A Daddy for Dillon Read Online Free Page B

just hoping Reena is gone for a long, long time.”
    Frowning, Leyla tossed a handful of chicken bones into a stainless steel bowl. “Why would you say something like that? This is Reena’s home. I’m only here temporarily.”
    “Temporary or not. I need enough time to work on you. And before you leave, you’ll be hunting yourself a husband.”
    “A husband!” Leyla shook her head. “Why would I need one of those?”
    “Because,” the maid cheerfully pointed out, “you need a daddy for Dillon.”
    * * *
    For the first time in weeks, Laramie arrived home before dark, a feat that almost made him feel guilty. But as he parked the truck at the back of the ranch house, he reminded himself that roundup started in two days. He and every man on the place deserved a bit of rest before the week-long work marathon began.
    Stepping through the yard gate, he heard Dillon’s shrieks of laughter, and though he’d often heard Quint’s boys loud at play, something about this child and his happy giggles caught Laramie in a way that caused him to pause and look across the yard.
    Dillon and Leyla were at the gym set Frankie had purchased long ago when her first grandchild had been born. The boy was in one of the swings, while his mother was twisting and twirling him in a slow spinning ride.
    “Faster, Mommy! Faster!” he urged.
    “I can’t go faster. Besides, Mommy doesn’t want you to fall,” she told him.
    Laramie continued up the pathway, then stopped when he got even with mother and son. “Aww, come on, Mom, a little faster won’t hurt.”
    Upon hearing his voice, she looked around in surprise. Laramie was instantly struck by her natural beauty. A long skirt with tiny red flowers on it swirled against her legs and molded to the curves of her hips, while her white blouse made a vivid contrast to her brown skin. Sunlight gleamed in her black hair and painted a rosy-gold hue across her cheekbones. How any man could have made a child with her and then walked away was beyond him.
    “Laramie! Oh, I wasn’t expecting you this early!” Quickly, she snatched Dillon from the swing and started leading the boy to the house.
    The child promptly attempted to stick his heels in the ground and protest. “I wanna swing, Mommy! Let me swing!”
    “Come on, Dillon. We have to go inside now so I can serve Laramie his dinner.”
    Laramie stepped forward. “Let me push Dillon on the swing,” he said to Leyla, “while you finish what you need to do.”
    She looked vaguely suspicious, as though she doubted his child-caring abilities. Or she simply couldn’t believe he was offering to watch her son for a few minutes. Either way put him in a bad light and that bothered the hell out of Laramie for many reasons.
    “He’s been out long enough,” she said. “He can go with me.”
    He gave her a meaningful grin. “Trust me, Leyla, a boy can never be outdoors long enough.”
    He must have gotten his point across, because she loosened her grip on Dillon’s hand and allowed him to run back to the gym set.
    “How can you know that?” she asked. “You don’t have children, do you?”
    Her question stung him even though it shouldn’t have. Over the years Laramie had tried to picture himself as a father. But that was like imagining a ditchdigger becoming a heart surgeon or a janitor evolving into a business tycoon. Of course, it was possible. People could always learn, but along the way they were bound to make mistakes. In his opinion, though, a child’s rearing was too important for mistakes.
    He said, “No. But I was a little boy once. That sorta qualifies me to understand Dillon’s way of thinking.”
    Her dark eyes were making a slow sweep of him and Laramie suddenly felt ridiculously exposed. Maybe she could see he was a man who wasn’t comfortable with the idea of having a woman in his life and children looking to him for guidance. Maybe she could see that a bucking bronc or a raging bull didn’t scare him in the least, but the