Snowbound Baby (Silhouette Romance)

by Susan Meier

  “It’s okay, Daphne. You’re going to be fine.” Zoe used the teaspoon to gather the medicine from the baby’s chin and force it back into her mouth, but by this time Daphne was crying in earnest and the liquid came sputtering out again.

  It took three tries, but eventually Zoe was satisfied with the amount of medicine Daphne had swallowed and she cuddled the baby against her chest, rocking her back and forth.

  “It’s okay, sweetie. Mommy knows you don’t feel well. Just give the medicine a few minutes and you’ll go to sleep again.”

  Daphne cried harder. Zoe began pacing the kitchen, rocking, cooing soothing words. But nothing helped and before Zoe could prevent it, Daphne began to scream.

  Cooper sat up on the couch. “Are you beating her?”

  Zoe sighed. “No.” She paused, considering whether or not she should tell him her daughter had caught a virus—which meant he had been exposed to a virus—and decided she might as well. In these close quarters, there would be very few secrets from him.

  “Daphne must have caught a virus at day care.”

  Cooper looked at Zoe for a few seconds as she stood in the hall between the kitchen and the great room, rocking the sobbing infant.

  “So this is what I have to look forward to for the next few days?”

  “No, only a couple of hours,” Zoe guessed. “If it’s a twenty-four-hour bug she may have had symptoms I didn’t notice last night.” She drew a quick breath. “So, she could be over this in twelve hours or so.”

  Cooper frowned and said, “If you’re worried about me, don’t. I’ve made the best of worse situations before.” Then he lay down on the sofa again.

  “I’m not worried about you. I’m worried about her.”

  He sat up again. “Don’t worry about her, either. My mom always taught me that you shouldn’t borrow trouble. Do you have a thermometer in that trash can of yours?”

  “Yes. I already took her temp. It was a little high.”

  “Does she feel like she’s burning up?”

  “No. She’s hot but she’s not burning up.”

  He smiled patiently. “Okay, then. Your thermometer’s probably right. She has a temperature, but it’s not too high. No borrowing trouble.”

  As he said the last, Zoe noticed that Daphne was no longer crying. Her eyelids were droopy, her cheeks still bore two round red spots and she gave her mother a pitiful look.

  “Mommy’s going to take you to bed,” Zoe said as she carried Daphne to the bedroom. She laid her among the pillows but instead of leaving her, Zoe lay down, too. She rubbed the baby’s arms, smoothed her hair, whispered soothing words. In twenty minutes, probably the time it took for the fever reducer to kick in, Daphne was sleeping again.

  Though Zoe rose from the bed, she couldn’t seem to pull herself out of the bedroom. She knew Cooper was correct. Daphne’s fever wasn’t so high that her life was in danger, but Zoe didn’t want to leave her just in case. Because there was no chair in the room, she sat on the floor and propped her back against the wall. She sat, staring straight ahead and listened to the sounds of Daphne breathing.

  Twenty minutes later Cooper appeared at the bedroom door. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing. She’s sleeping.”

  “Game’s not over, but it’s getting dull, so if you’d like to watch TV, I’ll find something else to do.”

  From her position on the floor, Zoe smiled up at him. “No. I’m fine. I need to be here, just in case.”

  Cooper turned to leave, but his face pinched with a pained expression and he stopped halfway and sighed. “My mother used to do the same thing.”

  “Sit in your bedroom when you were sick?”

  “I don’t remember her doing it for me, but I remember she did it for my baby brother, Seth. So, I assume she did it for all of us.”

  “That’s right. You said you have brothers.”

  He hesitated. “Two.”

  “I’m an only child.” She paused. “It must have been fun to have siblings.”

  “Don’t try to slide me into a conversation thinking I’ll spill my guts about my family. You know the deal on getting my story.”

  She laughed. “I wasn’t trying to get your story.”

  “Good, because I would have made a great spy. I don’t tell anyone anything.”

  “Except in return for sex.”

  “Everybody’s got his price.”

  She laughed again and Cooper left the room. But he felt guilty and he didn’t know why. He hadn’t made Zoe’s kid sick. But he didn’t have a clue how to help, either. And for some reason known only to God, he felt he should be doing something.

  Seeing that it was close to noon, he decided to make lunch. As a fresh pot of coffee brewed, he threw together some sandwiches using one of several cans of tuna he found in a lower cabinet. He took two sandwiches and a cup of coffee to the bedroom.

  “Here.”

  She glanced up and Cooper’s heart turned over in his chest. Her eyes were such a soft shade of blue that they could zap the strength of any mere mortal man. But this was the first time he’d really looked at her face and seen something more appealing than just attractiveness. He saw strength, grit, determination. All the stuff that when used in the right way, at the right time, could make a woman incredibly good in bed.

  His gut tightened and if he had had a free hand he would have slapped himself upside of the head. What was he doing thinking about her like that? It was one thing to proposition her. It was quite another to torture himself.

  He shoved the plate and cup at her.

  She shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”

  “Well, eat to keep from getting bored then.”

  “That’s how people get fat.”

  She wouldn’t take the dish. He couldn’t seem to get himself out of the room unless she did. Damn attraction! Damn woman!

  “All right,” he said and lowered himself to the floor. “Here’s the deal. I’m not much of a people person. I shouldn’t give a darn about you, but for some reason I cannot fathom, it’s driving me nuts having you in here.”

  Zoe studied him for a second, then shrugged. “I don’t see why. You would have let me sit at the poker table with nothing to do. How’s it different to have me in here?”

  He scowled at her perceptiveness. “I don’t know.” He picked up a sandwich and took a bite. If she wasn’t going to eat the damned sandwiches, he would. And once they were gone he wouldn’t have any more reason to stay.

  Zoe was quiet for another few seconds, then from the look on her face Cooper could tell she’d drawn some kind of conclusion. He wasn’t a bit surprised when she said, “I think I know why it drives you nuts to have me in here.” Apparently having changed her mind about the sandwiches, she lifted the second one from the plate. “When I was in the great room, you knew what I was doing. While I’m in here, you don’t. You don’t like to be left out.”

  He supposed it was because he’d just mentioned Seth’s name, but in his head Cooper heard his younger brother say the same words eight years ago. You don’t like to be left out. You have to know everything. Even when you know as well as Ty knows that having you involved is going to cause trouble. It would be such a relief if you would just leave!

  As if it were yesterday, emotion rushed through Cooper. Fear. Pain. Pride. Anger. He remembered Seth had stormed out of the bedroom and Cooper had decided to oblige him and leave. He had packed in less time than most people took to change clothes and was gone before Seth could have second thoughts about what he’d said or Ty could realize his middle brother was heading out of town.

  Not that he thought either of them would have stopped him, but at the time he had needed that sliver of doubt. He’d needed to believe they cared enough not to allow him to go and that he could only get out of town if no one knew he was going.

  “I’m actually better on my own.” He rose to leave, but Zoe gaped at him as if he were crazy.

  “How can anybody be better off on their own? When I
turned eighteen my parents divorced. I don’t know how I missed it, but they were only staying together for me. Me.” She shook her head and looked at the ceiling. “Anyway, they got divorced and my mom moved to California where she hoped to get into movies and actually married an actor who does a lot of bit parts. My dad moved to Florida, where he fishes. The parents who were so careful to make sure I had a family left me totally without one, as if eighteen was some sort of magic number that made it okay.”

  Cooper said, “That’s rough,” but he didn’t sit again. Instead, he turned to the door. “If your coffee’s cold there’s a whole pot out here to refresh it with.”

  Zoe smiled ruefully and he knew she hadn’t missed his not-too-subtle escape from their personal conversation. But he didn’t care. His family was the last thing he wanted to think about. Unless she wanted to take him up on his proposition; then he would keep his end of the bargain and dredge up memories of how he and his brothers didn’t get along. But Cooper didn’t think she would sleep with him, so her virtue and his sanity were safe.

  Zoe stayed in the bedroom another twenty minutes and though Cooper tried to watch TV, there was nothing interesting being shown. He walked to the French doors and stared at the falling snow for a few minutes. Paced for a few more. Turned off the coffeepot. Rinsed it out. Wiped down the countertop. Watched it snow some more.

  Finally, he skulked over to the bedroom again. “Still asleep?”

  “She whimpered a few times. I sung her back to sleep.”

  “I didn’t hear you sing.”

  “Do you think I’m going to sing loud enough for you to hear?”

  He grinned. “Is your voice that bad?”

  “No. But baby songs aren’t exactly top ten. I sing about bunnies and cats and puffy clouds that talk.”

  “Now, see. There might be some entertainment in that. Sing a bunny song.”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Sing about the puffy clouds then.”

  “No! I will not entertain you. Go watch TV.”

  Once again Cooper felt himself tumble back through time, and as if he were ten he heard his father say, Go watch TV. How many times had his parents said that? They’d regularly shoo him and his brothers to the television or to the store…anywhere so they could have peace and quiet. And Ty, Cooper and Seth would run outside and have a ball, probably making enough noise to wake the dead.

  But Zoe hadn’t had siblings. When her parents had said, “Go watch TV,” she had been alone.

  And she was alone now. Except for this baby. It was no wonder she was so protective of her.

  “So what happened with your husband?”

  She peered up, studied him for a few seconds, then sighed. “He left when I discovered I was pregnant.”

  “He didn’t want kids?”

  “He wanted to be successful first.”

  Cooper understood wanting to succeed. In his best daydreams he didn’t as much as say hello to either of his brothers until he had proven himself. Which was why they were foreclosing on his ranch. For as much as he wanted to prove they were wrong—he wasn’t a no-account troublemaker who would never amount to anything—they were determined to prove they were right. But as God was his witness, he would win that battle. He would prove himself.

  She sighed. “I’m guessing you understand that, since you didn’t say something sympathetic when I told you why he left.”

  Cooper licked his suddenly dry lips, then said the only thing he could say. “I can’t understand someone leaving his own child. But I do understand him wanting to achieve success. Sorry.”

  “It’s all right. I know men and women are different. All I have to do is look at my parents to see that. She’s in California drinking green tea and taking vitamins and my dad’s in Florida swilling beer and wearing the same clothes for three days.”

  Cooper laughed. “Oh, come on.”

  “It’s true. He’s not much on laundry and he claims fish have no sense of smell.”

  “So you talk with him by phone?”

  “When I can afford it.” She paused. “He doesn’t call me.”

  Inwardly, Cooper groaned. Zoe Montgomery was pretty, sweet and the most devoted mother he’d ever seen, yet she’d been treated abysmally. If he didn’t at least dole out one line of commiseration, he would be no better than the mother, father and husband who had left her.

  “Men aren’t much for talking.”

  She laughed quietly. “No kidding.”

  He took a breath, deciding this would be a nice time to leave the room, but before he could she said, “So what are your parents like?”

  “My parents were nice,” he said, “but they were killed in an automobile accident.”

  Clearly mortified by her mistake, she gasped, “Oh, God! I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s all right. It was years ago.”

  “And now your brothers are taking the family ranch and cheating you out of your share of the inheritance?”

  He grimaced. “No. My brothers and I were raised in a tiny town in Arkansas. My parents owned a small construction company that came to us when they died. I bought the ranch in Texas a few years after I left home.” He paused, then added, “Technically, I walked out on my share of the inheritance a long time ago. They didn’t cheat me out of it.”

  She stared at him, obviously waiting for him to continue. He said nothing.

  “You’re really not going to tell me why, are you?”

  “You know my price.”

  “Right.”

  “Besides, you’ve already gotten more out of me than most people.” Without a pause, he changed the subject. “What do you want for supper?”

  It took her a second to catch up, but finally she said, “Didn’t we just eat lunch?”

  “Not much to do here. Besides, if we want roast or something, the meat will need time to thaw and bake. There are potatoes in the one cupboard. I can make mashed or baked or just plain buttered.” He paused, then said, “Anything tempting you?”

  “No. But I just ate.” She waved her hand in dismissal. “Go cook, Chef Boyardee. Make whatever you want. I’m not picky.”

  He turned to leave, but Zoe called after him, “Hey, and check the Weather Channel again.”

  He grimaced. He knew why she wanted him to check the Weather Channel. She wanted to leave. Maybe to get Daphne to a doctor. Or maybe because he wasn’t any more entertaining than she was. Of course, he grudgingly admitted, she was somewhat interesting. She had a sad life and she sang idiotic songs to the baby her husband hadn’t wanted.

  All right. So he was a bit curious.

  Only a few minutes after Cooper left, Zoe decided she needed to move, too. With her behind numb from sitting on the hard floor, she had to roll to her side to rise. Daphne hadn’t awakened or whimpered, but now Zoe herself was feeling somewhat tired. She blamed the cold, the boredom and her fitful sleep from the night before. She lay beside the baby and after only a few minutes her eyelids began to droop. She reminded herself that it would be a hell of boredom to be up all night because she’d taken a nap, but couldn’t seem to force her eyes to stay open.

  What felt like hours later, a knock awakened her. Disoriented, she glanced around the dark room and realized it was after five because the sun had set. She looked at Daphne, who was awake but still listless.

  Cooper knocked again. “Is everything okay in there?”

  Zoe said, “Yeah. We’ll be out in a minute.” She pushed herself off the bed and found a lamp to light the room before she grabbed Daphne and made her way to the door.

  When she opened it, Cooper was standing there. “Kid okay?”

  A bit groggy from her nap, Zoe nodded. “She’s still sick. I have the medicine on the counter out here. After I try to get her to eat something, I’ll give her another dose and she’ll go back to sleep.” She paused, then said, “Would you mind getting her baby seat and bringing the diaper bag out so I can get a jar of food?”

  He said sure and Zoe started
to feel guilty that she had disliked him so much in the beginning. No matter what he said, he really wasn’t as bad as he thought he was. Worse, she was also feeling a tad guilty that she still intended to pry his secret out of him. Of course, with Daphne sick, there might not be time for that. So, maybe there wasn’t anything to feel guilty about.

  He brought the baby seat to the kitchen. Zoe set it in the center of the table and strapped Daphne inside. Then she rummaged through the diaper bag for a jar of baby food. She chose apple, because it seemed to be the kind that would probably sit the easiest on the baby’s stomach, opened it and got a spoon from the drawer by the sink.

  Clearly bored to tears, Cooper Bryant had watched her every move. “That’s all you do? Just open the jar and get a spoon?”

  “Sometimes, if she’s having a vegetable like strained carrots, I heat the food. But for applesauce, this is all I do.” She spooned out a mouthful of food and put it to Daphne’s lips. Daphne took the bite and swallowed it. Feeling victorious, Zoe scooped a second spoonful, but apparently the first hadn’t set as well as Zoe had hoped and Daphne spat it out.

  Zoe put the lid back on the jar and handed it to Cooper. “Put this in the refrigerator, would you?”

  “That’s it?”

  “She’s not hungry. She’s got a virus. She probably can’t even drink her formula. Once I give her some more medicine, I’m going to feed her a bottle of water and hope she goes back to sleep.”

  An hour later, Cooper tiptoed to Zoe’s bedroom again and peeked inside. Not only had Daphne fallen asleep but Zoe had, too. He stretched into the room, reaching for the switch on the lamp and extinguished the light. Zoe may not want to go to bed at seven o’clock, but she was asleep so she might as well get some rest. She might be up the entire night if Daphne decided she was done sleeping.

  When Cooper went to bed at ten, Zoe and Daphne hadn’t stirred, but he heard them a few times in the course of the night. He couldn’t really sleep, and when he did drift off he had odd dreams, mostly about his family. He didn’t care to remember the good times and he sure as hell didn’t want to relive the bad, so when his wristwatch said six, he rolled out of bed. He didn’t know if Zoe had heated any of the dinner he’d prepared the day before, but because she had rocked a baby all night he decided she needed nourishment.