Free Cowboy for Keeps by Cathy McDavid

my
ex-fiancé took your job. It couldn’t get more complicated.”
    She didn’t add that Conner was struggling financially and had
yet to find a decent job. Two more land mines.
    “Have a good night, Dallas.” Ignoring everything they’d just
agreed on, he leaned in and gave her a chaste peck on the cheek. So much for
maintaining a strictly professional relationship. She didn’t pull away. “I’ll
call you tomorrow. Let you know what the authorities say about the mare and
colt.”
    “Thanks.” She climbed into her car.
    He stood back and waited. The engine didn’t turn over right
away, grinding once, then twice. He was about to suggest she pop the hood when
the engine suddenly caught and roared to life.
    The moment her car disappeared around the corner of the barn,
Conner got back on the ATV. He didn’t drive up the trail to join Gavin and
Ethan, he practically flew.
    He’d kissed Dallas Sorrenson. Again! He might regret it later,
but right now, he was pretty damn happy.

Chapter Six
    “Thanks, Sage. Dinner was delicious.” Dallas rubbed her
full stomach. “If I keep eating like I have lately, I’ll be as fat as a house
soon.”
    “Enjoy yourself. Being pregnant is one of the few times in your
life you get to indulge. Then it’s back to dieting. I still can’t fit into my
prebaby jeans.”
    Gavin’s gaze took in his wife from head to toe, the look in his
eyes that of a man who appreciated what he saw.
    Dallas wondered if Richard ever looked at her that same way,
with such unabashed longing. She thought not.
    Conner did. She’d seen him when he thought her attention was
elsewhere. Just as she feared she looked at him.
    “I’ll help you with the dishes,” she said, when Sage collected
the nearly empty lasagna pan and rose from the table.
    “Nonsense. That’s the girls’ job. Right, girls? You can show
Gavin and Conner the pictures you brought once we clear this mess away.”
    On cue, Gavin’s daughter, Cassie, and Sage’s daughter, Isa,
pushed away from their chairs and scooped up more dishes from the table,
obedient but not excited about the prospect of fulfilling their nightly chore.
Cassie’s faithful companion, Blue, a happy-go-lucky cattle dog, jumped up from
his place beneath her chair and trailed after her.
    At thirteen, she was poised for transformation from girlhood to
womanhood, and eagerly anticipating high school in the fall. She’d talked of
little else during dinner. Free from typical teenage drama, she was patient with
her seven-year-old stepsister and clearly enraptured with her brand-new baby
brother, who was currently enjoying the attention of “Uncle” Conner.
    Dallas observed the pair as unobtrusively as possible while
retrieving her portfolio from the counter.
    Who’d have thought it? Conner was a natural with babies.
    He cradled little Emilio, or Milo, as everyone called him,
close to his chest. The baby, bathed, dressed in pajamas and swathed in a cotton
blanket, resembled a miniature mummy. He cooed and gurgled contentedly, perhaps
because he heard Conner’s heart beating.
    “Milo looks happy,” Dallas observed.
    “He definitely has a preference for Conner.” Gavin wore a half
serious, half joking expression on his face.
    Conner beamed broadly. “That’s because I’m better looking than
you.”
    “Don’t listen to him.” Sage patted Gavin’s shoulder. “He’s just
had more practice with babies than you.”
    “Practice? You?” Dallas blurted, before catching herself. Did
Conner have a child she didn’t know about?
    “It’s been a while, but my two sisters are a lot younger than
me. Fifteen and thirteen years. I was the only guy in high school who could
dribble a basketball with one hand and bottle feed a baby with the other.”
    “You didn’t mind babysitting?” Dallas was intrigued. Conner had
mentioned sisters before, but she hadn’t realized they were significantly
younger than him.
    “It was torture. At first.” His cocky grin softened to a