Rancher's Double Dilemma

by Pamela Browning

  But no. They couldn’t settle down, not with important unfinished business between Lacey and Garth.

  DONNA FABER freed her stethoscope from her ears. “These babies look fine. Except for those mosquito bites, they’re none the worse for their experience with Mr. Shaw.”

  “Thank goodness,” Lacey said. She was holding Ashley, and Garth took Michele when she stretched her arms out to him.

  “Do we need to bring them back?” Garth asked.

  Donna shook her head and smiled. “No, it’s not necessary to schedule a follow-up visit.”

  The receptionist from the doctor’s front desk stuck her head in the door. “Dr. Faber, can you come outside real quick? It’s Horace the mule. He’s down on his side out front. Sick, it looks like.”

  “His Honor, the mayor?” Donna snorted. “You’d better call the vet.”

  “I already did. He’s out Tinsley way dealing with vaccinations. Please, Dr. Faber, that mule doesn’t look well.”

  Donna laughed. “Well, I guess I’ll have to check him out. Not that I know much about mules, understand. Garth, Lacey, excuse me.”

  They followed her out, and as they got in the car, they saw her kneeling to help the mule. By the time they had strapped the twins into their seats in the Honda, Donna and the group of people gathered around had Horace back on his feet.

  “Looks like he’ll be okay,” Garth commented. He leaned over the door and grinned down at Lacey. “I’ll see you later for supper. Cody will be eating in town with Kim tonight, planning the wedding. So you and I will have the house to ourselves.”

  Lacey’s heart, although it had started to beat a little faster, swooped down to her feet and back again.

  Garth reached over and smoothed a strand of hair back from her face. “We have some serious talking to do, Lacey.”

  “I…I suppose we do,” she said.

  “Maybe we can put the girls to bed early. Have a quiet supper together.”

  She only stared at him, her eyes wide. “Oh, Garth,” she began, but then Donna started walking toward them and caught the guarded yet vulnerable expression on Lacey’s face, the warmth of Garth’s eyes upon her. Donna froze in her footsteps, and then, without a word, turned and walked swiftly back toward her office.

  Garth straightened as he stared after her. “Well,” he said slowly, “I reckon it was time to stop leading Donna on. I never meant to.”

  “If you need to talk to her, you’d better,” Lacey said.

  “No. I don’t need to talk to Donna. See you later.” Garth strode off toward his truck and he didn’t look back.

  The incident outside the pediatrician’s office was something that Lacey thought about all the way to the ranch. She hadn’t liked it when Donna had started toward them, had felt a shock of annoyance when she thought that Garth’s attention might be drawn to the other woman. No, Lacey’s feeling had been more than annoyance, but she couldn’t put a word to it at first. Anxiety? Concern?

  Jealousy?

  Jealousy was an emotion with which Lacey was not too familiar. She hadn’t even been jealous of the rodeo groupies who had followed Bunny Shaw around. So why was she jealous of Donna?

  Because what she felt for Garth was worth protecting and defending. That could be the only reason.

  But what did she feel for him?

  Lacey had no idea. She was, more than ever, confused, uncertain and scared.

  When she and the twins arrived back at the ranch, Lacey spotted a red-and-blue overnight express envelope propped against the door as she mounted the porch steps toting a baby on each hip.

  “What’s this?” she said out loud. She set Michele and Ashley down in the nearby playpen and picked it up. The envelope bore the return address of a Fort Lauderdale travel agency, and it was addressed to her.

  She ripped it open, and an airline ticket fell out. She bent over to pick it up and noticed the attached note in a familiar handwriting.

  “I have to see my grandchildren! Please come and see us.”

  It was, of course, signed “Mom.”

  SUPPER THAT NIGHT didn’t go according to plan. The babies woke up late, and Ashley was cranky because of teething. To make matters worse, Michele wouldn’t let Ashley play with her plastic talking storybook, and Lacey, instead of cooking a decent supper, resorted to crawling around with the babies on the den floor in order to distract them.

  When Garth came in, both twins howled at the very thought of going to bed, and so supper turned out to be tuna sandwiches that Lacey and Garth struggled to eat while they each held a baby.

  It must have been nine o’clock before the girls finally fell asleep. Garth, who had phone calls to return before it became too late, left Lacey to handle the bedtime drill in the nursery.

  “Everything okay?” he asked from the door of the den when she came downstairs feeling worn and frazzled.

  “They’re asleep, if that’s what you mean.” She was sure she sounded as weary as she felt.

  “Then let’s go out on the porch,” he said, taking her hand. But there were things that needed to be said. She steeled herself—had steeled herself all day—to ignore his dark eyes, so gentle and kind upon her, and his commanding presence. She inhaled a deep breath and yanked her hand from his. Bewilderment flickered in his eyes, and part of her was heartsick to see it. Nevertheless she plunged ahead. “What I have to say, Garth, doesn’t require getting all cozy in the swing,” she announced. She clasped her hands behind her back so she wouldn’t want to touch him. But she was tempted anyway—oh, she was.

  “I see,” he said, biting the words off sharply. “Am I to believe that I won’t like it?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I only know that my mother wants to see my babies. She sent me this.” Lacey dug into her pocket and pulled out the ticket. “We can leave tomorrow.”

  The color drained from his face. “You want to take them away? Both of them? My God, Lacey. You never said anything about it before.”

  She shrugged, holding fast to her resolve, which seemed to be slipping away second by second. “I found the ticket on the porch when I arrived home from taking Ashley and Michele for their checkup.”

  “Isn’t it a little presumptuous of your mother to send you a ticket?”

  “She’s impulsive. And she misses me. Us.”

  “Is everyone you know impulsive? Like Bunny?” he shot back.

  “I don’t think I need to answer that,” she said, whirling to go, but inside she was torn, her emotions in chaos. She wasn’t sure that leaving was what she wanted to do. Yet an opportunity had arrived that would put space between them while she thought things over, and, after the last time she’d made an ill-advised decision to marry, how could she pass up the chance for a certain amount of reflection and deliberation? She couldn’t think here, not with ranch business going on and the babies being fretful and with Garth in her face every single day.

  Garth was across the room in two steps. He grabbed her from behind, causing her to emit a tiny involuntary cry. He whipped her around to face him, his eyes full of fire.

  “Don’t walk out on me like this,” he said. “Don’t do this, Lacey.”

  She swallowed and gazed up at him. He relaxed his grip on her and said, looking deflated, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “You…you didn’t. I was surprised, that’s all.”

  “Not as surprised as when I asked you to marry me, no doubt,” he said ruefully.

  “No. Oh, Garth, how do I know it’s the right thing to do? I’m so mixed up.”

  “We’re good together, Lacey. It amazes me how good.”

  “You only asked me to marry you because you want us all to be together—you, me, the babies. You don’t want to lose Ashley. I don’t want to lose her, either. This is tearing me up inside, Garth. I can’t marry anyone ever again just because it seems like a good idea at the time.”

  Garth shook his head and folded her into his arms. “Excuse me, but I made a big mistake last n
ight. I should have told you I loved you. I—”

  She listened to his heart beating strong and sure beneath his shirt. “Telling me you love me because you think it will make me stay isn’t the way, Garth.”

  He moved away so he could look down at her. “Is that what you think? That I’m only telling you that I love you because it will convince you to marry me?” He looked angry, stupefied and shocked.

  She nodded mutely, unable to speak.

  Seeing how miserable she was, he gentled his voice. “Darling, my darling Lacey. Sit with me on the couch for a minute.” He led her there and pulled her down beside him. Then he took both her hands in his, his eyes never leaving hers. “I do love you. I have for weeks, only I couldn’t admit it. Seeing what a good mother you are, knowing how well you take care of me and Cody, appreciating your skills at homemaking and having you there with a ready smile and a cheerful word when I come in from work—it’s heaven, Lacey. You’ve made our lives so happy. Made me so happy. I didn’t think I could ever be so happy. I didn’t think I would ever love again. After Joan, it didn’t seem possible.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it.

  Lacey felt totally at the mercy of her treacherous emotions. “Garth,” she warned. “Don’t say these things unless you mean them, really mean them.”

  “I never say things I don’t mean. I love you, Lacey Shaw. I’m asking you again to be my wife.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes. Lacey thought she had never heard such a passionate declaration of love, not even on TV, not even in the movies, and certainly not in real life. She was so moved that she couldn’t speak.

  Garth seized that opportunity to slide his arms around her and pull her close again. “Say yes, Lacey. Say you will.”

  “There’s Michele to consider,” she said against his neck.

  “I’ve grown to love Michele, too. Why wouldn’t I? She’s so much like Ashley and yet different. The double dilemma that has befuddled me since I learned about The Situation has turned out to be a double blessing. I’d be a good father to both of them—if only, dearest Lacey, you’ll give me the chance.” He kissed her tenderly on the cheek, and her arms went around him.

  “I know you’re a good father. The best,” she said.

  “So what’s the problem, Lacey?”

  “It’s too sudden. Last time I got married, it was also sudden. Bunny and I stopped at this fast-food place shaped like an igloo and while we were drinking strawberry milk-shakes, he turned to me and asked, ‘Wanna get hitched?’ And I did at the time, but it wasn’t a good decision, Garth.”

  He sighed, his breath stirring the hair in front of her ear. “I’m paying the price because you did something you now think you shouldn’t have?”

  Lacey nodded. “Marry in haste, repent at leisure,” she said.

  Much to her surprise, he chuckled. “Dang, woman. I certainly don’t want any repenting around here.” He paused. “How long do you need to make up your mind?”

  Lacey edged away, ignoring his amused expression. She wasn’t at all sure that he was taking her doubts seriously. She stood up.

  “I’ll take the babies tomorrow to visit Mom. I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

  He stood, too, his expression clouding. “How do I know you’ll ever come back?”

  She started to say she didn’t know, but then she remembered something. “You’ll still have the Winnebago. It and its contents are all the property I own in the world, Garth. I’ll be back, don’t worry.”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “Leave it to you, Lacey, to leave a Winnebago as collateral for the three most important people in the world to me.”

  “At least I didn’t say something corny like, it’s something to remember me by,” she said.

  He considered this, his expression thoughtful. “No, you didn’t. I’ll say it instead. Here’s something to remember me by, Lacey, something to remember on the long lonely nights.”

  Calmly and coolly, he wrapped his arms around her and embraced her. Then his lips found hers, moving upon them with such artistry and skill that her knees went weak and she sagged against him, clutching at him as if he were a lifeline. Which perhaps he was—the lifeline to the promise of a happy future with all four of them together the way it should be.

  The way it should be. The phrase stuck with her, and she leaned into the kiss as if she could never get enough of Garth Colquitt. Through her mind flashed a hundred different pictures of him, of the things he did that were endearing, of the things he had done that she would always remember no matter what happened. Garth with Ashley in his arms, so proud in that moment when he’d first shown her to Lacey. Garth in bed with the chicken pox, grinning at her teasingly over his shoulder as she applied ointment. Garth at Joan’s headstone, bowing his head in silent prayer before he went to Baby Shaw’s grave, and the tear that she thought she’d seen him brush from his eye afterward. Garth in all sorts of moods—moods that she had learned to know so well.

  He released her, and she let him go. Her lips burned from the heat of his kiss, and her heart ached because she didn’t know if they would ever share another one.

  “I’ll take you to the airport, if you must go,” he said, his eyes shuttered of all feeling.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  And then she turned and fled to the attic room, fled for her very life. For that was what was really at stake here, her life and how—and with whom—she chose to live it.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Come to Nana,” Sheila Sue said to Ashley, who appeared doubtful. “Come on.” All this coaxing had no effect; Ashley merely sat on the floor and stared at her newfound grandmother.

  “She’ll get used to you before long,” Lacey said, still astonished at the room that her mother had prepared for her grandchildren. It was pink, with a white chair rail separating the wallpaper on the top part of the walls from that on the bottom. Filmy sheer curtains were tied back from the windows with vines of artificial roses, and a cushy pale carpet covered the floor.

  “Of course she will,” Sheila Sue said, whereupon Michele crawled into her grandmother’s lap and sat beaming at all of them. She looked so cute that Lacey had to laugh.

  The three of them had arrived earlier that day, and Sheila Sue and Fletcher had picked them up in their huge Mercedes at the airport. They’d been whisked over to the condominium penthouse, which treated them to a stunning view of the ocean, and the household help had unpacked all their bags and put everything away. Lacey had her own room, a large pale-blue-and-gray one with wide sweeping windows and a balcony outside.

  “Now, tomorrow we’ll shop. I’m buying swimsuits for all of you. Don’t argue, Lacey, I know your old one doesn’t fit anymore. You told me so yourself last time I begged you to come for a visit. And some clothes, too, for south Florida. You can’t wear blue jeans everywhere.”

  Lacey looked down at the ones she had on. “They do tend to hold up well when dealing with babies.”

  “You won’t be taking care of the children all day every day. We have Proserpine for that,” she said, and the housekeeper smiled as she brought them tall glasses of some fruity-sweet beverage.

  “And a dress, Lacey, you ought to have a dress for—oops, I think I darned near let the cat out of the bag.” Sheila Sue clapped her hand over her mouth in mock horror.

  “What cat out of what bag?” Lacey asked. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was six o’clock. Back in Texas, Garth and Cody would soon be coming in for supper, and she wasn’t there. Resolutely she turned her eyes away from this reminder of how much they needed her at the ranch.

  “Oh, this cat I’ve let out of the bag is named Brian, and he’s coming to take you to dinner tomorrow night. His mother and I—she’s the one who owns the day-care centers—think you’ll get along right well.”

  “Mo-om,” Lacey wailed. “I’m a grown woman! You shouldn’t be setting me up with blind dates like some teenager.”

  “Don’t be silly. Andrea and I thought the two of y
ou should meet right away.”

  “I wish you hadn’t done this,” Lacey said unhappily. Maybe she could get out of the date. Maybe she’d get a bad case of jellyfish bites or something tomorrow. Maybe Brian would chicken out.

  And maybe not.

  Sheila Sue patted her newly blond hair, which had shocked Lacey when her mother waved to her from the arrival gate at the airport. It used to be a soft brown and was now waved and molded in a way that put Lacey in mind of pressed vinyl. It looked okay, she’d decided, but not like she remembered her mother.

  People change, Lacey told herself. Even me. I’m not a kid anymore, even though Mom makes me feel like one. I guess that’s probably as hard for her to accept as her blond hair is for me.

  “Let’s feed the twins,” Sheila Sue said, getting up with the baby in her arms. “I’ve got goodies in the kitchen. What do you say, Lacey? And then we’ll mosey on along to the dining room for Proserpine’s wonderful dinner, and you and Fletcher can get reacquainted.”

  Lacey sighed and picked up Ashley, following her mother through the cavernous apartment to the kitchen. She already knew Fletcher well enough, and she liked him. It was her mother that she felt she hardly knew anymore.

  And if they didn’t eat dinner around here until eight o’clock at night, she was going to be mighty hungry. She always had supper on the table for Garth and Cody promptly at six, shortly after they clomped in from the barn, joshing and joking in their own special way.

  Right about now, Lacey figured that the two men would be cobbling together some kind of meal for themselves. She smiled to herself at the thought and wondered what it would be.

  Frozen chicken pot pies, Cody had told her they’d liked to eat before she arrived to take over the cooking. He and Garth would cook spaghetti and spoon the pot pies, which they heated in the microwave, over the noodles. She hated to think of their eating unsatisfying slop like that, but there wasn’t much she could do from here to help them.