LITMIR.BIZ

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cologne—if she had to explain it, she would have said it was the scent of a real man. On the other hand, it was the scent of Waylon Fitzgerald—notorious father at large.

      He didn’t reach for the girl; instead, he leaned back on his heels as though being that close to a hurt child made him deeply uncomfortable.

      “Does your back hurt, sweetie?” Christina asked.

      Winnie shook her head and stood up, being careful not to put any weight on her arm. The area around her wrist was red and had already started to take on a faint bruise. It had to be broken, yet amazingly the little girl had stopped crying.

      “What’s your name, kid?” Waylon asked.

      “Winnie. I gonna be three.”

      “You’re such a big gir1.” He looked over at Christina. “Is she yours?”

      She snorted at how ridiculous his question was. “I’m her guardian.”

      Waylon frowned as though he was trying to connect the dots. “So you are...”

      She ignored his question. As far as she was concerned, he didn’t need to know her. He’d missed his chance to know her and her family when he’d chosen to elope with Alli. He’d never cared before—and he didn’t need to start now.

      Eloise and Merle Fitzgerald made their way over to them as the helicopter disappeared into the distance. Eloise looked torn between worry and excitement. “Waylon!” she called, waving. “Hey, kiddo!”

      Christina stood and wrapped Winnie in her arms, holding her against her legs as she chuckled at Eloise’s welcome—calling Waylon a kiddo was about as fitting as calling a wolf a Chihuahua.

      Waylon didn’t look back at them as he made his way over to his mother and gave her a solid hug and a quick peck to the cheek. He turned to his father and shook the man’s hand. Apparently, Waylon was the serious kind, a guy who was all business. His father deserved a hug—even if Waylon thought he was too much of a man for that kind of thing.

      She sighed as she thought of all the reasons she had to keep the secret about Winnie from him. He definitely wouldn’t be as good a parent as she was—and Winnie deserved the best care she could get.

      Eloise glanced over at her and, almost as though she could read Christina’s mind, gave her a slight raise of the brow before she knelt down to talk to Winnie. “You gonna be okay, pumpkin? That was a pretty big fall, but you were so brave.”

      “Nana, I tough.” Winnie smiled, the action tight from pain, but thankfully Eloise’s compliments were taking her mind off her arm.

      “Nana?” Waylon interrupted.

      “Oh, yeah.” Eloise waved him off, but from the way she didn’t answer her son’s question, Christina could tell that she was also questioning exactly if, how and when they should give him the news. Eloise turned back to Winnie. “Let’s go see Dr. Richards. I bet he would like to hear about how brave you were. Okay, pumpkin?”

      “I want Wy-ant.” Winnie said, giving Eloise her special brand of puppy-dog eyes—the ones that worked on everyone who lived at the ranch and especially Christina.

      For a brief second, Christina felt guilty for not telling Waylon then and there about Winnie being his. It wasn’t really her secret to tell, and even if it were, the revelation would change everything—he would likely want to step into his role as a father and take Winnie away from Dunrovin. Even the thought of more change broke her heart.

      She glanced over at him, hoping he would crack a smile—anything that would make him seem like a man who deserved to be Winnie’s guardian. He just looked back at her, a solemn look on his face. So much for that.

      Perhaps all she could hope for was that he wouldn’t want to take the girl away. Maybe he would want his daughter to stay at the ranch while he continued to roam the world, but it wasn’t a risk she was willing to take. She loved the girl entirely too much to risk her future on Mr. Serious and a life that he most likely didn’t want.

      “I’ll call Wyatt,” Christina offered, but in truth it was just an excuse to get away from the infuriatingly handsome army man.

      Sometimes, when things were this confusing, the only thing to do was run.

      * * *

      ALL WAYLON WANTED to do was get out of this place. He hated hospitals. Thanks to his time in Iraq, there was no place he dreaded more. If a guy was in the hospital there, bad things had gone down.

      Truth be told, in Iraq, the name of the game was bad things.

      Every second there was another enemy, another battle to fight, another person to protect. And here, back in the civilian world, no one seemed to understand how ugly the real world was. Waylon’s brother Wyatt tapped his foot as he sat next to him in the waiting room, agitated that they hadn’t been invited to the examination room with Winnie, where they were going over the results of the X-rays.

      “She’ll be okay, man,” Waylon said. “Kids are resilient. And, honestly, except for the bruise, she seemed fine. Who knows, maybe her wrist ain’t broken.”

      Wyatt nodded. “That kid’s tougher than you think. If she cried, there had to be something majorly wrong. I’ve seen her get stepped on by a horse and barely bat an eyelash.”

      He’d nearly forgotten how tough even the youngest members of the family were expected to be. There was no time for weakness when they were out checking on cattle during calving season or when they were breaking a new horse. If there was weakness, animals would sense it, and undoubtedly use it to their advantage. The ability to disguise pain was a vital part of existence out here in the wilds of Montana, where it often came down to survival of the fittest. Since he’d left three years ago after his divorce, he’d barely thought about the ranch—and he had completely forgotten how much Mystery, Montana, felt like a throwback to a bygone era. It really was a different culture, a tiny microcosm of society where the values revolved around family and community.

      It was a different world than the one he’d been in overseas.

      It surprised him, but for a moment, a feeling of sadness and nostalgia overtook him. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed home. Well, he’d missed some things about home. He glanced over toward the door that led to the examination rooms, where the blonde and his mother were with Winnie. The blonde seemed to hate his guts. When he took off again, he’d miss a lot of things, but her hate wasn’t one of them.

      Hopefully he had time to make her change her mind about him—he’d overcome worse odds with women before. Heck, Alli had really hated him when they’d first met. She had been waiting tables at the little diner in Mystery, the Combine, making money before moving along to the next town. The first time she’d seen him, he could have cut glass with her sharp glare. He’d loved that about Alli, the way she was so strong and always ready to stand up for herself. So many women just let men walk all over them, but not Alli. Then again, it was that same strength that had pushed him away and led her into the arms of another man, and then another, and another.

      “Have you heard anything new about Alli?” Waylon asked, trying not to notice the way his gut clenched when he thought about all the hard times he’d gone through with the woman.

      Wyatt shifted in his standard-issue plastic hospital chair. “They have her car at the impound lot. We’re holding it until we get the full forensics report. But thanks to Lyle, it may take a while.”

      “Lyle is still working for you guys? Can’t you find anyone better?” he teased his brother, but he knew exactly how it worked with small-town politics—where the good ole boy system was still alive and well.

      “Lyle isn’t all bad,” Wyatt said with a laugh. “Though he probably could use a refresher course or two. He did find the photos that pointed us toward Alli in the case of Bianca’s murder.”

      “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.”

      “You

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