Bachelor Father

* * *

ZEKE STARTED OUT OF the parking lot, determined to get the hell away from the lodge as quickly as possible. But he made the mistake of looking in the rearview mirror.

Katherine stood there getting wet, her head bowed over the baby. They looked so hopelessly vulnerable, so in need of protection. Katherine was brave, but she had a reckless streak, too. That’s what had nearly gotten her killed on her solo trek through Yellowstone. He remembered the stab of fear he’d felt when Naomi had called and he’d been afraid something had happened to Katherine.

Well, something had, and he’d been partly to blame for it. Would she do something foolish now just because he’d refused to talk about this baby business? He’d thought he was giving her exactly what she wanted by refusing to have anything to do with the kid, but his response seemed to have devastated her. Would he get some terrible message from Naomi Rutledge concerning Katherine and the baby’s welfare?

With a muttered oath he slammed on his brakes. Slowly he backed the truck to where she was standing, pulled on the emergency brake and put the gearshift in neutral.

As he got down and rounded the truck, she was watching him cautiously, her eyes wide. She held Amanda with a protective grip. He’d been told that his size, combined with the features passed on by his Sioux ancestors, gave him a menacing air, so he deliberately relaxed his expression and unclenched his hands.

She had a large canvas diaper bag hanging from the crook of her arm. Vaguely he recognized Winnie the Pooh characters, although he’d been an adult before he knew anything about those stories. He gazed at her standing with her tiny baby, her storybook diaper bag and an almost childlike uncertainty in her big eyes.

Damn it, he felt like rescuing her all over again. The woman kept getting herself in trouble, and he kept wanting to keep her safe. It was a bad combination. But he couldn’t leave her standing here looking as if her world had suddenly stopped spinning.

“Let’s take a drive,” he said. “I don’t feel like discussing this over a damn cup of coffee. I need to be doing something.”

She peered at his old truck. “Do the seat belts work in your back seat?”

“Yeah.” Then he realized that these days you didn’t just decide to go for a ride with a baby. There were all sorts of rules and regulations. “Forget it. Just write me a letter when you get back to New York.”

“No, I want to go for a drive with you. I brought her infant seat, just in case we did want to take her out somewhere with us. It’s up in the room. Wait here.”

She set the diaper bag down and hurried away before he could protest that this was all too complicated. He stood in the light rain waiting for her, the diaper bag by his feet. He’d always suspected babies were a lot of trouble, for a million reasons.

He was surprised by how quickly she returned with some contraption that she asked him to belt into the back seat so the kid was facing backward. All the baby would see was upholstery. It didn’t look like much fun for the baby, but he remembered park visitors with similar child seats. He had to move some camping stuff to make room. Part of the reason he’d bought the king cab was to have a place out of the weather to keep his sleeping bag and small tent. The very tent, in fact, that Katherine had shared with him. The rain started coming down harder just as he finished.

“Let’s get both of you in, then you can put her back there.” He picked up the diaper bag.

“Okay.”

He opened the passenger door, but it soon became obvious she’d have trouble getting in while Amanda was still strapped to her. He didn’t want to touch her, but it was the expedient choice now that the rain was really sluicing down from the sky. Setting down the diaper bag, he put his hands around her waist and lifted her and the baby onto the front seat. His hands spanned her waist perfectly, just as they had when he’d lifted her on top of him and eased her down over... No, he couldn’t think about that.

“Thank you.” She didn’t look at him.

He noticed the pulse at her throat throbbed and a pink flush tinged her cheeks. He wondered if his touch had anything to do with that. She might not want to maintain any permanent connection with him, but apparently he affected her. He’d bet she found that very inconvenient. Well, so did he.

“Watch your arms,” he said. “I have to slam this to get it shut.” He heaved the door closed, and by the time he climbed in, the baby was crying. He hoped to hell that wasn’t going to go on very long. “What’s wrong with her?” he asked.

“Just the loud noise of the door closing, I think.” Katherine jiggled the baby and crooned to her. Then she lifted her out of the pouch and nuzzled her cheeks. “There, there, Mandy. You’re safe. Don’t be scared.”

Zeke sat immobilized by her tenderness. For some stupid reason it made his throat ache to watch her cuddle that baby. You’d think he’d never seen a mother and baby before. To be honest, he hadn’t been this close to many. Growing up on the ranch had meant being around lots of boys and young men. The couple who’d run the place had a daughter, little Lindsay Duncan, who now owned the place, but she was already a toddler by the time Zeke arrived.

Amanda’s crying tapered off to small gasps and one hiccup. Then she quietly stared up at her mother with an unblinking gaze.

“That’s my girl!” Katherine talked in a special singsong way and smiled at the baby. “Can you give Mommy a happy smile?” She tickled the side of Amanda’s cheek. “Come on now, big smile. That’s it. Big smile.”

To Zeke’s utter fascination, Amanda did smile, which seemed to make her cheeks look chubbier and gave her a double chin. It was the cutest thing he’d ever seen, and he knew cute when he saw it. Nothing matched a couple of tumbling bear cubs, or nothing had until now.

“Some experts say that a two-month-old isn’t really smiling,” Katherine said. “That it’s just a reflex, or gas.”

Zeke could tell from the more adult tone in her voice that Katherine was speaking to him, not Amanda. “Looks like a smile to me,” he said.

“Of course it’s a smile.” Katherine lapsed back into her melodious baby talk. “We know a smile when we see one, don’t we, Mandy? Yes, we do! Now, let’s get you back in your seat.” She lifted the baby from the pouch and handed her to Zeke. “Take her for a minute so I can turn around and get ready to lay her in there.”

“Take her?” He pulled back as if she’d tried to give him a live grenade.

“Just for a minute.”

“I don’t know how to hold a baby!”

“Pipe down. You’ll scare her again. Just support her head with your hand and the rest of her in the crook of your arm.” She settled the baby into his arms and adjusted his hold. “Like that.”

His body stiffened and his heart began to pound as he realized he had total responsibility for keeping this baby alive for the next couple of minutes. “I’m going to drop her. I just know it. Or squeeze her wrong and break something.”

“I doubt that.” Katherine knelt on the seat and began fiddling with the carrier in the back.

For the first time Zeke noticed what she was wearing—a long flowered skirt and a sleeveless blouse the color of young grass. The light material of the skirt stretched tight across her bottom as she adjusted the straps on the infant seat. Zeke tried not to pay attention.

He also became aware of two very pleasant scents replacing the smell of musty canvas that usually filled his cab. One was sweet and fresh, probably baby powder, but the other had a sexy tang to it. When he’d spent the night with Katherine she’d had no toiletries at all, let alone perfume. He’d even let her borrow his toothbrush. He’d loved the natural fragrance of her body, but this other was seductive in its own way. He liked it. He liked it way too much, in fact.

Amanda made a noise and jerked her small body.

He held her tighter. “Don’t do that,” he instructed the baby.

She stared up at him.

He found himself staring back. Her eyes were a soft blue, yet Katherine’s were hazel and his were brown. “Why are her eyes blue?” he asked.

Katherine answered as she continued to fuss with the seat. “Because she’s so young. The doctor said as she gets older they’ll probably turn hazel, like mine.”

He continued to study the baby. Her skin wasn’t as pale as Katherine’s, yet not as bronzed as his. His skin-color genes and Katherine’s must have combined into this shade, which was kind of nice. The thought of his genes combining with anyone’s blew him away. Then he noticed the small dimple in her chin, a dimple just like...his mother’s.

“Okay, hand her to me.”

Zeke was so afraid of dropping the baby in transit that the process of giving her to Katherine involved a lot of physical contact. And memories—the tickle of the downy hair on her forearm, the coolness of her fingers against his skin, the rhythm of her breathing.

While she strapped the baby securely in the seat, he faced forward and took several deep breaths himself, just to get over the dizziness of being so close to Katherine.

Finally she was back and buckled herself in.

He started the engine and turned to her. “We might be gone a couple of hours. Do you have what you need?”

“Yes. I have extra diapers and I’m breast-feeding. We’ll be fine.”

He wished she hadn’t given out that bit of information. He didn’t need to be presented with a picture of her unfastening her blouse and offering her breast to Amanda’s little pink mouth. He’d be wise to get them both back to the lodge before that became necessary.

A car horn beeped and Zeke jumped. In his preoccupation with Katherine and Amanda, he’d totally forgotten his truck was sitting in a crowded parking lot blocking traffic. “Guess we’d better get rolling.” Then he turned the key and ground the starter motor because he hadn’t remembered the engine was already running.