She picked up her plate of half-eaten food and fled.

“You didn’t eat much,” her mother noted as soon as Maya entered the kitchen.

“I had plenty. I have to run now, Mom.” She kissed her mother’s cheek. “Love you.”

“Love you,” Inez repeated, her dark eyes checking her over anxiously.

On the drive to the children’s ranch, Maya wished she didn’t have to hurt her parents. They loved her and worried about her, but she just couldn’t admit Drake was the father of her child and that he didn’t want them.

The contents of that note still burned in her heart, making her chest tighten so that she could scarcely breathe whenever she recalled it. His lovemaking had meant nothing. He’d made no promises, not one.

Pushing her troubles into the background, she turned in at the Hopechest Ranch. The kids who lived here had it rough. Compared to them, her life was a piece of cake.

“Hey, Miss Ramirez,” Johnny Collins called, spotting her getting out of her car. He came over to help carry her books and papers.

“Hey, Johnny,” she greeted the fourteen-year-old, one of her favorites. His mother had abandoned him and his father years ago. The boy’s father had taken to drinking and couldn’t keep a job. Johnny had been caught with his hand in the till, so to speak, at a fast-food place where he’d lied about his age and gotten a job. “Did you get through the book I assigned last week?”

“Yeah. I wrote down the words I didn’t know and looked them up after I got through each chapter, like you said. It made reading easier.”

“Good.” They went into the classroom where she privately tutored the kids who were way behind. “I got your test graded. You aced it. Wow!” she exclaimed softly, giving him the praise he deserved.

His dark eyes lit up. She noted the golden flecks in them and thought of Drake’s dark eyes that flashed golden when the light hit them.

“Okay, let’s see your list of words,” she requested when she was at her desk and ready to start.

For the next two hours she worked with Johnny, then a group of students who were further advanced. At three, she rushed home to check on Joe Junior and Teddy and make sure they did their homework correctly. Ms. Meredith was a stickler about that, too.

Drake was in the corral, working with one of the young cow ponies when she arrived. She stood by the car and watched him for a few minutes.

He had a firm touch on the reins and made sure the gelding knew what was expected and performed the task correctly before he went on to something else. He would make a good teacher for the students at the children’s ranch—

Reality check, she interrupted herself. Drake didn’t need her advice on what to do with his life when he grew tired of risking it on daring rescues in places where he could get himself shot on sight. It wasn’t her business.

Just as she turned to head inside, Drake stopped his mount beside the fence. He dipped his head toward her in greeting, then simply watched her, making her think of lunch and the way he had looked at her then. There was an invitation in those dark depths, but she didn’t know what it was an invitation to.

The baby stirred and kicked vigorously as if sensing her agitation. Flustered, she rushed into the house.

Three

“Maya, come with us,” Joe Junior shouted as soon as she stepped in the door. “Drake’s gonna teach us how to rope.”

“Yeah, we’ll be rodeo champions someday!” Teddy said.

“Indoor voices, please,” Maya reminded them, going into her room and storing her book bag before swapping her flats for sneakers. “What about your homework?”

The boys vowed they’d do it before dinner and give up their hour of television if need be.

“Okay.”

“We can?” Joe looked disbelieving, then he let out a whoop, quickly suppressed. He and Teddy took off.

Maya’s heart did a somersault. Drake was good to his younger brothers. He obviously cared for them. They needed love and approbation from someone other than her. Their mother was too unpredictable in her love.

Their father loved them, but there was a sadness in him that Maya thought the youngsters sensed, so they tended to be subdued around him. Besides, Joe was deeply involved with all the other problems in the Coltons’ lives at present—the shootings, the disappearance of Emily.

With Drake, the boys could do “guy” things. The shared companionship was good for all of them, Drake included. The boys touched a soft spot in him. He needed that.

Not that she was concerned with his needs, she reminded herself. Pulling on a jacket, she headed outside to keep an eye on her two charges. Ms. Meredith had made it very plain that she paid Maya to be with the boys and keep them from harm. That meant keeping them within view at all times.

Arriving at the paddock, Maya found Drake had set up two sawhorses with brooms for heads and was showing the boys how to hold their lariats. She couldn’t help but laugh. He turned his intense gaze on her with a quickness that dried up the merriment.

“Your laughter makes the day brighter,” he said.

Maya was aware of the boys looking from one to the other, then at each other. They giggled in the way kids do when grown-ups say funny things.

“Is this right?” Joe asked, directing his brother’s attention to their concerns once more.

Leaning on the fence, Maya watched Drake start the two youngsters close to the sawhorses. Joe, being older, caught on quicker than Teddy. Drake moved him back to ten feet, then worked with Teddy until he got the hang of tossing the rope over the broom.

After an hour, Maya called out, “Ten more minutes, guys.”

“Then what?” Drake asked.

He gave her a sexy once-over that startled her thoughts right out of her head. “Then it’s time for homework,” she said, gathering her wits.

When the boys protested, Drake shushed them. “You have to plan your time carefully to get everything done. That’s what a good SEAL does. You’ve done roping, now it’s time for the next item on the agenda, right, teacher?”

“Uh, right,” she echoed.

“Vamoose!” Drake ordered, then grabbed a sawhorse in each hand and left the paddock.

Joe and Teddy climbed over the fence and dropped to the ground beside Maya. “Drake’s really good,” Joe told her. “He could be a rodeo champion if he wanted.”

“Yeah. That’s what I’m gonna be,” Teddy decided.

Joe gave him a shove. “Ha!”

“I am!”

“Enough, guys. Don’t argue. Discuss—that’s the rule. And don’t touch another person without permission. Joe, ten minutes earlier to bed.”

“Aww,” Joe started to complain.