The Texas Cowboy's Quadruplets

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

Understanding her coded message, Chase exhaled.

  Of course, Judith had asked him to do this.

  Again, when Mitzy wasn’t around.

  He put his drink aside, trying to get in the spirit. “Where...?” he asked genially.

  “The costume is in the powder room, just off the garage. When you’re done, you’ll need to wait for my signal. I’ll text you on your cell. Then wait for the musical cue, and come in through the front door.”

  This celebration just got better than ever.

  Chase nodded and meandered in the direction he’d been instructed. The one good thing about having been engaged to Mitzy once upon a time was that he was as familiar with this mansion as he was his own parents’ home.

  Minutes later, he slipped out the back and walked around the front. The night was getting colder. Holiday lights twinkled. Stars gleamed in the velvety night sky overhead. The faint scent of wood smoke, from the home’s many downstairs fireplaces, filled the air.

  Knapsack beside him, he waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  Finally, his cell phone dinged. He looked at the screen. The message from Judith said, MAKE YOUR ENTRANCE! And don’t forget to be jolly!

  Chase shook his head.

  As if he could.

  Telling himself it was for Mitzy and the kids, he headed in.

  * * *

  Mitzy stood at the top of the grand staircase. Her feet were killing her. She hadn’t worn heels in forever. And certainly not five-inch designer instruments of torture.

  Her dress, though dazzling, was equally uncomfortable. For one thing, her back was cold from waist to shoulders. Her front felt hot. And now—to make her attention-loving mother happy—she had to make like a supermodel in front of two hundred and fifty–plus guests.

  She only hoped her boys behaved...

  Down below, the small group of musicians abruptly stopped playing. Judith and Walter moved to the center of the grand entry hall. “Welcome, everyone!” Judith said cheerfully. “And merry Christmas to one and all! I know you-all have been waiting to meet our new grandsons...so without further ado, Mitzy darling, come on down!”

  A smile plastered on her face, Mitzy gracefully led the way. Behind her, the four young nannies—all dressed like elves—descended with her infants.

  She was nearly at the bottom when the front door opened with a flourish.

  A very tall, surprisingly buff, Santa strode in. Apparently, Santa had forgotten his pillow. Or eschewed it altogether.

  “Ho, ho, ho!” boomed a very familiar voice.

  Oh, no, Mitzy thought, her pique at Chase fading.

  Her mother hadn’t...

  She had.

  “Santa” strode toward her. Dropped his knapsack at her feet. “Who do we have here?” he thundered, hands on his hips, looking down at Mitzy.

  Like he didn’t know.

  Without warning, he put his hand around her waist, bent her backward from the waist. She clung to his shoulders. “Could it be,” Santa continued asking heartily, “the potential Mrs. Claus?”

  Laughter erupted as Saint Nick stole a short, sweet, thoroughly mesmerizing kiss. Whoops and hollers followed. Mitzy could imagine the expression on her mother’s face.

  Hers felt like it was going bright pink.

  “Santa,” she warned, looking deep into his merry gray-blue eyes.

  Chase cocked a hand to his ear. “What was that?” he said, even louder, to the amusement of all those around her. “Oh!” He slapped a hand across his heart. “Why certainly I’ll kiss you again!” He tugged off his beard, still holding her bent over backward from the waist. Her weight resting on one of his rock-hard thighs, he lowered his mouth to hers. And this time, without the pesky beard between them, it was, Mitzy realized, going to be a real kiss. The kind that had her world spinning...

  She had time to prevent it, of course. She could have turned her head to the side or evaded the smooch any number of ways. But she didn’t because she also knew that ignoring the growing feelings between them was not what she wanted at all.

  For too long she had denied caring about him. Wanting him. Coveting a life with him.

  So when he lowered his lips to hers, she opened her mouth to his and returned his kiss, deeply, passionately. It didn’t matter that he was publicly stamping her as his. Yearning swept through her, overwhelming her heart and her mind. She wrapped her arms around him, drawing him closer. Her soft curves fit against the hard warmth of his chest. She loved the sexy male scent of him. The womanly way he made her feel.

  She loved that he wasn’t afraid to show how he felt, either. Once again, she found herself needing and wanting Chase the way she had never wanted and needed anyone else.

  Had they been alone, they definitely would have made love again. Even if she was still a tiny bit ticked off at him.

  But they weren’t.

  So...

  She let the kiss come to an end.

  He slowly brought her upright, his adoring gaze lingering on her face before returning ever so slowly to her eyes.

  Her heart did a little flip in her chest.

  She didn’t know why she felt so happy she was close to bursting into tears, but she did.

  His smile turned tender, his glance direct.

  He put the beard back on and turned to Mitzy’s four sons, who were cuddled contentedly in their nannies’ arms. “Ho, ho, ho,” he said in a baby-friendly tone. “Hello, Joe. Zach. Alex. Gabe.” He greeted each with a smile and a very tender kiss—the kind he usually bestowed on them when he said good-night or goodbye. “Have you boys been good this year? I think you have. I think you’ve been very, very good.”

  Judith came up beside Mitzy, her smile frozen in place. “I’m going to kill that man of yours.” Mitzy’s mother pushed the words through gritted teeth.

  Which, Mitzy thought, almost made the impromptu kisses worth it.

  If she weren’t so quietly ticked off at him, that was.

  * * *

  The next two hours were busy ones, with the nannies taking the babies around so Judith and Walter could show them off. Mitzy and Chase—who had changed back into his own evening attire—took over the task of greeting all of the guests. When it was time for the boys’ next feeding and changing, the nannies swept them off upstairs to the mansion’s east wing.

  Mitzy followed. Wanting to be there if she was needed.

  She wasn’t.

  So she went back into the hall, where Chase was waiting, hands shoved into the pockets of his trousers. He had the same look on his face he’d had before they had launched into the explosive, emotional argument that had ended their engagement. The kind of look that said he knew she wasn’t going to like whatever it was that he had done, when he told her about it, but felt 100 percent justified in his actions just the same. And worse, expected her to accept his disloyalty and bullheadedness just the same.

  Only this time, her mother and Walter were somehow involved in whatever was going on, too.

  “They set up the buffet,” he said casually.

  Mitzy wasn’t sure she could do much more pretending. Especially when she felt this betrayed. “I’m sure it’s very lavish,” she returned with studied politeness. “Why don’t you go fix yourself a plate?”

  His gaze narrowed. “Why don’t we both go help ourselves to some dinner?”

  There was no doubt about it. He was feeling guilty and uncomfortable about something.

  Mitzy jerked in a bolstering breath. “I wanted to get some air first.”

  He nodded as if accepting the time to clear the air between them had come. “I’ll go with you.”

  Knowing the gardens would be chilly, she ducked into her room to get a white cashmere evening wrap. They traversed the backstairs, walked through the kitchen. Chase grabbed two glasses of cham
pagne and followed her past the sea of caterers out the back door. They moved away from the house, from the sounds of music and laughter.

  “You’re pissed off at me,” Chase said as they reached the gazebo, the one place that would afford them some privacy.

  Mitzy’s heart pounded at the notion that their relationship could be ruined. Again. She tilted her head at him, determined to learn the truth. Even if it smashed her heart to smithereens. “What was it you said, out by the pool?” she quoted with devastating softness. “‘I have a handle on her. And the whole situation...’”

  Chapter Eleven

  Regret sifted through him. “How much did you hear?” Chase asked.

  Mitzy looked at him, a mixture of temper and resentment simmering in her pretty aquamarine eyes. “If I say ‘everything’ versus ‘not much,’ will it change your answer?”

  Secrets were bad news. He had always known this. “I didn’t ask to be put in the middle of this.”

  She set her cell phone and glass of champagne down with a great show of irritation, then turned back to him, the hem of her dress swirling around her showgirl-fine legs. “Keep going.”

  He set his glass down, too, and stepped toward her, determined to see out his responsibility. “Your dad called me before he died, and asked me to meet him at the hospital. He had just learned that he was terminal and wasn’t expected to live out the spring.”

  Grief drained the color from her face. “And he didn’t,” she whispered, tearing up. “He died in May.”

  Forcing himself to be as strong as she needed him to be, Chase closed the distance remaining between them. He took her in his arms and continued to hold her, despite her mute resistance. “Gus wanted to make sure that you were protected.”

  Mitzy inhaled sharply, the soft luscious curves of her breasts rising against the shimmering fabric of her red dress.

  Chase pushed his reaction away. Gazing frankly down at her, he continued, “Your dad told me he had tried to talk to you about the business, about selling it even before he died, since that—along with your small general welfare trust he had set up when you were a kid, and his house—was going to be your inheritance. But you were adamant that his legacy be continued, that you could run MCS in his absence.”

  Mitzy flattened a hand over Chase’s chest and pushed him away.

  Resolutely, Chase went on. “He said he knew that you equated giving up MCS with giving up on life.”

  Mitzy gripped both ends of her white cashmere evening wrap. “With good reason,” she retorted fiercely, lifting her chin. “MCS was the only thing that kept him going that last year.”

  Chase watched her go back to get her glass. Her graceful strides were as mesmerizingly feminine as the rest of her. It was all he could do to keep from making love to her again, then and there.

  But sensing she needed more from him than that right now...a hell of a lot more...he walked over to get his glass, too. Reminding gently but firmly, “That’s not true, Mitzy.”

  She stopped in midsip.

  “It wasn’t the company he lived for. You were what kept him going.” Dammit, now he was getting choked up, too. “Your dad loved you more than anything. And because he did, he wanted to make things as easy as he could on you after he passed.”

  Chase quaffed half his glass. Resolved to give her the support she needed, he looked her in the eye and continued seriously, “So your dad asked me to quietly watch over you, from afar, and to buy the business from you, when the time was right, preferably before the end of the year.”

  Mitzy moved to one of the stone benches. She started to sit down on it, then stopped, and spread out her wrap first. Looking as if her knees would no longer support her, she settled on the bench in thoughtful silence. “That’s why you came to see me before Thanksgiving.”

  The promise to Gus had been only part of it. Sensing she wasn’t ready to hear that, though, Chase merely nodded.

  He sat down beside her and took her hand in his. “Gus knew it was going to be tough on you to let MCS go. He thought, given a little time and effort, that I could convince you it was the right thing.”

  “So all this,” Mitzy said, jumping to her feet once again. “You coming by nightly...helping me with the boys...even coming with us to Dallas for all this ridiculous pageantry tonight,” she cried, “was all a means to an end?”

  Chase figured there was no reason to pretend otherwise. “You’re damn right it was,” he said gruffly, taking her all the way into his arms. He smoothed the hair from her cheek and looked down into her face.

  She blinked in astonishment. Obviously not used to such gut-wrenching honesty.

  Loving the warmth and softness of her as much as he loved the way she looked in that pretty shimmery cocktail dress, he brought her closer still. She surged against him as their bodies merged, and everything that had been wrong between them righted. He shook his head, finally pushed to admit just how much he wanted her, had always needed her. “How else was I going to find my way back into your heart and your life?”

  He lowered his mouth to hers and gave her a full-on kiss, filled with everything he felt, everything he had suppressed. She gasped in surprise, caution mingling with the yearning in her gaze. “Chase...”

  He grazed her earlobe with his teeth, touched his mouth to her throat, her cheek, her temple, before once again moving to her lips. And this time, when he fit his lips over hers, she was ready for him. She made a sexy little murmur in the back of her throat, and then her hands were coming up to cup his head. She opened her mouth to allow him deeper, wider access and rose on tiptoe, pressing her breasts against his chest, her thighs against his...

  Mitzy had meant to read him the riot act, not kiss him, but now that she was in his arms again, she couldn’t think of any place she would rather be. It wasn’t so much the soft, sure feel of his mouth over hers. Although that was tantalizing. Or the way his tongue dallied provocatively with hers, finding every sweet spot with ease.

  It was the way he constantly took charge and dominated the moment, and her. She might not need his protection, but she welcomed it. Just as she welcomed the notion that she was no longer meant to go through this life constantly strong, fiercely independent. Alone.

  She could lean on someone.

  She could lean on him.

  She wanted to lean on him. To the point, who knew what might have happened next had it not been for the insistent ping of her cell phone.

  Chase immediately halted the kiss. The amazing intimacy ended. She felt stunned and elated, bereft and confused. With a stifled oath, she broke away, went to retrieve her still-pinging phone and read the text message on screen. Oh, no. She whirled back to Chase, in full Mommy Mode. Grasping her wrap and half-empty glass, she said, “I’m needed upstairs. Right now.”

  * * *

  Chase went with her and, for once, Mitzy did not try to dissuade his assistance. He was as good with her four boys as she was, and it sounded like the little ones needed them both.

  Mitzy rushed into the second-floor hallway of the mansion’s east wing, where all four nannies and the babies were waiting. She took in the red tear-streaked faces and heartrending howls of distress. Her heart ached. “How long have they been crying like this?”

  All four nannies talked at once. “Since shortly after you left. We gave them all bottles, which they drank, but they absolutely refuse to be put down. They don’t want to be rocked. Or held. Or walked around.”

  “Well, no wonder,” Mitzy said, gazing around at the four separate “nurseries” that had been set up in four different guest rooms. She reached for Joe, who was crying the hardest, and then Gabe, who had big fat tears running down his chubby little face.

  Chase stepped in to take Zach, who for once was not the least bit calm, and then Alex, who’d been trying to twist himself out of his nanny’s arms.

  “What happened to the te
mporary setup in the playroom?” That she had personally supervised?

  “Judith ordered it all disassembled and put away when the party started. She wanted the boys sleeping in regular cribs, not Pack ’n Plays.”

  Mitzy gaped. “But the cribs are all in different bedrooms!”

  “Judith felt it would be better if they didn’t disturb each other.”

  Oh, Mother, Mitzy thought, distressed. You may have meant well, but...

  With as much patience as she could muster, Mitzy explained, “The boys need to see each other to feel safe.” The same way they needed to be held by her and Chase now.

  “That didn’t help before you got here,” Nanny Gwen said.

  Mitzy looked over at Chase, who appeared as concerned as she felt. She had never been more glad to have his strong, steady presence. “Where are the Pack ’n Plays now?” she asked.

  Nanny Belinda shrugged. “I don’t know. The storage room in the attic, I think.”

  Mitzy groaned. That was at the other end of the mansion, on the fourth floor.

  “Do you want me to go and retrieve them?” Chase offered.

  Mitzy shook her head.

  He looked around, considering. “I could try to disassemble three of the four cribs and put them all in one room.”

  A task like that would require tools and take hours.

  Again, Mitzy shook her head. “I want to take them home. Now,” she said.

  Chase did a double take. “You want to drive all the way back to Laramie.”

  So much.

  Mitzy edged close enough to inhale his brisk soap-and-man scent. She looked up at him persuasively. “It’s just a little after nine. If we leave now, we could be back by midnight.”

  “And if they get carsick again?”

  “We’ll deal with it, the same way we dealt with it this morning.” The most important thing was getting them home, where they felt safe and secure.

  He wanted to go, too. She could see it in his expression. Still, he hesitated. Mitzy guessed what was bothering him. “We’re not going to be able to attend any more of the party if we want the boys to stay calm.”