Snowbound Baby (Silhouette Romance) by Susan Meier

shaking his head, arguing that he couldn’t.
    She’d hoped that after a day or two away, he would miss her. But he hadn’t. And that had upset her more than his not wanting their baby because she knew that was the bottom line. If he had loved her, a pregnancy wouldn’t have scared him off. But he hadn’t loved her.
    So he’d told her she was strong and left her.
    Cooper Bryant was the first person who recognized her strength, accepted it and yet still stayed.
    True, they were stranded together because two feet of snow had fallen on the mountain, and he couldn’t leave. She frowned. He might be trapped with her, but he didn’t have to talk to her and that was the point. Cooper could be ignoring her. Yet he wasn’t. And since he wasn’t a naturally nice person, the only explanation could be that he liked her.
    She blinked. He liked her? Or hewanted to sleep with her?
    He wanted to sleep with her. He’d already said it. Still, a man who wanted to sleep with her could ignore her child. Cooper Bryant had cared for Daphne.
    In the kitchen, Zoe put coffee grounds into a filter and poured water into the reservoir of the coffeemaker, then tried to look out the window above the sink, but couldn’t. Snow had crammed into the little squares of the screen, which the cabin owner hadn’t removed from the summer, even though an entire fall had passed and winter had begun. They were now ten days away from Christmas. The holiday she had loved the most as a child. The holiday she missed the most as an adult. But at least now that she had Daphne she had a reason to put up a tree and buy presents.
    The thought lifted her spirits. She didn’t have a lot to spend on a celebration, but it didn’t always take money to make a holiday happy. Not when there was a baby involved!
    As the coffee dripped into the pot, she walked through the great room to the glass doors by the poker table and glanced out. There was definitely two feet of snow, but the sun was shining. The wind wasn’t blowing. With Cooper and Daphne sleeping so soundly on the floor beside the TV, she couldn’t turn it on to watch the Weather Channel, but she almost didn’t have to. It wasn’t snowing. The storm was over. They would be leaving today. The smart thing to do would be to shower and begin gathering her things while Daphne and her knight in shining armor slept.
    When she reached the endof the great room and was about to enter the hall to her bedroom, she turned and looked at Cooper Bryant one more time. She wondered what his Christmas would be like. His parents had died and he was estranged from his brothers so she knew he didn’t have a family tradition to attend. Did he celebrate with his partner? Did he celebrate at all? The thought that he would be as alone as she had been last Christmas squeezed her heart. With her husband gone, celebrating with the new woman in his life, and her parents both forgetting to phone, Zoe had experienced the worst day of her life. She could not imagine anybody would be that alone deliberately.
    Would it be totally and completely inappropriate to invite him to her house for Christmas? She frowned, considering that. He lived in Texas. She lived in the mountains of Pennsylvania. It wasn’t as if he could drive over the river and through the woods to get to her house.
    Except…
    She owed him. He had taken care of Daphne when she couldn’t. And she still believed he needed somebody to talk to about his family. And she intended to have the best Christmas ever. Wouldn’t it be nice to share that with him?
    Of course it would. And if he was as alone as she believed he was, he might be willing to drive to Pennsylvania to avoid that long, lonely day. Heck, if he drove to Pennsylvania from Texas and then back again, even if he only spent one afternoon with her and Daphne, he could avoid the whole long, lonely holiday season!
    Giving him the chanceto sidestep that misery was the least she could do for the kindness he’d shown