Bachelor Father

Katherine smiled. “Yeah. Then I thought about all the bears I’d meet.”

“Well, you made the right choice, both for you and for me. You’ve turned out to be a damned good writer and a highly competent businesswoman.”

“Who got herself knocked up!” No matter how happy Katherine was about having Amanda, she was still embarrassed that she’d stumbled into motherhood by accident.

“Stress counteracted your birth-control pills,” Naomi said briskly. “You couldn’t have anticipated that.” She gazed at mother and baby. “And don’t tell me you’re sorry, because I know you’re not.”

“No.” Katherine dropped a kiss on the top of Amanda’s head. “I’m not.”

“So, are you up for some new responsibilities?”

The shock of Naomi’s offer had lessened and now Katherine began to fully realize the scope of it—the confidence and the love that it implied. Her eyes filled. “You know I am.”

Naomi blinked and looked away. “Good. Very good.” She cleared her throat and glanced back at Katherine. “We only have one pesky detail to take care of.”

A catch. Katherine wondered if she’d been premature in her gratitude. “What’s that?”

“Amanda’s father.”

Katherine swallowed. It wasn’t a comfortable subject. Many times during the past few months she’d wished she could claim immaculate conception. After promising Zeke that birth control wasn’t a problem, she dreaded telling him she’d been wrong. She’d rationalized postponing the call because she’d seen no reason to involve him if she ultimately lost the baby.

“You have to tell him,” Naomi said.

“I know.”

“He might just relinquish all rights to her.”

“Maybe.” Funny how little she knew about the man who had given her life twice, first by saving her from drowning and second by fathering Amanda. He was possibly the most gentle man she’d ever known, yet beneath that gentleness burned a fierce passion. Her heart still raced whenever she allowed herself to remember their moment of joining, when she’d felt somehow claimed.

The next morning, though, he’d been much more cautious and withdrawn. Plagued by her own insecurities, she’d suggested that maybe she ought to get back. Instead of trying to change her mind as some men might, he’d sealed himself off completely, which had convinced her there was no hope for a relationship.

“Do you feel anything for him?” Naomi asked.

Katherine looked up to find the older woman watching her closely. It was an important question. If she still had an emotional connection to Zeke, one that could potentially lead to a relationship, then she had no business letting Naomi train her as a replacement. She might not know a lot of things about Zeke, but she was absolutely sure of one thing—he would never live in New York. During their night together he’d made clear his love of the wilderness and his aversion to cities and crowds.

“I feel gratitude.” Katherine glanced at the clock on the bedside table and decided it was time to switch Amanda to her other breast. She still felt a little clumsy handling the baby, but once she settled her in again, the tug of her small mouth felt perfect and right. “After all,” she continued, “Zeke saved my life, and he inadvertently gave me Amanda.”

“I’m not talking about gratitude.”

Katherine tried to be objective about her emotions regarding Zeke, but it wasn’t easy. That night was like a blazing comet in her life, but her reaction to him had probably been born of many factors. She’d recently been dumped by Ken, she’d just been saved from drowning, and she’d never been stranded in the wilds with a man, especially a man as virile as Zeke. Maybe the fact that he was part Sioux had tickled her romantic fantasy. And maybe it was that look he gave her across the campfire, a look that promised so much pleasure...

“Katherine?”

She blinked and glanced at Naomi. Heat rushed to her cheeks. “Okay, he’s very attractive, and I have some hot memories that are tripping me up a little. But he’s apparently a real loner who wants nothing but wilderness surrounding him, while all I want is to work at Cachet.”

“But what about your vacation last year? You didn’t choose the Hyatt on Maui, don’t forget. You opted for your personal little Outward Bound in Yellowstone. Maybe that yearning to be a wilderness guide isn’t completely gone. Maybe you have a hankering for the great outdoors yourself.”

Katherine smiled, more sure of herself now. “What I have a hankering for is a crisp set of galleys, a hot cup of espresso and a bagel slathered with cream cheese.”

Naomi beamed in approval. “Good girl. Although you’ll have to go easy on the caffeine as long as you’re breastfeeding.”

“Decaf espresso, then.” She noticed that Amanda had drifted off to sleep, her tiny hands curled into fists. “New York is what I know and love, and I’ve found my dream job. What could be better?”

“I can’t imagine. So it’s time to tidy up the situation with this man and get on with business. If he wants to surrender his parental rights, we’re home free. If he wants partial custody, which I doubt, I’m sure you can work that out with him.”

She made it sound so easy, Katherine thought. Something told her it wouldn’t be quite that simple, but she tried to look confident as she nodded in agreement. “Right.”

“Great. I’ve set it up so you can do exactly that.”

Katherine stared at her. “Set what up?”

“He was part of a bachelor auction out in Wyoming, a benefit for a boys’ ranch. I donated a chunk of money to the ranch in exchange for you spending a weekend with him in Jackson Hole at the end of August. You can tell him about Amanda then. She’ll be two months old and should travel just fine.”

“Naomi!” Katherine jerked, causing Amanda to startle awake.

“Or were you planning to tell him over the phone?”

“I—” Katherine paused to catch her breath and gently rock Amanda back to sleep. She should have expected something like this from Naomi. The woman had invented the term take charge. “I hadn’t thought how I’d tell him, but...” She gazed at Naomi, still having trouble comprehending what her godmother had done. “You bought him for the weekend?”

Naomi waved a dismissive hand. “That’s overdramatizing the whole thing. It’s a business arrangement. I gave money to the ranch in exchange for helping my chief assistant tidy up her personal life.”

“I can’t imagine Zeke putting himself up for auction, let alone agreeing to spend the weekend with me simply because you paid the going price.”

“I won’t pretend that he was eager to comply. He tried to talk me out of it, said that the two of you had nothing to discuss. But when he realized that my sizable donation to the ranch depended on his cooperation, he gave in.”

Katherine’s chest grew heavy with despair. She’d been right about Zeke. He might have surrendered himself to a night of lovemaking, but he didn’t want complications in his solitary life. Unfortunately, she was about to bring him a very large one.

“I still can’t believe he was willing to take part in a bachelor auction in the first place,” she said. “I’ve never met a more private man.”

“He’s an alumnus of the place. All the bachelors were. Quite an interesting story, really. They must have blanketed the media with invitations. Ours came quite a while ago.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” So Zeke had been raised on a boys’ ranch. She hadn’t known that. It made his lone-wolf image even more vivid.

Naomi regarded her with the same calm assurance that had kept her staff in awe of her for two decades. “You’ve been on an emotional roller coaster for months. Any mention of Zeke seemed to be stressful for you, and I was so afraid you’d miscarry that I decided not to bring this up. But it’s worked out for the best. Going to Wyoming with Amanda is the right thing to do. You can clear the decks and then come home and settle into your new position.”

“But Zeke doesn’t want to see me. You said so yourself.”

“He needs to see Amanda. You owe him that much, Katherine.”

She gazed down at her sleeping child. Zeke’s child. Naomi was right, but the thought of meeting Zeke again under these circumstances scared her to death.

“Your courage is one of the qualities that made me decide to turn over the magazine to you in the first place,” Naomi said. “I’m not giving you anything you can’t handle. You can do this.”

Katherine lifted her head and looked into Naomi’s eyes. “Yes, I can.”

CHAPTER TWO

AUGUST TURNED OUT TO BE a wet month in the Tetons, and more rain looked likely as Zeke climbed into his battered king-cab pickup and headed for Jackson Lake Lodge on Friday afternoon. He spent the drive time singing “Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall,” because it reminded him of cookouts at Lost Springs and why he was putting himself through this. Cachet’s donation would go a long way toward remodelling bunkhouses that no longer met the fire code, and Rex had already lined up a contractor for the renovation.