Snowbound Baby

Staring at the map of the United States, he moaned in frustration. The storm that had stranded them had stalled over the mountain. The forecaster happily expected it to move on by the next morning. But he could be happy about that because he wasn’t stranded with a woman he didn’t know and her baby. The weatherman also didn’t have a check representing every cent he had in the safe of his abandoned truck!

A half hour later, Zoe came into the great room dressed in brown pants and a soft-looking red sweater, holding a happy Daphne. Though Cooper didn’t really want to make small talk, the obvious observation came out before he could stop it.

“Looks like you’re the same size as the woman of the house.”

“I wouldn’t know. There are no clothes in the closet. I keep an extra pair of pants and a sweater in the diaper bag because babies are messy and sometimes I end up needing changing as much as Daphne.”

She turned toward the kitchen and Cooper’s gaze took in every inch of her perfect body. A million visions and images popped into his head. Once again he blamed his hormones. Once again he knew logic and proper behavior would keep him in line. He forced his gaze upward away from her backside, but when he did he saw the way her pale curls contrasted with her sexy red sweater and a whole bunch of other images sprang to his mind.

He rubbed his hand along his nape. Did the woman own any color except red? Sure, she looked great in red, but that was the problem. She looked too damned great. Too damned sexy.

Taking himself back to logic and proper behavior again, he reminded himself that even if she found him as attractive as he found her, they couldn’t sleep together. They were stranded for two days. If it were only for the afternoon, a fling wouldn’t be out of the question. But two days didn’t work. If he seduced her, sex wouldn’t last two days. Eventually, they’d stop and she’d want to talk and then they’d know too much about each other. And then it wouldn’t be a fling. It would be the beginning of a relationship.

His stomach knotted. No way.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

“Storm’s getting worse,” Zoe said, turning to face him, and Cooper’s stomach plummeted.

She was darned gorgeous. He couldn’t believe any man was capable of speech around her, let alone capable of leaving her once he married her. Then he realized she had to be a shrew for her husband to have left her. So far her behavior around him sort of hinted to that. Even the way she always had to be one step ahead of him was an indication that she needed to be right.

No man liked that kind of one-upmanship in a woman. Hell, no man liked that in another man.

He drew a quick breath. “Well, excuse me for trying to help.”

Zoe had been on her way to the kitchen again to take one of Daphne’s bottles out of the fridge where she had stored them the night before, but his comment stopped her. She wasn’t sure why he thought she was simple-minded or stupid, but she knew from their conversation the night before that he worried that she would be a burden. She’d thought she’d already put that doubt to bed, but apparently he was still skeptical.

“I found the TV, too,” she added.

“I was just trying to tell you about the storm.”

There was that tone again. As if she were an idiot. This guy might be the sexiest man on the face of the earth with his whipcord-lean body very nicely showcased in his worn workshirt and perfect-fitting jeans. Add his silky-looking black hair, and she couldn’t pretend that she didn’t notice his physical attributes. But he also had chauvinist written all over him and she simply wasn’t putting up with it.

“Here’s the deal, Bryant,” she said, deliberately using his last name to keep them on totally impersonal terms, so he could stop treating her as if she were a ninny. “I have a child. I don’t just pay my own way. I also pay hers because my ex doesn’t believe in child support. No matter how many court orders get issued, if he runs fast enough he can always evade them. So, I work. I take care of a household. I can fix a faucet. I can fix a tire. I can make a fire. I can turn on a TV.”

“Very funny.”

“No. It’s not funny. It’s not one damned bit funny that I have to tell you I’m a capable adult because you clearly think I’m some kind of spoiled princess or something. I’d like to get that squared away so we can move on.”

“We can move on.”

“Great. Because if we’re stuck here for the weekend I don’t intend to be the only one cooking and doing the dishes.”

“That’s fine by me because, just like you, I work and take care of my own house…and run a ranch.” He smiled tightly. “I guess you could say I have you beat.”

She turned to go into the kitchen again. “You won’t have me beat until you also add in caring for a child.”

He followed her. “Last year, three of my cows had calves.”

She slammed the refrigerator closed. “Did you have to get up with them at two in the morning?”

“Once. And I’m painfully familiar with colic.”

“Well, good for you. You’re the first man I consider myself equal to.”

His eyes narrowed as if he knew she’d insulted him—or somebody—but he couldn’t figure out how. Zoe took Daphne and her bottle into the great room. She settled on the rocking chair and fed the baby one of the five bottles of formula she had prepared the night before. Even if they could leave tomorrow, and she knew they couldn’t, Daphne would be out of bottles before that. Zoe would have to again prepare formula from the faucet water and there was no guarantee that wouldn’t eventually upset Daphne’s system.

Preoccupied with the baby, Zoe didn’t notice that an uncomfortable silence had settled over the small house or that Cooper Bryant was pacing until Daphne had fallen asleep and Zoe rose from the rocker to take the baby into the bedroom. Even then, she didn’t say anything. It was not her problem that Cooper Bryant was pacing the room, obviously bored.

She laid Daphne in the center of the double bed and began to arrange the pillows around her. But, on second thought, she pushed the bed against the wall, giving Daphne two sides of protection. It wasn’t the best situation in the world, but they were stranded. As long as Zoe checked on the baby every few minutes, Daphne should be fine.

Satisfied, Zoe ambled into the great room. She wasn’t much for TV, but she had seen a deck of cards. It had been a while since she’d played solitaire. Entertaining herself that way would be fun. In fact, it was a great deal of fun to be away from her house that always needed to be cleaned, the mountain of bills she couldn’t pay and the notice that told her her house was going up for sheriff’s sale because no one had paid the taxes.

She entered the great room and found Cooper Bryant staring out the French doors behind the poker table. If it weren’t for him, this weekend away from reality might actually be a nice break.

He didn’t turn from staring at the mounting snow, which Zoe had earlier watched just as he was doing right now. She was sure the look of disbelief on his face probably mirrored the one she’d worn staring at the sight.

Approaching the poker table, Zoe said nothing. She opened the top drawer of a cabinet, found the cards, pulled a chair away from the table and sat. The only sound in the room was the noise the cards made as they slid against each other when she shuffled.

“I’m not much of a card player.”

“Great. I was going to play solitaire.”

He turned. Crossing his arms on his chest he said, “Okay. I get it. I get it big-time. You are not a helpless female who needs someone to take care of her.”

She began to lay out the cards. “Thanks for recognizing the obvious.”

He scowled and Zoe dropped the cards and studied him for a second before she said, “Look, I know you’d rather be alone. Frankly, so would I. But since we aren’t, the alternative for us is to form some kind of a truce.”

“A truce?”

“Sure. We agree to share chores. We agree to be civil. And we declare each other off-limits romantically. That way, we can talk pleasantly without worrying that one or the other is getting any ideas.”

Because what she said made sense, Cooper almost agreed until a tantalizing thought entered his head. Whether she knew it or not she had just backhandedly admitted that she found him attractive, too. They were stuck together. They were both attracted. Neither one of them wanted a relationship with the other.

This weekend could be a lot of fun if he could figure out a way to convince her that they should take advantage of their two days away from real life by having a bit of no-strings-attached sex.

But before he could come up with a way to form the suggestion, Daphne cried and Zoe was off her chair and in the bedroom like a bolt of lightning. Cooper realized that was the reason he and Zoe couldn’t have no-strings-attached sex. Women with babies had a guaranteed, built-in defense mechanism. Every time things heated up, Daphne would probably start crying.

Zoe came out of the bedroom carrying Daphne. The baby looked tired, but not sleepy, and though Cooper knew little to nothing about kids, he didn’t think this was a good sign. Zoe didn’t say a word. She simply walked back to the table, sat on the chair, put the baby on her lap, and continued her solitaire game.

Cooper turned to look at the snow again. “I think a truce is a good idea.”

“Okay. Great. Now we can be civil.”

He nodded and relaxed a little, but not completely. He may no longer fear that she wanted something from him, but that didn’t stop his sexual attraction. Because he was a responsible adult he would curb it, but controlling it required being wise about distance and proximity, and also being careful about the conversational topics he chose.

Luckily, the weather was always safe. “I’ve never seen snow fall like this before.”