Chapter Three

From on top of the haybale stack, Logan heard the forklift engine cut off. Trace threw him another bale, and he placed it along the wall. The first truckload of hay he’d stacked when he first came to live on Last Chance had been with just Cole. Having Trace join the team had made them into a well-oiled machine, though he’d never admit that to his little brother.

At first, having Trace in his grandmother’s house, sharing a room with old Billy, who snored, and spending an hour in the single upstairs bathroom had been far more than an irritation. It was too much like when they were boys with their petty rivalries and race to use the bathroom first. Charlotte refusing to sleep through the night didn’t help his own mood either. But once his brother moved out, they got along fairly well.

If he could just get Trace to stop smiling all the damn time, he might actually like him. He turned to catch another bale, but Trace had disappeared. Now where did he go? Logan jumped down from the stack and walked to the edge of the hayloft.

Trace pointed up at him. “There he is. Hey, Logan, you have a visitor.”

He moved his gaze to the woman in a short, flowered sundress that accented her tiny waist and long legs. Her blonde hair was straight and fine and some of it rested on one breast, though the breast itself wasn’t very large. “Can I help you?”

She lifted her face to look at him and now her hand covered her chest. “You don’t remember me?”

At her question, his gut tightened. Hell, those words could only mean one thing —a past one-night-stand had tracked him down. He hadn’t even slept with a woman since moving to Last Chance and that was over a year and a half ago. If she’d found him, she was persistent. “Let me come down there.”

He hooked his leg over the top rung and climbed down the ladder. She didn’t look familiar, but with so many of the women he’d slept with having been picked-up in bars, the lighting was rarely that good and the sex tended toward a vehicle or motel room. The only ones he took back to his family’s ranch were those from out of town.

When he reached the barn floor, he found Trace grinning at him and Cole frowning. Under his breath, he stepped up to Trace and muttered so only he could hear. “Give it a rest.”

His affable brother just shook his head.

Logan turned toward the woman and doffed his cowboy hat. “I’m sorry, it’s been a long time.”

The woman with bright blue eyes beneath salon-styled eyebrows laughed. “Of course it has. Two years is a long time, but I’d hoped I hadn’t changed that much since having the baby. I’ve worked really hard to get back into shape.”

His face froze. Baby? “Ma’am, I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage.”

“Oh my. You really have no clue. Logan, I’m Kylie Bauer, your daughter’s mother. I’m sorry about leaving her on your doorstep like that. I wasn’t in a very good place in my life then, but I’ve changed. I have a steady job, own a car and I even took a lease on an apartment. I’m much more…”

Logan’s heart froze. She wanted Charlotte! She couldn’t have her! He tried to breathe, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. When he finally sucked in air, he had to clamp his jaw shut to keep from yelling at the woman to get out. No one was taking Charlotte.

At a smack on his back, he looked behind him and scowled. “What?”

Trace gestured to the woman. “She asked you a question.” Trace lowered his voice. “Come on, Logan, keep it together.” It was the concern in Trace’s eyes and the lack of smile that shocked him back into functioning.

He turned to Kylie, no memory of her surfacing, not even with her name. Had he really slept with that many women? Damn, he was an ass. “I’m sorry, ma’am. What did you ask?”

A flash of irritation crossed her face, but it was so quick he wasn’t sure he saw it. “Our daughter. I asked if I could see her.”

A deep-seated anger began to burn in his gut. It was the same feeling he had when he and his mother first found Charlotte on his doorstep. Despite denying she was his, he’d been enraged that a woman, a mother, could do such a thing.

He scowled. “Now you want to see her? I think you gave up that right fourteen months ago when you abandoned her.”

Kylie frowned and clasped her hands. “I wouldn’t have been good for her. I knew she would be safe with you.” She looked away. “I was in a bad place then, but I’m better now.” She faced him again. “Please.”

“What do you mean ‘a bad place?’” It had been too many months without hearing from her, without any explanation as to why she left his daughter on his family’s porch down near Catalina, and now he was determined to get it.

Again, she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I’d been doing things that weren’t exactly lawful to make some money.” Her gaze flew back to him. “Nothing like selling my body or anything, just…just worked for the wrong people.”

And what if she still works for those people? The prospect was chilling. “No, you can’t see Charlotte.”

She snapped her head around and her eyes widened. “Is that what you named her? Charlotte?” She said the word as if getting used to it. “I like it. Very old fashioned.”

He didn’t give a damn if she liked it or not. He wanted her to leave and for good. He put his hat back on. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work.”

“Wait!” Kylie took a step toward him. “Can’t we talk about this? I mean, after all, I am…Charlotte’s mother. I should be allowed to see her.”

“Logan.” Trace had stepped closer to whisper. “You should at least listen to what she has to say, for Charlotte’s sake.”

Hell. He took off his gloves and cracked the knuckles on one hand. He should do what was right for his daughter, but every fatherly instinct he had made him want to yell “mine” at the top of his lungs like his daughter did.

He stared long and hard at Kylie. Nothing about her triggered even the slightest memory. He couldn’t believe he had been so lost in sex as to not recognize a woman after only a couple years. It was probably one of his backseat episodes. Then and there he vowed to never tell Charlotte where she’d been conceived.

“Please, Logan. I want to explain everything.” She looked at him with puppy dog eyes.

Damn. “I can meet you at the Black Mustang bar tomorrow night at eight.”

“Will you bring Charlotte?”

“What? No.” He scowled again. What woman brought her toddler to a bar?

She quickly back-pedaled. “I’m sorry. I just got excited.”

“I’ll meet you there to talk. That’s it.” The last thing he wanted to do was sleep with her again. He loved his daughter and he was glad she was conceived, but Kylie did nothing for him. Maybe his tastes had changed.

“Got it. The Black Mustang at eight. I’ll be there. Thank you.” She nodded then turned. “Oh, hi.”

Logan’s gut tensed as Kylie sashayed out only to reveal Jenna standing at the entrance to the barn. How long had she been there?

She nodded once to Kylie then strode past him and addressed Cole. “Macy and the baby are in good health. They won’t need any vaccinations for a few months.”

That she ignored him, pissed him off. He was the one who took care of the horses after the birth. He was the one who would own the foal. Before Cole could respond, he stepped between them. “Good. I’ll call you if they need anything else.”

She lowered her brow. “I would think you have other matters to attend to that are more important than the horses.”

So, she did hear everything. Damn.

She stepped around him to talk to Cole again. “I believe Lightyear and Black Jack are due for vaccinations then too, but I’ll check my records when I get back to the office. It will cost you less if I can do them all on the same day.”

Cole looked at him as if inviting him to answer, but he kept his mouth shut. Finally, his cousin replied to her. “That sounds good, but we’ll need you back here later this week if you can fit us in. I have a new horse arriving from Texas.”

“The horse you told me about? The one burned in the barn fire?”

“Yes. The vet in Dallas took great care of him, but I’m pretty sure this will be his forever home. I’d like you to check him out.”

“I’d be happy to. Do you mind if Whisper does as well?”

Cole chuckled. “I don’t think it’s a matter of what I want when it comes to Whisper.”

She gave Cole a fleeting smile. “True. Call my office as far in advance as you can. If I can schedule around the horse’s arrival time, I will, but if not, I’ll just come out after office hours.”

“Thank you.” Cole put his hand on Jenna’s arm.

Logan barely suppressed a growl. What the hell? Cole wasn’t just his cousin but married to boot. He was being unreasonable, as his mom used to say.

Jenna shrugged, dislodging Cole’s hand. “It’s what I do and as Last Chance is my biggest and best client, I’m more than happy to oblige.” She gave Cole a nod and turned to leave.

“I’ll walk you out.” Now why the hell did he say that?

She didn’t look at him. “Don’t bother. I know my way.”

He knew that. He also knew that both his brother and his cousin were looking at him like he’d lost his senses, but he still found his legs carrying him alongside Jenna.

Once outside and around the corner of the barn, she stopped. “What are you doing?”

Her words were clearly ground out between clenched teeth.

It gave him a perverse pleasure to know someone else was as irritated as he was. He smirked. “I’m walking you to your car.”

She faced him and crossed her arms over her chest. “Since when?”

Good question. “Since I wanted to ask you to go to the Black Mustang tomorrow night.”

Her eyes widened in shock before she dropped her arms and hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “I thought you were meeting Charlotte’s mother there tomorrow night.”

Now that he’d said it, a plan started to form. “I am. That’s why I want you there. You’re a no nonsense kind of person. I need someone else’s opinion of her.”

He pushed his left hand against his thigh, cracking three knuckles at once before continuing. “My family will tell me to let her see Charlotte simply because she’s her mother, but I need to know she’s acceptable. I don’t want to expose Charlotte to her mother if she’s a druggy, or shady or anything else that could be dangerous.”

Jenna looked at him oddly. “Logan Williams, I don’t know whether to kick your ass or hug you.”

At the thought of her throwing her tiny body against his, his mind skittered in another direction all together. Damn, he still had it bad for her. This probably wasn’t such a good idea. “Never mind. It was just an idea.”

“I’ll go.”

“What?” Now he was certain he was hearing things.

Jenna shrugged. “It’s not like I have anything else to do tomorrow night, and I’ll admit to a certain curiosity about Charlotte’s mother. So sure, I’ll go.” She squinted her eyes at him. “But you owe me one.”

Excitement and nerves tangled in his gut. His inner child was jumping up and down while his more sensible self tried to warn him he was screwed. “Right.”

Jenna opened her rear car door and threw her heavy bag onto the seat. If his grandmother had seen how he walked Jenna to her car without taking her bag, he’d get an earful. Why couldn’t he act normal around the woman?

She opened the driver side door and glanced at him. “See you tomorrow night.” Then she ducked inside and started the engine.

He stood where he was, watching her back out, turn around, and head down the dirt driveway. He was an idiot or a genius, he wasn’t sure which. Either way, tomorrow night would prove to be interesting. After all, what could possibly go wrong having two women he’d slept with meet him at a bar.

Definitely an idiot.

Jenna stopped looking at her reflection in her rearview mirror. This was stupid. She was here to gauge the character of Charlotte’s mother. She wasn’t here on a date with the only man to break her heart.

Then why had she worn make-up and an actual skirt? To be fair, it was a jean skirt and fell halfway down her brown cowboy boots. Her usual white button-down collared shirt was long sleeved since the desert could be cool at night in September, and her blue suede vest matched her skirt perfectly.

It was a far cry from the spaghetti-strap top, short shorts and boots she’d worn the afternoon she’d met Logan. She’d been open to a relationship then, still was, only not with the man whose truck was parked on the other side of the dirt parking lot of the Black Mustang.

Maybe she’d get lucky and another man inside would find her interesting. She’d love to show Logan Williams that he’d thrown away a real prize.

She put her cowboy hat on and tucked in a few loose strands. She was such a Pollyanna to think that suddenly, after years of lackluster success, she’d finally find the man of her dreams in a bar just down the road from her dilapidated old log home.

“Hope springs eternal.” Pulling the keys from the ignition, she palmed them and got out of her little sedan. Scanning the parking lot again, she didn’t spot the red convertible. She checked her watch and frowned. She’d hoped not to be alone with Logan.

After locking her car, she strode toward the wooden porch. In front was an old-fashioned horse trough, though the place was only a couple decades old. Whoever owned the place had her dad’s penchant for replicating the Old West. Above the porch hung a wooden sign with a black mustang galloping toward the letters declaring it the Black Mustang Saloon.

She walked up the four steps and pulled open the door. Inside the lights were low except for in the far corner where a few bikers were playing pool. She scanned the tables but didn’t see Logan. A country song started to blare from the juke box and she looked there, but it was a young woman who had started it.

She walked toward the bar. There were a few construction workers hanging out at one end, a husband and wife in the middle and a few cowboys taking up the three seats on the near end. Her gaze stopped on the one closest to her. Fudge, she’d know that back anywhere. Luckily, he’d covered it up with a red plaid shirt, but it didn’t stop her from remembering what it looked like earlier in the day.

What was she doing? She should leave. But even as she started to turn away, one of the other cowboys noticed her.

“Whoa Nellie, what do we have here?” He rose and doffed his hat. “Miss, if you need a seat at the bar, you can have mine.”

The other cowboy turned as well to see who his friend spoke to, but Logan remained as he was. What happened to the charmer from the county fair? “No, thank you. I’m meeting someone.”

The cowboy’s shoulders fell. “All the good ones are taken.”

He resumed his seat so he missed her shaking her head. She needed to get out more often.

Unfortunately, she was out now and Logan had turned around at the sound of her voice. “You came.” He sounded surprised.

Yeah, probably not the smartest move she ever made. Best to keep to the task at hand. “Where is she?”

He waved down the bartender then shrugged. “She hasn’t come yet.” He turned his head to face the bartender. “Cutter, I’ll take two more beers.”

She stepped up to the bar. “If one of those is for me, make it a ginger ale.”

Logan raised an eyebrow but just nodded to the bartender. When their drinks came, Logan opened his arm toward the room of tables.

She found one near the door she’d come in. If she needed to make a hasty exit, she’d prefer to have the shortest route possible. Logan pulled out a chair for her and she sat. Then he took the chair next to her and swung it around to straddle it. Great, his legs were spread wide, his knee almost touching her leg.

“Did you get here on time? Maybe she came already and you weren’t here.”

He shook his head. “Not a chance. I’ve been here since six.”

“Six?” She took another good look at him. Had he been drinking all that time?

“Don’t look at me like that. This is only my third beer.”

Busted, she focused on her drink and had a sip. She put the glass down. “So, what do you want me to do?”

Logan sighed. “I don’t know, for sure. I guess I want an impartial, second opinion.”

“You do know, if she really is Charlotte’s mom, you can’t legally keep her from her daughter.” Nor should he want to. Whatever Charlotte’s mother had done, if she was back, Charlotte deserved to know her. Jenna would be thrilled if her mom came back.

“If? What are you saying?” He frowned, but that was pretty common for him.

“If you really want to protect your daughter, you should require a DNA test. I’m sure she is her mother because who else would come looking for you except Charlotte’s mom?” Fudge, was it her or did she sound resentful? Hopefully, Logan was too worried about his daughter to notice.

“You’re right. I’ll do that first. But if she is as she claims, I can’t let her take Charlotte.”

She must not have any self-preservation genes at all because the worry in Logan’s voice had her melting. She touched his arm. “My dad always says not to borrow trouble. It’ll find you soon enough, so don’t assume the worst. Find out what her life is like now. She may just want to have visitation rights.”

Logan took a gulp of beer, his Adam’s apple moving the fine stubble along his neck. The remembered scrape of that stubble along her inner thigh had her crossing her legs. How was she supposed to remain impartial when she was half in love with him and pissed off at him at the same time?

“Here she is.” Logan’s low voice sent another memory of them in bed skittering through her head, and she forcefully pushed it away to study the woman she’d seen in the barn.

Kylie was dressed in a white, short-sleeved blouse with a scooped neckline giving her a delicate, helpless look. Her pink-flowered, very short skirt hugged her abdomen then flared out in a ruffle about four inches wide. She wore strappy pink heels that crisscrossed up to her ankles, her perfectly straight blonde hair was pulled away from her heart-shaped face with a pink headband and to complete the ensemble, she carried a tiny pink pocketbook over her shoulder. The word “clueless” came to mind, but Jenna refused to stereotype. After all, this was Charlotte’s mom.

She tried to picture the woman in front of her holding Charlotte and couldn’t. Maybe she was biased because she had to be at least five years older than Kylie.

Kylie scanned the bar and when her gaze lit on Logan she smiled. She started forward. It took her a moment before she realized Jenna sat there as well. Kylie came to a stop before smiling at her too. Now, that was telling. Jenna would bet a dollar to donuts Kylie was looking for one big happy family with Logan.

At that observation, the ginger ale in her stomach started to eat away at her insides.

“Hi, Logan. Thank you for meeting so we can talk.” Kylie took the seat across from them and looked at Jenna. “I’m sorry, I don’t know you. My name is Kylie.”

“I’m Dr. Jenna Atkins.” She left it at that.

Kylie’s eyebrows rose. “You’re a doctor?”

“A veterinary doctor.”

“Oh, that’s why you were at the ranch.” Kylie returned her focus to Logan, dismissing Jenna as unimportant.

She bristled, but the fact was, she was unimportant in Logan’s life. She was only helping him out with this. No, she wasn’t helping him. She was here for Charlotte. Charlotte loved her daddy, not knowing what a jerk he could be. And Annette’s whole day was centered on the little girl. Everyone on the Last Chance doted on Charlotte. If she was taken from there…

“Please, Logan, I just want to see my little girl. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” Kylie leaned forward in entreaty.

Logan, in turn, leaned back. “Why now? It’s been fourteen months since you left my month-old daughter on my parents’ porch in the middle of the winter. It was almost freezing at Ragged Peaks ranch that night. What kind of mother could do that? Or was it you? Did you have someone do your dirty work for you?”

“No, no. I did it, but she was in no danger. I knocked and waited to make sure someone found her.”

Logan’s gaze turned cold. “If you were there, who found her?”

She blinked. “Who? It was a woman. I’m guessing your mother?”

Jenna could feel Logan’s tension as his leg pushed against her own. She should move away, but she felt she was helping him keep his cool in some way, and he definitely needed to do that.

“My mother and I called out. Why didn’t you come? If you were there, you could have at least explained why you were getting rid of your own daughter.”

Kylie leaned back and put her hands in her lap. “I wasn’t ‘getting rid’ of her. I was turning her care over to you because I couldn’t be sure of her safety with me.”

“Why?” Logan’s tone was hard as nails.

She looked away. “I was working for a fence in Phoenix and not everything was working out very well. A sheriff was on to him and the men we were getting goods from were not the nicest.”

“If you were working with criminals, then what were you doing in Catalina? That’s at least seventy miles from south Phoenix.”

This time she looked down at her hands as if she were ashamed. “I had been visiting my sister to hide out for a while. My boss would have thrown me under the bus if he got caught.”

“Did he?”

She shook her head. “No. He was smarter than that. He moved his operation to Tucson.” She finally raised her head. “I told him I couldn’t go because of my family.”

“When did this happen?” Logan frowned with his direct concentration.

Kylie looked startled by the question. “Around Thanksgiving.”

“It’s September. I ask you again. Why now?”

“I told you at the ranch, because I needed to get a job and a new place to live.”

“Because you were living with your boss.”

Kylie scanned the bar, ignoring Logan’s statement. “Is there a cocktail waitress here?”

When it was obvious Logan wasn’t going to answer, Jenna addressed Kylie. “No, you have to go to the bar to buy a drink.”

Kylie rose. “Wow, I guess this really is the boonies.” She immediately turned and walked to the bar.

“I don’t remember her.” Logan’s voice sounded anguished.

She had no sympathy for him there. “You probably don’t remember all of them. From what Trace told me, you had quite a few ‘flings’ as he put it.”

Logan turned and faced her. “I remember you.” His face had softened.

Darn it. Just as she worked up a good, healthy anger, he undercut it. “Yeah, well, I’m kind of memorable when you run into me at your cousin’s three months later.”

He continued to stare at her, his expression unreadable. Finally, he turned back and took a gulp of beer. “I thought Charlotte’s mother would be more…”

When he didn’t continue, she tried to supply a word for him. “Upright? Pretty? Sweet?”

He shook his head. “Quality.”

In that, they were in agreement. There was nothing about Kylie’s appearance that had her thinking she was a slut or an assistant fence or anything like that. It was more an aura about her, not that Jenna believed in auras. That was a Sedona thing. It was more a sense she had about the woman.

Kylie returned to the table and sat down with a shot and a beer. “I hope you don’t mind, but this conversation calls for a little whiskey.” She threw down the shot and took a sip of beer.

Logan pounced on that. “Why is this conversation so hard?”

She scowled. “Because I don’t tell my life story to just anyone. I’m not proud of what I’ve done. Like I said. I’m back on track now.”

Logan set his arms across the back of the chair in front of him. “Tell me about our night together.”