“My mother has apparently been stupid enough to marry your father, but that sure as hell doesn’t give you free rein of the Cold Creek, lady.”
She inhaled deeply, working hard to keep her emotions under control. No good would come of losing her temper with him, she reminded herself. As far as he was concerned, she had invaded his territory, and his reaction was natural and not unexpected.
At the same time, she couldn’t let him minimize her, not when she had only been trying to help.
“My name is Caroline,” she said calmly.
“I don’t care if you’re the frigging queen of England. This is my ranch and right now you’re trespassing.”
She raised an eyebrow, trying to hang onto her temper. “Are you going to have me thrown in jail because I had the temerity to make you and your boys some soup?”
“The idea holds considerable appeal right about now, believe me!”
Though she knew he was only posturing, dread curled through her just at the possibility of going to jail again. She had a flashing image of concrete walls, hopelessness and a humiliating lack of privacy.
She couldn’t bear contemplating that brief time in her life—and couldn’t even begin to imagine having to go back.
She took another deep breath, focusing on pushing all the tension out of her body.
“I was only trying to help. I thought perhaps Tanner might need something comforting and warm after his ordeal.”
“I don’t need your help, Ms. Montgomery. I don’t need anything from you. It was the help you gave my mother that led to this whole mess in the first place.”
Oh, this man knew how to hit her where she lived. First he threatened her with her worst nightmare, then he dredged up all the guilt she’d been trying so hard to sublimate.
Before she could summon an answer, two noises started up simultaneously—his cell phone rang and strident cries started to float down the stairs as Cody awoke.
Wade let out a heavy sigh and rubbed two fingers on his temple. Deep frustration showed on his features and she reminded herself she didn’t want to be fighting with him. While she had worked to clean up the sticky, smoky mess in the kitchen, her mind had been busy trying to do the same to the mess her father had created in Wade Dalton’s life.
She wanted to think she had arrived at a viable solution.
“I disagree,” she said. “I think you do need help. And if you can swallow your anger at me—justified or not—and listen to me, I have a proposal for you.”
His glare indicated that the only kind of proposal he wanted to hear from her concerned her plans to leave his ranch, but she refused to let him intimidate her.
He answered his phone just as he headed out of the room to get Cody, now crying in earnest.
When he returned five minutes later, she had Tanner settled at the kitchen table, eating soup with his unbandaged hand and talking her ear off about his trip to the doctor and the stickers he got from his Uncle Jake and how he heard Amber, one of his Uncle Jake’s nurses, talking about how his Uncle Seth was the sexiest man in the county.
This Seth person sounded like an interesting character, she thought, then she forgot all about him when Wade walked into the kitchen with Cody on his hip. The rancher looked big and powerful and intimidating, and she thought his brother would have to be something indeed if he could possibly be more gorgeous than Wade Dalton.
Not that she noticed, she reminded herself. As far as she was concerned, he was grouchy and unreasonable and determined that everything in life had to go his way or else.
Still, there was something about seeing the sleepy-eyed toddler in his arms, one little hand flung around his father’s neck and the other thumb planted firmly in his mouth, that tugged at her heart.
The boy studied her warily until she smiled, then his reserve melted and he gave her a chubby smile in return, which only seemed to deepen his father’s scowl.
“Would you and Cody like some soup?” she asked.
Wade would have told her no but his stomach growled at just that moment and he had to admit the soup smelled delicious—rich and creamy, with a hint of some kind of spice he didn’t quite recognize.
“I didn’t put rat poison in it, I promise.”
He didn’t like this suspicion he had that she found him amusing somehow. He plain didn’t like her. Caroline Montgomery was everything that turned him off in a woman. She was opinionated and bossy, and he didn’t trust her motives one iota.
Trouble was, he couldn’t figure out what she could be after. What kind of woman travels eight hundred miles to find her father, then, when she doesn’t find him, sticks around to make soup in a stranger’s house?
She took the decision out of his hands by setting a steaming bowl on the table and setting another smaller bowl on the counter to cool for Cody.
He could eat, he thought grudgingly. Breakfast had been a long time ago and he’d been too shocked over that letter from his mother to pay much attention to what he’d been eating.
He set Cody in his high chair and pulled him up to the table next to Tanner, then noticed something else about the kitchen. It gleamed in the afternoon sunlight shining in through the big windows.
The place had been a mess when he’d left to take Cody to the clinic, with scorch marks on the walls and a sticky marshmallow goo on the stove. All that was gone.
“You cleaned up.” The statement came out more like an accusation than he’d intended but she only smiled in response. He noticed as she smiled that one of her eyeteeth overlapped the tooth next to it just a bit. It was a silly thing but he felt a little of his irritation with her ease at the discovery of that small imperfection.
“I figured you had enough on your hands right now. It was the least I could do anyway. If you hadn’t been distracted yelling at me…” her voice trailed off and she flashed that crooked little smile again. “Excuse me, if you hadn’t been talking to me in a loud and forceful voice, you probably would have been able to keep a closer eye on Tanner and he might not have had the opportunity to injure himself.”
“He would have found a way,” Wade muttered. “That kid could find trouble in his sleep. He’s a genius at it.”
“He does have a lot of energy but he seems very sweet. They both do.”
“Sure, while they’re busy eating,” Wade muttered, then felt like a heel complaining about his own kids.
“Which you should be doing,” she pointed out.
Right. He didn’t like bossy women, he reminded himself. Even if they had cute smiles and smelled like vanilla ice cream.
Still, he obediently tasted the potato soup his boys were enjoying with such relish, then had to swallow his moan of sheer pleasure. It was absolutely divine, thick and creamy, and flavored with an elusive spice he thought might be tarragon.
Tanner and Cody were carrying on one of their conversations, with Tanner yakking away about whatever he could think of and Cody responding with giggles and the occasional mimicry of whatever his brother said, and Wade listened to them while he savored the soup.
After he had eaten half the bowl in about a minute and a half, Caroline spoke up. “I know Marjorie helped you take care of your children. Do you have someone else to turn to now that she’s gone?”
He swallowed a spoonful of soup that suddenly didn’t taste as delectable. “Not yet. I’ll figure something out.”
Before she could answer, Tanner burped loudly and he and Cody erupted into hysterical laughter.
“Hey, that wasn’t very polite,” Wade chided, even