Page 40 of One Summer Day (Prosperity Ranch 1)

Macie smiled. “Looks yummy.” Finally, she met Holt’s blue gaze. He hadn’t shaved this morning, which was unusual, but the scruff on his chin was just as attractive as his clean-shave. Now, her face grew even warmer.

“How’d you sleep?” he asked.

“Great,” she said. “Thanks for, uh, watching Ruby. Did she get you up?”

The edge of his mouth lifted. “No, I was in here making breakfast when she ran in and scared me.”

Ruby giggled. “I did. I scared him. I said, ‘Boo!’”

“That is true,” Holt said, smiling down at her.

“I didn’t know you cooked,” Macie said, still captivated by his eyes this morning. They seemed bluer than ever.

“I do a lot of things, darlin’,” he said with a wink.

So, the blush was happening. Now.

Ruby set her hands on her hips, looking from one adult to the other. “She’s not your darlin’, I’m yourdarlin’.”

Holt blinked, then he grinned and mussed up Ruby’s already messy curls. “You’re my little darlin’—how’s that?”

Ruby wrapped her little arms about his waist and squeezed. “Okay, Holt.”

He met Macie’s gaze over the top of Ruby’s head and winked. Macie’s heart skipped about three full beats. No . . . this couldn’t be happening to her. She couldn’t, wouldn’t allow it. Having feelings for Holt Prosper was not allowed. Now, or ever.

He was Ruby’s uncle, that was all. An amazing uncle. And that didn’t translate to Macie herself getting all hot and bothered around him. So what if Holt was a good-looking guy on top of all of his other remarkable qualities? There’d been plenty of good-looking men at Racoons last night, although she couldn’t think of any at this exact moment.

Ruby released her death-squeeze on Holt and picked up the spatula again. He guided her through flipping the next three pancakes.

“How long have the two of you been at this?” Macie asked, her focus more on Ruby than Holt, because it was better that way.

“Not long,” Holt said. “Are you hungry?”

“Actually, I’m starving.” And she was. Her headache had also faded for the most part.

Holt reached for a coffee mug and filled it without moving from his position at the stove. He handed the mug to Macie. “Have a seat. You’re our guest this morning.”

“Yeah,” Ruby piped up. “Holt says that we’re bringing you breakfast in bed. So go get in bed.”

Holt chuckled. “Your mom can sit at the table now that she’s awake.”

Macie was blushing all over again, and she turned to walk toward the table so that Holt wouldn’t notice. She tried to imagine what it would have been like to wake up to Holt peering down at her with those blue eyes.

She sat down and blew the steam from the coffee. She wasn’t much of a coffee drinker, but she’d try some now to get rid of the last of her headache. Ruby carried over a plate of three pancakes, then Holt set down syrup and butter.

“Well, thank you, everyone,” she said.

Ruby lugged over the pitcher of juice without spilling a drop, and Holt added a jug of milk to the table along with three glasses.

Moments later, Holt and Ruby sat at the table, too, with their own plates of pancakes. Macie tried not to make too big a deal out of it in her mind, but her traitorous thoughts still conjured up the fact that if she’d married a man who wasn’t a cheater and compulsive liar, maybe this could have been her life.

Yet, then she wouldn’t have Ruby . . . Ruby, who was currently pouring almost a whole bottle of syrup on her pancakes. Macie reached out at the same time Holt grasped the bottle.

“Easy there, little darlin’—you’ll go through an entire maple tree that way.”

Ruby stabbed her fork into the center of a pancake and tried to lift the whole thing to her mouth.

“Let me cut it for you.” Macie picked up a knife and cut the pancakes into small squares.

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