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Snowbound Baby
SUSAN MEIER
Subject: OVER MY HEAD!From: cooper…bryant@bryantdevelopment…comTo: ty…bryant@bryantdevelopment…comYou know me too well to call me a hero, but I rescued two strangers from this deadly blizzard after spotting their vehicle !in near white-out conditions. Now I'm sharing a secluded cabin with gorgeous Zoe Montgomery and her adorable infant. When I first started out, saving my precious ranch was all that mattered to me, but now…well, it's about all I can do to keep up with my new domestic duties and keep my eyes (and hands) off Zoe. But Cooper Bryant, devoted husband and dad? fhat would take a Christmas miracle….
“You’re not seducing me!”
“Why? Because I ignored you this afternoon? Honey, what’s going on between you and me has nothing to do with getting along, or making a commitment or even exchanging phone numbers. And right now your body’s telling me you feel the same things I do.”
“You are so crude!”
“I’m certainly not hearts and flowers.” There. It was out. The thing Cooper had wanted to deny all day. The thing he wanted Zoe to understand. The thing he needed for both of them to get beyond.
“I’m a hearts-and-flowers kind of girl.”
“Hey, I didn’t say I wouldn’t be romantic.”
“I don’t want romance. I want love.”
Dear Reader,
As the days get shorter and the approaching holidays bring a buzz to the crisp air, nothing quite equals the joy of reuniting with family and catching up on the year’s events. This month’s selections all deal with family matters, be it making one’s own family, dealing with family members or doing one’s family duty.
Desperate to save his family ranch, the hero in Elizabeth Harbison’s Taming of the Two (#1790) enters into a bargain that could turn a pretend relationship into the real deal. This is the second title in the SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE trilogy. A die-hard bachelor gets a taste of what being a family man is like when he rescues a beautiful stranger and her adorable infant from a deadly blizzard, in Susan Meier’s Snowbound Baby (#1791)—part of the author’s BRYANT BABY BONANZA continuity. Carol Grace continues her FAIRY TALE BRIDES miniseries with His Sleeping Beauty (#1792) in which a woman sheltered by her overprotective parents gains the confidence to strike out on her own after her handsome—but cynical—neighbor catches her sleepwalking in his garden! Finally, in The Marine and Me (#1793), the next installment in Cathie Linz’s MEN OF HONOR series, a soldier determined to outwit his matchmaking grandmother and avoid the marriage landmine gets bushwhacked by his supposedly dowdy neighbor.
Be sure to come back next month when Karen Rose Smith and Shirley Jump put their own spins on Shakespeare and the Dating Game, respectively!
Happy reading.
Ann Leslie Tuttle
Associate Senior Editor
Snowbound Baby
Susan Meier
Bryant Baby Bonanza
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Books by Susan Meier
Silhouette Romance
Stand-in Mom #1022
Temporarily Hers #1109
Wife in Training #1184
Merry Christmas, Daddy #1192
* (#litres_trial_promo)In Care of the Sheriff #1283
* (#litres_trial_promo)Guess What? We’re Married! #1338
Husband from 9 to 5 #1354
* (#litres_trial_promo)The Rancher and the Heiress #1374
† (#litres_trial_promo)The Baby Bequest #1420
† (#litres_trial_promo)Bringing up Babies #1427
† (#litres_trial_promo)Oh, Babies! #1433
His Expectant Neighbor #1468
Hunter’s Vow #1487
Cinderella and the CEO #1498
Marrying Money #1519
The Boss’s Urgent Proposal #1566
Married Right Away #1579
Married in the Morning #1601
** (#litres_trial_promo)Baby on Board #1639
** (#litres_trial_promo)The Tycoon’s Double Trouble #1650
** (#litres_trial_promo)The Nanny Solution #1662
Love, Your Secret Admirer #1684
Twice a Princess #1758
†† (#litres_trial_promo)Baby Before Business #1774
†† (#litres_trial_promo)Prince Baby #1783
†† (#litres_trial_promo)Snowbound Baby #1791
Silhouette Desire
Take the Risk #567
SUSAN MEIER
is one of eleven children, and though she’s yet to write a book about a big family, many of her books explore the dynamics of “unusual” family situations, such as large work “families,” bosses who behave like overprotective fathers, or “sister” bonds created between friends. Because she has more than twenty nieces and nephews, children also are always popping up in her stories. Many of the funny scenes in her books are based on experiences raising her own children or interacting with her nieces and nephews.
She was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and continues to live in Pennsylvania.
Snowbound Holiday Punch
2 tsp whole cloves
1 tsp allspice
4 sticks cinnamon
½ c sugar
2½ c water
1 c frozen lemonade
1 c frozen orange juice
2 pint cranberry juice
1½ quarts ice water
Combine spices, sugar and 2½ cups water in saucepan. Simmer ten minutes, strain and cool. Combine lemonade, orange juice and cranberry juice and add to spice mixture. Just before serving, add ice water. Pour over ice in punch bowl for serving.
Ginger ale can be substituted for ice water.
Contents
Chapter One (#u636eb5e6-6070-5d71-81d5-5fa3c52768ef)
Chapter Two (#u15418a1e-ae96-54a3-8fc6-776823ce9ce3)
Chapter Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One
“Son of a…”
Cooper Bryant cut off his curse, needing all of his mental and physical energy to maneuver his eighteen-wheeler around a Toyota that was stuck in the middle of the snow-covered mountain road. Passing the car, he peered down, ready to make a gesture to let the driver know exactly how he felt about people who blocked the way. But he saw the stranded motorist was a young woman. And she had a baby in the back seat.
Shoot!
Well, he couldn’t stop to help. Ironically, the shortcut that he’d cajoled from the turnpike tollbooth attendant hadn’t allowed him to outrun the storm, but had, instead, slowed him down. The twisting, winding route up the Western Pennsylvania mountain couldn’t be taken with any kind of speed. The curves all seemed to hug the edge of the world. And once a semi lost speed climbing a steep slope, it was impossible to get it back. If Cooper stopped now, his truck would stay exactly where it was until the state plowed away the snow.
He made it another couple hundred feet, but his wheels began hesitating. Cooper knew his truck wasn’t going to reach the top. Unlike the driver in the Toyota who had simply parked where her car had stopped, he eased his vehicle onto the first shoulder he found that had more than six inches of space between his truck and a cliff, and cut the engine.
He didn’t like wasting precious hours like this—however, lost time was better than a wreck. He didn’t have one of the elaborate, expensive trucks with sleeping quarters, but he’d passed several hunting cabins. One of them, if not all of them, probably had a woodstove. He had two sandwiches, a thermos of coffee, soap, towels, a blanket and a shaving kit. He could be comfortable for the night, and rested when he got back on the road tomorrow.
Hoisting his backpack of supplies, Cooper jumped out of the cab and into the crystallized white snow. He had switched his trademark cowboy boots for thick work boots at the truck stop off the turnpike exit, but he still had his black Stetson and denim jacket. Unfortunately, they weren’t much against the bite of the unforgiving mountain wind. Cooper was an Arkansas boy, born and bred, but he’d transplanted himself to Texas where he and a buddy had bought a ranch. For the past three years he’d been saving the money he made driving truck to increase the herd and he’d been everywhere from Oregon to Florida. He’d experienced cold, wind, even snow…but not like this.
He tucked himself more tightly inside his jacket as he made his way down the hill. Only about twenty feet from his truck he saw a cabin. Small, with chipping white paint and a sagging roof, the structure was nonetheless good enough for the night. He was about to turn down the snow-covered lane when he remembered the young woman in the Toyota.
And her baby.
Shoot!
He sighed. He wasn’t much on company. Ever. His beliefs were so far out of sync with those of the general population that every time he opened his mouth he seemed to get into an argument. In his reckless youth, that had led to some nasty bar fights. Even his own brothers had said he was always making trouble and kicked him out of their lives eight years ago.
Determined to keep his world peaceful, he wasn’t somebody who went looking for human contact. So, fate should have known better than to throw a stranded woman in his path. He might be able to help her find shelter, but he wasn’t about to play gin rummy until the snowplow came through. If she was a chatterbox who needed constant entertainment, she’d get on his nerves and he’d probably end up making her cry.
Yeah, this was going to be peachy.
Still, he started walking to her car. He didn’t get too far before he realized it was at least two football fields away. If he went down the mountain to offer the woman the opportunity to share a cabin, he wouldn’t simply be going the length of two football fields to get her. He would have to walk those two football fields back up again.
Shoot.
He didn’t want to let a mama and baby freeze to death, but she should have known better than to travel on a day like this.
Cooper continued down the mountain anyway. Slipping and sliding as the powerful wind pushed him along the steep slope, he traveled the distance in what he knew had to be record time. In only a few minutes, he rounded a curve and saw the Toyota. It was now covered with snow, and he could see no sign of exhaust coming out the back. Cooper guessed the driver was either gone or she’d quit running her motor to save gas for the long night. Though he knew having her along would be nothing but irritation to his already frayed nerves, he couldn’t stop a surge of male ego. If she was still in that car, she would be really glad to see him.
With the wind urging him on, he half ran the rest of the way, almost losing his balance twice on the icy incline. When he reached the car, he tapped on the driver’s side window. The snow-covered glass began a very slow descent, but it stopped after about four inches. Then the barrel of a gun greeted him.
Cooper jumped back. What the hell!
“Get lost,” the young woman yelled. “I don’t have any money and I’m not willing to share my car with you. I have a baby.”
“I don’t want to share your car. My truck’s parked just up the road.” Cooper paused long enough to curse under his breath because his heart was jumping like a jackrabbit. Only an idiot used a gun so carelessly. “Look, I passed three hunting cabins on my walk down the hill. I saw you on my way up but couldn’t stop. If you want, you can spend the night in a cabin with me, and I’ll take care of the woodstove. If you don’t, that’s cool, too.”
He waited for a response but got none. Fool woman! Just like a mare he’d bought two years ago. Didn’t have a whit of common sense.
He gave her another thirty seconds. Still nothing.
“Suit yourself,” he called, then turned and began re-climbing the hill, the howling wind nearly blowing him down again. He knew it couldn’t be any warmer than ten degrees. When the sun set even that scant heat would disappear. With the wind chill it would be so far below zero the number would be irrelevant. Anyone without proper shelter would freeze to death. Even if that kid had a blanket—four blankets—she and her baby would freeze to death.
Shoot!
He let the wind blow him back down to her car, then tapped on the window and jumped out of the way as the glass lowered, just in case she aimed the barrel of the gun at him again.
“It’s going to be below zero tonight. You are not going to survive in that car.”
“We’ll be fine.”
“No, you won’t!” Getting angry now, he tried her door but it was locked. “If you didn’t have a baby, I wouldn’t give a flying fig about you freezing to death. But you’ve got a kid. You have to be reasonable.”
“I am reasonable.” She sighed and rolled down the window. Cooper couldn’t help noticing her blond hair, clear pink skin and cornflower blue eyes. “Look, I called a friend. Any minute now I’ll be rescued.”
At that Cooper laughed. “Rescued? Haven’t you heard the weather?”
Her pretty eyes narrowed. “Yes and no. I heard about a snowstorm, but it’s always snowing here. I live on the other side of this mountain. I’m so used to the snow I hardly pay attention.”
“Well, you should have paid attention because this is a blizzard.” He drew in a quick breath and his lungs rebelled at the cold. “The temperatures are falling faster than normal. They’re predicting two feet of snow. If your friend is smart, he’ll stay home.”
Waiting for her reply, he blew on his hands. Even with gloves his fingers were going numb.
When she said nothing, his patience suddenly evaporated and he yelled, “Come out in thirty seconds or I’ll break your car window to save your kid.”
He swore he heard her sigh with disgust, but decided it had to be the wind. Then she kicked open her door and pushed herself out. A blast of air caught her pale hair and fanned it away from her head.
More concerned with getting them safely to shelter, he barely noticed the pretty feathery locks. “Where’s your hat?”
She turned and her blue eyes pinned him with an exasperated look. “It’s in the car.”
“Good, put it on and let’s get the hell going. It’s cold.”
She said, “Right,” then bent and reached inside her vehicle. Her red leather jacket only came to her waist and when she stretched he got a full view of the enticing curve of her bottom.
Cooper quickly turned away. Since she had a baby, the woman was obviously married, and staring at her behind, no matter how nicely rounded, was inappropriate.
The wind kicked up. From the back of her car, the woman pulled out a white plastic contraption lined with pink and navy blue plaid padding. She set it on the driver’s seat, then reached into the back again and extracted a baby wearing a pink snowsuit and wrapped in a pink blanket. She sat the kid in the padding of the white plastic thing. When she looped a handle from beneath and snapped it into place, Cooper guessed the contraption was some kind of baby carrier.
“I should take her,” Cooper said, assuming the baby was a girl because of all the pink.
“I’ll carry her,” the woman disagreed, leaving the baby on the front seat of her car so she could dig out an enormous diaper bag. Pink plaid to match the travel seat, it was stuffed to capacity and looked more like a trash can with a strap. “You take this.”
She shoved the two-ton diaper bag into Cooper’s arms just as a gust of wind hit him and he nearly fell backward. But he didn’t. He didn’t fall. He didn’t curse. He didn’t even yelp. Instead he saw the nice, quiet evening he could have had blow away on a frigid blast of air.
He nodded up the hill. “The cabins are this way.”
He turned to begin the upward trek, but she caught his arm with her glove-covered fingers.
Everything inside of Cooper stilled. It had been so long since anybody had dared to touch him—except in a fight—that his hands automatically curled into fists. But before he instinctively took a punch, he looked into her round blue eyes and a tingling sensation exploded in his gut. Now he understood why she mistrusted him. She was gorgeous and he was about to spend the night with her.
With her body shielding the open car door and Daphne from the wind, Zoe Montgomery stared at the man in front of her, pretending her shivers were from cold, not from fear. She shouldn’t have touched him. Until she’d touched him he’d seemed like a grumpy Kola bear. Now he looked like an angry panther. His green eyes glittered, his hands were fisted and his body was stiff, poised and ready to strike.
Tall and lean, with a black Stetson pulled low over his eyes, her rescuer was definitely all male, but he also had an air of trouble. For all she knew he could be an escaped convict. Well, actually, he’d said he drove a truck and she’d seen an eighteen-wheeler pass her about ten minutes after her car had simply stopped. But truckers weren’t always reputable. Some were hellions who took advantage of roaming the country doing all kinds of crazy things and this guy obviously had a hair trigger.
Still, not all truckers were bad. Some were Good Samaritans. Touchy though he was, this man could be one of those who saw it as his responsibility to help anyone on the road when problems hit.
Also, her options were limited. Whoever he was, he was right. If her car hadn’t died because it was old, but because it couldn’t handle the snow on the mountain, then LuAnn—her rescuer—wasn’t getting up here, either. And if the temperature was about to plummet, Zoe knew she and Daphne would freeze to death in the car.
She wasn’t sure she was any safer in a cabin with a stranger, but technically she didn’t have to “stay” with him. There were lots of hunting cabins on this mountain. Many of them were in clusters. He could sleep in one. She and Daphne could sleep in another.
She took a silent, life-sustaining breath. Not only was that a safe plan, but also it was a smart plan. He didn’t look like the kind of guy who wanted anyone invading his space, and she didn’t need anyone helping her. When her ex-husband had discovered Zoe was pregnant and left her, she’d gotten a crash course in taking care of herself. Brad had moved on so quickly, he hadn’t bothered divorcing her. She’d had to divorce him. And even though there was a court order filed for child support, Brad didn’t honor it.
Zoe knew some men saw responsibility as a frightening trap, but more than that, she’d learned the value of standing on her own two feet and she wasn’t letting anybody steal her independence away from her. She liked taking care of herself. This trucker didn’t want her around and she didn’t want him around. Separate cabins worked.
She pulled her fingers off his forearm and smiled slightly to take the sting out of her forwardness of touching him. “Or we could go down the mountain with the wind rather than against it. I live around here, remember? This part of the mountain is used almost exclusively for hunting. We’re bound to find more cabins on the way down. In fact, we’ll probably find clusters of cabins,” she added, preparing him for the fact that they would stay in different shelters, if he hadn’t already decided that himself.
He grunted as he hoisted the diaper bag on his shoulder where it settled beside his backpack. Then he turned and began walking down the hill.
Zoe grabbed Daphne’s baby carrier from the front seat of the car, slammed the door, and followed him. The wind picked up. Swirling along the ground, it gathered fallen snow and propelled icy crystals upward, causing them to slap against Zoe’s face. She pulled Daphne’s blanket loosely over her head to shield her from the blasts, then lifted the carrier to chest height and slanted it toward her to provide even more protection for her baby.
“By the way, I’m Zoe Montgomery,” she shouted to be heard above the wind. “And this is my daughter, Daphne.”
For several seconds the trucker said nothing and Zoe worried that he wouldn’t tell her his name. Not that she really needed to know his name, but if he wouldn’t tell it, there could be a reason. Which took her back to her concern that he might be a criminal. Or worse, he could be a sex offender who had unspeakable plans for her. His not telling her his name was not a good sign.
Adrenaline pumped into her bloodstream and she remembered the gun in her jacket pocket. As a single mother, who lived alone on the edge of a small town that was too close to the turnpike, she frequently carried. Her cousins had shown her everything she needed to know about guns when they’d taught her to hunt, so she wasn’t an amateur. And she also wasn’t a hothead. She wouldn’t arbitrarily shoot this trucker, but if he tried anything she wouldn’t hesitate to defend herself and her daughter.
But right now, because they weren’t too far from her car, simply running back to her vehicle and locking herself in was much smarter than shooting somebody.
She was formulating her plan of how to most effectively bolt when he said, “I’m Cooper Bryant.”
So grateful she nearly collapsed with relief, Zoe said, “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Cooper Bryant.”
But Cooper Bryant said nothing. Either he didn’t agree that it was nice to meet her or he wasn’t the kind of guy to make small talk. Fine. She’d already figured out he was a loner. She respected that. He would probably jump for joy when she told him she preferred her own cabin and was perfectly capable of keeping a fire going all night.
They struggled another ten feet down the mountain. With every step they took, the temperature seemed to fall. The inside of Zoe’s nose began to freeze. She huddled the baby carrier closer to her chest, protecting Daphne. She didn’t need a thermometer to know it was much colder than it was even ten minutes ago. This storm was worse than any she’d ever seen.
The stranger beside her tapped her arm. Rather than try to speak above the wind that now roared through the trees and hollows, he pointed to the left. Cuddling Daphne’s carrier against her, Zoe squinted, trying to make out what he apparently saw, but the only things in her line of vision were the black trunks of barren trees and swirling white snow. Visibility was down to about three feet. And that was another problem. If the wind and snow took away their ability to see, they could easily get lost in the woods.
She shook her head, indicating she saw nothing, and he caught her arm and hauled her across the road and up the slope into the woods.
Clinging to the baby carrier, which bounced precariously because of the trucker’s hold on her arm, Zoe barely kept up with him. Fear churned through her at the way he was dragging her as if she were a kidnap victim. In her head she said every prayer she knew, hoping she hadn’t gotten herself and her baby into terrible trouble, as the stranger propelled her through the woods, almost toppling her when he turned her to walk into the oncoming wind again. She gasped for breath, and righted herself, tightening her hold on Daphne. But as she did, she suddenly saw what he must have seen—what had motivated him to shove her through the forest.
A house!
Even if they had to spend the night, they would have a bathroom, food…and be among people! She wouldn’t be alone with him!
Trying to run in the deep snow while hugging a bulky baby carrier, Zoe nearly fell twice. But her escort was running, too. She’d never felt the temperature fall so quickly and knew they had to get to shelter now or die.
With her boots clumped with snow, she stumbled on the front porch steps. When Cooper Bryant reached the top, he turned and grabbed the baby carrier from her hands, hauling it to his side before he caught Zoe’s hand and pulled her up, too.
Still holding Daphne’s seat, he ran across the plank porch to the door and pounded. Huddling into her insubstantial leather jacket and shivering violently, Zoe noticed there were no lights on in the house. A new fear tumbled through her. If there was no one home, they were in big trouble. God only knew how far they would have to go to the next shelter. And even if they did easily find another building, there was no guarantee it would have a stove. And if they found a cabin with a stove, there was no guarantee it would have wood.
If this house didn’t pan out, there was a very good possibility she and Daphne would die.
“Here!”
Cooper Bryant shoved Daphne’s baby carrier at Zoe and she caught it in trembling hands, again clutching Daphne close to her to protect her from the freezing wind. Cooper Bryant reached into his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. Just as quickly, he pulled out a credit card. Before Zoe realized what he was doing, he was sliding the card into the space between the doorknob and wood frame.
“You can’t!”
He peered at her from beneath his Stetson. His green eyes glittered with annoyance. The angles and planes of his face were drawn in stern lines. Yelling to be heard above the roar of the wind through the trees, he said, “In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have a choice.”
He shimmied the card a few times, jiggling the doorknob as he did. The wind howled. Frigid air pricked at Zoe’s cheeks. The lock on the door gave and Cooper shoved against the wood closure, opening it.
He grabbed Daphne’s seat and Zoe’s arm, propelling both Zoe and her baby into the house before him. Still holding Daphne, he slammed the door closed and for ten seconds or so they stood in the entryway of the simple two-story frame house, just breathing.
When it sunk in that they were out of the cold and safe, Zoe reached for Daphne, taking the handle of her baby carrier from Cooper Bryant’s hand. They might be out of danger from the elements, but the ease with which this man had gotten them into a locked house increased her fears about him. Worse, she couldn’t send him out into the cold to look for another shelter. Visibility was so bad now that he might not get back to the road.
“You’re very good with a lock.”
He returned the credit card to his wallet. “I knew this probably wouldn’t be much of a lock.”
She swallowed. “Really?”
He sighed. “I’m not a criminal. It’s just that this house is so far out in the woods I’m surprised the owner bothers with locks at all. I’m from a very small town in Arkansas where locks are more or less for show, so people frequently forget their keys. Everybody in Porter’s good with a credit card.”
Cooper reached for the light switch. At his touch, the entryway lit. “Hey, we’re in luck. If the electricity is on, that means there’s likely a furnace and maybe even food in the fridge.” He walked down the corridor and flipped a second switch, turning on another light and revealing the square corner of a bed in the room at the end of the hall.
“And here’s a thermostat. It’s set at fifty-five—just enough to keep the pipes from freezing. The person who owns this place obviously planned to be away awhile.” He shifted the knob of the gadget to the left and the sound of a furnace rumbling to life came up from the basement.
Zoe glanced around nervously. “I don’t feel right about this.”
“You’d rather freeze to death?”
“No. But this is somebody’s home.”
Cooper tossed Daphne’s diaper bag to the floor along with his backpack before he removed his jacket, revealing a red plaid work shirt and nice-fitting jeans.
Zoe blinked. She’d already noticed that he was handsome, but in the silence of the foyer she was suddenly taking note of other things. For one, he was older. He had the air of experience that made a man sexy. Add that to his dark, dangerous, mysterious personality and he was one seductive guy.
She swallowed. Luckily, that was exactly the opposite of the kind of man she wanted. She was no longer “into” sexy guys.
Once he’d hooked his coat on a peg, he glanced around. “I don’t think this is somebody’s home. From the setting on the furnace and the dust on that TV,” he said, pointing into a sitting room off to their left, “it looks more like a weekend retreat.”
“It still belongs to somebody.”
“Who would probably welcome us to spend the night in his house rather than freeze to death.” He grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, then like a boss accustomed to giving orders, or a chauvinist who thought all women were pea-brains, he nudged Zoe to look down the hall. “There’s your bedroom. You can have the one on the first floor to be closer to the kitchen since you have a kid. I’m going upstairs.”
She tried to pretend she didn’t notice his high-handedness and smiled graciously. “Don’t you want to wait until I fix us something to eat?”
He patted the backpack. “I have a thermos of coffee and two sandwiches. No need for us to even speak another word.”
Though Zoe had planned for them to separate, something about his tone confused her. She hadn’t asked for his help. He had volunteered it, yet he was acting as if she was an unwanted thorn in his side. “You’re leaving?”
“Think of it as me giving you your privacy. I don’t need to entertain you just because I rescued you.”
There was that tone again, the one that said having her around was a huge inconvenience. She couldn’t argue that he hadn’t rescued her. Not realizing the severity of the storm, she would have waited for LuAnn until it was too dark to find shelter. So, technically, he had rescued her. But she’d certainly never asked him to entertain her.
“No one said you had to. In fact, I was going to suggest you find a different cabin once we were settled.”
“Right,” Cooper scoffed, starting up the steps.
Zoe knew she should have let him go, but she hated that she’d never gotten the chance to prove to her ex-husband that she wasn’t a wimp, that she wouldn’t have smothered him, that he could have stayed with her if he’d just given her a chance. She wasn’t letting another man on the face of this earth believe she was a clingy female. She was defending herself. “I did intend to take care of myself.”
Cooper stopped walking and sighed. “Oh, come on. A woman who looks like you doesn’t ever have to worry about taking care of herself.”
Zoe felt her eyes widen at the insult. “I’m a single mother. I have to know how to handle anything that comes along.”
“And that’s why you called somebody—a man, no doubt—and were waiting in your car.”
“LuAnn would be insulted to hear you call her a man.” Zoe drew a quick, bolstering breath. “I didn’t realize the storm was as bad as it was or I would have looked for shelter, not called someone to come and get me.”
He shook his head, and didn’t even try to hide his smirk. “Right.”
She gaped at him. “What kind of experience do you have with women anyway?”
“Enough to know that the really good-looking ones take advantage of their assets.”
This time her mouth fell open. “As if good-looking men are any better! I married a good-looking man and he left me alone to have his baby. While I was fighting morning sickness and wondering how I’d pay the bills, he used his assets to very quickly replace me, as if to prove to me he didn’t need me. So don’t stand there like the pot calling the kettle black.”
Clearly exasperated with her, he said, “Look, I’m—”
Zoe didn’t want to hear what he had to say. The best way to prove she could handle any problem that came along would simply be to do it. To hell with him and his opinion. “Save your piddly explanation for someone who cares. You and your thermos of coffee can go upstairs. I want a good man, not just a good-looking man. You and your assets aren’t needed down here.”
Chapter Two
At the top of the steps Cooper found two bedrooms. He peered into the first, which had two single beds, then looked into the second and found a queen-sized bed with a thick comforter.
If the huge bed hadn’t won him over, the thought of being wrapped in a comforter would have. His toes had long ago frozen. He didn’t think the inside of his nose would ever be the same and he was sure his Arkansas-transplanted-to-Texas bones now had ice chips for marrow.
He tossed his backpack on the dusty dresser and sat on the bed to pull off his work boots and rub his feet. Though he had ratcheted up the furnace, the house wouldn’t be warm for a while, if it truly heated up at all in the face of the biting wind. He massaged his sock-covered feet, trying to increase circulation, but in the quiet of the bedroom, he could hear Zoe Montgomery’s movements below him.
Guilt tapped him on the shoulder, but he ignored it. He hadn’t come upstairs because he liked to be alone. That was just a perk. He’d left to show her she was perfectly safe with him. She was a pretty girl with a face and figure that could set any man to drooling, and her physical appearance probably caused most men to make at least one pass at her. That was the best explanation for why she was skeptical of help from a man. Undoubtedly lots of the men who had offered her assistance in the past had counted upon something in return—most likely sex.
But Cooper wasn’t interested. Well, he was interested if she was looking for a quick roll in the hay. But he was just about positive she wasn’t. She’d admitted in her parting shot that her marriage had failed, so she was available. But she’d also said she wanted a good man, not merely a good-looking man, and when a woman said that it usually meant she was seeking a commitment. Rolls in the hay were not commitment-based. The way Cooper had it figured, she was one of those women who was searching for that special man who could make her trust again.
And Cooper was not anybody’s special man so it was best to nip that fairy tale in the bud. God only knew how long they would be stranded together. Having felt the sting of the cold and seen the rapid rate of the snowfall, he was beginning to understand the biggest difference between a “storm” and a “blizzard” was that storms were a nuisance and blizzards were deadly. Smart people stayed indoors for the duration of a blizzard.
On top of that, as a trucker, Cooper had enough experience with highways and departments of transportation to realize that rarely traveled, two-lane roads used for shortcuts weren’t the first to be cleared. He and Zoe were stuck in this house for the next twenty-four hours—at least. His actual guess was that they were here for the weekend. He didn’t anticipate getting back to his truck before Monday morning.
But as long as he and Zoe had minimal contact, that might not be a problem. It was December twelfth. Though his brothers had bought the mortgage to his ranch and given him until Christmas to pay it off, he still had thirteen days. It would take him three to deliver his load and only another two to drive his certified check to Arkansas and put it in the hands of his brothers’ lawyer. He had absolutely no intention of placing the check in Ty’s hands, as he had been instructed in the letter advising him his brothers were calling in his debt. No court in the land would side with them if they tried to take his ranch just because he’d given the check to the lawyer, rather than directly to his brother.
Thirteen days was plenty of time. Technically, he had eight days of wiggle room. The storm wouldn’t last eight days. The department of transportation crews wouldn’t forget this road for eight days. There was no reason to be concerned about being stranded for a day or two. Particularly since he already had the check in hand.
Thinking about the check made him reach for his backpack. His partner wasn’t involved in his family’s feud, so Cooper had taken it upon himself to find the money for the balance of the mortgage. He’d cashed in his savings account and IRA, and had been forced to use the herd money, but he had almost every dime. All he needed was the pay from this delivery to add to the certified check. Then his brothers couldn’t hurt him anymore. He’d never again be so stupid as to give them an opportunity like a mortgage to find him.
He unlatched the closure of the backpack, lifted the lid and slid his hand inside to get the white envelope containing the check he’d had prepared at the bank. When his fingers found only two sandwiches, a coffee Thermos and a Twix bar, his heart stopped and he dumped the contents of his backpack on the bed.
But as everything came tumbling out, he remembered he had put the check in the safe in his truck. A new kind of panic tightened his chest. But he reminded himself the truck was locked. Hell, the safe was locked and it was hidden, camouflaged as the seat back. On top of that, conditions outside weren’t fit for man or beast. Nobody was going anywhere near his truck. His money was fine. There was absolutely no reason to freak out.
He sighed. He might not freak out, but he sure as hell couldn’t feel comfortable about leaving a check worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in an abandoned vehicle. Still, since there was nothing he could do about that until morning, there was no sense dwelling on it.
After eating his sandwiches and returning the candy bar to his backpack, he lay down on the bed and angled his Stetson over his eyes, but from downstairs he heard the baby cry. The sound got louder and louder until little Daphne was screaming, sounding like she was testing out her lungs.
Cooper squeezed his eyes shut. Great. As if it wasn’t bad enough he had a constant niggle of doubt about whether his check was safe, he was stuck with an oversensitive woman and a crying baby. If he had any tolerance for cold at all, he’d go back to his truck, get his money and find another cabin.
But he couldn’t handle the cold and it was getting dark, too dangerous to go outside even for a few minutes. He took a breath, pretending he couldn’t hear the crying baby or the soothing voice of her mom and that he truly believed no one would steal his money, but he knew it would be a long, long night.
When Cooper opened his eyes again, muted light was edging into his bedroom through the dusty blinds on the window, and he bounced up in bed. He’d chosen this room for the thick comforter, but had drifted to sleep on top of the covers and spent the night without it.
He couldn’t believe he’d fallen into such a deep slumber that he hadn’t heard a screaming baby. Positive that something had happened—like maybe the storm had stopped and his roomie had gotten curious about what he had in his truck—Cooper rolled out of bed, bounded down the stairs and made the sharp left into the kitchen.
Zoe stood at the sink, washing dishes. Without turning around she said, “Don’t worry. I didn’t run out to your truck and plunder for valuables. The baby’s just asleep.”
He stiffened. The clock on the stove said seven-fifteen. It had only been light for about twenty minutes. If she’d gone to his truck, she’d still be shivering. His check was safe.
But her reply reminded him that she was one incredibly defensive lady. He couldn’t even give her her privacy the night before without her jumping him about his motives. She might be among the world’s most beautiful women but she was pricklier than a cactus and suspicious as hell. And if he didn’t say something, he would alert her that there really was something of value in his truck.
“I wasn’t worried.”
“Sure you were. That’s the only explanation for why you ran down the stairs like your feet were on fire.” She paused, then added, “Unless there’s no bathroom upstairs.”
Confused, Cooper said, “I didn’t see a bathroom.”
“Well, there’s a bathroom in the bedroom I’m using. It’s the only one I found. This is a really old house. I’m guessing it was built before indoor plumbing because the bathroom was built in the corner of the bedroom.”
Cooper suddenly understood what she was talking about. He’d been so focused on making sure she hadn’t gone to his truck that he’d forgotten nature’s call. He said, “Thanks,” and left the room.
Glad for a few seconds to collect himself before he faced Madam Cactus again, Cooper conceded that he had all but told her he had something important in his truck. That meant at some point he would have to brave the storm, get his check and pin it in his underwear for safekeeping because he was absolutely positive that was one place she wouldn’t look.
But after he stepped into her bedroom he forgot all about the check, the temperatures and even nature’s call. He could smell her. He didn’t know if she had special soap or shampoo or maybe perfume that she carried in her purse, but the room already smelled intimately of something light and tropical. Oceans and coconut oil. Suntan lotion.
His mind jumped to a hot beach and Zoe in a bikini and he squeezed his eyes shut. But he forced them open again. He was not attracted to her…well, he was attracted, but he knew he shouldn’t be and he wasn’t giving in to this…this…base instinct.
So, he held his breath as he quietly slid around the bed and into the small bathroom, which—just as she said—was built in the corner of the bedroom. He left as quickly as he could but as soon as he walked into the kitchen, the scent found him again because she was wearing it. As she stood at the sink, with her back to him, his gaze slid down the sleek locks of her pretty yellow hair, down her slim back, along the dip of her waist to her perfectly rounded backside, showcased in tight jeans.
Turning from the sink, she said, “There’s bacon on the table.”
Her silky blond hair curved around her cheeks and chin and then fell in lazy curls to a point somewhere between her collarbone and her breasts. When his gaze reached the bottom of the very last curl, he had to fight his eyes to move upward again.
“You found bacon?”
If Zoe noticed the way he had ogled her, she didn’t let on. “There’s plenty of food in the cupboards. Even meat and bread in the freezer.”
After her reaction to being in someone’s house the night before, that cheerful observation surprised him. “You looked around?”
She sighed. “I have a baby. I have to care for her. I had to see what was available and what wasn’t. Besides, I’ve been up since five. Daphne went back to sleep but I couldn’t, so I explored. You were right when you guessed this was a weekend retreat. But it’s not for hunters. I think it belongs to a family. Though there’s a poker table in the corner of the great room, the games in the cupboard are actually kids’ games like ‘Candy-land’ and ‘Yahtzee.’”
She dried her hands on a dish towel and walked past him. Not giving him a chance to comment on her discovery, she said, “If you don’t like bacon, there’s sausage in the freezer. Make anything you want. I intend to leave cash on the table to pay for everything we use.”
With that she walked out of the room and into the bedroom. She closed the door, effectively shutting him out the way he had shut her out the night before.
He shook his head in wonder, not sure if he was more surprised by her sense of responsibility or by the fact that she clearly wanted nothing to do with him.
Well, whatever. She couldn’t have missed the way he’d taken inventory as if she were the breakfast buffet, so he didn’t fault her for wanting to get away from him. He should be happy she’d removed the temptation of her fabulous face and figure. More than that, he should be absolutely joyful that she was making reparation for the bacon and bread. If she couldn’t take a couple of food items without a conscience flare-up, he didn’t have to worry that she would run to his truck and steal his money.
He grabbed two slices of bread, piled bacon on one and used the other for a lid, making himself a sandwich, and walked to the sink where he looked out the window at the storm.
He didn’t even bother trying to stifle his groan. He could actually see the wind because it was picking up the icy snow pellets and tossing them around, as if the falling snow wasn’t creating enough havoc on its own. That certainly proved there was no need for him to brave the elements to get his check. If there was anybody outside, they weren’t plundering trucks. They were racing for shelter. As long as the wind wailed and the snow fell, his money was safe.
He ambled into the great room. A sofa and chair sat in front of the fireplace along the back wall. He saw the poker table Zoe had mentioned in the far corner. But he was more interested in the television.
He walked over, fell into one of the chairs in front of the TV and grabbed the remote from the end table. He pushed the power button and the screen came to life.
He almost hooted with joy. Not just entertainment, but satellite TV! In a few flicks of the remote he found sports, movies, reruns of old sitcoms. With something to do other than snipe at each other, he and Zoe could be in the same room.
Not that he wanted to be in the same room with her. He didn’t. He simply didn’t want to force her to stay behind a closed door with nothing to do, as if she were in prison.
But he also didn’t want to give her the wrong impression about the two of them spending time together. If he invited her into the great room now, with the promise of television, it wouldn’t appear he had changed his mind from the night before and now wanted to chitchat. His invitation would be to watch TV.
He bounced up from his seat. Sandwich in his left hand, he tapped on her bedroom door with his right. “Hey, the television works. If you want to come out and watch TV that would be cool. I wouldn’t mind that.”
“Thanks, but I’m going to take a shower.”
Shower?
Instantly a vision of Zoe naked popped into his head. He could see her glorious yellow hair cascading around her. Her perfect pink skin. Her shining blue eyes. Her nice round…
He squeezed his eyes shut. He would like to blame that quick mental image on her for saying the word shower. But he knew hormones or maybe his gender were at fault. Still, smart men didn’t chase after every good-looking woman they saw. They reminded themselves they were adults and also reminded themselves of all the reasons they couldn’t act like sex-crazed teenagers. Lord knows, he’d fought this battle before. He’d simply used logic and proper behavior. And this time around he had plenty of ammo.
First, he didn’t want anything to do with this woman. Second, she sure as hell didn’t want anything to do with him. And third, he had TV. There was absolutely no reason to stand outside her bedroom door salivating.
He said, “Okay. Great,” then could have kicked himself because the way he’d said it he sounded as if he thought the idea of her taking a shower was great. Well, too late to fix that. Time to retreat and hope for the best.
He nearly ran back to the great room, shoving the remainder of his sandwich into his mouth before he picked up the remote. He clicked through the unfamiliar stations until he found the Weather Channel then wished he hadn’t.
Staring at the map of the United States, he moaned in frustration. The storm that had stranded them had stalled over the mountain. The forecaster happily expected it to move on by the next morning. But he could be happy about that because he wasn’t stranded with a woman he didn’t know and her baby. The weatherman also didn’t have a check representing every cent he had in the safe of his abandoned truck!
A half hour later, Zoe came into the great room dressed in brown pants and a soft-looking red sweater, holding a happy Daphne. Though Cooper didn’t really want to make small talk, the obvious observation came out before he could stop it.
“Looks like you’re the same size as the woman of the house.”
“I wouldn’t know. There are no clothes in the closet. I keep an extra pair of pants and a sweater in the diaper bag because babies are messy and sometimes I end up needing changing as much as Daphne.”
She turned toward the kitchen and Cooper’s gaze took in every inch of her perfect body. A million visions and images popped into his head. Once again he blamed his hormones. Once again he knew logic and proper behavior would keep him in line. He forced his gaze upward away from her backside, but when he did he saw the way her pale curls contrasted with her sexy red sweater and a whole bunch of other images sprang to his mind.
He rubbed his hand along his nape. Did the woman own any color except red? Sure, she looked great in red, but that was the problem. She looked too damned great. Too damned sexy.
Taking himself back to logic and proper behavior again, he reminded himself that even if she found him as attractive as he found her, they couldn’t sleep together. They were stranded for two days. If it were only for the afternoon, a fling wouldn’t be out of the question. But two days didn’t work. If he seduced her, sex wouldn’t last two days. Eventually, they’d stop and she’d want to talk and then they’d know too much about each other. And then it wouldn’t be a fling. It would be the beginning of a relationship.
His stomach knotted. No way.
“I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
“Storm’s getting worse,” Zoe said, turning to face him, and Cooper’s stomach plummeted.
She was darned gorgeous. He couldn’t believe any man was capable of speech around her, let alone capable of leaving her once he married her. Then he realized she had to be a shrew for her husband to have left her. So far her behavior around him sort of hinted to that. Even the way she always had to be one step ahead of him was an indication that she needed to be right.
No man liked that kind of one-upmanship in a woman. Hell, no man liked that in another man.
He drew a quick breath. “Well, excuse me for trying to help.”
Zoe had been on her way to the kitchen again to take one of Daphne’s bottles out of the fridge where she had stored them the night before, but his comment stopped her. She wasn’t sure why he thought she was simple-minded or stupid, but she knew from their conversation the night before that he worried that she would be a burden. She’d thought she’d already put that doubt to bed, but apparently he was still skeptical.
“I found the TV, too,” she added.
“I was just trying to tell you about the storm.”
There was that tone again. As if she were an idiot. This guy might be the sexiest man on the face of the earth with his whipcord-lean body very nicely showcased in his worn workshirt and perfect-fitting jeans. Add his silky-looking black hair, and she couldn’t pretend that she didn’t notice his physical attributes. But he also had chauvinist written all over him and she simply wasn’t putting up with it.
“Here’s the deal, Bryant,” she said, deliberately using his last name to keep them on totally impersonal terms, so he could stop treating her as if she were a ninny. “I have a child. I don’t just pay my own way. I also pay hers because my ex doesn’t believe in child support. No matter how many court orders get issued, if he runs fast enough he can always evade them. So, I work. I take care of a household. I can fix a faucet. I can fix a tire. I can make a fire. I can turn on a TV.”
“Very funny.”
“No. It’s not funny. It’s not one damned bit funny that I have to tell you I’m a capable adult because you clearly think I’m some kind of spoiled princess or something. I’d like to get that squared away so we can move on.”
“We can move on.”
“Great. Because if we’re stuck here for the weekend I don’t intend to be the only one cooking and doing the dishes.”
“That’s fine by me because, just like you, I work and take care of my own house…and run a ranch.” He smiled tightly. “I guess you could say I have you beat.”
She turned to go into the kitchen again. “You won’t have me beat until you also add in caring for a child.”
He followed her. “Last year, three of my cows had calves.”
She slammed the refrigerator closed. “Did you have to get up with them at two in the morning?”
“Once. And I’m painfully familiar with colic.”
“Well, good for you. You’re the first man I consider myself equal to.”
His eyes narrowed as if he knew she’d insulted him—or somebody—but he couldn’t figure out how. Zoe took Daphne and her bottle into the great room. She settled on the rocking chair and fed the baby one of the five bottles of formula she had prepared the night before. Even if they could leave tomorrow, and she knew they couldn’t, Daphne would be out of bottles before that. Zoe would have to again prepare formula from the faucet water and there was no guarantee that wouldn’t eventually upset Daphne’s system.
Preoccupied with the baby, Zoe didn’t notice that an uncomfortable silence had settled over the small house or that Cooper Bryant was pacing until Daphne had fallen asleep and Zoe rose from the rocker to take the baby into the bedroom. Even then, she didn’t say anything. It was not her problem that Cooper Bryant was pacing the room, obviously bored.
She laid Daphne in the center of the double bed and began to arrange the pillows around her. But, on second thought, she pushed the bed against the wall, giving Daphne two sides of protection. It wasn’t the best situation in the world, but they were stranded. As long as Zoe checked on the baby every few minutes, Daphne should be fine.
Satisfied, Zoe ambled into the great room. She wasn’t much for TV, but she had seen a deck of cards. It had been a while since she’d played solitaire. Entertaining herself that way would be fun. In fact, it was a great deal of fun to be away from her house that always needed to be cleaned, the mountain of bills she couldn’t pay and the notice that told her her house was going up for sheriff’s sale because no one had paid the taxes.
She entered the great room and found Cooper Bryant staring out the French doors behind the poker table. If it weren’t for him, this weekend away from reality might actually be a nice break.
He didn’t turn from staring at the mounting snow, which Zoe had earlier watched just as he was doing right now. She was sure the look of disbelief on his face probably mirrored the one she’d worn staring at the sight.
Approaching the poker table, Zoe said nothing. She opened the top drawer of a cabinet, found the cards, pulled a chair away from the table and sat. The only sound in the room was the noise the cards made as they slid against each other when she shuffled.
“I’m not much of a card player.”
“Great. I was going to play solitaire.”
He turned. Crossing his arms on his chest he said, “Okay. I get it. I get it big-time. You are not a helpless female who needs someone to take care of her.”
She began to lay out the cards. “Thanks for recognizing the obvious.”
He scowled and Zoe dropped the cards and studied him for a second before she said, “Look, I know you’d rather be alone. Frankly, so would I. But since we aren’t, the alternative for us is to form some kind of a truce.”
“A truce?”
“Sure. We agree to share chores. We agree to be civil. And we declare each other off-limits romantically. That way, we can talk pleasantly without worrying that one or the other is getting any ideas.”
Because what she said made sense, Cooper almost agreed until a tantalizing thought entered his head. Whether she knew it or not she had just backhandedly admitted that she found him attractive, too. They were stuck together. They were both attracted. Neither one of them wanted a relationship with the other.
This weekend could be a lot of fun if he could figure out a way to convince her that they should take advantage of their two days away from real life by having a bit of no-strings-attached sex.
But before he could come up with a way to form the suggestion, Daphne cried and Zoe was off her chair and in the bedroom like a bolt of lightning. Cooper realized that was the reason he and Zoe couldn’t have no-strings-attached sex. Women with babies had a guaranteed, built-in defense mechanism. Every time things heated up, Daphne would probably start crying.
Zoe came out of the bedroom carrying Daphne. The baby looked tired, but not sleepy, and though Cooper knew little to nothing about kids, he didn’t think this was a good sign. Zoe didn’t say a word. She simply walked back to the table, sat on the chair, put the baby on her lap, and continued her solitaire game.
Cooper turned to look at the snow again. “I think a truce is a good idea.”
“Okay. Great. Now we can be civil.”
He nodded and relaxed a little, but not completely. He may no longer fear that she wanted something from him, but that didn’t stop his sexual attraction. Because he was a responsible adult he would curb it, but controlling it required being wise about distance and proximity, and also being careful about the conversational topics he chose.
Luckily, the weather was always safe. “I’ve never seen snow fall like this before.”
“I have. A few times.” She paused, then said, “Daphne, honey, don’t grab the cards.”
Cooper faced the table again. Zoe held the baby on her lap with one arm and used the other hand to grasp Daphne’s little fingers to keep them away from the cards.
She smiled up at him. “Would it be out of line for me to ask you to put that red seven on that black eight?”
He glanced down, saw the play she mentioned, and shifted the seven of hearts to the eight of spades.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” He almost turned again to the window, but courtesy wouldn’t let him. “Want the red four on the black five?”
“What red four?”
“This one,” he said, taking the card from its spot on the board and placing it on the five.
“Oh. Didn’t see that. Thanks.”
He took a seat across the table, grabbed the card stack, and asked, “Do you play one card at a time or three?”
“Three.”
“Do you shuffle them or play them in order?”
She gave him a horrified look. “I play them in order. Anything else is trying to beat the odds! I play fair.”
He stifled a smile. This woman had some set of morals. “Okay. Whatever.” He counted off three cards and placed them face up so she could see her play options.
She sighed. “That card goes nowhere. Try again.”
He counted off the next three cards and slapped them on the table.
“Oh, an ace!” She glanced at him. “You know where that goes.”
He stifled another smile at her enthusiasm and put the ace of spades at the top of her play area. He jutted his chin toward the cards on the table. “Want that two of spades up here?”
She nodded, but said nothing else as she examined the board. Daphne screeched, trying to pull her hand free of Zoe’s.
“If I let your hand go,” Zoe said to her baby, “will you promise not to touch the cards?”
Daphne only screeched again.
“I’m not sure I’d take that as a yes,” Cooper cautioned and the little girl grinned toothlessly at him. She was an adorable kid. Her eyes were big and blue, like her mom’s, and her hair was so light it sometimes looked white.
“I agree. But I can’t sit here holding her hand all morning. It’s probably driving her crazy.” She released Daphne’s hand and the little girl instantly pounded it on the table.
Cooper began sliding the cards in play away from Daphne and closer to himself. He was surprised that he only had to move them three inches to get them out of her reach.
Zoe smiled her thanks.
Cooper’s heart did a somersault. It was so damned unfair to be alone in a cabin with a woman this good-looking and not be able to even try to seduce her.
“You’re a natural at handling babies.”
He cleared his throat. “Like I said, I did have those three calves last year.”
She laughed. Cooper counted out three more cards and set them on the growing stack.
“Put that red nine on the black ten.”
He did as she asked.
“Black eight on the red nine,” she said with a nod toward the card. He made the move.
Studying the board, looking for additional plays, she said, “So, you own a ranch.”
He realized he’d set himself up for the question since his ranch was the only thing he’d spoken about and the only conversational opening she had. But the last thing he wanted to talk about was the ranch. It only reminded him that he was forking out his herd money because his brothers hated him.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t ignore her when they’d finally found a way to be amiable. “Yeah. I own a ranch.”
“And you drive a truck?”
“Yeah.”
“So who watches the calves while you’re away?”
“They’re not exactly like Daphne. I don’t have to put them in day care.”
She nodded. “So you just leave everything alone, jump in your truck and go?”
“No. It’s not that easy, either.”
Daphne patted Zoe’s face and screeched. Zoe caught her hand. “Would you mind…” She sighed. “No. Forget it. I’ll do it.”
“Do what?”
“Get a rattle from her diaper bag,” Zoe said, but she rose and began walking toward the bedroom where he knew she had stashed the baby’s things. When she returned, Daphne was chewing on something that looked like a blue plastic pretzel.
“I could have gotten that.”
Zoe shook her head. “Right.”
“Are you back to showing me how strong you are?”
She glanced at him. “I don’t know. Are you going to tell me who babysits your cows?”
“You’re basing how you react to me on the fact that I didn’t tell you I have a partner?”
“I’m basing how I treat you on how you treat me. You’ll help with my card game because you’re bored, but you won’t tell me about your life—even the insignificant fact that you have a partner—because you don’t trust me. And since you don’t trust me, that makes you suspicious. People are typically suspicious of other people because they aren’t trustworthy themselves…. So…” She shrugged. “I didn’t think it wise to let you rummage through my stuff.”
He stared at her. “Are you kidding me? You think I’m some kind of criminal because I won’t tell you about myself?”
She shrugged. “No, I just don’t think you’re trustworthy.”
“I’m one of the most trustworthy people on the face of the earth!”
“Yeah. Right. That’s why you’re so suspicious.”
“I’m not suspicious. I’m simply not much of a people person.”
She didn’t answer, only stared at him until he couldn’t take it anymore and said, “What?”
“I’m waiting for you to tell me why you’re not a people person.”
He laughed. “Why should I?”
“Oh, come on. We’re here in the middle of a snowstorm. Nine chances out of ten when we get out of here Monday, we’ll never see each other again. This is like a fantasy or something. It’s our one chance to pour our hearts out to a member of the opposite sex and get some answers.”
He stared at her. “That is your fantasy.”
She was silent for a minute, then she said, “Well, I never actually thought of it as a fantasy, per se. But I have thought that just once I would like to sit a man down and ask him some pointed questions so I can figure out what the hell makes your gender tick.”
“Well, honey, I’ve got a fantasy, too. And it also involves being stranded with a member of the opposite sex. And we communicate, too. Except we don’t talk. We communicate on that extraspecial level that doesn’t require talking. You know what I’m saying?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You want me to have sex with you?”
He smiled.
“A stranger?” she said, horrified.
“Women.” He laughed and shook his head. “Look, honey, it’s every bit as preposterous for me to pour my heart out to someone I don’t know as it is for you to have sex with someone you don’t know.” He shoved his chair away from the table and started toward the kitchen. “I’m going to make another pot of coffee,” he said, but he stopped suddenly because something she’d said had finally penetrated his thick brain. They really wouldn’t see each other after the snowplow went through. Monday morning when they parted company, it would be as if they had never met. He could tell her every damned tidbit and morsel about his life and it wouldn’t matter.
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SUSAN MEIER
Subject: OVER MY HEAD!From: cooper…bryant@bryantdevelopment…comTo: ty…bryant@bryantdevelopment…comYou know me too well to call me a hero, but I rescued two strangers from this deadly blizzard after spotting their vehicle !in near white-out conditions. Now I'm sharing a secluded cabin with gorgeous Zoe Montgomery and her adorable infant. When I first started out, saving my precious ranch was all that mattered to me, but now…well, it's about all I can do to keep up with my new domestic duties and keep my eyes (and hands) off Zoe. But Cooper Bryant, devoted husband and dad? fhat would take a Christmas miracle….
“You’re not seducing me!”
“Why? Because I ignored you this afternoon? Honey, what’s going on between you and me has nothing to do with getting along, or making a commitment or even exchanging phone numbers. And right now your body’s telling me you feel the same things I do.”
“You are so crude!”
“I’m certainly not hearts and flowers.” There. It was out. The thing Cooper had wanted to deny all day. The thing he wanted Zoe to understand. The thing he needed for both of them to get beyond.
“I’m a hearts-and-flowers kind of girl.”
“Hey, I didn’t say I wouldn’t be romantic.”
“I don’t want romance. I want love.”
Dear Reader,
As the days get shorter and the approaching holidays bring a buzz to the crisp air, nothing quite equals the joy of reuniting with family and catching up on the year’s events. This month’s selections all deal with family matters, be it making one’s own family, dealing with family members or doing one’s family duty.
Desperate to save his family ranch, the hero in Elizabeth Harbison’s Taming of the Two (#1790) enters into a bargain that could turn a pretend relationship into the real deal. This is the second title in the SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE trilogy. A die-hard bachelor gets a taste of what being a family man is like when he rescues a beautiful stranger and her adorable infant from a deadly blizzard, in Susan Meier’s Snowbound Baby (#1791)—part of the author’s BRYANT BABY BONANZA continuity. Carol Grace continues her FAIRY TALE BRIDES miniseries with His Sleeping Beauty (#1792) in which a woman sheltered by her overprotective parents gains the confidence to strike out on her own after her handsome—but cynical—neighbor catches her sleepwalking in his garden! Finally, in The Marine and Me (#1793), the next installment in Cathie Linz’s MEN OF HONOR series, a soldier determined to outwit his matchmaking grandmother and avoid the marriage landmine gets bushwhacked by his supposedly dowdy neighbor.
Be sure to come back next month when Karen Rose Smith and Shirley Jump put their own spins on Shakespeare and the Dating Game, respectively!
Happy reading.
Ann Leslie Tuttle
Associate Senior Editor
Snowbound Baby
Susan Meier
Bryant Baby Bonanza
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Books by Susan Meier
Silhouette Romance
Stand-in Mom #1022
Temporarily Hers #1109
Wife in Training #1184
Merry Christmas, Daddy #1192
* (#litres_trial_promo)In Care of the Sheriff #1283
* (#litres_trial_promo)Guess What? We’re Married! #1338
Husband from 9 to 5 #1354
* (#litres_trial_promo)The Rancher and the Heiress #1374
† (#litres_trial_promo)The Baby Bequest #1420
† (#litres_trial_promo)Bringing up Babies #1427
† (#litres_trial_promo)Oh, Babies! #1433
His Expectant Neighbor #1468
Hunter’s Vow #1487
Cinderella and the CEO #1498
Marrying Money #1519
The Boss’s Urgent Proposal #1566
Married Right Away #1579
Married in the Morning #1601
** (#litres_trial_promo)Baby on Board #1639
** (#litres_trial_promo)The Tycoon’s Double Trouble #1650
** (#litres_trial_promo)The Nanny Solution #1662
Love, Your Secret Admirer #1684
Twice a Princess #1758
†† (#litres_trial_promo)Baby Before Business #1774
†† (#litres_trial_promo)Prince Baby #1783
†† (#litres_trial_promo)Snowbound Baby #1791
Silhouette Desire
Take the Risk #567
SUSAN MEIER
is one of eleven children, and though she’s yet to write a book about a big family, many of her books explore the dynamics of “unusual” family situations, such as large work “families,” bosses who behave like overprotective fathers, or “sister” bonds created between friends. Because she has more than twenty nieces and nephews, children also are always popping up in her stories. Many of the funny scenes in her books are based on experiences raising her own children or interacting with her nieces and nephews.
She was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and continues to live in Pennsylvania.
Snowbound Holiday Punch
2 tsp whole cloves
1 tsp allspice
4 sticks cinnamon
½ c sugar
2½ c water
1 c frozen lemonade
1 c frozen orange juice
2 pint cranberry juice
1½ quarts ice water
Combine spices, sugar and 2½ cups water in saucepan. Simmer ten minutes, strain and cool. Combine lemonade, orange juice and cranberry juice and add to spice mixture. Just before serving, add ice water. Pour over ice in punch bowl for serving.
Ginger ale can be substituted for ice water.
Contents
Chapter One (#u636eb5e6-6070-5d71-81d5-5fa3c52768ef)
Chapter Two (#u15418a1e-ae96-54a3-8fc6-776823ce9ce3)
Chapter Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One
“Son of a…”
Cooper Bryant cut off his curse, needing all of his mental and physical energy to maneuver his eighteen-wheeler around a Toyota that was stuck in the middle of the snow-covered mountain road. Passing the car, he peered down, ready to make a gesture to let the driver know exactly how he felt about people who blocked the way. But he saw the stranded motorist was a young woman. And she had a baby in the back seat.
Shoot!
Well, he couldn’t stop to help. Ironically, the shortcut that he’d cajoled from the turnpike tollbooth attendant hadn’t allowed him to outrun the storm, but had, instead, slowed him down. The twisting, winding route up the Western Pennsylvania mountain couldn’t be taken with any kind of speed. The curves all seemed to hug the edge of the world. And once a semi lost speed climbing a steep slope, it was impossible to get it back. If Cooper stopped now, his truck would stay exactly where it was until the state plowed away the snow.
He made it another couple hundred feet, but his wheels began hesitating. Cooper knew his truck wasn’t going to reach the top. Unlike the driver in the Toyota who had simply parked where her car had stopped, he eased his vehicle onto the first shoulder he found that had more than six inches of space between his truck and a cliff, and cut the engine.
He didn’t like wasting precious hours like this—however, lost time was better than a wreck. He didn’t have one of the elaborate, expensive trucks with sleeping quarters, but he’d passed several hunting cabins. One of them, if not all of them, probably had a woodstove. He had two sandwiches, a thermos of coffee, soap, towels, a blanket and a shaving kit. He could be comfortable for the night, and rested when he got back on the road tomorrow.
Hoisting his backpack of supplies, Cooper jumped out of the cab and into the crystallized white snow. He had switched his trademark cowboy boots for thick work boots at the truck stop off the turnpike exit, but he still had his black Stetson and denim jacket. Unfortunately, they weren’t much against the bite of the unforgiving mountain wind. Cooper was an Arkansas boy, born and bred, but he’d transplanted himself to Texas where he and a buddy had bought a ranch. For the past three years he’d been saving the money he made driving truck to increase the herd and he’d been everywhere from Oregon to Florida. He’d experienced cold, wind, even snow…but not like this.
He tucked himself more tightly inside his jacket as he made his way down the hill. Only about twenty feet from his truck he saw a cabin. Small, with chipping white paint and a sagging roof, the structure was nonetheless good enough for the night. He was about to turn down the snow-covered lane when he remembered the young woman in the Toyota.
And her baby.
Shoot!
He sighed. He wasn’t much on company. Ever. His beliefs were so far out of sync with those of the general population that every time he opened his mouth he seemed to get into an argument. In his reckless youth, that had led to some nasty bar fights. Even his own brothers had said he was always making trouble and kicked him out of their lives eight years ago.
Determined to keep his world peaceful, he wasn’t somebody who went looking for human contact. So, fate should have known better than to throw a stranded woman in his path. He might be able to help her find shelter, but he wasn’t about to play gin rummy until the snowplow came through. If she was a chatterbox who needed constant entertainment, she’d get on his nerves and he’d probably end up making her cry.
Yeah, this was going to be peachy.
Still, he started walking to her car. He didn’t get too far before he realized it was at least two football fields away. If he went down the mountain to offer the woman the opportunity to share a cabin, he wouldn’t simply be going the length of two football fields to get her. He would have to walk those two football fields back up again.
Shoot.
He didn’t want to let a mama and baby freeze to death, but she should have known better than to travel on a day like this.
Cooper continued down the mountain anyway. Slipping and sliding as the powerful wind pushed him along the steep slope, he traveled the distance in what he knew had to be record time. In only a few minutes, he rounded a curve and saw the Toyota. It was now covered with snow, and he could see no sign of exhaust coming out the back. Cooper guessed the driver was either gone or she’d quit running her motor to save gas for the long night. Though he knew having her along would be nothing but irritation to his already frayed nerves, he couldn’t stop a surge of male ego. If she was still in that car, she would be really glad to see him.
With the wind urging him on, he half ran the rest of the way, almost losing his balance twice on the icy incline. When he reached the car, he tapped on the driver’s side window. The snow-covered glass began a very slow descent, but it stopped after about four inches. Then the barrel of a gun greeted him.
Cooper jumped back. What the hell!
“Get lost,” the young woman yelled. “I don’t have any money and I’m not willing to share my car with you. I have a baby.”
“I don’t want to share your car. My truck’s parked just up the road.” Cooper paused long enough to curse under his breath because his heart was jumping like a jackrabbit. Only an idiot used a gun so carelessly. “Look, I passed three hunting cabins on my walk down the hill. I saw you on my way up but couldn’t stop. If you want, you can spend the night in a cabin with me, and I’ll take care of the woodstove. If you don’t, that’s cool, too.”
He waited for a response but got none. Fool woman! Just like a mare he’d bought two years ago. Didn’t have a whit of common sense.
He gave her another thirty seconds. Still nothing.
“Suit yourself,” he called, then turned and began re-climbing the hill, the howling wind nearly blowing him down again. He knew it couldn’t be any warmer than ten degrees. When the sun set even that scant heat would disappear. With the wind chill it would be so far below zero the number would be irrelevant. Anyone without proper shelter would freeze to death. Even if that kid had a blanket—four blankets—she and her baby would freeze to death.
Shoot!
He let the wind blow him back down to her car, then tapped on the window and jumped out of the way as the glass lowered, just in case she aimed the barrel of the gun at him again.
“It’s going to be below zero tonight. You are not going to survive in that car.”
“We’ll be fine.”
“No, you won’t!” Getting angry now, he tried her door but it was locked. “If you didn’t have a baby, I wouldn’t give a flying fig about you freezing to death. But you’ve got a kid. You have to be reasonable.”
“I am reasonable.” She sighed and rolled down the window. Cooper couldn’t help noticing her blond hair, clear pink skin and cornflower blue eyes. “Look, I called a friend. Any minute now I’ll be rescued.”
At that Cooper laughed. “Rescued? Haven’t you heard the weather?”
Her pretty eyes narrowed. “Yes and no. I heard about a snowstorm, but it’s always snowing here. I live on the other side of this mountain. I’m so used to the snow I hardly pay attention.”
“Well, you should have paid attention because this is a blizzard.” He drew in a quick breath and his lungs rebelled at the cold. “The temperatures are falling faster than normal. They’re predicting two feet of snow. If your friend is smart, he’ll stay home.”
Waiting for her reply, he blew on his hands. Even with gloves his fingers were going numb.
When she said nothing, his patience suddenly evaporated and he yelled, “Come out in thirty seconds or I’ll break your car window to save your kid.”
He swore he heard her sigh with disgust, but decided it had to be the wind. Then she kicked open her door and pushed herself out. A blast of air caught her pale hair and fanned it away from her head.
More concerned with getting them safely to shelter, he barely noticed the pretty feathery locks. “Where’s your hat?”
She turned and her blue eyes pinned him with an exasperated look. “It’s in the car.”
“Good, put it on and let’s get the hell going. It’s cold.”
She said, “Right,” then bent and reached inside her vehicle. Her red leather jacket only came to her waist and when she stretched he got a full view of the enticing curve of her bottom.
Cooper quickly turned away. Since she had a baby, the woman was obviously married, and staring at her behind, no matter how nicely rounded, was inappropriate.
The wind kicked up. From the back of her car, the woman pulled out a white plastic contraption lined with pink and navy blue plaid padding. She set it on the driver’s seat, then reached into the back again and extracted a baby wearing a pink snowsuit and wrapped in a pink blanket. She sat the kid in the padding of the white plastic thing. When she looped a handle from beneath and snapped it into place, Cooper guessed the contraption was some kind of baby carrier.
“I should take her,” Cooper said, assuming the baby was a girl because of all the pink.
“I’ll carry her,” the woman disagreed, leaving the baby on the front seat of her car so she could dig out an enormous diaper bag. Pink plaid to match the travel seat, it was stuffed to capacity and looked more like a trash can with a strap. “You take this.”
She shoved the two-ton diaper bag into Cooper’s arms just as a gust of wind hit him and he nearly fell backward. But he didn’t. He didn’t fall. He didn’t curse. He didn’t even yelp. Instead he saw the nice, quiet evening he could have had blow away on a frigid blast of air.
He nodded up the hill. “The cabins are this way.”
He turned to begin the upward trek, but she caught his arm with her glove-covered fingers.
Everything inside of Cooper stilled. It had been so long since anybody had dared to touch him—except in a fight—that his hands automatically curled into fists. But before he instinctively took a punch, he looked into her round blue eyes and a tingling sensation exploded in his gut. Now he understood why she mistrusted him. She was gorgeous and he was about to spend the night with her.
With her body shielding the open car door and Daphne from the wind, Zoe Montgomery stared at the man in front of her, pretending her shivers were from cold, not from fear. She shouldn’t have touched him. Until she’d touched him he’d seemed like a grumpy Kola bear. Now he looked like an angry panther. His green eyes glittered, his hands were fisted and his body was stiff, poised and ready to strike.
Tall and lean, with a black Stetson pulled low over his eyes, her rescuer was definitely all male, but he also had an air of trouble. For all she knew he could be an escaped convict. Well, actually, he’d said he drove a truck and she’d seen an eighteen-wheeler pass her about ten minutes after her car had simply stopped. But truckers weren’t always reputable. Some were hellions who took advantage of roaming the country doing all kinds of crazy things and this guy obviously had a hair trigger.
Still, not all truckers were bad. Some were Good Samaritans. Touchy though he was, this man could be one of those who saw it as his responsibility to help anyone on the road when problems hit.
Also, her options were limited. Whoever he was, he was right. If her car hadn’t died because it was old, but because it couldn’t handle the snow on the mountain, then LuAnn—her rescuer—wasn’t getting up here, either. And if the temperature was about to plummet, Zoe knew she and Daphne would freeze to death in the car.
She wasn’t sure she was any safer in a cabin with a stranger, but technically she didn’t have to “stay” with him. There were lots of hunting cabins on this mountain. Many of them were in clusters. He could sleep in one. She and Daphne could sleep in another.
She took a silent, life-sustaining breath. Not only was that a safe plan, but also it was a smart plan. He didn’t look like the kind of guy who wanted anyone invading his space, and she didn’t need anyone helping her. When her ex-husband had discovered Zoe was pregnant and left her, she’d gotten a crash course in taking care of herself. Brad had moved on so quickly, he hadn’t bothered divorcing her. She’d had to divorce him. And even though there was a court order filed for child support, Brad didn’t honor it.
Zoe knew some men saw responsibility as a frightening trap, but more than that, she’d learned the value of standing on her own two feet and she wasn’t letting anybody steal her independence away from her. She liked taking care of herself. This trucker didn’t want her around and she didn’t want him around. Separate cabins worked.
She pulled her fingers off his forearm and smiled slightly to take the sting out of her forwardness of touching him. “Or we could go down the mountain with the wind rather than against it. I live around here, remember? This part of the mountain is used almost exclusively for hunting. We’re bound to find more cabins on the way down. In fact, we’ll probably find clusters of cabins,” she added, preparing him for the fact that they would stay in different shelters, if he hadn’t already decided that himself.
He grunted as he hoisted the diaper bag on his shoulder where it settled beside his backpack. Then he turned and began walking down the hill.
Zoe grabbed Daphne’s baby carrier from the front seat of the car, slammed the door, and followed him. The wind picked up. Swirling along the ground, it gathered fallen snow and propelled icy crystals upward, causing them to slap against Zoe’s face. She pulled Daphne’s blanket loosely over her head to shield her from the blasts, then lifted the carrier to chest height and slanted it toward her to provide even more protection for her baby.
“By the way, I’m Zoe Montgomery,” she shouted to be heard above the wind. “And this is my daughter, Daphne.”
For several seconds the trucker said nothing and Zoe worried that he wouldn’t tell her his name. Not that she really needed to know his name, but if he wouldn’t tell it, there could be a reason. Which took her back to her concern that he might be a criminal. Or worse, he could be a sex offender who had unspeakable plans for her. His not telling her his name was not a good sign.
Adrenaline pumped into her bloodstream and she remembered the gun in her jacket pocket. As a single mother, who lived alone on the edge of a small town that was too close to the turnpike, she frequently carried. Her cousins had shown her everything she needed to know about guns when they’d taught her to hunt, so she wasn’t an amateur. And she also wasn’t a hothead. She wouldn’t arbitrarily shoot this trucker, but if he tried anything she wouldn’t hesitate to defend herself and her daughter.
But right now, because they weren’t too far from her car, simply running back to her vehicle and locking herself in was much smarter than shooting somebody.
She was formulating her plan of how to most effectively bolt when he said, “I’m Cooper Bryant.”
So grateful she nearly collapsed with relief, Zoe said, “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Cooper Bryant.”
But Cooper Bryant said nothing. Either he didn’t agree that it was nice to meet her or he wasn’t the kind of guy to make small talk. Fine. She’d already figured out he was a loner. She respected that. He would probably jump for joy when she told him she preferred her own cabin and was perfectly capable of keeping a fire going all night.
They struggled another ten feet down the mountain. With every step they took, the temperature seemed to fall. The inside of Zoe’s nose began to freeze. She huddled the baby carrier closer to her chest, protecting Daphne. She didn’t need a thermometer to know it was much colder than it was even ten minutes ago. This storm was worse than any she’d ever seen.
The stranger beside her tapped her arm. Rather than try to speak above the wind that now roared through the trees and hollows, he pointed to the left. Cuddling Daphne’s carrier against her, Zoe squinted, trying to make out what he apparently saw, but the only things in her line of vision were the black trunks of barren trees and swirling white snow. Visibility was down to about three feet. And that was another problem. If the wind and snow took away their ability to see, they could easily get lost in the woods.
She shook her head, indicating she saw nothing, and he caught her arm and hauled her across the road and up the slope into the woods.
Clinging to the baby carrier, which bounced precariously because of the trucker’s hold on her arm, Zoe barely kept up with him. Fear churned through her at the way he was dragging her as if she were a kidnap victim. In her head she said every prayer she knew, hoping she hadn’t gotten herself and her baby into terrible trouble, as the stranger propelled her through the woods, almost toppling her when he turned her to walk into the oncoming wind again. She gasped for breath, and righted herself, tightening her hold on Daphne. But as she did, she suddenly saw what he must have seen—what had motivated him to shove her through the forest.
A house!
Even if they had to spend the night, they would have a bathroom, food…and be among people! She wouldn’t be alone with him!
Trying to run in the deep snow while hugging a bulky baby carrier, Zoe nearly fell twice. But her escort was running, too. She’d never felt the temperature fall so quickly and knew they had to get to shelter now or die.
With her boots clumped with snow, she stumbled on the front porch steps. When Cooper Bryant reached the top, he turned and grabbed the baby carrier from her hands, hauling it to his side before he caught Zoe’s hand and pulled her up, too.
Still holding Daphne’s seat, he ran across the plank porch to the door and pounded. Huddling into her insubstantial leather jacket and shivering violently, Zoe noticed there were no lights on in the house. A new fear tumbled through her. If there was no one home, they were in big trouble. God only knew how far they would have to go to the next shelter. And even if they did easily find another building, there was no guarantee it would have a stove. And if they found a cabin with a stove, there was no guarantee it would have wood.
If this house didn’t pan out, there was a very good possibility she and Daphne would die.
“Here!”
Cooper Bryant shoved Daphne’s baby carrier at Zoe and she caught it in trembling hands, again clutching Daphne close to her to protect her from the freezing wind. Cooper Bryant reached into his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. Just as quickly, he pulled out a credit card. Before Zoe realized what he was doing, he was sliding the card into the space between the doorknob and wood frame.
“You can’t!”
He peered at her from beneath his Stetson. His green eyes glittered with annoyance. The angles and planes of his face were drawn in stern lines. Yelling to be heard above the roar of the wind through the trees, he said, “In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have a choice.”
He shimmied the card a few times, jiggling the doorknob as he did. The wind howled. Frigid air pricked at Zoe’s cheeks. The lock on the door gave and Cooper shoved against the wood closure, opening it.
He grabbed Daphne’s seat and Zoe’s arm, propelling both Zoe and her baby into the house before him. Still holding Daphne, he slammed the door closed and for ten seconds or so they stood in the entryway of the simple two-story frame house, just breathing.
When it sunk in that they were out of the cold and safe, Zoe reached for Daphne, taking the handle of her baby carrier from Cooper Bryant’s hand. They might be out of danger from the elements, but the ease with which this man had gotten them into a locked house increased her fears about him. Worse, she couldn’t send him out into the cold to look for another shelter. Visibility was so bad now that he might not get back to the road.
“You’re very good with a lock.”
He returned the credit card to his wallet. “I knew this probably wouldn’t be much of a lock.”
She swallowed. “Really?”
He sighed. “I’m not a criminal. It’s just that this house is so far out in the woods I’m surprised the owner bothers with locks at all. I’m from a very small town in Arkansas where locks are more or less for show, so people frequently forget their keys. Everybody in Porter’s good with a credit card.”
Cooper reached for the light switch. At his touch, the entryway lit. “Hey, we’re in luck. If the electricity is on, that means there’s likely a furnace and maybe even food in the fridge.” He walked down the corridor and flipped a second switch, turning on another light and revealing the square corner of a bed in the room at the end of the hall.
“And here’s a thermostat. It’s set at fifty-five—just enough to keep the pipes from freezing. The person who owns this place obviously planned to be away awhile.” He shifted the knob of the gadget to the left and the sound of a furnace rumbling to life came up from the basement.
Zoe glanced around nervously. “I don’t feel right about this.”
“You’d rather freeze to death?”
“No. But this is somebody’s home.”
Cooper tossed Daphne’s diaper bag to the floor along with his backpack before he removed his jacket, revealing a red plaid work shirt and nice-fitting jeans.
Zoe blinked. She’d already noticed that he was handsome, but in the silence of the foyer she was suddenly taking note of other things. For one, he was older. He had the air of experience that made a man sexy. Add that to his dark, dangerous, mysterious personality and he was one seductive guy.
She swallowed. Luckily, that was exactly the opposite of the kind of man she wanted. She was no longer “into” sexy guys.
Once he’d hooked his coat on a peg, he glanced around. “I don’t think this is somebody’s home. From the setting on the furnace and the dust on that TV,” he said, pointing into a sitting room off to their left, “it looks more like a weekend retreat.”
“It still belongs to somebody.”
“Who would probably welcome us to spend the night in his house rather than freeze to death.” He grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, then like a boss accustomed to giving orders, or a chauvinist who thought all women were pea-brains, he nudged Zoe to look down the hall. “There’s your bedroom. You can have the one on the first floor to be closer to the kitchen since you have a kid. I’m going upstairs.”
She tried to pretend she didn’t notice his high-handedness and smiled graciously. “Don’t you want to wait until I fix us something to eat?”
He patted the backpack. “I have a thermos of coffee and two sandwiches. No need for us to even speak another word.”
Though Zoe had planned for them to separate, something about his tone confused her. She hadn’t asked for his help. He had volunteered it, yet he was acting as if she was an unwanted thorn in his side. “You’re leaving?”
“Think of it as me giving you your privacy. I don’t need to entertain you just because I rescued you.”
There was that tone again, the one that said having her around was a huge inconvenience. She couldn’t argue that he hadn’t rescued her. Not realizing the severity of the storm, she would have waited for LuAnn until it was too dark to find shelter. So, technically, he had rescued her. But she’d certainly never asked him to entertain her.
“No one said you had to. In fact, I was going to suggest you find a different cabin once we were settled.”
“Right,” Cooper scoffed, starting up the steps.
Zoe knew she should have let him go, but she hated that she’d never gotten the chance to prove to her ex-husband that she wasn’t a wimp, that she wouldn’t have smothered him, that he could have stayed with her if he’d just given her a chance. She wasn’t letting another man on the face of this earth believe she was a clingy female. She was defending herself. “I did intend to take care of myself.”
Cooper stopped walking and sighed. “Oh, come on. A woman who looks like you doesn’t ever have to worry about taking care of herself.”
Zoe felt her eyes widen at the insult. “I’m a single mother. I have to know how to handle anything that comes along.”
“And that’s why you called somebody—a man, no doubt—and were waiting in your car.”
“LuAnn would be insulted to hear you call her a man.” Zoe drew a quick, bolstering breath. “I didn’t realize the storm was as bad as it was or I would have looked for shelter, not called someone to come and get me.”
He shook his head, and didn’t even try to hide his smirk. “Right.”
She gaped at him. “What kind of experience do you have with women anyway?”
“Enough to know that the really good-looking ones take advantage of their assets.”
This time her mouth fell open. “As if good-looking men are any better! I married a good-looking man and he left me alone to have his baby. While I was fighting morning sickness and wondering how I’d pay the bills, he used his assets to very quickly replace me, as if to prove to me he didn’t need me. So don’t stand there like the pot calling the kettle black.”
Clearly exasperated with her, he said, “Look, I’m—”
Zoe didn’t want to hear what he had to say. The best way to prove she could handle any problem that came along would simply be to do it. To hell with him and his opinion. “Save your piddly explanation for someone who cares. You and your thermos of coffee can go upstairs. I want a good man, not just a good-looking man. You and your assets aren’t needed down here.”
Chapter Two
At the top of the steps Cooper found two bedrooms. He peered into the first, which had two single beds, then looked into the second and found a queen-sized bed with a thick comforter.
If the huge bed hadn’t won him over, the thought of being wrapped in a comforter would have. His toes had long ago frozen. He didn’t think the inside of his nose would ever be the same and he was sure his Arkansas-transplanted-to-Texas bones now had ice chips for marrow.
He tossed his backpack on the dusty dresser and sat on the bed to pull off his work boots and rub his feet. Though he had ratcheted up the furnace, the house wouldn’t be warm for a while, if it truly heated up at all in the face of the biting wind. He massaged his sock-covered feet, trying to increase circulation, but in the quiet of the bedroom, he could hear Zoe Montgomery’s movements below him.
Guilt tapped him on the shoulder, but he ignored it. He hadn’t come upstairs because he liked to be alone. That was just a perk. He’d left to show her she was perfectly safe with him. She was a pretty girl with a face and figure that could set any man to drooling, and her physical appearance probably caused most men to make at least one pass at her. That was the best explanation for why she was skeptical of help from a man. Undoubtedly lots of the men who had offered her assistance in the past had counted upon something in return—most likely sex.
But Cooper wasn’t interested. Well, he was interested if she was looking for a quick roll in the hay. But he was just about positive she wasn’t. She’d admitted in her parting shot that her marriage had failed, so she was available. But she’d also said she wanted a good man, not merely a good-looking man, and when a woman said that it usually meant she was seeking a commitment. Rolls in the hay were not commitment-based. The way Cooper had it figured, she was one of those women who was searching for that special man who could make her trust again.
And Cooper was not anybody’s special man so it was best to nip that fairy tale in the bud. God only knew how long they would be stranded together. Having felt the sting of the cold and seen the rapid rate of the snowfall, he was beginning to understand the biggest difference between a “storm” and a “blizzard” was that storms were a nuisance and blizzards were deadly. Smart people stayed indoors for the duration of a blizzard.
On top of that, as a trucker, Cooper had enough experience with highways and departments of transportation to realize that rarely traveled, two-lane roads used for shortcuts weren’t the first to be cleared. He and Zoe were stuck in this house for the next twenty-four hours—at least. His actual guess was that they were here for the weekend. He didn’t anticipate getting back to his truck before Monday morning.
But as long as he and Zoe had minimal contact, that might not be a problem. It was December twelfth. Though his brothers had bought the mortgage to his ranch and given him until Christmas to pay it off, he still had thirteen days. It would take him three to deliver his load and only another two to drive his certified check to Arkansas and put it in the hands of his brothers’ lawyer. He had absolutely no intention of placing the check in Ty’s hands, as he had been instructed in the letter advising him his brothers were calling in his debt. No court in the land would side with them if they tried to take his ranch just because he’d given the check to the lawyer, rather than directly to his brother.
Thirteen days was plenty of time. Technically, he had eight days of wiggle room. The storm wouldn’t last eight days. The department of transportation crews wouldn’t forget this road for eight days. There was no reason to be concerned about being stranded for a day or two. Particularly since he already had the check in hand.
Thinking about the check made him reach for his backpack. His partner wasn’t involved in his family’s feud, so Cooper had taken it upon himself to find the money for the balance of the mortgage. He’d cashed in his savings account and IRA, and had been forced to use the herd money, but he had almost every dime. All he needed was the pay from this delivery to add to the certified check. Then his brothers couldn’t hurt him anymore. He’d never again be so stupid as to give them an opportunity like a mortgage to find him.
He unlatched the closure of the backpack, lifted the lid and slid his hand inside to get the white envelope containing the check he’d had prepared at the bank. When his fingers found only two sandwiches, a coffee Thermos and a Twix bar, his heart stopped and he dumped the contents of his backpack on the bed.
But as everything came tumbling out, he remembered he had put the check in the safe in his truck. A new kind of panic tightened his chest. But he reminded himself the truck was locked. Hell, the safe was locked and it was hidden, camouflaged as the seat back. On top of that, conditions outside weren’t fit for man or beast. Nobody was going anywhere near his truck. His money was fine. There was absolutely no reason to freak out.
He sighed. He might not freak out, but he sure as hell couldn’t feel comfortable about leaving a check worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in an abandoned vehicle. Still, since there was nothing he could do about that until morning, there was no sense dwelling on it.
After eating his sandwiches and returning the candy bar to his backpack, he lay down on the bed and angled his Stetson over his eyes, but from downstairs he heard the baby cry. The sound got louder and louder until little Daphne was screaming, sounding like she was testing out her lungs.
Cooper squeezed his eyes shut. Great. As if it wasn’t bad enough he had a constant niggle of doubt about whether his check was safe, he was stuck with an oversensitive woman and a crying baby. If he had any tolerance for cold at all, he’d go back to his truck, get his money and find another cabin.
But he couldn’t handle the cold and it was getting dark, too dangerous to go outside even for a few minutes. He took a breath, pretending he couldn’t hear the crying baby or the soothing voice of her mom and that he truly believed no one would steal his money, but he knew it would be a long, long night.
When Cooper opened his eyes again, muted light was edging into his bedroom through the dusty blinds on the window, and he bounced up in bed. He’d chosen this room for the thick comforter, but had drifted to sleep on top of the covers and spent the night without it.
He couldn’t believe he’d fallen into such a deep slumber that he hadn’t heard a screaming baby. Positive that something had happened—like maybe the storm had stopped and his roomie had gotten curious about what he had in his truck—Cooper rolled out of bed, bounded down the stairs and made the sharp left into the kitchen.
Zoe stood at the sink, washing dishes. Without turning around she said, “Don’t worry. I didn’t run out to your truck and plunder for valuables. The baby’s just asleep.”
He stiffened. The clock on the stove said seven-fifteen. It had only been light for about twenty minutes. If she’d gone to his truck, she’d still be shivering. His check was safe.
But her reply reminded him that she was one incredibly defensive lady. He couldn’t even give her her privacy the night before without her jumping him about his motives. She might be among the world’s most beautiful women but she was pricklier than a cactus and suspicious as hell. And if he didn’t say something, he would alert her that there really was something of value in his truck.
“I wasn’t worried.”
“Sure you were. That’s the only explanation for why you ran down the stairs like your feet were on fire.” She paused, then added, “Unless there’s no bathroom upstairs.”
Confused, Cooper said, “I didn’t see a bathroom.”
“Well, there’s a bathroom in the bedroom I’m using. It’s the only one I found. This is a really old house. I’m guessing it was built before indoor plumbing because the bathroom was built in the corner of the bedroom.”
Cooper suddenly understood what she was talking about. He’d been so focused on making sure she hadn’t gone to his truck that he’d forgotten nature’s call. He said, “Thanks,” and left the room.
Glad for a few seconds to collect himself before he faced Madam Cactus again, Cooper conceded that he had all but told her he had something important in his truck. That meant at some point he would have to brave the storm, get his check and pin it in his underwear for safekeeping because he was absolutely positive that was one place she wouldn’t look.
But after he stepped into her bedroom he forgot all about the check, the temperatures and even nature’s call. He could smell her. He didn’t know if she had special soap or shampoo or maybe perfume that she carried in her purse, but the room already smelled intimately of something light and tropical. Oceans and coconut oil. Suntan lotion.
His mind jumped to a hot beach and Zoe in a bikini and he squeezed his eyes shut. But he forced them open again. He was not attracted to her…well, he was attracted, but he knew he shouldn’t be and he wasn’t giving in to this…this…base instinct.
So, he held his breath as he quietly slid around the bed and into the small bathroom, which—just as she said—was built in the corner of the bedroom. He left as quickly as he could but as soon as he walked into the kitchen, the scent found him again because she was wearing it. As she stood at the sink, with her back to him, his gaze slid down the sleek locks of her pretty yellow hair, down her slim back, along the dip of her waist to her perfectly rounded backside, showcased in tight jeans.
Turning from the sink, she said, “There’s bacon on the table.”
Her silky blond hair curved around her cheeks and chin and then fell in lazy curls to a point somewhere between her collarbone and her breasts. When his gaze reached the bottom of the very last curl, he had to fight his eyes to move upward again.
“You found bacon?”
If Zoe noticed the way he had ogled her, she didn’t let on. “There’s plenty of food in the cupboards. Even meat and bread in the freezer.”
After her reaction to being in someone’s house the night before, that cheerful observation surprised him. “You looked around?”
She sighed. “I have a baby. I have to care for her. I had to see what was available and what wasn’t. Besides, I’ve been up since five. Daphne went back to sleep but I couldn’t, so I explored. You were right when you guessed this was a weekend retreat. But it’s not for hunters. I think it belongs to a family. Though there’s a poker table in the corner of the great room, the games in the cupboard are actually kids’ games like ‘Candy-land’ and ‘Yahtzee.’”
She dried her hands on a dish towel and walked past him. Not giving him a chance to comment on her discovery, she said, “If you don’t like bacon, there’s sausage in the freezer. Make anything you want. I intend to leave cash on the table to pay for everything we use.”
With that she walked out of the room and into the bedroom. She closed the door, effectively shutting him out the way he had shut her out the night before.
He shook his head in wonder, not sure if he was more surprised by her sense of responsibility or by the fact that she clearly wanted nothing to do with him.
Well, whatever. She couldn’t have missed the way he’d taken inventory as if she were the breakfast buffet, so he didn’t fault her for wanting to get away from him. He should be happy she’d removed the temptation of her fabulous face and figure. More than that, he should be absolutely joyful that she was making reparation for the bacon and bread. If she couldn’t take a couple of food items without a conscience flare-up, he didn’t have to worry that she would run to his truck and steal his money.
He grabbed two slices of bread, piled bacon on one and used the other for a lid, making himself a sandwich, and walked to the sink where he looked out the window at the storm.
He didn’t even bother trying to stifle his groan. He could actually see the wind because it was picking up the icy snow pellets and tossing them around, as if the falling snow wasn’t creating enough havoc on its own. That certainly proved there was no need for him to brave the elements to get his check. If there was anybody outside, they weren’t plundering trucks. They were racing for shelter. As long as the wind wailed and the snow fell, his money was safe.
He ambled into the great room. A sofa and chair sat in front of the fireplace along the back wall. He saw the poker table Zoe had mentioned in the far corner. But he was more interested in the television.
He walked over, fell into one of the chairs in front of the TV and grabbed the remote from the end table. He pushed the power button and the screen came to life.
He almost hooted with joy. Not just entertainment, but satellite TV! In a few flicks of the remote he found sports, movies, reruns of old sitcoms. With something to do other than snipe at each other, he and Zoe could be in the same room.
Not that he wanted to be in the same room with her. He didn’t. He simply didn’t want to force her to stay behind a closed door with nothing to do, as if she were in prison.
But he also didn’t want to give her the wrong impression about the two of them spending time together. If he invited her into the great room now, with the promise of television, it wouldn’t appear he had changed his mind from the night before and now wanted to chitchat. His invitation would be to watch TV.
He bounced up from his seat. Sandwich in his left hand, he tapped on her bedroom door with his right. “Hey, the television works. If you want to come out and watch TV that would be cool. I wouldn’t mind that.”
“Thanks, but I’m going to take a shower.”
Shower?
Instantly a vision of Zoe naked popped into his head. He could see her glorious yellow hair cascading around her. Her perfect pink skin. Her shining blue eyes. Her nice round…
He squeezed his eyes shut. He would like to blame that quick mental image on her for saying the word shower. But he knew hormones or maybe his gender were at fault. Still, smart men didn’t chase after every good-looking woman they saw. They reminded themselves they were adults and also reminded themselves of all the reasons they couldn’t act like sex-crazed teenagers. Lord knows, he’d fought this battle before. He’d simply used logic and proper behavior. And this time around he had plenty of ammo.
First, he didn’t want anything to do with this woman. Second, she sure as hell didn’t want anything to do with him. And third, he had TV. There was absolutely no reason to stand outside her bedroom door salivating.
He said, “Okay. Great,” then could have kicked himself because the way he’d said it he sounded as if he thought the idea of her taking a shower was great. Well, too late to fix that. Time to retreat and hope for the best.
He nearly ran back to the great room, shoving the remainder of his sandwich into his mouth before he picked up the remote. He clicked through the unfamiliar stations until he found the Weather Channel then wished he hadn’t.
Staring at the map of the United States, he moaned in frustration. The storm that had stranded them had stalled over the mountain. The forecaster happily expected it to move on by the next morning. But he could be happy about that because he wasn’t stranded with a woman he didn’t know and her baby. The weatherman also didn’t have a check representing every cent he had in the safe of his abandoned truck!
A half hour later, Zoe came into the great room dressed in brown pants and a soft-looking red sweater, holding a happy Daphne. Though Cooper didn’t really want to make small talk, the obvious observation came out before he could stop it.
“Looks like you’re the same size as the woman of the house.”
“I wouldn’t know. There are no clothes in the closet. I keep an extra pair of pants and a sweater in the diaper bag because babies are messy and sometimes I end up needing changing as much as Daphne.”
She turned toward the kitchen and Cooper’s gaze took in every inch of her perfect body. A million visions and images popped into his head. Once again he blamed his hormones. Once again he knew logic and proper behavior would keep him in line. He forced his gaze upward away from her backside, but when he did he saw the way her pale curls contrasted with her sexy red sweater and a whole bunch of other images sprang to his mind.
He rubbed his hand along his nape. Did the woman own any color except red? Sure, she looked great in red, but that was the problem. She looked too damned great. Too damned sexy.
Taking himself back to logic and proper behavior again, he reminded himself that even if she found him as attractive as he found her, they couldn’t sleep together. They were stranded for two days. If it were only for the afternoon, a fling wouldn’t be out of the question. But two days didn’t work. If he seduced her, sex wouldn’t last two days. Eventually, they’d stop and she’d want to talk and then they’d know too much about each other. And then it wouldn’t be a fling. It would be the beginning of a relationship.
His stomach knotted. No way.
“I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
“Storm’s getting worse,” Zoe said, turning to face him, and Cooper’s stomach plummeted.
She was darned gorgeous. He couldn’t believe any man was capable of speech around her, let alone capable of leaving her once he married her. Then he realized she had to be a shrew for her husband to have left her. So far her behavior around him sort of hinted to that. Even the way she always had to be one step ahead of him was an indication that she needed to be right.
No man liked that kind of one-upmanship in a woman. Hell, no man liked that in another man.
He drew a quick breath. “Well, excuse me for trying to help.”
Zoe had been on her way to the kitchen again to take one of Daphne’s bottles out of the fridge where she had stored them the night before, but his comment stopped her. She wasn’t sure why he thought she was simple-minded or stupid, but she knew from their conversation the night before that he worried that she would be a burden. She’d thought she’d already put that doubt to bed, but apparently he was still skeptical.
“I found the TV, too,” she added.
“I was just trying to tell you about the storm.”
There was that tone again. As if she were an idiot. This guy might be the sexiest man on the face of the earth with his whipcord-lean body very nicely showcased in his worn workshirt and perfect-fitting jeans. Add his silky-looking black hair, and she couldn’t pretend that she didn’t notice his physical attributes. But he also had chauvinist written all over him and she simply wasn’t putting up with it.
“Here’s the deal, Bryant,” she said, deliberately using his last name to keep them on totally impersonal terms, so he could stop treating her as if she were a ninny. “I have a child. I don’t just pay my own way. I also pay hers because my ex doesn’t believe in child support. No matter how many court orders get issued, if he runs fast enough he can always evade them. So, I work. I take care of a household. I can fix a faucet. I can fix a tire. I can make a fire. I can turn on a TV.”
“Very funny.”
“No. It’s not funny. It’s not one damned bit funny that I have to tell you I’m a capable adult because you clearly think I’m some kind of spoiled princess or something. I’d like to get that squared away so we can move on.”
“We can move on.”
“Great. Because if we’re stuck here for the weekend I don’t intend to be the only one cooking and doing the dishes.”
“That’s fine by me because, just like you, I work and take care of my own house…and run a ranch.” He smiled tightly. “I guess you could say I have you beat.”
She turned to go into the kitchen again. “You won’t have me beat until you also add in caring for a child.”
He followed her. “Last year, three of my cows had calves.”
She slammed the refrigerator closed. “Did you have to get up with them at two in the morning?”
“Once. And I’m painfully familiar with colic.”
“Well, good for you. You’re the first man I consider myself equal to.”
His eyes narrowed as if he knew she’d insulted him—or somebody—but he couldn’t figure out how. Zoe took Daphne and her bottle into the great room. She settled on the rocking chair and fed the baby one of the five bottles of formula she had prepared the night before. Even if they could leave tomorrow, and she knew they couldn’t, Daphne would be out of bottles before that. Zoe would have to again prepare formula from the faucet water and there was no guarantee that wouldn’t eventually upset Daphne’s system.
Preoccupied with the baby, Zoe didn’t notice that an uncomfortable silence had settled over the small house or that Cooper Bryant was pacing until Daphne had fallen asleep and Zoe rose from the rocker to take the baby into the bedroom. Even then, she didn’t say anything. It was not her problem that Cooper Bryant was pacing the room, obviously bored.
She laid Daphne in the center of the double bed and began to arrange the pillows around her. But, on second thought, she pushed the bed against the wall, giving Daphne two sides of protection. It wasn’t the best situation in the world, but they were stranded. As long as Zoe checked on the baby every few minutes, Daphne should be fine.
Satisfied, Zoe ambled into the great room. She wasn’t much for TV, but she had seen a deck of cards. It had been a while since she’d played solitaire. Entertaining herself that way would be fun. In fact, it was a great deal of fun to be away from her house that always needed to be cleaned, the mountain of bills she couldn’t pay and the notice that told her her house was going up for sheriff’s sale because no one had paid the taxes.
She entered the great room and found Cooper Bryant staring out the French doors behind the poker table. If it weren’t for him, this weekend away from reality might actually be a nice break.
He didn’t turn from staring at the mounting snow, which Zoe had earlier watched just as he was doing right now. She was sure the look of disbelief on his face probably mirrored the one she’d worn staring at the sight.
Approaching the poker table, Zoe said nothing. She opened the top drawer of a cabinet, found the cards, pulled a chair away from the table and sat. The only sound in the room was the noise the cards made as they slid against each other when she shuffled.
“I’m not much of a card player.”
“Great. I was going to play solitaire.”
He turned. Crossing his arms on his chest he said, “Okay. I get it. I get it big-time. You are not a helpless female who needs someone to take care of her.”
She began to lay out the cards. “Thanks for recognizing the obvious.”
He scowled and Zoe dropped the cards and studied him for a second before she said, “Look, I know you’d rather be alone. Frankly, so would I. But since we aren’t, the alternative for us is to form some kind of a truce.”
“A truce?”
“Sure. We agree to share chores. We agree to be civil. And we declare each other off-limits romantically. That way, we can talk pleasantly without worrying that one or the other is getting any ideas.”
Because what she said made sense, Cooper almost agreed until a tantalizing thought entered his head. Whether she knew it or not she had just backhandedly admitted that she found him attractive, too. They were stuck together. They were both attracted. Neither one of them wanted a relationship with the other.
This weekend could be a lot of fun if he could figure out a way to convince her that they should take advantage of their two days away from real life by having a bit of no-strings-attached sex.
But before he could come up with a way to form the suggestion, Daphne cried and Zoe was off her chair and in the bedroom like a bolt of lightning. Cooper realized that was the reason he and Zoe couldn’t have no-strings-attached sex. Women with babies had a guaranteed, built-in defense mechanism. Every time things heated up, Daphne would probably start crying.
Zoe came out of the bedroom carrying Daphne. The baby looked tired, but not sleepy, and though Cooper knew little to nothing about kids, he didn’t think this was a good sign. Zoe didn’t say a word. She simply walked back to the table, sat on the chair, put the baby on her lap, and continued her solitaire game.
Cooper turned to look at the snow again. “I think a truce is a good idea.”
“Okay. Great. Now we can be civil.”
He nodded and relaxed a little, but not completely. He may no longer fear that she wanted something from him, but that didn’t stop his sexual attraction. Because he was a responsible adult he would curb it, but controlling it required being wise about distance and proximity, and also being careful about the conversational topics he chose.
Luckily, the weather was always safe. “I’ve never seen snow fall like this before.”
“I have. A few times.” She paused, then said, “Daphne, honey, don’t grab the cards.”
Cooper faced the table again. Zoe held the baby on her lap with one arm and used the other hand to grasp Daphne’s little fingers to keep them away from the cards.
She smiled up at him. “Would it be out of line for me to ask you to put that red seven on that black eight?”
He glanced down, saw the play she mentioned, and shifted the seven of hearts to the eight of spades.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” He almost turned again to the window, but courtesy wouldn’t let him. “Want the red four on the black five?”
“What red four?”
“This one,” he said, taking the card from its spot on the board and placing it on the five.
“Oh. Didn’t see that. Thanks.”
He took a seat across the table, grabbed the card stack, and asked, “Do you play one card at a time or three?”
“Three.”
“Do you shuffle them or play them in order?”
She gave him a horrified look. “I play them in order. Anything else is trying to beat the odds! I play fair.”
He stifled a smile. This woman had some set of morals. “Okay. Whatever.” He counted off three cards and placed them face up so she could see her play options.
She sighed. “That card goes nowhere. Try again.”
He counted off the next three cards and slapped them on the table.
“Oh, an ace!” She glanced at him. “You know where that goes.”
He stifled another smile at her enthusiasm and put the ace of spades at the top of her play area. He jutted his chin toward the cards on the table. “Want that two of spades up here?”
She nodded, but said nothing else as she examined the board. Daphne screeched, trying to pull her hand free of Zoe’s.
“If I let your hand go,” Zoe said to her baby, “will you promise not to touch the cards?”
Daphne only screeched again.
“I’m not sure I’d take that as a yes,” Cooper cautioned and the little girl grinned toothlessly at him. She was an adorable kid. Her eyes were big and blue, like her mom’s, and her hair was so light it sometimes looked white.
“I agree. But I can’t sit here holding her hand all morning. It’s probably driving her crazy.” She released Daphne’s hand and the little girl instantly pounded it on the table.
Cooper began sliding the cards in play away from Daphne and closer to himself. He was surprised that he only had to move them three inches to get them out of her reach.
Zoe smiled her thanks.
Cooper’s heart did a somersault. It was so damned unfair to be alone in a cabin with a woman this good-looking and not be able to even try to seduce her.
“You’re a natural at handling babies.”
He cleared his throat. “Like I said, I did have those three calves last year.”
She laughed. Cooper counted out three more cards and set them on the growing stack.
“Put that red nine on the black ten.”
He did as she asked.
“Black eight on the red nine,” she said with a nod toward the card. He made the move.
Studying the board, looking for additional plays, she said, “So, you own a ranch.”
He realized he’d set himself up for the question since his ranch was the only thing he’d spoken about and the only conversational opening she had. But the last thing he wanted to talk about was the ranch. It only reminded him that he was forking out his herd money because his brothers hated him.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t ignore her when they’d finally found a way to be amiable. “Yeah. I own a ranch.”
“And you drive a truck?”
“Yeah.”
“So who watches the calves while you’re away?”
“They’re not exactly like Daphne. I don’t have to put them in day care.”
She nodded. “So you just leave everything alone, jump in your truck and go?”
“No. It’s not that easy, either.”
Daphne patted Zoe’s face and screeched. Zoe caught her hand. “Would you mind…” She sighed. “No. Forget it. I’ll do it.”
“Do what?”
“Get a rattle from her diaper bag,” Zoe said, but she rose and began walking toward the bedroom where he knew she had stashed the baby’s things. When she returned, Daphne was chewing on something that looked like a blue plastic pretzel.
“I could have gotten that.”
Zoe shook her head. “Right.”
“Are you back to showing me how strong you are?”
She glanced at him. “I don’t know. Are you going to tell me who babysits your cows?”
“You’re basing how you react to me on the fact that I didn’t tell you I have a partner?”
“I’m basing how I treat you on how you treat me. You’ll help with my card game because you’re bored, but you won’t tell me about your life—even the insignificant fact that you have a partner—because you don’t trust me. And since you don’t trust me, that makes you suspicious. People are typically suspicious of other people because they aren’t trustworthy themselves…. So…” She shrugged. “I didn’t think it wise to let you rummage through my stuff.”
He stared at her. “Are you kidding me? You think I’m some kind of criminal because I won’t tell you about myself?”
She shrugged. “No, I just don’t think you’re trustworthy.”
“I’m one of the most trustworthy people on the face of the earth!”
“Yeah. Right. That’s why you’re so suspicious.”
“I’m not suspicious. I’m simply not much of a people person.”
She didn’t answer, only stared at him until he couldn’t take it anymore and said, “What?”
“I’m waiting for you to tell me why you’re not a people person.”
He laughed. “Why should I?”
“Oh, come on. We’re here in the middle of a snowstorm. Nine chances out of ten when we get out of here Monday, we’ll never see each other again. This is like a fantasy or something. It’s our one chance to pour our hearts out to a member of the opposite sex and get some answers.”
He stared at her. “That is your fantasy.”
She was silent for a minute, then she said, “Well, I never actually thought of it as a fantasy, per se. But I have thought that just once I would like to sit a man down and ask him some pointed questions so I can figure out what the hell makes your gender tick.”
“Well, honey, I’ve got a fantasy, too. And it also involves being stranded with a member of the opposite sex. And we communicate, too. Except we don’t talk. We communicate on that extraspecial level that doesn’t require talking. You know what I’m saying?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You want me to have sex with you?”
He smiled.
“A stranger?” she said, horrified.
“Women.” He laughed and shook his head. “Look, honey, it’s every bit as preposterous for me to pour my heart out to someone I don’t know as it is for you to have sex with someone you don’t know.” He shoved his chair away from the table and started toward the kitchen. “I’m going to make another pot of coffee,” he said, but he stopped suddenly because something she’d said had finally penetrated his thick brain. They really wouldn’t see each other after the snowplow went through. Monday morning when they parted company, it would be as if they had never met. He could tell her every damned tidbit and morsel about his life and it wouldn’t matter.
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