But Catherine didn’t plan to make Terrie’s mistake and be drawn in by male persuasion at the hands of a master. Watching Cole interact with the baby had given her an idea, one that grew as the day wore on. Under the cir cum stances it made the most sense.
A few hours later she tried it out on him. For an answer Cole’s mocking tone resounded in her living room. “You’ll grant me liberal visitation rights?”
She’d been five minutes late returning to the condo from her work, and was still out of breath. They faced each other like adversaries.
“Yes. I’ve been thinking about it since I took the baby back to her foster family. You and I could petition the judge in the same pre-trial hearing. Don’t you see it might strengthen both our cases if we show that we’re willing to work together for Bonnie’s ultimate welfare?”
Cole’s mouth com pressed. “Who’s going to raise her during the day while you’re at work?” At least he’d cooled down enough to have a conversation.
She was ready for that question. “Terrie and I talked about it. There’s a wonderful daycare facility right across the street from Girls’ Haven. I’ll be close to her and can oversee everything on a constant basis.”
He made a dismissive gesture. “My house keeper could provide the same care, but I doubt the judge will be impressed with either scenario.”
“So what are you saying?” she blurted, trying to tamp down her alarm.
His gaze wandered over her features with a lazy sensuality he probably wasn’t aware of. “That your original assumption was correct. The ideal for Bonnie would be to have a stay-at-home mother whose husband provides the necessary income.”
His pessimism over her idea of a joint petition acted like a giant hand crushing her heart. If Cole, with all his resources and a last name like his, didn’t think they could sway the judge, what chance did she really have to fight for Bonnie on her own?
Tears glazed her eyes before she could turn away. She buried her face in her hands, trying not to make a sound. In searching for Buck, the dream world she’d been living in for the last five weeks had shattered. “No stranger will ever love her as much as I do.”
“That makes two of us,” he whispered behind her. “I see my brother in her, and it kills me.”
The pathos in his voice reached down to the core of her being. Catherine had no more desire to fight him.
She sniffed before wiping her eyes with the back of her hands. “I-if you plan to fight for her, I’ll help any way I can. The judge needs to hear how much Terrie loved your brother, and how much you loved him. Just promise me that if you win you’ll let me see her once in a while?” her voice throbbed.
“Oh, I plan to win,” he finally said in a low, husky tone. “I have an ace up my sleeve guaranteed to produce results.”
The hairs prickled on the back of her neck. Catherine turned to him, staring at him through blurry eyes. “What is it?”
“I’ve decided to get married.”
She received the news like a physical blow, but by some miracle she remained standing.
“Th-that ought to do it,” she stammered helplessly. “With or without my help.”
“I’ll need that too, but we’ll talk about it this evening over dinner. I’ll be by at six.”
“I’m afraid I can’t tonight. A new case is coming in. I probably won’t be leaving the office until nine or nine-thirty.” For once she was grateful she had to work late. The bombshell he’d just dropped had disturbed her in ways she didn’t dare examine.
“You can ask someone else to cover for you.”
“It would have to be an emergency.”
“What if I told you it is?”
He sounded deadly serious.
“I don’t under stand.”
“How could you when you don’t know all the facts?”
Cole seemed to be talking in riddles.
“Have you arranged to meet with your attorney? Is that why you need me there? So I can give him the relevant details?”
“We’ll do that too. But first I’ve made an appointment with a justice of the peace.”
She blinked. “Surely you don’t need me to witness your marriage-”
A strange smile broke out on his arresting features. “No. I need you to marry me tonight.”
She let out a caustic laugh. “Oh, please-”
“My word exactly,” he came back in a frighteningly sober tone. “Following that we’ll fill out adoption papers on Bonnie that my attorney will present to the judge. You were the one who warned me time was of the essence.”
The world tilted for a moment.
Catherine lost cognizance of time and place, because she knew Cole never said anything he didn’t mean, or wasn’t prepared to carry out.
“It’s the only solution,” he added, taking advantage of her silence. “We’re both free and we both want to be a parent to Bonnie. As Buck’s brother and Terrie’s choice of woman to raise her daughter, we can offer something no one else can. There’s one caveat, however,” he added, sounding mysterious.
She was still too deep in shock to respond, and he knew it.
“When I take you and Bonnie home to the ranch, I’ll be introducing you as the woman I fell in love with a year ago. We found out we were expecting a baby, but you refused to marry me because you were afraid I was still too in love with the memory of my deceased wife.”
“Are you?” she fired hotly.
“I’ll always love Jenny, but she belongs to my past. Unfortunately there are people who for reasons of their own insist on believing otherwise.”
“Meaning your ex-girl friends?”
An amused gleam entered his eyes. “After our daughter was born you realized I really did love you. Hoping it wasn’t too late for us, you came to the ranch on the day of Buck’s funeral and asked me to marry you. Naturally I was overjoyed and insisted we get married immediately.”
Catherine shook her head, finally managing to find her voice. “In the first place, two strangers don’t meet one day and get married the next-and even if by the remotest possibility we did, I couldn’t live around your family with a lie like that-”
His features hardened. “Then we’ll tell the truth in front of everyone, which will include Lucy. She’ll learn that Buck got involved with a teenager and the baby is his. That we had to get married in order to adopt her. Lucy will put two and two together, figuring out Bonnie was conceived just weeks before Buck returned to the ranch and asked her to marry him.”
“No-” Catherine cried. “That would be too awful, too cruel to her. It could destroy her faith in love. She’d grieve forever.”
“Then which is it?” he inserted suavely. “You can’t have it both ways if you want to be a mother to Bonnie.”
Catherine wanted it more than anything in the world. She’d promised Terrie. But to get married to a man she’d only met two days ago…
What did she really know about him except that he was the owner of the famous Bonnibelle Ranch?
He wants Bonnie as much as you do, her heart reminded her. He wants you to help him raise his brother’s baby. That’s what you know about him, deep down in your soul.
Her body trembled. Was that enough reason to do something so drastic it would change her whole life and his?
“Do you know the odds against a marriage like that working?” she cried.
“Probably as good as the odds of any marriage making it,” he countered, with a cynicism she vaguely shared.
“Where would we live?”
“In my house.”
“You mean the ranch house?”