The Rancher's Unexpected Twins--A Clean Romance

by Trish Milburn

  Though she worked late into the night on the Romtech account prep, when she tried to go to sleep her mind would not settle. She tried listening to music on her phone, relaxing one muscle at a time, every trick she could think of to cure the sudden onset of insomnia, but nothing worked.

  Giving up, she slipped out of bed and made her way quietly outside. After a minute or so of sitting on the top step, her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She’d heard the phrase blanket of stars many times in her life, more than once on travel brochures from around the world. But she didn’t think she’d ever been anywhere that the description fit more than here on the ranch. She’d gotten so used to light pollution in LA that she’d somehow forgotten how stunning a Wyoming sky could be when there was no visible moon or clouds. If she sat in the same spot the entire night she wouldn’t be able to count all the visible stars.

  She lowered her gaze from the sky to the surrounding landscape shrouded in varying shades of black. No doubt there were various critters out there living their nocturnal lives, perhaps even watching her. When she noticed a pinprick of light in the distance, she realized that she wasn’t the only person who was awake.

  For someone who got up when stars were still visible on the other end of night, Dean should be asleep already. She hopped up and eased the front door open. Glad the house didn’t have any squeaky floorboards, she retrieved her phone before returning to her outside perch.

  She pulled up Dean’s number and started a text message.

  Shouldn’t you be asleep?

  It took him so long to respond that she thought perhaps he actually was asleep and had just left one of the lights on. As she started to place the phone on the porch beside her, it buzzed and lit up.

  I could ask you the same thing.

  I tried and failed. Decided to come outside to stargaze a bit.

  Want some company?

  No, get some rest.

  Instead of going to sleep, however, Dean texted her again.

  So what’s our next step?

  She thought about it for a moment. It struck her how odd it was to be talking about when to see each other again and how much affection to show as if they were scenes in a play. She supposed in a way they were. And yet, the fact that they were basically alone in the night right now, only a stretch of dark field separating them, was sort of intimate in a way. It could be seen as romantic if there was actually anything between them.

  I’m meeting Maya for lunch tomorrow, but I could invite you to dinner.

  Sounds good. But anything sounds better than my own cooking.

  Ha ha. I’m totally making frozen pizza.

  Oh, so just like home.

  Though Dean’s texts made her smile, she experienced a little pang of sadness too, thinking of him eating frozen pizza all alone in his house at night after a long day of work. He could easily go visit his parents, of course, but when he came home it was still to an empty house.

  She didn’t know why that seemed so sad to her when she went home to an empty apartment after work whenever she wasn’t traveling. Maybe because despite living by herself, she was surrounded by neighbors. Other than her dad and the twins, Dean was surrounded by wide-open space for miles in every direction. If her dad agreed to move to LA with her, Dean would be even more alone.

  But that’s what he wanted. At least until he found a real wife.

  Sunny stared at the light in the distance. She hoped by him helping her, his own romantic prospects weren’t hurt in any way. Laughing a little at herself, she shook her head. Dean himself had said he wasn’t seeing anyone, and the fact that he wasn’t already married like so many of their former classmates seemed to indicate he wasn’t in any hurry to be permanently tied to someone else.

  Her phone buzzed with another text, lighting up the photo of her with Dean and the twins. All of them looked so happy, with no hint of the sad events that had led them to have that picnic.

  No, she couldn’t think of Jason and Amanda now or she really wouldn’t see a wink of sleep. Instead she tapped on Dean’s message.

  I’ll see you then. Good night.

  Good night.

  She looked toward Dean’s house in time to see the little square of light disappear. Even after it was gone, she continued to stare at the same spot. And wondered if Dean was lying in his bed questioning how in the world he’d allowed himself to get talked into her crazy plan. Regretting it.

  Hopefully any regret would blow away on the wind whenever she handed over the deed. When she tried not to cry that the Breckinridges would no longer be the owners of this land, this majestic view of the Wyoming sky.

  * * *

  HER WISTFUL MOOD of the night before, one tinged with sadness, thankfully disappeared as she finally slept. By the time Sunny had the twins fastened into their car seats in preparation for their trip to town she was mostly back to normal.

  That’s how grief tended to work. You gradually managed to resume your life, even going stretches without thinking about the loss, but then it hit out of the blue and for a while you wondered if you’d ever be happy again. Thankfully, those bouts were shorter and less intense now than they’d been a year ago, when her tears were never so far away that an instance of being cut off in traffic or seeing a sentimental ad couldn’t cause them to appear.

  Her job had helped. Not only occupying her mind with necessary work but also the traveling. Something about being in a different country allowed her to distance herself emotionally as well as physically from the sorrow. Over the winter, when holiday images of family were attacking her from all directions, a trip to Australia to consult with a marine products company had been exactly what she needed. Not only was she in a different country but also a different hemisphere and the completely opposite season. The heat of the Australian summer had helped to burn away some layers of her sadness.

  She checked that both car seats were secure one more time before waving to her dad, who sat on the porch.

  “We’ll be back sometime this afternoon. Try not to break your other leg while I’m gone.”

  “I don’t know when you became so sassy.”

  Sunny laughed as she got into the driver’s seat of her dad’s truck and started the engine. She listened to the twins babbling to each other in the back seat, wondering if they were actually trying to communicate specific thoughts or only imitating all the adults they heard speaking.

  They were still deep in baby conversation when she parked alongside Main Street a few minutes later.

  “Okay, kiddos. Time for lunch with Auntie Maya.”

  As she was hauling the double stroller from the bed of the truck, she thought it looked more like an all-terrain vehicle.

  “Let me help you with that.”

  She turned her head at the unexpected sound of Dean’s voice.

  “What are you doing here?” He couldn’t be planning to join her and Maya for lunch, could he? They hadn’t discussed him making an appearance.

  But he shook his head. “I had a couple of errands to run and saw you pull in.”

  “What a handy coincidence.” She allowed him to carry the stroller to the sidewalk and begin to unhook Liam from his car seat while she retrieved Lily.

  “Dean Wheeler, I’m surprised you know what to do with one of those.”

  They both looked up to see Maya pointing at the twins.

  “Not all that different from wrestling calves.”

  Sunny swatted him on the upper arm. “Don’t you dare compare my perfect niece and nephew to cattle.”

  Dean smiled, and for a moment she couldn’t look away. He really was a good-looking man. Why wasn’t he at least dating someone? Lucky for her plans he wasn’t, but still a burning question.

  “I didn’t know you were joining us for lunch,” Maya said, her reporter’s inquisitiveness evident in the comment.

  Dean shifted his att
ention, perhaps a bit slowly, from Sunny to Maya. Why did the way his gaze had lingered on Sunny for those couple of seconds leave her breathless?

  Had to be because she hadn’t been prepared to act out a scene in front of her best friend, at least not yet.

  “I’m not,” Dean said, answering Maya’s question. “I happened to be at the right place at the right time. I best get back to work.” He looked at Sunny again. “See you tonight.”

  She nodded, not quite trusting her voice not to give her away to Maya. Not trusting it to not sound as off-kilter as she suddenly felt.

  “Okay, I have questions,” Maya said as soon as Dean was out of earshot.

  Sunny smiled at her friend.

  “When do you not have questions? It’s literally your job to have questions.”

  “What was that all about?”

  Sunny feigned ignorance. “What was what about?”

  “First you make the man a cake. Then I see you two looking like you are doing a photo shoot for Young Marrieds magazine.”

  “I’m almost certain there is no such magazine.”

  “Not the point.”

  “What do you want me to say? Dean and I have been friends forever, even longer than you and I. Also, don’t forget that I’ve made you cakes before.”

  “For my birthday. Never as a random thanks for doing you a favor.”

  Sunny had to be careful how she played this. Too much denial and her friend would know something was up. Too little and she’d also know something was a bit on the fishy side.

  “He’s a good guy. I’m thankful for all he’s done, both before I arrived and since.”

  “Handsome too.”

  “He is.” No use in denying what was obvious.

  A sudden fit of crying from Lily ended the interrogation. Sunny stooped down to her niece’s level.

  “Hey, what’s the matter?”

  “I think she hit her hand on the edge of the stroller,” Maya said. “She was waving her arms around.”

  “Did you get an owie?” Sunny asked in baby speak, then planted a kiss on Lily’s little hand. When Sunny booped her nose, Lily abandoned her tears and giggled instead. “You, little miss, need to stop bumping into things.”

  Sunny rubbed Lily’s soft curls and stood.

  “I think I’m going to have to wrap these two in Bubble Wrap for my own peace of mind.” Before Maya could launch into interrogation part two, Sunny turned the stroller and headed toward lunch.

  When they stepped through the front door of Trudy’s Café, Sunny inhaled the familiar scents of fried chicken, yeast rolls and what she thought was chocolate cake. Her mouth watered, and she wondered if after she ate she should order take-out meals for dinner instead of cooking.

  No, takeout did not convey the same kind of “I’m falling for my friend” vibe that she needed her dad to observe.

  After they claimed a table and two high chairs, then placed their orders, a yelp startled both babies as well as Maya. But Sunny had spotted Trudy Pierce a moment before the older woman’s eyes went wide and her ensuing sound of surprise.

  “Girl, it’s good to see you again,” Trudy said as Sunny stood and was enveloped in Trudy’s arms.

  “It’s good to see you too.”

  Trudy shifted her love to the twins.

  “And how are the cutest little boy and girl in the county doing?”

  “Be careful,” Maya said. “Or all the young moms in the valley will be flooding Alma’s dining room.”

  “Well, if they want inferior food, they can go for it.”

  Sunny wasn’t able to hide her snort of laughter. This must have been the height of hilarity for the twins because they both busted out laughing and swatted their chubby little hands against the trays of their high chairs.

  “I thought older people were supposed to be good examples of proper manners and moral behavior,” Maya said once she had herself under control.

  Trudy snorted. “You mean old people like me are supposed to be boring and stodgy. No, thank you.”

  A wide smile stretched across Sunny’s face. “You are exactly the same as when I worked here, though I saw while driving into town that the sign war has gone nuclear.”

  “Well, I wasn’t the one who started that,” Trudy said with an annoyance that had Sunny biting her bottom lip to keep from laughing. “And she had hers put up while I was out of town. When I was coming back from Casper, I almost drove off the road in shock when I saw it.”

  “So, of course you had to reciprocate.”

  “That woman isn’t going to outdo me. She keeps trying, thinking I’ll give up. Ha!”

  No one really knew what had precipitated Jade Valley’s somewhat tamer version of the Hatfields and McCoys, and neither woman ever said. Their mutual dislike was older than many of the town’s residents, which meant there were all kinds of rumors about why two otherwise nice older ladies did their best to outpromote and outsell each other. Most residents knew the best policy was to make absolutely certain that they didn’t eat at either Trudy’s Cafe or Alma’s Diner more than the other. A strict adherence to equal patronage was rule number one in the Jade Valley Residents Handbook.

  The waitress arrived with their lunch, and Trudy took one of Sunny’s hands between hers.

  “How long are you staying?”

  “I’m not certain, but probably a couple of weeks.”

  “I guess some of that depends on how stubborn your dad is being.”

  “Bingo.”

  “Well, come see me again before you leave. I want to hear all about your latest travels.”

  “I will.”

  By the time Sunny sat back down, her stomach was audibly grumbling.

  Life in Jade Valley seemed to flow now pretty much as it had when she’d been waiting tables here as a teenager. Though the faces had changed some, the snippets of conversations she heard from nearby tables told her it was still the same types of conversations that had happened more than a decade ago.

  Still, some predictable things in Jade Valley were perfect. Trudy’s fried chicken was near the top of that list. The recipe had been passed down from her grandmother, who’d grown up in Georgia, and it was so good that customers drove from as far away as Cody and Greybull, a distance of nearly three hundred miles, to indulge their taste buds.

  Maya’s phone dinged with a text. Sunny noticed her friend grumbling under her breath as she read it.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Maya shook her head. “Just my boss. He keeps telling me I have to get the income from the paper up, either through advertising or circulation. I keep telling him I can’t magically make more businesses or residents appear.”

  “Anything I can do to help?”

  Maya stuck a crinkle-cut fry slathered in ketchup in her mouth and chewed while she appeared to be thinking of an appropriate response.

  “Actually, how about you write a series of first-person travel pieces about the places you’ve been? That’s different content that might bring in more readers. I could promote it a little farther afield.”

  “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m not a journalist. Or a travel writer.”

  “You got the top grade in our English class. And it’s not like I’m asking for Pulitzer-level investigative reporting here. Just tell readers about different places that take them out of this valley for the amount of time it takes them to read the articles.”

  After some more pleading and a remarkably pouty face from Maya, Sunny finally relented.

  “Awesome. When can you get me the first one?”

  Sunny pointed at her half-full plate.

  “Can I at least finish eating my lunch?”

  “Sure. I might even give you time to tack on dessert.”

  Sunny had only managed to take a couple more bites when it was her phone that dinged with
a text, also from her boss.

  “What is it, Annoying Bosses Day?”

  Mike had looked over the notes she’d sent him, but he had some things he thought she should revise. Why the person who would actually be making the presentation couldn’t do the final adjustments, she had no idea. After texting back a simple Fine, she set her phone aside and returned to her lunch.

  In the next moment, Maya had snatched up Sunny’s phone and was pointing at the photo on the screen.

  “Explain.”

  “Explain what?”

  “You are playing dumb with me. What is going on between you and Dean?”

  “Do you think you could say that a little louder? I don’t think the residents of Montana heard you.” She pointed at her phone. “It’s a good picture. I mean, look at the twins’ smiles. They’re so cute I get a sugar rush simply by looking at them.”

  “What I’m noticing are the smiles on your and Dean’s faces.”

  So her idea that she should wait for a bit to tell Maya the truth wasn’t going to work. She should have known that. Maya Pine would have made one hell of an investigative reporter or detective if she’d decided to live somewhere larger than Jade Valley.

  “I don’t want to talk about it here.” Too many ears attached to gossipy mouths nearby. Sure, the news about the “relationship” would get out at some point, she needed it to, but she’d like to maintain control of who knew what when. Sunny didn’t want things to potentially spiral out of control. The romance might appear whirlwind in nature, but it also had to be believable.

  “Fine, but you’re not wiggling out of a full explanation by trying to say the twins are fussy or something like that.” She shifted her gaze to Lily and Liam. “Isn’t that right?”

  Sunny held up her hand as one would while being sworn in for before giving testimony in court.

  “I solemnly swear to tell the whole truth when we get to a more private place.”

  After they finished eating and laughing at the twins’ messy encounters with mashed potatoes and banana pudding, Sunny purchased the meal her dad had requested. After hugging Trudy goodbye with another promise to visit again before she left for California, she drove to the town park. Sunny placed the twins in the sandbox to play then joined Maya at a nearby picnic table.