The Cowboy's Little Girl

“But I ate one at Easter.”

Tucker’s brow lifted.

“Real rabbits don’t have bright yellow fur,” Autumn went on to explain to his daughter. “Only candy bunnies do.” She turned to him, explaining further, “She’s referring to marshmallow Peeps.”

How did she get all of that out of his daughter’s question? Did the ability to decipher a child’s way of thinking just come naturally for some, or was it something one learned over time? He prayed it was the latter, because it clearly wasn’t instinctive for him. Autumn’s clarification had made things clearer on his end, however.

He turned to Blue, who was watching them from where she remained seated at the table. “They call it yellow rabbitbrush because the yellow flowers that grow on them are a favorite treat of jackrabbits.”

“Oh,” his daughter said with a sigh, sounding disappointed.

If he could have, he would have covered the bushes they were going to see in marshmallow bunnies. But those edible delights were somewhat scarce in October. However, he had something else up his sleeve that he was fairly sure his daughter would be just as excited over.

“We might even stop by your grandma and grandpa’s place to collect some eggs from the chickens in their henhouse on the way home.”

“I have a grandma and grandpa?” she squeaked excitedly.

“You sure do,” he said with a grin. “They’re not home right now because they’re on a trip but you’ll get to meet them very soon.”

“Do their chickens live in a house like yours?”

“A much smaller version,” he answered with a chuckle. “Now scoot and get those hands washed up, or you’re going to end up with chicken feathers sticking to your fingers.”

With a giggle, she hopped down and raced from the kitchen.

He looked to Autumn. “You might want to have her change into a pair of jeans.”

“Blue loves her dresses,” she said, slender brows drawing together in what appeared to be irritation at his request. “Most little girls do. And if you’re trying to make her into something she’s not—”

“We’re going on a hike,” he reminded her. “With plants and trees and rocky ground. Probably not the best conditions for that pretty little dress she’s wearing. But since you are her legal guardian, it’s your call.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said with a sigh. “I thought you were trying to...” Her words trailed off as she searched for what Tucker assumed was a less accusatory explanation.

“Turn her into a cowgirl?” he supplied.

She lowered her gaze guiltily.

“Considering she’s mine and Summer’s,” he continued, “that’s bound to come naturally. But I won’t force my daughter to be someone she doesn’t want to be when she comes to live here.”

Her averted gaze snapped up to lock with his. “That transition, should it come at all, will be done in a slow, well-thought-out manner to assure Blue suffers no long-term emotional trauma from being uprooted from the only life she’s ever known.”

What about the emotional trauma that had been done to him? But this wasn’t about his issues. It was about what was best for his little girl. He understood Autumn’s reluctance to turn over custody of her niece after being such an integral part of his daughter’s life, but this was something he wasn’t backing down from. “I agree we need to make the transition for Blue as smooth as possible, but you need to start preparing yourself, as well. My daughter will be in my life and I’m not referring to brief holiday visits.”

“I could drag things out in court if it came down to it,” she replied.

“But you won’t.”

She shook her head, and with a resigned sigh said, “No. I wouldn’t put her through that. If you prove capable of taking care of my niece, I will put my trust in the Lord to watch over her when I’m not here to do so. However, my niece will be in my life,” she said, repeating his earlier words. “And I’m not referring to brief holiday visits.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said honestly, admiring her fire when it came to protecting Blue. “My daughter is your family, too. Is that what you’re worked up about? That possibility that I’ll cut you out of her life?”

She turned away.

“Autumn, I wasn’t the one who walked away from my marriage. Summer was.” He frowned. “I’ll be the first to admit that we were both too young to really know what we were getting into, but I would’ve done my best to make things work between us if she had only given me a chance. Baby and all.”

Her shoulders shuddered, and he knew by her silence that she was fighting back tears.

“Autumn...” he said, reaching out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. He understood her pain. She had already lost her sister. She feared losing Blue as well, something he would never do to her.

She held up a hand, but remained standing as she was. “I’m okay. A little worse for wear after a lot of sleepless nights, but I’ll pull it together.”

Her conviction was strong, and he imagined she would do just that. Autumn seemed to have an inner strength his wife had never quite mastered. Hers was carefully controlled. Her decisions well-thought-out, where her sister hadn’t always taken the time to consider the effect her words or her actions might have had on those around her.

He forced himself to let his hand fall away, but he remained where he was. “I can only imagine how hard this has been on you. Losing your sister that way. Suddenly having to take on the responsibility of raising her child. Not to mention the financial burden...”

She turned to face him. The thick tears looming in her light blue eyes made them appear as if they were liquid silver. “There wasn’t anything sudden about it. I gave up the real estate business I had built up back home in Lone Tree to come to Wyoming and help my sister with her little girl, both emotionally and financially, long before the Lord called Summer home. I found part-time work as a Realtor, planning my appointments around Summer’s waitressing job so one of us could be home with Blue at all times. Everything was perfect until...” A sob caught in her throat.

His heart ached for this woman who had dedicated so much of her life to caring for his daughter. “They were blessed to have you.”

“No,” she countered without hesitation. “I was blessed to have them. They filled an emptiness I had inside me that I never knew was there.” Her teary gaze drifted toward the empty doorway. “That little girl is everything to me. I love her with all my heart and I will do right by her.” Her teary gaze returned to him. “So, natural father or not, you’re gonna have to climb a very high mountain to reach the point where I feel she’d be better off with you than with myself and the life she already has in Cheyenne.”

She’d already made that point quite clear, but he wisely kept that thought to himself. She had a right to feel the way she did. He was a stranger. A man who she had believed for years had done her sister wrong. And while he was the one who had truly been ill-treated, he intended to put his all into winning Autumn over. She deserved that much, knowing now the selfless sacrifices she’d made in her own life to make Blue’s better.

“Whatever it takes,” he said softly, fighting the urge to brush away a stray tear from her cheek. At that moment, she looked weary and vulnerable. Not at all like the lioness protecting her cub that he’d seen her be.

“I should go check on Blue.”

“Make sure you both wear comfortable shoes,” he called out as she started from the kitchen. “We’ll be hiking up a trail that has bits of stone scattered about it to get to the flowers I promised to show Blue.”

“We will.” She paused in the doorway and cast a glance back over her shoulder. “Thank you for including me.” Before Tucker could reply, she was gone.

* * *

Autumn sat quietly, looking out the passenger-side window of Tucker’s truck as he drove them across his property. Not that she would have had a chance to say much with her niece chattering away from her car seat behind them. Tucker’s warm, husky laughter told her he didn’t mind Blue’s constant barrage of questions and comments one bit. In fact, and much to her dismay, he was doing and saying all the right things where his daughter was concerned, and Blue was eating her daddy’s attention right up.

“I didn’t think you had any nieces or nephews,” Autumn muttered with a glance his way. That was the only thing that could explain his comfort level around Blue. Yet, Summer hadn’t mentioned Blue having any cousins on Tucker’s side.

He shook his head. “I don’t. My brothers are as single as they come, with no plans to settle down anytime soon.”

She frowned at his reply. That meant Tucker was just a natural with children. She should have known that by how quickly her niece had taken to him.

“I take it one of my brothers caught your interest this morning.”

The question was so unexpected, Autumn found herself choking. “What?” She turned to find him attempting to smother a grin, that lone Wade dimple that Tucker and both of his brothers had inherited in the family gene pool etched deep into his tanned cheek.

He cast a quick glance in her direction. “You looked a little put out to hear that my brothers are committed bachelors,” he explained, his gaze shifting back to the road, or, in their case, the pasture ahead.

Confusion must have lit her features, because he added, “You frowned when I made mention of their firm commitment to bachelorhood.”

“What’s interest?” Blue piped up from the back seat of the extended cab.

Autumn cast a disapproving glare his way. Leave it to her niece to lose interest in the scenery outside just when Tucker had made his offhanded comment. “Children miss nothing,” she reminded him.

“I see that,” he said, that devastatingly handsome grin still intact.

She had no doubt that his smile was what had first drawn her sister to this man. Rugged good looks aside, it was that playful curve of his lips with that lone-dimpled grin, one that exuded both humor and confidence and put others at ease, which was nearly irresistible. Nearly. But Tucker Wade was the enemy. At least as far as she was concerned, he was. The man was stealing Blue’s affection away with his silly jokes and eagerness to go that extra mile to make his daughter happy.

“Will you look at that?” Tucker announced, pointing toward a sparsely wooded hillside a short distance ahead, one made up of a few scattered pines, dirt, rocks and splotches of dried-up grass.

“What?” Blue said excitedly, tipping sideways in an attempt to see out the front window of Tucker’s truck, her view mostly blocked by the passenger seat Autumn was in.

Glancing up at Blue in the rearview mirror, Tucker smiled. “The rabbitbrush is just over the top of that hillside.”

Autumn gasped, her head snapping around in his direction. “Are you telling me you intend to drive us up that mountain?”

Tucker chuckled. “It’s a hill, not a mountain. And a poor excuse of a hill at that.”

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