LITMIR.BIZ

       This book is dedicated to the babes:Coco, Ann, Terri, Mina, Rose, Peggy, Sharon, Jane, Kathy, Kathy, Kim, Sandy, Catherine, Terry.You are a constant source of inspiration to me.

Chapter One

      His daughter hated him.

      Benjamin Garner carefully opened the front door to his sprawling two-story house and paused. Even though he was six foot four and had been described as two hundred pounds of muscle due to the hard work he put in on his cattle ranch of over ten thousand acres, he’d become a stranger in his own home.

      Why? Because his five-month-old daughter couldn’t stand him.

      Every time he came toward her, she gave a shriek that would wake the entire country of New Zealand, and New Zealand was a good fifteen-hour flight away from the town of Silver City, Texas.

      He stepped as lightly as he could in his boots. Coco Jordan, the young nanny who had seemed to work magic with baby Emma from the first time the two had met, had assured him that Emma could sleep through regular environmental noises, but he didn’t quite believe her.

      Sometimes Benjamin wondered if his daughter had special powers and could smell him or hear him breathe even from the front door when she was upstairs in the nursery. Benjamin scowled at himself. This just showed what a nutcase he was becoming.

      His dog, Boomer, limped out to greet him. Boomer had been one of his best herding dogs, but after he’d gotten his leg twisted in some barbed wire, he couldn’t run fast enough. Benjamin figured the dog had earned his retirement, so Boomer spent his days trying to catch scraps from his housekeeper’s cooking and dozing on the sofa. Benjamin reached down to give the mixed-breed dog a rub on his head, but was quiet about it. At least his dog liked him.

      Heading for his office at the back of the house, he strode past the kitchen.

      “Ah!”

      His stomach knotted. He knew that sound. He knew that voice. He kept on moving.

      “Benjamin.” The low, sweet voice of the nanny called to him. “You can’t avoid her forever.”

      “Ah!” Emma said.

      Taking a deep breath, he turned and faced the two of them, standing in the kitchen doorway. His daughter stared at him with big blue suspicious eyes, while Coco was all soft, pretty encouragement. Emma wasn’t screaming—yet. Maybe she was just gearing up for it.

      “She just finished eating, so she should be in a good mood. Don’t you want to hold her?”

      Hell, no, he thought. A rattlesnake was easier to handle. He shifted his hat back and shrugged. “I haven’t washed up.”

      “That’s okay. A little dirt won’t kill her.”

      “Okay,” he said, opening his arms, preparing himself for his daughter’s rejection of him. “I’ll hold her.”

      Coco moved closer and Benjamin noticed that Emma’s eyes seemed to grow larger with each step she took. “Here you go,” she murmured to Emma. “This is your big strong daddy and he will always take care of you. There’s no need to be afraid of him. He’s on your side.”

      Coco gently placed Emma in his arms and he drew her close to his chest, holding his breath. Emma stared up at him, her eyes wide. He counted silently. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

      She pressed her lips together and glanced toward Coco. As soon as her lower lip jutted out in a perfectly defined pout, he knew what was coming. His daughter let out a high-pitched sound of distress that quickly grew in volume. He met Coco’s discouraged gaze and shook his head.

      “Here,” he said, handing Emma back to the nanny. “There’s no need to torture the poor thing. That’s why I hired you.”

      Coco patted Emma on the back in a soothing motion. “But we have to get her used to you. We have to find a way—”

      “Maybe by the time she hits her first birthday, she’ll like me better,” he said and turned away, tamping down his own sense of discouragement.

      “Wait,” Coco said, and he felt her hand on his arm.

      He glanced over his shoulder.

      “Maybe she doesn’t like your hat,” she said. “Maybe if you take it off, she’ll—”

      “I’ll give it a try next time,” he said. “Right now, I need to enter some stock updates on the computer. Later,” he said and strode the rest of the way to his office.

      His muscles twitched. He could manage this ranch with one hand tied behind his back, but he couldn’t hold his daughter for even one minute without scaring her so much she shrieked in fear. Somehow, someday, he needed to change that, but he didn’t know how to do it.

      He scrubbed his forehead with his hand. What had Brooke done? He wondered if his ex-lover had told Emma he was a horrid man. He wondered if, before Brooke had died riding on the back of her most recent lover’s motorcycle, she had corrupted Emma’s brain. Was that even possible?

      He and Brooke had shared a sexual affair that had lasted a weekend. He’d come to his senses, as had she. Until weeks later, when Brooke had learned she was pregnant. Benjamin had immediately proposed, even though he and Brooke had both known they didn’t belong together. She’d refused his proposal but accepted his support. He’d reluctantly realized that he would be a twice-a-month father. He only saw Emma three times before her mother’s death.

      Suddenly he’d become a full-time single father. Who made his daughter cry at the very sight of him.

      His gut clenched again. Sometimes he wondered if he would ever hold her without her screaming in

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