Cowboy's Baby

Brady chuckled a little and accepted her hand to shake.

Not the best idea in the world.

Because only when that big callused mitt closed around hers did she recall what truly wonderful hands he had. Strong, adept, powerful, commanding. And with a touch that felt like kid leather. A touch she suddenly remembered feeling on other parts of her body and liking much too much.

“Friends?” he said then, still holding her hand and apparently having no idea what it was doing to her.

“Friends,” she confirmed through a constricted throat.

Then he let go, and Kate told herself to breathe again, to act normal, to ignore the fact that that one touch had made her blood run faster in her veins.

“You wanted to shower,” she reminded, since he was still just standing there, still giving her the once-over.

“Right.”

“There should be towels in the cupboard in your bathroom and fresh soap in the dish. The wet bar is probably stocked—feel free to help yourself. If you need anything else just holler.”

“Thanks. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Then I guess I’ll just see you at dinner. With everyone else,” she said, wondering if her cheeriness sounded as false to him as it did to her.

She finally managed to take a few steps backward, and as she did he said, “It’s good to see you again, Kate.”

“You, too,” she answered mechanically.

Then she gave him a little wave and hightailed it back to her own rooms where she again closed herself in and leaned against the door.

Only this time she needed to wait for everything Brady Brown had put into motion inside her to settle down—her pulse, the blood racing through her veins, the prickles on her skin, the warmth where his hand had held hers….

This wouldn’t do, she told herself firmly. It just wouldn’t do to be susceptible to the man. She had to keep a level head and view this situation from a practical standpoint. She’d veered off the straight and narrow with Brady once, and look at how much trouble she’d gotten into. She wasn’t going to let it happen again. Regardless of how great looking he was or how charming or how nice or how sexy.

No sir. Not her. Never again.

Not if it was the last thing she ever did.

But as she pushed away from the door with the strength of her determination not to let Brady have any effect on her, she realized that even if it wasn’t the last thing she ever did, it just might be the most difficult.

Brady unpacked a few things, shucked the clothes he’d been wearing too long now and headed for the shower.

Matt had a nice place here, he thought as he went from the bedroom that was as big as a studio apartment into a bathroom luxurious enough to have been in a four-star hotel.

Yep, a nice place all right. A nice place filled with nice people.

So far it seemed as though his friend’s idea that he check out Elk Creek for some property to invest in was a good one. Which was part of why he was there—to see the spreads Matt had called him about.

And none too soon.

Matt had told him that three different ranches were either up for sale or had owners who were making noises about selling, just when Brady had been looking for an excuse to get up here. Just when he’d been looking for something that he could use as a cover for his other reason for coming.

He needed to have Kate McDermot sign the divorce papers that would dissolve their marriage.

Their marriage. It shouldn’t be called that. It wasn’t a marriage, after all. At least not in any way that counted.

What it was was the most insane thing he’d ever done in his life.

He still couldn’t believe he’d actually married her.

But then, he’d been in a crazy state of mind, he recalled as he stepped into the steamy spray of the shower.

Of course, he hadn’t realized he’d been in a crazy state of mind at the time. In fact, he’d thought he was over the craziness that had struck after his breakup with Claudia. After all, they hadn’t been married. They’d only been living together. And not for long. Sure, he’d known his pride was still bruised from her walking out on him, but he’d really thought he’d gotten past everything else.

And even the bruised pride had felt on the mend the longer he’d been with Kate in Vegas.

That had come as a surprise to him. But then, having a good time with her had come as a surprise to him, too.

Brady had known within fifteen minutes of meeting up with Matt and his family that his old college roommate had a fix-up up his sleeve. To tell the truth, Brady had been initially PO’d about it. A fix-up with his best friend’s sister? That was just asking for trouble as far as Brady was concerned. It was a no-win situation.

Then he’d met Kate.

He’d liked everything about her on sight. She was more beautiful than she seemed to realize, with that buttermilk skin and those huge eyes the color of kiwi fruit.

Her mouth was lush, and she had high cheekbones any supermodel would envy, plus curly hair that danced around a face as perfect as a Greek goddess.

And then there was that compact body with those great breasts that were just the right size….

Oh, yeah, one look at her and he’d gone from PO’d to thinking it might not be so bad to spend some time with her. As long as he kept everything light and friendly and aboveboard. What harm could it do to escort her here and there? he’d asked himself. And the answer he’d come up with was: no harm at all. A few days of enjoying her company and making Matt happy, then they’d go their separate ways.

For a while he’d thought he was pulling that off, too. He’d just been having fun, looking forward to meeting Kate at breakfast every morning and filling the rest of the day and evening with gambling or sight-seeing or shopping or taking in a show together.

Then little things had begun to strike him.

Like how sweet she could be. How nice. Like how much more fun he had when he was with her than when he wasn’t. Like the fact that she had the most terrific laugh that came out sounding like wind chimes and turned her from terrific looking to stunning and made a sparkle come into her eyes that could light up a whole room.

And then it was New Year’s Eve.

His and Matt’s birthdays.

And there he’d been, with his best friend and his best friend’s family, with Kate, having one of the best times he’d ever had. Which had included a record number of toasts with plenty of champagne—not his drink of choice but it had been poured like water that night. And the result of everything put together was that he’d gotten carried away.

Okay, so taking Matt’s sister to a wedding chapel and marrying her on the spur of the moment probably qualified as more than just getting carried away.

But that’s where the insanity part had kicked in again.

By then he’d been aware that he was attracted to Kate. But maybe not how much. And if she’d been another woman he would have just tried coaxing her into spending the night with him.

But she hadn’t been another woman. She was Kate. Sweet Kate. Matt’s little sister. And a virgin.

Brady still didn’t know how she’d arrived at twenty-nine years old with her virginity intact. Or why. But when she’d confided in him that she was a virgin, he’d known he couldn’t just make love to her because they’d both been so inclined. There had to be more to it than that. It had to be special. It had to be ceremonious.

And what had his liquor-soaked brain come up with?

Marriage. They should get married….

Brady stood under the pelting spray of the showerhead and let it beat down on his face as if it might wash away the stupidity in that reasoning from two months ago.

But it didn’t help. What else but stupid could you call marrying your best friend’s virgin sister and then taking her to bed?

Monumentally stupid.

Especially when that sister woke up the next morning feeling about it the way Kate had.

What a rude awakening that had been!

Before he’d so much as thought about what they’d done, she’d been out of bed, frantic and ordering him to rectify it.

Sure he agreed what they’d done had been dumb. But did she have to be so appalled? So outraged? So downright repulsed?

His pride hadn’t just taken another strike, it had taken a full body blow—and then a knee to the groin when she’d gone on to let him know she was so horrified by having married him and slept with him, that he had to promise never to tell her brothers.

Of course, telling her brothers was not high on his top-ten list of things to do, either. But again, it wasn’t an ego booster to know the extent to which Kate was disgusted by the whole situation.

That was about when he’d decided he wanted to kick himself for having fooled around with her in the first place. For having put his friendship with Matt in jeopardy. For not having seen ahead of time that Kate wasn’t anywhere near as attracted to him as he’d been to her.

And rebruised pride or no rebruised pride, Brady hadn’t been left with a doubt in his mind that the best thing for everyone was to do exactly what Kate had ordered him to do just before she’d run out of the room as if she couldn’t stand to spend another minute with him—dissolve the marriage.

Which was what he had contacted a lawyer for the very next day.

So now, as soon as she signed the papers and they filed them, it would finally be over and they could put it behind them. Once and for all.

Finished with his shower, Brady got out of the stall and wrapped a towel around his waist. Then he used another towel to clear the mirror to shave.

As he did, he couldn’t help wondering if, when he could put this fiasco behind him, he would also be able to get Kate McDermot off his mind.

Because that’s where she had been for the past two months. Stubbornly, continuously, vividly on his mind. No matter what he tried to do to dislodge her.

But would some simple paperwork accomplish that? Especially when seeing her again had done what it had done to him?

Even surrounded by her family and at a distance, he’d still felt her presence the very instant she’d walked into the living room. It had been as if the temperature had suddenly risen. As if everything were brighter. As if all the colors around him were more vivid.

And that was before he’d so much as glanced at her.

Then he’d looked up and seen her for the first time since New Year’s morning, and he’d been struck all over again by how beautiful she was in that quietly understated way of hers. With those sparkling green eyes and that wildly curly honey-brown hair shot through with streaks of gold, and those tender lips he remembered kissing until they’d grown puffy….

Damn if he hadn’t wanted to walk away from the rest of her family and go to her, take her in his arms, kiss her again the way he had that night….

Brady nicked himself with his razor, drawing blood.

“That’s what you get for thinking those kinds of things,” he told himself as he tore a corner from a tissue and pressed it to the wound.

And why the hell was he thinking about this now?

He’d already made one huge mistake with that woman and she’d let him know what she thought of him for it.

So what good did it do to be wallowing in this damn attraction to her?

No good, that’s what.

“So shake it off,” he ordered.

And that’s exactly what he was going to do.

Even though a part of him was itching to do something entirely different. To do a little courting. A little charming. A little wooing…

But that was the stupid, crazy part of him.

Because if there was one thing he’d learned in the past year—and learned the hard way—it was that no amount of tenacity or persistence, no amount of wooing or wining and dining or gift giving, could change a woman’s feelings once she’d decided she didn’t want him.

And Kate McDermot had made it more than clear the morning after their wedding that she didn’t want him. Or anything to do with him.

So he was here to visit Matt, to look at some property, to get the divorce papers signed, and that was it.

And if Kate McDermot could still rock his world just by walking into a room? Too bad.

He wasn’t giving in to the attraction. He wasn’t letting it put him in any position where he could be dealt another emotional body blow the way Claudia had done.

And if he and Kate had had one incredible night together? Obviously it hadn’t been as incredible for her as it had been for him.

So that one night was all they were ever going to have together. Because he just didn’t need any more grief.

And that’s all there was to it.

Chapter Three

“Go on in with your company,” Junebug Brimley told Kate, making a shooing motion with her hands in the direction of the door that led from the kitchen to the dining room.

Junebug was the McDermots’ housekeeper. All six feet, three hundred pounds of her.

“I want to help,” Kate informed her, trying to do what she’d decided to do to get through dinner that evening—make herself as scarce as possible by staying in the kitchen.

“Don’t need your help,” the booming-voiced woman told her bluntly. “Raised a passel of sons who ate like bears comin’ out of hibernation at every meal. I think I can put on this dinner without too much strain.”

“But we’re all here tonight,” Kate reminded her.

All being those family members who lived in the big house built to accommodate them—her twin brothers Ry and Shane, their wives, Tallie and Maya, and Ry’s nearly three-year-old son, Andrew, Matt, Jenn and Kate, along with Bax—Elk Creek’s doctor who lived in town—and his wife Carly and his going-on-seven-year-old daughter, Evie Lee, plus Brady.

“All or not, I can do it myself,” Junebug said, holding firm. “You’re missin’ time with Matt’s friend in there.”

“That’s just it—he’s Matt’s friend. Not mine. I don’t have anything to say to him.”

“I heard the two of you liked each other fine in Las Vegas,” Junebug said slyly.

“He’s a nice enough man. But that was then, and this is now, and he’s here to visit Matt, not me.”

Junebug eyed Kate as if she could see right through her. “He’s a handsome cuss. And single, same as you. Maybe you ought to try thinkin’ of somethin’ to say to ’im.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Could be you could get a little romance goin’.”

“I’m not in the market for a romance. If I was, I might go after one of those six handsome cuss, single sons of yours,” Kate countered, teasing the gruff older woman.

“Which one would you like? I’m tryin’ my best to get ’em married off but they’re too mule-headed for their own good.”

Kate laughed in spite of having her bluff called. “I don’t want one of your sons, either, Junebug. I’m not interested in fooling with any man right now.”

“Should be.”

“Well I’m not. And Matt’s as bad as you are about Brady—he’s trying to throw me together with him by hook or by crook. So do me a favor and put me to work in here.”

Junebug looked her up and down, as if debating about granting Kate’s wish.

Then she went to the swinging door that connected the dining room and said, “Would somebody get Kate outta my kitchen so’s I can do some dishin’ out of this food without her underfoot?”

“Thanks,” Kate said under her breath.

Junebug grinned. “Two by two—that’s how we’re meant to walk this earth.”

Kate just rolled her eyes at the woman as demands for her to go into the dining room were voiced in answer to Junebug’s request.

So, with no other choice, that was what Kate had to do.

Rather than serving appetizers buffet-style Junebug had had everyone take their seats at the dining table. But the only place setting that wasn’t already occupied when Kate joined her family was the one directly across from Brady.

She would have preferred being situated farther away from him and without much of a view of the houseguest, but as it was she had to take the sole remaining spot.

The McDermot family was once more laughing at something Brady had said as they passed hors d’oeuvres of bruschetta, cherry peppers stuffed with proscuitto and cream cheese, and blue-cheese torta served on crackers. Kate didn’t attempt to join in the fun but merely slipped into her seat, wondering as she did if she’d been manipulated once more by Matt, or if all her brothers, sisters-in-law and Matt’s fiancée were conspiring against her.

“Brady’s been in Alaska since we saw him in Vegas,” Matt updated Kate then.

“Ah,” she said, unsure what else she was suppose to contribute to that.

But Shane saved her the trouble by asking if Brady had done any hunting or fishing while he was there.

As Brady talked about his adventures, Kate couldn’t help checking him out.

He’d obviously taken that shower he’d been headed for. He looked refreshed, and she could smell the spicy scent of cologne or soap or whatever it was he’d used. She only wished she didn’t like it so much.

He had changed into a less-worn pair of jeans and a crisp white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled to midforearms and the top button unfastened. It wasn’t unusual attire by any means, but what those slight exposures let her see made her all too aware of more details about him than she wanted to be aware of. His thick, straight neck, for instance, and the wholly masculine hollow of his throat. Powerful-looking forearms and wrists that were unaccountably sexy. Not to mention big, blunt-fingered, capable hands.

He’d washed his hair, too, and recombed it, along with shaving away the shadow of a day’s growth of beard so that his raffishly handsome face was free of anything that could hide its glory. And even the way his razor-sharp jaw flexed when he chewed somehow tweaked a sensual nerve inside her.

Why hadn’t Junebug let her stay in the kitchen? Kate lamented to herself as she fought not to look at Brady, not to be so impressed by him.

But there she was, with nowhere to run and a mysterious disability that left her unable not to study his every movement, unable not to hang on his every word as he told stories about Alaskan winter days when light only dawned for a few brief minutes.

Alaskan winter days that left Kate thinking about endless hours of darkness that someone else might have shared with him….

She was grateful when Junebug finally served dinner and allowed her a distraction from that thought. And the odd bit of something that felt like jealousy that came with it.

The older woman had made Caesar salad, a crown rib roast, braised potatoes and carrots and home-baked rolls. Ordinarily Junebug either prepared dinner in advance and left it to be reheated when the McDermots were ready to eat, or left the cooking for someone else to do so she could go home to her own family. But on special occasions she catered and served the whole meal.

Tonight was one of those nights. So not until all the food was on the table did she inform them that dessert was ready and waiting in the kitchen whenever they wanted it and that she was leaving them to their own devices.

As everyone bade her a nice evening and dug into her delicious fare, Matt said, “I have it set up for you to take a look at those three spreads tomorrow, Brady. Ted Barton’s ranch next door is probably the best of the lot but he hasn’t made a firm decision to sell yet. The other two have been on the market for a couple of months. The houses on them aren’t in as good shape as the Barton place. ’Course I know you care more about the land and the barn than where you’ll be livin’, but still.”

Kate stopped cold and paid closer attention to what was being said as her other brothers chimed in with information on land that was for sale around Elk Creek.

Was she understanding this correctly? Was Brady buying property? Here? Was he moving here?

It was news to Kate. And not good news. She’d thought that after getting through this visit he would go back to Oklahoma. It had never occurred to her that he might be in Elk Creek permanently.

Suddenly she could feel the blood drain from her face and a cold clamminess settle over her.

“You want to buy a ranch here?” she heard herself blurt out with no small amount of alarm.

For the first time since she’d sat at the table, Brady leveled blue-gray eyes on her. “Thinkin’ about it,” he answered simply enough.

Her brothers continued filling him in on the pros and cons of each property and what might or might not be factors in the sale prices as they all ate. But Kate couldn’t seem to swallow so much as a morsel of food from that moment on. She just kept thinking, He could be here to stay. He could be here to stay….

Most of the rest of the evening was pretty much a blur to her after that. She pushed the food around her plate and pretended to be interested in what was being said at the table. She even managed a remark or two when she’d been silent for longer than she should have been.

But the truth was, she heard almost nothing as the idea of Brady ending up as her next-door neighbor tormented her.

And when she could finally excuse herself without raising eyebrows, she stood to do just that.

Only, before she actually got to say her goodnights, Matt said, “By the way, Kate, we’re all tied up tomorrow, so I thought maybe you could show Brady those properties he needs to see.”

“Me?” Kate said, the alarm again in her tone.

“You know your way around well enough now. None of the places are hard to find. It’ll give you somethin’ to do.”

“Who says I need something to do?” Kate said lamely and much too quickly, sounding like a put-upon younger sister who didn’t appreciate her big brother taking liberties with her time.

“What do you have to do?” Matt challenged.

For the life of her, Kate couldn’t think of anything except that she wanted to strangle her brother.

Then Brady piped up. “It’s all right. Just draw me a map. I’m sure I can find the places myself.”

It was clear that Brady had noticed she didn’t want to play tour guide, and Kate not only knew she was being rude again, but she could feel the tension in the room because of it.

Yet Matt still wouldn’t let her off the hook. “Kate doesn’t have anything planned she can’t rearrange. Do you?”

All eyes were on her, and she knew her next words would set the tone for the rest of Brady’s visit. If she refused, everyone would be aware of just how much she didn’t want to be around him. They would all want to know why—especially since she and Brady had seemed to hit it off so well in Las Vegas. And her entire family would be embarrassed by her behavior and feel awkward whenever everyone was together.

But if she didn’t refuse she was going to end up spending the whole next day with Brady. Alone with Brady. And all the unsettling things merely being around him did to her.

Maybe strangling Matt wasn’t harsh enough punishment.

Kate took a breath and opted for keeping the peace and maintaining appearances. “Sure I can rearrange things. No problem. I’d be happy to show you around,” she said without enthusiasm.

“Great,” Brady answered much the same way.

With nothing more to be said, Kate finally told everyone good-night and went to her rooms, thinking of ways to get even with her brother as she did.

That was still what she was thinking about an hour later when a soft tap sounded on her door.

“If this is you, Matt, you’re dead meat,” she muttered to herself.

She’d undressed by then, and before answering the knock she pulled on a navy-blue velvet robe over the supersize T-shirt she was wearing to bed. But she didn’t fasten it, because she assumed her late-night visitor was her brother and he’d seen her in her sleep-wear innumerable times before. He’d probably come to gloat about his victory or chastise her for not being more warm and friendly to Brady, she thought, letting the robe hang open to her ankles and padding in bare feet to fling open her door.