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Kori broke into her thoughts. “You’re thinking about him right now, aren’t you?”
“What?” Hadley sipped at her cold drink, feeling overly warm. “No. Why would you think that?”
“You’ve got the hots for him. Good for you.”
“No. Not good for me. He’s my boss, for one thing. For another, he’s a major player. I knew him when I used to race barrels. He had girls chasing after him all the time, and he enjoyed every second of it.”
“So he’s a playboy. You don’t need to fall in love with him, just scratch an itch.”
“I can’t.” Hadley gave her head a vehement shake to dispel the temptation of Kori’s matter-of-fact advice. “Besides, I’m not his type. He was asleep during most of what happened this morning.”
“Wait. Most?”
Hadley waved to dismiss her friend’s query. “It might have taken him a couple extra seconds to move his hand.”
Kori began to laugh again. “Oh, he must have really been thrown for a loop. You in his bedroom in the middle of the night with the cat.”
The picture Kori painted was funny, and Hadley let herself laugh. “Thank you for putting the whole thing in perspective. I don’t know why I was so stressed about it.”
“Maybe because despite your best intentions, you like the guy more than you think you should.”
Hadley didn’t even bother to deny it. “Maybe I do,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter, because no matter how attractive I may find him, he’s my boss, and you know I’m never going there again.”
Four
After missing Maggie and Hadley at lunchtime, Liam made sure he was home, showered and changed early enough to spend some time with his niece before dinner. She was in her crib and just beginning to wake up when he entered her room. Hadley wasn’t there, but he noticed the red light on the baby monitor and suspected she was in her room or downstairs, keeping one ear tuned to the receiver.
Before Maggie could start to fuss, Liam scooped her out of the crib and settled her on the changing table. Already he was becoming an expert with the snaps and Velcro fastenings of Maggie’s Onesies and diapers. Before the baby came fully awake, he had her changed and nestled in his arm on the way downstairs.
The domestic life suited him, he decided, entering the kitchen to see what Candace had made for dinner. The large room smelled amazing, and his mouth began to water as soon as he crossed the threshold. He sneaked up behind Candace and gave her a quick hug.
“What’s on the menu tonight?”
“I made a roast. There’s garlic mashed potatoes, green beans and apple pie for dessert.”
“And your wonderful gravy.”
“Of course.”
“Is Jacob joining us?”
“Actually, we’re going to have dinner in town. It’s the seventh anniversary of our first date.”
Candace and Jacob had been married for the last six years. They’d met when Candace had come to work at Wade Ranch and fell in love almost at first sight. They had the sort of solid relationship that Liam had never had the chance to see as he was growing up.
“You keep track of that sort of thing?” Liam teased, watching as Candace began fixing Maggie’s bottle.
“It’s keeping track of that sort of thing that keeps our relationship healthy.”
Liam accepted the bottle Candace handed him, his thoughts wrapped around what she’d said. “What else keeps your relationship healthy?”
If the seriousness of his tone surprised her, the housekeeper didn’t let on. “Trust and honesty. Jacob and I agreed not to let things fester. It’s not always easy to talk about what bugs us, especially big issues like his sister’s negative attitude toward me and the fact that I hate holding hands in public. Thank goodness we’re both morning people and like the same television shows, or we’d never have made it this far.”
As Liam watched Maggie suck down the formula, he let Candace’s words wash over him. He’d never actually been in a relationship, healthy or otherwise. Oh, he dated a lot of women, some of them for long periods of time, but as he’d realized a year ago, not one of them wanted more than to have a good time.
At first he’d been shocked to discover that he’d let his personal life remain so shallow. Surely a thirty-year-old man should have had at least one serious relationship he could look back on. Liam hadn’t been able to point to a single woman who’d impacted his life in any way.
