The Colorado Kid

The ringing phone made her jump and she knocked over her bench. It landed with a clatter on the hardwood floor, startling Sadie, her Great Dane, out of her snooze near the loom. Nobody called at this hour on a Friday night unless it was an emergency. Heart pounding, Matty hurried into the kitchen. As she picked up the phone, she prayed it was a prank or a wrong number, and not some family disaster.

“Matty?” Sebastian sounded frantic.

Matty frowned. Unless she was mistaken, that was a baby crying in the background. She couldn’t put that together with Charlotte Crabtree and the dinner date, but yes, there was definitely a very young baby close to the phone. “What’s going on?”

“It’s…complicated. Can you come over?”

Not while Charlotte was still there, she wouldn’t. “Why?”

“Because I need you to help me.”

“With what?”

“I’ll explain when you get here. Please, Matty. Come quick.”

“Is Charlotte still there?”

“How did you know about Charlotte?”

“Sebastian, everybody with an account at Colorado Savings knows Charlotte came up to your place for dinner. Is she still there?”

“No. Can you come over?”

So Charlotte had left and a tiny baby was there instead. Matty was burning up with curiosity. Wild horses couldn’t have kept her off the Rocking D tonight. “I’ll be right there,” she said.

2

NO UNFAMILIAR VEHICLES sat in the circular drive in front of Sebastian’s place, but Matty noticed two large cardboard boxes next to the front door when she climbed the steps to his porch. And sure enough, a baby was crying inside the house. As near as she could remember, there had never been a baby at the Rocking D, even though folks around here thought the ranch’s brand looked a lot like a cradle.

She pounded on the front door, figuring she’d better make a lot of racket to be heard above the screaming baby.

The door opened almost immediately and Sebastian stood there looking frazzled. It was a novel sight. Matty couldn’t remember seeing him frazzled before. The notion that he even could get frazzled pleased her immensely.

He’d always been in charge of himself, his feet planted firmly on the ground, his broad shoulders ready to take any weight, his gray gaze steady and sure. Over the years, his self-reliance had both thrilled and maddened her. She found that sort of confidence sexy, but it didn’t leave much room for a woman to feel needed.

But tonight, he definitely needed someone, and she happened to be handy.

“Thank God you’re here.” He stepped back from the door. “You must have driven like a snail.”

“Actually, I broke the speed limit.” She imagined even five minutes would be an eternity with that caterwauling going on. She walked into the house, shucking her jacket as she went. “Where’s the kid?”

“Over there.” He gestured toward the sofa in front of the fire, where an infant seat held a squirming and very loud baby.

Matty had a thousand and one questions revolving around the sudden arrival of this baby at Sebastian’s house on a Friday night, but she decided there was no point in asking even one of them until they got the noise level down a bit. “What have you done for it?”

“Nothing. It’s a she. Elizabeth.”

“Nothing?” Matty crossed to the sofa, where the baby had tangled her blanket around herself as she flailed her little arms and legs. She had on some sort of one-piece pink suit and a pink hat, which was nearly off, plus the blanket. She looked hot.

“I was afraid I’d do the wrong thing,” he said. “I don’t know anything about babies. So I built up the fire.”

“I can see that.” The heat danced off Matty’s flannel shirt and jeans. She tried to ignore the pair of wineglasses on the coffee table and the distinct odor of Charlotte’s perfume that still stunk up the place. In between the baby ruckus came the soft sounds of some easy-listening country music on the CD player. Sebastian had fixed himself quite a little seduction pit.

“Where’s Charlotte?”

“Gone. She doesn’t know anything about babies.”

Well, that was something. The baby had driven Charlotte away. “I don’t know much, either,” Matty said. “But I think we should get her out of those clothes or away from the fire.”

“You pick her up, then, okay?”

Matty glanced at him and held back a smile. Finally, finally she’d found something that scared the hell out of big bad Sebastian Daniels. “Okay.” She hadn’t handled many babies, but she seemed to remember when they were this young you got one hand under their bottom and the other one under their head, because they were still sort of floppy.

This one was pretty rigid, though, probably from crying herself into a complete frenzy. Feeling awkward, Matty scooped her up and cradled her in her arms, rocking her gently. It felt like holding a noisy five-pound sack of potatoes. Matty didn’t know if her technique was any good, but the hysterical pitch of the cries softened, although the steady crying didn’t stop.

Matty carried the baby away from the fire. “Settle down, Elizabeth,” she instructed the baby. “Everything’s okay. No need to get worked up.” Matty had no idea if everything was okay or not, but the kid couldn’t understand her, anyway. She sat in the old maple rocker that had been around the Rocking D for as long as Matty could remember. Holding the baby in her lap, she took off the knit cap and began unzipping the fleece suit.

“What should I do?” Sebastian asked.

“She might be hungry.”

“Don’t look at me!”

Matty glanced up. “There’s no one else here to look at. Whose baby is this?”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Um…we can discuss that later, after we get her settled down.”

Interesting answer. She noticed his hair was a tousled mess. Either he’d been shoving his fingers into it a lot, or someone else had. Matty didn’t want to think about that possibility, although she could understand the temptation. Sebastian had the kind of thick, dark brown hair that made women dream of burying their fingers in it.

“I don’t know how we’re going to get her settled down if you’re not prepared to feed her,” she said. “Did her mother leave you some formula or something?”

He looked stunned. “God, you would think she would have, and diapers and clothes, and stuff! Babies need stuff.”

“Sebastian, you’re going to have to tell me before my curiosity kills me dead. How in hell did you end up with this kid tonight?”

“She was left on the porch.”

Matty’s hands stilled and she stared at him. “You’re kidding.”

“No.”

“I thought that sort of thing only happened in books.” She was fascinated that Sebastian wouldn’t look her in the eye. He was usually a look-you-in-the-eye sort of guy. An up-front person. And then she figured out why he might be evading her gaze, and her stomach clutched. “Is she yours?” She prayed he’d say no.

He ran his fingers through his hair again. “It’s…possible.”

God, it hurt. She’d imagined all this time that she knew what was going on with him. If he hadn’t turned to her after Barbara left, she’d drawn comfort from the belief that he hadn’t turned to anyone else, either. His date with Charlotte tonight had been tough to accept, but at least she’d known it was a first date, and she’d secretly hoped it would be a disaster.

Now she had to face the fact that he’d had a relationship with someone months ago and might have fathered a child with her. Sebastian had always wanted kids. Matty knew that had been a bone of contention in his marriage to Barbara. Matty had wanted kids, too.

Once upon a time she’d dreamed…but Sebastian didn’t think of her that way, obviously. He’d found what he needed somewhere else.

She swallowed the bitter taste in her mouth, but her words came out with a sharp edge. “So who’s the mother and why isn’t she here?”

“She’s the woman who was with us during the avalanche two years ago in Aspen, and I don’t know why she’s not here. Apparently she’s in some kind of trouble and had to park Elizabeth for a while.”

Matty remembered the ski trip on Sebastian’s birthday, right after the divorce had become final. Matty had been prepared to help him celebrate both events, but Travis, Boone and Nat had lured him off for a stag weekend. When she’d seen the televised news of the avalanche, she’d fought hysteria until she’d finally learned no one had been hurt.

Then last year the guys had gone back to Aspen on his birthday again. Matty had thought they were all trying to prove they weren’t afraid of some big old avalanche, but maybe Sebastian had simply wanted to celebrate his birthday with this woman. Really celebrate. “Did you know about the baby?”

He looked at her in shock. “You think I’d let a woman who was pregnant with my baby go through the whole thing alone? Of course I didn’t know!”

“Of course you didn’t.” Twenty minutes ago she wouldn’t have even asked, but twenty minutes ago she hadn’t thought he’d been carrying on with a woman in Aspen, either.

“Listen, can you figure out what to do with her? That crying is tearing me apart.”

Matty could see no point in getting angry, but she did anyway. She was furious with this Aspen woman for running away after “parking” her baby. Sebastian’s baby. Matty would sacrifice ten years of her life for the chance to be the mother of Sebastian’s baby, and the injustice of this situation made her see red.

But somebody had to think clearly in this two-some, and Sebastian didn’t appear to be in any shape to do it. “I suggest you bring in the two boxes from the front porch,” she said. “My guess is that we’ll find supplies in there.”

“There were boxes out there?”

“Two of them.” She couldn’t believe how rattled he was. He wasn’t the most observant man in the world, but even he would usually notice two cardboard boxes left on his front porch.

He leaped to the task with obvious eagerness, as if some action, any action, was better than standing around stewing. While he carried them in, plopped them on the floor and ripped into them, Matty finished taking the fleece sleeper off the baby. Sebastian’s baby. Every time Matty thought about it, pain stabbed her chest.

Much as she probably ought to, she couldn’t leave the subject alone. “Did she actually say you were the father?”

“No. Her note just asked me to be Elizabeth’s godfather until she could come back for her.” He crouched beside the boxes, sorting through the contents. “Hey, everything’s in here. Formula, diapers, clothes. Even a book on taking care of babies. And there’s an envelope.” He tore it open and scanned the contents. “Instructions. Birth certificate. Medical records. Some sort of notarized thing giving me permission to have her treated if she gets sick.”

Matty’s tiny hope that the baby wasn’t his began to die. “Sounds as if she means for you to keep her for a while,” she said softly.

He didn’t acknowledge hearing her. “Okay, here’s what she says about feeding. The milk’s in cans, and she’s already sterilized some bottles and nipples, but she has instructions for how to do it when these run out.” Sebastian grabbed up a can and the package of sterilized bottles and nipples. “I’ll handle this in the kitchen. Keep rocking her. I think that helps.”

“Wash your hands!” Matty called after him. She wasn’t sure if rocking helped calm Elizabeth, but it helped calm her. She couldn’t imagine what was wrong with this ditzy Aspen woman. Sebastian was the guy to run to if you had problems, not away from. If he’d accidentally fathered a child, he’d want to do the right thing. If he had any feeling for the mother, or maybe even if he didn’t, he’d want to get married and provide the kid with a name and a matched set of parents.

Any woman who didn’t realize that, especially after knowing him well enough to make love to him, had to be terminally stupid. She didn’t deserve Sebastian or this baby.

He came back in less time than Matty would have expected, but then she remembered Fleafarm’s huge litter ten years ago—more pups than faucets. He’d had to fill baby bottles a lot that spring.

He handed her the formula. “Do you know how to do this?”

“I’ll muddle through. I don’t think it’s rocket science.” She took the bottle. At first the baby was too upset and refused to latch on, but gradually she seemed to understand what was being offered and accepted the nipple.

Silence.

Except for George Strait singing a love song and the crackling of the fire, both of which reminded Matty of what had been planned for this evening. She hoped the baby had kept things from progressing very far.

Sebastian let out a heavy sigh. Then he picked up the sheaf of instructions and sat down in a wing chair facing Matty. He flipped through the papers and took out one. “She was born on January twenty-ninth, which makes her almost two months old.”

Matty didn’t have to work very hard to figure it out. Elizabeth had been conceived on or near Sebastian’s birthday celebration in Aspen last year. She looked up from the tiny baby to gaze at him. “You’re quite a piece of work, you know that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Everybody around here felt so sorry for you because you were having a tough time getting back into the dating game after the divorce. They were so tickled that you finally invited a woman over for dinner, for crying out loud.” Matty hadn’t been tickled, but the rest of the valley had seemed overjoyed. “Meanwhile, you’ve been sowing all sorts of wild oats with some fellow avalanche survivor in Aspen.”

He tensed. “I have not been sowing all sorts of wild oats. I’m not even sure I sowed any.”

“Then what’s this all about?”

His face darkened to a dusky rose. “It’s just that I’m not sure. We were all tanked that night, all of us except Jessica.”

Jessica. Matty hated the name on principle. “Are you saying you can’t remember if you used protection?”

“I can’t remember if I made love to her, period.”

Matty hated this subject, but she had to know the truth, and she was growing impatient with Sebastian’s dense attitude. “Look, you probably did. It was your birthday. It’s logical that if you had something going with her, you’d feel like…celebrating.”

“That’s just it. I didn’t have something going with her. We’re just friends. When you survive something like an avalanche together, you see what people are made of. Jessica has guts.” He paused. “Or so I thought.”

“Mmm.” Matty deliberately kept her response neutral, but a woman with guts didn’t desert her baby, in her estimation.

Sebastian seemed to be considering the same subject. Finally he shook his head in bewilderment. “Beats me how she could do this.”

“You still haven’t explained what happened that might make you the father.”

“Well, we really partied that night at the ski lodge—Travis, Boone, Jessica and me. Our avalanche reunion gig, we called it. We’d hoped Nat could make it, but he had some conflict at the last minute. Anyway, Jessica was staying at the lodge, because she works there as a reservation clerk, and we’d rented a cabin nearby, but not close enough to walk. We were so blitzed Jessica drove us home so we wouldn’t end up in a snowbank.”

“And?”

He blushed even deeper. “Well, you know how it is.”

“’Fraid not.”

“We were all flirting with her for the hell of it, acting like guys, but it didn’t mean anything. At least for me it didn’t. She helped each one of us to bed, and I vaguely remember trying to kiss her.”

Matty braced herself. “And after the kiss?”

“I don’t remember anything after that.”

She warned herself not to hope. “Then how can you assume you’re the father of this kid?”

“Why else would she ask me to be the godfather?”

“A million reasons.” Matty couldn’t stem the tide of hope. “You’re a good friend. You’re steady. You have the resources to handle this sort of responsibility. You’re caring. You’re gentle. You’re—”

“Clueless! I don’t know the first thing about babies!”

“So that’s why she sent the kid with an instruction manual.” Matty felt incredibly lighter. Just friends, he’d said. He couldn’t even remember the experience, if there had been an experience to remember. Elizabeth wasn’t the product of a torrid love affair. At the most, she’d been conceived in a passing moment he couldn’t even recall. Matty smiled down at Elizabeth. Maybe this wasn’t such a disaster, after all.

Sebastian watched Matty feeding the baby. She didn’t seem completely at ease doing it, but she appeared reasonably competent. Besides that, she looked very nice with that baby in her arms. Softer, somehow. She’d left her blond hair down around her shoulders tonight—that could be part of it. Usually she kept it tied out of the way with a bandanna, or twisted into a single braid.

He’d always thought Matty should have kids, but Butch couldn’t have them and he wasn’t the kind of guy who’d consider adopting. Butch. Sebastian’s gut always tightened when he thought about his late, great neighbor. He’d considered him a good friend. He’d mourned his death after Butch accidentally flew his Cessna into a mountain.

Unfortunately, for her parting shot, Barbara had ruined his memories of Butch by revealing their long-standing affair. Sebastian didn’t think Matty knew about that, and he wasn’t ever planning to tell her. He wished Barbara had kept the information to herself, except that it made the divorce easier to accept.

Matty had deserved better than Butch, Sebastian thought as she leaned over Elizabeth and looked into the baby’s eyes. Matty had the most honest blue eyes he’d ever seen. He’d trust Matty with his life, he realized with some surprise. He’d never thought in those terms before, and it startled him.

He could count on one hand the people he’d place that kind of trust in—Nat Grady, Travis Evans, Boone Conner…and Matty Lang. Not long ago he might have included Jessica in that number, but this baby thing made him wonder if he knew her at all. Leaving a two-month-old child didn’t seem to be in character with the Jessica he remembered.

Matty was studying the baby, as if to find some clue about her daddy’s identity. Sebastian was plenty curious about the baby’s looks, himself. Now that she wasn’t all red and screaming, maybe he’d recognize something.

Setting the papers on the lamp table, he got up and walked over to Matty. “Can you tell the color of her eyes?” He hunkered down next to the rocker, balancing himself with one hand on the arm of the chair.

“They could be gray, could be blue. It’s hard to tell.”

He leaned closer and looked into the baby’s eyes. They looked disturbingly familiar. Damn, but they could be the same color as his. This little bundle could be his daughter. His. His stomach twisted. This wasn’t the way he pictured bringing a child into the world, abandoned by her mother and thrust upon a father who didn’t know what the hell he was doing.

“What color are Jessica’s eyes?” Matty asked.

He wrestled his thoughts away from visions of doom.

“Um…let’s see. Brown? Maybe brown. I’m not real sure.” He liked the way Matty smelled, he thought as he compared her light scent to Charlotte’s overpowering perfume. Holding Matty wouldn’t force a guy to wear a gas mask. Holding Matty. Now there was an intriguing thought. She’d probably knock him from here to kingdom come. Or worse, she’d laugh.

She turned toward him with a smile. “Well, that settles it. You’re not carrying a torch for this woman.”

“No, I’m not, but why are you suddenly so sure?” It must be the episode with Charlotte that had him thinking crazy. All that kissing earlier in the evening had him looking at Matty’s wide, generous mouth and wondering how she’d be to kiss. Talk about crazy. This was Matty, a woman he’d known for ten years. Maybe he was only seeking a distraction from his morbid thoughts about this kid.

“A man in love knows the exact color of his lady’s eyes.”

“Is that right?” He’d always gotten a kick out of the definite way she put things, as if there could be no doubt in anyone’s mind that she was absolutely, positively correct. He could use some of that comforting certainty right now. “And how did you come to learn that particular fact?”

“I read.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that. There’s a thick book in that box I’d love to have you dig into.”

Her smile faded. “Now, wait a minute, Sebastian.”

He muttered a soft curse. “Sorry. That was clumsy. I didn’t mean to imply that I expected anything more of you than you’ve already done.”

“Didn’t you?”

He sighed and pushed himself upright. “I don’t know what I mean. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” He gestured toward the two boxes. “From the looks of this, Jessica’s not coming back tomorrow.”

“No, I don’t think she is.” She hesitated. “Have you considered…taking her to Canon City and…turning her over to—”

“No!”

Elizabeth jerked away from the bottle and started to cry.

“Oh, hell.”

“You scared her.” Matty tried to get the baby to return to the bottle, but she refused. Hands curled into fists, she beat the air and wailed.

The baby’s cries scratched along Sebastian’s nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard. He clenched his jaw, feeling helpless and inadequate.

“Maybe she has gas,” Matty said. “She probably swallowed a lot of air with all that crying.”

“Well, I can tell you this much, she’s too damned little for Tums.”

“Take the bottle.” Matty handed it to him and lifted Elizabeth, positioning her over her shoulder. The baby kept crying as Matty patted and stroked her back.

“Maybe I should hire a nurse.” The idea of a strange woman taking up residence in his house depressed the heck out of him, but it might be the only solution.

“Maybe.” Matty patted a little harder and gradually Elizabeth stopped crying. Then she let loose with a huge belch.

“My God!” Sebastian stared at the baby.

Matty grinned at him. “Delicate little thing, isn’t she?”

“I doubt Travis could make that much noise, and he’s put in hours of practice.” He smiled back at Matty. He’d become so used to her that he hadn’t really looked at her in a long time. But tonight, for some reason, he noticed that she was a pretty woman. Very pretty.

As she held his gaze, her smile faltered. “Listen, maybe you’d rather have a nurse, someone trained to handle a little baby, but I’d be willing…that is, I know I’m not experienced at this, but if you—”

“Are you offering to help me?” He’d never have had the nerve to ask for that kind of commitment. After all, she had as many chores and obligations as he did. But it was what he’d wanted, without fully realizing it, ever since he’d brought the baby into the house. “Because if you are offering, I’m accepting. I don’t want a stranger taking care of Elizabeth if you’re available.”

She took a deep breath and looked straight into his eyes. “I’m available.”

He didn’t think she’d meant that the way it had sounded. He wouldn’t take it the way it sounded, either. Funny, though, how his pulse had picked up at the thought of Matty being…available. He was turning into a nutcase. He needed to get a grip before he found himself propositioning every woman he ran across.

He cleared his throat. “Thank you.”

3

IF MATTY KNEW any good shrinks, she would be in the market for having her head examined. For two solid years she’d mooned over Sebastian Daniels while he’d remained oblivious. Two years in a row he’d run off to Aspen with the guys for his birthday, and he’d admitted to at least flirting with this woman, even if he hadn’t done more than that. Then for his first real date after the divorce, he’d invited Charlotte Crabtree up to the house, not Matty.

Yet all he had to do was look confused and desperate, and good old Matty Lang came running. Still, she wasn’t willing to let another woman take care of this abandoned baby, especially if it turned out to be Sebastian’s.

“We need to make a plan.” She stood, gingerly supporting this unfamiliar bundle against her shoulder, and started toward the dining room. “But first you’d better dig around and find the diaper supplies and the instructions for changing this little girl’s britches. I’m sure she must need it by now.”