Hart's Baby

Navy blue briefs.

Forcing herself to look away, she placed her makeup kit on the counter, next to the razor he’d left lying there. She moved aside the can of shaving cream, unable to resist the temptation of wiping off the white foam that still clung to the nozzle.

Zach Hart might have been many things, but neat wasn’t among them. Somehow, the small flaw lightened her insides. It gave her more equal footing with him.

Right.

Ignoring the many reminders of Zach in the room, she freshened up, then returned to her room.

Billy started to squirm and whimper, so she made him a bottle and curled up with him on a chair. He settled into her arms, softly and sweetly, taking her away from her concerns. Truth to tell, she needed the distraction.

When the infant was warm, fed and dry, she cuddled him, repeating her promise that he’d never be abandoned again.

As she did almost every day, Cassie counted his perfect fingers and toes. It wasn’t possible for this beautiful baby to be hers to raise and look out for, was it?

The distant reverberation of a doorbell jolted her, and Billy startled, his eyes opening wide. “Well, kiddo, it’s time to meet another uncle.”

Billy kicked. Maybe it was more of a stretch, but Cassie was certain it was in answer to her statement, making him, in her opinion, the smartest baby in the world.

Now all she needed to do was convince Zach of the same thing.

With Billy nestled in the cradle of her arms, Cassie headed downstairs, her tummy tightening with each step she took. The drone of discussion from the living room gave her pause. She heard Zach’s voice over the others and it didn’t take a genius to figure out she and Billy buzzed as the topic of conversation.

If only Zach understood she had no desire to hurt anyone.... But he didn’t. And that meant she had to prove him wrong. She just wished that were easily accomplished.

She stepped inside, and when they saw her, quiet draped over the formal room, like the doom accompanying the words, “The principal wants to see you.”

Her steps faltered, and Zach looked across at her, eyes narrowed.

“So glad you could join us, my dear.” Margaret’s greeting scattered the tension to the corners of the room.

Nick’s eyes, however, glinted dark and cold like his brother’s. A chill chased down Cassie’s spine, despite the lightweight sweater she’d pulled over her silk shirt.

Zach said nothing, but lifted his beer can without taking a drink.

“Nicholas, dear, I’d like to introduce Cassandra Morrison.” Her pause accompanied the regal tilt of her chin. “And the infant she holds may be none other than Chad’s baby.”

“Mother...” Zach warned.

Cassie’s mouth dried.

Zach slammed the can on the table. When he spoke, his tone was as bleak as the future. “You’re making assumptions.”

“Posh,” Margaret retorted. “He has Chad’s nose. Don’t you agree, Nicholas?”

“Mother,” Zach started, “I suggest—”

Margaret waved away the rest of Zach’s protest. “He looks just like all my boys did.”

Nick moved closer, and Cassie noted that the Hart stamp of power didn’t belong exclusively to Zach. Nick was blessed with it, too. She was doubly cursed.

Zach had moved closer to his mother, the brothers forming a semicircle of protection around her.

“I don’t see a resemblance,” Zach stated firmly, lips tightened.

“All babies look alike to me,” Nick agreed.

Tears threatened for the second time that day. Had she made the right decision by coming here? She’d debated whether to seek out Billy’s birth father or not. But she knew how awful it was to grow up without a father.

Embarrassment had forced her to skip the annual Girl Scout father—daughter dance. Instead, she’d stayed home and tried to pretend it didn’t matter. But it had. Kids needed to know they were loved and wanted by their parents.

Selfishly she knew that a big part of her had wanted to keep Billy all to herself. But that would have been the wrong thing to do.

So why did doing the right thing now seem so wrong?

Zach’s gaze collided with hers and he held it for ransom. A speculative gleam dominated his eyes, and his jaw was set in a firm line. Clearing her throat, she looked away, but she was pulled, against her will, back into his hypnotic stare.

What was it about him that so unnerved her, made her lose her poise and calm? She’d faced angry parents, skeptical administrators, stubborn kids. None of those experiences prepared her in the least for the chilly condemnation that emanated from Zachary Hart.

Finally Margaret spoke, shattering the spell. “Now that the introductions are over, we’ll go in for dinner.”

Staying away from Zach in the close quarters of the dining room proved difficult. Margaret had strategically placed herself at the foot of the table, leaving Zach at the head. No matter where Cassie chose to sit, she would be next to him.

Zach pulled back her chair. Already experienced at holding a baby while accomplishing a host of other duties, she took her seat, placing her free hand on the chair to wiggle it closer to the table.

A jolt of electricity seemed to zap her when Zach’s fingers skimmed her shoulders and he bent toward her to say, “Allow me.”

He took far too long in pushing in her chair, and his touch lingered over her, unfurling ribbons of awareness through her. Dam it, she couldn’t afford to notice him, didn’t dare succumb to his charms and become distracted.

Stilted conversation played about the table, making Cassie wonder if it wouldn’t have been better if she’d taken Zach’s suggestion to stay in town. In her fight for Billy’s heritage, she hadn’t factored in the cost to herself. The baby was too young to understand the tension that zinged around him, but she was far from immune to its effects.

And while the meal dragged on for Cassie, Zach, in spite of his numerous faults, expertly played the role of attentive host.

It was the enthusiastic and loving interaction with his family that shocked her most. As coffee was brought in by the housekeeper, he leaned back, listening attentively to stories Nick told about the booming construction business in Denver.

This new side of Zach, one totally at odds with the one he’d shown in his office, was alternately alluring and frightening.

After coffee, Nick asked if Cassie needed a lift to town.

“Cassandra is staying here,” Margaret said firmly, sliding her cup and saucer toward the middle of the table. “If you’ll excuse us,” Margaret said to Zach and Nick, “we ladies will be in the parlor.”

Cassie adjusted the sleeping Billy as she tried to find the best way to rise from the table. Zach stood before she did, pulling back her chair and offering a steady hand.

His fingers cupped her elbow, and the unsettling sensation of attraction curled through her once more, chasing awareness into the base of her stomach and spreading lower with tantalizing, dizzying warning.

Her legs felt wobbly and weak. Warmth seeped into her. She moved a fraction of an inch, but his grip remained firm.

“Need any help?”

“No,” she lied. Then she compounded it by adding, “I’m fine.”

Right then she realized Zach’s tender masculinity posed a far greater threat than his hostility ever could.

And, she thought as want wound through her, his gentle courtesy might prove her undoing.

Three

“You’ll wear a hole in the wood.”

Zach, unaware he’d betrayed the tension coiled in the pit of his stomach, responded to his brother’s statement and stopped drumming his fingers on the oak dining room table.

He turned away from the doorway, but Cassie’s womanly presence still lingered there, mixed with the scent of her wildflower perfume. It had remained behind, a tantalizing tease.

“She’s getting to you,” Nick stated, reaching behind him to the buffet and grabbing two mugs. Shoving aside the porcelain their mother always insisted on, Nick poured two cups of coffee and pushed one toward Zach.

Without thinking, he took it and wrapped his hands around the stoneware.

No doubt Mother had orchestrated the past few minutes...better than any Hollywood director. She was a master at getting what she wanted. And she wanted the boy she already thought of as her grandchild to be a part of this family.

None of this would have happened if Cassie hadn’t shown up, unexpected and uninvited. Damn it. Damn her.

And why did she have to be so appealing? If she had been a shrew, he could have sent her on her way, despite his mother’s objections. But with haunted eyes, desperation in her tone and honesty in her demeanor, he was hardpressed to deny Cassie a single thing.

“I don’t like it,” Zach said flatly.

“No,” Nick agreed. “I don’t imagine you do.”

“So what do we do about her?”

“Throw her in the street,” Nick suggested mildly.

“Go to hell.”

A few beats of silence marked the hostility in the air. Then Nick spoke. “So that’s how it is.”

Zach hadn’t experienced an urge to throw a punch at his older brother in a dozen years. Right now, though, a telltale tingle itched in the tips of his fingers.

“Been a while since you were wound up about a woman.”

Zach’s jaw tightened. “I’m not interested in Cassandra Morrison.” The words were flat and hollow—a lie wrapped around the truth.

He was interested and, just as certainly, shouldn’t be.

At one time Zach had had a weakness for women. Smaller, more vulnerable than he, he’d wanted to shelter them, care for them. Trouble was, trust had been shattered into tiny pieces when his wife slept with another man, betraying his trust. He’d walked away wiser, perhaps bitter. He’d never let another woman close.

Even if the instinct hadn’t been destroyed, he’d already determined Cassandra wasn’t weak, nor was she vulnerable. She stood tall and strong. Sure as winter followed fall, she didn’t want anything resembling protection from him. Fact was, maybe she needed to be protected from him.

“Mother’s certain this kid belongs to Chad.”

Nick nodded. “And you’re certain he doesn’t.”

Zach’s sigh came from the diaphragm. Plowing his fingers through his hair, he admitted, “Hell, Nick, I don’t know.”

“It’s not impossible.”

“Chad’s no saint, but he wouldn’t turn his back on his son. His son. None of us would.” Standing, he said, “I’ve got an investigator’s report in my office.”

Wordlessly Nick gathered his mug and followed.

After handing the tattered folder to Nick, Zach settled behind his desk, watching as a mirror expression of his own reaction played across Nick’s features.

Nick closed the folder and nodded. “The father could be anyone.”

“Yeah. But the birth certificate lists Chad as the father.” That knot of tension tightened in Zach’s shoulder again. “And you heard Mother, the kid looks like Chad.”

“He looks like a baby,” Nick countered.

“But she’d know.” Doubts crept in, along with the ramifications. “If he is Chad’s kid, he’s a Hart.”

Nick took a long drink. “Okay, little brother, lay it on the line. What have you come up with?”

Growing up, their mother always called Zach her thinker. Nick acted, Chad reacted and Zach contemplated. From an early age, responsibility had befallen him. Nick had worked his guts out, sending home every penny he could spare, but Zach had parlayed the earnings into something substantial, the heritage they deserved.

He’d watched Nick lose half his worldly goods and a chunk of his salary to a woman he’d briefly married. And Zach himself had struggled to hang on to everything they’d accumulated after Vanessa tried to do the same when he filed for divorce.

No woman, ever again, would come between the Harts and their heritage.

“I offered her a payoff.”

Nick’s brow arched.

“She refused it. Said she doesn’t want money. She wants our time and, for Billy, love.”

“You don’t believe her.”

Zach shrugged. “I don’t know what to believe.”

Following a long pause, Nick said, “We’ll have to get to the bottom of it.”

“And hope no one gets hurt.” Most of all their mother. “So, I’ve hired an investigator.”

Nick nodded. “Good.”

The brothers looked at each other, measured gaze for measured gaze. Unspoken words hung in the air, poised like the tip of a knife blade.

The moment the men strode into the room, Cassie’s senses swam. Zach’s commanding attitude swamped her, demanding her full attention.

His gaze flicked to the Hart family album on her lap and guilty heat suffused her face.

Suddenly feeling like an interloper, she slammed the cover closed. She hoped he wouldn’t notice her guilty reaction. Right. She should have known better. In the short time she’d known Zach, she’d realized he missed nothing.

His eyes were slate again, cold and hard, chilling her as they accused.

“I was showing off pictures of you boys when you were children,” Margaret said, using her cane to stand. “Young Billy has the Hart nose. No doubt about it.”

Tension, so hot it sent a shiver sliding through Cassie, crackled in the room.

Margaret, either oblivious to, or ignoring the effects of her statement, stood and reached for the photo album. “Nicholas, dear, do help me put this away. We’ll have a chance to look at others later.” She paused to look at one last picture. “Here’s one of my boys swimming in the pond.” Her eyes twinkled mischievously. “Seems our Zachary had lost his trunks in the water.” With a little wink, she moved away.

Cassie’s smile died when Zach descended on her. His strides long, he managed to obliterate her comfort zone in three steps. She should have stood up before he’d gotten so close. Or maybe she should have escaped. But it was too late. She was trapped in her seat.

“My mother wants your baby to be her grandchild.”

Having no other choice, Cassie tipped back her head. A crick froze one of the muscles in her shoulder, holding it rigid. Absently she stroked the knot while searching for the right words. “I know.”

Zach crouched, knees wide, stretching his jeans taut across the crotch. For a brief, horrifying second, he snared her attention, her imagination and more.

“Have you considered what it might do to her if you’re wrong?”

Forcing herself to focus on him, on his question, she slowly answered, “Believe me, Mr. Hart—”

“Zach.”

She blinked.

“If you’re going to be sleeping in the room next to mine, we might as well dispense with the formality.”

“But—”

“The name’s Zach.”

The solidness of the name rolled around in her mind, but she didn’t think she’d be able to bring herself to think of him on a friendly first-name basis for quite a while.

Still, with him crouched so near to her, his words whisper soft and the scent of mountain spice permeating the air, she wondered what it might be like to be more, so much more, than opponents.

Thinking became a task demanding effort and she returned to the topic of baby Billy’s future. “I’m a helper, a teacher, not a destroyer.” The voices around them had lowered and she matched the pitch. “If I believe, for one moment, that I’m going to hurt your family, I promise you I’ll leave.”

They regarded each other warily, and she swore she heard the rush of her own pulse, as much from his reaction to her statement as from her own recognition of him.

“I’ll make sure you do,” he said, placing his hands on his thighs and pushing to a standing position.

That brought him, for a brief second, closer to her, skipping her pulse forward a beat.

Billy started to whimper.

“I’ll hold him while you make a bottle,” Margaret said from across the room.

Relief cascaded through Cassie.

Her breathing was still irregular when she mixed water and formula in the kitchen. The situation was becoming more difficult by the minute. And it didn’t appear that relief loomed on the horizon. Finding Chad might take weeks. According to her investigator, Chad was riding rodeos somewhere in South America.

By the time she’d mixed the powder and water, Billy’s whimpers had reached squall force. She was standing just outside the living room door when Margaret’s words stopped Cassie in her tracks.

“Zachary, dear,” Margaret said, “come here and hold young William while I show Nicholas out.”

Nick and Zach’s conversation ceased. Rooted to her spot, Cassie anticipated Zach’s negative reaction.

Without ever looking in her direction, he turned to face his mother. His tone even, he asked Margaret, “You’re going to show Nick out?”

“Now, darling, that’s the polite thing to do.”

“I’m leaving?” Nick chuckled. “All right, Mother, show me out.”

Zach moved toward the couch and his mother. Cassie, debating what to do, bit back her urge to jump in and care for her nephew. Swallowing a nervous lump, she saw Zach accept the unhappy bundle.

Billy seemed so small in Zach’s large arms. And Zach appeared as uncomfortable as any first-time father.

But she knew from experience how incredible it was to hold your own flesh and blood in your arms, feel the warmth, experience the headiness of blind trust.

If only Zach could bond with Billy like she had, see what she saw.... For a few seconds, her body forgot its basic functions.

In Zach’s arms, Billy quieted.

“It’s okay, big guy,” Zach said. “We’ll have that bottle in a sec.”

She’d never heard such mellowness from a big man before. Nuances ran through his rich voice as he dropped it to a level she hadn’t imagined possible. For a frightening moment she wondered how she might respond if he spoke to her in that same gently hypnotic tone.

He glanced in her direction then, his harsh expression tempered by wonder.

Her breath caught, and hope flared for the first time since she arrived. His heart might be encased by distrust, but he did have one, nonetheless.

Even as Cassie watched, steel edged back into his features. If she hadn’t seen the look on his face, she might have doubted his ability to be a sensitive man. Now that she had... Her tummy tightened. Now that she had, she believed Billy might have a chance.

Margaret pushed on the top of her cane and said, “Nicholas, dear, lend your mother a hand.”

A patient look passed between the brothers, then Nick took two steps and proffered his arm.

When they approached Cassie, Nick and his mother stopped. “It was a pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” Nick said. The words were polite, yet a cold undertow rippled beneath them.

No matter how outwardly accepting the Harts might be, she still had a long way to go. Success would be measured in tiny increments.

Still, she and Billy had advanced slightly, evidenced by the fact that Zach now held his nephew.

Billy fussed again, galvanizing her into action.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she said.

She moved toward Zach and offered to take the baby.

Shaking his head, he instead said, “Give me the bottle.”

“The bottle?”

“I would assume that’s why he’s exercising his vocal chords.”

Her hand shook as she offered the bottle. She’d had precious little help since Billy arrived in her life. Receiving it from unexpected quarters made her nervous.

Zach ended up squirting formula on Billy’s face. Closing his eyes, he screamed.

“Like this,” Cassie said softly, placing her hand over Zach’s. The heat from his hand jolted her, igniting nerve endings. They looked at each other, the communication having nothing to do with the child and everything to do with simmering awareness.

Wresting her thoughts back under control, she gently moved his hand. Together they stroked Billy’s lip with the nipple. He continued to cry, then suddenly stopped and latched on, sucking with greedy abandonment.

Zach’s smile of triumph rocked her down to her toes. For an instant the connection between them seemed real and honest, tempting.

Her senses in a whir, she released her grip on Zach, moving away to grab a cloth from the diaper bag. When her breaths weren’t as quick, she returned to wipe the drops of milk from Billy’s face. His eyes fluttered open, then blissfully closed again.

“His eyes look like yours,” Zach observed.

She tamped down her first reaction to toss back his words, telling him babies didn’t resemble anyone. “Jeanie’s were the same. It’s the one feature we shared.”

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