After being persuaded a newborn baby was better off with her mother, it had been leaving Annie, a small part of himself, that broke his heart.

His ex-wife appeared in the doorway. “Good. You’re just in time. The movers will be here any moment.”

Sam took a deep breath and strode to meet her. “Sorry. I would have shown up sooner, but I had an assignment to finish.”

“You always have an assignment to finish,” she answered with a shrug. “Come on in—this won’t take long. I have your things here inside the door.”

Sam followed her into the house and briefly thought of the broken dreams the house represented. “I’ll leave as soon as I say goodbye to Annie.”

Under Paige’s watchful eye, he went into the bedroom where Annie was sleeping on her back with a tiny finger in her rosebud mouth. She looked so peaceful he didn’t have the heart to wake her. Instead, he tucked the blanket closer around her tiny shoulders and leaned over to place a kiss on her forehead. He held his breath when Annie stirred. For a hopeful moment Sam thought she was about to open her eyes. Instead, a frown appeared on her forehead, and she fell back to sleep.

Paige lingered by the doorway. “You really go for this fatherhood bit, don’t you?”

Sam swallowed the lump that threatened to undermine his reluctant acceptance of the status quo. He’d wanted to be a father from the moment he’d lost his own father as a young boy. A loving father who would be there for his child. To watch over his child in good times and in bad and to give it the security he hadn’t been lucky enough to know himself.

For too short a time marriage to Paige and Annie’s arrival seemed to fulfill that dream. As for leaving Annie, he understood a baby needed to be with her mother, but at least he’d gotten visiting rights. Maybe even weekend custody or holidays when she grew older.

Ignoring Paige’s comment, he took in the heart-shaped baby face, the golden-brown eyelashes, the tendrils of light-brown hair and the tiny lips that had accepted him without question. What would he do without her?

He turned to look at Paige. “Can’t we stay friends? For Annie’s sake if not our own?”

Paige hesitated, glanced at the sleeping baby. “Sure, I guess.”

With a last look at his infant daughter, Sam straightened. “Thanks. By the way, you will let me know when you get to your mother’s, won’t you? I’d like to made some arrangements to see Annie as often as I can.”

His ex-wife shrugged. “Sure.”

Sam went to the door, lifted a box that contained some of his personal belongings and headed for his rental car just as a moving van drove up. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he said over his shoulder. “I want to make sure I get the photography equipment I left in the garage.” Paige went into the house.

Fifteen minutes later Sam reappeared around the front of the house with a box in his arms. The rest of his belongings and his suitcase had been moved. Paige stood by the side of his SUV.

“I had one of the movers put your things in the car for you,” she said, and held out her hand. “I guess this is goodbye.”

“Thanks,” he answered dryly as he shook her hand. With a last regretful glance at the house, he got into the SUV, waved once and drove away.

A baby cried.

Clicking off the car radio, Sam peered anxiously at the map furnished by the car-rental agency in Grand Junction and frowned. He didn’t know what bothered him more: finding himself on an unmarked county road or the unwelcome reminder he’d left his infant daughter behind with his ex-wife a few hours ago.

As much as he would have liked to be a real father, he’d never managed to spend more than an hour or two with Annie. First, because he’d never felt welcome in his own home, and second, because his obsession with photography kept getting in the way. Which condition had contributed to his divorce was beyond him, but this proposed shared custody when Annie was older twisted in his gut.

He consoled himself with the thought that he’d be able to see the baby between assignments. And that when she got old enough for him to care for, he’d call in his shared-custody rights. Until then, she was better off with someone who knew how to take care of her.

Suddenly aware he should have been at his destination by now, his thoughts turned to the immediate problem.

As a photojournalist, he’d flown, driven and hiked to more offbeat and secluded places than he could count. He’d won half-a-dozen awards for his photo stories and had the trophies to prove it. Heck, he was even an internationally known photojournalist.

Until today, he’d managed to find his way around without a problem. So how in hell had he managed to get himself lost on a dirt road on the western slopes of the Colorado Rockies?

He didn’t really mind getting lost, he told himself as he peered out the window, trying to pinpoint his present location. The surrounding terrain was beautiful and so photogenic his fingers itched to grab his camera. He’d start shooting the miles of fresh green grass that, after last night’s rain, glistened in the afternoon sun. Or he’d capture the shadows cast by the ragged mountains just beyond the horizon.

Too bad he’d packed his cameras in the back, he thought wryly. He couldn’t reach one without pulling off the road and rummaging through the boxes packed on the back seat of the car. Or in the cargo space, which was full of his belongings.

With a rain-soaked dirt road under the wheels, capturing on film the majestic green peaks was tempting, but it would have to wait until he reached his destination. If ever.

Getting lost really bothered him. Losing control. He was a man who wrote his own rules, traveled when, where and how he wanted and lived the good life. In his book, that meant being in charge.

To his growing disgust, he wasn’t in charge now.

In the background, he heard a baby whimper.

Sam frowned and checked the car radio. It wasn’t on. With a shrug he laid the sound down to an overactive imagination triggered by a guilt trip at having driven away from the one person he loved more than life itself—Annie.

The baby whimpered again, a demand for attention if he’d ever heard one, he thought miserably as he glanced through the rearview mirror.

The sight of the back of an infant car seat buckled on the back seat sent his adrenaline into overdrive.

A baby? Annie? If this was Paige’s idea of a joke, it was a damn poor one.

His attention momentarily diverted, the large white rented SUV bumped into a pothole, slid and, to his mounting horror, shot across a narrow ditch and aimed straight for an ancient weathered fence. His heart thundered as he threw all of his 180 pounds into stomping on the brakes. To his mounting dismay, the car skidded on the muddy road and continued on its wayward course straight for the fence.

Cursing his luck, Sam broke into a cold sweat. A giant stab of pain tore at his forehead. Terror washed over him as he realized the wheels had no traction. Heaven only knew where he would wind up. Or, if he was lucky, that the SUV would end up in one piece.

It wasn’t himself he was thinking about—it was the baby in the back seat he’d heard crying. He gritted his teeth.

Instead of coming to a stop, the SUV tore through the fence rails, careered up a small slope and crashed into a small water tower, with predictable results. As if in slow motion, the tower swayed, toppled and showered the car with a torrent of water. With a muffled curse, he wrested the door open, bounded out and headed for the rear door to rescue the baby in the back seat.

The baby was indeed Annie, and she was demanding attention in the only way she knew how. Tears rolled down her pink cheeks. Hiccups shook her tiny frame. To his relief she opened her eyes and smiled through her tears when she saw him.