The Colorado Kid Read online

  And although he had most of the basics of baby care down, he still needed to consult with someone about Elizabeth, and Matty was the person he trusted. Mostly they talked on the phone, but a few times he needed her to come over, and once he desperately required her help when he went shopping for diapers and formula.

  During those times they concentrated on the baby as best they could, but he ached with longing and he figured Matty did, too. Even without Elizabeth interrupting his sleep at odd hours, he wouldn’t have slept well. His nights were filled with dreams of Matty. Most were X-rated, which was frustrating enough, but the most heartbreaking ones featured Matty as the mother of her own child. Of their child. He awoke from those dreams with a pain so real that he groaned aloud.

  No doubt about it, he’d experienced the purest happiness he’d ever known with a woman during the brief time Matty had stayed at the Rocking D. And he had little hope that he’d ever recapture that happiness. Elizabeth was his daughter. He was sure of it.

  To add to his restless feeling, a warm breeze blew across the face of the Rockies, hinting at a spring that was still a couple of weeks away, but was definitely coming. He looked for buds on the aspens in the front yard and imagined he could see the bark swelling, but no green leaves appeared. At least one more snowstorm would probably hit before spring really took hold, but the air was fresh with promise when he stepped out on the porch every morning, and sexual urges rose in him like sap.

  In a week he’d be thirty-five-years old. Hell, he’d expected to be dealing with teenagers by this point in his life. Instead he spent his time taking care of one little baby who might or might not be his. He wanted more children. With Matty.

  He’d never planned to have Elizabeth this long without knowing more about her parentage and Jessica’s problem. Jessica had called once more, but after he’d told her the baby was fine, she’d hung up. Sure, he’d traced the call, but a pay phone in Phoenix wasn’t much to go on. It looked more and more as if he’d have to hire a private investigator.

  Out of necessity, he’d worked out a routine for taking care of Elizabeth, and a baby carrier strapped to his back allowed him to pack her along while he handled his chores. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she was still here when the cattle arrived and he needed to start riding again. He’d cross that bridge when he came to it. For now he took things day by day, hoping that Jessica would show up.

  And he wanted her to show up. Of course he did. He needed to know for sure if he was Elizabeth’s father. But if Jessica did come back and tell him the baby wasn’t his, and that she was ready to take Elizabeth, Sebastian wasn’t sure how he’d feel about that. It would mean he was free to go to Matty, but it would mean losing Elizabeth.

  Three weeks ago he would have accepted that, probably with some relief that he was off the hook. But now…now was a different story. Elizabeth recognized him, and her little face lit up when she saw him coming. Smiles had become laughter, and she cooed to beat the band when he played with her. She’d started making sounds that some day would be words. Words like daddy.

  And then, tonight when he’d put her in the crib for a minute while he checked on dinner, he’d returned to find that she’d rolled over.

  “Hey, super baby!” He scooped her up, praising her to the skies while she gurgled happily in his arms. Cradling her against his chest, he hurried across the bedroom and grabbed the phone. Matty had to hear about this.

  He waited impatiently for her to pick up and didn’t even bother identifying himself. “Matty? She rolled over.”

  “Really?” Matty laughed with delight. “Front to back, or back to front?”

  “Back to front.” Sebastian was so excited he was breathing fast. “But I’ll bet she could do it the other way. Matty, she’s so smart. She’s the smartest little baby in this valley.”

  “I could have told you that.” Matty’s warm voice poured over him. “Put her on.”

  “Here she is.” As they’d done several times before, Sebastian held the receiver to Elizabeth’s ear. As he listened to Matty congratulate Elizabeth on her milestone, the baby grinned and wiggled in his arms.

  He wanted Matty there. She should be there, sharing this moment with him. Damn, but he needed her. Nothing about this arrangement felt right to him anymore, and in a flash he knew with absolute certainty that he could never marry Jessica. Which meant—oh, God, he wasn’t sure what it meant, except that he needed to see Matty tonight, needed to tell her—

  The doorbell rang.

  A chill of premonition ran up his spine. Jessica. Maybe the moment of truth had arrived.

  He brought the receiver back to his ear. “Somebody’s at the door,” he said. “I’ll call you back.”

  “Okay.” She sounded wary, as if she’d picked up on his tense reaction to the doorbell.

  “You’ll be home?”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay. ’Bye.” He hung up the phone as the doorbell pealed again. Taking a deep breath, he headed for the front door.

  Elizabeth kept her head up really well now, and she looked around with interest as he walked with her. Fleafarm trotted beside him, on alert.

  Sebastian had developed the habit of drawing a section of curtain aside and glancing out the front window to see who was standing on the porch before he opened the door. Normally, country living didn’t require so much caution and he resented the need for it, but until he knew what dangers might threaten the baby, he would be careful.

  When he drew back the curtain and peered out, he blinked in disbelief and hurried to the door. He flung it open and stared at Travis Evans, who stood on the porch holding the biggest stuffed purple giraffe Sebastian had ever seen. With yellow spots. It was nearly as tall as Travis, who was close to six feet.

  Travis stared back, but his light brown eyes weren’t focused on Sebastian. All his attention was riveted on Elizabeth, and there was no surprise in his expression.

  Sebastian got a sick feeling in his gut.

  Fleafarm, one of Travis’s devoted female admirers, dashed through the door with a yip of delight.

  “Hey, Fleafarm.” Travis took his gaze from the baby long enough to lean down and scratch behind the dog’s ears while Fleafarm wiggled happily.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Sebastian asked, hoping for a different explanation than the one he was afraid was coming.

  “Oh, I was in the neighborhood.” With a final pat for the dog, Travis walked through the door carrying the giraffe by the neck.

  “I take it that’s not a birthday present for me.”

  “Nope. It’s for Lizzie, there.”

  So he knew her name. The sick feeling in Sebastian’s stomach grew. “Who told you about her?”

  “A little birdie.” Propping the giraffe against the wall, he took off his Stetson and put it on the stuffed animal.

  “Matty?” He hoped it was Matty. In fact, logically it could be Matty. Travis might have called to check on the schedule for picking up the cattle, and found out about Elizabeth that way. But that wouldn’t explain why he was here, Sebastian thought, as his gut churned some more.

  “No, not Matty.” Travis pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his jacket pocket. “I would’ve been here sooner, but this got delivered to the wrong address and I just got it three days ago. It’s from Jessica.”

  Sebastian clutched Elizabeth tighter as he eyed the familiar-looking stationery. Until that moment, he hadn’t realized how much he’d clung to the belief that this precious little bundle was his daughter. “And?” His voice was hoarse with strain.

  Travis ran his fingers through his wavy brown hair. His tawny gaze lost some of it’s usual cockiness. “She wrote to me and asked me to be the godfather to this baby until she can come get her, but we all know what that means. It’s mine.”

  Relief roared through Sebastian. “The hell it does! Let me see that.” He snatched the paper from Travis and quickly skimmed the message:

  Dear Travis,

  I’m co
unting on you to be a godfather to my daughter Elizabeth until I can return for her. Your playful approach to life is just what she needs right now. I’ve left her with Sebastian at the Rocking D. Believe me, I wouldn’t do this if I weren’t in desperate circumstances.

  In deepest gratitude,

  Jessica

  Sebastian read the message again and swore softly.

  “See, I figured out what must’ve happened,” Travis said. “That night we all got trashed at the avalanche reunion party I made a pass at her, when she was tucking me into bed. The rest is hazy, but I figure Jessica and I did the nasty. I was too drunk to use birth control. Hell, I was too drunk to remember doing it, but apparently my automatic pilot works pretty good.”

  Sebastian gazed at him. No telling what was going on here, but at least Jessica hadn’t out-and-out named Travis as the father. He handed the note back. “Hang on for a minute. I need to get something. Oh, and you might as well take off your jacket and grab a beer if you want one. We have some talking to do.”

  “Oh.” Travis scratched the back of his head. “Then I need to use your phone to call Deb and cancel.”

  “You made a date for tonight? When you were coming to town to claim this baby as yours?”

  Travis shrugged. “I brought her a giraffe, didn’t I? It’s not like I’d know what the hell to do with her, so I didn’t figure I’d be the designated baby-sitter. I’m sort of surprised to see you doing the honors, to be honest. I thought you’d get somebody like Matty to take over.”

  Which he had, at first. But that gave him all the more reason to resent Travis’s casual remark. “She has a lot better things to do than worry about this baby, you know,” he said. “For your information, Matty is a very talented woman, not just some handy person you can rope in as a nursemaid when the occasion arises.”

  “Whoa!” Travis gave him a puzzled glance. “I didn’t say she wasn’t talented. I know Matty’s fantastic. I work for her every summer, remember? Matter of fact, I always wondered why you never considered…well, never mind. That’s none of my business.”

  “Damned right it isn’t,” Sebastian muttered as he headed back to his bedroom, Elizabeth bouncing on his shoulder.

  “Baby-sitting makes you grouchy, Sebastian.” Travis followed him. “Hey, Lizzie! You are a cute little thing, aren’t you? Figures you would be. You’ve got the Evans’ hair.”

  “Hell if she does,” Sebastian mumbled. He couldn’t figure out why Jessica had dragged Travis into this, but he didn’t like it one damn bit. And the two of them would need to get some things straight pronto.

  To be fair, maybe Jessica hadn’t wanted Sebastian to handle this all by himself. Before too long it would become a problem—when he had to start running cattle, as he did every summer. Maybe Jessica thought that Travis, being one of his best buddies and a good friend of hers, too, would be the logical one to share the burden.

  Still, Sebastian didn’t care for the way she’d worded Travis’s note. Your playful approach to life is just what she needs right now. As if Travis knew how to play with this tiny baby. He’d brought her a stuffed animal ten times bigger than she was. Elizabeth did fine with a sock monkey and a rubber ducky. She didn’t need a six-foot purple giraffe, that was for sure.

  “Hey, Lizzie. Watch this. I can touch the tip of my tongue to my nose.”

  “I’m sure she’s impressed,” Sebastian said.

  “All the girls like that,” Travis said. “Oh, my God. She’s smiling at me. Damn, but that’s cute.”

  “That’s gas,” Sebastian said.

  Elizabeth cooed.

  Well, that’s gratitude for you, Sebastian thought as he laid her on her back in the crib and she continued to gaze adoringly at Travis. Sebastian had worked his fingers to the bone taking care of her, and she smiled at the first guy who came along who could touch his tongue to his nose.

  “You have a whole damned setup here, don’t you?” Travis said to Sebastian as he glanced around. “Baby-central. Did Jessica leave all this stuff with you?”

  “Nope.” Sebastian searched the clutter on the top of his dresser. Lately he’d been completely disorganized, but he thought that was where…aha. He unearthed Jessica’s note and turned back to Travis.

  “So you bought all this? The crib and that shelf thing, and—”

  “Changing table.”

  “Yeah? What does it change into?”

  Sebastian sighed and shook his head. If this was Jessica’s idea of sending in the troops, she should have left well enough alone. He’d have to spend so much time educating Travis it wouldn’t be worth the effort.

  “Oh, I get it. You change her diapers on that table. That’s what the cinch is for.”

  “Just see that you don’t put your knee in her belly before you tighten it down, cowboy.”

  “Don’t worry about that. This boy’s not changing no stinkin’ diaper.”

  Sebastian had a new point of reference these days. Not that he really wanted Travis fooling with the kid, but it was the principle of the thing. Travis should want to do his part, even if Sebastian wasn’t planning to let him. He fixed Travis with a steely stare. “And why not change her diaper?”

  “Not in my job description,” Travis said smugly. “I’m supposed to give Lizzie my playful attitude toward life. That’s fun and games, not maintenance.”

  “You might want to rethink that, godfather.” He handed Travis Jessica’s note.

  Travis’s took the paper and compared it to the one in his hand. His jaw dropped. “I’ll be damned,” he murmured. He glanced up. “Then she didn’t talk to you when she dropped off the kid?”

  “She drove up one night, left Elizabeth on the porch and rang the bell. When I went to the door, she drove off like a bat out of hell.”

  “Hellfire.” Travis gazed at Sebastian. “What’s going on here?”

  “Damned if I know. Before you showed up, I figured I was Elizabeth’s father.”

  Travis blinked. “No way, Jose. Not straight-and-narrow Daniels. You couldn’t have—”

  “Oh, yes, I could,” Sebastian said heatedly. “The last thing I remember about that night was trying to kiss her.”

  “A kiss? Hell, a kiss is nothing. Everybody knows when it comes to real action, I’m the guy.”

  “Why are you so eager to claim her? You need a baby to support like you need another hole in the head.”

  Travis nodded. “True. When I first got the letter, I panicked. I have no intention of getting tied down, not to a wife, and certainly not to a baby. But after I’d read that note a few times, I figured out what Jess is trying to do.”

  “Then you’d better clue me in, because I don’t have the foggiest idea.”

  “She knows I’m not looking to be tied down, so she didn’t even tell me when she got pregnant. I think she should have, but she didn’t. Probably never would have told me Lizzie was mine.”

  “Her name’s Elizabeth, dammit.”

  “We’ll see about that. Anyhow, Jess is in some kind of trouble, and she needs temporary help with the kid. She would have left her with me, except your place was more convenient and easier to find. Mine’s not, which is why the letter got lost in the first place.”

  “I think you have it all wrong.” Sebastian had taken pride in the fact that Jessica had left Elizabeth with him, the guy she could trust to be in charge. He didn’t want to believe he’d only been more convenient than Travis. He didn’t want to believe Travis was Elizabeth’s father, either.

  “I think I’ve got it about right,” Travis said. “So here I am, to do my part for the kid, and for Jess. Maybe this baby was an accident, but by God, I’ll shoulder my responsibilities.”

  Sebastian clenched his jaw. “She’s not yours.”

  “Sure she is.”

  “She has my eyes.”

  “And my hair.”

  “And the Daniels’ nose.”

  “And the Evans’ sense of humor!”

  As they stood there glaring at each
other, Elizabeth began to fuss. They both turned to look at the crib.

  “She doesn’t sound very happy,” Travis ventured.

  “Probably because she needs her britches changed,” Sebastian said, a challenge in his voice. He didn’t really want Travis here, but if he insisted on staying, then maybe he should change a few diapers, after all.

  Travis started backing out of the room. “Uh, well, I’d be glad to help you out, there, Sebastian, but I have to go call Deb. You know how women hate getting stood up.”

  Sebastian snorted in disgust. “I don’t know what you’re so scared of. You’ve must’ve mucked out thousands of stalls in your day.”

  “Hey, there’s a thought! I’ll take care of your horse manure, and you take care of the baby’s…uh…output. Teamwork!”

  Sebastian shook his head. “I don’t have any idea what Jessica had in mind when she sent you that note, but if you’re planning to stick around, you’re not sliding by with tongue tricks. You’re gonna do the tough jobs, too.”

  “But I don’t know the first thing about—”

  “And I’m just the guy to teach you. I don’t have the energy tonight, but the first diaper of the day tomorrow has your name on it, cowboy.”

  Travis shrugged. “If you’re so all-fired set on it, I’ll take a turn.” Then he left the room to make his call.

  He wasn’t the only one who should make a call, Sebastian thought as he lifted Elizabeth gently from the crib and put her on the changing table. He’d promised to call Matty back, and besides, she deserved to know this latest development. But he hesitated to call her until he’d worked everything out in his mind. Travis showing up had knocked him off-kilter.

  Matty would be quick to point out that Travis’s note let Sebastian off the hook. He couldn’t assume he was Elizabeth’s father any more than Travis could. Although he wasn’t about to admit it to Travis, there was a good chance neither of them was the father.

  That was logic talking. Sebastian gazed down at Elizabeth. “What do you say, Elizabeth? What do you say, pretty girl?” Her serious stare was so cute he couldn’t help smiling.