A Baby on the Ranch

He stepped forward and moved from the shadows. Katherine immediately spotted something nestled in the crook of his arm. A step closer to the light and her eyes zeroed in on a bouquet of pink roses wrapped in green cellophane paper.

“Uh, what are those for?” she asked bluntly.

A lazy grin spread over his face. “I was hoping a dozen roses would help you to forgive me.”

Dumbfounded, she stared at him. She’d only known this man for a few hours! Walt had dated her for months and she’d never seen flowers from him. Or, for that matter, any man.

“Forgive you? You didn’t do anything. You were simply a messenger.”

“I upset you last night. Believe me, Katherine, that wasn’t my intention.”

How could she turn him away from the door now? Not that it had been her intention to send him on his way. But she’d been telling herself all evening that if he showed up, her best recourse would be to send him away. But how could she shut the door on a face like his? Especially when he was holding the most beautiful roses she’d ever seen.

A gust of freezing wind whipped around him and tugged at the lapels of her robe. Clutching the fabric against her throat, she said, “You’d better come in before we both freeze to death.”

He quickly stepped inside and she got a faint whiff of aftershave and leather. The scents were as masculine as the man himself, and she realized with a guilty start that, compared to Lonnie Corteen, her baby’s father had been more boy than man.

“I hope I’m not disturbing you,” he said as he walked to the center of the small room. “Were you getting ready to go out?”

Her, go out? The question was almost laughable. She’d never been a go-out person. Even during her relationship with Walt, the two of them had rarely gone out for dinner or any sort of entertainment. She’d always been a loner and he’d been more than happy to go along with her choice of the quiet life. That is, until he’d learned about the baby. Then he’d not been happy about anything. Especially her.

Carefully locking the door behind her, she turned to him. “No. I…I’m afraid I just got out of the bath. Would you, uh, excuse me while I go get dressed?”

Lonnie was trying to be polite and not stare, but he couldn’t quite keep his eyes off her. She was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen in that old yellow robe that clung to her breasts and the baby she was carrying. Her long dark hair was wet and lay in curled ringlets upon her shoulders. A soft pink color washed her cheeks and lips, and her skin gleamed with tiny beads of moisture.

“Sure. Take your time. I’ll just make myself comfortable.” He glanced down at the roses. “What about these? If you’ll tell me where to find a vase, I’ll put them in water for you.”

He was sure he wasn’t the sort of man she would associate with flowers. His big hands were made for collaring criminals, or reining in a high-spirited horse, not clutching the fragile stem of a rose.

She shot him an apologetic look. “I don’t have a vase. I did. But I accidentally broke it. I have a big Mason jar in the cabinet where I store the glasses. You might use that,” she suggested.

“Fine. That’ll be dandy. You go on now and get dressed. I’ll take care of these.”

Nodding, she turned on her bare feet and hurried out of the room. Lonnie went to the tiny kitchen and found the Mason jar. As he filled it with water and plopped in the roses, he figured he’d made a mistake at the grocery store where he’d picked these up. He should have gotten a poinsettia. Thanksgiving was only a couple of weeks away. The seasonal flower would have been more fitting. But the roses had looked more romantic to him. Not that he had romantic designs on Katherine McBride. No, sir. He wasn’t about to let himself get that starry-eyed sickness that turned men into fools. But heck, all women liked roses, didn’t they? And he needed her in a soft mood if he was ever going to get her to listen to the Ketchums’ side of things.

Who are you kidding, Lonnie? You got her the roses because you wanted to see her face light up. You wanted to do something special just for her.

Ignoring the mocking little voice, Lonnie went to sit on the couch. His hat was resting on his knee and the toe of his boot was tapping the air when Katherine finally returned to the living room wearing a pair of black slacks and a pink turtleneck sweater. Her damp hair was fastened at the nape of her neck with a tortoiseshell clip, but she hadn’t bothered to put on any shoes. Her pearly red toenails peeped out at him from beneath the hem of her slacks.

Rising to his feet, he clutched his black felt hat between both hands. “Thank you for agreeing to see me, Katherine. I really wasn’t sure you’d let me in.”

Katherine’s gaze swiveled over to the jar of roses he’d placed in the center of the small wooden dining table. The blossoms were so pretty, like a ray of bright sunshine on a cold, dark day.

Suddenly Katherine felt more awkward than she could ever remember feeling and the baby must have sensed her unease because he was kicking like an acrobat. She smoothed a hand over the rolling movement beneath her belly. “I’m sorry I was so hateful to you last night. That’s not normally my nature, Mr. Corteen. I guess—”

“It’s not Mr. Corteen,” he interrupted.

She pulled her eyes back to his lean face. “Okay. Sheriff.”

He stepped forward and she watched his big fingers slowly move the hat round and round between his hands. “It’s not Sheriff, either. Call me Lonnie. Everybody else does.”

She doubted his subordinates called him Lonnie, but she wasn’t going to bring that to his attention. She already felt as if she was getting too personal with this man. Or maybe it was just her thoughts that were getting too personal. Either way, she could hardly keep her eyes off him. His presence was just too strong, too sexy for a woman to ignore.

“Okay, Lonnie. As long as you’ll accept my apology.”

A slow smile spread across his face, and Katherine felt something inside her begin to melt like butter on a hot biscuit.

“Let’s forget all that and start over,” he suggested. “Have you eaten supper?”

She shook her head. “Not yet. I haven’t had time to get any sort of meal together.”

“Then let’s go out and eat,” he suggested. “My treat. Anything you’d like.”

Tilting her head to one side, she took a moment to contemplate his invitation. “Hmm. Flowers and dinner. Sounds like you’re trying to charm me. I wonder why.”

He let out a casual chuckle, but inside he was wondering if Katherine was right. Was he trying to charm this woman? If he was, then he needed to quit it and fast. He and women didn’t mix. Not romantically. They liked him as a friend, not a lover. And there wasn’t any reason to think that Katherine would be any different.

“There’s no charm about it,” Lonnie said. “I’m hungry and I hate to eat alone. We could both sit here and talk with our stomachs growling. But that really wouldn’t make much sense, now would it?”

Put like that, it wouldn’t make much sense. And it would be nice to eat something other than what she scrounged up in her own little kitchen, she decided.

“Not much,” she agreed with a tentative smile. “Just give me a few moments to put on my shoes.”

“What about your hair?” he asked, his eyes traveling over the curling tendrils framing her face. “Maybe you should dry it a little before you go out. You wouldn’t want to get a cold. Especially in your condition.”

Once again her lips parted with surprise. The men she’d known had never been thoughtful about such little things, and it took her aback that this big lawman would consider her welfare in such a nice way.

“Well, I wouldn’t want you to have to wait,” she said.

He gave her a lopsided smile. “Take your time. While you’re gone, I’ll see if I can make friends with your cats.”

Katherine hurried to the bedroom and pulled on a pair of ankle boots, then rushed to the bathroom and plugged in the hair dryer. With it blowing on high speed, she hastily brushed through her hair, while asking herself what on earth she was doing agreeing to go out with a virtual stranger.

Because he knows things about your family that might be important.

Snorting under her breath at the little voice in her head, she yanked the brush through a mass of tangles. There was no secret surrounding her family. It was Celia. That’s all the family she’d ever had.

Well, he is nice.

So were a lot of other men, she mentally argued. That didn’t necessarily make it wise for her to go out to dinner with any of them.

He brought you roses. Roses! No man has ever done that just for you!

Snap out of it, Katherine, she silently commanded. A flower is just a flower. You can buy them on most any street corner. Besides, deep down you know he only brought them to you because he wants something from you. That was the way with all men. And this one was no different.

But for some reason she wanted to think Lonnie Corteen was different. She wanted to think he really was concerned about her emotional and physical well-being. Yeah, she thought dismally, just like she’d wanted to believe that Walt had really loved her.

Of the two cats, the yellow tabby was the most sociable. By the time Katherine had returned to the living room, the animal was purring and rubbing his arched body against Lonnie’s leg.