The Snow Leopard's Baby (Glacier Leopards 2)

This mom and baby aren’t yours, he reminded himself. You can’t just take them home with you because you found them and kept them safe. That doesn’t mean they belong to you.

They felt like his, though. Looking at Leah’s laughing face, her hair curling around her cheeks and her eyes bright with happiness...seeing Emily waving her chubby baby arms and giggling...it brought a wave of possessiveness through him. He did want to take them home with him, as soon as possible.

But he was probably just reacting to the loneliness he’d been feeling earlier tonight. All of his siblings were married with kids, and he’d been wanting the same thing for a while now. Seeing Leah with Emily was tapping into that.

And just because he couldn’t take them home with him didn’t mean he couldn’t have any fun with them now, after all.

“Welcome back!” Leah said breathlessly. “We missed you, didn’t we, Emily?”

“I sure hope so,” Jeff said. “I missed you guys, too. Especially you,” and he tickled Emily’s belly gently.

She started laughing before his fingers even touched her, so he felt safe to really go to town on the tickling. After a few seconds of his best tickling efforts, she laughed so hard she tipped backward onto the bed, and kept laughing until she got the hiccups.

Jeff pulled back. “Well, I think my work here is done.”

Leah was smiling down at the giggling, hiccupping baby. “Looks like it.”

Then she turned the smile on him, and Jeff almost rocked back on his heels. Her eyes were lit up, her cheeks pink, and her whole face had been transformed with the force of the smile.

That’s it, he thought dazedly. That’s exactly what I wanted. To make her smile like that.

And he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it wasn’t just the idea of a family, it wasn’t just protecting a vulnerable mother and daughter. This was real. He wanted this woman.

“How’d it go?” Leah was asking, oblivious. “Did you run into any trouble?”

Jeff pulled himself together as best he could. “Nope,” he said, trying for a casual tone. “Smooth sailing the whole way. I brought Emily’s diaper bag, the Pack-n-Play, and I found your overnight bag in the trunk and brought that too.”

Leah’s mouth opened in pleased surprise. “Oh, you didn’t have to carry all of that! But...thanks. It’ll be nice to have some clothes and a toothbrush. I wasn’t thinking about any of that when I packed the backpack.”

“You did a perfect job with the backpack,” Jeff said truthfully. “Food, water, medical supplies, essentials for Emily’s care...if you go driving in the mountains in the future, I’d suggest an emergency radio for when you’re out of cell phone range, but other than that, you had exactly what you needed.”

“Yeah, the radio was the key problem there, I can see that,” Leah said ruefully. “The one thing I really needed was help. Thankfully, someone happened to come by.” She smiled at him again.

Jeff wanted so, so badly to lean in and kiss that smile. He couldn’t help but notice that Leah had stripped off her winter outerwear, and the jeans and sweater that she was wearing underneath showed off her generous curves. Her breasts were full enough to strain the sweater a bit—that made sense, Jeff figured, because she was breastfeeding, but her hips were plenty curvy too.

He was struck with the sudden urge to wrap her up in his arms, pull her in, feel that body against his and taste that mouth...

He reined himself in. Just because he’d realized that he had feelings for her, just because he found her intensely attractive, didn’t change anything about their situation. Jeff was going to be a gentleman if it killed him, and keep his hands to himself.

“So, how about some dinner?” he asked. “We’ve got peanut butter and granola bars.”

“Five-star cuisine,” Leah said.

***

Leah was a little embarrassed about the food she’d had in her car—looking at it all together, it was obvious that she’d gotten some of the cheapest possible staples to make eating on the road possible. She hadn’t wanted to have to stop and buy anything at a restaurant, so she’d picked peanut butter sandwiches, apples, granola and trail mix, and milk as the foods most likely to keep her going without costing too much money.

Jeff didn’t comment on it, though, not that she’d expected him to. Instead, he said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a good old peanut butter sandwich. I forgot how much I like them.”

They were sitting at the tiny kitchen table, Emily on Leah’s lap. Leah was alternating quick one-handed bites of her sandwich with spoonfuls of pureed peaches for Emily.

“What do you usually have for lunch, then?” Leah asked, curious. “Sandwiches have always been my standard lunch food, and peanut butter’s easiest.” And cheapest.

“Leftovers, usually,” Jeff said with a quirk of his mouth. “Cooking for one always leaves me with too much, so I bring it with me and heat it up the next day for lunch.”

“You cook?” Leah realized after she’d said it that she’d sounded absolutely astonished. She backpedaled quickly. “Not that you look like you couldn’t cook, it’s just...”

“You don’t know a lot of single guys who really get into cooking?” Jeff grinned and shrugged. “I live alone, so I don’t have a ton of things to do in the evenings. I’d rather be doing something than vegging out in front of the TV, so I started cooking for myself. Problem is, I get really into making a recipe and I buy all the ingredients, and then once I make it, it’s enough for six people. Which is about three full meals for me.”