by Tina Leonard
CREED FOUND PETE COLLAPSED face-down on Jackie’s shoulder, even as Pete sat bunched in a chair beside her. Creed set the flowers and the huge pink-and-white teddy bears he’d brought on a table and sighed. “Pete. You’re gonna have a helluva of a backache tomorrow.”
Pete didn’t move. In fact, he looked as dead to the world as Jackie. And in that moment Creed realized his brother loved Jackie Samuels with all his heart and soul. It hadn’t been about the bet, though maybe that had provided a push. Pete was part of Jackie, and Jackie was part of Pete, and the two of them shared something that was missing in his own life.
Creed sighed and went to find his diminutive nieces. They were wailing in the nursery, shaking tiny fists while nurses tended to them. He had to admit that his nieces didn’t look much like Callahans. They weren’t brawny, or beefy or beautiful. “Whew, you’d think Pete might have turned out a little better gene material than that,” he muttered.
But the nurses looked a lot more appealing. Creed perked up as three nurses hovered around the bassinets. There were tubes and breathing apparatuses and things that looked painful on his nieces, so Creed focused on the shapely nurses.
He didn’t want a nurse, he decided. Jackie had been a nurse. Then she’d opened a bridal salon. And then she’d done this. He rubbed his chin, wondering where he’d ever find a woman that was the other half of him, as Pete had. The trouble with women was that you couldn’t buy them and sell them like cattle or horses. If you got a bad one, you were stuck.
Stuck would be bad.
Pete could handle the situation they’d all gotten him into, because Pete was responsible. Creed liked to think of himself as more footloose. Actually, he was probably more in tune with his inner being and didn’t need the security of another person. Pete was needy, Creed decided. This was all Jonas’s fault. If Jonas hadn’t left to go to a fancy Ivy League school up north, and then stayed the hell away to get his medical degree and training, Pete wouldn’t have turned out to be Mr. Responsibility.
I’m not ready for any of what Pete’s bitten off.
Fiona rushed to the nursery window. “Look at them! Oh, my! Have you ever seen anything more beautiful than those little babies?”
He had, but Fiona probably wouldn’t take his observation well so he kept his mouth shut. “They’re no bigger than newborn piglets,” he observed, and Fiona popped him a smart one on the arm.
“They’ll grow.” She stared happily through the window, her whole body practically vibrating with joy. Creed put his arm around his aunt, giving her a fond hug. “You’ve done yourself proud.”
“I did?” She looked at him.
“Well, if you hadn’t spurred Pete into marriage—”
He stopped when her face fell. “No, no. Focus on the babies. Look how cute they are! I think that one in the middle has your nose, Aunt Fiona.”
Fiona looked distressed. “These children have no place to live. And it’s all my fault.”
Creed looked at her. “Why would it be your fault?”
“I lost the ranch.” She gazed up at him with huge, tear-filled eyes. “And where are these babies going to grow up? Run? Play?”
“At Jackie’s house?” Creed asked.
“Pooh. Jackie’s house is no bigger than a dollhouse. I was there the other day. She doesn’t even have a nursery set up.”
He blinked. “Nothing?”
“Not even a crib. Besides which, there’s probably only twelve hundred square feet in the entire cottage.”
“I think that’s Pete’s business, Aunt Fiona,” Creed said, his tone reluctant.
“These angels don’t even have names! Callahan number 1, Callahan number 2 and Callahan number 3. What is that, I ask you?” Fiona peered through the glass. “Not that I care what anyone thinks, mind you, but for heaven’s sakes, at least have names on the bassinets when my friends come to visit.”
Creed shook his head. “That’s for Pete and Jackie to decide.”
“They’re slow about it.” Fiona looked disgusted, then brightened. “Creed, I think that little redheaded nurse is smiling at you,” she said, giving him a playful dig in the side that the nurse noticed. She batted her eyes at Creed, and he stepped away from the window, his heart palpitating. In fact, he’d broken out in a nervous sweat.
His destiny was clear. He had to get out of Diablo. Fiona was done working on Pete, and if he wasn’t careful, she’d turn her attention to his bachelor state. The sacrifice—Pete—had gone down like a newbie bull rider. And now there was no reason to worry about the ranch anymore.
She was going to work him like a bear in a circus. He did not want to be next on her to-do list.
“Don’t you worry about a thing, Aunt Fiona,” Creed said, giving her a kiss on the forehead even as he backed away from his plotting aunt and the attractive redhead eyeing him. “I’ll see you later.”
Fiona’s gaze was on Pete’s three daughters, and Creed made his getaway.
If he didn’t watch out, he was going to end up like Pete—with a wife, babies and a gingerbread house. Creed broke into a run as he hit the exit.
“JACKIE,” PETE SAID when she opened her eyes an hour later, “Look what the teddy-bear fairy brought.”
He pointed to the three enormous bears sitting up on the table. “Our daughters won’t be as big as those bears when they’re in fifth grade.”
Jackie smiled. “They’ll grow. I just need to feed them.”
He jumped to his feet, realizing his beautiful wife had to be hungry. “Can I get you something? A drink? Something to eat?”
“A new body.” Jackie shifted with a groan. “Pete, what do you think about the babies?”
Pete straightened. “Um, they look just like their mother. Gorgeous. They seem bossy, too. Very opinionated about what they want.” He shot her a careful glance. “I like that in a woman, as you know.”
Jackie looked at her husband. “Did you get within three feet of them?”
“Ah…not yet,” he hedged. “But I will. When they aren’t like tiny loaves of bread.”
“Pete Callahan, I never thought I’d see the day when you were afraid of anything.” Jackie smiled at him. “Although I don’t think you were too happy when you locked yourself in the basement.”
“I didn’t—oh, hell.” He sat down next to her. “Can you drink a beer? Wine? I feel like I need a small shot of courage.”
Jackie was already tired again. “Go down and see our daughters. Then go celebrate.”
“I’m not leaving you.” Pete picked up her hand, caressing it with his lips. “I shouldn’t have left you today.”
“The babies were ready to be born, Pete. Whether or not you were there to stop it, they were coming.”
He shook his head, and she knew her stubborn cowboy was having trouble dealing with everything. She loved him for it. “Don’t worry. You’re going to be a great father.”
“How do you know? I haven’t had any experience. I have no role model. I’d like to bottle them until they’re eighteen, and then send them off to college.”
“Pete.” Jackie laughed. “You remind me of Mr. Dearborn.”
“I’m nothing like Mr. Dearborn. I’m far better looking.”
“Tell that to Jane. She will not agree.” Jackie ran her fingers through Pete’s shaggy black hair. She didn’t think he’d touched a brush in twenty-four hours. Life had certainly changed a lot for her cowboy. “Do you want to go shave and change your clothes?”
“I’m not leaving. So back to Mr. Dearborn and why he gets to share my wife’s mind when she thinks of me.”
“He was a pain,” Jackie said with a smile. “My most needy patient, by far. He wanted more attention, so he got it. And I knew he was trying to get my attention, but I couldn’t help myself. He was cute when he complained. He did it so nicely, and I knew he was doing it on purpose.”
Pete frowned. “But I’m not a complainer, nor am I needy.”
Jackie laughed. “You’re needy.”
“My wife just had trip
let daughters. I’m entitled to be a little off my normally rugged and independent game.”
He pressed a kiss to her wrist, then put her hand down. “I have fantasies about getting in this hospital bed with you, Mrs. Callahan.”
She patted the bed. “Bring it on, cowboy.”
“You, me and at least a bed will be happening as soon as the doctor pronounces you healed. Until then, you’re on a Pete diet.” He slightly pulled away from her, leaning back in the uncomfortable chair. “So, don’t you think we should discuss names?”
Jackie blinked. “Fiona, Molly and Elizabeth. Didn’t you tell the nurses?”
He looked at her. “Did I miss a bulletin, wife?”
“Did we need to discuss it? I wouldn’t think baby names are your thing, Pete.”
“I think we should discuss everything.”
“Then you choose some names.”
Pete hesitated. “I haven’t had time to think about names.”
“Surely there are some that you like.” Jackie waited, amused that her husband seemed to get more flustered by the moment.
“I don’t know any girl names. And you’ve caught me off guard. I don’t think well when I’m rattled.” Pete gazed around the room as if looking for clues. “I was just thinking it was time to buy a baby book.”
“I think we’re past the book stage, husband. I’d go buy cribs and diapers, wash cloths, towels, that sort of thing,” Jackie suggested.
Pete looked horrified. “We haven’t bought anything. Jackie, we have to have car seats to get the babies home from the hospital.” Pete stood up so fast he nearly knocked over the chair. “I’ve got a lot to do.”
Jackie was about to say so go do it when the man who walked into her room made the words go completely away.
Chapter Eighteen
Pete bristled, stepping in front of Bode Jenkins and his caregiver. “Hello, Sabrina,” Pete said politely. To the man standing next to her, carrying an umbrella he used as a walking stick, Pete said, “To what do we owe the honor of this unexpected visit, Jenkins?”
Bode grinned at him. Pete told himself no new father took a swing at visitors. He held his fire.
“Your folks mentioned you’d had your babies, Jackie,” Bode said, ignoring Pete. “I come bearing gifts.” He handed her some flowers, beautiful pink tulips in a vase, which she had set on the nightstand.
Pete glanced at Sabrina. She shrugged at him, clearly not aware of why Bode had had her drive him to see Jackie. Every protective instinct Pete possessed roared to life. “You’ve given your gift, now shove off, Jenkins.”
“Have a seat, Sabrina,” Bode told his caregiver after Sabrina had hugged Jackie, then he sat down himself. “Pete, I’m here to make you an offer you can’t refuse.”
“Try me.”
Bode laughed. “Don’t be so hasty, son. You’ve got three daughters to think about. They’re tiny now, but one day they’ll need a place to bring their friends. And later, their dates.” He smiled at Jackie. “You’d be surprised how time flies.”
“It’s not flying now because you’re still here.” Pete frowned. “What the hell do you want, Jenkins?”
Bode stretched out his legs, glancing at Sabrina as if they shared a secret. “I’m proposing to sell you five acres of your ranch, Callahan. You can build a house there that’ll fit this brood you’ve acquired.” He smiled at Jackie. “A man needs room to spread out, darlin’.”
Jackie started to say something, but Pete forestalled his gentle bride’s words. “Five acres?” It was an insult, a slap in his face to embarrass him in front of Jackie and remind him that Bode had him by the shorts. “I don’t require much room, Bode. Our family will do just fine where we are.”
Bode raised a brow. “Three daughters, a wife and a big man all sharing a tiny house that used to be a rental property for an elderly woman who had no means? Come on, Pete. You could use five acres. You can at least have a garden patch on five acres.”
Pete’s blood was on full boil. “Whatever you did to my aunt makes business between you and me impossible.”
“Oh, now. Don’t be sore about that. Especially when I’m offering to let you have five acres, Callahan. You’ve got a family to think about. It’s land you could at least sell if you needed money.”
So I’m supposed to beg for the crumbs of my family home. Pete squared his jaw, forcing himself not to cold-cock another man on his daughters’ birthday. It would be a bad thing to do. “And if I wanted to do business with you—which would be a cold day in Hell—what would it cost me?”
“Not a dime,” Bode said.
Jackie’s gaze was on Pete. Her eyes were huge with some emotion he couldn’t name. If Bode had meant to shame him, he was doing an excellent job. The way the man put it, Pete couldn’t provide for his own family—which, though none of Bode’s business, was galling if people were to think that about a man who considered himself Mr. Responsibility. “Out,” he told Bode, “get out. If you have business to discuss with me, don’t do it here when my wife’s just given birth, you miserable sack of—” He held himself back with great effort that choked the words in his throat. “Get out before I do something to you only my brothers would do better.”
“Let him say his piece, Pete,” Jackie said quickly. “We agreed all decisions would be made between us.”
“No, we didn’t,” Pete replied. “You named the babies without me.”
Jackie blinked. It seemed that she shrank back a little. Her hands clutched the sheets as she stared at him. Oh, hell. Bode wants us to doubt our marriage, wants to find our weak link. “Out,” he told the man, “before I kick your ass up between your ears and roll you down the hall.”
Sabrina got to her feet and helped Bode from his chair. The tall, white-haired man allowed her to do it, but he grinned at Pete. “Let me know, son, when you want to talk business. All I want is information about the silver mine hidden on my new property, and for your trouble, five acres is all yours.”
Pete jammed his hands in his jeans so he wouldn’t swing. He was going to be the bigger man here. And he and Jackie were not going to have their first argument just because of a jackass.
Bode and Sabrina left, after Sabrina hugged Jackie, surreptitiously whispering something in Jackie’s ear.
“What?” Pete asked after they’d left. The urge to move quickly, repair whatever damage Jenkins had done between him and Jackie, took him to his wife’s side. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’m not looking at you like anything,” Jackie said.
But her gaze fell to her hands.
“Jackie?” He felt her slipping away from him.
“I’m so tired right now,” she murmured. “Good night, Pete.”
She closed her eyes and he was left out, his hands in fists at his sides, even as he knew Bode Jenkins, that snake in the grass, had made a first strike.
JACKIE KNEW EXACTLY when Pete left. She feigned sleep, needing to gather her thoughts. What Bode had said about Pete needing more room scared her to death. It was true. There was no way she could insist that a big man share a bathroom and a tiny cottage with her and their daughters. It didn’t make sense, and she’d been unreasonable.
Her house had been the last piece of herself she could keep, and she’d protected her turf without any thought of Pete’s needs. She’d been so shocked by the pregnancy, and then finding out they were having multiple babies, that she hadn’t considered living space until it was too late. She hadn’t even decorated a nursery. She’d been too busy thinking about her new business.
Defense, she’d been playing defense.
A nurse came in to record her vitals. “How are you doing?”
“Fine. How are my daughters?” Jackie sat up, eager to hear.
“Doing fine and keeping everyone busy.”
“When do I get to feed them?”
“In a little while, after you’ve rested.”
Jackie looked at her. “Is my…husband at the nursery?”
&
nbsp; The nurse shook her head. “No. His aunt and uncle are, though. They had an awful squabble a few moments ago with a visitor.” She smiled at Jackie. “Your aunt won.”
Bode had paid a visit to the nursery. She’d have to ask Sabrina what had happened later. Sabrina was on her side. She had whispered in her ear that Bode didn’t mean any harm; he really just wanted to see the babies. And he was upset that he hadn’t been invited to the wedding. But no one had been. There really hadn’t been a wedding, not that she cared what Bode Jenkins thought. She wouldn’t invite him, anyway, if he was always going to torture poor Fiona. “What happened?”
“I don’t know exactly. She called him a thief, and he called her a mismanaging airhead. I thought she was going to lay him out. Her driver had to separate them.” The nurse laughed. “We don’t get many little elderly people raising a ruckus around here.”
“Can you ask Fiona to come in here, please?” It was imperative that she speak to her.
“You don’t need more visitors,” the nurse said. “You need to rest.”
Suddenly, Jackie knew exactly how Mr. Dearborn had felt—trapped and helpless. The exact way Pete was probably feeling right now, if she wasn’t quick about putting things right.
But she’d learned a trick or two from Mr. Dearborn. “I was once a nurse here,” she said, a little wistfully. “Sometimes I miss working with patients. And you’re new at the hospital, aren’t you?”
“I’ve been here three weeks.” The nurse picked up her chart. “Is there anything I can get you?”
“Yes. You can get me Aunt Fiona,” Jackie said, her voice sweetly determined. “I’ll rest so much better once I see her cheery face.”
The nurse walked to the door, smiling. “I heard you used to sneak some of your favorite patients chocolate. Particularly the difficult ones.”
“Are you planning on bringing me some chocolate?” Jackie asked.
“Nope. But I’ll get your aunt.”
She left, and Jackie winced at the stitches in her stomach. “Good. I was about to get cranky with you,” she muttered.
But then Fiona fluttered into the room, and Jackie launched her plan.
