Lonetree Ranchers: Colt. Kathie DeNosky

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      The baby started to whimper and clutch at her mother. Apparently their raised voices were upsetting her.

      “Would you like to have some juice, sweetie?” Kaylee asked, her voice once again soft and gentle as she rubbed the little girl’s back.

      The child nodded.

      “Let me get her settled down.” Kaylee’s voice was calm, but the look she gave him was pure defiance. “Then we’ll talk.”

      “You’re damned right we will,” he muttered, watching her carry her daughter—his daughter— into the kitchenette.

      His daughter.

      Colt’s chest swelled with a feeling he’d never before experienced. He was the daddy of a two-year-old child—a little girl who looked just like him. The thought caused a lump to form in his throat and made it hard as hell for him to drag air into his lungs.

      As the knowledge sank in, questions flooded his mind. How could Kaylee have done this to him? Why hadn’t she let him know that their only night together had made her pregnant?

      He wasn’t sure what her reasons had been, but he had every intention of finding out. Removing his cowboy hat, he set it down beside a tape player on a shelf by the door. He wasn’t going anywhere until Kaylee gave him some answers. And, he decided as he ran a frustrated hand through his thick hair, they’d better be damned good ones.

      Kaylee brushed past him to set Amber on the floor with her toys. He waited until she handed the toddler a small plastic glass he’d heard his sisters-in-law refer to as a sippy cup before he asked, “Were you ever going to tell me about her?”

      Kaylee picked up a mug from the coffee table. “No.”

      Shocked, Colt started to ask her why, but she stopped him by motioning for him to follow her into the kitchen. Walking behind her, he tried not to notice that her cutoff jeans hugged her cute little rear to perfection, or the fact that they exposed a lot more of her long, slender legs than they covered. When she reached up to get another coffee cup out of the cabinet for him, he swallowed hard. Her hot-pink tank top pulled away from the waistband of her cutoffs and gave him more than a fair view of her smooth, flat abdomen.

      He shook his head. What the hell was wrong with him? Kaylee had not only kept his only child a secret from him, she was Mitch’s little sister. And although Colt had given in to temptation once, he couldn’t—wouldn’t—let it happen again.

      Pouring them both a cup of coffee, she indicated that he should sit at the small table. When he lowered himself into a chair, she seated herself across from him so that she could watch their daughter play with a small teddy bear.

      “As far as I’m concerned, you never needed to know about Amber,” she said, glaring at him.

      Anger and confusion raced through him and he had to wait a moment before he could speak. Losing his cool wouldn’t net him the answers he needed.

      “Being pregnant was the reason you took that year off from school, wasn’t it?” he asked, suddenly understanding her evasive answers in the training room the night he’d been injured.

      “Yes.”

      “You should have told me,” he said, trying to keep his voice even. “I would have helped.”

      “I didn’t want or need your assistance.” Her voice shook with emotion. “I never wanted you to know about Amber.”

      “Why, Kaylee?” He’d never seen her this stubborn. But then, he was just as determined. “What made you think I didn’t have the right to know that I’d fathered a child?”

      “You gave up the right,” she said without looking at him. Her voice was a little more calm, but her words couldn’t have held more resolution.

      His own irritation won over his vow to remain coolheaded. “How the hell do you figure that?”

      “The morning after Mitch’s funeral I got the message loud and clear.” She met his gaze head-on and the mixture of hurt and resentment sparkling in her eyes stopped him cold. “You wanted nothing more to do with me. When I discovered I was pregnant, I assumed those feelings would encompass my baby, as well.”

      The guilt that had plagued him for the past three years increased tenfold. He’d not only slept with his best friend’s sister the night after they’d laid the man to rest, he’d taken her virginity. Colt knew that he’d handled things badly the morning after he’d made love to her, but he’d been so ashamed of his actions, he hadn’t been able to face himself let alone her.

      “Kaylee, that’s not the way it was. I—”

      “Oh, really?” she interrupted hotly. “Just how many times in the past three years have you tried to get in touch with me, Colt?”

      He didn’t think it was possible to feel lower than he already did, but Kaylee had just proven him wrong. “I know that if they handed out prizes for tactless jackasses, I’d win hands down. But there’s a reason—”

      “Too little, too late,” she said, rising to her feet. “I’m really not interested in hearing why you left that morning without waking me or even leaving a note.” She picked up his untouched coffee and poured it down the sink.

      “Hey, I’m not finished with—”

      “Yes, you are.” She walked to the door. “I’d appreciate it if you’d go now. All I’m interested in is you leaving Amber…and me alone. We’ve done just fine…without you.”

      He detected the hitch in Kaylee’s voice and knew she was fighting tears. The thought that he’d caused her such emotional pain made him feel physically ill.

      Taking a deep breath, he rose and followed her. He needed time to come to grips with everything that he’d learned in the past hour, as well as to figure out how to make Kaylee listen to him. “I think it would be best if we continue this conversation after we’ve both had a chance—”

      “No, Colt,” she said, shaking her head. “You gave up that chance three years ago when you left me behind without a backward glance. You got what you wanted, now let me have…what I want.”

      The single tear sliding down her pale cheek just about tore him apart. “What do you want, Kaylee?”

      She took a deep breath and impatiently wiped the droplet away with a trembling hand, then pointed toward the door. “I want you to walk out…the way you did that morning three years ago and…never look back.”

      “I can’t do that, honey,” he said, reaching out to wipe another tear from her satiny skin with the pad of his thumb. “I’ll be back tomorrow after we’ve both calmed down.”

      “Please…don’t.” Tears coursed down her cheeks unchecked as she stepped away from his touch. “It would be best…if you went back…to the Lonetree Ranch in Wyoming and forgot…we exist.”

      “That’s not going to happen,” Colt said gently.

      He picked up his Resistol and placed it on his head, then looked over at Amber playing quietly with her toys. She was curiously watching him. But СКАЧАТЬ