by Susan Meier
He pulled one of the drawers from the empty dresser. It wasn’t quite as tall as the basket, but it was much wider and longer. There was plenty of room for Daphne and a blanket. He lined it with a quiltlike blanket that acted as a makeshift mattress, laid her inside and gave her the bottle of water.
Sitting on the edge of his bed, he watched her drink enough to settle herself and ultimately fall asleep. Then he took the bottle and set it on the dresser, turned out the light and collapsed on the bed.
When Daphne woke at two, Cooper knew she wasn’t going to let him get back to sleep. After no nap the day before, she had been too tired to protest the water, but with five hours of sleep behind her she wouldn’t settle for second best. His only hope was to rock her until she drifted off but he had a sneaking suspicion that wasn’t going to work.
He took the dresser drawer downstairs, settled Daphne inside and turned on the TV.
Zoe awakened the next morning feeling a bit stiff and sore, but no longer weak and dizzy. She rolled out of bed, tested her health by standing without holding onto anything and pronounced herself well. Then she remembered she’d abdicated Daphne’s care to a perfect stranger and ran out of the bedroom.
In the great room, she skidded to a stop and her eyes widened at the scene that greeted her. A comforter had been spread across the center of the floor. On top of the comforter was a dresser drawer lined with a blanket. On top of the blanket was her sleeping baby. And atop her sleeping baby was the long arm of the rancher/trucker who was lying on the floor beside her.
Zoe couldn’t tell if he was keeping an arm across Daphne as a sort of early warning system for when she awoke, or if it was a sign of affection. She only knew the scene was adorable.
She sat on the sofa, staring at sleeping Cooper Bryant. He was without a doubt the most complicated man she had ever met. He liked to be alone, yet he was too good to ignore her and too kindhearted to desert Daphne when she needed him. But, kind as he was, he didn’t get along with his own brothers. It didn’t make any sense.
Unless his brothers were real losers.
She took a deep breath, deciding that would be more acceptable if Cooper were married, proving there was at least somebody he got along with. Or maybe if he had a different job. Truckers were loners. Ranchers could be loners. Loners were usually difficult people.
Still, Cooper had said he had a partner. And he and his partner had a mortgage, which Cooper’s brothers had bought in order to take his ranch away from him. And what else had he said? They already had his family inheritance. They got it by default when he left them.
Looking at Cooper, sleeping on the floor, one arm laid protectively across her baby, it appeared the whole fault of Cooper’s troubles belonged with his brothers.
Except Cooper wasn’t exactly Mr. Personality, and he could have driven his brothers to the point where they might have felt justified to ask him to leave.
Rising from the sofa and heading for the kitchen, she cursed under her breath. Damn it! Why was she so curious about him? Because he was so good-looking?
The question made her stop. She turned around to study him again. She studied his soft-looking black hair, the smooth lines of his handsome face, the solid build of his shoulders and back and his cute butt, and she sighed. His good looks should have turned her off. That was the rule she’d made when Brad had left. No more good-looking men. And she’d stuck to it, too. So, she wasn’t continually thinking about Cooper Bryant because of his good looks. She also didn’t feel sorry for him. She continued to be curious about him because of the way he treated her.
Chauvinist that he was, he nonetheless recognized her strength, but he didn’t assume that because she was strong he could ignore her. They were sharing a house, so they really did “share.” He hadn’t fended for himself for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They had eaten together. When Daphne had been sick, and Zoe had sat on the bedroom floor watching over her, he might not have known how to make her child better, but he’d wanted to do something. She could see his desire to help in his expressions and in the way he couldn’t simply ignore her.
In fact, having him stay and talk with her while Daphne slept had been odd for her to accept. She hadn’t chosen to be a loner. She certainly didn’t like being a loner. But she was. Just as Cooper’s brothers had gotten his family inheritance by default, she had become a loner by default. She wasn’t someone anybody catered to. She was someone people typically left alone. Hell, she was someone people pushed away!
“Be who you want to be,” her mother had said, right before she’d hugged her only child and taken off in her SUV for California.
Her father had said, “In this world you have to be strong, princess, and I’m glad you are.” Then he’d slammed the door on his U-Haul and twenty seconds later she was watching him drive out of her life.
“Pregnant?” her husband had said before he’d basically fallen to their sofa, staring at her as if he were trying to comprehend the word.
But as quickly as he’d fallen in disbelief, he’d risen. “You know what? You can handle this, babe, but I can’t.” He walked into their bedroom and, as if it were the logical thing to do, just started packing. “You’re strong,” he’d said. “But I can’t do this.”
He’d said a few other things, then he was gone, too. She’d tried to talk him out of it, of course. She’d scrambled after him as he’d strode to his car, giving him assurances that he could handle being a dad, but he’d kept shaking his head, arguing that he couldn’t.
She’d hoped that after a day or two away, he would miss her. But he hadn’t. And that had upset her more than his not wanting their baby because she knew that was the bottom line. If he had loved her, a pregnancy wouldn’t have scared him off. But he hadn’t loved her.
So he’d told her she was strong and left her.
Cooper Bryant was the first person who recognized her strength, accepted it and yet still stayed.
True, they were stranded together because two feet of snow had fallen on the mountain, and he couldn’t leave. She frowned. He might be trapped with her, but he didn’t have to talk to her and that was the point. Cooper could be ignoring her. Yet he wasn’t. And since he wasn’t a naturally nice person, the only explanation could be that he liked her.
She blinked. He liked her? Or he wanted to sleep with her?
He wanted to sleep with her. He’d already said it. Still, a man who wanted to sleep with her could ignore her child. Cooper Bryant had cared for Daphne.
In the kitchen, Zoe put coffee grounds into a filter and poured water into the reservoir of the coffeemaker, then tried to look out the window above the sink, but couldn’t. Snow had crammed into the little squares of the screen, which the cabin owner hadn’t removed from the summer, even though an entire fall had passed and winter had begun. They were now ten days away from Christmas. The holiday she had loved the most as a child. The holiday she missed the most as an adult. But at least now that she had Daphne she had a reason to put up a tree and buy presents.
The thought lifted her spirits. She didn’t have a lot to spend on a celebration, but it didn’t always take money to make a holiday happy. Not when there was a baby involved!
As the coffee dripped into the pot, she walked through the great room to the glass doors by the poker table and glanced out. There was definitely two feet of snow, but the sun was shining. The wind wasn’t blowing. With Cooper and Daphne sleeping so soundly on the floor beside the TV, she couldn’t turn it on to watch the Weather Channel, but she almost didn’t have to. It wasn’t snowing. The storm was over. They would be leaving today. The smart thing to do would be to shower and begin gathering her things while Daphne and her knight in shining armor slept.
When she reached the end of the great room and was about to enter the hall to her bedroom, she turned and looked at Cooper Bryant one more time. She wondered what his Christmas would be like. His parents had died and he was estranged from his brothers so she knew he didn’t have a family tradition to a
ttend. Did he celebrate with his partner? Did he celebrate at all? The thought that he would be as alone as she had been last Christmas squeezed her heart. With her husband gone, celebrating with the new woman in his life, and her parents both forgetting to phone, Zoe had experienced the worst day of her life. She could not imagine anybody would be that alone deliberately.
Would it be totally and completely inappropriate to invite him to her house for Christmas? She frowned, considering that. He lived in Texas. She lived in the mountains of Pennsylvania. It wasn’t as if he could drive over the river and through the woods to get to her house.
Except…
She owed him. He had taken care of Daphne when she couldn’t. And she still believed he needed somebody to talk to about his family. And she intended to have the best Christmas ever. Wouldn’t it be nice to share that with him?
Of course it would. And if he was as alone as she believed he was, he might be willing to drive to Pennsylvania to avoid that long, lonely day. Heck, if he drove to Pennsylvania from Texas and then back again, even if he only spent one afternoon with her and Daphne, he could avoid the whole long, lonely holiday season!
Giving him the chance to sidestep that misery was the least she could do for the kindness he’d shown her.
Still, she didn’t want to be pushy. Or invade his privacy.
But if he gave her one sign, one real, solid sign that he didn’t want to be alone for Christmas, she would ask him.
But it had to be his decision. He had to give her a sign.
Chapter Five
Cooper awakened to the scent of fresh coffee. Disoriented, he sat up. His back was so stiff with prickly pain that he wondered if he’d slept on a bed of nails, then he glanced around and almost groaned. He was still in the god-awful house in the woods he’d found to shelter Zoe, her baby and himself. He was on the floor, sleeping atop the comforter that he’d originally spread out for Daphne, but which had become the only place he could sleep while still keeping an eye on her. It was no damned wonder his back ached. Then Daphne slapped him across the nose with her empty bottle.
“Don’t try to make up with me now.”
Daphne screeched joyfully.
“Oh, you’re up.”
At the sound of Zoe’s voice, Cooper twisted to face the sofa, where she sat brushing her hair. Damp blond curls fell loosely past her shoulders. Her face had a freshly scrubbed look.
His first thought was that even right from a shower—with no makeup and wet hair—she was absolutely gorgeous. His second thought was that she was “up.” Not just awake but full of energy.
“Daphne and I have already showered.” She smiled prettily. “I like the drawer idea, by the way. That’s why I put her back in after I cleaned her up. She can’t really crawl, except backwards and she gets herself in all kinds of trouble. Putting her in the drawer is a nice way to keep her in the room with us without having to watch her every move.”
Relief poured through Cooper. He was so damn glad she wasn’t sick that he forgot his back hurt. He forgot the long night with the baby, who screamed nonstop because the only thing he could put in her bottle was water. He forgot he’d had fewer than two hours of actual sleep. All he could focus on was how damned wonderful Zoe looked. Awake! Alert! Not sick!
“I made coffee,” she said, rising from the couch and casually padding in her sock-covered feet to the kitchen, where she extracted two mugs from the dish drainer beside the sink.
He scrambled off the floor and nearly ran to the kitchen.
Facing the coffeepot, she couldn’t see that he had followed her and she called, “Would you like me to bring a cup into the great room for you?”
She should throw him a damned parade. She should pay for an X-ray of his face to see if her daughter’s head butting, bottle slapping and skin grabbing had caused any real damage.
Holding two mugs of steaming coffee, she turned but stopped short when she saw he was right behind her. She smiled. “Are you that desperate for coffee?”
“I’m that desperate for help with your child.” He took both mugs from her hands and set them on the counter before he clasped her shoulders and stared into her eyes. “You’re really well?”
She laughed. “I feel terrific. Sorry about yesterday. I—”
She didn’t get to finish her sentence because Cooper kissed her. He had never been so happy to see anyone well as he was to see Zoe up and about and capable of caring for her own baby. And he wanted to thank her simply for being alive, but when his lips pressed to hers, an odd thing happened. The absolute softness of her mouth caused him to forget all about appreciation and to head directly to the sexual place he’d been telling himself was off-limits unless Zoe gave him the go-ahead.
Falling headfirst into wonderland, his thoughts rolled to things like satin sheets, perfumed oils, bubble bath and wine, as his body tensed with anticipation. He deepened the kiss and let ripple upon ripple of pleasure pour through him.
Just as he was about to declare kissing her the definition of heaven, he realized he was kissing her. Not thanking her. Not kissing her for joy. But honest-to-God kissing her as if they were about to tumble into bed.
He jerked away, but that did nothing to lessen the flood of hormones replacing the blood in his arteries and veins. Dear God. Kissing her wasn’t merely powerful. It was potent. She was soft. She smelled good. She fit against him. And everything in his body responded to that quickly, easily, naturally. Almost as if he didn’t have any control.
But he did have control. He always had control.
His gaze jumped to catch hers and what he saw in her eyes shot conflicting reactions through him. She was not confused. She liked the kiss. If the gooey expression on her face was anything to go by, she liked him. If he kissed her again, as his hormones were voting he do, she wouldn’t stop him. She might even let him take her to bed.
Though his body tensed and tightened and damned near took over for his mind, he managed to find a few functioning brain cells and focused on the other side of this deal. He might have been trying to get her into bed for the past two days, but he’d never expected her to take him up on it. The very fact that she “liked” him made him realize he couldn’t take them down that road. She was not the kind of woman a man trifled with. She was the kind of woman a man settled down with. And Cooper was not the settling down kind. Hell, women should thank him for realizing that about himself and staying away from them.
But he didn’t think Zoe was going to thank him. She had too many stars in her eyes.
Shoot!
He pulled his hands from her shoulders and stepped away. “Okay, that was supposed to be a gee-I’m-glad-you’re-better kiss. I’m sorry it got out of hand.”
She stared at him for a few seconds as if she couldn’t respond. Well, he certainly understood that. That kiss had rolled through him like a thunderstorm in Oklahoma. It was a miracle he could talk. It was a miracle he could think. But he had thought. Thank God. And because he had enough presence of mind to realize kissing the way they had been was wrong, he was getting them out of this before the ideas clearly rumbling through Zoe’s brain went too far.
He grabbed his mug of coffee, downed it and turned toward the front door. “I have a change of clothes in my truck.” He set the mug on the countertop. Zoe continued to stare at him. “A shower sounds like heaven now, but a change of clothes sounds better. Plus, I think it’s time I checked on road conditions. The snow has stopped, but that doesn’t mean the roads have been cleared.”
Zoe found her voice. “You have a radio.”
She said it as a fact, not a question, but he nodded anyway. “Yeah.”
He didn’t give her any more answer than that, and went in search of his boots. Once he had them on, he didn’t reiterate his mission or even say goodbye. He simply headed for the door. Shoving his hands into the pockets of his lined denim jacket, he trudged through the two feet of snow to the driveway. Because it was dark when they’d arrived, he and Zoe hadn’t seen the e
asier access to the house and had bounded up the front yard. In the daytime he not only saw the driveway and garage, he saw the path to the road.
Focused on getting to his truck, he refused to let himself think of anything but trekking through the snow. When he reached the road, he groaned. Sparkling with reflected sunlight, the white blanket on the highway and in the surrounding woods hadn’t been touched by man or vehicle. No one had walked or driven on this road since the storm had started Friday night.
With a resigned breath, Cooper made the first line of footprints in the perfect snow. He would have thought it a shame to ruin something so beautiful since it was clear no one was leaving that day, but he had to get the hell away from Zoe.
Though he hadn’t let himself venture anywhere near thoughts of Zoe, the kiss, her reaction, or even his reaction while he’d walked down the driveway, his subconscious hadn’t let any of it go. Like a dog with a bone it gnawed at his brain, reminding him he was in trouble.
Zoe liked him. Maybe because he’d cared for her daughter, maybe because she was a dreamer, or maybe because of a combination of the two, she had gotten the mistaken impression that he was someone worth liking. But he knew he wasn’t. Given half a chance, he would take advantage of her naive assumptions about him. If he played his cards right, spoke nicely, pretended to be the person she thought, she would let her guard down that night. He could make love to her for the rest of their stay and be gone two seconds after the snowplow went through—without a backward glance.
But she deserved better than that.
He pulled his Stetson down to block the blinding glare of the sun off the wind-packed snow. Of course, if he had misjudged her and she wasn’t looking for a permanent relationship, he might be rejecting something really, really good.
Cooper kicked the snow. Hard. That was genuine wishful thinking. It was as ridiculous for him to even consider she wanted a one-night stand as it was for her to think he was some kind of knight in shining armor.