Ladd Haven (38 page)

Reaching over, he gently stroked the
feather-fine hair on his baby’s small head, the strands dark and
dense as they full covered her skin. Caressing the silken strands
gave Troy deep pleasure. Roused a deep need to provide and protect.
He didn’t care how much hair she had, only that she was healthy and
happy, though the nurses were convinced Cassidy Jo Grace was going
to be the envy of all the girls in school with her thick waves of
black hair. Peering into Casey’s eyes, her gaze secured peacefully
on her daughter, Troy figured Cassidy was gonna have hair like her
momma. Pausing on the picture of his wife and child, powerful
emotions wound through him. Actually, he hoped Cassidy did
everything like her momma. From her looks to her heart, he’d be
real pleased if the two were exactly alike. Except that Cassidy was
gonna love horses like him.

“
Cal said the cabin is
comin’ along real quick,” Troy said.

The comment drew a smile from Casey as
she temporarily withdrew her gaze from her daughter and rested it
on him. In one gaze she transferred a mountain of love and
adoration from Cassidy to him. “I’m glad. I’m ready to get out of
here and move into our new home.”

Pleasure coursed through
him.
Our new home
.
Amazing how a woman could affect him like this. A child, his
family. Especially after the last several weeks. With criminal
charges hanging over his head and a new baby and now a wife in his
life, it had been rough going. Miss Delaney wouldn’t let him work
the stables. Cal Foster couldn’t get him a job at his family’s
ranch. He could work scooping piles of horse crap at a nearby
ranch, but he wasn’t ready to reduce himself to mindless work. It
would hurt too much being that close to the animals and not being
able to work with them. It was one thing to invest the time in
menial labor with Hotel Ladd where he had hope for a future. It was
quite another to accept a dead-end job with a second-rate ranch in
the backwoods of Tennessee. Casey had suggested he bus tables for
Fran, but Troy couldn’t bring himself to do it. Jimmy Sweeney
worked there, and now that he was training to be assistant manager,
he could potentially be Troy’s boss.

Ain’t gonna
happen
. While he promised Casey he’d work
on his relationship with Jimmy, Troy wasn’t going to allow that to
include subservience. He might have to accept that Casey and Jimmy
were friends and would remain so, but he didn’t have to lose his
manhood in the process. Troy didn’t care for Jimmy. He’d put up
with him, tolerate him, even allow him to visit with Casey and
Cassidy whenever he wanted, but he wasn’t gonna act like they were
cool. They weren’t.

Instead, Troy accepted an offer from
his father to work part-time in Chattanooga. His daddy was a
vice-president of operations for a packaging company and said he
could use help in his office. He was willing to pay twice minimum
wage which Troy took as a peace offering. Not like he’d get rich
off the job, but it was a heck of lot more than he’d make anywhere
around here at the moment. And he needed money to support his
family. His momma encouraged him to take it as a way to end the
hostility between father and son. They’d apologized for letting him
sit in jail and he should forgive them. Old resentment pulled at
him. Only because Miss Delaney marched over and gave them an ear
full. If it wasn’t for her, his parents would still think the worst
of him. Pulling his hand from Cassidy’s head, he shrugged it off.
Whatever. Cal said they could move into the cabin next week and
that’s what he was focused on. Moving forward.

Setting the bottle down on the cushion
beside her, Casey tossed a soft cloth over her shoulder to prepare
for a round of burping. Troy watched in awe as she handled the
infant. Only three weeks old, Cassidy was small and spindly. The
nurses kept her warm, kept her monitored, but he thought she was
too skinny. Cassidy was being released today, something they’d been
waiting for, but suddenly Troy wasn’t so sure. Would she be okay at
home? Would he and Casey be able to care for her?

Placing child to her shoulder, Casey
nestled close and began the process of eliminating any gas Cassidy
might have ingested while drinking from her bottle. Gone was the
uncertainty and doubt he’d witnessed in the immediate days of his
return home, replaced by a confidence Troy assumed must come with
motherhood. Giving birth must transform a woman’s heart and mind as
the baby growing inside had done to her body. These days Casey
seemed so relaxed, self-assured. After they delivered the baby, an
ambulance transported them to the hospital where doctors and nurses
flocked to their side, whisked Cassidy away and placed her under
intense scrutiny by a twenty-four hour neonatal staff—despite his
protest.

But if his baby needed care than so be
it. At least they allowed him to be present while Casey was being
examined. And while he held her hand the entire time, Casey only
wanted one thing. Her baby. Not him, not the doctors or nurses or
family but her child. Eventually he and Casey were allowed to visit
Cassidy and Troy recalled how sick he felt when he saw her. There
were wires connected to her chest, tubes attached to her nose and
mouth, heat lamps set up all around her pint-sized crib. It looked
awful, like Cassidy was near dead. But she wasn’t. The nurse
assured him she was okay and this was nothing more than medical
assistance to make sure she stayed that way.

Once they decided Cassidy was well
enough to be with her momma, Casey took to mothering like she’d
done it a hundred times. Forget that it was her first child, she
seemed to know instinctively how to care for a newborn. She never
stumbled or hesitated, rather reacted as if a whole new layer of
knowledge had been packed into her brain with the birth of her
child. Troy on the other hand was still getting used to the idea.
He was getting better, but a part of him still felt like he was
going to break something if he held or hugged Cassidy too
hard.

“
Let me see that little
girl,” Troy said impulsively, reaching over for Cassidy.

As Casey released the baby to him, she
handed Troy the cloth which he flung absently over his shoulder. He
was the daddy and he was determined to care for his baby,
too.

Skinny little legs kicked wildly
against him and he said, “Hold on, now. I’m gettin’ there.” He
shook his head. “You’re gonna have to learn some patience or you’re
never gonna learn to work a horse.”

Casey gazed at him fondly, a soft sheen
of love deepening the blue of her eyes. “Cassidy has a mind of her
own, something daddy is going to have to get used to else there be
fireworks in the household.”

“
What are you talkin’
about?” Troy asked, concealing the swell of a smile.
That
much about kids he
knew.

Folding her hands across her flat
abdomen, Casey simply smiled.

Cassidy gurgled next to him, tickling
the skin at his neck. Tilting his head, Troy gently tapped his to
hers. “C’mon, sunshine. You’ve got this. Give me some gas, baby,
gimme some gas.”

Casey chuckled and shook her head.
“You’d better be careful, or she’s going to give you more than
gas.” Arching a brow, she added, “Her face is turning
red.”

A distinct sign of bowel movement. “It
don’t matter. She can poop all she wants. Her momma will get her
diaper,” he said, suppressing a knowing grin.

“
If you can burp her, you
can change.”

“
Oh, no. No self-respectin’
man is gonna change a diaper.”

“
What happens when you’re
alone with her?”

“
We’ll wait for her momma to
come home.”

“
You do and I’ll whoop your
hide.”

Troy couldn’t help but laugh as he
imagined Casey trying to whoop him. She was half his size and
scrawny as a stray dog. She couldn’t whoop a flea, let alone him.
“Go ahead,” he teased. “It’ll be fun wathchin’ you try.”

Casey crossed arms over her chest and
feigned anger. “I’m gonna surprise you one of these
days.”

“
Good. I look forward to it.
Now back to serious matters, have you talked to your momma about
shopping?”

“
Yes. She wants to go next
week.”

As a wedding gift, Cal and Annie
offered to purchase three rooms of furniture for the new
cabin—living room and two bedrooms. Troy instantly refused,
claiming it was too generous. He didn’t know what furniture cost,
but it had to be a lot. Cal had already built them a home. Troy
would buy his own furniture. Eventually.

But Cal insisted the cabin had been a
Christmas gift to Casey, under construction before Troy ever set
foot back home. He said the furniture wasn’t too generous,
considering it was his brother, Jack, causing Troy to lose his job
in the first place. Troy had still refused until Casey urged him to
reconsider. Raising a baby without a proper home wouldn’t be easy.
They needed a bed, she needed a crib... If he wanted, Troy could
pay him back. At that, the matter was settled. For now, they’d go
shopping and furnish the home. When he saved up the money, Troy
would pay Cal back for half of it. Cal agreed.

Troy honed in on Casey. “You’re not
buyin’ any frilly, flowery stuff, are you?”

She giggled. “And what if I am? Don’t
you think Cassidy should have girly things?”

“
Don’t go makin’ a sissy out
her. She’s gonna be a horse girl.” Casey laughed at him. Troy
didn’t know if she was having fun with him, or making fun of him.
“What?”

“
You. You’re so
predictable.”

“
Is that a bad
thing?”

She shook her head. “Not at all. It
makes it easy to know what will please you.”

Troy liked the sound of that. At the
sound of air escaping Cassidy’s mouth, he patted her narrow back.
“Good girl.”

“
And you should know better
than to think I would make a sissy out of our daughter,” Casey went
on. “As if I were that kind of woman, myself.”

“
I don’t know about that
one.” Troy eyed her dress, a floral-printed halter top and skirt
that betrayed her denial of feminine taste. “You seem to have taken
to girly fashion these days.” Which he liked—a lot—though he wasn’t
gonna tell her at the moment. It would undermine his argument. But
he did like it. Casey looked really good when she wore bright
colors and prints. It brought out the blue in her eyes, brightened
her ivory complexion, kinda like the makeup she was beginning to
wear. Not much, but he discovered a touch of colored lip gloss and
shimmery blush went a long way on Casey’ face. Desire surged. A
really long way.

“
So that’s my grandkid,
huh?”

Troy and Cassidy whirled at the sound
of a male voice at the doorway.

Jeremiah Ladd strolled in, conceit
ingrained in his light brown eyes, the swagger of his blue jeans
and ostrich boots. “They told me but I didn’t believe
it.”

Troy pressed Cassidy closer to his body
and demanded, “What are you doing here?”

Casey didn’t say a word, only stared as
her father invaded their hospital room.

“
Another girl, huh?”
Jeremiah shook his head, short layers of sandy-blond hair greased
in place by hair gel as they skimmed over the collar of his lime
green pinstriped shirt. “Must be the weak gene pool on your side
that can’t produce a boy.”

Every fiber in Troy’s body sprang to
ready mode, wanting nothing more than to pounce on this loser. He
had no business here. Casey hated him as much as Troy did. Rising
from his chair, he stepped forward. “Who let you in
here?”

Jeremiah smiled smugly. “Visiting hours
don’t discriminate.”

“
You need a pass,” Troy
objected.

Jeremiah tapped the space on his shirt
where the adhesive name tag should have been stuck. “Grandfather of
the baby gets family access.”

“
Well, we don’t want you
here so I’d suggest you turn around and get out.”

Standing near shoulder-to-shoulder with
Jeremiah, Troy sensed the hatred pulsating beneath the man’s calm
exterior. It mirrored that of his own. Jeremiah Ladd was nothing
but trouble. He’d caused Miss Delaney grief, Casey, her mother and
her aunt Lacy. The man had even been willing go to fists with his
old man, and for what?

Land. Money. Jeremiah waltzed into town
a year ago claiming Ladd Springs belonged to him. It didn’t. Ernie
Ladd signed it over to Felicity and she signed half of it over to
Casey. Facts Jeremiah was well-acquainted. The fact that he was
here could only mean one thing.

He wanted revenge.

# # #

The End

Deep Dish Sweet
Potatoes

3 lbs. sweet potatoes

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown
sugar

1/2 cup orange juice

5 TBSP butter, softened

2 tsp finely grated orange
zest

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp each ground nutmeg, ground
ginger

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake potatoes 1
hour or until soft. Cool.