Snowbound Baby (Silhouette Romance) Read Online Free PDF

leaving her once he married her. Then he realized she had to be a shrew for her husband to have left her. So far her behavior around him sort of hinted to that. Even the way she always had to be one step ahead of him was an indication that she needed to be right.
    No man liked that kind of one-upmanship in a woman. Hell, no man liked that in another man.
    He drew a quick breath. “Well, excuse me for trying to help.”
    Zoe had been on her way to the kitchen again to take one of Daphne’s bottles out of the fridge where she had stored them the night before, but his comment stopped her. She wasn’t sure why he thought she was simple-minded or stupid, but she knew from their conversation the night before that he worried that she would be a burden. She’d thought she’d already put that doubt to bed, but apparently he was still skeptical.
    “I found the TV, too,” she added.
    “I was just trying to tell you about the storm.”
    There was that toneagain. As if she were an idiot. This guy might be the sexiest man on the face of the earth with his whipcord-lean body very nicely showcased in his worn workshirt and perfect-fitting jeans. Add his silky-looking black hair, and she couldn’t pretend that she didn’t notice his physical attributes. But he also had chauvinist written all over him and she simply wasn’t putting up with it.
    “Here’s the deal, Bryant,” she said, deliberately using his last name to keep them on totally impersonal terms, so he could stop treating her as if she were a ninny. “I have a child. I don’t just pay my own way. I also pay hers because my ex doesn’t believe in child support. No matter how many court orders get issued, if he runs fast enough he can always evade them. So, I work. I take care of a household. I can fix a faucet. I can fix a tire. I can make a fire. I can turn on a TV.”
    “Very funny.”
    “No. It’s not funny. It’s not one damned bit funny that I have to tell you I’m a capable adult because you clearly think I’m some kind of spoiled princess or something. I’d like to get that squared away so we can move on.”
    “We can move on.”
    “Great. Because if we’re stuck here for the weekend I don’t intend to be the only one cooking and doing the dishes.”
    “That’s fine by me because, just like you, I work and take care of my own house…and run a ranch.” He smiled tightly. “I guess you could say I have you beat.”
    She turned to go into the kitchen again. “You won’t have me beat until you also add in caring for a child.”
    He followed her. “Lastyear, three of my cows had calves.”
    She slammed the refrigerator closed. “Did you have to get up with them at two in the morning?”
    “Once. And I’m painfully familiar with colic.”
    “Well, good for you. You’re the first man I consider myself equal to.”
    His eyes narrowed as if he knew she’d insulted him—or somebody—but he couldn’t figure out how. Zoe took Daphne and her bottle into the great room. She settled on the rocking chair and fed the baby one of the five bottles of formula she had prepared the night before. Even if they could leave tomorrow, and she knew they couldn’t, Daphne would be out of bottles before that. Zoe would have to again prepare formula from the faucet water and there was no guarantee that wouldn’t eventually upset Daphne’s system.
    Preoccupied with the baby, Zoe didn’t notice that an uncomfortable silence had settled over the small house or that Cooper Bryant was pacing until Daphne had fallen asleep and Zoe rose from the rocker to take the baby into the bedroom. Even then, she didn’t say anything. It was not her problem that Cooper Bryant was pacing the room, obviously bored.
    She laid Daphne in the center of the double bed and began to arrange the pillows around her. But, on second thought, she pushed the bed against the wall, giving Daphne two sides of protection. It wasn’t the best situation in the world, but they were stranded. As