One Man and a Baby by Susan Meier

Author:Susan Meier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The next morning Ashley dressed in a pantsuit, swept her hair up into a ponytail and took a thermal cup of coffee to the barn office, along with a carafe filled with the coffee that had remained in her pot. When Toby walked in, he whistled.

“Wow. You look great.”

“And I brought coffee.”

“That’s part of the reason you look great,” Toby said with a grin as he held out his half-empty cup, looking for a warm-up.

Ashley laughed and filled his cup at the same time that Rick entered the barn. She glanced over just as he looked at her and their gazes caught and held.

After two hours of tossing and turning the night before, Ashley had decided he’d been right. He didn’t know her well enough to trust her, let alone ask her to run with him if he needed to leave to protect Ruthie.

But there was another side to that coin. She didn’t know him well enough to say with certainty that she wanted to give up the farm, her dad, her friends, her life, to hide with him. Not that she thought they would have to go on the run. If they were together, he’d have access to enough money to fight Senator Martin. And if they had a relationship, they would manage the farm together. And as comanager of Seven Hills he would have the respectability that would keep him from losing a custody battle.

But that actually took them to the real barrier of their situation. If she made him comanager she would never really know if he was falling in love with her for her, or because she made his life easier. Worse, if she offered him the job as comanager, he might leave rather than take it, if only because he refused to be called an opportunist. After the way she had fought for the job, he would know she was only offering it to get him to stay and he wouldn’t let himself be trapped into the identity he’d grown out of.

So they were stuck. Caught. There was no way to work this out.

To break the oppressive silence, Ashley said, “I brought coffee.”

Rick raised his cup of store-bought. “I have my own, thanks.”

“Great.” Cool and nonchalant, she glanced around the little room, hoping to show him that there were no hard feelings and things could be normal and easy between them. “I was thinking that we should get a coffeemaker for in here.”

Rick shook his head. “If you buy a coffeemaker, you have to buy coffee. It isn’t a one-time expense.”

“I’m okay with that.”

Toby hooted with laughter. “I might just like having a girl in charge.”

“I’m not in charge yet.”

Toby brushed off her concern. “You will be when your dad retires.”

“When my dad retires,” Ashley reminded Toby firmly. “I don’t want you to go around spreading rumors that he’s retiring.”

Again, Toby brushed her off with a dismissive wave of his hand. “The rumor’s already out.”

“So, let’s not fuel the fire.” She turned to Rick. “What do you have for us to do today?”

“More of what we did yesterday.

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