Free One Night with the Boss by Teresa Southwick Page B

puppy or calf.” He shrugged. “It’s not for wimps.”
    “And you did it all alone.”
    “I had Martha Spooner to watch him during the day. She mostly does housekeeping work now, but when Ty was little she’d come by because a lot of ranch work isn’t baby friendly. But nights it was Ty and me.”
    “He’s a great kid. You’re doing a terrific job with him.”
    “Thanks.”
    Ronnie the waitress brought their burgers and fries. “Anything else I can get you? Ketchup? Steak sauce? Another beer?”
    “Nothing for me.”
    “Me either,” Cab said.
    They ate in silence for a few moments, then Brady grabbed some napkins from the table dispenser and wiped his mouth. “Where is Ty tonight?”
    “Sleepover at C.J.’s house.”
    Brady knew he meant Jill Beck Stone’s little boy who’d been adopted by Dr. Adam Stone, the man who relocated to Blackwater Lake and rented the apartment upstairs from her. Now they had a baby and were building a sprawling house in the same luxury home development where his was located. There was another kid who’d spent some time in a single parent home, but C.J. and his mom got lucky. He couldn’t help thinking about Maggie.
    He and his sister had lost their own dad far too soon, but at least not in his formative years. Brady tried to be there for his niece as much as possible but would that be enough?
    He looked at Cabot. “I’m concerned about my niece not growing up with two parents.”
    “Yeah.” Cabot finished the last of his hamburger then squirted ketchup on the plate for the fries. “It had to be tough on Maggie losing her husband.”
    “I had my folks when I was a kid, but you’re dealing with it on your own. Any words of wisdom?”
    “You were lucky.” There was more his friend didn’t say, but his eyes narrowed with memories. “The way I see it, life is about playing the hand you’re dealt. It’s about building character. I figure I’ve got plenty of it to spare. Do I wish I could give Ty a childhood that’s normal? Yeah. Of course. But I had no say. That horse left the barn when my wife walked away from her infant son.”
    In a nutshell, that was why Cabot Dixon wasn’t looking for or interested in a woman. Brady felt the same way—but for a different reason. Caring about someone left you open and vulnerable to a pain that could happen anytime, anyplace, for any reason. So he didn’t let himself care.
    Take Olivia, for instance. She was leaving and he expected that after she was gone nothing would feel normal. Then again, his normal had changed when he’d kissed her.
    Before that kiss, her quitting would have been about losing an exceptional employee. Now he had to find a way to go back to the place where losing her couldn’t touch him deep down inside.

Chapter Six
    O livia pulled her compact car to a stop in front of her parents’ home, a two-story house three doors down from Maureen O’Keefe’s. This was where she’d grown up, three doors down from where Brady had lived. She’d nursed her crush on him in the upstairs dormer bedroom, a stone’s throw away from where he’d spent the nights of his youth.
    The home where Olivia had grown up was a white clapboard, four-bedroom place with hunter-green trim, shutters and front door. There was a wrought-iron glider on the covered porch where her parents sat in the evening when the weather was nice. More often than not, Brady’s mom would wander over and sit on one of the cushioned chairs that were there for neighbors who dropped by.
    She turned off the engine and drew in a deep breath against the stunning pain squeezing her heart. It suddenly hit her that when she moved away to California all of this, everything familiar, would be far away. Her whole life would change.
    But wasn’t that what she’d wanted?
    Before Brady kissed her, the answer to that question was a resounding yes. Now? The only thing she knew for sure was a deep and persistent confusion. And that she wasn’t looking forward to this