The Rancher's Seduction. Catherine Mann

high school. She considered them family still.

      Tally admired her strength and how she’d powered ahead in spite of all the strikes against her.

      The sleek brunette adjusted the hospital gown over her red sweater dress and scooped up a tiny baby boy, cradling him in her arms and settling into a rocker beside Tally. “Hey, friend. How’s the new job working out?”

      “My boss is very...accommodating.” She eyed the fragile little boy in Felicity’s arms and thought of her own son.

      “That’s rather vague.” She raised a delicately arched brow. Felicity had a way of appearing cool and collected, ready for a board meeting, even with hospital wear tossed over her clothes.

      “He has been completely flexible with my volunteer hours. But that could be because he really doesn’t want me around.” Could she have mistaken the interest in his eyes at the pool, and then again in the kitchen? “His family insisted on hiring me.”

      “Ah, he’s an independent sort of man. That can be a good thing, you know.” Felicity had shared her history of divorce from a spoiled mama’s boy who’d lost job after job.

      “True, but I found him walking into the indoor pool to fish out his dog.”

      “With a cast on.” Sighing, Felicity shook her head and cradled the baby boy. “Males. I understand them better at this age, for sure.”

      “The dog was so small, Marshall probably could have gotten the tiny mutt out with the cleaning net.” Tally chewed her bottom lip, remembering how frantic the precious little dog had been.

      “But that would have been obvious.”

      And she could see he hadn’t been willing to leave anything to chance. The pup was important to him, and she couldn’t deny that touched her. “Luckily I arrived so he didn’t end up in the deep end.”

      “You both were in the pool?” A slow smile spread.

      “Not my most professional entrance to a new job, but it seemed wise at the time.”

      “Hmm.” Her smile twitched. “How old is your boss?”

      Tally stayed silent for a moment, unwilling to rise to the bait. Workplace romances? Nope. Especially not with this man. “Let’s talk about your love life.”

      Felicity winced, tapping the rocking chair back into motion. “Point taken.”

      “Exactly. At any rate, my time’s up here today. I need to get back and inventory the Christmas decorations to calculate how many hours to allot for setup.”

      “I wish some of my coworkers had your organizational skills,” Felicity said, her lips thinning with exasperation.

      The door opened with a clutch of doctors and medical students entering to conduct rounds, cutting off further conversation for now. Tally finished her volunteer shift, kissing the sweet Stella Rae goodbye before bundling up to head out into the December cold. She walked through the hospital, past the entries for a wreath-decorating contest, each one created by a different department.

      What would her life have been like if she’d been able to train for a career field like Felicity’s? Regrets were a luxury and waste of time. Holding her coat tighter around her in the chilly garage, Tally found her sedan and settled behind the wheel. She fished her keys from her purse, a mermaid charm dangling from the ring, a fairy-tale token her mother had given her as a child.

      Three unsuccessful cranks of the engine later, she rested her head on the wheel. She’d prayed her old car would make it through another year. A repair would deplete what she’d managed to save so far.

      And now, on her second day in her new job, she would be late returning. So much for impressing her new boss. She thumped the dash with her hands, tears close to the surface, as they sometimes were when emotions got the best of her after time with the babies.

      A tap on the window pulled her from her self-pity. She looked up, surprised to find Felicity outside her car. Tally rolled down the window. “Yes?”

      “Need a ride?”

      A wave of relief swept through her. “If you don’t mind terribly. It’s forty-five minutes away, and that’s if the weather and roads cooperate.”

      “I don’t mind at all. It’s a joy to do something for you for a change. I owe you for all those cups of coffee you’ve brought to help me through a long day.” She nodded. “I’m parked over here.”

      Grateful beyond words, Tally gathered her purse and locked her car. She climbed into the passenger seat of Felicity’s SUV, the heater blasting a welcome warmth.

      “Thanks, Felicity. I really would rather not have to bother my new boss if I can avoid it.”

      Felicity’s brows shot up. Tally could see questions dancing in those deep brown eyes. They’d shared a lot during countless hours rocking babies. But today, Tally had held back in discussing her boss, and she could see Felicity had picked up on that.

      Keeping her friend’s curiosity at bay had been tough enough in the hospital. It would be downright impossible to keep her attraction to her boss a secret from Felicity once he was right there in front of her in all his charismatic glory.

       Three

      Parked on the sofa in front of the fireplace, Marshall glanced at the window to check for Tally’s sedan—for what seemed like the tenth time. What was keeping her?

      He should have been able to lose himself in work today with his uncle. Conrad had been accommodating in coming out to the ranch so Marshall didn’t have to deal with the seat belt around his broken arm.

      Flames crackled in the river-stone fireplace, a blaze he’d started in anticipation of Tally’s return. Where was she? Concern picked away at him even as he tried to lose himself in work.

      The day had already begun to wane, the antlered chandelier providing a dusky yellow light as he and Uncle Conrad continued talking through options for the company’s newly formed charitable foundation. He’d signed on to the board, offering his accounting skills. He’d always been all about the quiet of crunching numbers, riding, hiking, the logic of counting steps and weighing odds.

      Leaning back into the burgundy sofa, he rubbed his eyes. For the past several hours, he’d been staring at figures and documents on his tablet. Relentless strategizing, feeling the weight of the company’s new image on his shoulders.

      Of course, not all his thoughts lingered on the spreadsheets. Somehow even when Tally wasn’t here, she managed to permeate the space with her personality. Even now, he found himself looking around his living room, his gaze sweeping up to the open-tiered second level—a reading nook complete with panoramic views, his place to unwind with a good book.

      Had it really been as dusty in places as Tally suggested? The thought of his new, fiery employee also served as a distraction he could ill afford, especially now with his sobriety tougher to hold on to because of increased stress in his life.

      Tapping the phone on his leg, he glanced at the security feed, since looking out his front window a dozen times now wasn’t gaining him any traction. Still no sign of her.

      He held back a sigh that would have caught his uncle’s attention. To many, Conrad seemed like a happy-go-lucky sort, always rolling out the charm. But he was more than that. He was the kind of person always there in a time of need. He’d been more than an uncle. He’d been a second father to the Steele children.

      Especially after the plane crash.

      The family had been stunned to its foundation by the accident that claimed the lives of Marshall’s mother—Mary—and his sister Breanna. He, his father and his remaining siblings had retreated into a world of grief. Uncle Conrad, their father’s brother, hadn’t been a part of building the Steele oil business. He was fifteen