LITMIR.BIZ

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and make things right. He shook his head. He’d been ready to jump on that paramedic for his lack of respect toward her, yet, to his chagrin, he’d realized that he hadn’t acted any better. He’d snapped at her for no other reason than the fact that she’d witnessed him give in to the pain of a broken collarbone like some little kid.

      But when he’d gotten back on his feet, he’d gone to the Lazy S only to find that Kaylee had sold the ranch and moved to Oklahoma City shortly after Mitch had died. He’d had to resort to searching through the phone book to find her. Fortunately there’d only been one Kaylee Simpson listed in the area.

      The door suddenly opened as far as the security chain would allow. “I don’t care what you’re selling. I don’t want—” Kaylee stopped abruptly. “Colt?”

      Pushing the wide brim of his Resistol up with his thumb, he rocked back on his heels, chuckling at the recording of a snarling dog. “Does that tape of Kujo really chase off door-to-door salesmen?”

      She stared at him through the narrow opening as if she couldn’t quite believe her eyes. “W-what are you doing here?”

      He winced at her blunt tone. She sure didn’t seem very happy to see him. All things considered, he couldn’t say that he blamed her.

      Hoping to tease her into a better mood, he grinned. “Well, hello to you, too, brat. You want to shut off Kujo, now that you know it’s me and not somebody trying to sell a vacuum cleaner?”

      She turned away and the sound of the snarling dog ceased. “I’m sorry. Hello, Colt.”

      “Me see,” a little voice said a moment before a set of tiny fingers appeared around the edge of the door in an effort to open it wider.

      Colt frowned. “Do you have company?”

      “No, but this really isn’t a good time,” Kaylee said, prying the baby’s fingers from the door.

      The panic suddenly filling her violet eyes bothered him. A lot. “Are you all right, Kaylee?”

      She nodded. “I’m fine.”

      “Me see, Mommy,” the little voice insisted. “Me see.”

      “Not now, sweetie,” Kaylee said gently.

      Colt felt as though he’d been sucker punched. Kaylee had a child? Was she married?

      “We need to talk,” he said seriously.

      He told himself that Mitch would want Colt to make sure she was doing okay. But the truth was, he wanted to know what was going on.

      “I can’t imagine what you think we need to talk about.” She gave him a one-shouldered shrug, but he could tell from the tone of her voice that she was nervous as hell about something.

      “Come on, Kaylee,” he said, watching her closely. “I drove all the way down here from the Lonetree just to talk to you. The least you can do is give me five minutes.”

      Her defeated expression caused the air to lodge in his lungs. Something was definitely going on, and Colt had every intention of finding out what is was.

      “Kaylee?”

      She closed the door, released the chain, then swung it wide for him to step into the tiny apartment. “I’m sorry about the mess,” she said, pointing to the toys scattered on the floor in front of the couch. “I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

      Colt turned to tell her he was used to seeing toys scattered all over his two brothers’ homes, but the words died somewhere between his vocal cords and opened mouth. The baby riding Kaylee’s hip was a little girl with raven curls. Her face was buried shyly against Kaylee’s neck, but something about the child caused his scalp to prickle and his pulse to race.

      “Is she yours?” he asked cautiously.

      Kaylee stared at him for what seemed like an eternity before she slowly nodded. “Yes. This is my daughter, Amber.”

      At the sound of her name, the baby looked up, but when she saw him staring at her, she stuck one tiny index finger in her mouth and once again hid her face in Kaylee’s shoulder.

      The glimpse Colt had gotten hadn’t been much, but it was enough to see that the little girl’s eyes were blue. A vivid blue. His sisters-in-law, Annie and Samantha, called it “Wakefield blue.”

      His heart pounding against his ribs like a jungle drum, he had a hard time drawing air into his lungs. The child had to be around the same age as his brother Brant’s little boy, Zach. From there it didn’t take much for Colt to do the math.

      Swallowing hard, he asked, “She’s mine, isn’t she, Kaylee?”

      Colt watched her bite her lower lip to keep it from trembling. He knew the answer, but he needed to hear her tell him.

      “Kaylee?”

      She took a deep breath, then defiantly met his gaze. “Yes, Colt. Amber is your daughter, too.”

      Two

      “Dammit, Kaylee, why didn’t you tell me?” Colt demanded. Conflicting emotions twisted his gut and he had to force himself to take several deep breaths in an effort to stay calm. “Didn’t you think I had the right to know about my own daughter?”

      Anger flashed in her violet eyes. “No.”

      Colt wasn’t sure how he’d expected her to answer, but the vehemence in her tone surprised him. He’d never seen her this angry before.

      “Why not?” he asked, his own anger flaring.

      If anyone had the right to be pissed off here, it was him. Kaylee had been the one who kept him from knowing about his child.

      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

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