The Housekeeper's Daughter (4 page)

Maya squared her shoulders and walked down the hall, ready for the firing squad, so to speak. Drake wasn't in the kitchen. Relieved, she turned to her mother. “Can I help?”

Inez nodded distractedly. She dumped a stack of homemade tortillas into a cloth-lined basket. “Take these to the dining room,” she said. “Check if there's enough salsa on the table.”

Maya's heart dropped straight to her toes, but pride wouldn't allow her to refuse. After all, she had opened her mouth and volunteered. Another lesson in life from the school of hard knocks, she reminded herself, trying for humor to bolster her flagging courage.

“Oh, and butter,” her mother added, stirring a pot
and tasting the contents before adding more seasoning.

Maya put fresh butter on a crystal dish, picked up the basket and went into the formal dining room. Maybe none of the family had gathered yet.

As if she would have such good fortune.

It was worse than she imagined. Drake and his father were at the table, deep in conversation, when she walked in. There was a beat of silence, then Joe rose with a smile.

“Maya, you're looking beautiful today.” He glanced at his son. “There's something about an expectant mother, isn't there? A glow that's special.”

“Yes.” Drake's voice was low, sexy.

Maya felt the blush start at her toes and work its way up. By the time it reached her hairline, she felt like a fresh-boiled lobster.

“Didn't mean to embarrass you,” Joe murmured, his gaze so full of delight and kindness, she could have wept.

“No, it's all right,” she managed to say past the lump in her throat.

When she dared look at Drake, his gaze was noncommittal, with no emotion that she could detect. “Mom sent some tortillas and butter.” She placed them on the table near the men.

After checking the salsa dish, she hurried back to the kitchen. “Here,” Inez said, thrusting a platter into Maya's hands. “Take these. The new helper I hired didn't show up. I have to get the rest of the food ready.”

Maya suppressed a twinge of guilt. Had it not been
for Drake, she would have been giving her mom a hand. Instead, she'd hid in her room all morning. And accomplished nothing in the way of studying. She had a big test coming up later in the month.

She took the huge platter of burritos to the dining room table. Mexican food was one of Joe's favorite meals and in spite of Ms. Meredith, her mother served it often.

Maya returned to the kitchen for bowls of refried beans and Spanish rice. In the dining room, after checking the table to make sure she hadn't missed anything, she again turned toward the kitchen, aware of a brooding gaze on her each time she'd entered the room.

“Why don't you join us?” Joe asked.

Her feet took root and she couldn't move. She shook her head and felt her hair swish against her face. Realizing she was overreacting, she managed a smile and tried to decline politely, but it was useless. Drake had already pulled a chair out for her. Joe took her arm and guided her into it.

“Well,” she said with a strained smile, “since you insist.”

Joe's smile was understanding and benign. She wasn't sure about Drake's. It held a more menacing quality.

“How are your studies going?” the older Colton asked, serving her the platter of burritos before taking two for himself.

“Fine, sir. I made the dean's list.”

“As usual,” Joe said in approval. He passed the plate to Drake.

The son, she noted, took four. How could his lean frame burn up so much food, she wondered, something she had asked once before.

“I think a lot,” he'd answered at the time. He'd kissed her deeply. “And engage in vigorous activity,” he'd added, then he'd proceeded to show her what he meant.

The heat surged to her face at the memory. She spooned out rice and beans, then passed the bowls to Joe, who sat at the end of the long table with Drake on his left, directly across from her so that she met his eyes every time she looked up.

Ms. Meredith breezed into the room, bringing the scent of expensive blended perfume. Without acknowledging Maya's presence, she wrinkled her nose at the food, then informed her husband she had a luncheon engagement in town and, without so much as a goodbye to her son, left.

Maya tried not to feel sorry for Drake and the other Colton children, but it was hard. Her own mother, Inez, loved kids and lavishly showed it. Other than periods of intense interest in her two youngest children, Drake's mother mostly ignored her children. It was a riddle because she hadn't always been that way.

From her childhood, Maya recalled Ms. Meredith as a gentle, laughing woman who would run and play with her children and husband as if she, too, were young and full of life.

Glancing up, she saw Drake's eyes follow his mother as she left the house.

Maya suddenly sensed the need of the boy for the comfort his mother would have once given him. Then
his gaze hardened and he was a man again, tough, resilient and determined, the kind of man the Navy called on for its most dangerous missions.

It was a life he relished. As if he courted death. As if he dared it to come close.

She ate quickly, sorrow in her heart. Maybe Drake didn't know it, but there was something in him…not exactly a death wish—nothing so drastic as that—but a core of darkness nevertheless, one that he had never come to grips with.

“I wanted to ask you about the Hopechest Ranch,” Joe continued after the brief interruption. “I want your opinion. Do you think it's helping the children?”

“Oh, yes. It's a wonderful place and has a fine reputation. The reading program is excellent. In my opinion,” she added, realizing she might have sounded arrogant.

“I'm thinking of increasing the endowment this year.”

“That would be good, sir. The courts are referring more children there than the school can take.”

“Mmm.” The older man thought a bit. “Drake, while you're home, maybe you can take a tour of the Hopechest and recommend something more we can do—a new stable or arena, perhaps? Or an additional bunkhouse.”

“I'll look into it,” Drake promised.

“Good. That's good, son.”

Maya was touched by the obvious pride and trust the elder Colton placed in his son. Drake needed to see he was appreciated for himself.

Abruptly, she cut off the thought. Drake didn't need her concern and pity. He was a grown man. She'd do well to keep out of other people's business, especially when her own emotions were totally unreliable at this point.

Remember that advice, she mocked her soft heart, and you'll get along a lot better in the world. Except she was going to love her child devotedly and show that love just as her parents had done with her and her sister, Lana.

She sighed in resignation. Yeah, she was one tough cookie.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Drake asked, looking directly at her.

His father turned his kind gaze on her, too, while they waited for an answer.

“Fine,” she murmured. “I'm just fine.”

“Back not hurting?”

The question sounded so intimate, she felt as if he were making love to her right there at the table. The awful blush started again. “No. Excuse me. I have to be at the Hopechest soon.” She picked up her plate of half-eaten food and fled.

“You didn't eat much,” her mother noted as soon as Maya entered the kitchen.

“I had plenty. I have to run now, Mom.” She kissed her mother's cheek. “Love you.”

“Love you,” Inez repeated, her dark eyes checking her over anxiously.

On the drive to the children's ranch, Maya wished she didn't have to hurt her parents. They loved her and worried about her, but she just couldn't admit
Drake was the father of her child and that he didn't want them.

The contents of that note still burned in her heart, making her chest tighten so that she could scarcely breathe whenever she recalled it. His lovemaking had meant nothing. He'd made no promises, not one.

Pushing her troubles into the background, she turned in at the Hopechest Ranch. The kids who lived here had it rough. Compared to them, her life was a piece of cake.

“Hey, Miss Ramirez,” Johnny Collins called, spotting her getting out of her car. He came over to help carry her books and papers.

“Hey, Johnny,” she greeted the fourteen-year-old, one of her favorites. His mother had abandoned him and his father years ago. The boy's father had taken to drinking and couldn't keep a job. Johnny had been caught with his hand in the till, so to speak, at a fast-food place where he'd lied about his age and gotten a job. “Did you get through the book I assigned last week?”

“Yeah. I wrote down the words I didn't know and looked them up after I got through each chapter, like you said. It made reading easier.”

“Good.” They went into the classroom where she privately tutored the kids who were way behind. “I got your test graded. You aced it. Wow!” she exclaimed softly, giving him the praise he deserved.

His dark eyes lit up. She noted the golden flecks in them and thought of Drake's dark eyes that flashed golden when the light hit them.

“Okay, let's see your list of words,” she requested when she was at her desk and ready to start.

For the next two hours she worked with Johnny, then a group of students who were further advanced. At three, she rushed home to check on Joe Junior and Teddy and make sure they did their homework correctly. Ms. Meredith was a stickler about that, too.

Drake was in the corral, working with one of the young cow ponies when she arrived. She stood by the car and watched him for a few minutes.

He had a firm touch on the reins and made sure the gelding knew what was expected and performed the task correctly before he went on to something else. He would make a good teacher for the students at the children's ranch—

Reality check, she interrupted herself. Drake didn't need her advice on what to do with his life when he grew tired of risking it on daring rescues in places where he could get himself shot on sight. It wasn't her business.

Just as she turned to head inside, Drake stopped his mount beside the fence. He dipped his head toward her in greeting, then simply watched her, making her think of lunch and the way he had looked at her then. There was an invitation in those dark depths, but she didn't know what it was an invitation to.

The baby stirred and kicked vigorously as if sensing her agitation. Flustered, she rushed into the house.

“M
aya, come with us,” Joe Junior shouted as soon as she stepped in the door. “Drake's gonna teach us how to rope.”

“Yeah, we'll be rodeo champions someday!” Teddy said.

“Indoor voices, please,” Maya reminded them, going into her room and storing her book bag before swapping her flats for sneakers. “What about your homework?”

The boys vowed they'd do it before dinner and give up their hour of television if need be.

“Okay.”

“We can?” Joe looked disbelieving, then he let out a whoop, quickly suppressed. He and Teddy took off.

Maya's heart did a somersault. Drake was good to his younger brothers. He obviously cared for them.
They needed love and approbation from someone other than her. Their mother was too unpredictable in her love.

Their father loved them, but there was a sadness in him that Maya thought the youngsters sensed, so they tended to be subdued around him. Besides, Joe was deeply involved with all the other problems in the Coltons' lives at present—the shootings, the disappearance of Emily.

With Drake, the boys could do “guy” things. The shared companionship was good for all of them, Drake included. The boys touched a soft spot in him. He needed that.

Not that she was concerned with his needs, she reminded herself. Pulling on a jacket, she headed outside to keep an eye on her two charges. Ms. Meredith had made it very plain that she paid Maya to be with the boys and keep them from harm. That meant keeping them within view at all times.

Arriving at the paddock, Maya found Drake had set up two sawhorses with brooms for heads and was showing the boys how to hold their lariats. She couldn't help but laugh. He turned his intense gaze on her with a quickness that dried up the merriment.

“Your laughter makes the day brighter,” he said.

Maya was aware of the boys looking from one to the other, then at each other. They giggled in the way kids do when grown-ups say funny things.

“Is this right?” Joe asked, directing his brother's attention to their concerns once more.

Leaning on the fence, Maya watched Drake start the two youngsters close to the sawhorses. Joe, being
older, caught on quicker than Teddy. Drake moved him back to ten feet, then worked with Teddy until he got the hang of tossing the rope over the broom.

After an hour, Maya called out, “Ten more minutes, guys.”

“Then what?” Drake asked.

He gave her a sexy once-over that startled her thoughts right out of her head. “Then it's time for homework,” she said, gathering her wits.

When the boys protested, Drake shushed them. “You have to plan your time carefully to get everything done. That's what a good SEAL does. You've done roping, now it's time for the next item on the agenda, right, teacher?”

“Uh, right,” she echoed.

“Vamoose!” Drake ordered, then grabbed a sawhorse in each hand and left the paddock.

Joe and Teddy climbed over the fence and dropped to the ground beside Maya. “Drake's really good,” Joe told her. “He could be a rodeo champion if he wanted.”

“Yeah. That's what I'm gonna be,” Teddy decided.

Joe gave him a shove. “Ha!”

“I am!”

“Enough, guys. Don't argue. Discuss—that's the rule. And don't touch another person without permission. Joe, ten minutes earlier to bed.”

“Aww,” Joe started to complain.

Ms. Meredith opened the door and glared at all three of them. “You will lower your voices at once,” she ordered.

“Yes, ma'am,” both boys intoned simultaneously.

Maya felt like echoing the boys' subdued manner. She had stopped “ma'am-ing” Ms. Meredith a year ago upon realizing that, in order to be taken as an equal, she must act as one. She would not be subservient.

“Have the boys done their homework?” Meredith asked her with a severe frown.

“We're on our way to do that now. Drake was teaching them how to rope. It's excellent training for eye-hand coordination,” she said in a firm teacher-knows-best voice.

She smiled with an assurance she was far from feeling and hoped she didn't get a dressing-down in front of her young charges. They tended to take her side, ending with all three of them getting a lecture.

To her relief, the other woman nodded and left them in the hall while she went into the living room to speak to her husband. Maya quickly herded the boys to her room where she set them to work on their lessons. She got out her own books and studied the physical, mental and emotional development of children from kindergarten to sixth grade.

 

Drake peeled out of his clothes, took a quick shower, dressed, then hurried to the kitchen. Maya wasn't there.

“Where…are the boys?” he amended his question.

Inez Ramirez, longtime housekeeper, friend and confidante to the Colton family, studied him for an uncomfortable five seconds before answering. “Maya
took their dinner to her room. They aren't finished with their homework yet.”

Disappointment hit him. He tried to keep it from showing. Growing up, he and all the kids on the ranch had decided Inez could read minds. She always knew when they had done something they shouldn't as soon as they walked into the house. At the present moment, he felt as if she knew of each and every tryst he'd had with her daughter last summer…and of the lustful dreams he'd been having of Maya every night since then.

“Thanks,” he said politely and headed for the living room where he'd seen his parents earlier. He paused when he got within earshot.

“You simply have to pay it. It's been months,” Drake heard his father say.

“Really, Joe,” Meredith said in obvious annoyance. “It's only a couple of thousand. You'd think I'd asked for your life savings.”

“Precisely why I did what I did with your credit cards. You have an allowance. I suggest you pay your bills with it.”

“But some of these charges were for your birthday party!”

Drake winced at his father's laughter. He'd never heard that tone before—cold and harsh and cynical.

“Not one of the family's better days,” Joe Senior continued in the same vein.

“I…no, it wasn't,” his mother agreed, her voice going soft. “It frightened me, that you might have been killed, or at the least, incapacitated.”

Drake waited for his father's reply, but heard noth
ing. In another second, he heard the tap of his mother's heels. He stayed in the dining room until she went down the hall toward her room. He heard her door shut with a brittle slam.

After another minute, he ventured into the other room. His father stood at the window, his face expressionless as he stared out at the deepening twilight. He turned when Drake entered, then smiled in greeting.

Drake felt a tightening in his chest. No matter what his father's disappointments or trials were in life, Joe always had time for children, whether his own or the foster kids that stayed with them at the ranch. Drake admired that quality in his sire and tried to emulate it with his younger brothers.

“How are things with you?” Joe asked.

“Fine, sir,” Drake began, then stopped. “Well, maybe not so good. I'm not making much headway with Maya.”

Joe raised his eyebrows in question.

“She won't tell me who the father of the child is,” Drake admitted.

“A brandy?” Joe asked, pouring one for himself.

“Please.”

Drake accepted a snifter, then sat on the sofa after his father settled in a chair. The feel of leather, the shine of the furniture and faint scent of lemon oil were familiar and comforting.

His father swirled the brandy in his glass, then fastened a piercing gaze on him. “Does that matter?”

Drake was startled by the question. “Well, yes,”
he began. “That is… If it's mine, then naturally I'll do the right thing.”

“What if it isn't?” Joe persisted. “Joe Junior was left on our doorstep. Your mother and I adopted him and raised him as if he were our own flesh and blood.”

Drake nodded. It was such ancient history, he'd truly forgotten that little Joe was a foundling.

“If Maya's child couldn't be yours, I assume you would have said so and not come home.”

Drake met his father's level gaze. “It could be. I think…actually, I'm sure it is. But she won't say so,” he finished in frustration.

“Have you asked her to marry you?”

Drake smiled in irony. “We haven't gotten that far.”

“I take it that you don't want the marriage?” Joe questioned dryly.

Drake fought the storm of emotion that rushed through him. “I didn't plan on having a wife and family. My life is uncertain at best.”

“And extremely dangerous the rest of the time,” Joe concluded. “Yet women and children do manage when husbands and fathers have tough jobs that take them away from home for long periods. It's all in how the family handles it. Love makes a big difference.”

Drake knew his father was questioning his feelings for Maya. He stared out the window at the dark shadows cast by a tree swaying in the night wind. The darker shadows in his soul shifted painfully. Maya was like the sun. She was all the bright, good things in life, the things forever out of his reach.

“Dinner,” Inez called softly from the dining room.

Joe observed the flicker of emotion pass through his son's eyes. Drake was a man, with a man's needs. Sex was part of that, but so was love. A life without it was desolate indeed.

Suppressing a sigh, he rose and led the way into the dining room where the family was gathering for the evening meal. It should have been a joyous time of the day.

He sat at the head of the table, Drake at his left. River and Sophie, now married and expecting—his and Meredith's first grandchild!—joined them. Their new house which River had designed and built himself, was a beauty, but Joe loved when they visited the main house.

Meredith entered, nodded graciously when the children greeted her, and took her place.

Glancing at Drake, Joe thought of young Teddy. He'd had an impulse to confide to his older son that the youngest Colton wasn't his but he loved the boy as if he were.

That fact wasn't something a man could tell his child. However Meredith had changed, she was still the mother of their children. That she adored Joe Junior and Teddy, Joe couldn't deny.

A sadness reaching clear to the depths of his soul rolled over him. Drake was struggling to realize just what his relationship was with Maya, but Joe had had no doubts the first time he'd met Meredith. Neither had she. They had known they were in love from the first.

Where had it all gone?

 

Maya was relieved when she walked out of the doctor's office. She and little Marissa were doing fine. Her wild ride hadn't harmed the baby, thank goodness. She backed out of the busy parking lot next to the medical building and nearly ran over Peggy Honeywell who ran the bed-and-breakfast, Honeywell House, in Prosperino.

They grinned and waved at each other. When the coast was clear, Maya ran a few errands and drove carefully to the high school. She met Andy Martin in his classroom.

“How's it going?” he greeted her cheerfully, his eyes sweeping over her blossoming figure as if to check her progress.

Just the way every person she met looked her over nowadays. She sometimes felt like a beached whale with a curious crowd milling around, trying to figure out what to do with her.

“Great,” she assured him. She got out some test papers. “Here are Johnny's latest exams. I really appreciate your looking them over for me. He needs more help in math than I can spare him, I'm afraid.”

Andy studied the papers and made some notes in the margins beside the wrong answers. “Mm,” he said once in a while. “Ah, yes.”

Maya thought his comments sounded promising. The boy was smart, precocious in the way of many children who'd had to raise themselves, but he was sadly lacking in basic skills such as reading and arithmetic.

“Okay, I think I can come up with a program of
study for him that will bring him up to par.” Andy squinted and gave her an assessing look.

“What?” she asked.

“How about I come out to the ranch Saturday morning? Could you fit that into your schedule? I'd like to work out some word problems, then check with you on his vocabulary level. We'll see how well he does on reading comprehension when it relates to problem solving.”

“That would be perfect. Thanks, Andy. You have no idea what a load this is off my mind. I think Johnny has college potential, but he's going to need extra help to get him up to speed.”

“No problem.” He checked his watch. “You feel like an early supper or maybe a snack?”

When she'd realized she was pregnant with Drake's child, she'd broken off entirely with Andy, refusing even the most casual of meetings with him. When he'd learned of the child, he'd sought her out and offered marriage.

No questions asked.

Not like Drake, who apparently wanted to know exactly when she'd became pregnant and with whom. She would never forgive him for that, no matter how sorry she might feel for him because of his parents' problems or his sad past.

“I think not.”

“I hear Drake Colton is back in town,” Andy murmured, a speculative note in his voice.

She stared at the chalkboard, unable to totally lie and unwilling to admit she'd been a fool. “Yes, he's home for…for a vacation, I suppose.”

“Maya—”

She jumped to her feet—well, okay, it was more of a lunge—and smiled brightly. “I really have to go. The boys are on their own and probably ignoring their homework.”

Andy walked out to the car with her. He opened the door, then lightly clasped her arm. “I've been your friend for a long time. You know that, don't you?”

She nodded unhappily. She'd never meant to hurt him.

“You can come to me at any time. To talk. To just get away. Whatever. Okay?”