Daddy with a Deadline (4 page)

“Scones are biscuits made with raisins and currants. Very tasty,” Annie explained.

Trent took a cautious bite. They tasted like wallpaper paste. Not that he’d actually sampled any.

When they finished eating, Daisy brought a tray with chocolate squares. “Petits fours,” Annie said. “Sponge cake dipped in chocolate. I promise you’ll like them.”

Since they weren’t big enough to nibble on, Trent popped one into his mouth. “Not bad.”

“Told you.”

After dessert, Annie said, “It’s getting late.”

“Before we leave, I have something to show you.” Trent pulled Brad’s letter from his pocket and passed it to her.

When Annie glanced at the handwriting, her hand flew to her heart and color drained from her face. Instead of opening the letter, she stared at it and shook her head. “I can’t deal with this.”

“Should I read it to you?”

After a pause she nodded.

Trent cleared his throat and started to read.

“I know we haven’t seen each other since seventh grade, when I moved to Chicago. I planned to call you when I moved back to Ash Grove but didn’t get around to it. Yesterday I was in a car accident and I may not make it. So I need a favor. My wife Annie is pregnant with twins and we’re new in town. Would you help her during the last month of her pregnancy?”

Trent looked at Brad’s widow to see how she was coping. Tears slid down her cheeks, and she dabbed at them with a tissue.

“Should I stop?”

“No. Go on.”

Trent read the suggestions Brad had made and then read the last paragraph.

“If I recover, you won’t get this letter. If I don’t, my attorney will mail it to you a month before Annie’s due date. If you can help, I’d appreciate it. I wasn’t much of a husband. Annie deserved better. Thanks, Trent. Sincerely, Brad.”

Trent glanced at Annie. Her lower lip quivered and her face was ashen. “I can’t believe Brad wrote that.”

“I’m sure he wanted you to get some help.”

“You don’t understand. Our marriage...” She paused and took a deep breath. “Our marriage wasn’t working.”

“Lots of couples hit hard times. But they pass.”

Annie drew in a sharp breath. “There’s more. Brad didn’t want the twins. He told me to get an abortion.”

The words hit Trent like a sucker punch to the gut. “You must be mistaken.”

She shook her head and the pain that showed in her eyes intensified.

Trent clenched his fists, unable to believe what he’d just heard. What kind of an idiot had his friend become? “Brad would have changed his mind,” Trent said, hoping to ease the anguish on her face. “He came from a great family and would have been a good father.”

“I’d like to believe that. But I’ll never know.”

Anger made Trent’s blood pressure spike. How dare Brad have hurt his wife so deeply? He’d married a beautiful, caring woman—a woman he’d treated abominably.

“Let’s go,” Annie said quietly. “You can’t sit here drinking tea all afternoon.”

She reached for the check but Trent beat her to it. “My treat.”

Annie tugged on the bill. “No way. You rescued me and I’m buying lunch.”

Trent tugged harder. “I can’t let you.”

“Why not?”

“Because I haven’t done one manly thing since I walked into this place. If I pay the check, I’ll leave with my masculinity intact.”

A slight smile tugged at Annie’s mouth, and she released the check. Then she reached across the table and to Trent’s shock covered his hand with hers. Annie’s touch made his throat go dry, threw his heartbeat out of synch, and kicked his pulse into high gear.

“I misjudged you this morning,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow. “You mean when you accused me of being an attacker?”

“I didn’t understand. I’m sorry.”

Trent nodded. “You’re forgiven.”

Annie’s hand on his was sending electrical currents sparking through his body, as his pulse whirred like a runaway top. If he didn’t watch himself, this woman would throw more than his heartbeat off-kilter.

Danger signs, he realized. The red flags were definitely waving.

Dawn had had a similar effect on him. Her touch had caused a revolution inside him. He would have done anything for Dawn. But all she’d wanted was his bank account.

Suddenly the room seemed stifling. Trent had to get outside, where he could breathe. “Are you ready?”

Annie nodded. But the minute she moved her hand, Trent missed her soft touch.

As he walked Annie to his truck, Trent knew he was in over his head. Would one ride and lunch in a tearoom fulfill Brad’s request? Hardly. His friend had asked for weeks of help. And tasks Trent couldn’t imagine performing.

He might have managed if Annie Samuels were unattractive and difficult. But she was lovely, and gentle, and far too enticing.

As he drove Annie home, Rosa’s words returned to haunt him.
You owe your friend this favor.
They’d rung true when she had said them and still did. If he continued this assignment, he’d have to corral his emotions. He tamed wild horses. Surely he could control his feelings.

Trent walked Annie to the door. While he needed to leave, he couldn’t quite pull away, so he dropped into the porch swing. “Sit down a minute.”

She shook her head. “It won’t hold me. My couch groans every time I sit down.”

“This swing is sturdy. It can manage all four of us.”

The rosebush beside the porch perfumed the air. But when Annie settled beside him, her scent tantalized Trent far more than the flowers. She smelled sweeter than an April morning.

Trent forced his thoughts back to business. “I’ll let you know what Wes says about your car.”

Annie sighed. “I’m praying for minor injuries.”

A breeze ruffled her blonde curls. Trent wondered if they were as silky as they looked. He reached out to touch one but stopped himself in time.

“There’s something you could do for me,” she said. “If you have a few minutes.”

“What’s that?”

“I’d like Mama’s rocker in the nursery. But I can’t carry it upstairs myself.”

“I’ll move it anywhere you like. Do your folks live around here?”

“I don’t have parents. My father left when I was born and Mama never remarried. She died when I was twelve, and I went to live with my aunt and cousins. Life was never the same without Mama.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It hurts less now. But I still miss her every day.”

They swung awhile in silence. Then Trent said, “Let’s move that rocker.” He stood and, without thinking, reached for Annie’s hands to help her up. The moment their fingers linked, the ground beneath Trent quivered. And their gazes locked tighter than the gate on his corral. Trent couldn’t feel more breathless if he’d been bucked off Wildfire.

Thank goodness Annie pulled away and led him into the house.

Doing something concrete like moving furniture was safer than swinging with Annie.

Or talking with Annie.

Or touching Annie.

He’d do well to remember that.

Trent still didn’t understand that quiver. There must be more earth tremors in this part of Texas than he had realized.

Annie led Trent to the basement, where he hoisted Mama’s rocker onto his shoulder as if it were a toy. “Lead the way,” he said.

He followed her to the nursery. “Will you put it under the window?” she asked.

“How’s that?”

“Great. I like it there.”

“Go ahead. Give it a test-drive.”

Annie dropped into the chair, trying to forget that just moments ago she and Brad’s childhood friend were swinging on her front porch. The man exuded strength and masculinity. And his musky scent stirred longings in Annie. Longings she didn’t want to experience.

She’d better squelch them, and fast. Hadn’t she endured enough heartache during her marriage to Brad? Annie vowed to
keep her distance from this cowboy. Good thing the rocker only held one passenger.

“Do you know the sex of the twins?” he asked.

Annie shook her head. “That’s like opening your presents before Christmas.”

Trent’s chuckle held warmth and resonance. His deep voice made the unfurnished nursery feel less empty. Everything in Annie’s life was empty these days. Especially her heart.

He glanced around the room. “I don’t know much about babies, but shouldn’t the little tykes each have a bed?”

“The end of the school year gets busy. I haven’t bought them yet.”

“Have you picked them out?”

Annie felt a jab of annoyance. With all the hospital bills to pay, she couldn’t afford baby furniture. A fact she hated to admit even to herself.

“I’ll pick them out soon. The babies can sleep in something small at first. Even dresser drawers.”

Trent’s brows arched and his eyes widened. “Dresser drawers? You must be joking.”

Annie’s annoyance kicked up a notch. “It’s temporary, I assure you.”

Trent stroked his chin as he surveyed the walls. “If one or more of the twins is a boy, you can’t let him sleep in this pink room.”

She narrowed her eyes at the impertinent cowboy. “The room is salmon. Not pink.”

“Definitely in the ballpark.”

Annie bit her lip in an effort to control her temper. “If either or both babies are boys, it’ll be more than a year before they recognize colors—much less associate them with a gender. I’ll paint the room later,” she said, enunciating every syllable. Hopefully her dismissive tone would stop this interrogation.

“So you’re going to let the little guys sleep in dresser drawers in a girly bedroom? That doesn’t seem right.”

Annie’s pulse picked up speed, and she rocked faster. The domineering man hadn’t heard a word she’d said! She fought off the urge to shake those broad shoulders and shout, “Earth to Trent Madison! Earth to Trent Madison!”

Instead, she bit her lip again and tried not to strangle him. “Let me get this straight. You think I should climb a ladder in my condition to slather paint on the walls? So newborns won’t be offended by the color of their room?”

Trent stopped pacing and stared at her. “Of course not, woman! I’ll paint the room for you!”

Another shocking pronouncement from this tough-as-nails cowboy. Brad had never fixed anything. Or painted anything. Maintenance and repairs had been Annie’s territory.

The fury inside her was tinged with gratitude. “Sorry,” she said. “I can’t let you do that.”

He set his jaw and glared. “Give me one good reason why not.”

At any moment the sparks sizzling between them would erupt into forest fire. The cowboy needed to leave now. And return to his ranch.

“First of all, I won’t accept charity,” she snapped. “And second of all...” Annie paused. The overbearing man flustered her so, she could scarcely think.

“You pay for the paint. Then it’s not charity. What’s second of all?”

Annie couldn’t tell Trent the real reason: that it felt wrong for a stranger to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. Besides, if Brad wasn’t interested in his children, why would another man be?

She crossed her arms over her shelf of a tummy. “I just can’t, that’s all.”

To his credit, Trent didn’t overreact. “When you do paint the room, what color will you choose?”

“A sunny yellow for the walls with white woodwork. And I’ll hang pictures of giraffes, and pandas, and monkeys.”

Now why had she blurted that out? She’d lain awake every night picturing how she’d like the nursery to look if money were no object. Which it certainly was.

“I think a boy or two would like a yellow bedroom.”

“So glad you agree. I’ll paint the room later. Much later.”

Trent shrugged shoulders broader than they had any right to be. “Hey, Annie, it’s your call.”

“You’re right. It is my call.”

“I’m meeting a client at four,” Trent said as if reading her thoughts. “Sorry if I upset you. I tend to speak my mind.”

With considerable effort, Annie bit back a retort. She got up, which also took considerable effort, and walked Trent to the door. The sooner this man disappeared, the better.

But then a new emotion hit. Guilt.

The cowboy had been kind and helpful. He’d picked her up, helped her with Eloise, taken her to a tearoom for lunch, and hauled Mama’s rocker upstairs. And how had she repaid him? By barking at him for thinking the nursery needed two beds and a coat of paint!

The man stirred such a barrage of emotions that Annie had forgotten her manners. She owed him. Plain and simple.

“Do you have lunch plans on Saturday?”

“Why? Are you feelin’ guilty for dragging me to that tearoom?”

His grin revived the laugh lines around his gray eyes and appealing mouth. And made him sexier than ever.

“You offered to go. And it’s not guilt,” Annie fibbed. “I just want to...”

Trent’s overpowering presence so intimidated Annie that she forgot what she was going to say. Just looking at the man made her light-headed.

“You just want to what?”

“To, um, thank you for your help.”

“No thanks are required.”

Great! He’d just turned down her lunch invitation cold. She lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes. “If you don’t want to come for lunch, that’s fine with me.”

“I said no thanks are required. But I’d like to come for lunch.” Once again he sounded sincere.