LITMIR.BIZ

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appliances were fairly new and were in pristine shape. No dishes in the sink, nothing on the counter but a toaster and coffee machine. Ty kept a neat home.

      Maddie was glad the job required her to cook for this small family. It meant she wouldn’t have to share a dining room with Violet and Landon when he came to visit. After all, the newly engaged couple deserved their privacy.

      “Good morning,” she said. “Ready for breakfast?”

      “I guess,” Darcy said, darting a quick glance at her father.

      Maddie looked at Ty also, struck by the mixture of confusion, hurt and longing she saw there. Her heart went out to him.

      Maddie knew exactly how both Darcy and Ty felt. She had not known about her sister, he had not known about his daughter. Why did people do that? Keep families apart? It hurt to know her mother had so easily walked away and that her dad had never mentioned his other two children.

      Pushing away the thoughts that spun in her mind daily, she focused on Darcy. Was it any more difficult to find the father she’d been told was dead was alive and had never known she existed?

      Maddie hoped the little girl would bounce back faster than she was doing with the stunning news about her own family. Darcy had lost her mother only a week and a half ago when a drunk driver had rammed her car. Her grandparents were out of the country and no one had reached them yet. She wound up on the doorstep of a father who had never known she’d been born. How confusing and scary was that?

      Ty looked at her. “We’ll try this for a couple of days. If you can’t hack it, I’ll find someone else.”

      “I’ll do my best,” she said, hoping he would genuinely give her a chance and not merely bide his time until he could fire her. “What’s your favorite breakfast?” she asked the little girl, hoping she could do something to ease the pain of loss and set this child on the right path to recovering from her grief.

      “Pancakes,” Darcy said, her forlorn expression tugging at Maddie’s heartstrings.

      “One stack of hotcakes coming up.”

      Ty poured himself a mug of coffee and gestured to the machine, which Maddie took as an invitation to help herself. She nodded and then took a few minutes getting familiar with Ty’s kitchen. She felt his eyes on her the entire time. Gathering all the ingredients, she enlisted Darcy’s help as they prepared the batter. Soon golden pancakes were filling plates. Ty had rocked back on the chair he sat on and balanced on the back two legs, watching her without saying a word.

      Once or twice Darcy had glanced his way, halfway curious, halfway uncertain.

      “All ready,” Maddie said, placing another golden pancake on a stack she kept warm in the oven.

      Ty’s chair came down with a thump that startled her.

      She looked at him. His dark eyes stared back into hers, then he nodded.

      If that was the best he could do, she’d take it.

      “What do you want us to do today?” she asked him.

      “You’re in charge of her,” he said, eating the pancakes, taking a sip of the hot coffee.

      “Can I see the horses?” Darcy asked.

      “Sure. We’ll go to the barn when we finish eating.” Maddie made the suggestion but watched Ty to make sure he was okay with that.

      As the silence dragged, Maddie began to get annoyed. “We need to talk about this job,” she said.

      He looked at her. “What about it?”

      “I need to know what you expect, what my duties will entail. I have never done this before.”

      He looked exasperated. “That much was obvious when Violet first suggested the arrangement. Mainly watch Darcy—keep her safe and give her something to do.”

      “And fix the meals.”

      He quirked a brow. “That a problem?”

      “No. Not at all. I like to cook. I imagine you like plain food.”

      “As compared to what?” he asked, watching her warily.

      “Cordon bleu.”

      “Can you cook like that?”

      She grinned and shook her head. “No, but I can make some fancy stuff.”

      Darcy watched the exchange with wide eyes.

      “Plain wholesome foods and plenty of it,” he said.

      “Ummm. Do you ever cook out back?” She’d caught a glimpse of a grill when she’d passed the window over the sink a few minutes ago.

      “Most of the summer that’s what I do if I don’t eat with the men—steaks, mostly.”

      Figured, working on a cattle ranch.

      Once the meal was finished, Ty surprised Maddie by clearing his dish and cup, putting them in the sink.

      He lifted his cowboy hat off a peg and plopped it on. He walked toward the back door. “I have chores to do.” He opened the door and turned to look at her. “Tell Violet if you need anything. She knows how to reach me on the range.”

      Maddie swallowed hard and nodded. He intimidated her. There were no two ways about it. But his daughter was adorable. Her straight brown hair framed a heart-shaped face. Her dark brown eyes watched Maddie with a somber expression. She looked confused and unhappy and sad. Her mother had just died. That was a hard thing to deal with at any age.

      Hadn’t her own mother—the woman she’d always thought of as her mother—died suddenly when Maddie had been a few years younger than Darcy? It had been a solo car accident, the vehicle spinning out of control on a rain-slicked street.

      For a moment, Maddie remembered her lost, confused and sad self at age five. If she hadn’t had her brothers she didn’t know what she would have done. Darcy had no one.

      Ty looked at Darcy. “Mind Maddie, hear?”

      She nodded solemnly.

      The door closed and Maddie looked at Darcy. Memories of her own mother, of her loss so many years ago, had been at the forefront these last few weeks. Nothing anyone could say would bring her mother back, nor Darcy’s. It was up to them to move forward, as hard as that was. She smiled gently at the little girl.

      “I’ll do the dishes while you get dressed, then we can head for the barn.”

      “Okay.” Darcy dashed down the hall.

      Running water in the sink, Maddie thought about Ty and how hard it must have been to suddenly discover he had a daughter.

      “His wife should have told him,” Maddie murmured to herself. From what Violet had said, if Darcy’s grandparents hadn’t been out of touch it was doubtful the state would have even looked for Ty.

      It was a big thing to have a parent one never knew about. Maddie gazed out the window, feeling the loss anew of her mother. To discover that Sharla Wallace hadn’t been her biological mother still stunned her. Closing her eyes, for a second she could almost feel her loving touch. Feel the love that always enveloped her when her mom hugged her or rocked her in that big rocking chair. It had been twenty years since she’d felt her loving hands, heard her laughter, listened to her stories of when she’d been a little girl.

      Now she’d learned Belle Colby was her mother, her biological mother.

      She still had difficulty absorbing that. Maybe it would be easier if Belle was at the ranch and could offer an explanation for so many of the questions she had. In a wry twist of fate, only a few days before Violet had shown up in Fort Worth and set the entire course of events in motion, Belle had been thrown from a horse and suffered a traumatic brain injury. She was still in a coma six weeks later.

      “I’m ready,” Darcy said, coming back into the kitchen

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