A Daddy for Dillon Read Online Free Page A

thought the man had talked very much last night, especially considering he’d only just met her and her son. This morning at breakfast he’d not said much to her, but he’d mostly been on the phone, giving orders to the men who worked under him.
    Leyla looked at the maid. The woman was only twenty-four, but she seemed eons older in experience than Leyla’s twenty years. She’d told Leyla that she’d worked at the Chaparral for the past eight years. It hadn’t taken Leyla long to figure out that Sassy liked men but equally enjoyed being single and free.
    “Oh. You were attracted to him?” Leyla asked her.
    Sassy laughed as she returned to the table and plucked a sheet from the laundry basket. “Are you kidding, honey? What woman in her right mind, wouldn’t be attracted to that hunk of man? But it only took me about two days to figure out he wasn’t my type and I wasn’t his. Although I’m not sure Laramie Jones has a type. Nobody around here has ever seen him with a woman.”
    Leyla found that very hard to believe. “He’s a very busy man,” she reasoned. “And I think his work means a lot to him.”
    The maid wrinkled her nose. “Well, I like a man with a work ethic. But I want him to save some of his time for me, too. You know what I mean? In my opinion, all work and no play makes a very dull boy. And speaking of boys, where’s Dillon?”
    “Taking a nap. He should be waking in a few minutes.”
    Sassy grinned. “That son of yours is so cute it almost makes me want a kid of my own. Almost,” she added with a laugh.
    “Have you ever been in love?” Leyla asked her curiously, then scolded herself. It wasn’t like her to ask people personal things. It wasn’t like her to talk much, period. But Sassy was a chatterbox and no subject seemed to be off-limits.
    Another laugh bubbled past Sassy’s pink lips, and Leyla wondered what it would feel like to be so carefree and full of laughter, to think of life and men as something to be enjoyed instead of feared. Or was Sassy just putting up a front with her furtive laughter and all her talk about men? Maybe on the inside the young maid was just as lonely and needy as she was, Leyla thought.
    “Oh, Leyla, I’ve thought I was in love at least ten or twelve times. Mostly when I was in high school. Girls are so stupid at that age.” She shook out the sheet and began to fold it into a flat square. “Well, maybe I shouldn’t say stupid. More like vulnerable. Me and my girlfriends believed every guy who kissed us was a hero or prince. And each of us was the only princess in his kingdom. Thank God I outgrew that mentality.”
    Leyla’s heart went suddenly cold. “Dillon’s father made all kinds of promises,” she said in a low, flat voice. “And I was stupid to believe him.”
    Sassy covered her open mouth with her fingertips. “Oh, Leyla,” she said after a moment. “I’m sorry. I was just prattling on. I wasn’t talking about you.”
    Leyla cast her a rueful smile. “It doesn’t bother me to admit I was a silly girl, too. Heath—Dillon’s father—was a smooth talker. But it was all lies. I learned many things from him. Things I will never forget,” she said bitterly. “A woman has to look out for herself. A man won’t do it for her.”
    Frowning now, Sassy placed the folded sheet on the table, then walked over to the work island. “Leyla, I’m not going to ask you what happened in your past. Clearly he was a bastard anyway. I just don’t believe you ought to hate all men because of him.”
    “I don’t hate men. I just have a hard time trusting them,” Leyla clarified.
    Sassy groaned. “Hate. Mistrust. Either way, it tells me you don’t want a man in your life. And that’s just a downright shame.”
    “Maybe for you,” Leyla said with quiet certainty. “For me it’s the right thing. At least for now, while my son is young.”
    With a long sigh of frustration, Sassy returned to the laundry she’d left on the table. “Okay. I’m