A Cold Creek Baby

“I’m sure I can manage for a few days. I’ve talked to Burt and he and the boys can pick up the slack for me for a while.”

“Are you sure?”

“Stop worrying about me, Dr. Dalton. I’m not your patient.” She smiled to let him know she still appreciated his concern and was warmed when he pulled her into a quick hug, baby and all.

During Jo’s long illness, Jake had been a rock, always willing to come out to the ranch to oversee her care.

If not for him and the hospice nurse, Tess Claybourne—now Southerland who had married Easton’s foster brother and distant cousin Quinn—Easton wasn’t sure she would have found the strength to make it through those last difficult days of Jo’s life.

“You take care of yourself, Easton. You have a bad habit of worrying about everyone else but yourself.”

She snorted. “Yeah and I’m the only one in this room with that particular shortcoming, aren’t I, Dr. Dalton?”

“Smarty. Just make sure he takes his medicine and promise you’ll let me know if his condition changes or if you have any questions.”

“I will.”

“He should be out in a minute.”

“Thanks, Jake.”

He smiled in response, then left the waiting room to return to the treatment rooms. Life as a small-town doctor probably rarely offered him a quiet moment, especially with Jake’s passion for his patients.

“He’s a nice man, Belle. That’s the kind of guy you should look for when you grow up. Someone kind and loving and dependable.”

The baby beamed in response to her observation and squealed with approval before she turned back to sucking on a key from the plastic toy ring Easton had found in the diaper bag Cisco had provided.

Easton smiled at her, even as a cautious part of her warned her to steel her heart. She feared she was already dangerously close to falling hard for this little girl with the sunny disposition and the cheerful smile.

And wouldn’t that be foolish? Belle would only be here for a few more days before her aunt came for her. Easton certainly didn’t need more loss in her world.

She was still worrying about that when the outside doors to the clinic opened and a tough, rugged-looking man in the brown twill uniform shirt of the Pine Gulch Police Department walked through.

His green eyes lit up when he saw her.

“Easton! This is a surprise!” Trace Bowman exclaimed as he strode toward her.

He leaned in to kiss her cheek, his slight dark stubble a tiny rasp against her skin. He always smelled so good, like laundry soap and starch and some sexy but understated aftershave. It was one of the things she had noticed first when they started dating a month ago.

“What’s going on? Are you sick? And who’s this little sweetheart?”

Belle gazed at him in fascination, then giggled when he made a funny face at her.

“Um, it’s a really long story.” Now why did that sound familiar? Cisco wasn’t home five hours before she was picking up bad habits from him. “I’m not sick. What about you? What are you doing here?”

He shifted his weight. “I just needed to interview Jake about one of his patients last week. He suspected abuse and asked me to look into it, so I was passing on the results of my investigation.”

For just a moment as she looked into his warm green eyes, Easton wanted to smack Cisco for coming back just now. She and Trace had been on five dates and he clearly wanted more. She liked him very much, more than any other man she’d dated in … well, ever.

What wasn’t to like? He was a good conversationalist, he cared about her opinions, he was reliable and safe and spent his days helping other people. Everyone in town liked Trace and his brother Taft, who served as the town’s fire chief.

Easton had nursed secret hopes that maybe she could fall for him. She had been trying, had given him far more of a chance than anyone else she had dated.

Wasn’t it just like Cisco to blow back into town just when she was working so hard to forget him with someone else?

She sighed. “Actually, I’m glad I ran into you. I’m afraid I have to back out of our plans for Friday. I’m so sorry. I was really looking forward to it.”

He looked gratifyingly disappointed. “No problem. We can always reschedule. There will be other movies and it’s no big deal to cancel the dinner reservation in Jackson Hole. What’s going on? Everything okay?”

Not even close. For one crazy moment she wanted to cry at the quiet concern in his voice and his expression. For all his rugged masculinity, he was a nice person who genuinely cared about his community.