The Colton Ransom Read Free

give him even a few minutes’ respite. “I’d be in your debt, ma’am.”
    She rolled her eyes at the salutation he used. “Oh, please. Having you call me ‘Ms. Gabby’ is bad enough. Please don’t call me ‘ma’am.’ It makes me feel absolutely ancient.”
    Trevor laughed shortly at the assessment. “Well, if it’s one thing you’re not, it’s ancient,” he told her. To him, especially since he had ten years on her, Gabriella Colton was barely older than a child.
    Gabby, however, took his response to be on the flirtatious side. Consequently, a slight blush crept up her cheeks. Dusting them with a pink hue.
    Clearing her throat, she tried to draw attention away from the momentary infusion of color. “Okay, give me Avery, and you hold Cheyenne for a few minutes.”
    The shift took a little maneuvering to accomplish since there was nowhere to put either infant down to achieve the swap smoothly.
    As he handed over his daughter and took hold of Gabby’s tranquil niece, Trevor felt his knuckles brush against something soft.
    By the expression on the young woman’s face—first startled, then embarrassed—he realized that he’d unwittingly brushed his knuckles against her breasts. That had not been his intention.
    “Sorry,” Trevor mumbled awkwardly.
    Gabby murmured a perfunctory “It’s okay,” deliberately avoiding making any eye contact. She drew his daughter against her, focusing on the infant’s wails of distress. “It’s okay, sweetheart. We’re going to take you inside and make sure you take a nice, peaceful nap. Everything’ll be all better when you wake up again. I promise.”
    The instant his daughter left his arms, Trevor felt relief washing over him. Just to be rid of his wailing burden for even a few minutes felt like a much-longed-for blessing.
    Trevor took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He looked up into Gabby’s bright green eyes. “Thanks,” he told her dutifully.
    Patting the baby’s bottom and cooing to her, Gabby glanced over to Avery’s father and smiled serenely. “Don’t mention it.”
    She sounded as if she meant it. Obviously crying babies didn’t seem to have any effect on her or her nerves. That put her one up on him, Trevor couldn’t help thinking.
    “I’ll be right back,” Gabby promised, turning on her heel and walking toward the entrance to the main wing of the house. The wing where the Coltons—she, her two older sisters, Amanda and Catherine, and her father—all lived. There was another wing for the staff and wranglers as well as a wing at the very farthest end of the mansion where her father’s ex-wife—his third—lived with her two adult children from a previous marriage, Tawny and Trip.
    It made for crowded living conditions at times, but on days like today, when everyone was gone, it felt as if she had an entire castle at her disposal.
    Gabby smiled to herself as she entered the house.
    Trevor gazed down warily at the infant in his arms. Part of him was waiting for the tiny female to burst into tears. But Cheyenne Colton remained quiet, staring up at him as if he were the newest wonder to come into her world.
    “I guess all babies don’t cry all the time,” Trevor theorized out loud.
    Gabby Colton’s niece was almost exactly the same age as his newly discovered daughter. But that was where, in his mind, the similarity ended. To his recollection, the infant he was currently holding hardly even whimpered, much less cried.
    On the other hand, it seemed as if Avery had done nothing but cry in the time she’d been with him. She’d worn away just about all of his nerves—not that he’d had all that many available to begin with.
    “Maybe she’s just grumpy—like her old man,” he guessed out loud.
    When he realized that he was actually talking to an infant, he abruptly stopped, feeling somewhat chagrined and annoyed with himself.
    Cheyenne looked up at him and gurgled as if to tell him that it was all right.
    * * *
    “You’re not