A Rancher's Claim by Diana Palmer

Author:Diana Palmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-05-26T19:49:27+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

BLAKE AND MRS. JACKSON usually ate their evening meal with a minimum of conversation. But that was another old custom that was going to change.

Sarah Jane was a walking encyclopedia of questions. One answer led to another why and another, until Blake was ready to get under the table. And just the mention of bedtime brought on a tantrum. Mrs. Jackson tried to cajole the child into obeying, but Sarah Jane only got louder. Blake settled the matter by picking her up and carrying her to her new room.

Mrs. Jackson helped her undress and get into bed and Blake paused at her bedside reluctantly to say good-night.

“You don’t like me,” Sarah accused.

He almost bristled at her mutinous expression, but she was a proud child, and he didn’t want to break her spirit. She’d need it as she grew older.

“I don’t know you,” he replied reasonably. “Any more than you know me. People don’t become friends on the spur of the moment. It takes time, sprout.”

She considered that as she lay there, swallowed whole by the size of the bed under her and the thick white coverlet over her. She watched him curiously. “You don’t hate little children, do you?” she asked finally.

“I don’t hate kids,” he said. “I’m just not used to them. I’ve been by myself for a long time.”

“Did you love my mommy?”

That question was harder to answer. His broad shoulders rose and fell. “I thought she was beautiful. I wanted to marry her.”

“She didn’t like me,” Sarah confided. “Can I really stay here? And I don’t have to go back to Daddy Brad?”

“No, you don’t have to go back. We’ll have to do some adjusting, Sarah, but we’ll get used to each other.”

“I’m scared with the light off,” she confessed.

“We’ll leave a night-light on.”

“What if a monster comes?” she asked.

“I’ll kill it, of course,” he reassured her with a smile.

She shifted under the covers. “Aren’t you scared of monsters?”

“Nope.”

She smiled for the first time. “Okay.” She stared at him for a minute. “You have a scar on your face,” she said, pointing to his right cheek.

His fingers touched it absently. “So I do.” He’d long ago given up being sensitive about it, but he didn’t like going into the way he’d gotten it. “Good night, sprout.”

He didn’t offer to read her a story or tell her one. In fact, he didn’t know any he could tell a child. And he didn’t tuck her in or kiss her. That would have been awkward. But Sarah didn’t ask for those things or seem to need them. Perhaps she hadn’t had much affection. She acted very much like a child who’d been turned loose and not bothered with overmuch.

He went back downstairs and into his study, to finish the day’s business that had been put on hold while he’d coped with Sarah’s arrival. Tomorrow Mrs. Jackson would have to handle things. He couldn’t steal time from a board meeting for one small child.

Jack’s Corner was a medium-sized Oklahoma city, and Blake’s.

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