lawyer one more time and then it was goodbye forever.
Savannah took a deep breath, exhaling slowly and trying to cool her anger. “Stubborn, selfish man!” she snarled aloud, gritting her teeth and thinking about the adorable little five-month-old girl who needed a guardian. Savannah glanced in her rearview mirror and saw Mike Remington walking into his hotel. Too handsome for words. She hated to acknowledge that, but he exuded sex appeal with his rugged good looks, raven hair and thickly lashed, dark-brown bedroom eyes. He had too much confidence, and she suspected he was accustomed to having women melt whenever he was around. A few times tonight when they’d touched, she’d hated that she’d gone all tingly; she hoped she’d been able to hide it well. She didn’t want him to make her tingly. She wished to remain aloof and frosty with him, so why hadn’t she?
There had to be a way to persuade Mike Remington to take Jessie. John Frates was never off the mark in his assessment of other people—not like this. John had seen something in the man that had made him think Mike was the right man to take responsibility for little Jessie.
Whatever John had seen, Savannah knew she wasn’t finding it. Mike Remington seemed almost hostile, and totally wrapped up in himself and his own life. He wasn’t going to be charitable or generous. And he was going to walk away from a million-dollars-plus inheritance. What kind of man did that? She couldn’t figure him out at all. She knew what John had said about him—that he was tough, fearless and intelligent. Now she could add selfish and stubborn to the list. Yet, how many truly selfish people would pass on a million and a third dollars?
Of the three men in her office this afternoon, Mike Remington seemed the least likely man to be the guardian of a child.
Maybe when Mike slept on it, he would change his mind. She knew better than to really believe that, though.
Savannah drove to the redbrick condo she owned in San Antonio. On weekends she went home to Stallion Pass, but during the week, it was easier to stay in the city.
She parked in her garage and entered through the back door, going in the short entryway to her kitchen. As she got herself a glass of water, she paced around her empty, lonely kitchen. She finally set her empty glass on the tile counter and went through the living room to her bedroom. As she readied herself for bed, her mind was still on Mike Remington. She couldn’t seem to get him or the problem out of her thoughts.
An hour later she sat up in a rumpled bed, staring into the dark and still thinking about Mike and Jessie. She had been conscious of Mike as an attractive man from the start. When she’d touched him, she’d felt the shock of that contact to her toes. She suspected he had that effect on most females.
She’d told him she needed to see him again, but that had been desperation talking. She prayed she could get the state caseworker to cooperate tomorrow. Surely there was some way to melt Mike Remington’s hard heart.
As Savannah sat there in the dark, she was chilled by a deep, unsettling hurt that she hadn’t experienced in years, and she knew what was making her fight so hard for little Jessie.
She recalled her family, her mother and father, her six siblings. All of them, except the three youngest children, were adopted. When she was four, her blood father had walked out. Then when she was five, her mother had abandoned her, as well, sending her to a neighbor’s house and not coming back for her. That old hurt had dimmed, but she could remember the incredible pain and panic, the shock. The number of foster families she had been shuffled through for more than a year and a half—until Amy and Matt had adopted her and taken her into an unbelievably warm and loving home. Savannah shivered and rubbed her arms until old fears and hurts vanished.
In spite of trying to put Jessie and Colonel Remington out of her mind, Savannah slept little and was up before the sun.
Bathed and dressed for work by eight o’clock, she studied herself in the mirror as she smoothed her navy suit. She wore simple pearl earrings and a pearl necklace. Her hair was in a twist on her head. She thought she looked quite businesslike. Her thoughts jumped to Mike and the way he’d looked at her yesterday when she’d taken her hair down and removed her suit jacket. Her pulse jumped at the memory and she frowned, shaking her head. Glancing at the clock, she rushed to the phone to call the caseworker. Savannah knew it was only two hours till her appointment with Mike Remington. This would be her last chance with him, so she needed to make it count.
Two
Mike showered, dressed in a navy sport shirt and jeans, then went downstairs to meet his friends in the hotel lobby. He spotted the two tall men the instant he stepped out of the elevator. After greeting one another, they went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. It wasn’t until they’d ordered that the talk turned to their respective legacies, Mike’s in particular.
“So how’s it feel to suddenly become a father?” Jonah asked.
Mike shook his head and met Jonah’s gaze squarely. “I’m not going to do it.”
“You’re turning down your bequest?” Boone asked in disbelief.
“I can’t take care of a baby,” Mike said. “Maybe one of you guys?”
“What? Swap inheritances?” Boone’s eyes danced with amusement. “I don’t think the lady lawyer would go for that. She’s all business.”
“She’s as tough as my dad,” Jonah remarked dryly. “No messing with her.”
“Well, count me out, anyway,” Boone said as he leaned back in his seat. “I’ve been there and done that with my kid brothers and sisters. No thank you.”
“Boone, you’re the oldest of nine. You’d be perfect.”
“The hell you say!” Boone snapped. “No more changing diapers for me. I’ve been a daddy eight times. Forget it.”
“How about you?” Mike asked, looking at Jonah.
Jonah shook his head. “I’m going home to Oklahoma, and from there I’ve got to go overseas in four days. Besides, the thought of a ranch is kinda intriguing.”
“What do you know about ranching?” Boone teased. “Next to nothing.”
“Not exactly. My granddaddy had a ranch and I lived with him off and on when I was a kid. Besides, ranching runs in my Comanche blood,” Jonah replied with a grin of his own.
“Oh, sure,” Boone said with a brief laugh, shifting his attention back to Mike. “Looks like you’re stuck, pal. Sorry.”
“I’ll get out of it,” Mike said grimly, more of a promise to himself than his buddies.
“And give up all that money?”
“The money’s not worth it. I’ll make my own money.”
The waiter brought their breakfasts, and Mike looked at his friends. Jonah was the same as the last time Mike had seen him, except it was only April and already the sun had darkened his skin considerably. His straight black hair was cut short and neatly combed, and the T-shirt he wore revealed powerful muscles, proving that Jonah was still in top physical form. As for Boone, his skin was darkened, too, by the sun, and gone was his shaggy brown hair. Although still thick and wavy, it had been trimmed considerably, well above his collar.
“Where are you working now, Jonah?”
“Okmulgee
