The Cowboy's Way(7)

“Mom-mom,” Seth said, sitting up to pat her arm.

She could tell from the tremor in his voice that he was about to cry and she knew why. For an almost two-year-old, he was a sound sleeper and had slept through the night since he was three months old. But he wasn’t used to sleeping anywhere but his own bed, in his own room, and he was probably disoriented by the strange surroundings.

“It’s all right, sweetie.”

Rubbing his back, she hoped he would settle back down and sleep for a little while longer before he insisted they get up for breakfast. Since coming down with the flu, it had been a real struggle to take care of a toddler, as well as a barn full of horses by herself, and she couldn’t help but want to get a little more sleep while she could. Fortunately, it had been a mild case of the illness or she would have never been able to manage on her own. But without being able to get enough rest, it was taking her twice as long to get over it.

Just as Seth closed his eyes and seemed to be drifting back to sleep, a tap on the door caused him to jerk awake and start to cry.

Shivering from the chills and feeling as if her legs were made of lead, Heather picked up her crying son and got out of bed. Without thinking about the fact that she was wearing nothing more than Malloy’s flannel shirt and her panties, she walked over to unlock and open the door. “What?”

“I thought you and your little boy might like something to eat,” Malloy said, holding out a tray of food.

If she had felt better, she might have tried not to sound so impatient. She might have acknowledged his thoughtfulness. At the moment, just the thought of food made her stomach queasy and she wished he hadn’t disturbed her son.

“Th-thank you, but...” Her voice trailed off when she noticed his expression. “Is s-something wrong?”

“Let me help you back to bed,” he said, brushing past her to set the tray on the dresser. “I’d ask if you still have a fever, but I already know the answer.”

“H-how?” She wished her teeth would stop chattering like a cheap pair of castanets.

Turning back, he took Seth from her, then put his arm around her shoulders and guided her back to the bed. “Just a hunch,” he answered, smiling.

Once she was back in bed, she noticed that Seth had stopped crying and was staring at the tray of food Malloy had set on the dresser. “Mom-mom, eat.”

Groaning, she started to get up, but Malloy stopped her. “I’m assuming that means he’s hungry?” When she nodded, he pointed to the tray. “I’ve got toast and scrambled eggs. Do you think he’ll let me feed him while you rest?”

She barely managed to nod before she pulled the comforter around herself and closed her eyes. If she felt better, she would have asked why he was being so nice to her, instead of thinking about how handsome he was. Her breath caught. Where had that come from?

If she was thinking T. J. Malloy was good-looking, her fever had to have made her delirious. That was the only explanation. If she could just rest for a moment, she’d be able to get up and take over feeding her son, as well as return to her senses.





Two

When Heather opened her eyes again, she noticed that the sun was shining through a part in the curtain and Seth was sound asleep on the bed beside her. Looking a little closer, she noticed he was wearing a pair of pajamas she had never seen before and his copper-red hair had been neatly combed to the side.

How long had she been asleep and where had the clothes her son was wearing come from?

Glancing at the clock on the nightstand, Heather couldn’t believe that it was already midafternoon. She had slept for eight straight hours. She couldn’t remember getting that much sleep at one stretch since before Seth was born.

Her heart stalled. Had T. J. Malloy taken care of her son?

She vaguely remembered a knock waking Seth and her opening the door to find Malloy standing on the other side with a tray of food. Had she dreamed that he had helped her back to bed?

When she realized that all she had on was his shirt and her panties, Heather closed her eyes and hoped when she opened them she would somehow be transported to her own bed in the Circle W ranch house and that the past twenty-four hours would prove to be nothing more than a dream. But aside from her embarrassment over a stranger seeing her wearing so little, she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the fact that Malloy had taken care of Seth. She didn’t really know her neighbor and from the previous run-ins she’d had with him, she wasn’t sure he was someone she wanted around her son. When Malloy had brought her stallion back the few times Magic Dancer had jumped the fence between their properties, the man had been the biggest grouch she had ever met.