Free Cowboy Daddy by Susan Mallery Page A

so hard to keep it together after Ellen had died. On top of those feelings had been the nagging need for the one thing he could never have: a child of his own. What the hell kind of a man couldn’t even father a child?
    “Your dad is being cautious with you, Laurel,” Anne said, rising and standing behind the girl. She rested her hands on his daughter’s shoulders. He hated the possessiveness of the gesture. “You should be pleased he cares so much.”
    Jake was about to inform her that he didn’t need her help when Laurel twisted free. “He doesn’t care about me. If he cared he wouldn’t have taken me away from all my friends. He wouldn’t take me back to that horrible house. He wouldn’t take me away from you. I’m staying with Annie, Daddy.”
    “You’re not and that’s final.” He slammed the can on the bar.
    Father and daughter stared at each other. His heart broke in the face of her anger, but he wouldn’t let her see how she was tearing him apart. How in God’s name was he going to raise a teenage girl on his own? When had loving her more than anything ceased to be enough?
    “You can’t make me,” she cried. “I’ll run away and keep running away until you can’t find me.” She tore across the room and slammed her door shut behind her.
    He closed his eyes at the harsh sound. He’d earned her wrath, he acknowledged to himself. The shock of Ellen’s death, his guilt at being free of their failing marriage, the second-guessing about what he could have done differently had taken their toll. Too many nights he’d stayed alone in his study wondering, mourning, not paying attention to his growing daughter. She’d become a stranger to him. She was the only thing good and decent in his life, and he’d lost her.
    “I can fix this,” Anne said. She crossed the carpeted floor to the bar. With her head held high and her chin thrust out defiantly, she looked like a warrior preparing for battle. “I’ll tell her that I don’t want her to stay with me.”
    “Is it the truth?”
    “No.” Anne gave him a faint smile. “But as you pointed out earlier, there is a lot of work involved with raising a child, even a half-grown one. It would require me to make changes in my life. I’d like to think that I would handle it all beautifully, but that’s not true.”
    “I appreciate the offer,” he said, “but it won’t work.”
    “Why? She won’t want to come if she thinks she’s not welcome.”
    “Laurel doesn’t need another rejection in her life. Especially not from you.” He grimaced. “As her birth mother you’ve been vested with almost magical powers. If that image was destroyed, I don’t know what would happen to her. Whatever my feelings on the matter, Laurel comes first.” He was tempted by her offer, but he owed his daughter better than that.
    “The problem is time,” Anne said. “If only it was the beginning of summer rather than the end. I’m sure that after a few weeks of hanging around with me, Laurel would see that I wasn’t the answer to all her problems.”
    “You start to wear a little thin after the honeymoon stage, Baker?” he asked.
    She folded her arms and leaned one hip on the bar. “Not always, Masters” she said, then grinned. “But I think I might lose my magical powers.”
    He relaxed a little. She was right. Laurel wouldn’t take all that long to become disenchanted. It didn’t even have to go that far. He was willing to compromise and let Laurel visit Anne. She just couldn’t live there permanently.
    “Why would you be willing to lose status with her?” he asked, resting his forearms on the bar.
    “Because I want a real relationship with Laurel. Not a pretend one. She has fantasies about me. I’m bound to disappoint her.” She shrugged. “Once that happens and is behind us, then we can get on with the business of being friends.”
    He wanted to believe her, but he couldn’t. There was too much at stake. “That’s all you want?”
    “That’s