won’t need to call you. I’ve been handling things for three months,” she argued.
“Yes. But I’m here now.”
For several seconds they stood there, toe-to-toe. It was obvious that she didn’t want to give up her control. Maybe it was because of those soulless men she’d known. No matter. He sympathized but he couldn’t compromise with his son.
“I’ll call you if there’s an emergency,” she said.
Which wasn’t exactly the same thing, but it would do. He and Colleen were going to be tangling with each other for the entire time he was here, Dillon thought.
It should have made him angry. Instead he was intrigued.
Watch it, he told himself. This woman is fire.
Unfortunately, he seemed to be attracted to fire, because when she turned to leave he had an insane urge to call her back.
Dillon lay on the sleeper sofa the next morning and scrubbed one hand through his hair. He was tense and uneasy in more ways than one and none of them had much to do with the bumpy metal frame of the sleeper sofa biting into his back.
No, sleeping on Colleen’s porch last night, he had discovered that the walls of the house were thin. There might be a door separating him from the building, but with the porch only covered by a screen, he’d been privy to a view of the windows. Even with the extremely faint and undefined shadow showing through on her light-dimming window shade, he’d been able to tell that Colleen’s bedroom was just off to his left. He’d heard her humming and had been unable to think of anything except for the fact that she was getting ready for bed.
Heat had seared him as he’d tried to force himself to think about the business matters he needed to tend to when he had time tomorrow.
And when he’d awakened moments ago, his first instinct had been to look toward Colleen’s window. His first thought had been to wonder if she realized how her silhouette had fueled his fantasies.
Don’t be an idiot, he told himself. The woman had a ranch to run, a baby to take care of, employees to supervise and a clueless man to train as a father. She had too many things on her plate to add seduction to the list. Besides, there wasn’t a coy bone in her body that he could tell, and with her ranch located off the beaten path, no one would, under ordinary circumstances, ever see anything at all. If she even thought about the possibility that he’d caught a glimpse of her body’s outline on the shade, he knew she’d be appalled. She was already uneasy about him being in the house. Those pretty caramel eyes of hers might spark amber when she looked at him, but if not for Toby, she would never have let him into her house at all. This ranch was clearly a hideout for wounded women and Colleen’s reasons for mistrusting men seemed to go deep.
He understood her need to steer clear of unwise entanglements. Caring for Toby, making sure he had free and clear custody of Toby and preserving his business for Toby was all Dillon could concern himself with from now on.
With that admission, he shoved himself up off the couch, slipped on his jeans, got up and knocked on the door.
When Colleen opened it, she was wearing a white fluffy bathrobe that had seen better days but still reminded him that she had only recently been lying in bed. Her hair was slightly tousled as if some man had plunged his fingers into all those untamed curls. With that image, Dillon’s good intentions took a nosedive. Somehow he forced a good-morning smile to his lips.
She smiled back, even though he noticed that her hands were fidgeting with her belt.
“Where’s Toby?” he asked, trying to get his mind back on track.
“He’s a very early riser, so he’s already been up for a while and had his breakfast.”
Dillon frowned. “I should be doing that. Feeding him, I mean. I’ll have to get up earlier. I apologize.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t apologize. It’s your first full day of daddyhood. Besides, I love being the one to give him his first meal of the day. He’s so alert and fun to watch. Not that I won’t willingly turn the task over to you. You have the right, and yes, you need to get used to his hours, but for today, it’s fine. Millie’s reading to him.”
Dillon lifted a brow. “Isn’t he a little young for books?”
She laughed, the sound deep and husky and delicious. “You say that as if he’s already graduated to sneaking the underwear sections of the Sunday ads. Babies like to be cuddled, and while they’re being cuddled, they especially like listening to you and feeling your voice as it rumbles up through your body. Add in the bright colors of a picture book and you’ve got a winning activity. Plus, Millie loves reading to him as much as I do. She has children but they’re all grown and none of them want to have kids.”
An odd, sad sensation slipped through Dillon. “I’m lucky that you and Millie were the ones to take him in. Not every woman would have cared for him the way the two of you have.” Including, apparently, Toby’s mother.
“I think most people, when faced with a child in need, grow to love that child at least a little.”
“That hasn’t been my experience.”
She blinked, and he realized that he had let something slip that he had never shared, because he wasn’t referring only to Lisa’s treatment of Toby but his own childhood experiences. Bad move. It was the kind of remark that seemed to require an explanation, but he wasn’t prepared to share more than he had already offered, so he merely shook his head, dismissing his hasty words.
Colleen looked troubled but she merely nodded. “You’ll probably want to spend as much time as possible with Toby today. I think just being with him and letting him get used to you will be enough for one day. You’re the first male in his life, so after you’ve had breakfast and taken a shower or whatever else you need to do, I’ll let Millie know that you’re on dad duty until nap time. She’ll step in if he needs his diaper changed. Later today will be soon enough to tackle the big stuff.”
“You think I can’t handle it yet?”
Her lips curved up in an entrancing smile. “You told me you’d slept in the mud, so I’m sure you can handle a little mess. I’m just not sure if Toby’s ready to be traumatized by a crooked diaper yet.”
Dillon couldn’t help smiling back at her. “Already criticizing my skills, Colleen?”
“Everyone needs practice. Have fun.” With that, she turned toward the back of the house. When she came back a few minutes later, Dillon was finishing his breakfast. He looked up.
Colleen was wearing blue jeans that weren’t exceptionally tight, but that emphasized the length of her legs and the curve of her hips. The cherry-red shirt tucked into the jeans fit where a shirt should fit a woman. She was wearing some sort of green polished glass on a black satin cord around her neck, and he remembered seeing it yesterday, too. In fact, there seemed to be a lot of brightly colored polished glass in the house. Sun catchers and wind chimes hung here and there, the golds and reds and blues and greens turned warm by the light.
“I have to go into town for supplies,” she said, “but I’ll stop in before I head out onto the range again. Toby will go down in an hour or so. Then he’ll take another nap this afternoon, so if you have other things to do, that would be a good time to see to them.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll figure it out or I’ll ask Millie. Toby and I will be great. Everything’s fine.” Except for the fact that he had—again—noticed too many things about Colleen that he found attractive. What was wrong with him? He had no intention of getting into a long-term relationship with a woman again, so he needed to get this “problem” under control.
His phone rang, and Colleen gave him a wave as she headed for the door. Dillon looked down and wanted to swear. The call was from Lisa. She hadn’t called him since she’d asked for a divorce and even then she hadn’t called. He’d gotten the message in an e-mail.