Her Baby and Her Beau

by Victoria Pade

  Who remained asleep through Beau getting into the car, too, and starting the engine.

  Kyla had already called the front desk to let them know she was leaving, so there was no need for anything but to get on the road.

  As Beau merged onto the highway, Kyla took note of too much about him. More even than how great-looking he was. The SUV was big and yet she couldn’t see him in anything smaller. Not only had he bulked up considerably, but he exuded so much power and presence that it just seemed to take a large space to accommodate it. He was like a brick wall of man—a force to be reckoned with. Quite a change from when they were teenagers.

  He also smelled fabulous—a clean, citrusy scent that gave him an added appeal to go with how mind-blowingly handsome he was now. Altogether it made for a heady mix that was getting to her. A little.

  Until she reminded herself that fourteen years ago he’d lied about what had happened between them and denied it all.

  Until she reminded herself that he’d portrayed her as some kind of slut.

  And abandoned her.

  That steeled her against his current appeal.

  “How did all this happen?” Beau asked then, nodding at her braced wrist.

  Small talk. Okay.

  Kyla explained how and why she’d come to Denver, the housing situation on her cousin’s property, and how she’d come to have Immy with her that night.

  Then she said, “The fire department thinks it was an electrical fire that started on the second floor, where Rachel and Eddie’s bedroom was. I was asleep in the guesthouse. There was no smoke alarm—I’m not sure what woke me up, but whatever did, it was already too late for me to do anything but get us out. I could see the main house through one window and it was... Mostly I could just see huge, bright flames. And the guesthouse was on fire, too—there were flames right outside the bedroom door, and I guess the roof out there fell in, because there was a huge crash. I just kept thinking that no one would know we were back there in the guesthouse, to come and help, and I had to get us out.”

  The terror of that memory flooded Kyla.

  “I slammed the bedroom door to keep the flames out—I was just hoping that if the fire had to burn through the door it would give me a few more minutes. Luckily Immy was in a portable crib in my room—if she’d been anywhere else I wouldn’t have been able to get to her. But the only way out was the window in the bathroom that faced the back. We were above the garage and...” Kyla swallowed hard and shrugged. “I didn’t really know what to do. I thought about throwing Immy out first, but I was afraid to do that. Like I said before, the bubble wrap was right there, so I rolled her in it, wrapped a blanket around that, and—”

  “Jumped out the window?”

  “It was really more like we fell out the window—I kind of got us up to sit in it. It was a straight drop from there. I tried to hold Immy to one side and twist so I’d fall on my back and maybe be the cushion for her. But I ended up falling on my other side—Immy was on my left and I fell on the right—and I guess maybe I tried to brace us or catch us or something with my hand out.” She shook her head. “I don’t know for sure—that part is a blur—but the next thing I knew I was on the ground and Immy was crying and I was hurt and it was so hot, and I knew I needed to get us to where someone would be able to see us to help because we were way in the back.”

  She shrugged again. “I got over to the neighbor’s place next door and out to their front yard. Somebody saw us coming then and...there was help, but I couldn’t find Rachel or Eddie, and I kept asking where they were. I think I just kind of collapsed.”

  Beau took his eyes off the road for only a second. “You did a lot before that—you’d make a good soldier.”

  Kyla shook her head. “No, thanks.”

  “How long was it before you knew that your cousin and her husband hadn’t made it out of the fire?”

  “I’m not sure of that, either. My concept of time from there is off. I know I started to think it was bad when no one would tell me anything about them. I kept asking—the EMTs in the ambulance, the hospital staff—but all anyone would say was that it was Immy and me who they needed to think about. Immy was in the hospital nursery and they kept me informed about her, but it was sometime the next day I think when they finally told me Rachel and Eddie hadn’t made it.”

  Kyla had to blink away tears at that thought, and as she did she focused on the scenery to get herself out of the nightmare in her head.

  They’d driven into the heart of Denver and now they seemed to be in an area called Cherry Creek, where the houses were old and enormous.

  Beau pulled into the driveway of a beautiful, stately two-story white Colonial saltbox with wings that stretched out from both sides of the first floor. It was trimmed in black with wood shingles, there were two chimneys on the roof, and lantern sconces on either side of a red front door.

  “This is your house?” Kyla said, amazed by the difference between it and anywhere she’d ever lived.

  “It has been for three weeks.”

  “For only three weeks—are you still living out of boxes?”

  “No, ma’am,” he answered as if that could only be true of a slacker. “There are some empty rooms—two less as of this morning when one got turned into a nursery and another into a guest room—but you’ll find it shipshape.”

  “And you live in this huge place alone?”

  “Yes. When I’m left alone,” he said, nodding in the direction of a sedan parked at the curb as he pulled farther up the drive. There was a woman sitting behind the wheel.

  “That would be my sister January,” he explained. “Jani, we call her. Uninvited, but with good intentions, I’m sure. I’ve only been back for two months—”

  “Back?”

  “Out of the Marines, back to civilian life. And things are...we’re all trying to figure out where I fit in with the family again. The females in particular seem to hover and try to take care of me as if I need that.”

  He sighed as if to maintain patience that was strained. “Anyway, I’m betting Jani is only the first platoon to be sent in today and the rest will just ‘happen to stop by.’ I’m sorry. I didn’t ask for their help, but brace for it, because it’s likely to be coming at us today.”

  Kyla tried to grasp this newest twist as he followed the curve of the drive around the west wing to the attached garage that was hidden behind it. As he pulled in, something seemed to suddenly occur to him.

  “I forgot to stop for formula!”

  Without Immy crying, Kyla had forgotten about it, too.

  “Okay, how about this,” he said as the garage door began to close behind them. “Since the baby is still sleeping and she’s safe in here, we’ll leave her where she is while I get you in and settled, with the car door and the door into the house open so I can hear her if she wakes up. And we can send Jani for formula.”

  “Sure. Okay,” Kyla agreed vaguely as a whole new stress took over.

  Because now his family was entering the picture.

  People who believed that once upon a time she had falsely accused Beau of fathering her baby. How would they react to seeing her suddenly in Beau’s life again—and with a baby in tow?

  Chapter Three

  Oh, Darla, thank you, thank you, thank you! Kyla thought as she washed her hair with her own shampoo late Thursday afternoon.

  Within an hour of arriving at Beau Camden’s house the day before, she’d called her Northbridge roommate with his address. Darla had an entire box of Kyla’s own clothes, toiletries and necessities waiting and had mailed it overnight. She’d even included some new things—like a hair dryer and curling iron—to replace what Kyla had brought with her to Denver and lost in the fire.

  The box had been delivered an hour ago and just having her own belongings again was more of a boon than Kyla would ever have guessed. Despite the bumps and bruises and still-bad wrist, it made her feel worlds better.

  Although the way she’d spent the time since getting her
e had helped a lot, too.

  Beau had been completely correct when he’d said that his sister Jani’s visit was only the beginning. She’d been joined within half an hour by the family’s grandmother—who Kyla had been instructed to call GiGi—and GiGi’s private physician.

  The doctor had consulted with the hospital staff that had treated Kyla and Immy, so he was familiar with their conditions. He hadn’t liked the toll taken on either of them by the motel stay or the lack of sleep and food, and had ordered Kyla to another twenty-four hours of bed rest.

  At that point what Kyla had assumed would be a short visit from Beau’s family had actually become full-time care by the Camden women.

  Jani and GiGi had set her up in the enormous guest room, on a queen-size bed with a heavenly mattress and sheets like nothing Kyla had ever felt. And afterward she’d been waited on hand and foot by a stream of female members of the Camden family.

  Jani and GiGi and Beau’s cousins Lindie and Livi had taken turns caring for her—complete with meals served to her in bed—right up to the time Kyla was ready to sleep for the night. Lindie had even spent the night in the nursery to look after Immy and had been there for Kyla again when Kyla woke up this morning. Once she was awake, the shifts had begun again.

  Each and every one of the Camden women had been incredibly warm, kind and friendly, squelching Kyla’s worries that they thought badly of her. But as of this afternoon the additional twenty-four hours of bed rest was up. And because she felt better than she had since the fire, and because she never accepted anything from anyone that she didn’t absolutely need, Kyla had thanked GiGi for everything and assured the elderly woman that she could take over from here.

  She hoped even as she did it that Immy wouldn’t pay too dearly for Kyla’s independent streak. In the Camden women’s hands the infant had finally become as content as she had been with Rachel and Eddie—something Kyla wasn’t confident she would ever be able to accomplish herself. But regardless of her own fears about dealing with Immy, Immy was her responsibility.

  Plus Kyla had seen neither hide nor hair of Beau since the Camden women had stepped in, and while she told herself that suited her just fine, it also made her slightly suspicious.

  Had he had a change of heart about having her here and secretly enlisted the help of his family so he didn’t have to deal with her?

  It was possible. After all, there was a precedent set for her believing one thing about him and then him proving her wrong and running out on her. If he’d changed his mind she needed to know about it, Kyla decided as she finished her shower and stepped out of the stall.

  There was a warming lamp overhead and the towel she used was also heated. Like the room and the bedding, the towel was the height of luxury—huge, thick and fluffy—and it struck her that fourteen years ago, when she’d first laid eyes on Beau working under the hot Montana sun out in a field, she’d had no idea this was his lifestyle.

  Yes, she’d been aware that he was part of the family that owned the ranch, the family that owned Camden Superstores, but she hadn’t had any real concept of what that meant. He’d just been a cute guy her own age who flirted with her.

  At least, that was how it had started.

  For some reason, as she gratefully put on her own underwear and struggled through several attempts to hook her bra, it was the young Beau Camden who was on her mind.

  Her parents had been free spirits who had wanted desperately to have a career in music, and they’d taken Kyla along on their nomadic pursuit of that. Living out of a mobile home or in cheap apartments wherever they landed for more than a weekend, her parents had haunted music festivals and fairs all over the country, performing and attempting to sell the recordings they’d made of themselves. Always with the hope that they’d be discovered.

  The longest the small family had stayed in any one place was when they went to cities where the music industry offered opportunities. Then her parents worked whatever jobs they could get while they knocked on doors and tried every ploy to get auditions or convince the bigwigs to listen to their demos.

  But when nothing panned out in one place, after a while they’d go back to making the rounds of the fairs and festivals until they could afford another move to the next music industry hub.

  It was a music festival in Northbridge that took them to Montana that summer. The plan had been to work during the week and spend weekends at several other fairs and events scheduled in that area of the country. Kyla’s father had taken work on the Camden ranch because it offered free housing and the use of a small portion of land on which they could grow vegetables for Kyla and her mother to sell at a roadside stand.

  Without any intentions of staying for long, neither Kevin nor Lila had bothered making friends, and by then Kyla had learned not to put too much effort into it, either. Plus, since it was summer vacation and she wasn’t in school, and since they were living outside town, Kyla simply hadn’t had the chance to connect with anyone.

  Anyone but Beau, who was also spending the summer on the ranch.

  No boy should have eyes that blue—that’s what she’d thought the first time she’d met him.

  Or a smile as good as his. She still remembered the moment when he saw her, took her in and seemed to give his approval with that cocky, self-assured grin. It had lit sparks in her blood and made her want to take him down a few pegs at the same time.

  Which she’d done by ignoring his every attempt to draw her attention and impress her.

  In fact, she’d let him think she couldn’t remember his name for a week. And then she’d given him a terrible time over that, too, calling him Beaumont for the second week. But underneath it all he’d really been getting to her, and suddenly a summer that had seemed as if it would be endlessly boring had put on a new suit. Every day she hadn’t been able to wait for the chance to see him.

  The teenage Beau hadn’t been anything like any other boy she’d ever met. Strong, steadfast and sure of his path in life, he was also so cute she couldn’t take her eyes off him. By the end of that June she’d just wanted to be with him every minute of every day and night.

  The same way he’d wanted to be with her.

  So when he’d told her he loved her it wasn’t something she’d doubted for a minute. Any more than she’d doubted that she loved him.

  Until her father had come back from Denver to tell her Beau’s response to her pregnancy. From then on those words had just seemed like a rich boy’s ploy to get what he wanted.

  That thought soured the sweeter memories as Kyla worked to pull on a pair of jeans and a plain blue T-shirt one-handed, and it strengthened her determination to leave if he’d changed his mind about helping her now.

  Yes, she could see the value of being here rather than at the truck stop motel, the value of having help taking care of Immy. But she would never accept reluctant hospitality if that’s what it had turned out to be. Especially not from Beau Camden of all people.

  There was a dressing table in one corner of her room and she went to sit at it, opening the cosmetic bag Darla had sent her and peering into the mirror on the wall.

  The bruise on her temple was dark purple and impossible to cover, so she stuck with mascara and blush—difficult enough to apply with her left hand.

  Then she wielded the large-barreled curling iron—also with her left hand—to turn the ends of her hair under.

  When she brushed it, it fell into her normal style and she was glad to see that she could accomplish that, at least, without the use of her right hand.

  She was still pale beneath the blush and had that ugly bruise, but at least if her hair wasn’t flat and limp she looked a little more like herself. And looking more like herself helped her feel slightly less at a disadvantage with the hunk that Beau had grown up to be.

  And why did he have to go and do that? she thought.

  Why couldn’t he have grown into some skinny, weasely man the way he deserved for leaving her pregnant and alone? Why did he have to be not o
nly good-looking, but incredibly good-looking?

  If someone did something truly awful it should be reflected in their appearance in some way, shouldn’t it?

  Certainly they shouldn’t end up being big and strong and rich and powerful and hotter than a lit match.

  Darla had sent her a few choices in footwear and she opted for a pair of sandals she could slide her feet into without much trouble. Then she went out of the bedroom for the first time since she’d gotten there.

  There was no sign of anyone on the second floor.

  She went to the nursery beside her room and opened the door slowly to poke her head in and make sure Immy was still napping.

  Jani—who was pregnant and had formed an instant attachment to Immy—had been there before Kyla’s shower to feed the baby and put her down for a nap. Kyla wasn’t sure if Jani had left after that. She hoped so. She hoped that she would go downstairs and find Beau alone so she could figure out right away if he really didn’t want to be bothered with her or Immy.

  Since Immy was sound asleep with no one else in the room, Kyla went on to the top of the stairs.

  But she stopped short there. They led down to a large entryway with the house’s main door directly in front of the staircase. Looking down now she could see Beau standing in the open doorway. She couldn’t see beyond him, but she heard him say, “No, Lindie,” so she assumed that was who he was facing out on the porch.

  Then he went on in a don’t-question-my-orders tone of voice. “I’m telling you all—no more! I heard the shower upstairs a while ago and as long as Kyla can do that on her own, I can do everything else. I brought her here so I could take care of her and that baby, and that’s what I’m going to do!”

  So he hadn’t changed his mind.

  That was more of a relief to Kyla than she wanted it to be.

  She couldn’t hear what Lindie said, but Beau’s frustrated response was, “Yes, I know the baby needs a bath. I’ll take care of it. But that’s it from you guys. Done! Finished! Thanks, but no more! I can take it from here!”