Beau (Remington Ranch Book 4) by SJ McCoy

to turn her down. “What do you think we should do?” Damn! Why in hell’s name had he asked?
    She looked at Corinne. “You should give us riding lessons.”
    “I thought Mason was teaching you. He’s the best teacher.”
    “Yes, but he’s busy.”
    Beau pursed his lips. It wasn’t something he wanted to get into, but he didn’t know how to turn her down.
    Corinne came to the rescue. “Mr. Mason is your teacher, Ruby. That’s already decided.”
    Beau hoped his relief wasn’t too obvious.
    “You should come for dinner, then. Mommy likes to have people over for dinner and no one has been to our new house yet. You should be our first friend.”
    Beau froze. He slowly lifted his gaze to look at Corinne. She looked as frozen as he felt. Ruby grinned at them both.
    “Tomorrow night is Friday night. You should come tomorrow.”
    He stared at Corinne. She stared back. Why did she have to be so damned beautiful? Why did that dimple on her cheek have to give away the hint of a smile? And why in the hell was he smiling back? And nodding? Oh, shit! He’d gone and done it now!
    Ruby beamed at him. “Yay! And after we have dinner we can go and see Troy and you can tell him I’m your friend, so he can be my friend, too!”
    Beau nodded. Then looked at his watch. “Okay, but I need to get going for now.”
    Corinne smiled. “Six o’clock tomorrow? We can’t eat too late. Ruby needs to get to bed.”
    He nodded. Her voice was warm and soothing even in this situation that he’d walked himself into. All he’d wanted was to get Corinne into bed, not to have to worry about what time Ruby went. “Great. I’ll see you then.” He got up and made his way to the door. It was only once he was outside that he realized he was supposed to be getting lunch. No way was he going back inside though! He made his way back to the office, cursing himself as he went.
    He stopped in the doorway when he got back. Wanda was sitting there eating a sandwich. A sandwich that had come from the coffee shop. He scowled at her. “Why did you let me go for your lunch when you already had it?”
    She grinned. “I thought you might enjoy a visit to the coffee shop.”
    “You knew they were in there?”
    He didn’t think he’d ever seen a smile that big on her face. “How did it go?”
    “How did it go?” he ran his hand through his hair. “I fucked up, Wanda. I well and truly fucked up.”
    “Oh, no! You blew it?”
    He shook his head. “I’m having dinner at the cabin tomorrow night with both of them!”
    Wanda laughed. “Good for you!”
    “No. It is not good for me. It will be so bad for me. How can I spend an entire evening with that kid? She’s a monster!”
    “Now you stop that! She is not! You sound like a kid yourself. Waa, waa, waa. I don’t like her! I don’t want to play with her.”
    Beau had to laugh. “Seriously? I’m that bad?”
    She nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
    “Well, shit! It’s just that I thought I had this thing figured out. That I’d get to spend some time with Corinne—some adult time. And now I somehow roped myself into an evening with Ruby!”
    “So make the most of it! Give the kid a chance. Stop thinking from your pants for a minute, and instead think with that big soft heart you keep hidden away. That poor little mite doesn’t have a daddy. Her momma works a lot, she doesn’t have any friends here yet. What would it cost you to show the little thing some kindness?”
    Beau stared at her. “You’re appealing to my better nature?”
    Wanda made a face. “Sorry, I forgot you don’t have one.”
    “Ouch. That hurts.”
    “So prove me wrong.”
    He pursed his lips. If he thought about Ruby in the way Wanda had just described her then he could feel a certain sneaking sympathy—until he remembered what she was like! “I suppose I could try to be nice to her. Just for one evening. It’d earn me some brownie points with Corinne.” He shrugged. “And you’re right, what would it cost