Cowboy Daddy. Carolyne Aarsen

was this beautiful woman doing in his house?

      She held up her hands as if to appease him. “Your sister, Isabelle, invited me in. Said you were looking for a housekeeper?” The husky note in her voice created a curious sense of intimacy.

      Kip groaned inwardly. He’d taken down the notice too late. “And you are?”

      “My name is Nicole.”

      “Kip Cosgrove.” He held out his hand. Her handshake was firm, which gave him a bit more confidence.

      “I’m sorry about coming straight into the house,” she said, “but like I said, your sister invited me in, and I thought I should help out right away.”

      She looked away from him to the boys. Her gentle smile for them softened the angles of her face and turned her from attractive to stunning.

      He pushed down his reaction. He had to keep his focus.

      “So how long have you been here?” Or, in other words, how long had Isabelle been gone?

      “A couple of hours. I managed to get the laundry done and I cleaned the house.”

      In spite of his overall opposition to Isabelle’s hare-brained scheme, Kip felt a loosening of tension in his shoulders. He and Isabelle had had a big argument about the laundry and housework before he went to Calgary. Now it was done.

      He’d had too many things going on lately. His responsibility for the boys, his mother, Isabelle. The ranch seemed to be a distant fourth in his priorities, which made him even more tense.

      Maybe the idea of hiring a housekeeper wasn’t so far-fetched.

      “You realize my mother has had surgery?” he asked, still not sure he wanted a stranger in the house but also fully aware of his sister’s shortcomings in the housekeeping department.

      “I’ve already met her.” Her smile seemed to underline her lack of objection. “Isabelle gave me some of the particulars.”

      “Will you be able to come only certain hours, or do you have other obligations?” He still had his reservations, but since she had come all the way here and had done a bunch of work already, he should ask a few questions.

      “I’m not married, if that’s what you’re asking,” Nicole said, brushing a wisp of hair back from her face with one graceful motion.

      The gold hoops in her ears caught the sun, as did the rings on her manicured hands.

      She didn’t look like she’d done much housekeeping. His first impression would have pegged her as a fashion model or businesswoman.

      But then he’d been wrong about people before. Case in point: his one-time girlfriend, Nancy. The one who took off as soon as she found out he had been named the guardian of his nephews.

      Nicole looked back at the boys, who hadn’t said a peep since she had appeared in the doorway. “I’m guessing you are Justin and Tristan?” she asked.

      The boys, while boisterous and outgoing around family, were invariably shy around strangers, especially since their father, Scott’s death. They clung to Kip and leaned against his legs.

      “It’s really nice to meet you at…meet you.” Nicole crouched down to the boys’ level. He caught the scent of lilacs, saw the curve of her cheek as she glanced from one boy to the other. Her hand reached out, as if to touch them, then retreated.

      Something about the gesture comforted him. She seemed drawn to the boys, yet gave them space.

      “My nephews are five. They’ll be going to school this fall.” He tightened his grip on the boys’ hands. “Though I hate the thought of putting the little guys on the school bus.” Why he told her that, he wasn’t sure.

      “I told Uncle Kip we have to stay home. To help him with the chores,” Tristan said.

      “I don’t know much about farm chores,” Nicole said, glancing from one boy to the other. “What kinds of things do you have to do?”

      “We have to feed the dog,” Tristan offered quietly. “She has puppies.”

      “You have puppies?” Nicole’s eyes grew wide. “That’s pretty neat.”

      “And we have to help with the baby calves,” Justin added, as if unwilling to be outdone by his brother. “But we’re not allowed to ride the horses anymore.” He shot a hopeful glance Kip’s way but he ignored it. The boys had been campaigning all summer to ride again, but there was no way he was putting anyone he loved on a horse. Not since Scott’s accident.

      They were too young and too precious.

      “Now all I have to do is figure out which one of you is Tristan and which is Justin.” Nicole looked from one to the other, and the tenderness in her smile eased away Kip’s second thoughts.

      “He’s Tristan,” Justin said, pointing to his brother. “And I’m Justin. We’re twins.”

      “I see that. So how should I tell you apart?” Nicole asked.

      “Justin has a little brown mark on his back. In the shape of a horseshoe,” Tristan offered.

      “Do you think it was because you were born on a ranch?”

      “Wasn’t borned on the ranch. I was borned in the hospital in Halifax.” He sighed. “My daddy is dead, you know.”

      “Dead?” Nicole frowned. “What do you mean?”

      “He died when he got on Uncle Kip’s horse.”

      Tristan’s comment was said in all innocence, but again the guilt associated with his brother’s death washed over Kip.

      “Your father is dead?” Nicole said, one hand pressed to her chest.

      Why did she sound so shocked? Kip wondered.

      “He died when the horse he was on flipped over,” Justin continued. “But we know he’s in heaven with Jesus. I talk to Jesus and tell him what to say to my daddy every night.”

      “That’s…interesting.” A faint note of skepticism entered her voice that concerned him.

      “We go regularly to church,” Kip said by way of brief explanation. “I hope that’s not a problem.” He wasn’t about to get into a theological discussion about what Jesus meant to him. If he decided to hire her, then she’d find out that faith was woven into every aspect of the Cosgroves’ life.

      Nicole waved her hand as if dismissing his concerns. “No. Of course not.”

      “And our mommy is gone,” Tristan offered, unwilling to let Justin do all the talking. “She just left us one day. All alone with the babysitter.”

      “Then Daddy rescued us. He was a good daddy,” Justin said.

      “How do you know your mommy left you?” A faint edge had entered her voice as she glanced up at Kip. “Do you know where their mother is?”

      Kip shook his head, wondering why she wanted to know.

      The reality was, no one in the Cosgrove family knew where Tricia was or whether she was dead or alive. His brother, Scott, and Tricia had been living in Nova Scotia when Tricia took off without a word six months after the boys were born.

      Scott and his sons then moved back to the ranch.

      “Do you want to see our dog’s puppies?” Justin tugged his hand free of Kip’s and reached out to Nicole.

      “Shouldn’t you go and say hi to your Gramma?” Nicole asked.

      Kip was pleasantly surprised at her consideration, but he also knew the boys would rather be outside.

      “They can go.” He wanted a few minutes alone with his mother to get her impression of Nicole.

      Tristan grabbed Nicole’s other hand and before she could