It’s just my daughter and me. Kaydie has had one nursemaid or another since she was born, but the one I hired to come out here felt the place was too…rustic…for her tastes.”
Bella looked around the kitchen. “Running water. Indoor plumbing. Two bedrooms with safe and cozy beds in which to sleep.” She smiled. “This place would be a palace to some. How long has this cabin been here?”
For the first time since she’d known him, Cal smiled with real pleasure. “My great-great-grandfather built it by hand for one of his children over a hundred years ago. I figure it’s sturdy enough to still be standing here for at least another hundred.
“My sister and I used to play in these old rooms as kids,” he continued. “Abby…that’s my little sister…and her new husband, Gray, moved in right after they got married and started remodeling the old place. They rewired and put in new plumbing. In fact, they really brought the cabin up to date…except for a few cosmetic problems. They stopped and moved out when Gray’s stepfather died, but I plan on fixing up the rest of it while I’m here.”
“How long will you and Kaydie live out here?”
“I’m thinking we’ll probably stay a couple of months…. It all depends.”
Bella looked around the warm and safe cabin once more. She knew the coyotes might be looking for her, now that it was dark again. And at some point she would have to start worrying about the U.S. Border Patrol catching her and carting her off to a detention cell, then hustling her off across the border.
It didn’t take her long to figure out her best plan would be to stay here, acting as the sweet baby’s nanny. Maybe she could also help the child’s injured father—even though being near to Cal made her feel lots of things that she shouldn’t.
“I will stay with you tonight,” she told him. “But only for the baby’s sake. And only…if I sleep alone in the little bed next to her crib.”
Bella awoke with a start. As she lay perfectly still and held her breath, she listened carefully for the sound or movement that must’ve disturbed her sleep. Had the coyotes found her?
A small, soft noise in the baby’s crib next to her bed suddenly reminded her of where she was and how she’d gotten here. Before sitting up and trying to clear the rest of the ravages of sleep from her brain, she took a second to think about how fantastic a real mattress and box springs felt after all these months of sleeping on the ground.
When the last speck of the dark coyote nightmare that had been plaguing her for days finally cleared away, she rose to check on the baby.
The child was on her back with her eyes closed, but she seemed restless. Bella reached to check her diaper, thinking perhaps the girl was wet and uncomfortable. But the moment her hand touched the baby’s sizzling skin, Bella knew what was really wrong. Kaydie’s fever had come back.
Bella quickly changed the diaper then cradled the child to her chest. The baby snuggled close, trying to find comfort against a women’s breast. But after a fruitless minute, Kaydie pushed herself back and began to wail.
“Ah, pobrecita. You do not feel well, I know,” Bella cooed. “Let’s see if we can find a way to help.”
With Kaydie still crying, Bella headed toward the darkened kitchen and the baby bottles she’d washed out earlier. “We’ll get you some water and check you over again, little one,” she told the screaming child.
Not sure where the light switch might be, and with the cool moonlight streaming through the windows, Bella didn’t bother with the lights. There was enough of a glow for her to fill a baby bottle. After all, she’d become accustomed to maneuvering in the dark over the last couple of years on the open range.
But as she reached the counter and shifted Kaydie enough to pick up a bottle, the overhead light suddenly flooded the room with a shock of glaring illumination. Bella turned to make sure the interloper was Cal.
It was most definitely, absolutely positively, her host.
He stood motionless, leaning on one crutch at the threshold of the kitchen, scrutinizing her. He looked like he’d just stumbled out of bed. His hair was in luxuriant disarray, the deep shadow of a late-night beard grazed across his jaw, and he was wearing only a pair of loose fitting running shorts. His naked broad chest and the smattering of dark hair there caught her immediate attention—until she glanced into his eyes.
As his gaze raked her body, from the tip of her uncombed hair right down to her bare toes, a spark of sexual recognition hammered through every single part of her. Burning passion flamed openly in his eyes as he brought his gaze up to meet hers.
She had to clear her throat twice to speak. “You did not need to get up. I told you I would take care of Kaydie.”
The man was every sexual fantasy she’d ever had all wrapped into one package. She wondered if he’d be tender or rough, whether he’d try to please her or continue with his selfish ways in bed. Hmm.
She shook off the images. It didn’t matter. She didn’t even know him. She vowed there would be no fantasies with Cal, sexual or otherwise.
“I…” Cal was almost rendered speechless by the sight of the sleep-tousled, golden-skinned woman in bare feet. The sexy dark-haired angel, standing next to the kitchen sink, cradled his child to her breast.
He could not for the life of him figure out why that vision seemed so erotic. Never once, while he’d been married to the baby’s mother, had he ever felt anything even resembling passion when his wife had held their child—which really hadn’t been too often, come to think of it. And he’d even read that fathers-to-be were sometimes filled with great passion toward their wives when they were expecting—but he’d had good reason not to be.
When his eyes met Bella’s just now, he not only felt more turned on than he could remember, but he also recognized that same inexplicably tender tug deep in his gut that he’d noticed earlier. He didn’t know what that was all about, or why it had hit him so suddenly, but he certainly had no intention of exploring the feeling at the moment. He swallowed hard a couple of times, trying to dislodge the pull from his craw.
“Sorry to startle you, babe.” He tried one of his fail-proof smiles. “I heard Kaydie’s cries and thought maybe you might need help.”
She rolled her eyes. With a look that said, “A lot of good you’d be with your leg slowing you down,” she turned back to the baby.
Cal couldn’t imagine why Bella didn’t react to his smiles the same way other women did. But, so help him, he intended to make it a point to charm his way into her good graces—and maybe a whole lot more. It seemed like kind of a challenge now. But he had to be careful not to rush things and scare her off.
He moved closer while Bella fumbled with a baby bottle and the bottled water. “Here. Let me,” he offered.
She relinquished the bottle and rearranged Kaydie in her arms. “I think the fever is back. But not so bad as before.” She laid her cheek against the baby’s forehead. “Yes, she’s cooler. But there’s something else…”
Three
Cal handed Bella the bottle, but his expression remained alert. “What else?”
She put the bottle’s nipple
