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Bella shook her head. “It would do no good. Poverty drives them from their homes and spurs them to seek a better way in this land of plenty. Nothing we could say would change their desperation.” She wondered whether he would listen to the whole story. “My job is to bring them a little medicine, though I cannot carry everything they need. We talk to them about sanitation, about regulating their body temperatures and staying hydrated.” Taking a last sip of coffee, she eyed the fruit bowl.
“That all sounds very noble of you,” Cal commented dryly.
She glared at him. “What we do, we do for our countrymen and their families…and for God. Not for glory.”
As annoying as his remarks might be, she was glad he’d asked. She’d sort of lost track of the point of it all. Telling him reminded her of the reasons she took this challenge in the first place—to save lives.
Cal took one last bite of apple and spoke after he swallowed. “Yes, well, that doesn’t tell me why you’re here alone in Texas. Did you decide to come across with some migrants this time?” he asked at last.
He loved the way her eyes sparked as she talked. The fire and enthusiasm for what she was doing flashed out of every pore. She had to be exhausted and near collapse, but she seemed determined to make him understand. He discovered it aroused him no end to simply listen and watch.
He’d slept with a number of women in his youth, but he’d never seen this much pure passion packed into one gorgeous body. Cal experienced a demanding desire to capture that passion. But he also badly needed her help with Kaydie. So he decided to go slow and eventually charm his way into her arms.
“I usually travel with one or two other church members,” she told him. “On this particular journey, two of us had been working with one of the bigger migrant groups…Armando with the single men, and I was with the families that had mothers and babies along.” Bella rose, refilled her glass.
“Three nights ago the dangerous men who’d promised to take the whole group across the border showed up at the camp.” She took a sip and returned to her seat. “Your U.S. law enforcement uses the term coyotes for the hombres who guide migrants across for money. The name suits most of them and certainly described these men.”
Cal began to wonder exactly what details her story might entail. A look of terror had flitted across her eyes as she spoke of the coyotes.
“You look tired, Bella.” He swallowed back the flash of anger over the treatment he’d imagined she’d suffered at the hands of the human smugglers. “Why don’t you finish telling me this tomorrow?” He wasn’t sure he could take hearing the details of what had happened to her.
She shook her head. “I will finish now, por favor.” Bella blinked once and shivered. “The men who were to act as coyotes for our band of migrants seemed particularly bad. Rough, drunken and violent. Armando and I talked the women and children into staying inside Mexico and trying to find another way to cross. The single men wanted to go ahead.
“The coyotes were displeased with Armando and me for interfering with their plans…and for warning the single men not to turn over all their money until they’d arrived safely at their destination.”
Wiping a hand across her weary eyes, Bella suddenly looked vulnerable and small. “A coyote shot Armando. Killed him instantly. One of the single migrant men hid me under a tarp in the bed of a covered truck…or I would be dead, too.”
Cal reached for her, but she shirked away from his touch. “My God, Bella. This sounds incredible. How did you survive? What did you do?”
“I kept perfectly still while the coyotes herded the rest of the migrants into the trucks. It was so hot in there and we had so little air, breathing was difficult. The first time they stopped the trucks to provide for some human comfort must’ve been nearly twelve hours later.”
Bella closed her eyes, apparently remembering the horror. “Some of the migrants feared that if the coyotes spotted me they might try to assault me and perhaps kill us all. One kind man gave me a little water that he’d hidden and then helped me escape into the night.
“I had no idea how far we had come before I got away…or where I might be headed. But I was panicked that the coyotes would come looking for me. They know the Texas range…and they want me dead.” She took a breath and swallowed. “I waited until daylight and then traveled south, hoping to run into something recognizable sooner or later.”
Cal stood. He felt like punching something, but there was nothing to hit. So he pitched his apple core into the garbage can and limped to the sink. Her story had disturbed him more than he liked to think.
“How did you manage to get through the Gentry Ranch fence?” he grumbled over his shoulder.
“Well, I most certainly did not cut any wires to come here, Señor Gentry,” she retorted smartly. “The trucks stopped on a dirt road in the dark of night and out in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea how we arrived at that spot, considering that I was buried under a dozen men in the dark trying not to breathe too loudly. I saw no signs of civilization when I snuck away.
“At daybreak, I walked south. I came across cattle and sheep and took water from stock tanks, but I saw no one’s fence. The smoke from the chimney of this cabin was the first thing I saw that looked like civilization.”
Upon hearing the obvious annoyance in her words, Cal had swung to watch her face. “I didn’t mean to accuse you of trespassing, sugar.” He hoped he could take the darts from her gaze with an explanation. “But my older brother, Cinco, will have a fit when he hears of this. He prides himself on the security surrounding Gentry Ranch.”
Bella’s hand motioned around the tiny kitchen. “Your brother lives here, too? I’ve only seen one bedroom bedsides Kaydie’s little room. Where is your brother now?”
Cal chuckled. “Most of the time no one lives in this cabin. Kaydie, her nanny and I just arrived last night. The nanny left this morning.” He sighed, then continued. “Cinco and his wife live in the main ranch house, about a half hour drive from here.”
At her startled look, he explained. “The Gentry is a good-size Texas ranch, honey. If you walked south all day yesterday, you must’ve escaped the coyotes’ truck about ten or twelve miles inside our eastern fence line. The question is how and where the coyotes broke through.”
“I didn’t realize your ranch was that big. There are rich patróns in Mexico who also have such massive land holdings.” She shrugged a shoulder. “But I don’t know how we arrived on your land in the trucks. We had no windows or way to see out. I did hear the coyotes bragging to the migrants about how they’d found a new, perfectly safe way to travel north, though.”
When she finished speaking, she yawned again, and Cal instinctively wanted to cradle her in his arms and rock her until she relaxed enough to fall sleep. He was surprised at the protective feelings she’d suddenly aroused in him. They felt a lot like the fatherly urges toward Kaydie he’d been trying to ignore for the last couple of months.
He couldn’t afford to suddenly feel anything more than duty when it came to his child. Not now. And with Bella…well, with her he wanted to keep his urges running more toward the lustful side anyway.
“You need sleep,” he told her.
He noticed her studying him carefully so he explained. “I want you to stay with us…at least for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll make some calls and we’ll talk more about getting you home. You can’t just wander around on the Gentry Ranch, starving and in danger of sunstroke.”
She gestured toward his gimpy leg. “Will someone come to care for Kaydie tonight? Forgive me, Cal, but you are not in very good shape to care for such a small and sick child.”
“You’re telling me,” he said with a nod. “No. No one else will be coming here tonight. It’s just my daughter and me. Kaydie has had one nursemaid or another since she was born, but the one I hired to come out here felt the place was too…rustic…for her tastes.”
Bella looked around the kitchen. “Running water. Indoor plumbing. Two bedrooms with safe and cozy beds in which to sleep.” She smiled. “This place would be a palace to some. How long has this cabin been here?”
For the first time since she’d known him, Cal smiled with real pleasure. “My great-great-grandfather built it by hand for one of his children over a hundred years ago. I figure it’s sturdy enough to still be standing here for at least another hundred.
“My sister and I used to play in these old rooms as kids,” he continued. “Abby…that’s my little sister…and her new husband, Gray, moved in right after they got married and started remodeling the old place. They rewired and put in new plumbing. In fact, they really brought the cabin up to date…except for a few cosmetic problems. They stopped and moved out when Gray’s stepfather died, but I plan on fixing up the rest of it while I’m here.”
“How long will you and Kaydie live out here?”
“I’m thinking we’ll probably stay a couple of months…. It all depends.”
Bella looked around the warm and safe cabin once more. She knew the coyotes might be looking for her, now that it was dark again. And at some point she would have to start worrying about the U.S. Border Patrol catching her and carting her off to a detention cell, then hustling her off across the border.
It didn’t take her long to figure out her best plan would be to stay here, acting as the sweet baby’s nanny. Maybe she could also help the child’s injured father—even though being near to Cal made her feel lots of things that she shouldn’t.
“I will stay with you tonight,” she told him. “But only for the baby’s sake. And only…if I sleep alone in the little bed next to her crib.”
Bella awoke with a start. As she lay perfectly still and held her breath, she listened carefully for the sound or movement that must’ve disturbed her sleep. Had the coyotes found her?
A small, soft noise in the baby’s crib next to her bed suddenly reminded her of where she was and how she’d gotten here. Before sitting up and trying to clear the rest of the ravages of sleep from her brain, she took a second to think about how fantastic a real mattress and box springs felt after all these months of sleeping on the ground.
When the last speck of the dark coyote nightmare that had been plaguing her for days finally cleared away, she rose to check on the baby.
The child was on her back with her eyes closed, but she seemed restless. Bella reached to check her diaper, thinking perhaps the girl was wet and uncomfortable. But the moment her hand touched the baby’s sizzling skin, Bella knew what was really wrong. Kaydie’s fever had come back.
Bella quickly changed the diaper then cradled the child to her chest. The baby snuggled close, trying to find comfort against a women’s breast. But after a fruitless minute, Kaydie pushed herself back and began to wail.
“Ah, pobrecita. You do not feel well, I know,” Bella cooed. “Let’s see if we can find a way to help.”
With Kaydie still crying, Bella headed toward the darkened kitchen and the baby bottles she’d washed out earlier. “We’ll get you some water and check you over again, little one,” she told the screaming child.
Not sure where the light switch might be, and with the cool moonlight streaming through the windows, Bella didn’t bother with the lights. There was enough of a glow for her to fill a baby bottle. After all, she’d become accustomed to maneuvering in the dark over the last couple of years on the open range.
But as she reached the counter and shifted Kaydie enough to pick up a bottle, the overhead light suddenly flooded the room with a shock of glaring illumination. Bella turned to make sure the interloper was Cal.
It was most definitely, absolutely positively, her host.
He stood motionless, leaning on one crutch at the threshold of the kitchen, scrutinizing her. He looked like he’d just stumbled out of bed. His hair was in luxuriant disarray, the deep shadow of a late-night beard grazed across his jaw, and he was wearing only a pair of loose fitting running shorts. His naked broad chest and the smattering of dark hair there caught her immediate attention—until she glanced into his eyes.
As his gaze raked her body, from the tip of her uncombed hair right down to her bare toes, a spark of sexual recognition hammered through every single part of her. Burning passion flamed openly in his eyes as he brought 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 so funny?”
“I wasn’t racing at the time,” he muttered as he rearranged his body in a more comfortable position at the table. “You’ve really never heard of me, honey?” he drawled smoothly. He scrutinized her face, waiting for some kind of reaction.
Surely she’d been putting him on. Everybody knew what had happened to racing giant Cal Gentry.
Her eyebrows rose, but she sat quietly.
