goes one unhappy man, Cheyenne,” she murmured softly to the baby in her arms.
Cheyenne just continued sleeping. The baby didn’t know how lucky she was.
Chapter 3
He supposed, in an odd sort of way, he had to admire the youngest Colton woman, Trevor thought approximately an hour later as he started to head back to his office once again.
Dumb though the subject of her focus seemed to him, Gabriella Colton did appear to know what she wanted, what she believed in.
And, more impressively, she’d actually stood up to him rather than cave in the face of his disapproving judgment of those beliefs she held so dear.
Not all that many people actually stood up to him when push came down to shove. He had a way of making people back off without his having to resort to physical action. Just his attitude—coupled with a dark, contemptuous scowl—usually did the trick.
Despite her soft, attractive appearance, Gabby Colton was one hell of a feisty female; he’d have to give her that.
Now, as far as being smart, well, that was a whole different story, Trevor mused as he made his way back across the grounds.
How the hell she could believe in goodness and light when she was surrounded by all sorts of wheelers and dealers, not to mention people like her old man, a blackhearted, womanizing devil if ever he’d come across one, was just beyond him.
Granted, there were good people here on the ranch, like Faye, who’d raised him when there was nothing in it for her beyond being guilty of a good deed, and like her sister Amanda, the baby’s mother, whose only sin was letting herself be sweet-talked by the wrong guy.
But then there were people around like her father’s third ex-wife, Darla, and Darla’s two adult kids from some previous marriage, Tawny and Trip. All three were worthless parasites, one worse than the other, in his opinion.
He still couldn’t figure out why the old man allowed those three to stay on. Ordinarily, he would have expected Jethro to send all three of them packing the second the ink had dried on the divorce papers—ending a marriage that had barely managed to pass the one-year anniversary. Instead, the old man had set the trio up to live in one of the extended wings.
Trevor laughed shortly. That kind of thing clearly smelled of blackmail to him. Which meant one of the three—most likely Darla—had something to hold over the boss’s head—which in turn meant that the old man had done something pretty damn bad.
Not that that surprised him.
The lot of them, Darla, Tawny and Trip, weren’t worth even a plugged nickel. They just didn’t fit in with the rest of them. All three of them looked as if they’d been transplanted from some bad, made-in-one-afternoon movie about grifters. They reminded him of vultures, circling carrion and just waiting for it to die so they could swoop down and tear off its flesh. He didn’t trust any of them any farther than he could throw them. Less. And yet there was starry-eyed Gabby, not just talking about starting up a center for troubled teens but actually working toward that goal and trying to convince the old man to have the center built right here, converting an old barn he had on his property.
That kind of drive either took an absolute fool—which he didn’t think Gabby was—or it took someone who saw only the good in people.
He figured it had to be the latter.
That made her too good to deal with the likes of the majority of the people living on or around the Dead River Ranch.
Frowning, Trevor shrugged away the thought. This was way too complicated for him to sort through, and it was pointless to waste his time that way. It was what it was, and besides, he had his own dilemma to untangle and come to grips with, namely what to do with the kid he was suddenly saddled with.
If he experienced any parental stirrings toward her—she was rather cute when she wasn’t crying—he banked them down. He—and more importantly, she—couldn’t afford to have them. It just wasn’t in the little girl’s best interest to remain here, so there was no sense in allowing himself to feel anything at all for her.
There was no doubt in his mind that he would make a really poor father, and a kid needed a father—and a mother, too, something else he couldn’t give Avery. As far as he saw, the only logical conclusion to be reached was that Avery needed to be adopted and raised by someone other than him—preferably two “someones.”
In the interim, maybe he should get over his pride, stop trying to handle this on his own and ask Faye for help, Trevor thought. She’d always been the sensible one, stable even when everything else looked as if it was just going to hell in the proverbial hand basket. She’d stepped right in not just in his case, but also when the Colton girls’ mother, Mandy, decided to take off, leaving the ranch—and them—ten years ago. It was Faye who made sure they didn’t lack for attention, didn’t feel abandoned. Faye would know what he needed to do to ensure that Avery was not just looked after, but well taken care of, too.
After all, he didn’t just want to dump the kid. None of this was her fault. She hadn’t asked to be born, right? Trevor reflected silently. Just like he hadn’t asked to become a father.
Life had a way of making things happen, but he didn’t have to just stand there and take it. There had to be options, decent options, he reasoned, in order to make things right.
He and Faye would find Avery a good home and that would be the end of it.
With his game plan roughly in place, Trevor went into his office. There was some paperwork he still needed to catch up on. It was his least favorite thing to do, but he decided that he might as well utilize the peace and quiet he found himself in while it lasted. He’d be listening to Avery howl soon enough.
Trevor glanced at his watch and realized that at this point he’d had over two hours of sweet silence and freedom from the daunting burden of fatherhood. He wasn’t exactly eager to get caught up in it again, but on the other hand, he’d never been one to shirk his responsibilities, no matter how oppressive or annoying they might be.
Maybe he’d be lucky and Avery would still be sleeping, although he sincerely doubted it. In the short time he’d had the infant, he couldn’t remember a single instance when Avery had slept more than ninety minutes at a clip, much less over two hours. To expect that it could go on indefinitely was just plain wishful thinking on his part and completely unrealistic.
Trevor sighed as he pushed himself away from his desk and squared his shoulders. Time to face the music.
Literally.
Since Gabby was so good with kids and didn’t seem to mind being around them, maybe he’d see if he could get her to volunteer her services again—soon. Oh, he wouldn’t come out and actually ask her to mind Avery for him, but if he happened to show up somewhere in her vicinity and Avery was howling like last time, he had a pretty good hunch that Gabby would take it upon herself to put the kid—and him—out of their misery and just take over. She wasn’t the type to leave well enough alone or ignore a situation that needed remedying. He figured she had what they called a type A personality and just couldn’t help herself when it came to taking over.
Trevor smiled to himself as he left his office and went toward the main wing of the house.
