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She had not only found him ruggedly handsome to look at, but utterly charming, as well. His obvious concern for his sister, his desire to make certain she was okay, only added to his attractiveness.
A slight wistfulness filled her as she slid beneath the sheet and into bed. She wished there had been somebody who had been concerned about her when she’d been eighteen years old and had struck out on her own.
Gina might see her big brother as a pain in her backside, but she had no idea how lucky she was to have somebody who cared about her and her well-being.
Colette shoved these thoughts aside. She rarely thought about what she’d never had, instead focused her thoughts and energy on attaining what she wanted. She’d learned at a very early age that she could depend on nobody but herself.
She placed a hand on her tummy, wondering if even now, at this very moment, a little soul was inside her. How she hoped, how she prayed that the artificial insemination had been successful. This child of hers would have all the love, all the care, all the dreams that nobody had ever taken the time to give to Colette.
She frowned sleepily. Funny, she wondered where Tanner and Gina’s parents were in all this. Neither of them had mentioned what their parents wanted. In fact, in the weeks that Gina and Colette had worked together, lived together, she hadn’t mentioned any mother or father.
It wasn’t her business, she told herself firmly. Just as Gina’s life wasn’t her business. And no matter how handsome, no matter how charming Tanner Rothman was, within days he’d be back at his ranch living his own life and she would continue hers…hopefully anticipating the birth of the child who would fill her world with love.
With this pleasant thought in mind, Colette fell asleep.
It was just after eight the next morning when she left the apartment to walk the three blocks to her shop. It was a gorgeous spring day. The sun was already up, shining down warmth on her shoulders, and the scent of sweet flowers rode the air from a nearby truck stand that sold fruits, vegetables and flowers.
Although the shop didn’t officially open until nine-thirty, Colette liked to get there early in the mornings. She always stopped into the local café for fresh bagels, then went on to The Little Bit Baby Boutique and made a pot of coffee.
She enjoyed the quiet time before customers began to arrive, and often the bagel breakfast was all that sustained her through the day. Usually the store was too busy for her to take any kind of a lunch break.
As usual, the café was busy with clerks and office workers whose businesses were located in the down-town area. Colette went directly to the counter, where “to go” orders were placed.
“Hi, Johnny,” she said, greeting the heavyset older man behind the counter.
“Hey, doll.” He grinned at her. “The usual?”
She nodded, then remembered that it was possible Tanner would spend part of his day at the shop. “Why don’t you double it.”
Johnny raised a grizzled gray eyebrow as he placed the fresh bagels into a paper sack. “What did you do? Skip dinner last night?”
She laughed. “You know me, Johnny, I rarely miss a meal.”
“Here you go, doll. Take it easy.”
She took the bag of bagels he handed her, then paid him his amount due. “Stay out of trouble, Johnny,” she said.
“That’s one thing an ex-con always tries to do,” he replied with a teasing grin.
She smiled and whirled around to leave and ran smack dab into Tanner Rothman’s broad chest. He grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her and grinned down at her. “Good morning,” he said.
“Good morning,” she replied, and quickly stepped back from him, far too aware of the clean, masculine scent of him and the hard muscle of the chest she’d just made contact with.
“Headed to the store?” he asked.
She nodded. “I always stop here for Johnny’s freshly baked bagels before going in. I bought extra this morning if you’d like to have one.”
“Sounds good. I was wondering what time you all normally got to the store.”
“I usually get there by eight-thirty or so. Gina doesn’t come in until noon,” she explained.
They left the café and started walking down the sidewalk toward the baby boutique. She tried not to notice how utterly devastating he looked in his tight, worn blue jeans and a short-sleeved dark blue T-shirt that exposed powerful forearms and deepened the hue of his eyes.
However, it was difficult not to be aware of Tanner’s potent sexuality and handsomeness when they passed several women on the street and they openly stared at him with admiring eyes.
“The guy who runs the café is an ex-con?” he asked.
Instantly Colette knew he was thinking all kinds of horrors about a dangerous criminal in the neighborhood and his innocent little sister. “Thirty years ago Johnny robbed a couple of houses. He got caught, served eighteen months and apparently came out of prison a changed man. Besides running his café, he’s now a member of the chamber of commerce and is involved in several community groups working to prevent crime.”
She stopped at the door to her shop and withdrew a set of keys from her purse. She unlocked the door then turned to face him with a teasing smile. “You can’t use ex-con Johnny as a reason for Gina to go home.”
One corner of his mouth turned upward in a sexy smile that caused heat to flood through Colette. “Am I that transparent?” he asked.
“In this particular instance you were,” she replied and turned to open the door, needing something else to focus on besides the inviting heat his smile had evoked in her.
“Welcome to the Little Bit Baby Boutique,” she said as she flipped on the overhead lights, then relocked the door as he stepped in behind her. “If you want to come on back to the office, I’ll make us some coffee.”
As they walked toward the back of the store, Colette was aware of his gaze darting here and there, taking in the displays, the furniture and various items they passed.
Colette was proud of the layout of the store. She’d spent long hours and utilized all her marketing training in order to create a store that would be comfortable to shop in and displays that would encourage spending.
“What’s all this?” he asked as they passed a large area at the back of the store that was empty except for several sawhorses and some tools.
“I’m having a little kiddy area built back here. It’s going to have little benches and tables with books and puzzles. Lots of my customers come in with children, and I thought it would be great to have a place for those children to play while their parents shopped.”
“Very thoughtful,” he said.
She grinned. “Business thoughtful. Parents tend to spend more time shopping if they don’t have children whining or hanging on them. And the more time people spend shopping, the more they are apt to spend.”
She gestured him into the business office. She’d always believed the office at the back of the store was large, but the moment Tanner followed her in, she felt as if the interior had significantly shrunk.
“Please, have a seat.” She motioned him to the chair in front of her desk, then went to the corner where there was a sink and a counter with the coffeepot on top.
It took her only moments to prepare the coffeepot and turn it on. She sat down at her desk, fighting a sudden, irrational nervousness as the scent of the fresh brew filled the air.
It had been easy to spend time with Tanner the night before with Gina there. But at the moment she felt ill at ease, and was far too aware of him not as Gina’s brother, but as a very sexy, single man. A man who, according to Gina, didn’t have a girlfriend because he was so stubborn.
He didn’t speak until they each had a cup of coffee before them and she had opened the bag and offered him a bagel. “I assume from your store that you like babies,” he said.
“I love babies,” she replied easily. “But that’s not why I decided to sell baby items.” He crooked a dark eyebrow in obvious interest, and she continued. “I knew I wanted to open my own retail business and it took me several months to finally decide on the baby business.”
“So why babies?”
“I studied the markets, did exhaustive research and realized we are on the verge of another baby boom. That, coupled with the fact that no matter what the economy is like, people are always going to have babies.”
“That’s very interesting,” he said. “So, your decision was based on intellect rather than emotion.”
Something in his tone hinted of disapproval and Colette raised her chin defensively. “It’s been my experience that the best decisions you can make are ones made with your mind, not with your heart. But surely you know that. When you chose what kind of cows to raise, I’m sure you made that decision with your head, not your heart.”
He grinned, that lazy, sexy grin that instantly put her on edge. “It’s difficult to get too emotional over a cow.”
Colette tore off a piece of bagel and ate it, then took a sip of her coffee, desperately trying to think of something to talk about. She certainly didn’t want to discuss the situation with Gina with him. She didn’t want to get involved in a tug-of-war between a brother and sister.
“Gina tells me you are from a very small town in Kansas,” she finally said.
He nodded. “Foxrun, Kansas. It’s more like a little neighborhood than a town. Everyone knows everyone else, and most of the time everyone knows everyone else’s business.”
She smiled. “Sounds like fun.”
“I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
“Do your parents live there, as well?”
His blue eyes grew deeper in color and Colette thought she saw a whisper of pain in their depths. He looked down at the coffee mug in his hands. “My parents have been gone for a long time. They died in a car accident when I was twenty-one years old and Gina was ten. I was left with a ranch on the verge of financial ruin and a ten-year-old grief-stricken child.”
Suddenly Colette understood his overprotectiveness where Gina was concerned. He’d not only been big brother to her, he’d also been mother and father. Admiration for him filled her.
No wonder he was having problems letting go of her. Colette knew there were parents who had trouble letting go of their children, although her mother certainly had not been that kind of parent.
“It must have been very difficult for you,” she said softly. “Twenty-one is terribly young to take on so much responsibility and work.”
“In the case of both the ranch and Gina, it was definitely a labor of love.”
The warmth in his eyes and the soft expression on his face stirred a strange longing in Colette. Confused by the odd emotion, she stood and walked over to the coffeemaker to refill her cup.
When she turned back around she caught his gaze sweeping over her, taking in the sum total of her from head to toe. She suddenly wondered if her skirt was too short or too tight. She fought against the blush that tried to take possession of her cheeks and returned to her seat behind the desk.
“So, tell me about Colette Carson,” he said, then took another sip of his coffee.
She shrugged. “There really isn’t much to tell. I was born and raised right here in Kansas City and have been here all my life.”
“Is there a boyfriend in the picture? An attractive woman like you probably dates every night.” His eyes flashed with what she thought might be a flirtatious light.
She laughed, oddly pleased that he thought she was attractive. “I can’t remember the last date I had.” He was probably wondering how many nights a week his sister spent alone in the apartment. “Most evenings I’m either looking at catalogs, trying to figure out what might be the next hot item, or going over the books to see exactly how the shop is doing. Gina tells me you don’t do much dating, either.”
“Like you, it’s difficult to find the time.”
Colette grinned teasingly. “That’s not what Gina says. She said you don’t have a girlfriend because you’re too mean and stubborn. I believe her exact term was ‘cursedly stubborn.’”
He laughed, a deep rumbling sound that was pleasant. “She’s probably right. I’ve been known to be pretty bullheaded. Still, it seems a shame that a pretty girl like you spends all her time on business. How are you going to find Mr. Right if you don’t date?” Again his eyes were filled with a light that unsettled her yet shot a streak of heat through her.
“Finding Mr. Right has never been a priority of mine,” she replied.
With his million-dollar smile warming her, and his overwhelmingly masculine presence filling the office, Colette felt a sudden need to escape.
She looked at her watch and stood. “It’s time for me to open up the shop,” she said, although it was still earlier than her usual opening time. “You’re welcome to stay here and finish your bagel and coffee or whatever. As I told you earlier, Gina doesn’t come in until noon.”
She was aware of his gaze sweeping the length of her as she headed for the door that led out into the shop. “If you don’t mind, I’ll just finish up my coffee back here,” he said.
Nodding, she fled the office, grateful to get some distance from him. Although she had certainly admired his attractiveness and charm the night before, she hadn’t felt the utter magnitude of his sexual appeal the way she had this morning.
She unlocked the front door and flipped the Closed sign to Open, then walked over to the chair behind the small counter that held the cash register.
She had the distinct impression that he’d been subtly flirting with her when he’d spoken about her dating habits, and her pulse had accelerated to an uncomfortable pace.
As she greeted her first customer of the day, she remembered Gina’s words of warning about Tanner. She’d warned Colette not to be fooled by his charm, and Colette realized she would do well to take heed.
She did find Tanner charming, and although she had never felt herself particularly susceptible to any man’s charm, she had a feeling if she allowed it, Tanner Rothman could definitely be a threat to the carefully controlled, safe life she’d built for herself.
Tanner knew she’d expected him to leave after he finished his coffee and to return later when Gina arrived for work, but instead he rinsed out the cup, then joined her at the counter out front.
He leaned against a back wall, watching as she took care of a pregnant woman who looked about ready to burst open like a ripe watermelon.
Tanner had never thought much about having children of his own. At the time when most men began thinking of having families, he’d been busy raising Gina. Now, at thirty-two years old, he almost felt as if it were too late to think about babies of his own.
He redirected his gaze to Colette. Again this morning she was dressed in a three-piece suit. The deep gray jacket was short and fitted over a crisp white blouse, and the skirt was pencil thin and short enough to display her long, slender but shapely legs.
It hadn’t taken long into their conversation for his suspicions about Colette Carson to be confirmed. She was certainly not the kind of woman he wanted as a role model for his impressionable sister.
Despite the fact she had dynamite legs and the longest, darkest eyelashes he’d ever seen. In spite of the fact that she had the sweet features of an angel and a body that would make most red-blooded men think of sin, he had the feeling she was a cold, heartless woman driven by ambition.
He’d been vaguely disappointed when she’d told him why she’d decided to open a shop selling baby items. Although it appeared to have been a smart decision, he was disappointed that the decision was made strictly from a business perspective.
Gina had lacked a female role model in her life. There had been no aunts, no godmother, nobody to step into the void the loss of their mother had created in Gina’s life.
Colette was a distinctive threat to all that he wanted for Gina’s future. He certainly didn’t want Gina to emulate a hard-driven ambitious woman who, he suspected, didn’t have much of a heart.
Still, he couldn’t help but feel a grudging admiration for Colette as he watched her working with the customers who came in…and there was a steady stream of customers.
She was courteous, respectful and infinitely patient with every shopper. He also couldn’t help but admire the natural grace with which she moved as she guided customers from display to display.
He could tell she was surprised that he was hanging around. As she attended to her customers, her gaze continually sought him.
Maybe by hanging around long enough he’d irritate her and she would decide that Gina was more trouble than she was worth. Then she’d join him in the war to get Gina to return home.
“I never knew there could be so many expectant parents in one city,” he said when there was a lull in the customers.
She smiled and straightened the blankets in one of the cribs on display. “Not everyone who comes in is expecting a baby. Friends and relatives of expectant or new parents come in to find a gift for the birth or for a shower.”
She gave the blanket a final pat, then straightened. “But this has all got to be terribly boring for you.”
“Not at all. Is Gina as good a salesman as you are?”
Colette smiled and Tanner felt a renewed tug of attraction. “She’s a great salesclerk.”
“Is Gina your only employee?” It would require ridiculously long hours for only two people to run the store.
“I have two other women who work for me on a part-time basis,” she replied. “But Gina is my only full-time worker.” She smiled and excused herself as another customer came through the door.
