The Gentrys: Cal. Linda Conrad

his gaze up to meet hers.

      She had to clear her throat twice to speak. “You did not need to get up. I told you I would take care of Kaydie.”

      The man was every sexual fantasy she’d ever had all wrapped into one package. She wondered if he’d be tender or rough, whether he’d try to please her or continue with his selfish ways in bed. Hmm.

      She shook off the images. It didn’t matter. She didn’t even know him. She vowed there would be no fantasies with Cal, sexual or otherwise.

      “I…” Cal was almost rendered speechless by the sight of the sleep-tousled, golden-skinned woman in bare feet. The sexy dark-haired angel, standing next to the kitchen sink, cradled his child to her breast.

      He could not for the life of him figure out why that vision seemed so erotic. Never once, while he’d been married to the baby’s mother, had he ever felt anything even resembling passion when his wife had held their child—which really hadn’t been too often, come to think of it. And he’d even read that fathers-to-be were sometimes filled with great passion toward their wives when they were expecting—but he’d had good reason not to be.

      When his eyes met Bella’s just now, he not only felt more turned on than he could remember, but he also recognized that same inexplicably tender tug deep in his gut that he’d noticed earlier. He didn’t know what that was all about, or why it had hit him so suddenly, but he certainly had no intention of exploring the feeling at the moment. He swallowed hard a couple of times, trying to dislodge the pull from his craw.

      “Sorry to startle you, babe.” He tried one of his fail-proof smiles. “I heard Kaydie’s cries and thought maybe you might need help.”

      She rolled her eyes. With a look that said, “A lot of good you’d be with your leg slowing you down,” she turned back to the baby.

      Cal couldn’t imagine why Bella didn’t react to his smiles the same way other women did. But, so help him, he intended to make it a point to charm his way into her good graces—and maybe a whole lot more. It seemed like kind of a challenge now. But he had to be careful not to rush things and scare her off.

      He moved closer while Bella fumbled with a baby bottle and the bottled water. “Here. Let me,” he offered.

      She relinquished the bottle and rearranged Kaydie in her arms. “I think the fever is back. But not so bad as before.” She laid her cheek against the baby’s forehead. “Yes, she’s cooler. But there’s something else…”

      Three

      Cal handed Bella the bottle, but his expression remained alert. “What else?”

      She put the bottle’s nipple into Kaydie’s mouth, but the baby didn’t seem to want to take it. “Ah, sí,” Bella said. “It is as I thought. Your daughter has a cold, señor. Her nose is stuffy and she’s having trouble breathing.”

      “Is there anything we can do for her?” His eyes had filled with concern.

      “I can think of a couple of things that might help,” she explained. “Do you have a humidifier?”

      He shook his head. “I don’t exactly know what that is, but I didn’t see anything I couldn’t identify when I unpacked the car. Is it important?”

      “I think we can manage another way,” Bella told him. “But first, will you bring her diaper bag to me, please? I saw something in there that may be of use.”

      Cal limped toward the front room while she tried to comfort Kaydie. “Shush…shush, niña,” she crooned. “Your daddy might not know what to do with you, but he obviously cares. Some of us have not been so lucky in our lives.”

      After Cal returned with the diaper bag, Bella cleaned out the baby’s nose the best she could and then found a small jar full of eucalyptus cream. She rubbed some on the baby’s chest. Then she and Cal dragged the lightweight crib from the small bedroom into the kitchen.

      As he placed it where Bella directed, Cal asked, “Tell me again why she has to sleep in the kitchen?”

      “She needs warm moist air. Without a humidifier we can boil water on the stove while she sleeps, and she’ll breath easier,” Bella replied.

      “But won’t that mean we’ll have to stay with her? It could be dangerous to leave a pot on the stove.”

      Bella nearly chuckled at the innocence of the man. “Sí. I will sit with her and make sure all is well. You may go back to sleep without worry.”

      “That doesn’t seem right,” Cal fussed. “You are the one who needs rest. I’ll sit up with her. You go on back to bed.”

      Ah-ha. The charming gringo did have some unselfish thoughts inside him after all. Bella looked beyond the bare chest and broad shoulders that had so far been the focus of her attention and studied Cal’s demeanor. She came to the decision that he did have the potential to become the friend she desperately needed.

      “We will both sit up with her,” she told him. “It is only a few hours before dawn, we could keep each other awake. We may be able to take a nap tomorrow while Kaydie sleeps.”

      Cal used one hand to push the two-person kitchen table around so both of them would be facing Kaydie’s fold-away crib. He couldn’t imagine how Bella could remain this alert and wide-awake after everything she’d been through the past few days, but he was grateful for a chance to talk to her.

      He still wanted to find a way to get her to like him—at least a little. He was on a mission to keep her here, helping with Kaydie. And maybe even helping him to understand why she affected him the way she did.

      Cal pulled out a chair and sat down, watching her settle the baby and then put water on the stove to boil. It took him a minute to notice what she had on.

      “Why are you still wearing those same clothes?” He grinned at her.

      She looked down at her ripped jeans and dirty long-sleeved shirt. “Oh. I don’t have any other clothes with me. I didn’t exactly get a chance to pack before I hid in that truck. I’ll wash these out tomorrow.”

      “I know you took a shower before we went to bed…so…you put your dirty clothes back on?” He shook his head. “You can’t sleep in jeans,” he declared.

      “When one is tired enough,” she replied as she headed toward her chair, “one can sleep in whatever they happen to be wearing…or in nothing at all for that matter.”

      Oh, man. He certainly wished she hadn’t said that. The image of her lying naked on his cool cotton sheets, waiting for him grabbed him in the gut. How could he be charming when he couldn’t even think anymore?

      He huffed out a pent-up breath and bit down on the inside of his cheek, trying to make the visions disappear and his errant body behave so he could speak. “I can lend you some T-shirts and sweats to sleep in,” he finally managed.

      She shook her head. “Oh, I could not—”

      “Sure you can. It’s no problem for me.”

      “I suppose that might be better than wearing these old clothes until I can purchase new ones.” She gestured to the holes in her pants.

      Cal needed to get her talking about something else. Something that would take his mind off the softness of her skin or the silkiness of her thick, dark hair. And off the picture now forming in his head of her in a thigh-topping T-shirt with nothing underneath.

      Fortunately, Bella found a good topic—him.

      “You said you just arrived here last night,” she began as she settled into a chair. “Why have you come to this place, Cal? What business brings you so far away from the main ranch?”

      He tapped his injured leg. “A car accident.” He smiled wryly. “Which is damn funny considering that I race stock cars for a living.”

      “What is