Page 4 of Forbidden Cowboy

She was trying to hide it, but I could tell she was proud of herself.

“And?”

“And what?”

“And what else? You’ve never stopped at just one prank.”

She shrugged again. “It didn’t take much with her. She was already stressed from me being… me, I guess.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose for a second.

“Why, Anna?” I asked, almost begged.

“She was all boring.”

“I don’t care if she was boring! You’re only seven! You can’t stay home alone!” I felt my temper rising, and wanted to tell my daughter that my anger wasn’t entirely her fault, but I also didn’t want her to think she could get away with this behavior.

Not that scolding her had ever worked in the past.

“Just let me go with you!” She begged. “I won’t be loud or anything! Even in your office, Dad, I’ll behave!”

“Anna, you know I can’t take you everywhere with me.”

She pouted, and somehow the situation had turned so that I felt like the bad guy, when she was the one that had scared off so many nannies that hiring one had now become an impossible job.

“Sorry, Dad,” she said in a quiet voice, and I couldn’t respond without feeling guilty about whatever anger I had lingering in my heart.

“Let’s go in,” I replied, and held out my hand for her to take it.

Inside, I took a seat in one corner of the waiting room and told Anna to sit next to me. She pulled out a game console and started playing it, while I did my best not to doze off.

I did a terrible job at staying awake, and took a fitful nap in the chair, my head bobbing and my arms crossed across my chest.

“Mr. West,” a voice filtered through my head, and I jerked awake.

“Yes, yes,” I replied. “Here.”

I stood, intending to follow the man I had been arguing with earlier down the hall, but then my brain jerked the memory of my daughter into my head, and I looked around, panicked.

“Anna?” I called into the waiting room.

There was no answer, just the other occupants looking at me in concern.

“My daughter,” I asked the nurse that had called my name. “She’s seven, long brown hair, blue eyes, really pale. Have you seen her?”

He shook his head, wrinkles of concern appearing on his forehead.

“Dad!” A voice came at that second, and I whipped around to the other hallway leading off the waiting room, to see Anna walking down it holding a hot drink and a bottle of orange juice.

“Anna!” I said and strode over to her.

I was fully prepared to scold her for wandering off, when she handed me the cup.

“You looked super tired,” she said simply, “so I got you coffee.”

I was torn between appreciating the thoughtfulness and needing to parent her for leaving me in a public place like that. I took the coffee from her with a nod, and gripped her hand firmly in mine. Together, we followed the nurse that glanced between us, bemused.

As we approached the room, it occurred to me that his next of kin would be in the room, and as far as I was aware, there were only two people in the world that cared about Beau enough to be considered his family. I was one of them, and the other, well, the other was someone I didn’t know. Not anymore.