Clinging to the baby carrier, which bounced precariously because of the trucker’s hold on her arm, Zoe barely kept up with him. Fear churned through her at the way he was dragging her as if she were a kidnap victim. In her head she said every prayer she knew, hoping she hadn’t gotten herself and her baby into terrible trouble, as the stranger propelled her through the woods, almost toppling her when he turned her to walk into the oncoming wind again. She gasped for breath, and righted herself, tightening her hold on Daphne. But as she did, she suddenly saw what he must have seen—what had motivated him to shove her through the forest.
A house!
Even if they had to spend the night, they would have a bathroom, food…and be among people! She wouldn’t be alone with him!
Trying to run in the deep snow while hugging a bulky baby carrier, Zoe nearly fell twice. But her escort was running, too. She’d never felt the temperature fall so quickly and knew they had to get to shelter now or die.
With her boots clumped with snow, she stumbled on the front porch steps. When Cooper Bryant reached the top, he turned and grabbed the baby carrier from her hands, hauling it to his side before he caught Zoe’s hand and pulled her up, too.
Still holding Daphne’s seat, he ran across the plank porch to the door and pounded. Huddling into her insubstantial leather jacket and shivering violently, Zoe noticed there were no lights on in the house. A new fear tumbled through her. If there was no one home, they were in big trouble. God only knew how far they would have to go to the next shelter. And even if they did easily find another building, there was no guarantee it would have a stove. And if they found a cabin with a stove, there was no guarantee it would have wood.
If this house didn’t pan out, there was a very good possibility she and Daphne would die.
“Here!”
Cooper Bryant shoved Daphne’s baby carrier at Zoe and she caught it in trembling hands, again clutching Daphne close to her to protect her from the freezing wind. Cooper Bryant reached into his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. Just as quickly, he pulled out a credit card. Before Zoe realized what he was doing, he was sliding the card into the space between the doorknob and wood frame.
“You can’t!”
He peered at her from beneath his Stetson. His green eyes glittered with annoyance. The angles and planes of his face were drawn in stern lines. Yelling to be heard above the roar of the wind through the trees, he said, “In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have a choice.”
He shimmied the card a few times, jiggling the doorknob as he did. The wind howled. Frigid air pricked at Zoe’s cheeks. The lock on the door gave and Cooper shoved against the wood closure, opening it.
He grabbed Daphne’s seat and Zoe’s arm, propelling both Zoe and her baby into the house before him. Still holding Daphne, he slammed the door closed and for ten seconds or so they stood in the entryway of the simple two-story frame house, just breathing.
When it sunk in that they were out of the cold and safe, Zoe reached for Daphne, taking the handle of her baby carrier from Cooper Bryant’s hand. They might be out of danger from the elements, but the ease with which this man had gotten them into a locked house increased her fears about him. Worse, she couldn’t send him out into the cold to look for another shelter. Visibility was so bad now that he might not get back to the road.
“You’re very good with a lock.”
He returned the credit card to his wallet. “I knew this probably wouldn’t be much of a lock.”
She swallowed. “Really?”
He sighed. “I’m not a criminal. It’s just that this house is so far out in the woods I’m surprised the owner bothers with locks at all. I’m from a very small town in Arkansas where locks are more or less for show, so people frequently forget their keys. Everybody in Porter’s good with a credit card.”
Cooper reached for the light switch. At his touch, the entryway lit. “Hey, we’re in luck. If the electricity is on, that means there’s likely a furnace and maybe even food in the fridge.” He walked down the corridor and flipped a second switch, turning on another light and revealing the square corner of a bed in the room at the end of the hall.
“And here’s a thermostat. It’s set at fifty-five—just enough to keep the pipes from freezing. The person who owns this place obviously planned to be away awhile.” He shifted the knob of the gadget to the left and the sound of a furnace rumbling to life came up from the basement.
Zoe glanced around nervously. “I don’t feel right about this.”
“You’d rather freeze to death?”
“No. But this is somebody’s home.”
Cooper tossed Daphne’s diaper bag to the floor along with his backpack before he removed his jacket, revealing a red plaid work shirt and nice-fitting jeans.
Zoe blinked. She’d already noticed that he was handsome, but in the silence of the foyer she was suddenly taking note of other things. For one, he was older. He had the air of experience that made a man sexy. Add that to his dark, dangerous, mysterious personality and he was one seductive guy.
She swallowed. Luckily, that was exactly the opposite of the kind of man she wanted. She was no longer “into” sexy guys.
Once he’d hooked his coat on a peg, he glanced around. “I don’t think this is somebody’s home. From the setting on the furnace and the dust on that TV,” he said, pointing into a sitting room off to their left, “it looks more like a weekend retreat.”
“It still belongs to somebody.”
“Who would probably welcome us to spend the night in his house rather than freeze to death.” He grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, then like a boss accustomed to giving orders, or a chauvinist who thought all women were pea-brains, he nudged Zoe to look down the hall. “There’s your bedroom. You can have the one on the first floor to be closer to the kitchen since you have a kid. I’m going upstairs.”
She tried to pretend she didn’t notice his high-handedness and smiled graciously. “Don’t you want to wait until I fix us something to eat?”
He patted the backpack. “I have a thermos of coffee and two sandwiches. No need for us to even speak another word.”
Though Zoe had planned for them to separate, something about his tone confused her. She hadn’t asked for his help. He had volunteered it, yet he was acting as if she was an unwanted thorn in his side. “You’re leaving?”
“Think of it as me giving you your privacy. I don’t need to entertain you just because I rescued you.”
There was that tone again, the one that said having her around was a huge inconvenience. She couldn’t argue that he hadn’t rescued her. Not realizing the severity of the storm, she would have waited for LuAnn until it was too dark to find shelter. So, technically, he had rescued her. But she’d certainly never asked him to entertain her.
“No one said you had to. In fact, I was going to suggest you find a different cabin once we were settled.”
“Right,” Cooper scoffed, starting up the steps.
Zoe knew she should have let him go, but she hated that she’d never gotten the chance to prove to her ex-husband that she wasn’t a wimp, that she wouldn’t have smothered him, that he could have stayed with her if he’d just given her a chance. She wasn’t letting another man on the face of this earth believe she was a clingy female. She was defending herself. “I did intend to take care of myself.”
Cooper stopped walking and sighed. “Oh, come on. A woman who looks like you doesn’t ever have to worry about taking care of herself.”
Zoe felt her eyes widen at the insult. “I’m a single mother. I have to know how to handle anything that comes along.”
“And that’s