Rodeo Bride

He looked over his shoulder at her as he lowered the legs of the bed to the ground. “Why?” he asked, turning to face her.

She hesitated. He knew that she was thinking of his cane and his injury. He hated that.

“You’re…you’re a guest,” she said.

“I’m an intruder.”

“That would only be true if I hadn’t agreed for you to stay, but I did. I’m totally in control of the situation.”

He smiled at that.

“What?”

“I don’t think either of us is in control of the situation. You had a baby dumped on you out of the blue. I had a wife who divorced me, then kept my child from me. Now you’ve, unexpectedly, been asked to house a man when it’s obvious that that’s not something you and your employees are used to.”

A small smile lifted her lips.

“What?” he asked.

“That was so polite the way you put that, the fact that we’re not used to having men around. As you could see from some of the women’s reactions, it’s not that we dislike men. At least not all men. We’ve just…all of us have had bad experiences, so we’re taking a break. Some for the short term and some for forever. Julie’s on the road to being engaged, so her break’s over and she’ll most likely be leaving soon. But for the most part, yes, this place has become a bit of a haven for women who need to drop out of the bride game.”

“I’ve never heard it called that.”

“Me either. I just made it up. But it’s true that even in this century, most women grow up thinking they’ll probably eventually get married.”

“You?”

Her smile seemed to freeze. “I had a little more unconventional upbringing. I lost my father early, my stepfather and stepbrother were, to put it nicely, bullies without souls and my failed engagement…well, let’s just say that I have major trust issues and I won’t ever be a bride. I don’t want to be. So, I guess you were right, after all. I do steer clear of men.”

“Except for Toby.”

“He’s a baby.”

“He won’t always be a baby.”

“I know.” She sounded sad.

“You don’t want him to grow up?”

“Of course I do. I just—I won’t…he’s yours, Dillon. Not mine.”

She wouldn’t see him grow up.

“I’m sorry about that.” And he was. Genuinely. She cared about Toby, and already Dillon was inclined to think favorably of anyone who liked his child.

“It’s not your fault,” she told him. “You’ll take him away when you go, and if I were in your shoes…if he were mine, nothing would stop me from taking him home and claiming him. You shouldn’t even think about apologizing for that, just as I’m not going to apologize about the fact that I’ll miss him when he’s gone.”

“Good. I prefer honesty.” He’d had too little of that with Lisa. Or maybe he’d been the one lying, thinking they were a match when they were no more suited than he and Colleen Applegate were.

She nodded. “Well then, the honest truth is that this bed is probably not almost comfortable as I implied earlier. Looking at it now, I’d say you’re going to have a very restless night.”

He shrugged. His comfort was the least of his worries these days. “I assume you’ll want to lock the door, but will you call me if you need me in the night?”

For a second those dark eyes looked startled and sensually aware. That wouldn’t do. Not when he was already too aware of her as a woman. His concentration from here on out had to be on Toby. Unlike his parents, he would put his child first. He would actually care. His choices would be made carefully, logically. No whisking women in and out of his life. No risking Toby getting attached to someone who was temporary. In fact, no more risking making the kind of mistakes he’d made with Lisa. Besides, Colleen definitely wasn’t the kind of woman who would welcome a drive-by fling. Apparently she wouldn’t welcome any kind of fling. A good thing.

“I won’t need to call you. I’ve been handling things for three months,” she argued.

“Yes. But I’m here now.”

For several seconds they stood there, toe-to-toe. It was obvious that she didn’t want to give up her control. Maybe it was because of those soulless men she’d known. No matter. He sympathized but he couldn’t compromise with his son.

“I’ll call you if there’s an emergency,” she said.

Which wasn’t exactly the same thing, but it would do. He and Colleen were going to be tangling with each other for the entire time he was here, Dillon thought.

It should have made him angry. Instead he was intrigued.

Watch it, he told himself. This woman is fire.

Unfortunately, he seemed to be attracted to fire, because when she turned to leave he had an insane urge to call her back.

Dillon lay on the sleeper sofa the next morning and scrubbed one hand through his hair. He was tense and uneasy in more ways than one and none of them had much to do with the bumpy metal frame of the sleeper sofa biting into his back.

No, sleeping on Colleen’s porch last night, he had discovered that the walls of the house were thin. There might be a door separating him from the building, but with the porch only covered by a screen, he’d been privy to a view of the windows. Even with the extremely faint and undefined shadow showing through on her light-dimming window shade, he’d been able to tell that Colleen’s bedroom was just off to his left. He’d heard her humming and had been unable to think of anything except for the fact that she was getting ready for bed.

Heat had seared him as he’d tried to force himself to think about the business matters he needed to tend to when he had time tomorrow.

And when he’d awakened moments ago, his first instinct had been to look toward Colleen’s window. His first thought had been to wonder if she realized how her silhouette had fueled his fantasies.

Don’t be an idiot, he told himself. The woman had a ranch to run, a baby to take care of, employees to supervise and a clueless man to train as a father. She had too many things on her plate to add seduction to the list. Besides, there wasn’t a coy bone in her body that he could tell, and with her ranch located off the beaten path, no one would, under ordinary circumstances, ever see anything at all. If she even thought about the possibility that he’d caught a glimpse of her body’s outline on the shade, he knew she’d be appalled. She was already uneasy about him being in the house. Those pretty caramel eyes of hers might spark amber when she looked at him, but if not for Toby, she would never have let him into her house at all. This ranch was clearly a hideout for wounded women and Colleen’s reasons for mistrusting men seemed to go deep.

He understood her need to steer clear of unwise entanglements. Caring for Toby, making sure he had free and clear custody of Toby and preserving his business for Toby was all Dillon could concern himself with from now on.

With that admission, he shoved himself up off the couch, slipped on his jeans, got up and knocked on the door.

When Colleen opened it, she was wearing a white fluffy bathrobe that had seen better days but still reminded him that she had only recently been lying in bed. Her hair was slightly tousled as if some man had plunged his fingers into all those untamed curls. With that image, Dillon’s good intentions took a nosedive. Somehow he forced a good-morning smile to his lips.

She smiled back, even though he noticed that her hands were fidgeting with her belt.

“Where’s Toby?” he asked, trying to get his mind back on track.

“He’s a very early riser, so he’s already been up for a while and had his breakfast.”

Dillon frowned. “I should be doing that. Feeding him, I mean. I’ll have to get up earlier. I apologize.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t apologize. It’s your first full day of daddyhood. Besides, I love being the one to give him his first meal of the day. He’s so alert and fun to watch. Not that I won’t willingly turn the task over to you. You have the right, and yes, you need to get used to his hours, but for today, it’s fine. Millie’s reading to him.”

Dillon lifted a brow. “Isn’t he a little young for books?”