Maverick Christmas Surprise

“Of course, I am,” she said. “I’m his aunt. He belongs with me.”

“If his mother believed that, why’d she drive halfway across the country to bring him to me?” he challenged.

Beth faltered. “I don’t know. But my sister’s done a lot of things in her life that I can’t begin to fathom.”

“Well, it seems obvious to me that there must be a reason Leighton didn’t want you caring for her baby.”

“Her baby?” she echoed. “You don’t think he’s your baby, too?”

“I don’t know what to think,” he admitted. “But I know that it’s late and this conversation should be tabled until the morning.”

“Morning?” she echoed. “I expected to be halfway back to Dallas by morning.”

“When was the last time you slept, Lisbeth?”

“It’s Beth,” she corrected automatically. “And...I’m not sure.”

He nodded. “That’s what I figured.” He pointed to the rocking chair beside the crib. “Sit there with the baby for a few minutes while I make up the bed in the spare room across the hall.”

“Oh. Um...thank you.”

She hadn’t expected an invitation to stay. Of course, his words had been more in the nature of a command than an offer, but still, she was grateful. So she lowered herself into the rocking chair and snuggled with her nephew.

There were no words to express how happy she was to have Cody in her arms again, how grateful she was to know that he was safe. Worry and desperation had fueled her throughout the trip from Dallas—along with regular infusions of caffeine. But now that she was here, she felt completely drained—physically and emotionally.

She was also relieved that she didn’t have to drive any further tonight, even if it was just back into town to rent a room at a local motel. Assuming there was a motel in this town.

In any event, it probably wasn’t a bad idea for her to catch some shut-eye before embarking on the return journey.

It didn’t take Wilder long to put sheets on the bed in the guest room. And yet, he wasn’t surprised to return to the spare room that had been turned into a temporary nursery to find Beth fast asleep in the rocking chair, her nephew still in her arms.

Though he had no reason to doubt her claim that she was Leighton’s sister, he couldn’t see any obvious family resemblance. Leighton was a spirited blonde, and his first impression of Lisbeth was of a solemn brunette. With her messy ponytail and shapeless coat, Beth bore no physical resemblance to her curvy sister with the infectious laugh and lust for life.

And yet, there was something about Beth that sparked an unexpected—and unwanted—awareness inside him. Or maybe it was her obvious connection to her nephew that tugged at him. She’d wasted no time in making the trip from Dallas to Rust Creek Falls when she learned that he was there, which made him wonder again why Leighton had made the same trip to leave her baby with him when she had a sister who obviously would have been happy to care for the kid.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to get an answer to that question—or any other questions—tonight. So he reached for the baby, intending to return him to the crib. Beth’s arms instinctively tightened around the baby and her eyes flew open—a warrior ready to battle.

“I’m just putting him back in his bed so that you can go to yours,” he told her.

She blinked, and he noticed then that she had really pretty eyes—the color of dark chocolate and fringed by a sweep of long, dark lashes.

Those lashes fluttered again as the confusion slowly cleared from her gaze. “Oh. Okay.” She whispered her response as she finally relinquished her hold. “I guess I’m more tired than I realized.”

“You can sleep now,” he said, as she rose from the chair.

She nodded. “Thank you. For letting me stay here tonight.”

He didn’t point out that the offer had been born of necessity rather than kindness, because he couldn’t have her knocking on the door of Strickland’s Boarding House at this late hour. And the only other option nearby was Maverick Manor, but he’d heard the owner proudly remark that the hotel was fully booked through the holidays.

“Go.” He steered her toward the open doorway across the hall. “There’s an unopened toothbrush and toothpaste in the adjoining bathroom, if you need them.”

“Thank you,” she said again.

He turned back to peek at the baby again, exhaling a weary sigh of relief that the little guy was still sleeping soundly—at least for the moment—before starting toward his own room.

Thanks to the attention and efforts of his family, the baby had been well cared for the previous day. But eventually they’d all headed back to their own homes, leaving Wilder and his dad alone with the infant.

As a father of six boys, Max had had more than his fair share of experience with diapers and bottles, but he’d insisted that this baby was his youngest son’s responsibility. Wilder didn’t think it was fair that his father was willing to assume that he was the kid’s dad just because some woman had scrawled his name at the top of the note.

“And because you admitted that you had a relationship with the mother,” Max had explained, when Wilder challenged the assumption of paternity.

He couldn’t deny that argument had some merit. That it wasn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility that he could be the father.

And that possibility scared the bejeezus out of him.

And if Leighton had paused long enough to consider the implications of that possibility before depositing her child at his door, it would have scared the bejeezus out of her, too.

What had she been thinking?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question was probably that she hadn’t been thinking.

By her own admission, she wasn’t much of a planner. It was more fun, she’d once told him, to live in the moment and embrace whatever surprises life had in store for her.

When Wilder had confided that he wasn’t a big fan of surprises, she’d surprised the heck out of him by inviting him back to her place.

And yeah, he’d liked that surprise.

This “surprise, you’re a daddy” thing—not so much.

And if he really was the kid’s dad...well, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the little guy, because there was no chance Wilder was ever going to win a “Father of the Year” award.

Chapter Three

Beth didn’t remember her head hitting the pillow.

She fell asleep quickly and slept deeply, and when she opened her eyes again, the clock on the bedside table read 12:48 p.m.

Certain that number couldn’t be accurate, she pressed the button on the side of her watch to illuminate its face.

12:48.

She jolted upright, shocked to realize that she’d slept for almost fourteen hours!

Her first thought after that: Cody.

She immediately pushed back the covers and hurried across the hall. Her heart, which had been pounding furiously against her ribs, settled into a more normal rhythm when she found her nephew in the crib, sleeping soundly.

She didn’t believe for a minute that he was still sleeping. More likely, Cody had been up at 6 a.m.—as was his habit—and was now down for his second nap of the day. And because he was napping, she decided to steal a few more minutes for herself and indulge in a hot shower.

And it was an indulgence. She had no idea how old or new the house was, but it was apparent that the bathroom had been recently renovated with a mosaic tile floor and glass-walled shower. She stood for a long time beneath the rainfall shower head, letting the warm water wash over her body, easing the tension and aches in her muscles.

She used the shampoo and bodywash in the enclosure, as her own toiletries were in the duffel bag that she’d left in her car. Which meant that the change of clothes she’d packed for her overnight stay at her sister’s apartment was still in the car, too.

As she wrapped herself in a thick, fluffy towel from the heated rack, she considered that ranching was obviously a much more lucrative profession than teaching. Not that she’d ever trade her class of kindergarteners for a field of cows, but she suspected that her sister might not have been so quick to discount the idea of spending her life with a cowboy if she’d known Wilder was a wealthy cowboy.

Of course, thinking about Leighton led to worrying about Leighton, even though Beth knew it was an exercise in futility. She had no way of getting in touch with her sister, so all she could do was monitor her social media accounts, check in with her friends and wait for Leighton to contact her—and ensure that Cody was taken care of while he waited for his mom to come back.

Because Leighton would come back. Notwithstanding what she’d written in the note she’d left with Cody, Beth knew that her sister wouldn’t abandon her baby. She loved him too much.

Reassured by this internal pep talk, Beth toweled off and got dressed in her old clothes. As she finished towel-drying her hair, she heard voices across the hall in her nephew’s temporary bedroom.

No, only one voice, she realized.

Deep and masculine, murmuring in a quiet tone.

Wilder’s voice.

Her heart skipped a beat then, as it had the night before when he’d appeared in the door: six-feet-plus of rugged masculinity that, even in her worried and sleep-deprived state, she couldn’t help but respond to.

She’d had two brief conversations with him: the first on the telephone, when he’d called looking for Leighton, and the second last night, when she’d arrived at the ranch, unannounced and uninvited. Although she should have been expected, as she’d told him she’d be on her way to Rust Creek Falls to get her nephew as soon as possible. Regardless, Wilder had been more hospitable than she’d had any right to expect.

Or maybe he’d been relieved to see her. Because standing in the doorway of the room across the hall, it was obvious to Beth that this cowboy had absolutely no clue how to take care of a baby.

“I know you can’t do this on your own,” Wilder said to the baby. “But is it too much to ask for just a little bit of cooperation?”

Of course Cody didn’t respond, and Beth stayed quiet, too, watching as Wilder struggled to get the baby’s legs out of his sleeper, opting to stretch the fabric rather than attempt to bend his limbs.

When that was finally done, he unsnapped the fasteners of the onesie and peeled it back to reveal the diaper.

“Or maybe this is some kind of test that only someone worthy of being called Mommy or Daddy can figure out,” Wilder considered, as he opened the Velcro tabs. “And I think it’s pretty obvious to both of us by now that I’m not worthy.”

Beth wanted to say something then, to reassure the handsome cowboy that everyone struggled with parenting tasks in the beginning. But before she could find the right words, he pulled the diaper away and reached down to retrieve a clean one from the bag on the floor.

Cody responded as most baby boys would when his private parts were exposed to the fresh air, and Wilder yelped in surprise at the stream that fountained into the air.

Beth couldn’t help it—she laughed.

The sound caught the attention of Cody and Wilder, and they both turned to the doorway. But while the baby smiled in recognition, the man looked so miserably unhappy she couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, at least a little.

She swallowed another chuckle as she stepped into the room. “Is this your first time changing a diaper?”

“No,” he denied, and blew out a breath. “I just don’t expect him to do that every single time.”

“You need to keep baby boys covered,” she told him.

“How am I supposed to keep him covered and change his diaper?” Wilder grumbled, rummaging through the bag again.

“It isn’t that difficult,” she said. “You just don’t remove the wet diaper until you have a dry one ready.”

He sighed wearily and shoved the diaper bag aside. “And apparently that was the last clean undershirt thing.”

“I packed some things for Cody before I left Leighton’s apartment,” Beth said. “But the bag’s still on the passenger seat in my car.”

“If you don’t mind keeping an eye on him for a few minutes, I’ll go get it for you,” Wilder said.

“The keys are in my coat pocket,” she told him.

He nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

While he was gone, she stripped Cody out of his damp clothes and put a clean diaper on him, chatting with him the whole while. Or chatting to him, as her nephew didn’t respond except with happy gurgles and excited kicks. But those were enough for Beth to know that he was glad to see her.

After wrapping Cody in a blanket to keep him warm until Wilder returned, she sat with him in the rocking chair and rummaged through the diaper bag.

“It doesn’t look like your mama thought to pack you any toys or books,” she remarked. “Hopefully that’s because she doesn’t plan on being gone for too long.”

Although the note Leighton had written suggested otherwise, Beth refused to believe that her sister would leave Cody for more than a few days. It was more likely, she reasoned, that her sister had made the trip to Montana so that Cody could meet his dad, and the long journey with the baby had pushed her beyond the limits of her patience.

But Beth still didn’t understand what had compelled her sister to contact the man now. Or why she hadn’t mentioned her plans to Beth. Especially when they’d made arrangements to celebrate Cody’s first Christmas together.

“I couldn’t imagine any reason she would want to bring you to Montana,” Beth admitted. “But now that I’ve met the very handsome cowboy who might be your daddy, I think I’m beginning to understand.”

“So you do think I’m handsome.”

Beth glanced up then to see Wilder in the doorway, a cocky grin on his face, and felt her cheeks burn.

“It’s not my opinion so much as a simple fact,” she said, furiously attempting to backpedal from her own admission.

“But attraction is very much subjective,” he pointed out.

“I didn’t say I was attracted to you,” she denied hotly. “I was merely commenting that I could understand why my sister was attracted to you.”

“Sure. We’ll go with that,” he said, as he dropped the duffel bag on the floor beside the rocking chair. But the playful wink that followed his words told a different story.

She looked away to unzip the bag, then frowned as she rifled through the contents. “Everything is ice-cold.”

“The bag was in your car, overnight, in the middle of winter,” he pointed out reasonably.

“And, as I discovered yesterday, winter in Montana is a lot different than winter in Texas,” she acknowledged, as she pulled out a onesie, a pair of socks and a two-piece outfit. “Can you put these in the clothes dryer for a few minutes?”

He took the items from her hand. “They’re not wet.”

“No, but they’re cold,” she said again. “And a quick tumble in the dryer will warm them up to a more comfortable temperature for Cody.”

He shrugged but headed out to do her bidding. Or maybe he was grateful for any excuse to leave her with the baby that he didn’t believe was his.

Maybe he was right to be skeptical.

Maybe Leighton had been mistaken.

And maybe, after having spent a couple of days with Cody, he understood now how much time and attention a baby needed and would willingly accede to her request to take her nephew back to Dallas.

When Wilder returned with the warm garments, Beth quickly dressed the baby in a red top that had an appliqué reindeer head with Christmas lights looped around its antlers and a pair of dark brown corduroy pants.

“Very festive,” Wilder noted.

“He has a lot of holiday outfits,” she confided. “Every time I was out shopping, I seemed to find another one that I just couldn’t resist.”

“And all those Christmas gifts in the back seat of your car—more things you couldn’t resist?” he guessed.

“He’s my only nephew,” she said, by way of explanation. “And it’s his first Christmas.”

“Do you want me to bring the presents inside?”

She shook her head. “Thanks, but I’d rather celebrate with Cody at home. And since I’m rested now, thanks to you and your kind hospitality, we can be on our way.”

Now it was Wilder who shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“You can’t want us to stay here,” she said.

“Nothing has been about what I want since Leighton left her baby on my doorstep,” he acknowledged.

“And considering what an inconvenience that’s obviously been for you, why would you object to us leaving?” she asked coolly.

“Because I still don’t know why your sister brought her baby to Rust Creek Falls instead of leaving him in Dallas with you,” he said.

“No one but Leighton knows what she was thinking,” Beth said.

“Maybe you don’t know, but you can probably guess,” he suggested.

Beth didn’t respond to that. Because yes, she probably could guess. But she had no intention of sharing her suppositions with this man who might or might not be Cody’s father and who, in any event, had no right to pry into the painful details of her often difficult relationship with her sister.

A relationship that she’d been certain was turning a corner—before recent events proved otherwise.

“And until you can answer that question to my satisfaction, the baby isn’t going anywhere,” Wilder said.

An assertion that, of course, put her back up.

“Who put you—a cowboy who clearly doesn’t have the first clue about parenting and might not even be Cody’s biological father—in charge?” she demanded.

“Your sister,” he answered. “When she left her kid with me.”

“My sister obviously wasn’t thinking clearly,” Beth said.

“I don’t disagree, but that doesn’t change the fact that she brought the baby here.”

She hated that he was right. Even more, she hated that Leighton hadn’t trusted her enough to talk to her about her plans. Instead, she’d snuck away, leaving only a cryptic note that did nothing to alleviate Beth’s worries. And thinking about it now only made her head hurt. She lifted a hand and pressed her fingertips to her temple, as if that might assuage the ache.

“You’re probably hungry,” Wilder said, his tone more conciliatory than confrontational now.

She frowned. “What?”

“I’m guessing that your head hurts because you haven’t eaten,” he clarified.

“How do you...oh.” She dropped her hand away.

“When did you last have a meal?”

“I grabbed a burger last night when I fueled up my car outside of Bozeman.” But she’d only managed to choke down a few bites of the tasteless patty before she’d wrapped it up again and tossed it back into the bag.

“Well, according to the schedule I was given, it’s time for the baby to have a bottle, so let’s get you something to eat, too,” he suggested.

“I’ll be down in a minute,” she said, reaching for the duffel bag. “I just want to change my clothes first.”

“Did you want me to warm yours in the dryer, too?”

Though she didn’t relish the idea of wriggling into cold undergarments, it was preferable to handing her bra and panties to a stranger. Especially a sexy stranger who had undoubtedly removed sexier undergarments from her sister’s body.

“Thanks, but I’ll be fine,” she told him.

“Okay, I’ll get started fixing the bottle.”

She didn’t ask him to take Cody and he didn’t offer. She did wonder if his reticence was a result of not knowing what to do to take care of a baby or not wanting to acknowledge that Cody might be his.

And she had no intention of pushing him outside of his comfort zone. As far as she was concerned, the sooner he realized that he couldn’t handle taking care of an infant, the sooner she could be on her way back to Dallas with her nephew.

When she was changed, she retraced her steps—as best she could recall—from the night before. But it had been dark then, and she’d been focused on Wilder’s form moving ahead of her, unable to see much of anything else. In the light of day, she could appreciate the warmth and design of the home that Wilder lived in with...well, she had no idea who else lived in this house. Obviously she had more questions about the man than answers, but hopefully that would change over lunch.

Her stomach growled in support of that plan.

She reached the bottom step and turned—apparently in the wrong direction. Because she found herself in a family room with a grouping of leather furniture around a stone fireplace and a towering Christmas tree that almost touched the vaulted beam ceiling.

“Look at that,” she said to Cody, her voice a reverent whisper as she moved closer. “It’s almost as big as the tree at the mall where we saw Santa.”

Of course, Cody didn’t understand what she was talking about and would have no memory of the event even if he did. By the time they’d got to the front of the line and it was his turn to see the jolly man in the red suit, he was fast asleep. Beth hadn’t wanted to wake him and risk ending up with a photo of an unhappy or crying baby. Instead, she had a beautiful photo of her nephew, decked out in a red velvet Santa sleeper and matching hat, peacefully tucked into the crook of Santa’s arm.

She’d bought two copies of the photo and had framed and wrapped the second one as a Christmas gift for her sister. Of course, she’d invited Leighton to go to the mall with them, but her sister had waved off the suggestion, insisting that Cody was too young to even care. It was undoubtedly true, and yet, Beth couldn’t let the occasion of his first Christmas pass without a visit to Santa.

She pushed the memory aside to focus on the tree in front of her now. It wasn’t just big, it was beautifully decorated in what she would call “country chic,” with burlap ribbon, handcrafted wooden ornaments, home-sewn felt shapes, crocheted snowflakes, tied clusters of dried fruit, sprigs of berries and striped candy canes.

And unlike the plastic tree in the mall, this one was real. She could smell the rich, fragrant scent of pine in the air.

“Did you get lost?”

She started, turned. “What?”

A smile twitched at the corners of Wilder’s mouth, somehow making him look even more unbelievably handsome, and making her wonder what was wrong with her that she could be so immediately and undeniably attracted to the man who might very well be her nephew’s father.

“I asked if you got lost,” he said.

“Oh, no. I mean, I took a wrong turn, and then...” She shrugged. “I got distracted. You have a beautiful home.”

“It’s got good bones,” he said, turning to exit the room, no doubt expecting her to follow. Which, of course, she did. “But it’s also been a lot of work to renovate and update.”

“Have you done the work yourself?” she asked, glancing at the framed photos on the sideboard as they passed through the dining room. She was tempted to pause and examine the pictures more closely, but her empty stomach growled to remind her that she had other priorities at the moment.

“Me, my brothers and our dad,” he said, handing her a ready-made bottle for the baby.

“Thanks,” she said. “But I would have mixed up his formula.”

“I just followed the instructions on the label.”

She nibbled on her bottom lip, not wanting to appear ungrateful but needing to ask, “Did you use previously boiled water?”

“That’s what the instructions said to do,” he pointed out. “Plus Hunter, one of my brothers, gave me a crash course on basic childcare.”

“He has kids?” Beth guessed, testing the temperature of the formula by shaking a few drops onto the inside of her wrist.

“One. A six-and-a-half-year-old daughter.”

“There’s no better teacher than experience,” Beth said. “But in the absence of experience, there are some good childcare books that help. Leighton had about half a dozen beside her bed when she was pregnant.”