The Maverick's Ready-Made Family

by Brenda Harlen

  Lucy started to fuss, drawing Antonia’s attention back to her baby. The little girl’s eyes were now wide and bright, and Antonia smiled at her.

  “Look who’s awake,” she murmured, as she found the necessary supplies to change the baby’s diaper. “And hungry, too, I’ll bet.”

  Once Lucy was dry and swaddled in a clean blanket, Antonia settled back in her bed and put the baby to her breast. The infant immediately latched on and began suckling, confirming her mother’s supposition.

  When she looked up again, she saw that Clay’s eyes were open now, too, and watching her.

  “Good morning,” he said, speaking softly so as not to startle the baby.

  “Good morning,” she said, feeling unaccountably shy.

  “Did you sleep well?”

  “Better than you did, I’m sure.”

  He shrugged—or maybe he was trying to roll some of the kinks out of his shoulders. “I’ve slept in worse places,” he assured her.

  “Why didn’t you go back to the ranch last night?”

  “I didn’t want to leave you, not even for a few hours.”

  “I can take care of myself,” she told him. “I don’t need anyone watching over me.”

  “I know,” he agreed, and smiled a little. “Believe me, I know how much you value your independence, and I know you’re committed to being a good mother and fully prepared to raise your baby on your own.”

  She nodded tentatively, not sure where he was going with any of this.

  “Over the past several weeks, I’ve realized that the last thing you probably need is a man hanging around—especially one with his own child. But in that same time, I’ve also realized how much I need you.”

  Her heart started pounding so hard it was a wonder he couldn’t hear it. But still, she was afraid to let herself hope for too much, afraid to let herself believe in the future she wanted so desperately.

  “Yesterday, when you were in labor, I felt so completely helpless. I would have done anything I could to soothe your fears and ease your pain, but there was nothing I could do.”

  “You did help,” she told him now. “Just by being there.”

  “I couldn’t have been anywhere else,” he said. “Because the other thing I finally realized—or finally accepted—is that I’m in love with you.”

  * * *

  Clay didn’t look at Antonia as he said the words. Instead, he kept his gaze focused on the window and poured out his heart to her. Maybe it was cowardly, but he was afraid to look at her, afraid to consider the possibility that she might not feel the same way, might not want the same things.

  “I came to Thunder Canyon because I needed to get away from Rust Creek Falls for a while and figure out my future. I wasn’t looking for a relationship—I certainly didn’t expect to fall in love. But the more I thought about what I wanted, the more I realized that what I really want is a life with you and Lucy and Bennett and any other babies we might want to have in the future.

  “I know I’m going out on a limb here, and probably moving way too fast. I know you might not want the same things, but I can’t keep these feelings inside any longer. And I don’t want to imagine a life without you anymore.”

  When he finally ran out of words, he drew in a deep breath and looked over at Antonia. He saw the tears streaming down her cheeks, and his heart began to crack. But then he noticed that through the tears she was smiling.

  “Are you going to say anything?” he asked her.

  She nodded as she brushed the back of her hand over her cheeks, wiping away the moisture. “I’m not sure I can match the speech you just gave, so I’ll just say that I want exactly the same thing—a future with you and our babies. But—”

  “But what?” He lowered himself onto the edge of the mattress and reached for her hand.

  “What about your ranch in Rust Creek Falls? And your family? I know how much you’ve missed being there and working with your dad and your brothers.”

  “I’ve talked to my dad, and not only does he understand, he wasn’t at all surprised by my decision. Apparently my mother figured out that I was in love with you even before I did.”

  “Your mother did?”

  “She’s not thrilled that I want to stay in Thunder Canyon,” he admitted. “And she already warned that they’ll be visiting a lot, but she is thrilled that I finally found the right woman for me. R-I-G-H-T and W-R-I-G-H-T.”

  She smiled at that.

  “I talked to your dad, too,” he continued. “To ask him what he thought about taking me on permanently at the Wright Ranch and as a son-in-law. He said he wouldn’t accept one without the other.”

  She was touched that he’d asked for her father’s blessing, and that John had given it. But she still had to ask, “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  “I’m sure. Because there’s nothing I want as much as I want you.” He leaned over and touched his lips to hers. “I love you, Antonia Wright.”

  “And I love you, Clayton Traub.”

  “I want to get married as soon as we can make the arrangements.”

  “What’s the rush?”

  “I don’t want you sneaking out of my room at the crack of dawn anymore—and I don’t want your father coming after me with a shotgun if I spend the night in yours.”

  She laughed. “How about a Thanksgiving wedding?”

  “That sounds perfect,” he agreed. “Because this year I have more reasons to be thankful than ever before.”

  * * *

  The baby was three days old when Antonia and Lucy were released from the hospital on October thirty-first. The new mother had spent most of those three days establishing some basic feeding and sleeping routines with her daughter and hadn’t given any thought to the holiday. At least not until her fiancé and his son showed up at the hospital and she saw that Bennett was dressed up in a plaid shirt and jeans with little boots on his feet and a miniature Stetson on his head.

  “Well, look at the handsome cowboys in my room,” she remarked.

  The little boy’s eyes lit up when he saw her, and he automatically thrust his arms out toward her. Then he saw that she was already holding a baby, and his brow furrowed.

  Antonia put Lucy down in the bassinet so she could cuddle Bennett, and the furrow in his brow eased.

  “I think it’s going to take my son some time to accept that he won’t always be the center of attention anymore.”

  “The attention he’ll have to share,” she agreed. “But I think we have more than enough love to go around.”

  “And I have a costume for you, too,” Clay said to Lucy, pulling an orange jumpsuit and hat out of the backpack-style diaper bag he carried.

  Bennett watched his daddy with Lucy, his little brow furrowing again. Clearly he wasn’t too happy that there was a new baby in town.

  “Look at that,” Antonia said to him. “You’re a cowboy and Lucy’s a pumpkin.”

  Bennett smiled, showing off not just the two tiny teeth on the bottom but a matching set just starting to emerge on the top. Antonia didn’t think he understood “cowboy” or “pumpkin,” but he seemed happy enough that she was talking to him.

  “Should I have brought an outfit for you, too?” Clay asked Antonia.

  She shook her head. “I’m happy to be out of a nursing gown and into real clothes again, but I really appreciate the suit for Lucy. I hadn’t expected to celebrate her first Halloween until next October.”

  “Because it is her first Halloween—and Bennett’s, too—what do you think about taking a walk through town before we head back to the ranch?” Clay asked. “The stores are all decked out for the holidays and I thought it would be fun for the kids to see.”

  “I think that sounds like a wonderful idea,” Antonia said, not bothering to point out that Luc
y wasn’t likely to notice much of anything. Because after three days in hospital, there was nothing she wanted more than to stretch her legs and breathe in the fresh, crisp, autumn air—except maybe to walk hand in hand with the man she loved.

  Clay parked on Main Street and helped Antonia out of the truck. She realized that family outings were going to be an challenge—buckling two babies into car seats, securing the car seats into the back of the truck, then transferring the car seats to the stroller assembly when they arrived at their destination, then repeating the whole process in reverse to go home again. But it was a challenge Antonia was more than willing to undertake—especially with Clay by her side.

  They strolled leisurely along the sidewalk and saw scarecrows sitting on bales of hay outside of Second Chances, bundles of cornstalks tied to the upright posts outside the Super Save Mart, ghosts hanging from the covered porch of The Hitching Post, baskets filled with colorful gourds flanking the entrance to the Wander-On Inn, and a trio of grinning jack-o’-lanterns in the front window of Real Vintage Cowboy.

  “That reminds me,” Clay said, pausing outside of the store. “I wanted to check with Catherine on something. Do you mind waiting out here with the babies while I pop in for a second?”

  Since Antonia knew it wouldn’t be easy to maneuver the double stroller through the store, she agreed.

  She pointed out the jack-o’-lanterns to Bennett, showing him that one had two teeth on the top and the bottom, just like he did. He grinned to show off his pearly whites.

  Mrs. Haverly stopped to oooh and ahhh over the babies. Then Haley Cates, the founder of ROOTS, and her sister, Angie Anderson, crossed the street to say hi. Before Antonia knew what was happening, quite a number of Thunder Canyon residents had gathered to get their first glimpse of baby Lucy and admire Bennett’s costume—and ask not-so-subtle questions about Lucy’s mother’s relationship with Bennett’s daddy.

  By the time Clay came out of Real Vintage Cowboy, not five minutes after he’d entered, there was a small crowd around Antonia and the babies.

  “Did Catherine have what you were looking for?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Yes, she did.”

  And right there, in front of everyone, he dropped down to one knee and opened a small velvet box. Antonia gasped even before she saw the stunning diamond solitaire in a delicate antique setting. Was he really proposing to her now? In the middle of downtown in front of half of a crowd of people?

  “Antonia Wright, will you do me the honor of marrying me so that we can be together forever and always?”

  Apparently he was, and though her eyes filled with tears, her smile was wide as she nodded. “Yes, Clayton Traub, I will absolutely marry you.”

  Her hands were a little chilled but she felt only warmth and happiness when Clay slid the ring onto the third finger of her left hand.

  “It fits perfectly,” she murmured.

  He wrapped his arms around her. “And so do we.”

  And then he kissed her.

  It was the smattering of applause that reminded both of them that they were standing in the middle of the sidewalk on Main Street.

  “Are you ready to go home?” Antonia asked him.

  “Before we do, I should probably warn you that you’ve got company at the ranch. I tried to hold them off a few more days, but my parents are very eager to meet their soon-to-be newest grandchild and first granddaughter, and my mother is more than eager to make wedding plans with her future daughter-in-law.”

  “She didn’t think it would ever happen, did she?”

  “And I think she’s afraid that if we don’t move things along quickly, it still won’t.”

  “Should I be worried?”

  Clay shook his head. “The only reason I never wanted to get married before is that I hadn’t met you.”

  She smiled. “Then let’s take our babies home and start planning the rest of our lives together.”

  And that’s what they did.

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss

  A MAVERICK FOR THE HOLIDAYS

  by Leanne Banks,

  the next installment in

  MONTANA MAVERICKS: BACK IN THE SADDLE!

  On sale November 2012,

  wherever Harlequin books are sold.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt of Real Vintage Maverick by Marie Ferrarella!

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  Chapter One

  It happened too quickly for him to even think about it.

  One minute, in a moment of exasperated desperation—because he hadn’t yet bought a gift for Caroline’s birthday—Cody found himself walking into the refurbished antique store that had, up until a few months ago, been called The Tattered Saddle.

  The next minute, he was hurrying across the room and managed—just in time—to catch the young woman who was tumbling off a ladder.

  Before he knew it, his arms were filled with the soft curves of the same young woman.

  She smelled of lavender and vanilla, nudging forth a sliver of a memory he couldn’t quite catch hold of.

  That was the way Cody remembered it when he later looked back on the way his life had taken a dramatic turn toward the better that fateful morning.

  When he’d initially walked by the store’s show window, Cody had automatically looked in. The shop appeared to be in a state of semi-chaos, but it still looked a great deal more promising than when that crazy old coot Jasper Fowler ran it.

  Cody vaguely recalled hearing that the man hadn’t really been interested in making any sort of a go of the shop. The whole place had actually just been a front for a money-laundering enterprise. At any rate, the antique shop had been shut down and boarded up in January, relegated to collecting even more dust than it had displayed when its doors had been open to the public.

  What had caught his eye was the notice Under new ownership in the window and the store’s name—The Tattered Saddle—had been crossed out. But at the moment, there was no new name to take its place. He had wondered if that was an oversight or a ploy to draw curious customers into the shop.

  Well, if it was under new ownership, maybe that meant that there was new old merchandise to choose from. And that, in turn, might enable him to find something for his sister here. As he recalled, Caroline was into old things. Things that other people thought of as junk and wanted to discard, his sister saw potential and promise in.

  At least it was worth a shot, Cody told himself. He had tried the doorknob and found that it gave under his hand. Turning it, he had walked in.

  Glancing around, his eyes were instantly drawn to the tall, willowy figure on the other side of the room. She was wearing a long, denim-colored skirt and her shirt was more or less the same color. The young woman was precariously perched on the top step of a ladder that appeared to be none too steady.

  What actually caught his attention was not that she looked like an accident waiting to happen as she stretched her taut frame out, trying to reach something that was on a higher shelf, but that with her long, straight brown hair hanging loose about her back and shoulders, for just an instant, she reminded him of Renee.

&nb
sp; A feeling of déjà vu seized him and for a moment, his breath caught in his throat.

  Balancing herself on tiptoes, Catherine Clifton, the former Tattered Saddle’s determined new owner, automatically turned around when she heard the little bell over the front door ring. She hadn’t anticipated any customers coming in until the store’s grand reopening. That wasn’t for a couple more days at the very least. Most likely a couple of weeks. And only if she could come up with a new name for the place.

  “We’re not open for business yet,” Catherine called out.

  The next thing out of her mouth was an involuntary shriek because she’d lost her footing on the ladder and both she and the ladder were heading for a collision with the wooden floor.

  The ladder landed with a clatter.

  Catherine, fortunately, did not.

  She was saved from what could have been a very bruising fate by the very person she’d just politely banished from the premises.

  Landing in the cowboy’s strong, capable arms knocked the air out of her and, along with it, anything else she might have said at that moment.

  Which was just as well because she would have hated coming across like some blithering idiot. But right now, not a single coherent thought completed itself in her head. It was filled with just scattered words and a myriad of sensations.

  Hot sensations.

  Everything had faded into the background and Catherine was instantly and acutely aware of the man whose arms she’d landed in. The broad-shouldered, green-eyed, sandy-haired cowboy held her as if she weighed no more than a small child. The muscles on his bare arms didn’t even appear to be straining.

  A tingling sensation danced through Catherine’s entire body, which was stubbornly heating up despite all of her attempts to bank the sensation—and her reaction to the man—down.

  Her valiant efforts to the contrary, for just a moment, it felt as if time had stood still, freezing this moment as it simultaneously bathed her in a heretofore never experienced, all but debilitating, feeling of desire. For two cents proper, using the excuse that this rugged-looking cowboy had saved her, she would have kissed him. With feeling.