And Baby Makes Three

by Rebecca Winters

  “You’re right. And that playing field has to serve Bonnie’s best interests. Do you have any idea how many people in capable of having children are dying for a baby like her to love and raise?” Her voice trembled. “Some have been preparing years for the privilege.”

  From the raw emotion she exuded, he could almost believe she was talking about herself. If she’d been at Girls’ Haven three years, she undoubtedly grew close to the teens who found themselves in trouble. It wasn’t that different from him getting to know the stockmen who worked for him. At times their problems became his.

  Terrie’s death had to have been hard on her, not to mention Bonnie’s hospital stay. Much as he hated this situation, Cole admired her wisdom and dedication to the job. On top of everything else, she’d shown discretion, a noble attribute when all was said and done.

  Changing tactics, he said, “I only want to see her. Will you arrange it for me?” He could call his attorney to do it for him, but, for several reasons he hadn’t examined too closely yet, Cole preferred to deal with her alone.

  She let out a sigh that sounded troubled, if not anguished. “How long will you be in Reno?”

  “For as long as it takes.”

  A battle seemed to be going on inside her. After a tension-filled silence her gaze fell away and she gave a brief nod. “Come by at nine in the morning and she’ll be here.”

  Without further word she walked to the door, indicating it was time for him to leave. No woman of his acquaintance had ever done that to him before. Contrarily, he didn’t want to go. There was a lot more he wanted to know about her.

  She didn’t wear a wedding ring. As far as he could tell she wasn’t living with another man. He saw no signs of a male occupying her home, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one in the picture. A woman who looked and moved like her would attract them in droves.

  Hell-he’d been drawn to her from the moment her husky voice had called out to him yesterday. Being with her tonight, those feelings had only intensified.

  He moved toward her. “I’ll get out of here so whoever you’re expecting won’t jump to a hasty conclusion.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Farraday.” Ignoring his gambit, she opened the door. But satisfying color swept into her cheeks, intensifying the electric blue of those fabulous eyes, giving him the answer he sought. For the moment anyway.

  “I’ll be here on the dot of nine,” he assured her before walking toward his rental car.

  No sooner had he driven away than he pulled out his phone to check his messages. He’d turned off the ringer so he wouldn’t be disturbed while he talked to Catherine.

  Two were from Brenda, the others from John and Penny. If he’d seen one from Mack, then he would have known something was wrong at the ranch.

  Under the cir cum stances he didn’t feel like talking to anyone. From the second he’d taken a look at Bonnie’s pictures an idea had been percolating in his brain. After talking to Catherine this evening, it had taken on critical mass.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CATHERINE brought the baby into the living room. “When I picked her up this morning, she’d just finished her bottle. I’m afraid she’s about to fall asleep again.”

  Their eyes met for a moment. Cole’s were alive with anticipation. “No problem.”

  As if he were used to taking care of an infant, he plucked Bonnie from her arms and carried her across the expanse to the sofa.

  Such a tiny bundle nestled securely against the broad shoulder of a powerfully built man like Cole caught at Catherine’s heart. She heard low, happy laughter rumble out of him as he laid Bonnie on the cushion and began examining her.

  Catherine had been guilty of doing the very same thing before he had arrived. Now she was guilty of examining his body, dressed in a navy polo shirt and pleated trousers.

  Terrie had fallen in love with a “hunky” cowboy named Buck.

  Now that Catherine had met his big brother-the dynamic owner and head of the Bonnibelle Ranch-she under stood the power of the Farraday charm. It was lethal.

  Bonnie must think so too. While she focused on the man speaking to her in that deep, rich voice, giving her all his attention, her whole tiny body seemed to wriggle with new life.

  Without conscious thought Catherine drew closer, marveling at certain similarities between the two of them. Though she saw a look of Terrie in Bonnie’s mouth and nose, her hair color and widow’s peak, the shape of her eyes was genuine Farraday. Was it any wonder she was such a beautiful child?

  Cole seemed captivated by her, as if he’d for got ten Catherine was in the room. Pleasure in the baby caused the lines of his face to disappear for a moment, making him look younger and so handsome it hurt.

  It was only natural he was thinking of his brother and the little girl he and Terrie had produced. Yet every minute spent with her would make it that much harder for Cole to let her go.

  No one under stood that better than Catherine herself.

  Time was passing. She had to bring this love-fest between uncle and niece to an end.

  “Cole?” she called softly to him. “I’ve bent the rules by bringing Bonnie here. She has an appointment with the pediatrician in a half-hour. Now that you’ve had the opportunity to see her, I’m afraid we have to leave.”

  That brought his dark head around. “Is there something still wrong with her?” he demanded quietly.

  After the way he’d been playing with the baby, testing the strength of her fingers and kissing her sweet neck, it shouldn’t have surprised her he’d reacted to Catherine’s words like any typical anxious parent.

  “Not at all, otherwise the hospital wouldn’t have released her. It’s standard procedure that while the babies are in foster care routine checkups are done with more frequency than usual because they can be adopted at any time.” She flashed him an apologetic smile. “I don’t want to be late.”

  Actually the doctor would fit the babies’ visits in without an appointment, but Cole didn’t need to know that.

  Perhaps it was an unconscious gesture on his part, but in the next breath he’d laid Bonnie against his shoulder, exhibiting an undeniably possessive hold on her that was at once stunning and touching.

  The thing Catherine had hoped wouldn’t happen had already come to pass. His next words con firmed it.

  “No stranger is going to adopt her. I won’t allow it.”

  Cole Farraday was used to his word being law, but in this case the situation wasn’t so black and white. Catherine took a fortifying breath. “Then you’ll need to tell that to the judge. I’ll warn you now that, even with money and power on your side, he’ll want what’s best for Bonnie.”

  “She’s going to come home to her rightful family,” he declared in a forceful tone.

  “Are you married, Cole?”

  His jaw hardened. “I’m a widower, but in this day and age having a wife isn’t a prerequisite, surely?”

  It appeared he’d known a lot of sorrow in his life, but then so had Catherine. She couldn’t let sentiment dissuade her from her course.

  “Perhaps not always, but there are other considerations.”

  “What consideration could possibly be more important than the fact that Bonnie is already loved by her own surviving flesh and blood?”

  Panicked, Catherine could feel the baby slipping away from her, figuratively as well as physically.

  “Terrie left written wishes before she died,” Catherine answered him. “They hold weight with the court.”

  She caught the glint of fire coming from his eyes. “You fulfilled them by driving to the ranch to find Buck.” His expression mirrored a faint respect for what she’d done, but that was all.

  Her heart kicked against her ribs. “There was another wish.”

  She could almost feel his arms close tighter around Bonnie. “Am I going to have to pry that out of you too?”

  His black brows took on a threatening slant, but she was fighting for her life and refused to be intimidated.

&n
bsp; “In the event I couldn’t find Buck, Terrie designated someone specific to raise Bonnie.”

  The sudden indrawn breath she heard sounded like ripping silk.

  “Someone waiting in the wings, you mean, yet you wouldn’t tell me even if the law didn’t forbid you,” he reflected bitterly, in what she guessed was a rare show of temper.

  In the stillness that followed, he rubbed the back of the baby’s head with a tenderness that melted Catherine’s insides.

  She sensed his frustration. Under other cir cum stances she’d be on his side all the way. “I’m sorry. As it is I shouldn’t have let you come here to see Bonnie.”

  But he wasn’t listening, and she heard his next words de livered with barely veiled hostility. “That explains why you were in such an all-fired hurry to get the DNA match done.”

  “Cole, I-”

  “Obviously it’s someone in Terrie’s confidence.” He continued with his train of thought, staring at her as if he’d suddenly been given second sight. “A woman with a vested interest in her well being and that of her child.”

  He took a step toward her. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

  Catherine started to shake. “I knew there was something different about you, something that didn’t quite add up. A social worker’s job doesn’t include driving across Nevada to find a man who might have impregnated one of the teens at Girls’ Haven.”

  His gunsmoke eyes impaled her. “Now it’s making sense. You had to be certain Buck wouldn’t claim his rights before you put in your petition to adopt Bonnie yourself.”

  Catherine could see there was no point in denying it, not when his steel trap mind had figured it out.

  He kissed the top of the baby’s head. “Terrie may have wanted you to raise her daughter, but, considering your position as the social worker for Girls’ Haven, I can guarantee that a judge will see your petition for adoption as a conflict of interest.”

  “I’m sure he will,” she admitted to him. “But the circumstances were extraordinary. I spent five weeks at the hospital with Bonnie, and now she needs me. I’m counting on the judge to weigh the facts that I love this baby with all my heart, and I have Terrie’s blessing. Don’t make me out to be some kind of monster. Terrie wanted to give Buck the chance to claim Bonnie. So did I,” she defended. “Every child deserves its parents if it’s humanly possible. The truth is, I was orphaned as a baby, never knowing who mine were. Like Terrie I lived in various foster homes and ended up at Girls’ Haven, pregnant at the same age.”

  His lips thinned, undoubtedly in revulsion.

  “Terrie’s and my stories are very similar, except that I planned to keep my baby. But it wasn’t meant to be because I miscarried at four months. I never got the chance to hold my little girl or love her.”

  Don’t break down now, Catherine.

  “But thanks to Girls’ Haven I was given a second chance at life and I took it. That was eleven years ago. A lot has happened since then. After university I came to work for them, hoping to give back what they gave me. Getting to know Terrie and her situation was like experiencing déjà vu. Over the last months we grew very close,” she explained, endeavoring to get through to him. “She always planned to give up her baby for adoption. When she realized she was dying, she begged me to be Bonnie’s mother.” Her voice shook. “I told her that if I couldn’t find Buck, or if he didn’t want Bonnie, I-I’d do everything in my power to adopt her.”

  Catherine had a struggle to hold the tears back. “It wasn’t hard to make that promise. She’s the most precious, adorable baby on earth.”

  Though his hand spanned Bonnie’s little back lovingly, his eyes still glittered dangerously. “A wise judge will suspect you used your considerable influence to coerce Terrie into putting her wishes in writing.”

  “A good judge will take the extenuating facts into consideration and rule what’s best for Bonnie,” she countered, swallowing hard. “In all probability we’ll both lose out, and he’ll award the adoption to a couple so Bonnie will grow up with a mother and father. It’s something neither you nor I can provide.”

  The tension between them sizzled.

  “That’s unacceptable.”

  “You think I don’t feel the same way?” came her anguished cry.

  Catherine under stood his anger since she felt defeated by the same in effectual emotion. This was a situation she would never have envisioned. Not in a lifetime.

  “Will you please give Bonnie to me? I have to get her ready to go to the doctor.”

  She expected another argument, but shockingly he said something quite different in a low aside. “Let me help. Where’s her carryall?”

  It was in her bedroom, but she didn’t want him of all people going in there. “I’ll get it.”

  When she hurried back with it, he lowered Bonnie into it as if he’d done this sort of thing many times before. He’d mentioned having nephews and nieces, so it wasn’t surprising he seemed a natural.

  As she tucked a receiving blanket around Bonnie, who was being a perfect angel, her arm brushed against Cole’s. He didn’t act as if he’d noticed, but she felt sudden warmth spiral through her body.

  “Come on, sweet heart,” she said a bit unsteadily. “It’s time to go get checked out.”

  “I’ll carry her out to the car for you.”

  Catherine didn’t say anything because she knew she couldn’t stop him. His proprietorial interest in Bonnie was nothing short of astounding.

  He must have seen her vehicle out in the carport because he knew exactly where to go.

  Amy, the good-looking red headed Realtor who lived in the next condo, was just walking toward her car. She almost tripped over a crack in the cement while she stared at Cole. As an after thought she said hello to Catherine, who could read the other woman’s mind.

  Unfortunately Catherine knew her aggressive neighbor would be over later to find out who the mystery man was, because there was no question about it, Cole Farraday was an in credibly gorgeous man. However, this was one time Catherine didn’t intend to satisfy Amy’s curiosity.

  After she unlocked her car, Cole fastened Bonnie’s carryall into the base of the back seat. Through the rearview mirror Catherine watched him kiss the baby’s nose and cheeks. His display of affection wasn’t feigned. This was his brother’s baby and he was crazy about her.

  But so was Catherine!

  He approached her window, which she had to put down. “What time do you eat lunch?”

  His deep voice disturbed her as much as his nearness. She might have known Cole wasn’t going to let this go. “Most of the time I don’t,” she said, playing for time so she could think.

  “Then I’ll come by Girls’ Haven later and we’ll talk.”

  “No!” she cried in panic. “That would be the worst thing you could do.” She clung to the steering wheel.

  His presence would create a major upheaval, starting with Sylvia, the director, who would ask questions Catherine would be forced to answer. It could get her into serious trouble and he knew it!

  A satisfied gleam had entered those silvery eyes. “We have unfinished business, Catherine. You name the place.”

  “There is no place that would be safe for us to be seen together,” she confessed.

  “My thoughts precisely.”

  He had the upper hand. If she didn’t know better, she would think he was actually enjoying this.

  “Meet me here at two. I can spare a half-hour. No more.”

  Needing to get away from him, she started the car and began to back out. He stood there with his hands on his hips in a totally male stance. After driving away, she could still feel his penetrating eyes following her.

  Cole’s motive for wanting to see her again was transparent. With family blood on his side, he believed she didn’t have a chance of adopting Bonnie. But rather than fight her he intended to use that potent Farraday charm to gain her cooperation in helping him win custody of the baby. He wasn’t the head of the Bonnibelle for no
thing.

  But Catherine didn’t plan to make Terrie’s mistake and be drawn in by male persuasion at the hands of a master. Watching Cole interact with the baby had given her an idea, one that grew as the day wore on. Under the cir cum stances it made the most sense.

  A few hours later she tried it out on him. For an answer Cole’s mocking tone resounded in her living room. “You’ll grant me liberal visitation rights?”

  She’d been five minutes late returning to the condo from her work, and was still out of breath. They faced each other like adversaries.

  “Yes. I’ve been thinking about it since I took the baby back to her foster family. You and I could petition the judge in the same pre-trial hearing. Don’t you see it might strengthen both our cases if we show that we’re willing to work together for Bonnie’s ultimate welfare?”

  Cole’s mouth com pressed. “Who’s going to raise her during the day while you’re at work?” At least he’d cooled down enough to have a conversation.

  She was ready for that question. “Terrie and I talked about it. There’s a wonderful daycare facility right across the street from Girls’ Haven. I’ll be close to her and can oversee everything on a constant basis.”

  He made a dismissive gesture. “My house keeper could provide the same care, but I doubt the judge will be impressed with either scenario.”

  “So what are you saying?” she blurted, trying to tamp down her alarm.

  His gaze wandered over her features with a lazy sensuality he probably wasn’t aware of. “That your original assumption was correct. The ideal for Bonnie would be to have a stay-at-home mother whose husband provides the necessary income.”

  His pessimism over her idea of a joint petition acted like a giant hand crushing her heart. If Cole, with all his resources and a last name like his, didn’t think they could sway the judge, what chance did she really have to fight for Bonnie on her own?

  Tears glazed her eyes before she could turn away. She buried her face in her hands, trying not to make a sound. In searching for Buck, the dream world she’d been living in for the last five weeks had shattered. “No stranger will ever love her as much as I do.”