The Rancher's Nanny

A soul mate.

He’d once mocked the term, and he certainly didn’t believe in love at first sight.

With Maddie though, it was different. He saw a life, a future, and everything in between.

Parking his truck, he climbed out and Mike joined him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just thinking about what you said.”

“You really do need to put all of your issues with Ivory away, man. Maddie is nothing like that woman. She’s good, and the way she looks at you, she has feelings for you, and we all know she loves Paige.”

“I’ve not been thinking about Ivory, or anything relating to her.”

“Really, because after you divorced her, you said you were swearing off women.”

He glared at Mike. “I’m already aware of how different she is from Ivory.” His ex had moved on, and he was thankful for that. He didn’t care about Ivory. The only reason he’d married her was because of Paige. What he hadn’t expected was how miserable they’d all become just because of it.

“Look, I just want to see you happy. I know you deserve it, and I hate to see you miserable.” Mike slapped him on the back. “You get feed, and I’ll look at tools.”

They split up, and Caleb grabbed a truck, picking up large bags of pet food, along with a few feed items for his livestock. He liked to be prepared for anything, and if something happened to his crop, he wanted a backup supply to feed his cows.

Once he was done, Mike dropped off the tools and told him he was heading toward the jewelers to get something for Martha.

After he paid, he went straight ahead and loaded everything into the truck.

On his way back to the car after putting the trolley away, he saw Chad waiting for him.

“What is this?” Caleb asked.

Chad held his hands out. “I’m heading out of town for some time. I was going to stop by the ranch, but I saw your truck.”

“You’re not going to see Maddie,” he said. He folded his arms, prepared to argue and fight if he had to.

“I’m not asking to go and see Maddie.” Chad laughed. “You know, the first moment I saw her, I thought she was really nice. That’s what appealed to me. As far as I’m concerned, she wasn’t the prettiest girl around, but she was nice. I liked her, and she was sweet. We both wanted similar things in life. When she said yes to going on a date, I thought I’d done good.”

“Then why fuck her sister?”

Chad shrugged. “I don’t know. Isn’t that fucking lame? I don’t know. Emily was always there. She was wearing skimpy outfits, and always ready for sex. One day, I just stopped being tempted. She’s a fucking knockout, and things with Maddie had started to go stale. You know how it is.”

“No, I don’t. Emily’s not my type, and I certainly wouldn’t step out on Maddie for her.”

“She deserves you. She deserves to be happy. I shouldn’t have cheated. I shouldn’t have asked her to marry me.” Chad rubbed at his temples. “Well, I should have seen through Emily’s act, to be honest. All she wanted was for Maddie not to have me, so she set her heart on having me instead. While I was too busy watching her, I didn’t see the bigger picture, and now I’ve got neither.”

Caleb would fight for Maddie to keep her.

She belonged to him.

“Don’t let her go. Maddie’s a special kind of woman. It takes seeing someone else with her to realize that.”

“I know,” Caleb said. “You’re leaving?”

“Yep. Emily’s changed, and she’s not who I thought she was. Besides, I think she’s going to be moving on to you very soon.”

Caleb snorted. “She’s wasting her time.” He moved toward the driver’s side of the truck.

Chad said his final goodbyes, and that was it.

Mike returned with a huge smile. In his hand was a small, square box. “What do you think?” Mike asked, opening it up. There was a pendant inside, and it looked stunning. “Martha is going to love it.”

Driving back to the ranch, Mike hid the present he’d bought for Martha as they unloaded the truck. The moment that was done, Mike climbed into his own truck and was gone.

When Caleb entered his home, the scent of baking hung heavy in the air.

He found Paige and Maddie in the kitchen, whipping up some brownies and muffins. The counters were laden with bounty. Picking up a chocolate chip muffin, he took a bite and closed his eyes. Heaven.

“You’re back early,” Maddie said.

She moved to his side, and he wrapped his arm around her, pressing a kiss against her lips.

“Did you miss me, baby?”

“Let me think.” She held her fingers together. “Little bit.”

The smile on her face let him know she was teasing.

“I’m going to go and clean up,” Paige said, holding her cake batter hands up in the air.