The Texas Cowboy's Quadruplets

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Happy he would have an excuse to see her as well as an opportunity to make good on his secret promise to Gus, Chase worked another hour while Mitzy went off to hang the wreath on the front door and get caught up on a few chores while the quads slept.

  He was just about to stop for the evening when Mitzy’s phone rang.

  Her soft melodious voice floated out to him, stopping him in his tracks. “No, no, you stay with her at the hospital. I’ve got this covered...Yes. Give her my best...Thanks.”

  Chase walked out of the study. Mitzy was standing in the kitchen, phone in hand, looking stressed and uncertain. Again, his heart went out to her. She was shouldering so much right now. Too much. “Problem?” he asked gently.

  Her eyes took on a turbulent sheen. “That was the volunteer who was supposed to help me with the quads. Her mom fell and broke her hip, so she’s not going to be able to make it tonight or any other for the next few months.”

  “Is that going to be an issue?”

  Her shoulders took on a defeated slump. She confided with wry regret, “It wouldn’t have been if I was still using two volunteers at a time. But I decided over the weekend to try going down to one, at least for this evening. She was my ten p.m. person.”

  Absorbing her worry and concern as if it were his own, he moved closer. Suddenly, it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms and kiss her. “I could stay.”

  She looked at him as if aware he was holding something back. And just like that the barbed wire fence went up around her heart again. She went perfectly still. “You wouldn’t mind?”

  For both their sakes, he adopted her brisk, matter-of-fact tone. “Not at all.”

  She smiled with relief, as they found themselves firmly back in the just-friends zone. “Well,” she said, straightening to her full height, her expression perky, “as long as you are up for that, cowboy, maybe you could help me with something else pretty special, too.”

  * * *

  “Their first Christmas card photo,” Chase repeated, when Mitzy had finished explaining.

  He had seen it on one of her to-do lists, but hadn’t expected to actually be helping with it. Now that he was, he couldn’t help but feel a little proud to be included in such an important endeavor.

  “Yes. I need to do it when they first wake up if they’re in a good mood, and...” Mitzy beamed as she led the way into the family room, where all four bassinets were lined up in a row. She clapped her hands in delight. “It looks like they are!”

  Chase stood next to her, taking in the sweet and cozy familial scene. Joe was smiling and cooing. Zach was wide-eyed and content. Alex was wrestling his arms out of the swaddling. Gabe, on high alert.

  Okay so far. How long that would last was anyone’s guess. “Where and how are we going to do this?” he asked, ready to spring into action.

  Mitzy rested her index finger against her chin. Excitement shimmered in her melodic voice. “I was thinking I could prop them up against the pillows on my bed.” She shifted so quickly her shoulder brushed his.

  Ignoring the resultant pressure against his fly, he kept his eyes locked with hers.

  “I’ve already got a velvety white blanket laid out as a backdrop. All we need to do is change their diapers and put them in their little Santa suits and caps. That is—” she finally paused to take a breath, her elegant brows lifting and her teeth worrying her lower lip “—if you’re game.”

  How could he turn her down? How could he turn any of them down?

  Still wishing he could kiss her, he briefly let his hands rest on her slender shoulders, then said, “I am. So...” He grinned, stepping back to accept the infant she put in each arm. “Let’s do it.”

  Together, they went up to the nursery. They worked in tandem, with Chase ridding the boys of their damp sleepers and diapers, and Mitzy coming along behind to swiftly get them dressed.

  Finished, they took the babies into her bedroom. Chase laughed as he took in the mahogany sleigh-style headboard, which had been draped with the prelit garlands and decorative red velvet bows he’d brought her. “You were busy while I was working,” he teased.

  “Mmm-hmm.” Mitzy arranged the four baby boys side by side on the center of her king-size bed. With Chase watching over them, she got her digital camera from the bureau. “Okay, my little darlings, say ‘merry Christmas!’” she said.

  Joe pursed his lips out and cooed. Zach stared off into space. Alex swung his arms so fast and wide he hit his brother Gabe in the face.

  Gabe howled. Alex threw out his arms again, this time hitting a startled Zach who, unlike Gabe, did not verbally complain but, knocked slightly off balance, startled and sort of fell sideways.

  “Oh, dear.” Mitzy handed Chase the digital camera, and went in to comfort Gabe and straighten Zach.

  Eventually, thanks to her amazing skills as a mommy, all was well again. “Do you want to do the honors this time and snap the pic?” she asked over her shoulder, holding a stuffed animal aloft for the infants to focus on.

  “With pleasure.” Chase got them all in frame and clicked the button several times as Alex wiggled around once again, this time causing a chain reaction of falling to one side.

  “How are the pictures?” Mitzy asked, beginning to sound a little worried.

  Chase checked. He knew if she saw them she’d be disappointed. The boys were cute as could be, but this rendering did not accurately depict that. Not even close, in fact. “Um, they’re a little blurry in that action-photo way,” he said. “Nothing Christmas card ready, unfortunately.”

  They tried again, no more successfully.

  Thinking it would be a shame to settle for a subpar photo, Chase had an idea. “Why don’t you get in the picture, too?” he asked.

  “I...can’t.” She touched her hair. “I haven’t had time to do anything special...”

  She didn’t need anything special.

  Although he knew when she sat for family photos in Dallas for Judith, it was a huge production. The ones they had done for their engagement had been even more elaborate, and though he’d went along with it for Mitzy’s sake, he’d detested every moment of it.

  “You look beautiful. But if you want to brush your hair again or put on some more lipstick or something, go for it. I just think they might be happier on your lap and in your arms.”

  Mitzy rushed into her closet, then the adjacent bath, while Chase stretched across the bed and amused the quads with his rendition of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” Several minutes later she came out and his breath caught in his throat. She had changed into a trim black skirt and a pretty red silk shirt. Her hair was down and newly brushed, eyes and cheeks glowing with excitement, her lips possessing a soft, sexy sheen.

  His eyes met hers. “Gorgeous,” he said.

  She flushed in relief. “Thanks.”

  Together, they worked to get her situated against the pillows, all four of her babies in her arms.

  “Uh-oh,” Mitzy winced, when Chase got ready to take the photo.

  He put down the camera. “What?”

  Embarrassment gleamed in her eyes. With her arms still full of four happy babies, she said, “My skirt.”

  Oh, man. It had ridden halfway up one thigh. He didn’t know if it would show in the photo, but clearly she didn’t want to take the chance.

  He cleared his throat. “Want me to see if I can fix it?”

  She nodded, looking even more mortified.

  Chase put the camera down and reached across the bed. Very carefully, he slid his fingers beneath the hem and ever so gently tugged.

  It came down about four inches, but wasn’t going to budge beyond that.

  Blood rushing to his groin, he straightened. “I think that’s going to be okay.”

  She nodded. “Thanks.” Her throat sounded as clogged as his felt.

  Figuring th
ey better get to it before he got even more aroused, Chase picked up the camera and said, “Ready, boys?”

  Apparently really liking where they were, all four looked up at Mitzy adoringly. Chase snapped a dozen photos. All were slightly different, with varying expressions on the boys’ faces, but each and every one of the images captured the pure, abiding love flowing between Mitzy and her quadruplets. “Got it!” he said, just as the babies, beginning to tire, started to squirm.

  Working as a team again, they fed the babies, burped them and then tucked them into their cribs.

  It was close to midnight when they finally eased out of the nursery and headed back down the stairs to the foyer. Looking no more eager to end their evening than he was, Mitzy shook her head and said, “I don’t know how to thank you for this.”

  The desire Chase had been suppressing all evening came roaring back. He tightened his fingers on hers and tugged her close before she could glide away. “I can think of a way...”

  Suddenly, there was a way-too-alluring sparkle in her eyes. “Chase...” She leaned against the coat closet and gazed up at him.

  He dropped his grip on her hand, planted a palm on the wall, just beside her head, and leaned in. “Kiss me, Mitzy,” he whispered, and then bent down and did what he had been wanting to do all night. And damned if she didn’t kiss him back as if this were what she wanted, too.

  Mitzy hadn’t kissed a man like this in forever.

  In fact, she’d never kissed anyone like this but Chase. But as he moved his tall, muscular body in until he was flush against her and delved into the kiss with breathtaking precision, she began to see what she had been missing.

  It had been years since she’d been wanted like this, or felt like a woman with needs.

  Chase brought it all back.

  The feel of her heart slamming against her ribs.

  The blossoming heat that started in the middle of her chest, and spread outward over her ribs, then lower still. Into a deep throbbing awareness between her thighs, a boneless feeling in her knees.

  She was light-headed with pleasure as his lips touched one corner of her mouth, then the other, then moved in again to the center, probing deep. Teasing, tempting, loving and reassuring.

  Her body went soft with pleasure and she wrapped her arms about his neck. Wishing they’d never broken up.

  Never spent the last ten years apart.

  But they had, so...

  She had to be sensible. Even if it stung.

  One hand splayed across the center of his chest, she wrested her lips from his and drew back.

  “This wasn’t part of the arrangement,” she breathed, aware her hips were still tilted into the conquering hardness of his.

  He took her face in his hands, kissed her temple, then drew back, raw desire still blazing in his eyes. “Maybe not yet,” he murmured in return, kissing her again, even more tenderly and persuasively this time. “But it soon will be.”

  Chapter Five

  “Why so glum?” Chase asked early the following evening when Mitzy met him at the door. He’d have thought that she would have been walking on air all day after the heated good-night kisses they had shared. He sure had been.

  She pressed her lips together. “I had another disagreement with my mother.”

  No surprise there. Judith was always pushing Mitzy. And Mitzy pushed right back.

  He took off his coat and handed it to her. “What about?”

  Mitzy hung it up for him, then turned back to face him.

  Tonight, she was a lot more casually dressed, as if she hoped making less effort would erect boundaries that would keep them from getting any closer.

  Not a chance, given how much he wanted her, and how breathtakingly beautiful she looked with her honey-brown hair swept up into a messy knot on the back of her head.

  Bypassing the study, for now, Mitzy led the way toward the kitchen island, where she had been working on her laptop computer.

  With a soft sigh, she lamented, “I made the mistake of sending my mother the photos we took last night, along with my selection for my Christmas postcard.”

  As they moved into the warm, brightly lit room, he took a moment to survey her. “And what did she think?”

  Briefly, hurt tautened Mitzy’s pretty features. “She didn’t like any of them.”

  He frowned. “You’re kidding.” He took the padded leather stool next to hers, noting Mitzy had the offending pictures on-screen.

  She rested her elbows on the quartz island top, and as he looked over at her, he could see how vulnerable the rejection had left her. Her eyes glimmered moistly and her lower lip was trembling slightly. “She thinks the ones of the boys alone are not flattering enough, and she really hates the ones of me holding them.”

  He wrapped an arm about her shoulders. “I love those.”

  Twin spots of color brightened Mitzy’s high cheekbones. “She said I’m...disheveled.”

  He brought her around to face him, so they were now sitting knee to knee. “Like hell,” he said gruffly. “You’re gorgeous.” Then and now!

  Mitzy swallowed as if she didn’t know how to handle that pronouncement—or him. “In any case,” she reported glumly, looking down at the hands twisted in her lap, “Mother said she would rather die than have any of those pics sent out to her friends.”

  Chase took her hands in his. He was furious on her behalf. “Judith said that?”

  Mitzy shrugged. “I’m paraphrasing, but the drift was the same.”

  Chase tightened his fingers on hers. “What does she want you to do?”

  Disappointment and sadness mingled in Mitzy’s gaze. With a deep, energizing breath, she lifted her chin. “Have them sit for formal Christmas portraits, individually and together, when I take them to Dallas for their official debut during Judith and Walter’s annual holiday open house on December 15.”

  Typical. And wrong. So very wrong.

  Chase watched her slide off the stool and disengage their clasped hands. “What are you going to do?”

  Mitzy shrugged, still not answering, and went to the fridge. “Sorry. I haven’t eaten yet.” She slanted him a glance over one slender shoulder. “Have you?”

  He shook his head, trying not to notice how nicely her shirt cloaked the soft curves of her breasts. “Not since lunch.” Which had been late.

  She bent down to rummage around the lower shelves of the fridge. “Leftover lasagna and salad okay with you?”

  He turned his glance away from the denim snugly cupping her delectable derriere. “More than fine.”

  He made a mental note to show up with dinner the next evening. Just in case.

  He cleared his throat, as she got out a couple of plates, too. “So, back to the holiday cards... You must have some thoughts about what you want to do.”

  Which in his view was all that mattered.

  She put down the serving spoon and walked over to his side, inundating him with her lavender baby powder scent. “Well, initially, I was just going to send this one.” She pointed to the photo of the quads in her arms, all looking adoringly up at her. “But now I’m feeling self-conscious, like maybe I will regret just slapping something together.”

  This was the old Mitzy, the not-quite-so-confident girl he’d become engaged to, not the polished, self-assured woman she was now.

  “What does the commonsense side of you say? You know,” he teased, “the social worker side that is good at finding solutions in impossible situations?”

  Mitzy went back to plating food, putting it in the microwave to heat. “To send out the one that you and I thought was great to all my friends here in Laramie. And humor Mother with the formal portrait sitting when we do go to Dallas, since she is their grandmother, after all.”

  “See?” Chase rose to help her bring the food and silverware over to the island. “Prob
lem solved.”

  “I wish!” She minimized the photos and pulled up another split screen. This one bearing what looked to be two proposed schedules of holiday events.

  She gave Chase a beleaguered look. “That was only the beginning of our little tiff.” Mitzy frowned as she dressed the salad. “Mother went back to the whole ‘this is their very first Christmas, and I’m never going to make it special enough for them on my own’ routine. And she says we need to come to Dallas for the duration of the season because I’ve already gotten all these invitations and she’s already planned all these great events for me and the boys.”

  Chase studied her. “And that’s not what you want.”

  “No.” Mitzy took a bite of lasagna. “I spent my childhood from age five on with one parent or the other. My holidays with Dad were cozy and warm and relaxed with all sorts of spur-of-the-moment holiday stuff. The highlight of which was the MCS Christmas party at the saddle shop.”

  Chase savored the layers of Bolognese, pasta and béchamel, too. “And your holidays with Judith...?”

  Mitzy ran her fork through her food. “Were overscheduled to the max.” She sat back in her stool and locked eyes with him. “I’m not saying some of it wasn’t great. I loved going to see the Messiah performed by the choir. And The Nutcracker. The stage version of The Christmas Carol...”

  Her expression turned sweetly sentimental.

  “Mother took me to weekend cooking camp at this ritzy resort, where we both learned how to make every holiday dish imaginable. And every year we picked out a theme and all-new decorations for the massive tree in their formal sitting room.”

  Chase cleaned his plate while she forced herself to take a few more bites.

  “But the boys aren’t old enough for any of that. And what Mother does have planned for us, as you can see—” she turned the laptop screen toward him yet again “—is either for adults only, or...like this Intro to Art program at the museum...is something the boys are likely too young to enjoy.”

  “Way too young,” Chase agreed.

  “Which is why.” Mitzy pulled up yet another screen on the computer. Her expression triumphant, she showed him two columns. One had activities planned by Judith in Dallas, the other, activities that Mitzy could enjoy with her boys here in Laramie.