long had she been asleep and where had the clothes her son was wearing come from?
Glancing at the clock on the nightstand, Heather couldn’t believe that it was already midafternoon. She had slept for eight straight hours. She couldn’t remember getting that much sleep at one stretch since before Seth was born.
Her heart stalled. Had T. J. Malloy taken care of her son?
She vaguely remembered a knock waking Seth and her opening the door to find Malloy standing on the other side with a tray of food. Had she dreamed that he had helped her back to bed?
When she realized that all she had on was his shirt and her panties, Heather closed her eyes and hoped when she opened them she would somehow be transported to her own bed in the Circle W ranch house and that the past twenty-four hours would prove to be nothing more than a dream. But aside from her embarrassment over a stranger seeing her wearing so little, she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the fact that Malloy had taken care of Seth. She didn’t really know her neighbor and from the previous run-ins she’d had with him, she wasn’t sure he was someone she wanted around her son. When Malloy had brought her stallion back the few times Magic Dancer had jumped the fence between their properties, the man had been the biggest grouch she had ever met.
“The horses,” she murmured suddenly, remembering that she had livestock to feed. Hopefully the water blocking the road had receded. She needed to get home to tend to the horses, as well as make sure the buckets she had left in the utility room to catch the drips from the leaking roof hadn’t overflowed.
As she sat up, Heather realized she felt a lot better than she had that morning. Her fever was gone. Maybe she had turned the corner and was over the worst of the flu. Sleeping all night and most of the day had probably been a tremendous help. It was a shame she hadn’t had the opportunity when she’d first come down with the illness. Her recovery time would have been a lot shorter.
But she hadn’t had that luxury in so long, it was hard to remember what it was like to have help with anything. After she had Seth, she’d had no choice but to let go of the men who had worked for her late father because she couldn’t afford to pay them. It was the only way she had been able to make ends meet on the Circle W. That meant she had to take care of feeding the horses, mucking out stalls and trying to keep up the endless other chores on a working horse ranch, as well as take care of a baby.
Careful not to wake Seth, she started to get up, then immediately sat back down on the side of the bed when her knees began to shake. She might be feeling better, but she was still extremely weak. It was going to be a real test of her fortitude to lift heavy buckets of water and bales of hay while she was in this state.
She tried again, and had just managed to walk over to the rocking chair where she had draped her clothes the night before, when the door opened.
“You shouldn’t be up yet,” Malloy said, entering the room and walking over to her.
She supposed he had the right to just waltz right in without asking if she minded. After all, he did own the place. But she wasn’t happy about it.
She grabbed her jeans and sweatshirt and held them in front of her. “Don’t you believe in knocking?”
“I was just checking on your little boy and didn’t expect you to be awake yet.” He shrugged as if he wasn’t the least bit concerned about it. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m much better and as soon as I get dressed, Seth and I will go home and leave you alone.” She wished he would leave the room so she could take a quick shower before Seth woke up.
“Don’t worry about getting back home,” he said, his deep voice wrapping around her like a comforting cloak. “You really should stay until there’s no danger of a setback.”
Heather shook her head as much to stop the lulling effect of his voice as in refusal. “I appreciate everything you’ve done, but I don’t want to impose.” Feeling her knees start to shake again, she sat down on the rocking chair. “Besides, I need to get my livestock fed.”
“All you have to do is rest and get better,” he said, smiling. “I had one of my crew go over to your place when the water receded around noon to let your men know you and the little guy were okay. Since no one was around, my man took care of feeding your horses for you.”
She looked up at him and was hit with an unexpected observation. T. J. Malloy wasn’t just handsome, he was knock-your-socks-off good-looking. Her breath caught.
The few times that he had brought her horse home, she hadn’t noticed anything beyond his dark scowl and formidable stance as he threatened to take legal action against her if she didn’t keep her horse on her side of the fence. But without his wide-brimmed, black Resistol pulled down low on his brow, she could see a kindness in his striking hazel eyes that she would never have expected. And for some reason she found his brown hair, which curled around his ears and over the nape of his neck, sexy and rather endearing.
She frowned. Where had that come from? And why did she find anything about the man attractive?
It had to be some kind of residual effect of the fever. It was causing her to see Malloy in a different light. Surely as soon as she recovered her strength, she would come to her senses, regain her perspective and see that T. J. Malloy was just as unpleasant and unappealing as ever.
“Are you feeling all right?” he asked, looking concerned.
“Uh, yes,” she said, nodding. “I’m just a little weak.” As an afterthought, she added, “Thank you for having one of your hired hands tend to my horses.”
“No problem.” He gave her the same smile that had caused the illusion of him being amiable. “I assume you gave your men the rest of the holiday weekend off?”
“Since you sent one of yours over to take care of my horses, I assume you didn’t?” she asked instead of answering his question.
She didn’t want to tell him that she’d had to lay off the two men. For one thing, it was a matter of pride. She didn’t want Malloy realizing that the Circle W had fallen on such hard times. And for another, she didn’t like anyone knowing that she and her child lived alone on the ranch. Not that it made a lot of difference, but she felt a little safer with people thinking the hired men were still in residence.
“I did offer to let them off, but they preferred me paying them double time for working this weekend,” he said, unaware of her thoughts. “So don’t worry about the horses until your men get back on Monday. I’ll have one of mine go over there again tomorrow and Sunday to take care of them.”
“That isn’t necessary,” she insisted. “I’ll do it.”
He stubbornly folded his arms across his broad chest and shook his head. “You need to take it easy for a couple more days and make sure you’re completely over the flu before you start doing anything too strenuous. You won’t be doing yourself or your little boy any favors if you’re in the hospital with pneumonia.” Something in his tone, as well as his body language, told her than he was determined to have his way in the matter.
Just as determined to have her own way, she shook her head. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
“That’s what you said last night and this morning,” he remarked. “I wouldn’t consider barely having enough strength to stand doing all that great.”
