Snowbound Baby (Silhouette Romance)

by Susan Meier

  He grunted as he hoisted the diaper bag on his shoulder where it settled beside his backpack. Then he turned and began walking down the hill.

  Zoe grabbed Daphne’s baby carrier from the front seat of the car, slammed the door, and followed him. The wind picked up. Swirling along the ground, it gathered fallen snow and propelled icy crystals upward, causing them to slap against Zoe’s face. She pulled Daphne’s blanket loosely over her head to shield her from the blasts, then lifted the carrier to chest height and slanted it toward her to provide even more protection for her baby.

  “By the way, I’m Zoe Montgomery,” she shouted to be heard above the wind. “And this is my daughter, Daphne.”

  For several seconds the trucker said nothing and Zoe worried that he wouldn’t tell her his name. Not that she really needed to know his name, but if he wouldn’t tell it, there could be a reason. Which took her back to her concern that he might be a criminal. Or worse, he could be a sex offender who had unspeakable plans for her. His not telling her his name was not a good sign.

  Adrenaline pumped into her bloodstream and she remembered the gun in her jacket pocket. As a single mother, who lived alone on the edge of a small town that was too close to the turnpike, she frequently carried. Her cousins had shown her everything she needed to know about guns when they’d taught her to hunt, so she wasn’t an amateur. And she also wasn’t a hothead. She wouldn’t arbitrarily shoot this trucker, but if he tried anything she wouldn’t hesitate to defend herself and her daughter.

  But right now, because they weren’t too far from her car, simply running back to her vehicle and locking herself in was much smarter than shooting somebody.

  She was formulating her plan of how to most effectively bolt when he said, “I’m Cooper Bryant.”

  So grateful she nearly collapsed with relief, Zoe said, “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Cooper Bryant.”

  But Cooper Bryant said nothing. Either he didn’t agree that it was nice to meet her or he wasn’t the kind of guy to make small talk. Fine. She’d already figured out he was a loner. She respected that. He would probably jump for joy when she told him she preferred her own cabin and was perfectly capable of keeping a fire going all night.

  They struggled another ten feet down the mountain. With every step they took, the temperature seemed to fall. The inside of Zoe’s nose began to freeze. She huddled the baby carrier closer to her chest, protecting Daphne. She didn’t need a thermometer to know it was much colder than it was even ten minutes ago. This storm was worse than any she’d ever seen.

  The stranger beside her tapped her arm. Rather than try to speak above the wind that now roared through the trees and hollows, he pointed to the left. Cuddling Daphne’s carrier against her, Zoe squinted, trying to make out what he apparently saw, but the only things in her line of vision were the black trunks of barren trees and swirling white snow. Visibility was down to about three feet. And that was another problem. If the wind and snow took away their ability to see, they could easily get lost in the woods.

  She shook her head, indicating she saw nothing, and he caught her arm and hauled her across the road and up the slope into the woods.

  Clinging to the baby carrier, which bounced precariously because of the trucker’s hold on her arm, Zoe barely kept up with him. Fear churned through her at the way he was dragging her as if she were a kidnap victim. In her head she said every prayer she knew, hoping she hadn’t gotten herself and her baby into terrible trouble, as the stranger propelled her through the woods, almost toppling her when he turned her to walk into the oncoming wind again. She gasped for breath, and righted herself, tightening her hold on Daphne. But as she did, she suddenly saw what he must have seen—what had motivated him to shove her through the forest.

  A house!

  Even if they had to spend the night, they would have a bathroom, food…and be among people! She wouldn’t be alone with him!

  Trying to run in the deep snow while hugging a bulky baby carrier, Zoe nearly fell twice. But her escort was running, too. She’d never felt the temperature fall so quickly and knew they had to get to shelter now or die.

  With her boots clumped with snow, she stumbled on the front porch steps. When Cooper Bryant reached the top, he turned and grabbed the baby carrier from her hands, hauling it to his side before he caught Zoe’s hand and pulled her up, too.

  Still holding Daphne’s seat, he ran across the plank porch to the door and pounded. Huddling into her insubstantial leather jacket and shivering violently, Zoe noticed there were no lights on in the house. A new fear tumbled through her. If there was no one home, they were in big trouble. God only knew how far they would have to go to the next shelter. And even if they did easily find another building, there was no guarantee it would have a stove. And if they found a cabin with a stove, there was no guarantee it would have wood.

  If this house didn’t pan out, there was a very good possibility she and Daphne would die.

  “Here!”

  Cooper Bryant shoved Daphne’s baby carrier at Zoe and she caught it in trembling hands, again clutching Daphne close to her to protect her from the freezing wind. Cooper Bryant reached into his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. Just as quickly, he pulled out a credit card. Before Zoe realized what he was doing, he was sliding the card into the space between the doorknob and wood frame.

  “You can’t!”

  He peered at her from beneath his Stetson. His green eyes glittered with annoyance. The angles and planes of his face were drawn in stern lines. Yelling to be heard above the roar of the wind through the trees, he said, “In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have a choice.”

  He shimmied the card a few times, jiggling the doorknob as he did. The wind howled. Frigid air pricked at Zoe’s cheeks. The lock on the door gave and Cooper shoved against the wood closure, opening it.

  He grabbed Daphne’s seat and Zoe’s arm, propelling both Zoe and her baby into the house before him. Still holding Daphne, he slammed the door closed and for ten seconds or so they stood in the entryway of the simple two-story frame house, just breathing.

  When it sunk in that they were out of the cold and safe, Zoe reached for Daphne, taking the handle of her baby carrier from Cooper Bryant’s hand. They might be out of danger from the elements, but the ease with which this man had gotten them into a locked house increased her fears about him. Worse, she couldn’t send him out into the cold to look for another shelter. Visibility was so bad now that he might not get back to the road.

  “You’re very good with a lock.”

  He returned the credit card to his wallet. “I knew this probably wouldn’t be much of a lock.”

  She swallowed. “Really?”

  He sighed. “I’m not a criminal. It’s just that this house is so far out in the woods I’m surprised the owner bothers with locks at all. I’m from a very small town in Arkansas where locks are more or less for show, so people frequently forget their keys. Everybody in Porter’s good with a credit card.”

  Cooper reached for the light switch. At his touch, the entryway lit. “Hey, we’re in luck. If the electricity is on, that means there’s likely a furnace and maybe even food in the fridge.” He walked down the corridor and flipped a second switch, turning on another light and revealing the square corner of a bed in the room at the end of the hall.

  “And here’s a thermostat. It’s set at fifty-five—just enough to keep the pipes from freezing. The person who owns this place obviously planned to be away awhile.” He shifted the knob of the gadget to the left and the sound of a furnace rumbling to life came up from the basement.

  Zoe glanced around nervously. “I don’t feel right about this.”

  “You’d rather freeze to death?”

  “No. But this is somebody’s home.”

  Cooper tossed Daphne’s diaper bag to the floor along with his backpack before he removed his jacket, revealing a red plaid work shirt and nice-fitting jeans.

  Zoe blinked. She’d already noticed that
he was handsome, but in the silence of the foyer she was suddenly taking note of other things. For one, he was older. He had the air of experience that made a man sexy. Add that to his dark, dangerous, mysterious personality and he was one seductive guy.

  She swallowed. Luckily, that was exactly the opposite of the kind of man she wanted. She was no longer “into” sexy guys.

  Once he’d hooked his coat on a peg, he glanced around. “I don’t think this is somebody’s home. From the setting on the furnace and the dust on that TV,” he said, pointing into a sitting room off to their left, “it looks more like a weekend retreat.”

  “It still belongs to somebody.”

  “Who would probably welcome us to spend the night in his house rather than freeze to death.” He grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, then like a boss accustomed to giving orders, or a chauvinist who thought all women were pea-brains, he nudged Zoe to look down the hall. “There’s your bedroom. You can have the one on the first floor to be closer to the kitchen since you have a kid. I’m going upstairs.”

  She tried to pretend she didn’t notice his high-handedness and smiled graciously. “Don’t you want to wait until I fix us something to eat?”

  He patted the backpack. “I have a thermos of coffee and two sandwiches. No need for us to even speak another word.”

  Though Zoe had planned for them to separate, something about his tone confused her. She hadn’t asked for his help. He had volunteered it, yet he was acting as if she was an unwanted thorn in his side. “You’re leaving?”

  “Think of it as me giving you your privacy. I don’t need to entertain you just because I rescued you.”

  There was that tone again, the one that said having her around was a huge inconvenience. She couldn’t argue that he hadn’t rescued her. Not realizing the severity of the storm, she would have waited for LuAnn until it was too dark to find shelter. So, technically, he had rescued her. But she’d certainly never asked him to entertain her.

  “No one said you had to. In fact, I was going to suggest you find a different cabin once we were settled.”

  “Right,” Cooper scoffed, starting up the steps.

  Zoe knew she should have let him go, but she hated that she’d never gotten the chance to prove to her ex-husband that she wasn’t a wimp, that she wouldn’t have smothered him, that he could have stayed with her if he’d just given her a chance. She wasn’t letting another man on the face of this earth believe she was a clingy female. She was defending herself. “I did intend to take care of myself.”

  Cooper stopped walking and sighed. “Oh, come on. A woman who looks like you doesn’t ever have to worry about taking care of herself.”

  Zoe felt her eyes widen at the insult. “I’m a single mother. I have to know how to handle anything that comes along.”

  “And that’s why you called somebody—a man, no doubt—and were waiting in your car.”

  “LuAnn would be insulted to hear you call her a man.” Zoe drew a quick, bolstering breath. “I didn’t realize the storm was as bad as it was or I would have looked for shelter, not called someone to come and get me.”

  He shook his head, and didn’t even try to hide his smirk. “Right.”

  She gaped at him. “What kind of experience do you have with women anyway?”

  “Enough to know that the really good-looking ones take advantage of their assets.”

  This time her mouth fell open. “As if good-looking men are any better! I married a good-looking man and he left me alone to have his baby. While I was fighting morning sickness and wondering how I’d pay the bills, he used his assets to very quickly replace me, as if to prove to me he didn’t need me. So don’t stand there like the pot calling the kettle black.”

  Clearly exasperated with her, he said, “Look, I’m—”

  Zoe didn’t want to hear what he had to say. The best way to prove she could handle any problem that came along would simply be to do it. To hell with him and his opinion. “Save your piddly explanation for someone who cares. You and your thermos of coffee can go upstairs. I want a good man, not just a good-looking man. You and your assets aren’t needed down here.”

  Chapter Two

  At the top of the steps Cooper found two bedrooms. He peered into the first, which had two single beds, then looked into the second and found a queen-sized bed with a thick comforter.

  If the huge bed hadn’t won him over, the thought of being wrapped in a comforter would have. His toes had long ago frozen. He didn’t think the inside of his nose would ever be the same and he was sure his Arkansas-transplanted-to-Texas bones now had ice chips for marrow.

  He tossed his backpack on the dusty dresser and sat on the bed to pull off his work boots and rub his feet. Though he had ratcheted up the furnace, the house wouldn’t be warm for a while, if it truly heated up at all in the face of the biting wind. He massaged his sock-covered feet, trying to increase circulation, but in the quiet of the bedroom, he could hear Zoe Montgomery’s movements below him.

  Guilt tapped him on the shoulder, but he ignored it. He hadn’t come upstairs because he liked to be alone. That was just a perk. He’d left to show her she was perfectly safe with him. She was a pretty girl with a face and figure that could set any man to drooling, and her physical appearance probably caused most men to make at least one pass at her. That was the best explanation for why she was skeptical of help from a man. Undoubtedly lots of the men who had offered her assistance in the past had counted upon something in return—most likely sex.

  But Cooper wasn’t interested. Well, he was interested if she was looking for a quick roll in the hay. But he was just about positive she wasn’t. She’d admitted in her parting shot that her marriage had failed, so she was available. But she’d also said she wanted a good man, not merely a good-looking man, and when a woman said that it usually meant she was seeking a commitment. Rolls in the hay were not commitment-based. The way Cooper had it figured, she was one of those women who was searching for that special man who could make her trust again.

  And Cooper was not anybody’s special man so it was best to nip that fairy tale in the bud. God only knew how long they would be stranded together. Having felt the sting of the cold and seen the rapid rate of the snowfall, he was beginning to understand the biggest difference between a “storm” and a “blizzard” was that storms were a nuisance and blizzards were deadly. Smart people stayed indoors for the duration of a blizzard.

  On top of that, as a trucker, Cooper had enough experience with highways and departments of transportation to realize that rarely traveled, two-lane roads used for shortcuts weren’t the first to be cleared. He and Zoe were stuck in this house for the next twenty-four hours—at least. His actual guess was that they were here for the weekend. He didn’t anticipate getting back to his truck before Monday morning.

  But as long as he and Zoe had minimal contact, that might not be a problem. It was December twelfth. Though his brothers had bought the mortgage to his ranch and given him until Christmas to pay it off, he still had thirteen days. It would take him three to deliver his load and only another two to drive his certified check to Arkansas and put it in the hands of his brothers’ lawyer. He had absolutely no intention of placing the check in Ty’s hands, as he had been instructed in the letter advising him his brothers were calling in his debt. No court in the land would side with them if they tried to take his ranch just because he’d given the check to the lawyer, rather than directly to his brother.

  Thirteen days was plenty of time. Technically, he had eight days of wiggle room. The storm wouldn’t last eight days. The department of transportation crews wouldn’t forget this road for eight days. There was no reason to be concerned about being stranded for a day or two. Particularly since he already had the check in hand.

  Thinking about the check made him reach for his backpack. His partner wasn’t involved in his family’s feud, so Cooper had taken it upon himself to find the money for the balance of the mortgage. He’d cash
ed in his savings account and IRA, and had been forced to use the herd money, but he had almost every dime. All he needed was the pay from this delivery to add to the certified check. Then his brothers couldn’t hurt him anymore. He’d never again be so stupid as to give them an opportunity like a mortgage to find him.

  He unlatched the closure of the backpack, lifted the lid and slid his hand inside to get the white envelope containing the check he’d had prepared at the bank. When his fingers found only two sandwiches, a coffee Thermos and a Twix bar, his heart stopped and he dumped the contents of his backpack on the bed.

  But as everything came tumbling out, he remembered he had put the check in the safe in his truck. A new kind of panic tightened his chest. But he reminded himself the truck was locked. Hell, the safe was locked and it was hidden, camouflaged as the seat back. On top of that, conditions outside weren’t fit for man or beast. Nobody was going anywhere near his truck. His money was fine. There was absolutely no reason to freak out.

  He sighed. He might not freak out, but he sure as hell couldn’t feel comfortable about leaving a check worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in an abandoned vehicle. Still, since there was nothing he could do about that until morning, there was no sense dwelling on it.

  After eating his sandwiches and returning the candy bar to his backpack, he lay down on the bed and angled his Stetson over his eyes, but from downstairs he heard the baby cry. The sound got louder and louder until little Daphne was screaming, sounding like she was testing out her lungs.

  Cooper squeezed his eyes shut. Great. As if it wasn’t bad enough he had a constant niggle of doubt about whether his check was safe, he was stuck with an oversensitive woman and a crying baby. If he had any tolerance for cold at all, he’d go back to his truck, get his money and find another cabin.