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But William had disappeared on their wedding day.
“Hi, Lily.” He wondered how she got his phone number. “Is everything okay? Is it Uncle William?”
“Oh, no, sweetie, William is … fine. His memory and his emotional state, or lack thereof on both accounts, are the same.”
Lily’s unsteady voice filled his ear. She then paused to take in a deep breath before she continued. “He’s calmer now and seems more at home here on the ranch with each passing day.” She sounded calmer now herself. “I’m sorry if I worried you by calling.”
Cooper released the breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding. “Ah, no, that’s fine. What’s up?”
“I heard about you moving out on your own with the baby, and I wondered if there was anything you needed? Is there anything I can do for you?”
Lily Fortune was an amazing woman. She ran the Double Crown Ranch and chaired numerous charities supported by the Fortune Foundation, all while doing her best to help the man she loved regain his memories—of his family, and the life they’d planned to live together.
He found himself wishing he’d been lucky enough to have this lady for a mother instead of the self-centered woman who probably had no idea that she had another grandchild living here in Red Rock.
“Thanks, but we’re doing fine.” Cooper peeked around the doorway to check on his son. “It’s a pretty steep learning curve, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.”
“Of course you are. I don’t have any doubt you’ll be a terrific father.”
Her words had him standing a bit taller. “Thank you, Lily. You know, I was planning to come out and visit the ranch soon, but Jeremy recommended we not overload William with too many visitors at once.”
“Oh, you’re welcome anytime. I can’t say for sure what kind of mood your uncle will be in. Sometimes he’s fine and other times he’s a bit cranky, but I think that’s frustration more than anything else.”
They spoke for a few more minutes, but then Anthony started to fuss. Cooper ended the call, having learned his son tended to wake up fast and loud.
“Easy there, partner.” He looked at the baby lying flat on his back, arms and legs flailing. “No need to get all excited.”
Anthony didn’t agree because he let loose a howling cry just as a knock sounded from the door.
Cooper picked him up and the smell and weight of Anthony’s diaper told him exactly why the kid was upset. “Whew, you stink!”
The knock came again, and he went to answer, mentally cringing as he hefted the baby into his arms, the diaper flattening against his forearm. He opened the door to find Kelsey standing on his front porch, wearing the same outfit he’d seen her in yesterday.
He appreciated the curves beneath her clingy T-shirt and snug-fitting jeans. A ball cap shaded her eyes and her hair was once again pulled up in a ponytail. He was suddenly struck with an urge to see her hair down around her shoulders. Naked shoulders would be even better, as she leaned over him—
A softly cleared throat caught his attention, and he noticed a pretty lady standing next to Kelsey. They looked so much alike, he knew instantly they were related. The three little kids with them told him she must be Kelsey’s sister.
Boy, she really was serious about her matchmaking.
He didn’t know if he should be amused or bothered that Kelsey had brought her widowed sister, kids in tow, over to meet him.
Had he been the only one to pick up on the instant connection they’d shared yesterday? A connection that had him opening up to a perfect stranger about how much his life had changed in the last month?
“Hey there. Hope we’re not catching you at a bad time,” Kelsey said, a smile gracing her kissable lips.
Yeah, perfect.
“Ah, no.” Cooper patted Anthony’s bottom lightly, sending tiny bursts of a foul odor into the air as if to punctuate where his priorities needed to lie. His nose wrinkled. “The little guy just woke from a nap and I was heading off to do diaper duty.”
“Don’t let us stop you,” the other woman said with a smile. “He’ll probably be happier once he’s clean and dry.”
“Well, come on in—” Cooper stepped back “—and make yourselves at home. I’ll be right back.”
He hustled to the baby’s room and laid a still-crying Anthony on the changing table. Replacing the messy diaper took longer than he planned. Boy, who knew a body as tiny as this could put out so much … stuff.
Finally done, he put a new one-piece sleeper on Anthony, noting the dwindling supply of baby wipes seemed to be in direct correlation to the dirty laundry filling the nearby hamper. Looked like a trip to the grocery store was next on his list.
Despite a fresh diaper, Anthony was testing the capacity of his lungs as Cooper walked back into the living room.
“I’m sorry,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over Anthony’s crying as he patted his son’s back. “He must’ve realized he’d nodded off earlier without finishing his bottle.”
“Here, let me take him.” Kelsey’s sister plucked Anthony out of his arms and turned to her children. “Kids, park yourselves on the sofa and find something in your backpacks to keep you busy while your Aunt Kelsey and I get to know this adorable little thing.”
Dumbfounded, Cooper stood there as Anthony stopped his crying and gazed up at the woman as the children scrambled to do their mother’s bidding.
“Wow.” He finally found his voice, but the single syllable was the best he could come up with. “That’s … wow.”
“Cooper Fortune, your son’s kidnapper is my sister, Jessica Hunt-Myers.” Kelsey made the quick introduction. “Jessica, this is Cooper Fortune.”
“Hi, there,” Jessica said. “I think I can keep—ah, what’s his name?”
“Anthony.”
“I think I can keep Anthony busy for a few minutes if you want to make him that bottle.” Jessica sat in the chair Cooper had vacated and easily bounced the baby on her lap while answering three different questions from three different kids.
Cooper moved into the kitchen and quickly made a new bottle. He returned to the living room, expecting Jessica to give up her claim to his son, but she just motioned for the bottle, popping it into Anthony’s mouth.
He moved to the matching chair and sat, his gaze drawn to Kelsey. Perched on the end of the couch, with the youngest of her sister’s kids on her lap, she pointed to something in the book the little boy held. His tiny eyebrows puckered in concentration for a minute before he clucked like a chicken.
Cooper grinned. “Hey, that’s pretty good. Can you do a cow?”
The little boy looked at him. “We’re not at that page yet.”
“Adam.” His mother admonished him with one word, before she turned to Cooper. “I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce my children. The little one is Adam and he’s a very precocious three, and the twins, Braden and Bethany, are four. My oldest, Ella, is seven, so she’s at school.”
“What’s per-cos-ick?” Adam asked his mother.
“Precocious, and it means you’re very smart,” she answered with a smile as she set aside the empty bottle to lift Anthony to her shoulder. “All of my children are very smart,” she added when the twins started to protest. “They take after their father.”
“Kelsey told me about your husband. I’m sorry.”
Cooper watched as sadness flickered across the woman’s face before she offered him a smile.
“Thank you. She told me about Anthony’s mother. I’m sorry, too. You must have your hands full learning to be a single parent.” She patted the baby’s back, and soon Anthony let out a loud burp and giggled at his accomplishment. “I know what that’s like. If you need any help, just give me a holler.”
He turned to look at Kelsey, who seemed very interested in the picture book her nephew was holding. So, she really was serious about this matchmaking.
Hmm, right idea, wrong sister.
Cooper glanced back at Jessica. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Are you sure?” Kelsey stared at her sister over the roof of her car. “You really want to do this?”
“Are you kidding?” Jessica shot back as she shut her door and activated the automatic locks. “You have no idea how much I am going to enjoy myself.”
They walked across the parking lot toward the large building. Seconds later, automatic doors swished open and then closed behind them, locking out the Texas heat and bathing them in a cool breeze.
“With Mom and Dad watching the kids this afternoon, I’ve got three hours all to myself.”
Kelsey followed Jessica as she ventured farther into the brightly lit entrance. “So, go see a movie, get a massage, read a book … anything but this.”
“Spoken like a single woman who can be in and out of here in less than fifteen minutes and use the express checkout line.”
Jessica grabbed a large silver cart and aimed it toward the rainbow of colors that made up the produce section of the super-size grocery store. “Now, I can thump melons to my heart’s content, wrangle between cuts of meats at the butcher shop and actually make good use of my overstuffed coupon caddy.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes as Jessica’s fingers lightly danced over the vibrant array of apples, from light green to deep red, piled in front of her.
“This is nirvana,” her sister said.
They moved to the first aisle and Kelsey grabbed a bottle of wine from the end display and put it in the cart. A six-pack cellophane package of chocolate bars followed next.
She caught her sister’s disapproving glance. “Hey, you have your idea of heaven and I have mine.”
“Speaking of heaven,” Jessica paused as she looked over a selection of breakfast cereals in the next aisle, “that cowboy of yours is pretty dreamland-worthy.”
“He’s not my cowboy,” Kelsey protested. “In fact, I thought the two of you got along famously yesterday.”
“Yes, so famously that the guy could barely take his eyes off you the whole time.”
“Oh, please.”
“Besides, I told you before, I’m not in the market for a replacement for Peter.”
Her sister’s words were soft, but Kelsey heard the catch in her voice. “I’ve never suggested you replace him. That would be impossible. I just thought you’d finally turned the corner …”
“I have.” Jessica turned to Kelsey and gave her arm a gentle squeeze. “My life is filled with my children and my art. There’s no room right now for a man.”
“But you could fall in love again—”
“I h-had my shot at hap-happily ever after,” Jessica interrupted, her own words stumbling from her lips. “And it was wonderful for the short time it lasted.”
Her sister’s sudden interest in spaghetti sauce and the rapid blinking told Kelsey to change the subject.
Jessica took care of that for her as she grabbed the same brand of sauce she’d used for years and put it in the cart. “Now you, on the other hand—”
“Aren’t interested.”
Jessica looked her in the eye. “Liar.”
“Okay, so Cooper Fortune is a total hottie,” Kelsey relented, knowing it was useless to argue. She hated that her sister had always been able to tell when she was being less than honest. “But he and that adorable baby have got home and family written all over them and that’s not for me.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard you sing that tune for a long time. Ever since that jerk you dated all through college dumped you just before graduation for that former Miss Texas who could give him the proper home and proper children.” Jessica punctuated her last words with the two quick jerks of her fingers showing she was quoting Kelsey’s ex’s words.
“Well, he was right. Thomas is doing very well in his law practice and he’s eyeing a political future. He and his family made the cover of Texas Now! a few months ago.”
“Whoopee.”
“Besides, he never liked that I smelled like a barn at the end of the day.” Something he failed to mention even once during their four-year relationship after they met their freshman year at West Texas A&M University.
“An issue I don’t think Cooper would have a problem with.”
Kelsey grabbed a package of cookies from the shelf and placed them in the cart. “Been there, done that. My last two relationships were both with cowboys and neither one ended pretty.”
“Not surprising since you didn’t bring either of them home to Red Rock to meet the family.”
She’d tried, but neither cowboy had had any interest in her life back here while she was dating them, which turned out to be a good thing as both men ended up walking out on her. “Well, my only focus right now is building one of the best equine programs Red Rock has ever seen.”
“You’re kicking butt and your boss knows it, but that doesn’t mean all men—or all cowboys, for that matter—need to be off-limits. Cooper Fortune is perfect—” Jessica turned the corner and started past the next aisle, then stopped. “Hmm, it looks like perfect cowboy is having a problem at the moment.”
Kelsey didn’t know what her sister was talking about until she noticed Cooper, standing in the middle of the baby aisle, a confused look on his handsome face as he held up two different jumbo-size packages of diapers. The shopping cart in front of him was full while his son dozed in the attached car seat.
A burst of fiery attraction exploded in her gut, but she quickly put it out in hopes that Jess might just find herself drawn to the man. That thought gave Kelsey another kick in her stomach—and it wasn’t a pleasant one.
The last time the two of them took a liking to the same guy was back in junior high school when Kelsey found herself crushing on a boy who ended up taking Jessica to the eighth-grade dance. The same boy her sister dated all through high school and married at the tender age of nineteen. Peter and Jessica had always only had eyes for each other, so it’d been easy for Kelsey to let go of her silly case of puppy love.
Not that she liked Cooper Fortune.
Not like that. Yeah, he was the quintessential hunky Texas cowboy, but again, she wasn’t interested.
Remember that, girlfriend. Not interested.
“Oh, the poor guy.” Jessica turned her cart. “Come on, let’s help him.”
Kelsey silently repeated her words as she followed her sister’s lead, noticing the fine way Cooper’s shoulders filled out his faded, snap-front shirt, the sleeves rolled up to reveal strong forearms.
“You’re looking a bit lost, cowboy,” Jessica said, stopping her cart next to his. “Need any help? This is probably the most confusing aisle in the entire store.”
Her sister’s words pulled Kelsey from her thoughts in time to see the bewilderment on Cooper’s face fade into an easygoing smile.
“You’re not kidding.” He dropped his hands, the diapers bouncing off his jean-clad legs. “It took me ten minutes to figure out which baby wipes were the right ones and I haven’t even hit the food area yet.”
His dark eyes looked past her sister and latched on to her. His laid-back grin deepened as he added a hint of sexiness to it. “Hey, Kelsey.”
The image of her kissing that mouth while slowly pulling open his shirt—snap, snap, snap—filled Kelsey’s head. It took a hard blink to erase it. Her mouth was suddenly drier than a Texas summer day and she had to lick her lips before she spoke. “Hey, yourself.”
He held her gaze for a moment before dropping his eyes to her lips. She could’ve sworn he actually knew what she’d been thinking, as impossible as that might be.
“So …” Jessica cleared her throat. “Are you a bit puzzled by the diaper selection?”
