The Rancher's Housekeeper Read online

  Lindsey was concerned. “Where’s everyone?”

  Something flickered in the depths of her eyes, as if she didn’t know what to make of his state of mind. “Hank said he was going out with a friend and left the house hours ago.” That didn’t surprise Colt. With the birth of the baby, his pain had intensified. “I’m sure Ina will be bringing your mother shortly. Would you like to eat now, or wait for them?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll see what’s holding them up.” But no sooner had he started for the hallway than they appeared. He smiled at Ina before grasping his mother’s hand to lead her to the table.

  For a moment Colt felt as though he was on the wrong side of a looking glass. When he peered in, he was in the same house he’d always lived in with the same delicious smells from the kitchen wafting through the air. But the mother he kissed showed no recognition of him or her surroundings, while the woman at the stove— He couldn’t finish the thought.

  Colt helped his mother to the table and Geena started to serve them.

  Who was she?

  He knew certain basic facts about her, but he didn’t know her or what made her tick. She would have had women and men friends before her imprisonment. His stomach muscles tightened when he realized she might have had a lover at the time she was incarcerated. Hadn’t she mentioned a boyfriend from before prison? In one morning she’d been torn away from everything she knew.

  No matter what her circumstances were now, he couldn’t figure out why she would need to talk to the police. If this had something to do with her imprisonment, she should be making inquiries with the authorities in Rapid City, not Sundance.

  “This is another wonderful meal, Geena,” Ina raved as she bit into another slice of roast lamb.

  “Thank you.”

  “How did you learn to cook like this?”

  “My grandmother.” Colt was certain that was true. You’d never eat food like this in prison.

  The new development with Geena had robbed him of his appetite. He ate a little, but was unable to do justice to the meal. After thanking her, he got up from the table. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to make some phone calls for Travis I can’t put off any longer. If someone asks, I’ll be in the study.”

  It wasn’t a lie. He’d told his brother he’d inform everyone about the baby, but he couldn’t sit there in front of Geena and pretend everything was fine when it wasn’t.

  An hour later he went back to the kitchen for coffee. Before he reached it he heard voices and discovered Travis sitting at the table talking quietly with Geena while he finished his dinner. He must have been here for a while.

  She’d done the dishes and stood at the counter drinking coffee with him as if they were old friends. Travis knew Colt had hired a new housekeeper. Judging by the way he was looking at her, his brother more than approved.

  His glance lit on Colt. “I decided to take your advice and come home for a meal and some sleep before I go back to the hospital.” His eyes returned to Geena. “This is a housekeeper worth keeping.”

  “Time will tell,” she murmured, reminding Colt of their conversation about her position being temporary. She already had her life planned out once she left the ranch. But what was it? “Could I get you some coffee, Colt?”

  “No thanks.” Caffeine was the last thing he needed if he hoped to get any sleep tonight.

  “I was just about to ask Travis where he fits in the family line,” she volunteered.

  His brother’s tired face broke out in a smile before he got to his feet. “It’s like this. Colt’s our big brother. I was born three years later, and Hank came along eleven months after that.”

  “And now you have a darling baby daughter of your own,” she commented. “I can’t wait to get a peek at her.”

  “If all goes well, I’ll be bringing them home before dinner tomorrow.” He cleared his own dishes and put them on the counter. “After hospital food, that meal saved my life. I’m going to the cabin and will see both of you later.” He left the house through the back door.

  While Colt watched her, Geena promptly put the dishes in the dishwasher and turned it on before wiping off the table. She’d made the kitchen spotless.

  “Geena?” He couldn’t take any more of her seeming nonchalance. She looked up with those innocent eyes. “If you’d come to Travis’s bedroom with me please.” He needed to talk to her and didn’t want Hank walking in on them unexpectedly.

  CHAPTER SIX

  GEENA followed Colt through the house to the upstairs, having felt tension from him the second he’d walked in the kitchen. He wasn’t the same man who’d left for the hospital earlier that morning with Hank.

  For that matter, Hank hadn’t been in a mood to talk when he’d returned before going out again. Once he’d gone, there’d been no sign of Colt for the rest of the day and no appetite from him at dinner. She couldn’t begin to understand the undercurrents in this house. The arrival of a new baby should have generated a certain amount of talk and excitement.

  Colt took a left at the top of the stairs and led her to a spacious bedroom with an en suite bathroom at the end of the hall. An unmade baby crib with a mattress stood in the middle of the rustic room. Her gaze went to some sacks piled on the colorful quilt of the king-sized bed.

  “They have a nursery set up at their house, but as long as Lindsey will be staying here for a few weeks, I called and had this delivered on Monday. Tell me…if you were a new mother just home from the hospital, I’d like you to look around with your woman’s eye and see what else needs doing. Alice cleaned in here yesterday.”

  The man in charge of his ranching empire could do anything, but a new baby in the house presented a challenge no one, including Geena, was prepared for. Her heart went out to Colt because in the Brannigan household, the buck stopped with him.

  “Why don’t we make up the crib first?” She walked over to the bed and emptied the sacks. The first thing that came out was a little pink tub. “This is perfect for bathing the baby.”

  Colt put it in the bathroom then helped her undo the packaging. Before long the crib looked like a dream with its pink and white padded bumper pad tied in place. “The pink hearts on that eyelet quilt are adorable. How did you know to pick anything so gorgeous?”

  “I didn’t,” he said in a deep voice. “I ordered everything over the phone and said it was for a girl.”

  “Well the baby will love it. What’s her name?” She’d been waiting to hear from someone.

  “I don’t know. They’re still deciding.”

  That explained why Travis hadn’t said anything. “Is Lindsey from a prominent family?”

  “Yes.”

  “Here in Sundance?”

  “No. Gillette.”

  “Since I heard from the men at the Cattlemen’s Store that Brannigan is a revered name in Wyoming, she and Travis must be having a difficult time trying to decide which names from both family trees should be retained.” For the first time tonight she glimpsed mirth in his hazel eyes. That was an improvement from his earlier mood and made her breathing come a little easier. “Let’s put the crib against the wall out of the way.”

  Together they rolled it across the Oriental rug covering the hardwood flooring. Their arms and hips brushed against each other. Being in touching distance made it impossible to keep certain thoughts from filling her head. Like how would she feel if Colt were her husband and they were bringing home their baby.

  Angry with herself for letting her mind wander, she hurried back to the bed. “She’s a lucky little girl to have these cute stretchy suits and shirts. Where shall we put the clothes?”

  “How about the dresser next to the crib? There’s nothing in it.”

  “Perfect. We’ll stack the diapers on top.” In another few minutes everything was done. “When a girlfriend of mine h
ad a baby a few years ago, the hospital sent her home with everything she’d need. If Lindsey’s missing anything else, it won’t be a crucial item. I’d say this room was ready. Let me just check the bathroom for towels. You can never have enough of them.”

  There were several on the racks. A quick check in the cupboards and she discovered half a dozen more. “Everything looks in great shape,” she announced after walking back in the bedroom. “With a wastebasket in both rooms, Lindsey will want for nothing.”

  Colt had gathered up the mess into one bag to be thrown out. “Want to make a bet?”

  A gentle laugh escaped her lips. He had a heightened sense of responsibility for everyone in his family and all living on the ranch. Maybe too much? Besides a marriage that had clearly ended, was this one of the reasons he didn’t find the time to play or develop a relationship of his own?

  “You work too hard, Colt Brannigan. Don’t you ever take time off?”

  He eyed her narrowly. “Probably not as much as I should,” he admitted in a rare moment of truth.

  “There must be times when you feel stifled by all there is to do around here.”

  Colt nodded. “Someone has to do it.”

  Like finding a new housekeeper for instance? The thought that his hiring her had been part of those things contributing to his feeling of suffocation haunted her.

  With her work done here, she started to leave, but he called her back. “Was I mistaken, or were you parked in front of the police station this morning?”

  Ah… He’d seen her. Naturally that raised questions and explained a lot. She turned around. “After going to the store and the post office, I stopped there on my way back to the ranch.”

  “Are you in some kind of trouble where I could help?” There it came again. That concern for her. If it was because he was personally interested in her, she’d have been thrilled. But she feared his natural drive to be in charge put her on his list of things to tend to.

  Earlier she’d asked Colt to tell her if she did something wrong or stepped over the line. Now he deserved an answer. “No trouble at all, but since I’m freshly out of prison and work for you, I can understand your concern and realize you deserve an explanation.”

  He cast her a speculative glance. “As long as you’re not in harm’s way, you don’t have to tell me anything.” His sincerity made her pulse race harder.

  True. She didn’t have to, but this man had been so good to her, she’d never be able to repay him. The least she could do was put his mind at rest where her activities were concerned.

  “I’m looking for someone who disappeared from Rapid City without a trace. While I was in prison, I asked Kellie Tyre, a waitress friend of mine, if she could find out any information about someone I’m looking for. Kellie and I corresponded a few times, but she couldn’t tell me anything.

  “I never dreamed I’d get out of prison, but now that I’m free, I decided to stop at the police station to ask if they knew a good private investigator I could contact who would make inquiries for me. They told me I’d have better luck phoning a reputable attorney who could give me the name of one.”

  Shadows crept over his arresting facial features. “Is this person you’re looking for a man?”

  “No. As I told you earlier, the man I’d been dating at the time of my arrest, Kevin Starr, dropped me faster than he would have done a hot potato. Rupert’s death was a hideous crime. Kevin has probably had nightmares over the fact that he ever dated me. The fact that he didn’t once try to talk to me about it, or hear my side of the story isn’t unusual. It would take a remarkable man who loved me deeply to at least make a few gestures.” Someone like Colt…

  “I’m sorry for that, Geena.”

  “Don’t be. I expected nothing. Only a rare human being like you would ever have let me go into prison without at least wanting to know the facts from my lips. It’s because of the way you’re made.” Geena loved him for that compassionate attribute.

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Oh but I do. You took me in, remember? As for the answer to your question, I’m looking for the woman who was living with my brother when he was killed. Her name is Janice Rigby. She’d moved into my grandmother’s house with Todd while I was still in college at Laramie. When I came back to Rapid City for good, my brother told me I could stay with them while I was looking for a job.

  “But Janice made me so uncomfortable, I went apartment-hunting and ended up renting from Rupert Brown. I didn’t want to cause trouble for my brother. He loved Janice, so I never told him I thought she might be seeing another man when Todd was out working the pipeline. I have no proof, of course, but when I would go over there, she wouldn’t let me inside and that made me wonder.

  “Once in a while he and I met for lunch, but I didn’t go near Janice because I knew she resented me. I’m sure he knew it too. Each time I was with my brother, I sensed he wasn’t happy, but he didn’t tell me why. We’d always been close. After I was put in prison, he tried to do everything to help me.”

  Colt came closer.

  “When I heard he’d been killed, I thought, of course, that in her grief Janice would get in touch with me so we could mourn together. But she didn’t. Not one word.” Geena couldn’t stop the trembling in her voice. “I need to see her and ask her about Todd. I don’t know any details.”

  I don’t even know if she had the baby.

  “Kellie’s last letter said Janice no longer lived in my grandmother’s house. The landlord kicked her out along with some guy who’d moved in with her. I’d had my suspicions she’d been unfaithful to Todd. Apparently she left still owing the landlord rent and didn’t leave a forwarding address.”

  His mouth became a taut line of anger. “I’m assuming she took off with all your possessions.”

  Geena bit her lip. “After I was locked up, Todd took all the things in my apartment back to the house. I’m sure Janice got away with the lot and probably sold everything to settle somewhere else. The furniture wasn’t that important, but the mementos and pictures are priceless.”

  Instead of saying anything, she heard a groan from Colt before he pulled her into his arms. She knew it was a gesture of comfort. The milk of human kindness was instinctive in him. Though she should have eased away, he had no idea how much she needed this and slowly she felt her stiff body relax against his hard-muscled strength. While her body shook with silent tears, he rubbed his hands over her back.

  She would never have expected this kind of intimacy from a man who held his emotions so close to his heart. Geena was totally unprepared for the feelings every stroke of his fingers evoked against her arms and neck.

  When she realized he’d aroused her desire, she was appalled by her response and needed to stop this before she got in too deep and found herself clamoring for his mouth. How mortifying that would be when all he’d meant to do was lend her a shoulder to cry on. She’d known other men’s arms around her in the past, but this was different. Entirely different.

  Through sheer strength of will she took a step away from him. “I was afraid I might break down if I told you about Janice.” Avoiding his eyes she said, “Thank you for being a wonderful listener. If I had to fall apart, I’m glad it was with you. The head of the Floral Valley Ranch has an unequaled reputation for handling the unexpected. I ought to know since I’ve already created several problems you didn’t ask for.” She moved to the door. “Goodnight.”

  * * *

  Unasked for was right.

  And you couldn’t leave it alone, Brannigan.

  Colt had thought her visit to the police station had been motivated by her involvement with a man prior to her imprisonment. Once again he’d gotten things wrong. Damn, damn and damn. But her explanation about this Kevin Starr explained why she kept so much to herself.

  He’d thought he’d been wired last nigh
t….

  Turning off the bedroom light, Colt headed down the hall to his room for a shower. A long cold one that would put out the fire her body had ignited in him like bolt lightning. When he’d doused every lick of flame, he would be ready to call Sheila.

  Sheila was an attractive forest ranger recently stationed in Sundance. He’d met her a few weeks ago when a bunch of local ranchers had been called on by the forest service to help build a fire break. A fire in the western Black Hills needed to be contained. When it was out, Sheila had asked him to a party in town for this Saturday night given by the rangers. He’d told her he’d have to let her know later on because he wasn’t certain when the baby would arrive and he might be needed.

  But he had no excuse to turn her down now. The baby was here and the ranch had a new housekeeper who was more than holding her own. Colt ground his teeth. He would tell Sheila yes and have a good time, even if it killed him.

  * * *

  While the family had been assembled for breakfast Geena had been secretly relieved that Colt behaved as if nothing had happened last night. That was because the explosion of desire had all been on her part, not his. This morning he’d devoured his steak and eggs with relish before announcing that Lindsey’s parents would be arriving any time now.

  “Put them in the guest bedroom at the other end of the hall upstairs on the left. I’ll try to get back to welcome them.”

  Geena nodded. She noticed Hank didn’t say anything. Once Colt had left the table, he’d disappeared too.

  After Ina and Laura had gone, Geena made up a batch of sugar cookie dough. As she was putting it in the freezer to get cold, someone else had joined her in the kitchen. This time Geena wasn’t surprised. She turned to the woman in her mid thirties, “You must be Trish Hayward. I’m the new housekeeper, Geena Williams.”

  “Hi. Alice told me. She said you were very nice.”

  “Thank you, Trish.” They shook hands. “I know you work around a schedule you’ve developed with Colt, but before you make beds and do the wash, will you come upstairs with me to the guest room? Lindsey had her baby.”