Cowboy’s Temporary Nanny, page 23
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, JUNE 2021
Copyright © 2021 Relay Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Mary Sue Jackson is a pen name created by Relay Publishing for co-authored Romance projects. Relay Publishing works with incredible teams of writers and editors to collaboratively create the very best stories for our readers.
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Blurb
Never fall in love with a cowboy...
When cowboy Adam Lewis unexpectedly becomes the sole guardian of his infant nephew, his entire life is turned upside down. He’s always been a serious, quiet man. But now he’s up to his eyeballs in diapers and onesies.
Enter beautiful researcher Kaylee Scott. Kaylee sees Adam struggling, and makes him an offer he can’t refuse... She’ll act as his temporary nanny, if he connects her with other ranchers in the area, so she can get the data she needs for her big tech employer.
Though Kaylee’s satisfied the sexy cowboy is holding up his end of the bargain, he can’t seem to drop his serious attitude. Still, she can’t fight her attraction to him. He’s so darned cute when he’s holding the baby, and he seems dedicated to becoming the best father possible. And when they kiss...Kaylee knows she’s in serious trouble.
With her project ending soon, Kaylee is torn. She’s supposed to leave town in a few weeks. But can her heart take it if she has to leave Adam behind?
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
End of Cowboy’s Temporary Nanny
Thank you!
Make an Author’s Day
About Mary Sue Jackson
About Leslie North
Sneak Peek: Rancher’s Sexy Single Mom
Also By Mary Sue
One
Adam Lewis prided himself on being the kind of man who really listened when someone talked to him. It was a value his father had instilled in him at an early age. It was the way to show people you valued them—that you cared about what they thought and said. That was the kind of lesson a man didn’t forget.
Unfortunately, it was a lesson he couldn’t put into practice today, when he was achingly exhausted. He wasn’t even sure how long he and Mrs. Flores, one of his closest neighbors, had been talking. He only knew that he hadn’t really heard a word she had said.
As if she was reading his thoughts, Mrs. Flores put a kindly hand on his arm. “Can I ask you something, dear?”
“Of course you can,” he answered automatically.
She smiled sweetly, with perhaps a hint of pity that Adam didn’t altogether care for. At the moment, he was running dangerously short on friends and allies, though, and so he held his tongue.
“I’m just wondering if you’re getting any sleep,” she continued sympathetically. “Have you gotten any at all since the baby came?”
Adam shook his head stiffly. It was likely a question all new parents got as they tried to adjust to the newest member of their family’s rule over the household. There was a key difference between Adam and those people, though. Matty, the month-old baby sleeping in the guest room, wasn’t a kid he’d had any chance to prepare for. Instead, he was a surprise abruptly left in his care, thanks to his sister. Adam had only had the job of looking after him for a week, and he felt like a drowning man.
Mrs. Flores nodded, apparently satisfied with the accuracy of her observation. “It will get better, Adam. I know it probably doesn’t seem that way, but it will. And I’ll be back to watch the little dear at eight in the morning, day after tomorrow.”
“Thank you,” he said humbly, walking her to the front door. “Truly. It’s much appreciated.”
“It takes a village, doesn’t it?” She squeezed his hand briefly, then hurried out to her car.
Adam shut the door after her, then stood in the front hall for a moment letting her words marinate. It takes a village. That was a saying people threw around easily these days. It sounded good, sure, but in his situation? The whole village thing was half the problem. His neighbors had come through for him, of course. That was just the kind of community they had. But everyone had jobs or ranches or kids or school or other commitments of their own, so help came in dribs and drabs—a few hours here and there.
Mrs. Flores could only watch Matty on Monday and Tuesday mornings. Mrs. Griffin could come some afternoons but never before eleven. The Richardson teenagers said that they’d be by on the weekends, but their mama secretly confided to Adam that she was worried they’d invite boys over and that she wanted them to be supervised.
The help was wonderful. The help was gratefully received. But the help was also turning his house into Grand Central Station. He hadn’t gotten a lick of work done in a week, and it wasn’t fair to dump everything on his ranch hands—that wasn’t the kind of boss he wanted to be. Yet it seemed like every minute was spent dealing with a screaming baby or a ringing doorbell. Sometimes both at once. Something had to give, and he was getting increasingly convinced that it would be his sanity.
As if on cue, Matty started screaming in his crib. The kid’s room was all the way on the other end of the house, but Adam didn’t need the monitor to hear his cries. This baby had a set of lungs that could put an ambulance’s wail to shame.
His first, gut reaction was a flood of annoyance so acute it made his skin prickle. Sometimes it felt like Matty went out of his way to make Adam’s life as difficult as humanly possible. The rational part of his brain knew it wasn’t true, of course. It was too much to ask of any infant to refrain from crying. But that didn’t make it any easier to deal with when all his best efforts resulted in nothing but a miserable baby and his own miserable self.
He was halfway through the house to Matty’s nursery when someone started knocking on the door. Gripped by the blind and likely completely misguided hope that Mrs. Flores had thought better of her other responsibilities, Adam raced the rest of the way, scooped Matty up into his arms, and practically sprinted for the door. If by some miracle of God, it really was Mrs. Flores, he wasn’t about to keep her waiting.
When he flung the door open, Matty screaming louder than ever, he had himself so convinced it would be his neighbor standing there that his brain couldn’t compute what he was seeing right away. He just stood there dumbly, his mouth slightly ajar, looking at a woman who was most definitely not Mrs. Flores.
She waited a moment, clearly expecting him to offer some kind of greeting, then gave Adam a tentative smile. “Hi there. My name is Kaylee. Kaylee Scott.”
“I’m Adam Lewis. What is it that you want, Kaylee Scott?” Under normal circumstances, Adam would never have spoken to someone like that, stranger or otherwise. But Matty was hitting truly death-defying decibels with his shrieks, and Adam’s patience was on its last threads.
To her credit, Kaylee didn’t miss a beat.
“I’m here on behalf of Neocyber Technology,” she explained. “They’re a company based out of Dallas. I’m conducting a corporate research study for them.”
Adam raised his eyebrows. “That so? And what would they want with a little Texas town like Whittier Creek?”
“I’m conducting some interviews,” she started, but before she could get any further, Adam held up the hand not holding the writhing, now truly furious Matty to his chest.
“Lady, if you think I’ve got time to sit down for an interview right now, you must be out of your mind. Do you see the screaming kid I’m holding? Do you think he’s going to be up for an interview? I think you need to leave.”
He moved to shut the door in her face, which was something he had never done in his life. But desperate times called for desperately rude measures. Before he could get it all the way closed, though, she wedged her foot in the way. He started to say something unforgivable, but this time, it was her turn to hold up a silencing hand.
“Have you had that baby looked at for colic? Because from where I’m standing, that’s exactly what it sounds like. Poor little thing is in pain.”
The rancher didn’t need to say a word. Kaylee could tell by the expression on his face that he didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. She knew it wasn’t her place to interfere, but she felt sorry for the baby—and, despite his rudeness, she felt sorry for the man holding him, too. Clearly, he needed all the help he could get.
She stretched out her arms, giving Adam a look that dared him to defy her. “Give the poor thing here. Let me see what I can do.”
“You think I’m just going to hand you my boy?” he asked incredulously, although Kaylee was almost certain she saw a desperate desire to do just that. “I don’t even know you.”
She smiled her best winning smile and kept her arms outstretched. “That’s true, you don’t, but it’s not like I’m trying to abscond with him. Invite me in, I’ll calm him down, and we can talk a little.”
Kaylee watched as he engaged in what looked like a brief internal debate before all resistance just whooshed out of him with a sigh. When he finally nodded and motioned with his head for her to come inside, she felt unaccountably relieved. It wouldn’t have been right to just walk away when she knew she could help.
“Fine. His name is Matty. Maybe you’re some kind of magician, who am I to say?”
With an exhausted sigh, Adam handed the baby to Kaylee. The poor little thing was squawking angrily and kicking his little legs like it might help him run away from the whole situation. Kaylee kept her focus on the distressed baby in her hands, but she could feel Adam’s doubt coming off of him in waves. Pointedly ignoring his disapproval, she made straight for an overstuffed couch and set Matty down gingerly on his back, bicycling his legs carefully while he continued to scream. After a moment, she pulled his legs out straight, then pushed them back down again gently. Matty’s eyes widened with comical surprise, and his cries shut off as if they were operated by a switch.
“Hold on a minute,” Adam said, in a quiet, awe-struck tone, as if he feared breaking the spell. “What did you just do? Why did he stop crying?”
Kaylee smiled down at the baby, who was staring at her in wonder. “Moving their legs like that helps them to pass the gas that gets trapped in their tummy. The gas hurts them, so they cry. They don’t have any other way of telling us that they’re in pain.”
Adam sat down heavily in the lounger opposite the couch. “This feels like the first bit of actual peace I’ve had since Matty landed on my doorstep.”
“Landed?” Kaylee asked with a frown. There was a story here, and she was interested in it. Maybe it was the repressed writer in her, but she loved any kind of story.
“Matty is my sister’s child. She came here last week—and left Matty behind.”
Kaylee looked taken aback. “Is she…coming back for him soon?”
Adam sighed. “As far as I know, she’s not coming back at all.”
She was quiet for a moment after that, letting his current situation sink in. She was starting to think that this might be a situation where the two of them could help each other. She would just have to convince Adam of that fact.
She nodded to herself, then looked him square in the eye. “I think I have an idea that could be good for both of us, at least while I’m in town.”
“Do you now?” He raised his eyebrows in disbelief.
She smiled and nodded again. “Yes, actually, I do. You’re clearly struggling with this new situation, and who could blame you? I’m going to be in town for about a month conducting my interviews. I would love to help you into a smooth transition with this whole thing while I’m here. And in the meantime, you can help me get interviews with the other local ranchers,” she started. “I’ve been having some trouble getting them to talk to me. I’m thinking you could help me make some connections. Give me the ins I’ve been missing.”
Adam sat forward with a frown. “Let me get this straight. You want me to let you play nanny to my nephew in exchange for help networking?”
“I have childcare experience,” she said quickly, working hard not to sound too defensive. “Quite a lot of it, actually. I could give you references from my past nannying positions, if you like.”
Adam still didn’t look convinced. When Kaylee looked down at Matty, he was clearly gearing up to start screaming again. She doubted it was gas again, so her hands moved to the back of his diaper and found that it was practically soaked through. First things first, this baby needed a change. She thought about finding the changing table—but it seemed rude to go marching through a stranger’s house. The couch would have to do. When she unsnapped his little onesie, she found that the diaper was not only terribly wet, but also put on backwards.
“Do you mind getting me a diaper?” she asked Adam without looking away from Matty’s distressed face. Once she got the diaper off, she could see that he was breaking out into a rash as well. She made a mental note to invest in some diaper cream, despite not having actually been taken up on her offer yet.
Adam retrieved the requested diaper and handed it over mutely, hovering off to the side as she went to work. Out of the corner of her eye, Kaylee saw him wince when she started putting on the new diaper. He must have noticed that he had put the previous one on backwards. By the time she was done, she could practically feel his decision to take her up on her unconventional offer. He was badly in need of help, and they both knew it.
He looked at her a moment, considering, then shrugged his shoulders. “Well, why don’t you stay for some lunch and we can talk about what you had in mind. I’m not saying I’m agreeing to your terms, but I’m saying I’m seriously thinking it over.”
Two
Standing in his kitchen surrounded by the makings of a truly lackluster lunch, Adam felt like kicking himself. Here he was trying to put together sandwiches that weren’t hands-down sad, and a woman he didn’t know at all was in the nursery with Matty. He was sure he had made more rash decisions than this one at some point in his life, but at the moment, he couldn’t think of one.
“Not to mention this will be the fastest way in the world to make her change her mind.”
Once the words were out of his mouth, it kicked in how badly he really wanted her help. Having one caregiver who could be with Matty all day would make his life go ten times smoother. And she was so good with the baby, too! Much better than he was, that was for sure. He was almost desperate enough to believe that she had been hand-delivered to his door from the heavens above at this point. He was ready to say yes—but what if she backed out? Trying to put Matty down to sleep was one of the most harrowing experiences you could have with the little dude. For all he knew, when Kaylee finally got it done, she would come into the kitchen and tell him that she had thought better of her scheme.
He set to the task of assembling their meager lunches, figuring that he had another fifteen minutes at least before Kaylee managed to successfully wrangle Matty. When she appeared no more than five minutes later, he was so startled that he almost dropped their finished plates.
“What’s the matter?” Instantly, his mind was filled with horrific visions of Matty injured or Kaylee already entirely overwhelmed.
She cocked her head to one side in confusion. “What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong. Matty’s asleep.”
“He’s…what?” Adam asked foolishly, his mouth hanging open with shock.
“Asleep,” she repeated with a laugh. “He’s awfully adorable when he’s conked out, too. You can see what a sweet little thing he is when he’s not feeling poorly. I enjoyed getting to sing him to sleep.”
Adam nodded as if he understood what she was saying, but truthfully, he didn’t have a clue. Every part of the scenario she was describing sounded like pure fiction, or else an experience with a different baby. He had never been able to get Matty down without intense stress and lots of screaming, and yet he hadn’t heard a peep while Kaylee was attending to the task. Was she that good—or was he just that inept? Adam hated feeling incompetent. He was a guy who always got the job done…but with this job, he felt like he barely even knew where to start.
