Cowboy's Babysitter_An Older Man Younger Woman Romance Read online

  COWBOY’S BABYSITTER

  AN OLDER MAN YOUNGER WOMAN ROMANCE

  _______________________

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS, 48

  FLORA FERRARI

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  A Man Who Knows What He Wants Series

  Cowboy's Babysitter

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  Extended Epilogue

  Series

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright © 2018 by Flora Ferrari.

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situations. It is intended for mature readers.

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS

  Book 1: Baby Lust

  Book 2: Veteran

  Book 3: Built

  Book 4: Bambino

  Book 5: Rescued

  Book 6: Leader

  Book 7: Professor

  Book 8: Burned

  Book 9: Worldly

  Book 10: Pistol

  Book 11: Policed

  Book 12: Driven

  Book 13: Lucky 13

  Book 14: Lumberjacked

  Book 15: Protector

  Book 16: Carpenter

  Book 17: Italian Stallion

  Book 18: Gardener

  Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin

  Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 21: Cocky CFO

  Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th

  Book 23: Mechanic

  Book 24: SEAL’s Secret

  Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch

  Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina

  Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy

  Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol

  Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess

  Book 32: Statham

  Book 33: Bodyguard

  Book 34: Greek God

  Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter

  Book 36: Mountain Man

  Book 37: SEAL’s Justice

  Book 38: Royal Romance

  Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery

  Book 40: Crocodile Dan D

  Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby

  Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby

  Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter

  Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door

  Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace

  Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny

  Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter

  COWBOY’S BABYSITTER

  Jed

  When my cocky cowboy rodeo best buddy goes down tragically I show the true meaning of cowboy up when I adopt his baby daughter Mandy Sue.

  But as a single older man who’s slept by a lot of fires with no ladies in sight, can only cook beans and wieners over a campfire, and sleeps with his boots on I’ve got a lot to learn about raising a little girl, keeping her properly fed, and reading her bedtime stories.

  Not to mention keeping a roof over booth of our heads. With the big bronc riding contest quickly approaching I go searching for a babysitter, but the younger woman who shows up at my ranch is both the spark and the kindling that’s making me hotter than if I was standing in the middle of a blazing bonfire. She smells like a wild rose, has a voice as soothing as rain, and I get the feeling she’s as pure as the virgin lands I live on.

  She’s gonna be my babysitter alright, but I’m ready to show her what it’s like to be with a real gentleman who can treat her to her very own cowboy romance.

  Laura

  After a bad breakup with my clown of a so-called boyfriend I need to get out of town pronto. With no money, no car, and no idea what I’m doing I crazily accept a nanny job halfway across the country. But when I show up on this sexy older man’s ranch it’s got this younger woman wondering thinking it’s time to reverse my direction in life and become a cowgirl for this respectful single dad I’ve been hired to babysit for.

  And this southern gentleman sure knows how to treat a lady, whether it’s her first time in this part of the country or her first time experiencing other parts of life. I always feel special everyday when he tells me just how lucky he and his daughter are to have me, but I fell something else entirely when he tells me to leave my hat on…and nothing more.

  Jed

  Hank Williams, Jr. was right as rain when he said a country boy can survive, but there’s no way I can live another day without her in my life. Before I first laid eyes on her all I could think of was winning that bronc riding contest, but now all I can think about is winning her hand in marriage.

  I’m a cowboy who knows what he wants and won’t stop until I get it. And what I want is to lasso her heart and make her mine forever while we fill our little house on the prairie with a couple dogs and a bunch of bronc riding baby boys of our very own.

  *Cowboy’s Babysitter is an insta-everything standalone romance with an HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.

  CHAPTER 1

  Jed

  I lean against the cedar mailbox at the top of my driveway. The only sound is the crunch of my cowboy boots on the gravel as I stare down the long, empty road.

  Is this young lady really going to show up?

  I can’t believe I posted an advertisement for a babysitter on the Internet, and I can’t believe some girl halfway across the country replied and accepted.

  And now I’m not sure if I believe she’ll really show up at all.

  Then off in the distance I see it. It’s big and grey and at first it blends in with the mirage that seems to be rising up off the hot West Texas asphalt. But as the sun beats down on my cowboy hat and my pocket watch inches closer to noon I realize my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me. It’s a Greyhound bus that’s probably been on the road for an entire day already. Been through a bunch of States in this great country and it’s probably still got a few more to go, but in another ten or twenty seconds it’s going to be right here in front of my ranch.

  The only question now is will it stop and will she be getting off?

  Greyhounds don’t make unscheduled stops from what I hear. Well, here in West Texas we do things a bit differently. Folks are still friendly and bus drivers don’t see any point in making you go all the way to Albuquerque or Tucson only to backtrack a few hundred miles to a drop-off point they pass earlier in the day.

  Manners and respect. We’re all about it in these parts.

  The bus pulls over on the side of the road and the doors swing open. A gust of cool air and the smell of air-conditioning hits me in the face.

  But it’s nothing compared to the theoretical slap I get the in
stant I see her coming down those steps.

  “Morning ma’am,” I say, tipping my hat and then rushing to take her duffel bag from her when she hits the last step. I offer her my hand and go to help her down, but the moment my skin touches her I feel my legs wobble a bit myself. And I’m the one who’s supposed to be holding the both of us steady.

  “Morning,” she says.

  Suddenly the doors close and I hear the stick shift slide into gear and the bus begins to take off down the road.

  “Hey!” I yell. Then I whistle like I’m calling cattle, but the bus just keeps on moving.

  “Your other bags,” I say.

  “That’s all I got,” she says.

  I look down at the duffel bag that’s not much bigger than the one I used to take to high school football practice seventeen years ago when I was eighteen.

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it,” she says.

  “A true traveler. A young woman looking for adventure. I like it,” I say, conveniently leaving out the part about how much I like the way she looks. I don’t want to scare her off or else she’ll be sticking out her thumb and trying to flag down the next truck headed in either direction.

  But that’s not about to happen. I can tell right away that we’ve got chemistry going on, and I’m not about to let her wiggle her way out of here. And I know she doesn’t want that either.

  The only question is is this going to be one of those wild eight minute rides full of thrills and excitement, or am I gonna rope her up and keep her here forever?

  I’m a risk taker and I can see she’s definitely a risk worth taking. And like a long South Western road I want to explore how far we can take this thing and just where it might lead us.

  I sure never believed in all that falling for a girl at first sight thing, but standing out here on this hot day looking at her still trying to decide if this lovely young thing is real or just a mirage, well I might just have to change my stance on that whole serendipity business.

  CHAPTER 2

  Laura

  Two days ago I was halfway across the country finding out that my boyfriend had been cheating on me with my best friend for the last six months. And now two days later here I am, in the middle of some town in some part of the country I know absolutely nothing about. It was a crazy, spur of the moment decision to put as much distance as I could between the people I trusted most in life only to find out they weren’t worth trusting any farther than I could throw them.

  But that’s in the rearview now. What matters now is what’s standing in front of me.

  And that’s six foot three inches of something I’ve never seen before in real life, only on TV and in the movies.

  I feel an excitement rush through my veins. Wow, he really is a cowboy. I can’t help but get tingly inside realizing this is going to be just the excitement and change of pace I needed.

  Babysitting his baby daughter that is.

  But in this part of the country where animals roam free and wolves hunt at night I know things are more primal. No need to conceal the obvious ways of the animal kingdom and my inner beast is immediately filling me with the strongest mating signs I ever remember feeling.

  Being with my ex-boyfriend was pretty good, until a couple days ago, but we never consummated our relationship. I thought he was going to propose to me when we graduated last year, but no such luck. As another Texan, Beyoncé, said, “If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it.”

  Well there was no ring and he tried to throw the whole lack of sex thing in my face for his “reason” to fill his “need” to hump my best friend.

  Jerk.

  I don’t need him anyways and something tells me this tall glass of milk standing before me is nothing like the boys I’m used to.

  For starters he’s not a twenty-three year old boy like my ex. He’s surely over thirty and might even be pushing forty, but I doubt it. It’s hard to tell because on the one hand he looks young and extremely healthy, probably from all the work he puts in out here. But that work is apparently outside as he has quite the tan, which makes his age a bit harder to guess.

  I never considered an older man before, but then again I was never really around men. I mean professors don’t exactly get me going. I do like intelligence, but I’m not exactly a sapiosexual. That and most teachers and professors I’ve had over the years seem to enjoy the ring of the dinner bell a lot more than lifting some heavy barbells.

  But this guy looks like he could lift a lot more than a barbell with weights attached on either end, not that he probably ever has. Working out in a gym filled with strange futuristic looking machines surrounded by sweaty guys who often seem to be there for no other reason to pick up girls who are sitting on exercise equipment chatting away, seems ridiculous now.

  Why try and bench press two hundred pounds when you can get a lot stronger roping cattle, lifting rocks out of fields, and building a barn from scratch…with trees you may have even cut down yourself.

  This is a real man. Now that I think about it it’s the first I’ve ever really seen one in my entire life. This is no meterosexual with a seven-step skincare routine who sits in an office all day under the artificial illumination of fluorescent lights shopping online for sixty dollar bottles of beard oil.

  This is a real man who will have a five o’clock shadow this afternoon, gets his light from the sun, and his water from a well. I bet he eats bacon and eggs from a cast iron skillet. With all that iron in his diet and Vitamin D he’s getting from working outside he must be so virile he could probably fill me up with triplets on the first shot.

  But I’m not here to be barefoot and pregnant on his ranch, I’m here to watch his baby girl.

  His ad said there was no mother, but he didn’t word it like it was some sort of profile on a dating app. It was just to let candidates for the job know there really wasn’t any additional help to be had. They would be responsible for everything.

  But I’m not sure if I can be held responsible for what might happen between the two of us.

  “Let’s get you up to the house and get you a glass of lemonade,” he says.

  “That would be great,” I say.

  He helps me onto the back of his four-wheeler and we peel out on the gravel heading back up towards the house.

  The gravel is a bit bumpy and he’s not going fast, but I still use it as an excuse to wrap my arms around him…for safety reasons of course.

  But when I feel those rock hard abs of his I know being around him is about the least safe place I can be.

  The two of us out here on this ranch is going to get really dangerous really fast.

  CHAPTER 3

  Jed

  “Let me introduce you to Mandy Sue,” I say, handing Laura a glass of freshly squeezed lemonade.

  I know they’re going to get along like peas in a pod, but still I’m a little bit nervous. Mandy Sue is just a baby and I don’t want her to cry when she sees Laura for the first time. I really want them to get off on the right foot, and this has nothing to do with me.

  Sure, I had a very strong reaction to Laura the minute I laid eyes on her, but I remind myself this isn’t about me. This is about my girl. I’m a gentleman always, and being a gentleman means putting ladies first, and right now the number one lady in my life is Mandy Sue.

  One day will that change?

  If the erection I’m trying my hardest to hide in my blue jeans is any indication that’s a strong possibility, but right now I need to stay focused no matter what. I can’t let her blond hair, baby blue eyes, and the smell of wild roses that seems to be filling each room she walks into distract me. If that really is her natural scent? I don’t know much about perfumes, but I swear that smell is really hers, not something from a bottle.

  And apparently Mandy Sue smells it too.

  She slowly opens her eyes as Laura and I look into her crib.

  “She’s so beautiful,” Laura whispers.

  “Thank you, but I can’t say I h
ad anything to do with her looks. Can’t take any credit there.”

  Laura forces a smile like she’s not sure what I mean. Like my comments don’t quite make sense. Then it hits me. I never actually explained the story of how Mandy Sue and I came together. Then again that’s not something I want to post on the Internet, not to mention it took me a good hour just to figure out how to use Craigslist and post the ad. I’m not exactly savvy when it comes to computers and electronics. When it comes to plugging things into the wall I’m more used to table saws and drills, and even then I prefer a good old handsaw and a screwdriver backed by some old fashioned elbow grease.

  “You can pick her up if you want,”

  Laura’s confused look immediately turns into a smile and she grabs the top horizontal bar of the crib.

  “Hey there, Mandy Sue. Can I pick you up and see how cute you are face to face?”