Daddy's Double Duty

by Stella Bagwell

  He didn’t say anything for a while and she was wondering if she’d offended him, when he said, “You can tell me if I’m getting too personal, Vanessa, but what about your brothers? If I remember right, you had four of them. Are any of them close enough to help you with the babies?”

  Vanessa choked back a mocking laugh. Her brothers couldn’t care for themselves, much less two needy babies. “My brothers all moved far away from here. They conveniently forgot their parents and only sister. And that’s fine with me, ’cause I wouldn’t ask them for the time of day,” she said flatly.

  “That’s too bad.”

  She heaved out a heavy breath. “It’s probably for the best, Conall. None of them have ever made much effort to become responsible men. The only one who comes close to it is Michael—the one your age. And he’s hardly in the running for sainthood,” she added.

  He didn’t make any sort of reply to that and Vanessa figured he was thinking badly of her. The Donovan family had always been a strong unit. They lived together, worked and played together, and stuck close even when life’s problems crashed in unexpectedly. He probably couldn’t understand why she and her brothers lacked the love and devotion it took to keep the Valdez family bonded. But then, she’d never understood it herself.

  “Sorry,” she said quietly. “I didn’t mean to sound so…judgmental. But believe me when I say there are no relatives around to help. Not with the babies, my father, the home place, anything.”

  In other words, she had her hands full, Conall thought grimly. As he’d suspected, the Valdez brothers had left Lincoln County. He’d not seen any of them in years and even when they had still been around, Conall hadn’t associated with any of them. He’d never been into strutting around in black leather and begging for scrapes with the law. Some time back, he’d heard the eldest son had served time for distributing drugs over in El Paso, but as far as he knew, no gossip had ever surfaced about the remaining three.

  Conall cast a brief glance at her. What had her life been like these past years she’d been away from the valley? She’d certainly climbed the workforce ladder. But in spite of her having more financial security, she was more or less alone in life. Like him.

  Which only proved that riches didn’t always come in the form of money, he thought.

  Ten minutes later, on a five-acre tract of land near the tiny settlement of Tinnie, Conall pulled the truck to a stop in front of a rickety picket fence. Beyond the whitewashed barrier was a small stucco house of faded turquoise. One mesquite tree shaded the front entrance, while a short rock walkway crossed a bare dirt yard. A brown-and-white nanny goat stood on the porch as she reared on her hind legs and nipped at a hanging pot of red geraniums.

  Even though he’d not been by the homestead recently, the Valdez home looked pretty much as it always had. Seeing the family’s modest existence normally wouldn’t have affected Conall one way or the other. Rich and poor was a fact of life. Not just in the New Mexico mountains, but everywhere. Yet now that he was beginning to know Vanessa, he was struck by the stark simplicity of the place. She’d left a very high-paying job to return to this, he thought incredibly. All because her father had needed her. How many women would do such a thing?

  As she collected her handbag and jacket, Conall walked around to the passenger door to help her to the ground.

  “I’ll walk with you to the door,” he told her. “Just in case your knees get spongy.”

  With his hand at her back, they walked through a sagging gate and down the rough walkway. To the east, far beyond the house, clouds had gathered over the Capitan Mountains, blotting out the sun and hinting at an on-coming rainstorm.

  When they reached the porch, the goat ignored them as they stepped up to the door. “Would you like to come in?” she asked.

  He smiled. “Some other time,” he assured her. “If we’re going to leave in the morning, I have a hundred things to tend to before we go. Richardson is coming about the pool at three. I need to be there to see what sort of ideas he has. And to get his estimates for the cost.”

  The idea of discussing plans to enlarge the swimming pool for Diamond D racehorses, while Vanessa was worrying how she was going to house two needy infants, made him feel rather small and out of touch. But it was hardly his fault that their worlds were so different.

  “Sure,” she said, then suddenly looked up at him. Her features were taut with stress. “Could you let me know about our flight time? Since my vehicle is still at the ranch, I suppose I’ll need someone to pick me up and take me to the airport.”

  Placing his forefinger beneath her chin, he passed the pad of his thumb slowly along her jaw line. “Relax,” he said softly. “I’ll take care of everything, Vanessa. Just pack your bags and let me do the rest.”

  She nodded and then her gaze skittered shyly away from his and on to the closed door behind her shoulder. Conall told himself it was time to drop his hand and back away. But something about the tender line of her cheek, the warm scent emanating from her hair, made him bend his head and press a kiss to her temple.

  For one moment her small hand fluttered to a stop against the middle of his chest, and then just as quickly she was pushing herself away and hurrying into the house.

  Conall stared after her for long moments before he finally moved off the porch and walked back to his truck.

  Later that evening, as Vanessa attempted to pack what things she needed for the trip to Vegas, the phone rang.

  Praying it wasn’t another call from Hope’s lawyer, she picked up the phone located on the nightstand by her bed and was surprised to hear Maura’s voice on the other end of the line.

  Even though the two women had been longtime friends, Maura had a husband and two young children to care for, along with her part-time job at Bridget’s medical clinic in Ruidoso. She was too busy to make a habit of calling.

  Without preamble, Conall’s sister exclaimed, “Bridget just told me about your friend—and the babies! Dear God, I can’t imagine what you must be feeling right now!”

  Swiping a weary hand through her hair, Vanessa said, “I feel like every ounce of energy has been drained from my body, Maura.”

  “Bridget told me about you fainting. Thank God Conall was there with you. How are you feeling now?”

  “Physically, better. I’m packing for the trip right now. But my mind is racing around in all directions. How can a person feel grief and happy excitement at the same time? I feel like I’m being pulled in all directions.” She eased down on the edge of the bed. “But mostly, Maura, I’m scared.”

  “Scared? You?” Maura scoffed. “You’re one of the strongest and bravest women I’ve ever known. What do you have to be scared about, anyway?”

  Brave? Strong? Maybe at one time, years ago when she’d first headed out to Las Vegas on her own, she’d been brave and determined to make a better life for herself. But her mistakes with Jeff had wiped away much of her confidence.

  “Two little infants, that’s what! You’ve got to remember I’ve never had a baby. I don’t know the first thing about taking care of one.”

  Maura’s soft laugh was meant to reassure her friend. “Trust me, dear friend, giving birth doesn’t give you an inside corner on taking care of babies. It’s a learn-as-you-go thing. Believe me, you’ll be fine. And isn’t it wonderful, Vanna? You with children! You’ve wanted some of your own for so long now.”

  As tears stung, Vanessa squeezed her eyes shut. “That’s true. But I didn’t want them this way—with my friend dying. She was…well, I’ve talked about her to you before. She was such a generous person and so fun and full of life. She was planning to…come back here for a visit later this summer to show me the babies and see where I grew up. Now—” her throat tightened to an aching knot, forcing her to pause “—I’ll be bringing the babies back without her.”

  Vanessa could hear Maura sniffing back a tear of her own. “Yes, it’s so tragic, Vanna. I would have loved to meet her. But it wasn’t meant to be and you can’t
dwell on her death now. You have to concentrate on the babies and remember how much your friend wanted them to be loved and cared for.”

  “You’re right, Maura,” Vanessa said as she tried to gather her ragged emotions. “I have to move forward now.”

  Maura cleared her throat. “Well, Bridget says that our brother is traveling with you to Vegas. Frankly, I’m shocked about this, Vanna. The rare times he leaves the ranch are only for business reasons.”

  Surely Maura could see that Conall considered Vanessa a business reason and nothing more. “I tried to tell him it wasn’t necessary.”

  “Oh. I thought you might have asked him to go.”

  Vanessa drew in a sharp breath. “Are you serious? I would never ask Conall to do anything personal for me! He just made all these decisions on his own. And I have no idea why.”

  “Hmm. Well, his last secretary was a real bitch,” Maura said bluntly. “And everyone in the family has heard him singing praises about your work. I’m sure he wants to keep you happy.”

  Vanessa released a short, dry laugh. “I’ve been told that good secretaries are hard to find.” But earlier this afternoon, when he placed that brief kiss on the top of her head, she’d definitely not felt like his employee, she thought. She’d felt like a woman with something worthwhile to offer a man.

  Dear God, the shock of losing Hope and becoming a mother all at once had numbed her brain. Conall Donovan would never look at her as anything more than his employee. Socially, he was several tiers above her. And even though he wasn’t a snob, he was still a Donovan.

  “Doesn’t matter why he’s going,” Maura said. “I’m just glad he is. You need someone to support you at a time like this. And Conall has a strong arm to lean on.”

  Vanessa had no intentions of leaning on Conall. Certainly not in a physical way. But she kept those thoughts to herself. “Yes. Your brother is a rock.”

  “I wouldn’t exactly call him that. Yes, he can be hard. But there’s a soft side to him. You just have to know where to look for it,” Maura explained. “There was a time—” She broke off, then after a long pause, added in a rueful voice, “Let’s just say Conall wasn’t always the man he is now.”

  Shying far away from that loaded comment, Vanessa said, “Well, I’m hoping we can wrap up everything in Vegas quickly.”

  “And I’d better let you go so that you can finish your packing,” Maura replied. “Is there anything I can help you with while you’re gone? Check on your father? Your house?”

  “It’s kind of you to offer, but I’ll keep in touch with the nursing home. And I think the house will be okay for a couple of days. But just in case, you know where I leave an extra key so that you can get inside.”

  “Yes, I remember. In the little crack behind the window shutter.”

  “Right,” Vanessa replied. “But I doubt we’ll be gone for that long. Besides, the best thing you can do for me is share your experienced mothering skills. I’m definitely going to need advice.”

  Maura laughed. “Just wait, Vanna. You’re going to see that a woman can never learn all there is to know about mothering. You just have to go by instinct and you happen to have a good one.”

  “I can only hope you’re right,” Vanessa murmured.

  The next afternoon, after the short flight to Las Vegas, Conall dealt with their luggage, then picked up their rental car and headed to their hotel. Thankfully Fiona hadn’t booked them into one of the resort monstrosities that lined the busy strip, but a nice peaceful villa on the desert outskirts of the city.

  After checking in and sending their bags to adjoining rooms, they drove straight to the lawyer’s office to deal with the legalities of claiming the twins and arranging to store Hope’s ashes.

  By the time they finally arrived at the orphanage, an old, ivy-covered Spanish-style building located on the outskirts of town, Vanessa’s exhaustion must have been clearly showing. As they followed a silent Sister down a wide, empty corridor, Conall brought a steadying hand beneath her elbow.

  “I’m thinking we should have waited until tomorrow to see the babies,” he said in a low voice. “I’m not sure you’re up to this.”

  Vanessa straightened her shoulders as best she could. For the life of her, she wasn’t about to let this granite piece of man think she was made of anything less than grit and determination.

  “I’ll be fine. And seeing the babies is the best part of this trip,” she assured him.

  Conall studied her pale face and wondered what his secretary could possibly be thinking. Even for the strongest of women, she was receiving a heavy load to carry. Especially without a man to help her.

  He didn’t know anything about Vanessa’s marriage or divorce. In fact, he’d only known she was divorced because she’d stated it on her résumé. Of course he could have questioned Maura about her friend and most likely his sister would have given him an honest account of what had occurred. But Conall had never been one to pry into another person’s private life, unless he believed there was a good reason to. He liked his privacy and tried his best to respect everyone else’s. And even if she was his employee, he didn’t consider Vanessa an exception to that rule. Except there were times, he had to admit to himself, that he was curious about her.

  He gave her a wry smile. “To be honest, I’m looking forward to seeing them, too.”

  At the end of the corridor, the kindly nun ushered them into a sunny nursery filled with rows of cradles and cribs, all of them occupied with babies ranging from infancy to twelve months old. Three more nuns were moving quietly around the room, tending to the needy children, some of whom were crying boisterously.

  “The twins are over here in the corner,” the Sister said, motioning for the two of them to follow.

  When she finally stopped near a pair of wooden cradles made of dark wood, she gestured toward the sleeping babies. Since the newborns were yet to be named, the two were differentiated with blue and pink blankets, while paper tags were attached to the end of each cradle, one reading Boy Valdez and the other Girl Valdez.

  “Here they are,” she announced. “Take as much time with them as you’d like. And if you need anything, please let me know. I’ll be just down the hall in Mother Superior’s office.”

  Conall and Vanessa both thanked the woman as she left and then they turned their entire attention to the sleeping twins.

  Both babies had red-gold hair with the boy’s being a slightly darker shade than his sister’s. To Conall, they appeared extremely tiny, even though the Sister had told them earlier that each baby weighed over five pounds, a fair amount for newborn twins.

  “Oh. Oh, my. How…incredible,” Vanessa whispered in awe as she stared down at the babies. “How perfectly beautiful!”

  She bent over the cradles for a closer look and Conall watched as she touched a finger to the top of each velvety head. And then suddenly without warning, she covered her face with one hand and he could see her shoulders began to shake with silent sobs.

  Quickly, he moved forward and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Vanessa.” He said her name softly, just to remind her that she wasn’t alone.

  She glanced up at him, her brown eyes full of tears. “I’m sorry, Conall. I thought I could do this without breaking down. But…I—” Her gaze swung back to the babies. “I can’t believe that I’ve been blessed with two beautiful babies. And yet I look at them and…can’t help thinking of Hope.”

  His hand slipped to her slender shoulder and squeezed. “Your friend had the perfect name. Through you, she’s given her children hope for the future. Remember that and smile.”

  She let out a ragged sigh. “You’re right, Conall. I have to put my tears for Hope behind me and smile for the babies.” Glancing up at him, she gave him a wobbly smile. “I’ve chosen names for them. Rose Marie and Richard Madison. What do you think?”

  “Very nice. I’ll call them Rose and Rick, if that’s all right with you.”

  Her smile grew stronger. “That’s my plan, too. S
hall we pick them up?”

  He stared at her, amazed that she wanted to include him. “We? You go ahead. I’m just an onlooker.”

  She looked a bit disappointed and Conall realized he felt a tad deflated himself. But whether that was because he actually wanted to hold the babies and was stupidly pretending indifference or because he was disheartening her at this special time, he didn’t know.

  Frowning, she asked, “You don’t like babies or something?”

  “Of course I do. I have baby nieces and nephews. But I didn’t hold them when they were this small. Come to think of it…none of them were ever this small.” He gestured toward the twins. “I might do it all wrong.”

  “I might do it all wrong, too,” she suggested. “So we might as well try together.”

  Realizing it would look strange if he kept protesting, he said, “All right. I’ll watch you first.”

  She bent over Rose’s cradle and after carefully placing a hand beneath the baby’s head, lifted her out of the bed and into her arms. After a moment, Conall moved up to the other cradle and, in the same cautious manner, reached for the boy.

  Once he had the child safely positioned in the crook of his arm, he adjusted the thin blue blanket beneath little Rick’s chin so that he could get a better look at his face. It was perfectly formed with a little pug nose and bow-shaped lips. Faint golden brows framed a set of blue eyes that were now wide open and appeared to be searching to see who or what was holding him.

  Vulnerable. Needy. Precious. As he held the child, memories carried him back to when he and Nancy had first married. In the beginning, he’d had so many dreams and plans. All of them surrounding a house full of children to carry on the Donovan name and inherit the hard-earned rewards of the Diamond D. But those dreams had slowly and surely come crashing down.

  Now as Conall experienced the special warmth and scent of the baby boy lying so helplessly in the crook of his arm, Conall wasn’t sure that Vanessa yet realized what a treasure she’d been handed. But he did. Oh, how he did.

  “Conall?”