The Rancher's Unexpected Family. Helen Lacey

“I’m glad to hear it. In my defense, I’m new to this parenting gig.”

      She nodded. “Joel told me. You’ve been friends with my cousin for a long time?”

      “A few years. He dated my sister for a while a couple of years back. We’ve stayed friends and now he’s my lawyer. Joel was convinced you’d be able to help Maisy.”

      “I’ll do my very best,” she said quietly. “But you do need to understand that I have no actual qualifications in child psychology. I’m an authorized foster-caregiver and have all the relevant documents to legally have children in my care. But there’s nothing scientific about our methods. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we get results here through patience and kindness and caring.”

      “We?”

      “My mom, Nancy, lives here and helps with the kids and I have an uncle who runs the ranching side of things.”

      He nodded fractionally. “You’re a mother and a police officer, right?”

      “Correct.”

      “Then I’d say you have all the qualifications you need.”

      She smiled and the action hit him way down low, in a place he’d somehow forgotten was there, and suddenly he felt about seventeen and keen to impress the cute girl in biology class. But he wasn’t seventeen and this wasn’t high school. It was real life. And he had a child who needed him to keep his head screwed on right.

      “So... I should probably meet your daughter?”

      Cole pulled himself from the foolish trance he was in and stepped back. “Of course. Ah, don’t be surprised or offended if she’s uncommunicative. My daughter doesn’t say a lot.”

      “The sullen, silent type,” she said and began walking from the barn. “I’ve handled that before.”

      And as he watched her hips sway as she walked from the barn, Cole was sure that Ash McCune could handle pretty much anything with one hand tied behind her back. Including him.

      * * *

      Good-looking men were nothing but trouble for a sensible, hardworking, small-town police officer and single mother. Logically, Ash knew that. But logic had spectacularly deserted her the moment she’d come face-to-face with Cole Quartermaine. Six foot something of lean, utterly gorgeous male with smooth brown skin, glittering blue eyes, broad shoulders and a sexy, megawatt smile wasn’t what she’d been expecting.

      I should have Googled him. Or at least asked Joel for more information.

      Usually she knew more about the people whom she allowed to stay at her ranch. She knew he was rich and came from a prominent racing family in Phoenix. But when her cousin had assured her that Cole Quartermaine and his daughter were in dire need of her help, she’d agreed without resistance. She trusted Joel and all she’d been given were names, a brief and abridged history of Cole’s occupation and the relationship between father and daughter, and an arrival date. She’d figured she’d simply find out anything else when they arrived.

      Ergo, the hotter-than-Hades dad with the nice clothes and million-dollar smile who smelled absolutely divine was one major surprise.

      And she didn’t like surprises. Not ever.

      As she strode from the barn she could feel his gaze burning through her. She straightened her back and kept walking, heading directly for the flashy new sedan parked in her driveway. The dogs were now beside her, doing their job. Milo and Mitzy were well trained and would restrain on command...but the only restraint needed in that moment was on her unexpectedly resurfacing libido!

      Ash got to the rear of the car and waited. He walked around her and she got a waft of his aftershave...or soap, or shampoo, or maybe it was just her starved pheromones gone mad and she was imagining he smelled like a pine forest after the spring rain. Whatever it was, it struck her with the force of a freight train and she had to pull on every ounce of her usual good strength to not look like some kind of sex-starved idiot over a man she’d met just five minutes ago.

      But boy, oh, boy...he was hot.

      Ash watched as he tapped on the car window and then waited as the door opened and a girl got out. She was extraordinarily beautiful, with dark curly hair, pale brown skin and blue eyes like her father’s. She had a small piercing in her nose and several long chains dangling from her ears. But there was no smile, no indication she was even remotely pleased to be where she was.

      “Hi,” Ash said as cheerfully as she could muster and walked around the front of the vehicle. “I’m Ash McCune. And you’re Maisy Quar—”

      “Rayburn,” the girl said stiffly. “Maisy Rayburn.”

      Ash saw Cole flinch slightly and made a mental note. Right. Relationship between father and daughter is exceptionally strained and she doesn’t share his name.

      “It’s nice to meet you,” Ash said and smiled. “I hope you’ll enjoy your stay here.”

      The teenager’s gaze darkened. “I’m here because he made me come,” she said and jerked a thumb in her father’s direction.

      Ash glanced toward Cole. He was frowning and she felt her smile falter. He must have gotten her meaning because he quickly transformed the frown into a smile and when he did her insides immediately fluttered like a moth caught by the glow of a bulb. Damn...he was achingly gorgeous. Maybe the most delicious-looking man she had ever met. Perfectly put-together features, with just a touch of a whisker shadow and a military-style crew cut that amplified his good looks tenfold. Yep, Cole Quartermaine was obviously one of those men who had it all.

      Great smile. Check!

      Great shoulders. Check!

      Great load of trouble ahead. Check!

      “How about we head inside for some iced tea?” she suggested.

      “I’d rather just go to my room,” the teenager said.

      “I have to finish getting the cabin ready,” Ash said and pointed to a small building about one hundred feet from the ranch house. “And we should probably get to know one another first.”

      The young girl’s expression narrowed instantly. “We’re staying in there? Are you kidding me? What a dump.”

      “Maisy!”

      Cole’s voice was sharply disapproving and his daughter recoiled for a second before shrugging her shoulders in a willful way that spoke volumes. Ash did her best not to take offense. She’d been a cop for over a decade and had fostered nearly twenty-five children during that time, so a thick and resilient skin was a necessity. But there was no doubt the man standing by the car was not as adept at handling teenage stubbornness and anger. Compassion for him quickly coursed through her blood, along with a deep-rooted and heartfelt ache for the girl who looked so solitary and mad at the world.

      “The cabin is clean and tidy,” Ash said and walked toward the porch. When she mounted the first step she turned on her heels. “Things aren’t always what they seem. Take me, for instance,” she said, shoulders back as she met Maisy’s glare head-on. “Five feet four and one hundred and twenty-five pounds wringing wet—some people might think I’m a pushover. Those people would be wrong. Come inside the house, you can take your bags up to the cabin later.”

      Ash turned and walked up to the house, opening the door and screen. She waited for her guests to follow and then stood back as they crossed the threshold. Cole ushered his daughter up the steps and Ash managed a tight smile as they moved through the doorway. She closed the screen and walked down the hallway, over the shiny polished floors and into the large kitchen at the rear of the house. The warmth of red cedar cupboards and dark granite countertops struck her as it always did. She’d had the kitchen renovated a year earlier and loved spending time in the big room, with its large scrubbed table and chairs and the pots hanging above the stove. Ash loved to cook and did so whenever she could shoo her mother out from behind the counter. Fifty-seven-year-old Nancy Olsen-McCune-Rodriguez