Linda Goodnight - Married In A Month

The back door opened and she turned to see Colt silhouetted in the doorway. Quietly easing the door shut behind him, he came across the patio toward Kati and Evan. Kati’s heart lurched. Bare-chested and barefooted, he’d pulled on a pair of jeans without bothering with the top snap. His hair was disheveled and a five o’clock shadow had deepened the color of his cheeks so that he looked dark and dangerous and incredibly sexy.

“Boy sick again?” His quiet baritone carried on the still night air.

She nodded. To prove the point, Evan’s voltage went from whimper to wail.

“He’s miserable.” Kati laid him on his back and tenderly stroked the rigid tummy. The baby’s legs thrashed, but the wail eased to a fussy whimper. He gnawed repeatedly on his fist.

Colt hunkered down beside them. “Can’t the doctor give him anything for this?”

“I don’t know.” Kati’s braid fell forward and she tossed it back, suddenly self-conscious to have the half-dressed Colt so near. “Have you taken him for a checkup?”

Colt blinked at her, bewildered. “Hadn’t even thought of it.”

“We need to do that soon. He probably should start his immunizations.”

“Yeah.” He eased onto the blanket beside her. “Why don’t you give Doc Armstrong a call tomorrow and set up an appointment?”

“Okay.” With all her might, Kati concentrated on Evan. Not that it worked with Colt’s living, breathing body only inches away. Fortunately, he was watching her hands massage and soothe the fussy baby, but when he tilted his head, turning his full attention to Kati, her breath jammed in her throat. “You been coming out here every night?”

“I didn’t want to disturb anyone.” She fidgeted with Evan’s pajamas with one hand while the other patted and soothed. “Sorry if I woke you.”

“Not your fault. And Evan sure can’t help it.” His gorgeous lips tilted in a smile. “Good thing the mosquitoes aren’t out yet. They’d eat you alive.”

Kati replied with a tremulous smile. “If coming out here helps Evan and lets you sleep, I’d still do it. You need your rest to run a ranch this large.”

“Yeah. Well.” He stretched his shoulders upward and rolled his head from side to side. “You’re doing a good job with Evan. I just want you to know I’ve noticed, and I appreciate it.”

A purl of pleasure lifted some of Kati’s exhaustion. “He’s a wonderful baby most of the time.”

“Don’t go getting attached.” He said the words lightly, casually as if he meant them for himself as well as for her, but Kati needed the reminder. Evan was fast winning her heart.

“Don’t worry. I know better than that.” Relationships were unfailingly temporary, as every foster kid learned early on. That’s why Kati’s Angels was so important. The wonderful place filled with children who needed her would be permanent in a way nothing else ever had been. She was sorry Colt felt trapped by their marriage contract, but someday he’d understand all the good that would come of it.

Long legs stretched out on the small quilt, Colt propped himself up on one elbow and curled in toward the baby. “My attorney should find Evan’s mother anyday now, and he’ll be going home where he belongs.”

“You really think so?”

He looked up at her. “Sure.”

Kati’s heart sank like a battleship. As much as she wanted a real home and family for Evan, if the mother showed up before the month was out, Kati would lose her dream, her chance for one permanent thing in her life.

Colt shifted, bringing his warm, partially clad body closer to Kati. The scent of clean sheets and lime soap came with him. “You have to be tired of doing that,” he murmured, motioning to her ever-massaging hands.

“It seems to help. See how he’s beginning to relax?”

“Let me.” He lifted her hand, replacing it with his own. A delicious fluttering began in Kati’s stomach at the sight of Colt’s cowboy-strong hands, large and dark against the small baby’s blue-fleece bunny pajamas. The picture was beautiful, moving. She couldn’t look away.

The baby sighed deeply, his little arms and legs going limp, and Kati couldn’t help thinking, Lucky baby, as Colt’s hands worked a magic rhythm.

“I think you’ve got the touch,” she said.

“Yeah?” Colt looked pleased. “I never thought he liked me.”

Kati grinned at the admission. Who wouldn’t like Colt Garret? “I think he’s finally comfortable enough to sleep.”

Colt withdrew his hand and sat up, resting on his heels.

“It’s late. Maybe we can all get a little shut-eye before the sun comes up.” Very gently he lifted the baby and stood, cradling the child in one arm while he extended the other to Kati. She knew touching him was a mistake, but she just couldn’t help herself. Taking his hand, she let him pull her up until she was no more than a breath away from his naked chest. Moonlight gilded them, the cowboy, the sleeping baby and the nanny. The nanny, she had to remind herself. She was only and forever the nanny.

Colt rinsed the day’s grime from his body and stepped out of the shower, eager to collapse in his big leather recliner and catch the farm market news and tomorrow’s weather report. If rain didn’t come soon, the wheat wouldn’t grow, livestock prices would fall and his profits would decline for the second year in a row. Not that a bad year would break him, but he was in this thing for money, not love.

At the thought of love, he came up short, whisked the oversize white towel across his body, leaving his skin damp and drippy, and stepped into clean jeans and T-shirt. Love was not an emotion that impressed him much. Hadn’t his sister been “in love” at least a dozen times now with a string of ex-loves so long he’d stopped keeping track of her latest husband? And he didn’t even remember when his parents had been married to each other. Nor his grandparents. The Garret family’s notion of love and marriage consisted of two months of bliss followed by two years of fighting and divorce courts. Not his idea of a good time. He shuddered and headed for the living room.

A game show flickered across his big-screen TV. Legs curled beneath her, the nanny, wearing shorts and a tank top the color of a sunset, sat in his recliner. Evan lay on a blanket on the floor babbling to his feet, and that blasted cat snoozed next to the baby. As soon as Colt entered the room, Kati popped up, looking at him with her huge gray eyes. What was she doing in here? In his chair?

“I hope you don’t mind…” She indicated the TV as she vacated his chair and moved to the couch, folding her legs under her again. Dark circles rimmed her eyes.

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