The Rancher and the Baby by Elizabeth August

Author:Elizabeth August [Elizabeth August]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459280212
Publisher: Harlequin

Chapter Six

The sound of a horse’s whinny woke Amelia. Opening her eyes she was met by sunlight streaming in the window. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she looked at the clock on the bedside table. Abruptly she came fully awake. It was well past the hour when Mitch usually woke her. She listened but did not hear him.

Flipping over, she looked to her door. It was closed. Panic swept through her. What if he was sitting in his bed crying, thinking she’d deserted him? Or what if he’d tried to get out by himself and fallen? Flinging off her covers, not worrying about grabbing either a robe or slippers, she raced to his room.

The gate was open and he wasn’t there. Her fear multiplied. This was a strange house. What if he’d somehow managed to unfasten the gate himself and gone looking for her and gotten hurt or lost?

“Mitch!” she called frantically, running down the hall.

“He’s all right,” Dalton said, coming out of the kitchen as she reached the front foyer. “He woke up while I was shaving. You were sleeping so soundly, I figured you needed the rest so Loretta and I took care of getting him up.”

Amelia drew a shaky breath. “I was so scared.”

“Mommy!” a young voice called out happily.

Looking past Dalton she saw Mitch toddling out of the kitchen. Loretta stood in the doorway watching him with a wide grin as he continued to his mother.

Scooping him up into her arms, Amelia hugged him tightly.

“Pooneey,” he said excitedly. “Mine.”

“I took him out to meet the new foal,” Dalton elaborated.

There was an underlying huskiness in his voice. The brown of his eyes had darkened and suddenly she was aware that she was standing there in only her nightgown.

“Maybe you’d better get dressed,” he suggested tersely. “I’ll take Mitch back to the kitchen. Loretta was fixing us some hot chocolate.”

“Choocoolate,” Mitch parroted. He grinned and hugged her. “Mommy?”

She knew he was asking her to join them. A motherly pleasure overpowered her embarrassment. Mitch was clearly adapting well to his new environment but he still turned to her for security. “I’ll be back as soon as I get dressed,” she assured him, setting him on his feet.

A shadow of anxiousness crossed his face. “Sooon,” he stipulated.

“Very soon,” she promised.

“Shall we see if that hot chocolate is ready?” Dalton coaxed, holding out his hand to the boy.

As Mitch slipped his small hand into the man’s grasp, Amelia straightened. Dalton was looking her way again and there was a heat in his eyes that sent a shiver of excitement through her. “I’ll…just go…change,” she stammered, already heading back down the hall before she’d finished the sentence.

The fire she’d seen in Dalton’s eyes haunted her all the while she showered and dressed. “There can never be anything between you and him,” she again told herself sternly before leaving her room to join the others.

Last night she’d been too tired to notice a great many details about her surroundings. Now, as she entered the kitchen, she realized it had to be the most spacious room in the house by far.

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