The next few minutes could mean the end of her if she didn’t handle things right. Any man wild enough to throw his leg over the back of a Brahma bull was certainly capable of tossing an impertinent woman out the same door she’d come in.

But she’d face a wild bull rider or even a mountain lion if she had to. Anything for Kati’s Angels.

Checking one last time to be certain her imagination hadn’t run away with her again—that she really and truly had an appointment with Colt Garret—she glanced at the newspaper ad crumpled in her lap like a hamburger wrapper.

“Cowboy has motherless baby. Urgently needs live-in child care at Garret Ranch.”

The ad was followed by a phone number, a list of qualifications, and the words exceptional pay.

All well and good, but it wasn’t the job she needed. It was the man who’d placed the ad—former rodeo cowboy and present owner of one of the biggest spreads in north Texas—Colt Garret.

Kati’s heart did three back flips and a full Gaynor at the thought of the man who held her future in his hands, a man who’d held a special place in her heart for more than ten years. A man who didn’t even know she existed.

Nervously she brushed at the skirt of her only decent suit, flicking away an imaginary speck of lint. Kati hoped the mint-green skirt and matching jacket looked mature and sensible. More than anything she had to convince Colt that she was not as crazy as she was going to sound.

She swallowed the dry lump in her throat and, for the hundredth time, rechecked her appearance. Sensible white heels flat on the floor. Skirt carefully pulled over her slender knees. Pristine white blouse buttoned to the top. The entire rig was so totally out of character, if Colt didn’t hurry up the neat knot of hair would become a waterfall of dark, straight locks hanging down her back. And she’d be forced to kick off these pinching heels.

Where was he? Her gaze flicked anxiously from the fancy cowboy art hanging over the fireplace to the acres of lush green pasture visible outside the picture window and back to the solid oak entry. During their phone conversation, Colt had stressed his desperate need for a nanny. Under the circumstances that was exactly what she wanted to hear. But if the situation was all that urgent why hadn’t Colt met her at the door instead of that tattooed man who looked as though he’d stuck his finger in a light socket? And where was Colt now?

She twisted her foot, feeling the first warning twinge of a toe cramp. Just as she bent for a foot massage the study door flew open and a harried looking cowboy, cradling a screaming, flailing baby, charged into the room. Kati straightened suddenly, the cramp forgotten in a rush of emotion.

Even unshaved and rumpled, Colt was more gorgeous than she remembered. Her heart joined her toe in a vicious cramp.

Wide-shouldered, skinny-hipped, he wore a red Western shirt that accentuated his darkness. Faded Wrangler jeans followed the angle of long, muscled thighs. Above a pair of red-rimmed eyes the color of Hershey’s Kisses, his dark brown hair needed a trim.

He was tall and trim and gorgeous, and he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of her.

“Are you Kati Winslow?” he asked above the din of the wailing infant.

So he didn’t remember her. That much, at least, was good. If he had any idea she’d once fancied herself in love with him, he’d never fall for this scheme.

“Yes.” She struggled to meet his gaze, worried that her too-wide eyes would betray the terror gnawing at her insides.

“Let me see your r'esum'e.”

Willing her hand not to tremble, she gave him the paper and was surprised when he handed her the baby in return. While he examined the sheet, she sat down again, laid the fussy infant over her shoulder and gently patted his back. He was soft and warm and clean but squirming miserably. Within seconds, he burped loudly, heaved a shuddering sigh of relief, and snuggled into her neck, his little head lolling to one side in exhaustion.

Colt looked up, expression stunned. “You’re hired.”

“What?”

He nodded toward the baby. “He’s stopped crying. That’s good enough for me. You’re hired. Can you start right now?”

Kati batted her eyes, confused. “Right this minute?”

“I’m desperate.” Wearily he collapsed into a high-backed chair behind the desk and slumped forward, resting his arms on the polished top.

She hoped he was as desperate as she was.

Kati considered his bloodshot eyes and bent posture. His exhaustion was so complete that she actually felt sorry for him. But she couldn’t let her sympathy get in the way. For once in her life, she had to think ruthlessly.

“May I ask where the baby’s mother is?”

Colt scraped a hand over his whiskers. Out of his mind with exhaustion and, if he was willing to admit it, downright terror, he hardly knew where to begin. How had this happened to him, a die-hard bachelor without a paternal bone in his body? How had he come into possession of a three-month-old child?

“It’s a very long story, but if you’re willing to listen…” Colt glanced up. Through blurry eyes he saw her nod, so he plunged in, reliving the fateful day three weeks earlier when he’d opened his doors to insanity.