The Twins' Rodeo Rider

by Tina Leonard

  Cosette smiled gently. “You have a hearing problem, dear man. You hear, but you don’t listen. Suz is telling you exactly what she wants and needs. It’s exactly the same thing she told you when she wouldn’t let you buy the Hanging H. She said she’d handle it.”

  “You’re right.” A dawning sense of understanding hit him. “You’re absolutely right.”

  “Sometimes people just need a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on.” Cosette rose, covered her lovebirds to carry inside. “I must get to bed. It’s an early day for me tomorrow.”

  “Thank you for the whiskey. And the wisdom,” he said, following her into the house.

  “No problem.” She walked him to the front door. “It will all work out.”

  At the door, he turned to look down at the small, spare woman he considered a dear friend. “I suppose you’d let me know if there was something I could do to help you and Phillipe.”

  Cosette smiled. “Phillipe is just fine. He’s back in my spare bedroom sleeping.” She laughed at the stunned expression on his face. “Let there be some magic in your life, Cisco. It always comes to those who believe in it. Go enjoy Christmas with your family.”

  “Merry Christmas, Cosette.” He kissed her cheek and departed, his mind whirling with everything he’d learned tonight.

  At home, the babies were still sound asleep with their mother. Suz opened her eyes when he came in. “You’re back.”

  “Yes. The snow’s coming down harder now. I expect the ground will be covered in the morning. We could even have a white Christmas.”

  She turned on a soft night-light by the bed. “You must be cold.”

  “I’ve been to Cosette’s. She warmed me up with some delightful Irish whiskey. Believe me, I’m ready to fight off any chill.”

  “I figured you’d gone to find Sam.”

  He pulled off his boots, shucked his jeans and shirt. “Oh, I found him, too.”

  “He needs to get to the bunkhouse. Jade called to say we’re expecting half a foot of snow tomorrow.”

  Cisco shook his head. “He’ll come in when he’s ready. Sam’s stubborn like that.”

  “Like someone else I know.” He saw Suz watching him intently as he reached his cot. “You look cold,” she said.

  He stilled. They’d already discussed his body temperature, he’d assured his wife he was fine—

  He got it like a thunderbolt. “Oh, I’m very cold. Freezing. About froze my hiney off out there chatting with Grizzly Adams. You know Sam, he’s a talker. Couldn’t get him to shut up. By the time I could leave, I’m lucky I didn’t have frostbite.” He looked at her, wondering if he’d sufficiently communicated his desire for her.

  She pulled back the covers. “Come get in bed. I’ll warm you up.”

  Briefly he worried about it, wondered if he might hurt her, panicked about squashing the babies.

  Oh, hell. Cosette’s right. I hear but I don’t listen worth a damn.

  He jumped straight into bed with his wife, snuggling into Suz’s body warmth, the only home he’d ever wanted, right here with her and their babies.

  Heaven on earth. And suddenly, Cisco felt the magic he’d been missing for so long.

  * * *

  SUZ GOT UP the next morning, kissed her husband, who lay sleeping like a bronze god in her bed, and shrugged on a robe.

  “Come back,” Cisco said.

  Suz smiled at him. “I’m going to let you sleep a little longer.”

  “I’m wide awake.” He sat up. “I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, Suz, but I love the hell out of you.”

  “I love you, too. And our girls love you.”

  “And well they should. I’m a girls’ daddy. You’ve heard of daddy’s girls? Well, these little ones,” he said, peeking over into their baskets, “have a girls’ daddy.”

  “I always suspected you had a soft heart for women,” Suz teased. “I’m going to feed them, and then I’m going out for a while. Would you mind watching them?”

  “Would I mind watching my daughters? Do people plot in BC? Do bears scratch their furry butts on trees?” He watched her as she picked up a baby. “My girls are always going to know the kind of support I never had.”

  Suz looked at him as she sat down to nurse. “You never really mentioned you didn’t feel supported by your family. Just that you didn’t care to go into the family business.”

  He shrugged. “It wasn’t a popular decision to become a SEAL. My family never threatened to disown me or cut me out of the line of—”

  Suz had a terrible thought. “Whatever minor royalty you are, please don’t say it. I don’t want to know.” She had a feeling Daisy knew quite well, but Suz had no such curiosity of her own. “Promise me you’ll never tell our girls that they come from any kind of whatever royalty you are.”

  He looked sad. “I really can’t do that. It’s not something you can exactly get away from.”

  “You did.”

  “Not totally.”

  She gazed at his face, reading something there she didn’t want to see. “Oh, no. Cisco, I thought that because you aren’t on good terms with your family that you had no responsibility to your whatever you are.” She gulped. “I have to warn you, I’m not the kind of girl to wear a tiara. You probably knew that when you met me with blue hair and a nose stud.”

  He smiled. “I do know that about you, but it doesn’t change that the little girls are ladies.”

  She swallowed hard. “No. Tell them we don’t want it. We don’t do those kinds of things here, Cisco. We’re Bridesmaids Creek. We cheer for and back our own when one of us succeeds, like when Ty made it into BUD/S and then got his Trident. We’re proud of our hometown heroes. But we’re homegrown here. We don’t put on airs and tiaras and whatever else.”

  “I know how you feel, because I’ve hidden from it myself. But I’ve ignored it as long as I can. I’m the eldest, and when my father passes away, I’ll be head of our estate.”

  She realized she was holding her baby as if she might disappear. Her whole world was changing. There was no way to stop what was happening. “I wish you would have told me in the beginning.”

  “Before we got married.”

  “Yes.” Suz nodded. “Absolutely before we got married. I had a right to know. And you knew I wouldn’t be comfortable with anything like this.”

  “You asked me for a child, Suz, and at the time, that was pretty much all I could take in,” he said quietly. “Regardless, the babies have some claim to the estates.”

  “But they wouldn’t have been any kind of ‘minor’ royalty. The only royalty they should ever have to think about is being homecoming queens and Bridesmaids Creek princesses.” She felt herself getting angry, because now she had nothing, and she felt strange, like their marriage had become unbalanced. She’d never wanted anything from anyone—and now she had no land, no ranch, no house, even, to offer in the marriage.

  Suddenly, she realized how Cosette and Phillipe must have felt, a little, when their marriage had become unbalanced. “Promise me you’ll never tell the girls.”

  “I can’t. They’ll have to be presented, Suz.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not right. It’s not fair. That’s too much to put on two small-town girls who deserve to grow up just the same way I did. Breathing small-town air, getting to know each member of the community and caring about them every single day and rejoicing when they do well, cry when they suffer setbacks. But always being part of the fabric of this wonderful town.”

  “Which just might not be here forever, Suz,” he said quietly, and she couldn’t help herself from the sudden tears that slipped from her eyes. She wiped them away impatiently.

  “Of course BC is always going to be here. It’s going to take more than Robert Donovan to destroy us.” She was determined a
bout that.

  He tried to talk to her some more, but her mind was on last night, and how wonderful it had felt to hold Cisco again. She intended to keep her marriage. They don’t call me Stubborn Suz for nothing.

  She had to change the shape of destiny enveloping their town. Only then could she feel like she had her powers back, her sense of value and self-worth that only came—for her—from owning a place that her parents had built with their own dreams and hard work. Cisco had tried to help, but he had his own heritage to think of, and besides which, nobody could save her but her.

  She laid the babies quietly in the bed with their father, kissed them both.

  “I’ll take mine, too,” he said, “right here.” He pointed to his mouth, and she was only too happy to kiss him.

  She wasn’t running.

  She was going to stand and fight for everything that was Bridesmaids Creek, the Hanging H, and most of all, her husband and the miraculous babies they’d made together.

  Just to be sure he understood her intentions, she kissed Cisco again, until he felt the special magic that only the two of them shared.

  * * *

  SUZ HAD NEVER been inside the Donovan home. To her memory, no one she knew had. The gray-stoned mansion rose up on the land like an enormous fairy cake that had overbaked its pan. An arch at the end of the drive showcased a massive D—just in case anyone didn’t know this was the Donovan compound.

  Of course everyone knew who lived here. It was practically shouted from the second-story rooftop with opulence everywhere, from the marble fountain in the center of the circle drive to the six chimneys rimmed with gray stone above. Massive arched double doors welcomed visitors to the front of the house, and a white-gloved butler opened the front door. She could see a white-aproned housekeeper dusting a twinkling chandelier in the foyer.

  “May I help you?” the butler asked.

  “I’d like to see Daisy Donovan, if I could, please.”

  “Whom shall I say is calling?”

  “Suz Grant.” Suz looked at the elderly butler. “How is it I’ve never seen you in town?”

  “I don’t go to town.” He seemed perplexed by her question. “Why would I? Everything I need is here.” He inclined his head. “If you will wait here, I’ll see if Miss Daisy is available.”

  She expected the elderly gentleman to stroll off to speak with Daisy, but he pulled out a cell phone and punched some keys. After a moment, he looked up.

  “Miss Daisy will receive you in the kitchen, Mrs. Grant. Apparently meeting in kitchens is your custom.”

  Suz laughed. “The kitchen is the heart of the home, isn’t it?”

  “I’m sure you’re right. If you’ll follow me, please.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Hi, Suz!” Daisy exclaimed, coming to greet her in a huge kitchen that was as gray as the weather outside. “Come in and have a seat.”

  Suz approached cautiously, wondering if Robert Donovan would pop out from somewhere in the cavernous kitchen and give her a spooking she wasn’t likely to forget. Suz shivered. Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows fame was probably inclined to stop by for a late-night Bloody Mary in this place. “Your home is uh, lovely, Daisy.”

  Daisy waved her to a high-backed chair. Suz sat down stiffly in the even stiffer chair, and Daisy put a cup of tea in front of her that the butler brewed up in some kind of fancy machine. “You’re saying it to be polite. It’s nothing like the Hanging H.”

  That was true. Suz felt a little sick thinking about the decor of the Hanging H changing to a Dark Shadows castle. “Daisy, listen, I’ve been thinking.”

  Daisy sat down across from her, crossed her stiletto-booted legs. “I’ve been thinking, too. We’re going to have to do something.”

  “Do something?”

  Daisy nodded. “Do something to stop my father from taking over Bridesmaids Creek.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Suz glanced around, wondered if she’d heard the bad girl of Bridesmaids Creek correctly. “Excuse me? Stop your father from gobbling up our town? Isn’t that what the goal has been for years?”

  Daisy nodded. “Two things make me believe that isn’t the right course for our family tree.”

  “Go on,” Suz said, amazed by this turn of events. “I’m hanging on your every word.”

  “First of all, the luster went out of the thing for me when Dad took over your place.”

  “I can’t say the moment held a lot of luster for me, either.”

  “You recall I’d just returned from Branch’s compound. I’ve been thinking through everything he taught me, and honestly, I don’t think the acquisitive path we’re on is a path he’d totally endorse.”

  Suz swallowed. “I’ve said it before, I’m going to have to meet this paragon.”

  Daisy laughed. “You won’t unless you go to Montana. I’d go back myself, except you need me right now.”

  “Yes, I do,” Suz said. “I absolutely do.”

  “And I need you to convince my father that what he’s doing isn’t the proper path for our lineage,” Daisy said.

  “Oh, wow, I’m pretty sure— No, that’s probably not something I can help you with, Daisy. Sorry.”

  “He does own your property,” Daisy reminded her.

  “That’s kind of what makes it hard for me to be the one to convince him.”

  “You’re perfect,” Daisy said. “And it’s very, very important that you do this, Suz.”

  “Why is this so important to you?” Suz was completely flummoxed by the direction of the conversation.

  Daisy leaned close, glanced around, Suz supposed, to make certain Barnabas—er, Robert—wasn’t lurking about listening to her scheming. “Dad’s ticker just isn’t cut out for high-speed wheeling and dealing,” Daisy explained. “I’d like my father around to see my grandchildren one day. And he won’t if he keeps being a wheeler-dealer. Do you know he just bought land in Australia?” Daisy demanded. “Where does it stop?”

  “Australia? Why Australia?”

  “He got a good deal on something. Along with an office building.” Daisy shrugged. “He’s looking at something in Dubai now, with a consortium of financiers— Oh, never mind. The only business we should discuss is BC business. I want my father to slow down. And I don’t want him taking over your farm.”

  “He already did,” Suz said hollowly. “Cisco and I are hoping you’re already looking for a new place for us.”

  “Let’s not lose hope yet. You convince my father, and we’ll all be happy.”

  “We have a month, Daisy. Right after the new year, we have to be out. I think Mackenzie’s already lined up movers for her and Justin and the four babies.”

  Daisy rang a small bell. The butler reappeared like a phantom.

  “Yes, miss?”

  “Barclay, could you please make us a small tray? Ms. Grant and I would like to move to the garden.”

  That sounded cold. The snow was coming down fiercely. “I can’t stay—”

  Daisy waved her to follow. “Stay another half hour. We have a lot to discuss.”

  She led her into an enclosed, heated porch that looked out on a garden that was breathtaking, even in winter. Suz could only imagine how beautiful it would be in the spring. Lavish gardens inside gardens surrounded amazing statues and ornaments that were now snow-topped. A few bird feeders hung about, hosting cardinals, chickadees, titmice and some other birds Suz didn’t have time to catalog. She sat in a padded chintz armchair near the huge bowed-out bay window. “This is lovely, Daisy.”

  Daisy sat across from her, and a moment later, Barclay came in with a tea tray and two plates of cucumber finger sandwiches and assorted cookies. “Thank you, Barclay.”

  He nodded and left, and Daisy hopped up to make certain the door was closed beh
ind him. “I didn’t want him to overhear. He’s been with me since I was a baby, and I know I can trust him, but still, anyone can have a moment of indiscretion.”

  Suz couldn’t have been more poleaxed if Santa had appeared right in the room with them. She bit into the most delicious cucumber sandwich she’d ever eaten, to keep herself from saying, Who are you? Why have you changed so much?

  “Here’s what I think we should do,” Daisy said. “I believe you should sue my father to get your land, home and business back.”

  “Sue your father?” Suz put the sandwich down. “A lawsuit? How can we sue if the foreclosure’s already gone through? And anyway, it’s not like we can pay.”

  “And then,” Daisy said, totally ignoring her, “I think we should move the Haunted H.”

  Suz waited, not sure where Daisy was going with that.

  “If the Haunted H runs its business elsewhere, it’s not attached to your property, you see. You made it all too easy to acquire, because it was all in the same place. Under one ownership, one business.”

  “Where would we move it?”

  Daisy smiled. “My idea is we move it to Bridesmaids Creek, right on the banks. We’re famous for our creek, and that’s where our magic is. It makes sense to have our town’s largest business on our best town asset, don’t you think?”

  Suz sat quietly, thinking. “I guess he didn’t buy the actual Haunted H.”

  “No, he didn’t, because you’re the Haunted H. You can call it anything you like, but you and Mackenzie and your parents claim the key to that enterprise. No one else knows how to run a haunted house amusement park for families and kiddies.”

  “I just don’t get why you’re so determined to help me,” Suz said, honestly confused.

  “I told you, I learned a lot in Montana. But if you want the bottom-line facts, I want friends just as much as the next person does. I want to belong here in Bridesmaids Creek. I love it here.” She looked out the window at the gently falling snow. “And while I’m being honest, there’s one more reason.”

  Daisy had a heckuva list for Santa Claus going already. “Which is?”