which happened to be a brown leather couch. Cole crossed the expanse and laid the baby down without saying anything. Her nervousness in creased so much she had trouble unfastening Bonnie’s pink stretchy suit.
“H-how did I do?” she blurted.
“A propos to what?” came his deceptively mild query.
“Wh-what I told John.”
“Since I wasn’t out on the porch with the two of you, you must mean while we were in the car?”
She moaned. “Yes.”
“I believed your account to the point I decided we’d lived your version in a parallel universe.”
“If John is the litmus test, do you think we passed?” She slid a fresh diaper beneath the baby.
“What do your instincts tell you?” He answered with another question. Cole was angry. She didn’t blame him. They’d had no secrets until now.
He stood by with the baby wipes and ointment, unaware of his physical impact on her senses. They were crying for the assuagement only he could give. But when he learned the truth, she might never know rapture with him.
She kissed Bonnie’s tummy. “They don’t. John’s wonderful, just like you, but he’s not my brother.”
“He was snagged when you threw out the line about you asking me to marry you. John’s aware it would take something that dramatic for me to get off my high horse and come crawling back to you. It was the part of your story that turned the corner for him.”
Her pulse accelerated. “I’ll remember that,” she quipped, to cover her hectic emotions. “Won’t we, sweet heart?”
When she’d finished snapping the material around the baby’s tiny feet and legs, he picked her up. “Come on, Bonnibelle. It’s time to give you and your mommy a tour of our home. This is where we’re all going to live forever.”
There was that word again.
She started to shake and couldn’t stop. Cole was saying that now, but when he learned what she had to tell him…
The bachelor pad turned out to be a modern two-bedroom rambler, with two bathrooms, a den, and a great room with a wood-burning fireplace. Everything was done in a light tan color, with high ceilings and lots of bare windows giving their own close up views of the pine-tree-lined lake and the fabulous Ruby Mountains.
A sweep of open area from front room to kitchen made it seem larger. No curtains or frills. No knickknacks. Just good, basic functional living, with the beauty of the architectural design of truss work and cutouts providing the interest.
He’d made a concession to window coverings in both bedrooms, but he’d left the blinds open. Cole was a man who worked out in the open and obviously wanted to create that same feeling indoors.
Catherine loved everything about it.
Though she could see some of her things, including her favorite McKnight painting of Corfu to add color, most of them would have to stay in storage. Of necessity having a baby in the house would guarantee a lot of clutter.
Cole had promised they’d drive to Elko to outfit the second bedroom into a nursery. For the moment it contained a twin bed and dresser, nothing more. For a niece or nephew to sleep over, perhaps?
At a glance it was clear he’d wanted no hint of past memories when he’d had this built. If he needed to touch base with his life before his wife died, all he had to do was sprint around the lake to the main ranch house.
Maybe it was wrong of Catherine, but she was fiercely glad no other woman had lived here with him.
While they finished walking around, Bonnie started making noises. “Sounds like she’s hungry. You can set your watch by her.”
She felt Cole’s masculine chuckle resonate in every cell of her body. “Lie down in our bedroom with her. I’ll bring the diaper bag.” They still had several bottles of the prepared formula they’d brought on the plane. The rest was in an extra suitcase.
When they entered the room, Cole must have noticed her surreptitious glance at the king-size bed. “I bought everything new when I moved in.” Meaning his wife hadn’t slept in it, in case Catherine was wondering.
It was scary how fast he connected the dots, no matter how obscure to anyone else. But then he wouldn’t be the head of the Bonnibelle if he didn’t have that remarkable capacity necessary to run a successful cattle empire.
Meeting Catherine had kept him away from his work a long time. Yet he hadn’t touched on the subject.
That was because of Bonnie. She had him wrapped so tightly around her baby finger, Catherine hardly recognized him as the for bid ding security guard. One who’d been prepared to drag her from the car if she didn’t confess what she was doing there the day of Buck’s funeral.
Driven by pain, she now under stood, and she had no doubt that man would have carried out his threat-to hell with anyone who might be watching.
But the rugged black-haired male who’d just come back in the bedroom and laid down next to her and Bonnie bore little resemblance to the other man.
After handing her the bottle, he propped his head with his hand to watch them through veiled eyes. The baby drank thirstily, making loud noises.
His mouth widened in amusement. He was such a beautiful male. Catherine had to close her eyes against his over powering charisma.
“You’re a true Farraday, Bonnibelle. No one enjoys a good meal more than I do.”
Catherine had thought he was going to say Buck, which only proved how total was the transformation from uncle to father.
CHAPTER NINE
AFTER Bonnie’s feed, she was out like a light.
As Catherine’s eyes slid away, they met the storm cloud gray of Cole’s.
“It’s time to tell me what you were doing out on the porch with John.” His low, penetrating voice wasn’t quite a demand. “What did I say that put you off? You were different before we even got out of the car.”
She swallowed uneasily.
Cole was so intuitive she could never hide anything from him. After her experience with him the first time they met, she didn’t dare hold back. He’d only find a way to get it out of her. His methods guaranteed success.
She didn’t want to fight with him. Especially with the innocent baby sleeping peace fully between them.
“If you must know, you and I never talked about-about having more children.”
