there anything we can do for her?” His eyes had filled with concern.
“I can think of a couple of things that might help,” she explained. “Do you have a humidifier?”
He shook his head. “I don’t exactly know what that is, but I didn’t see anything I couldn’t identify when I unpacked the car. Is it important?”
“I think we can manage another way,” Bella told him. “But first, will you bring her diaper bag to me, please? I saw something in there that may be of use.”
Cal limped toward the front room while she tried to comfort Kaydie. “Shush…shush, niña,” she crooned. “Your daddy might not know what to do with you, but he obviously cares. Some of us have not been so lucky in our lives.”
After Cal returned with the diaper bag, Bella cleaned out the baby’s nose the best she could and then found a small jar full of eucalyptus cream. She rubbed some on the baby’s chest. Then she and Cal dragged the lightweight crib from the small bedroom into the kitchen.
As he placed it where Bella directed, Cal asked, “Tell me again why she has to sleep in the kitchen?”
“She needs warm moist air. Without a humidifier we can boil water on the stove while she sleeps, and she’ll breath easier,” Bella replied.
“But won’t that mean we’ll have to stay with her? It could be dangerous to leave a pot on the stove.”
Bella nearly chuckled at the innocence of the man. “Sí. I will sit with her and make sure all is well. You may go back to sleep without worry.”
“That doesn’t seem right,” Cal fussed. “You are the one who needs rest. I’ll sit up with her. You go on back to bed.”
Ah-ha. The charming gringo did have some unselfish thoughts inside him after all. Bella looked beyond the bare chest and broad shoulders that had so far been the focus of her attention and studied Cal’s demeanor. She came to the decision that he did have the potential to become the friend she desperately needed.
“We will both sit up with her,” she told him. “It is only a few hours before dawn, we could keep each other awake. We may be able to take a nap tomorrow while Kaydie sleeps.”
Cal used one hand to push the two-person kitchen table around so both of them would be facing Kaydie’s fold-away crib. He couldn’t imagine how Bella could remain this alert and wide-awake after everything she’d been through the past few days, but he was grateful for a chance to talk to her.
He still wanted to find a way to get her to like him—at least a little. He was on a mission to keep her here, helping with Kaydie. And maybe even helping him to understand why she affected him the way she did.
Cal pulled out a chair and sat down, watching her settle the baby and then put water on the stove to boil. It took him a minute to notice what she had on.
“Why are you still wearing those same clothes?” He grinned at her.
She looked down at her ripped jeans and dirty long-sleeved shirt. “Oh. I don’t have any other clothes with me. I didn’t exactly get a chance to pack before I hid in that truck. I’ll wash these out tomorrow.”
“I know you took a shower before we went to bed…so…you put your dirty clothes back on?” He shook his head. “You can’t sleep in jeans,” he declared.
“When one is tired enough,” she replied as she headed toward her chair, “one can sleep in whatever they happen to be wearing…or in nothing at all for that matter.”
Oh, man. He certainly wished she hadn’t said that. The image of her lying naked on his cool cotton sheets, waiting for him grabbed him in the gut. How could he be charming when he couldn’t even think anymore?
He huffed out a pent-up breath and bit down on the inside of his cheek, trying to make the visions disappear and his errant body behave so he could speak. “I can lend you some T-shirts and sweats to sleep in,” he finally managed.
She shook her head. “Oh, I could not—”
“Sure you can. It’s no problem for me.”
“I suppose that might be better than wearing these old clothes until I can purchase new ones.” She gestured to the holes in her pants.
Cal needed to get her talking about something else. Something that would take his mind off the softness of her skin or the silkiness of her thick, dark hair. And off the picture now forming in his head of her in a thigh-topping T-shirt with nothing underneath.
Fortunately, Bella found a good topic—him.
“You said you just arrived here last night,” she began as she settled into a chair. “Why have you come to this place, Cal? What business brings you so far away from the main ranch?”
He tapped his injured leg. “A car accident.” He smiled wryly. “Which is damn funny considering that I race stock cars for a living.”
“What is so funny?”
“I wasn’t racing at the time,” he muttered as he rearranged his body in a more comfortable position at the table. “You’ve really never heard of me, honey?” he drawled smoothly. He scrutinized her face, waiting for some kind of reaction.
Surely she’d been putting him on. Everybody knew what had happened to racing giant Cal Gentry.
Her eyebrows rose, but she sat quietly.
“It was in all the papers.”
“I don’t read newspapers much.” Bella shifted in her seat the same way he had. “It’s hard to get delivery in places with no roads.” She’d said it with a straight face, but her eyes danced with mischievous lights.
Cal could scarcely believe it. She’d made a joke. He’d been convinced that, as erotic as he might find her, she was all commitment and deadly serious. His efforts to charm Bella might just turn out to be fun after all.
His blood began to stir again, liquefying his brain. He fought the sexual urges. But he was sure she would want him as much as he wanted her—sooner or later. He’d never met a woman yet that he couldn’t charm into his bed. It was just a matter of time.
“Well, if you’d read any newspapers or magazines, you’d know that I had a reputation as the most expert driver on the circuit. The lucky one who’d never caused a crash.” He laughed at the memory of his own foolish pride and stood.
It had suddenly occurred to him that he wanted to see what it would take to shake Bella’s composure. He’d had some extremely sensual ideas involving that very thing earlier. But at this moment he just wanted to see her taken aback some—without scaring her off in the process. Underneath her calm exterior lay a hot-blooded woman, and Cal wanted a small preview of what awaited him.
“But that was before I smashed the family minivan into a truck,” he continued with a drawl. “A crazy crash on a public freeway managed to put me into the hospital and to kill Kaydie’s mother…my wife.” He turned away to go and retrieve something for Bella to wear, but added over his shoulder, “You’ve hooked up with a murderer, sweetheart. How’s that for stepping out of a hot spot and into a fire?”
