Having The Cowboy's Baby

“Forget the Mr. Sanchez thing. I know him by Cordero.” Grinning broadly, Jules extended his hand. “Glad you’re finally here, son. Thank you for coming.”

Cordero walked over to Jules and gave the older man’s hand a firm shake. “No thanks necessary. I just hope you’re feeling better.”

Jules batted a hand at the air in a dismissive gesture. “Oh, it’s nothing really. I think the doctor’s have decided they can’t kill me with the stuff they’ve been making me swallow so they’re trying something new.”

Anne-Marie rolled her eyes and groaned. “Oh, Father, don’t make a joke about your health.”

Jules shot Cordero a conspiring wink before he said to his daughter. “Honey, we’re all mortal. It’s not something we can change or buy our way out of. When my time comes, nothing, especially all this fretting you’re doing, will stop it and neither can these know-it-all doctors. The best a person can do is to have fun until you reach that time.”

“Jules, I couldn’t have said that any better,” Cordero replied with a grin.

His blue eyes twinkling, Jules cast his daughter a smug smile. “See, my young friend knows a little about life.” He gave Cordero an appreciative look. “I want to thank you again for all the trouble you’ve taken by bringing my horses home. How did they make the trip?”

“Fine, Jules. No problems. We put them in the round pen for tonight so they could get a little exercise. Were you planning to keep them stalled or put them out to pasture?”

Jules looked at his daughter with mild surprise. “You didn’t show him the trap?”

Anne-Marie looked as though she wanted to sigh with frustration. Maybe the two of them had quarreled openly about the purchase of the horses. She’d already admitted that she wasn’t keen on Jules’s idea that she should ride competitively. The last thing Cordero wanted was to get in the middle of a family squabble.

“No,” she said. “I didn’t go into all of that. Mr. Sanchez, uh, Cordero arrived rather late. I’ll show him the area tomorrow and see if he thinks it will be adequate. She looked at Cordero and quickly explained. “The trap Father is talking about is a small, two-acre pasture not far from the stables.”

Cordero nodded. “I’ll look it over before I leave tomorrow.”

Jules began to splutter. “Leave? You’re not planning on leaving tomorrow, are you?”

Trying not to feel guilty, Cordero said, “Well, yes. Now that you’re laid up in the hospital, we can’t go to that horse sale up in Bossier City or do the other things we’d planned to do. I need to get out of the way and let you get well.”

His lips compressed with disapproval, Jules motioned for Anne-Marie to fetch the empty plastic chair sitting near the head of the bed. “Get our guest a seat,” he said.

Cordero grabbed the chair before Anne-Marie could do the old man’s bidding. But rather than taking the chair for himself, he took her by the arm and urged her onto the seat. “I’m fine standing. You sit, Anne-Marie.”

While she murmured her thanks and made herself comfortable, he straightened to his full height. Jules was regarding him in a thoughtful, almost conspiring way.

“All right, Cordero. Now what’s all this talk about leaving tomorrow? I know this hospital thing has thrown a few kinks in our plans but there’s no need for you to cut your visit short. Even though I can’t get out and about, Anne-Marie can. In fact, this may be the perfect time for you to help my daughter get accustomed to being back in the saddle.”

From the corner of his eye Cordero could see Anne-Marie close her eyes with embarrassment. Cordero shuffled his weight from one boot to the other. “Uh, I’m not really into the instructing part of things. Now my father—”

“Isn’t here,” Jules interrupted. “You are.”

“Father,” Anne-Marie spoke up in a slightly scolding tone, “Cordero is a busy man. He has a ranch to take care of. He didn’t come all the way to Louisiana to give me riding lessons!”

Jules leveled a gentle smile at his daughter. “Anne-Marie would you be a sweetheart and go get your father a cup of coffee? You know how I like it, with cream and sugar.”

Clearly annoyed with him, she frowned. “Why don’t you just say you want to talk to Cordero without my presence? Wouldn’t that have been easier?”

Jules looked up at Cordero and gestured to Anne-Marie with a fond smile. “Stubborn redhead—just like her mother was.” To Anne-Marie, he said, “All right, daughter. I want to speak to our guest in private. But I do want the coffee, too. Is that better?”

For a moment Cordero thought she might argue, but then with the tiniest of sighs, she rose from the chair and left the room.

Once the door had shut behind her, Jules leaned earnestly forward in his chair. “Okay, now that my daughter is out of listening range, I’ll say this flat out. I’ll pay you anything you ask if you’ll agree to stick around for the remainder of the week.”

Cordero was beginning to feel extremely uncomfortable. This request wasn’t about horses and a friendship between two men. It would be crazy for him to get involved. But there was such a desperate look on Jules’s face that Cordero didn’t have the heart to give the man an absolute no. He owed him too much.

“Hell, Jules, I didn’t agree to stay at Cane’s Landing to take on the job of riding instructor! And I don’t want any sort of pay! I thought you and I were going to—”

Jules held up his hand. “I know we’d planned to do a lot of things together while you’re here in Louisiana. But that’s off. And now I’m asking a favor from you. If you don’t want pay for it, that’s fine—even better.”

Cordero let out a long breath. “I don’t think your daughter wants my help.”

Jules features twisted into a sardonic expression. “Anne-Marie has never known what the hell she wants. That bastard in her past ruined her. Or so she thinks. She sees herself as spoiled goods. She was always so virtuous before him. And then after she fell for him—well, she’s hidden from life. Now she’s secluded herself at Cane’s Landing, telling herself that her father needs her constant attention.”

“And you don’t?”

Jules swatted the air with his hand and muttered another curse. “No. And I’ll confess to you, Cordero, I’m only here in the hospital because I made my doctor put me here!”

Stunned by this revelation, Cordero sank into the seat Anne-Marie had vacated. “How did you manage to do that?”

“Threatened to take away all my donations to the hospital fund,” he said smugly. “Money will do it every time.”

Cordero’s head swung back and forth as he tried to get the whole picture. “I don’t understand. Why do you want to be in this place?” Glancing around the room, Cordero figured he’d have to have a mighty good reason to be cloistered in such a place if it wasn’t necessary. “And why drag me into this?”

Jules looked as if he considered Cordero to be as slow as molasses on a cold morning. “Because I knew you were bringing the horses and if I’d been home, Anne-Marie would have stayed hidden in her room and let me deal with you and the animals. Me being out of the house forces her to act like she’s alive. Now I need to stay in here a few days longer-until you’re able to get her into the saddle and her mind on something else besides—”

“Besides what? Has your daughter had some sort of health problem or something?”

The old man’s mouth snapped shut and he looked at Cordero for several long, thoughtful moments. “Look, Cordero, my daughter is too good for her own good. She never thinks about herself, only others. She’s wasting her youth—hiding herself because she’s afraid to deal with real life. I bought the horses hoping she’d be interested in something that would get her away from the plantation. I think someone like you could nudge her into it if you’d just give her a little push. I know you like a son. You come from a good family and I trust you with my daughter.”

What did Cordero look like? A psychologist in cowboy boots? He was feeling more awkward by the minute. Especially since Anne-Marie had more or less told him that she wanted her own life, not the one her father wanted for her.

“It sounds like what you want for your daughter is a companion. And I can’t be that, Jules. Not even for a week. It wouldn’t be right.”

The old man’s eyes narrowed perceptively. “You’ve told me before that you weren’t married. Have you gotten engaged or something?”

Cordero had to stifle a groan. “No. And I damn well don’t plan to. But that’s not the point.”

Relief, or something close to it, crossed Jules face. “Good,” he said with a smile. “You’d already planned to take some time off from the Sandbur. You can think of the next few days as a vacation.”

Las Vegas would be a vacation, Cordero thought. Bright lights. Music and gambling tables. Beautiful, scantily dressed showgirls. That was his idea of fun. Not a plantation where the most action he was likely to see was a hound treeing a squirrel. And yet, he had to admit that the thought of spending more time with Anne-Marie was an enticing notion. She might present a prim appearance on the outside, but she wasn’t completely innocent on the inside. She’d already admitted that she’d had a lover. If Cordero played his cards right, he might persuade her that a brief tryst with him would be perfectly harmless. And giving the beautiful redhead a few instructions in bed would be far more enjoyable than giving her riding lessons.

He glanced thoughtfully at Jules. Here he was making plans to seduce his good friend’s daughter. Did that mean he was betraying Jules’s trust? Of course not.

Hell, Cordero thought, he shouldn’t even let that question cross his mind. Not when Jules was handing over his daughter on a silver platter.

“All right, Jules,” Cordero said after a moment. “I’ll stay. For a day or two. If by then Anne-Marie doesn’t seem to resent me being around, I’ll wait until Sunday to leave for Texas.”

Today was Monday, Cordero silently calculated. That would give him six days with Anne-Marie. A shrewd smile crossed his face. In that length of time, he could make most anything happen.

Chapter Two