The Rancher's Surprise Daughter Read online

  If she was his daughter. Mind-boggling. How had his life gone from mundane to unrecognizable in a matter of minutes?

  They headed down the lodge steps just as Emma exited the barn, a girl who must be Ruby next to her. The distance allowed Luc to study her. Short little thing—course, she’d only be three years and eight months if Cate was telling the truth. Ruby wore bright pink shorts and a multicolored T-shirt, her animated motions and whatever she said causing Emma to laugh.

  After spotting Cate, she ran in their direction, his sister following behind.

  Intuitively, Luc had known Ruby would be beautiful—how could she come from Cate and not be?—but the sight of her almost brought him to his knees. Her silky caramel hair was a shade or two lighter than her mother’s. Closer to his. He had the niggling sensation that if he rummaged for an old photograph, Ruby would look strikingly similar to his twin sister, Mackenzie, at this same age.

  Ruby flung her arms around Cate’s legs, and Emma stopped in front of them. “Your girl is a spoonful of honey. We had a good time. Thanks for letting us hang.” His sister pulled her hair back and held it at the nape of her neck as a gust of wind wrapped around them.

  “Come see me again?” She directed the question to Ruby, who answered with an emphatic nod. After a thank-you from Cate, Emma was off, light brown locks once again twisting in the high-powered breeze as she headed back to the barn. His little sister ran the Kids’ Club at the ranch. She was a kid-wrangling, child-whispering rock star.

  “Mommy, can we get a horse-y?”

  Cate’s laugh was strangled. “Our apartment doesn’t allow dogs, let alone horses, sweets.”

  Ruby looked up, noticing him. “Hi.” Big brown eyes—just like Cate’s—held his.

  A rush of emotion clogged his throat, but Luc managed a response. “Hi.”

  “I’m Ruby. What’s your name? Do you live here? Do you have a horse-y?”

  Her questions ignited a grin. “Luc.” He glanced at Cate, and she shook her head in response to his unspoken question. Ruby must not know his name to be able to create the link to him being her father. Probably a good thing at this point. “And yes, I live here and I have a horse.” Or should he say “horse-y”?

  He sank to bended knee in front of the girl, partly to be closer to her height, partly because his legs were about to give out.

  The blood in his veins thrummed a rhythm that whispered mine. As though it knew without a test or proof that Ruby was his daughter.

  Why he believed Cate, Luc didn’t know. Course, the heart defect seemed a blatant link. When he’d been a child, they hadn’t considered it genetic, but in the years since, they’d proved it often was.

  Still, he should be careful until he knew for sure.

  Yet even with that logical thought backing him up, everything in his body hurt. He wanted so badly to reach out, to hug her, to somehow know everything about her in one instant. He fisted hands at his sides. The idea that Ruby was his, that he’d missed so much time if Cate was telling the truth, made every muscle tense.

  “Any chance you want to ride one of the horses?” Everything was better on a horse. Plus, it would give him a chance to get to know Ruby a little.

  Her chocolate eyes lit up with excitement, head bobbing fast and furious. She definitely had a sense of adventure. Must drive Cate crazy. The thought warmed him.

  “Luc—”

  “She’ll be fine.” He stood, earning crossed arms and a scowl from Cate. Her thin, dark eyebrows joined together in obvious agitation, somehow only managing to highlight her beauty. Luc had never had a problem being attracted to Cate. It was in the mature, getting-along department that they’d struggled.

  Luc waited an extra beat to see if Cate added any additional protest. He didn’t want to be careless with Ruby, but most often her condition had very few symptoms and just needed to be fixed.

  When silence reigned and Cate’s shoulders drooped as if relinquishing control, Luc put a check in the victory column. Missing almost four years of Ruby’s life definitely gave him an upper hand at the moment.

  The three of them headed for the corral, and Luc directed them to Buster, one of the smaller palomino quarter horses with a calm temperament, who was already saddled and ready to go. He hoisted Ruby up and made sure she felt comfortable. Told her where to hold on. Her face shone with wonder and excitement as she commented about how the color of the horse reminded her of caramel popcorn.

  “I’m going to walk with you and lead Buster the whole time, and anytime you want to stop or get down, you just tell me.”

  “I can’t do it by myself?”

  Adventurous little thing. “Not until you’ve had more experience. We’d have to get you started on a pony—”

  Cate’s wide eyes cut him off, communicating all kinds of warning signals and flares. Luc tempered his amusement. He’d probably been getting ahead of himself a bit.

  “We’ll be back in ten minutes,” he said to Cate, lips quirking at her squeak of indignation and the fact that she was, most definitely, not invited.

  She’d had Ruby to herself for three-plus years. Luc deserved some time with her away from Cate’s hawk-like attention.

  Chapter Two

  Six agonizing days later Luc paced back and forth near the fireplace in the small living room of his cabin. His friend Gage Frasier perched on the arm of the chair flanking the couch, grilling Luc like the lawyer he was with questions that didn’t have satisfying answers.

  “Any news on the paternity test?”

  “Nope.” Luc dropped to the sofa, his body no longer functioning with coherent thought or movement.

  He hadn’t seen Ruby or Cate since last Saturday because he’d decided the most logical course of action was to wait until he knew for sure that she was his daughter. Though Cate hadn’t shown any doubt, she’d agreed to his suggestion that they not say anything to Ruby until they had the paternity test results back.

  But waiting was as easy as living with a broken toe.

  In the short time he’d spent with Ruby on Saturday while she’d ridden Buster, he’d quickly come to the conclusion that his possible daughter was captivating. Entertaining. And bubbled with as much energy as her little body could harness.

  The only other time Luc had been smitten so fast was with one other female, who, when he and Ruby had returned to the corral after twenty minutes instead of ten, had been spitting mad.

  Luc could admit he had fully enjoyed Cate’s disgruntled state. Currently, his guilt meter regarding anything she thought rested solidly at a zero.

  Hers should be shooting through the roof.

  “What’s she like?”

  “Ruby’s...” How to narrow it down? “Sweet. She talks nonstop. The kind of girl who would make friends with a fly.” He’d gathered that because she had, in fact, talked to the fly that had ridden on Buster’s saddle horn for part of the ride. And she’d befriended Luc instantly, jabbering the whole time. He’d learned that she had a best friend at day care and that her mom didn’t let her do more than an hour of “lectonics” in a day even though some kids got to do bunches more.

  That one had made him smile. He’d found himself silently agreeing with Cate.

  Ruby had told him her mom read “lots” of books to her every night, announcing it as though she was the most special girl in the world and their reading time only confirmed it.

  That information had created an uncomfortable surge of sympathy in Luc, flooding him with images of Cate juggling everything on her own. Ruby and her condition. Work. Bills. How had she managed it all? From what he knew of her parents, he couldn’t imagine them stepping in to help when Cate had found out she was pregnant. But he’d quickly stomped out the rush of concern that came with imagining Cate doing everything on her own.

  He was not going to feel bad for her. Not after the decision she’d made to keep
Ruby from him.

  Luc had gotten a DNA test done in town first thing Monday morning. They’d sent in his sample, and Cate and Ruby had gone to the testing place in Denver. Now it was ticking toward five on Friday, and he was tormented to think he’d spend the weekend without knowing the results. So much felt undecided. And on top of his questions, Cate had texted him the date of Ruby’s procedure. One week from today.

  “So Cate didn’t explain why she never told you about Ruby?” Gage’s dark hair looked as rumpled as Luc’s. At least he could count on sympathy and understanding from his friend. Gage had been through a horrible ordeal when his wife left. Sometimes Luc wondered if the man would ever recover.

  “Nope. But I really didn’t let her. What does it matter? What’s done is done.” Anger boiled under the surface. Those last two comments were lies. He both wanted to know what Cate had been thinking and felt so wounded and aggravated that he didn’t believe any answer she gave would help.

  “Luc.” Gage’s voice snapped with concern, but Luc wasn’t sure he could handle any more girl talk—problems that didn’t have solutions were his least favorite subject. “Your phone just buzzed.” Gage motioned to the coffee table.

  Luc snagged it and opened the new email, relief tingling through his limbs when he saw it contained the results. Sawdust coated his mouth, saliva running for the hills. He clicked to read the report, the letters swimming before him. Not Excluded was typed across the top of the page in bold print. The testing facility had coached him on what this meant.

  He was Ruby’s father.

  The phone slipped from his grip, bouncing lightly on the sofa cushion.

  “I’m a dad.”

  It was as though he’d taken a horse kick to the chest, the air in his lungs instantly gone. He and Gage stared at each other. Frozen.

  Unable to stay still, Luc pushed up from the couch, his strides quickly covering the small cabin’s living room. He ended up at the back window that faced open ranchland, seeing the grass-covered hills in a new light. Yesterday it had been land passed down to Luc and his sisters when their parents had moved to a warmer climate in order to accommodate his mom’s health. Today a new generation existed. A little girl with silky hair and a nonstop mouth and adorable brown eyes who was his. His.

  “I have to see her.” He crossed the space and rummaged for his keys in the kitchen junk drawer.

  Gage followed him. “Don’t you think you should wait? Calm down first?”

  Why did he have so many scraps of paper in this stupid drawer? Items tumbled over each other as he searched for the simple metal key ring. “I don’t see a real possibility of that happening in the very near future.”

  “Guess not.” Gage nudged Luc to the side, then found the truck keys in a much calmer, more methodical manner.

  But then again, Gage hadn’t just found out he was positively a father.

  His friend offered up the keys on the palm of his hand. “Do you want me to go with you?”

  Luc appreciated Gage’s support, but he needed some time to clear his head. Maybe the drive would help, though he wasn’t confident anything would at the moment. “Nah. Thanks, though.” He snatched the metal ring that held three keys and proceeded to the front door, snagging his boots.

  “What are you going to do? About custody?”

  He paused to glance at Gage after yanking on the first boot. “What do you mean? What can I do?”

  “File for it.”

  “I don’t know.” He couldn’t think beyond seeing Ruby right now. Couldn’t deal with logistics. “I’m angry, but I’m not sure that’s the answer.”

  “You need to protect yourself. She’s already kept Ruby from you for years. Who’s to say she won’t take off and disappear to another state and you’ll never see your child again?”

  Red flashed, and Luc pulled on the second boot with heated force. Cate wouldn’t...would she? But the same thought had entered his mind. When they’d readied to leave on Saturday, Luc had wondered if he’d ever see them again. Cate had written down her address and phone number, almost as though proving to him she wouldn’t do anything of the sort.

  Still, how could he trust her after what she’d done?

  “Do you want me to look into it? See what your options are? I know someone who deals with these situations. I can ask.”

  Gage was the only man Luc knew who ranched as a later-in-life choice. He’d been a smarty lawyer at some big firm until he’d inherited a ranch from his uncle. Gage and his wife, Nicole, had moved to the nearby ranch just over a year and a half ago. And then Nicole had decided a different life looked better, and she’d been gone in a blink. Gage had been on his own ever since. He ran the ranch, very quietly helping the church or people in the community out with legal matters when they required it.

  Luc just never imagined he’d be in need of that advice.

  “I don’t know that I have any other choice.” A stampede of hooves vibrated inside his skull. “I’m not sure if I have any rights and if she can control letting me see Ruby. So, yeah. Check it out.”

  “I will.”

  “Good thing I have you on retainer.”

  Gage chuckled. “You don’t. You couldn’t afford me. This friend business really works in your favor.”

  “True.”

  Luc grabbed the piece of paper with Cate’s address from the kitchen counter. He’d left it there as a reminder to pray for Ruby—not that the trigger had been necessary. The girl and her mother hadn’t left his thoughts all week.

  He’d need the details if he planned to show up on Cate’s doorstep unannounced.

  It wasn’t very considerate of him to plan to ambush her at their home. But then again, he hadn’t expected Cate to show up on his doorstep with a daughter he never knew he had.

  Turnabout was fair play.

  * * *

  “Mommy, will you play the cupcake game with me?” Ruby stood before Cate with a well-loved game in her hand that still boasted the reduced thrift-store sticker price.

  Before Ruby, Cate had never stepped foot in a secondhand store. She’d never struggled for money growing up. But love and attention? Those had been harder to find.

  It wasn’t as if her parents had been abusive in any way. She’d just been more...overlooked. They were simply too caught up in themselves to notice anyone around them—including the little girl left in the wake of their selfishness.

  Growing up, her parents never saw eye to eye on anything, but on the subject of her pregnancy, they’d instantly been in agreement. They’d advised her that having Ruby would ruin her life. That it would be too hard. That it would crumple any chance of her being successful and she’d have to scramble to make ends meet. They’d told Cate that if she kept the baby, there’d be no help from them. Money or otherwise. Probably hoping to sway her decision. It hadn’t worked. But it had left them estranged.

  They’d been right. Cate had hustled. Finished school early on an accelerated path. She’d scrounged for work, taking anything and everything she could find. Raising Ruby was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life.

  But her parents had also been so very, very wrong. Because the adorable munchkin standing in front of Cate hopping up and down—game pieces rattling inside the box as though agreeing with her impatience—was by far the best thing she’d ever accomplished. Worth every second of her energy and love.

  “Please, Mommy?”

  “Okay, Rubes. I’ll play.” After a couple of games Ruby would have a little more playtime and then Cate would read to her before bed. She still went down early—partly for Cate’s sanity and partly because she often worked the evening hours until falling into bed herself.

  Removing the charcoal-framed glasses she wore for computer work, Cate set them next to her Mac computer on the desk that occupied one corner of the living room in their tiny, two-bedroom apartment.


  The screen in front of her went dark as it fell asleep, but she knew what lurked behind the curtain of black. A project with a looming deadline. She was close, but she couldn’t quite get the branding package for the local cupcake shop just right. And she needed it to be perfect, because she needed the next freelance job after this. Cate loved her career as a graphic designer and the freedom it allowed her to work from home and cart Ruby to and from the small in-home day care she went to.

  A majority of Cate’s jobs came from a firm in Denver who hired her as a subcontractor, and she filled in the extra income they needed with side work.

  They moved over to the sofa, and Ruby set up the game while Cate covered a yawn and considered making a cup of tea. Twenty-four years old and this was what she’d come to on a Friday night. But then, getting pregnant at twenty had put a damper on any wild and adventurous life plans.

  Ruby chose a blue base and began building a cupcake. She never really followed the game cards, instead creating whatever combination suited her fancy at the moment.

  “Your turn, Mommy.”

  Cate picked the yellow holder, choosing to add a plastic layer of chocolate, wishing, not for the first time, that this game consisted of real cupcakes and she could inhale the chocolate one in her hand...after adding a layer of buttercream frosting.

  Her mouth watered just as a knock sounded at their door, causing her to jump like a popcorn kernel in sizzling oil.

  Who would be at their door on a Friday night? Was it her nosy neighbor again? Millie Hintz wasn’t the landlord, but she’d appointed herself as the head of the building’s nonexistent neighborhood watch program. A spry eighty-year-old with white hair who seemed to be shrinking in height over time, her unexpected pop-overs were unnerving because she always scanned the apartment from the doorway like she was going to catch Cate with a hidden mountain lion or other unapproved item.

  But even though Millie considered it her job to know what was happening in everyone’s lives, she was kindhearted. Cate had decided the visits were more about loneliness than anything else. And if anyone understood that, it was her. Talking to Millie wouldn’t cost her more than a few minutes of time.