Free Snowbound Baby (Silhouette Romance) by Susan Meier Page B

was a sign of affection. She only knew the scene was adorable.
    She sat on the sofa, staring at sleeping Cooper Bryant. He was without a doubt the most complicated man she had ever met. He liked to be alone, yet he was too good to ignore her and too kindhearted to desert Daphne when she needed him. But, kind as he was, he didn’t get along with his own brothers. It didn’t make any sense.
    Unless his brothers were real losers.
    She took a deep breath, deciding that would be more acceptable if Cooper were married, proving there was at least somebody he got along with. Or maybe if he had a different job. Truckers were loners. Ranchers could be loners. Loners were usually difficult people.
    Still, Cooper had said he had a partner. And he and his partner had a mortgage, which Cooper’s brothers had bought in order to take his ranch away from him. And what else had he said? They already had his family inheritance. They got it by default when he left them.
    Looking at Cooper, sleeping on the floor, one arm laid protectively across her baby, it appeared the whole fault of Cooper’s troubles belonged with his brothers.
    Except Cooper wasn’t exactlyMr. Personality, and he could have driven his brothers to the point where they might have felt justified to ask him to leave.
    Rising from the sofa and heading for the kitchen, she cursed under her breath. Damn it! Why was she so curious about him? Because he was so good-looking?
    The question made her stop. She turned around to study him again. She studied his soft-looking black hair, the smooth lines of his handsome face, the solid build of his shoulders and back and his cute butt, and she sighed. His good looks should have turned her off. That was the rule she’d made when Brad had left. No more good-looking men. And she’d stuck to it, too. So, she wasn’t continually thinking about Cooper Bryant because of his good looks. She also didn’t feel sorry for him. She continued to be curious about him because of the way he treated her.
    Chauvinist that he was, he nonetheless recognized her strength, but he didn’t assume that because she was strong he could ignore her. They were sharing a house, so they really did “share.” He hadn’t fended for himself for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They had eaten together. When Daphne had been sick, and Zoe had sat on the bedroom floor watching over her, he might not have known how to make her child better, but he’d wanted to do something. She could see his desire to help in his expressions and in the way he couldn’t simply ignore her.
    In fact, having him stay and talk with her while Daphne slept had been odd for her to accept. She hadn’t chosen to be a loner. She certainly didn’t like being a loner. But she was. Just as Cooper’s brothers had gotten his family inheritance by default, she had become a loner by default. She wasn’t someone anybody catered to. She was someone people typically left alone. Hell, she was someone people pushed away!
    “Be who you want tobe,” her mother had said, right before she’d hugged her only child and taken off in her SUV for California.
    Her father had said, “In this world you have to be strong, princess, and I’m glad you are.” Then he’d slammed the door on his U-Haul and twenty seconds later she was watching him drive out of her life.
    “Pregnant?” her husband had said before he’d basically fallen to their sofa, staring at her as if he were trying to comprehend the word.
    But as quickly as he’d fallen in disbelief, he’d risen. “You know what? You can handle this, babe, but I can’t.” He walked into their bedroom and, as if it were the logical thing to do, just started packing. “You’re strong,” he’d said. “But I can’t do this.”
    He’d said a few other things, then he was gone, too. She’d tried to talk him out of it, of course. She’d scrambled after him as he’d strode to his car, giving him assurances that he could handle being a dad, but he’d kept