until I find her.”
Sadness shimmied through Kati, her thoughts centered on the poor abandoned baby in her arms. This little boy had narrowly missed placement in foster care, a life that Kati knew all too well. She’d do anything—anything to spare him that. Her desire to care for him shot up a notch. Certain she was helping all concerned, Kati buried her nose in Evan’s soft, powder-scented neck and battled the guilt of using Colt’s kindness against him.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Garret.” With steely determination she stood and tenderly handed him the sleeping baby. A puzzled Colt slipped his dark, powerful hands beneath the child, cradling the small body against his wide masculine chest. Kati glanced away and gulped. In the next two minutes she needed to be convincing, not moved to tears by the sight of a big ol’ cowboy holding an innocent baby.
Drawing upon a lifetime of pretending, Kati took a deep breath and coolly announced, “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not interested in the job.”
Colt looked stunned. Panic filled his bloodshot eyes.
“What? No. You can’t do this. I need you. He needs you.” He came around the desk holding Evan against his shoulder with one hand while extending the other in a pleading gesture. “Please. The salary is good. You’ll have your own room, your own cook, the run of the place.”
She shook her head. “I apologize for the inconvenience, but the baby’s mother could return at any time. There’s no job security. Furthermore, the ranch is so secluded.”
Colt’s dark-brown eyes locked with her gray ones, using every ounce of his persuasive charm. If she hadn’t fully intended to take the job—under her own terms, of course—she’d have buckled from the pressure. The look Colt gave her was enough to melt the polar ice cap. And Kati was a marshmallow.
“Please,” he pleaded hoarsely, “I’ll pay you whatever you ask. Anything at all.”
He moved nearer, bringing with him the scent of man and baby mingled pleasantly together.
“You’re the only qualified applicant I’ve had.” He sounded pathetic—and smelled wonderful. “The references you gave me over the phone all checked out. I’ll raise the pay. Heck, I’ll even…buy you a car. You have to take the job.”
He stood within a breath of her, staring down into her face with such earnest persuasion that Kati was on the verge of agreeing to anything he asked. She tried backing away before she lost control of the entire situation. Colt reached out and touched her arm. Like the time all those years ago the thrill of his touch rendered her senseless. She couldn’t think. Her head started chanting Colt’s name.
“Anything, Kati,” Colt begged. “Name it, and it’s yours.”
She was mesmerized. A moth over the flame. A deer in the headlights.
“Anything at all,” he said softly, seductively.
Her heart thundered. Her ears rang. She couldn’t think straight. Why had she come here, anyway? Oh, yes. Because of Colt. To marry Colt. That was it.
“Marry me,” she blurted.
He stared at her as though she’d grown horns. She wondered if she had. This wasn’t the way she’d planned to say it. She’d wanted to remain rational and logical while they hammered out a business deal. Instead she’d become the blathering idiot of her nightmares.
Slowly, Colt withdrew his hand and took one step backward. His horrified gaze remained riveted on her face.
As her good sense returned, Kati squirmed beneath his appraisal, equally as horrified. This was her one chance. If she blew it now, there would never be a Kati’s Angels Child Care.
Having already crossed the line, she straightened her shoulders and plunged in. With every bit of enthusiasm, logic and rationale she could muster while shaking in her shoes, Kati tried to convince him that the plan was simple, easy, and helpful to all concerned. The bankers of Rattlesnake wouldn’t loan her the money to build a child-care center unless she had collateral.
Collateral? What a laugh! To build her dream childcare facility she’d have to borrow the money for everything from the land to the building and even for the first few payments until the center began to turn a profit. And she could only think of one way for a single, jobless orphan to acquire that much collateral. According to the bankers of Rattlesnake, a husband’s collateral would be just fine. But did she have a husband? Not even a boyfriend. And then she’d seen Colt’s ad, and like a gift from heaven the idea came to her.
“So, if you’ll marry me,” she concluded, “I’ll have the collateral I need to get a loan, the children of Rattlesnake will have someone to love and care for them, and you’ll have a nanny, free of charge, for Evan until his mother returns.”
In the course of her monologue, Colt’s horror had turned first to bewilderment and then to incredulity.
“Even if this idea of yours made any sense at all—which it doesn’t—it wouldn’t work.” Colt gave his head a stubborn shake. “I don’t want to get married. Never have, never will. Marriage sucks all the life out of people.”
“I’m not talking about a real marriage.” She hoped she sounded calmer than she felt. “It’s a business arrangement, a marriage in name only as a means to acquire collateral for my loan.”
He shook his head, jostling the bundle in his arms. “Your reasoning makes no sense.”
“It does to me. A fifty-fifty proposition. You get a nanny. I get collateral.” Couldn’t he understand? As long as they made a deal in which each party benefited, she was a businesswoman, not a charity case. She’d had enough of that in her life.
Shoulders sagging wearily, Colt pressed a thumb and forefinger into his eye sockets. Little Evan’s whimper brought the big cowboy’s head upright. Panic filled his dark eyes.
“Just a business arrangement, right?” He patted the baby’s wiggling back in awkward desperation. “None of that till-death-do-us-part stuff?”
“Of course not. After I have my loan and Evan’s mother is found, you can go somewhere for one of those quickie divorces. No strings attached.” While her belly shook in trepidation, she spoke lightly, airily, as if she proposed a marriage of convenience to a strange man every day of the week.
Surely he could see the logic in her win-win idea. He needed her almost as much as she needed him. As tired as he was, he couldn’t hold up much longer. He was about to fall over now. And so was she. If Colt didn’t say something soon, Kati would collapse in a heap on the scuffed toes of his black boots.
Still eyeing her with deep suspicion, Colt rubbed at the back of his neck. “Quickie divorce? Where do they do that?”
Kati blinked, uncertain. “I—Reno maybe?” She didn’t have a clue.
“I don’t know, either. My attorney would know.”
Her pulse rate shot up. He was weakening.
He blew out a long, gusty sigh. “Would you be willing to sign papers agreeing to everything? The divorce and all, I mean?”
She really wanted to feel sorry for him, but she couldn’t allow it. For once in her life, she had to be utterly, completely
