Vicki Thompson - Two in the Saddle

Travis transferred the baby into Gwen’s arms, and the little girl laid her head trustingly on her shoulder. Gwen’s heart swelled with pleasure as she brushed a kiss against the baby’s velvet cheek.

“Perfect,” Travis murmured as he wrapped his arms around Gwen and Elizabeth, leading them into a slow, swaying dance.

It should have been harmless. But Gwen hadn’t counted on having to look directly into Travis’s eyes while they moved to the music. She didn’t want him to know he was arousing her, but those eyes probably saw everything—her rapid breathing, her beating pulse, her flushed skin.

“Let me love you, Gwen,” he whispered softly.

His mouth was beautiful, she thought. Every woman should have a chance to kiss a mouth like that once in her life. And if the rest of him lived up to the sensuous promise of his mouth…

She was putty in his hands, and she knew it. “I don’t want to be another notch in your belt,” she said in an effort to break the spell he was weaving over her.

Travis smiled, slow and sexy, his eyes alight with banked passion. “Then let me be a notch in yours….”

Dear Reader,

Cowboys have a reputation for being fearless. Ride a big, bad bronc—no problem. Turn back a thundering herd—piece of cake. But make a cowboy responsible for one tiny baby girl and he trembles in his boots. It’s positively adorable.

Last month, in The Colorado Kid, I subjected rancher Sebastian Daniels to that fate. This month, lady-killer Travis Evans gets his turn with baby Elizabeth, who may or may not be his child. Travis decides she is and stakes his claim by naming her Lizzie.

That makes two cowboys so far who each think they’re the baby’s father. A third prospective daddy shows up in Book 3 of the miniseries, Boone’s Bounty, available next month. And in September, a Single Title brings the series to a rousing finish as Nat Grady arrives in town proclaiming That’s My Baby! Nat turns the baby battle into quite a rodeo. Come watch!

Warmly,

Vicki Lewis Thompson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Julie Kistler,

for generously sharing her invisible,

chanting gnomes when I needed a creative boost.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

WEDDINGS MADE Travis Evans nervous.

Standing at the altar of the Huerfano Community Church with his good buddy Sebastian Daniels was like hanging out with a guy who had chicken pox. One wrong move on Travis’s part and bam! He’d catch the marriage bug. And that would mean the end of life as he knew it.

But somebody had to be there for Sebastian. By rights Sebastian should have had four guys lined up to give him moral support, but he and Matty hadn’t been willing to wait for folks to rearrange their schedules.

Sebastian’s brother Ed was stuck in Alaska, and as for the three cowboys who made up Sebastian’s inner circle, only Travis was available. Nat Grady was overseas working in a small, war-torn country with a name Travis had trouble pronouncing. Boone Conner was on the road in New Mexico with his mobile horseshoeing business and tracking him down had been impossible.

So Travis was Sebastian’s best man, which was just as well, Travis thought, because that balanced out the wedding party. Matty’s family hadn’t been able to make it on such short notice, either, so her only attendant was Gwen Hawthorne, maid of honor. Or matron. Travis wasn’t sure which it was when a woman was divorced. Divorced and marriage-shy. It was a hell of a promising combination, in Travis’s opinion. Too bad Gwen hated his guts.

Even though Sebastian and Matty were light in the wedding-party department, they weren’t short of wedding guests. The tiny clapboard church was packed. The men had dusted off their best Western-cut suits, and the women…. Travis sighed with longing. The women looked like a bouquet of Colorado wildflowers in their pastel-colored outfits. The air was still cool on this May afternoon, but the women of Huerfano had dressed for spring.

Travis loved how warmer weather invited the ladies to bare a little more of their delectable skin, and ordinarily he would have taken delight in the number of eligible females within range of his smile. But weddings were a dangerous time to flirt. Weddings gave single women ideas.

The minister, Pete McDowell, had been a hell-raiser in his youth according to what Travis had heard, but he’d entered the ministry and reformed. With his neatly trimmed gray beard and long robe, he looked like the sort of person who could tie the knot good and tight.

Besides, everybody agreed Pete had been born with a voice that belonged either in the pulpit or on the radio. He turned now and nodded toward the church organist, Sarah Jane Ashfelder, who began to play.

Out of habit, Travis glanced over and winked at her. She blushed and bobbled a chord. Immediately he regretted the wink, partly because he’d flustered her and partly because everybody in the valley knew Sarah Jane was desperately seeking a husband. A wink from him while Sarah Jane was playing the organ at a wedding gave the wrong impression all the way around.

“Got the ring?” Sebastian whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

It was about the hundredth time Sebastian had asked since this morning, but Travis cut him some slack. A guy had a right to be wrecked on his wedding day. “Yeah, I’ve got it,” he murmured. “How’re you holding up?”

“Shaking like a newborn calf.”

“This is a good move, Sebastian.” Travis thoroughly believed that. Even though he wasn’t interested in matrimony himself, it fit some guys like a glove. Sebastian was one of those guys. And Matty Lang was perfect for him.

“I know it’s a good move,” Sebastian said softly. “But I’m no good at public displays like this. This collar itches, and my coat’s too tight across the shoulders. I—”

A baby’s loud wail rose above the deep tones of the organ. The congregation turned toward the back of the church, their murmurs of curiosity getting louder as they strained to see where the noise was coming from.

“That would be Lizzie, kicking up a fuss in the vestibule,” Travis said. “I knew it was a mistake, making her part of this shindig.”

“It is not a mistake,” Sebastian said in a low voice, although he could have spoken normally and not been heard above the bellowing organ, the screaming baby and the excited chatter of the guests. This baby had been the subject of much speculation, and folks were obviously dying to see her.

“She’s not even four months old,” Travis pointed out. “That’s too little to be in a wedding.”

“No, it’s not. She’s advanced for her age. Besides, Elizabeth brought Matty and me together. She belongs here. We forgot the pacifier, is all. I want my daughter to be part of this.”

Travis felt like strangling Sebastian with his string tie. The guy wouldn’t give up his wrongheaded insistence that he was Lizzie’s father. “She’s not your daughter. She’s mine, as you damned well know.” Travis was dead sure about it. The evidence was in the note he’d received three weeks ago in Utah, a note he’d now memorized.

Dear Travis,

I’m counting on you to be a godfather to my daughter Elizabeth until I can return for her. Your playful approach to life is just what she needs right now. I’ve left her with Sebastian at the Rocking D. Believe me, I wouldn’t do this if I weren’t in desperate circumstances.