Lone Star Daddy (McCabe Multiples)

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Yeah, she did. The guilt had been weighing on her. “It’s either that or buy you a new one in the exact same size, style and color,” she told him archly. “Which, by the way, I’m thinking about doing anyway.”

  He held up a hand. “Don’t do that. I’ll get the shirt for you.”

  “Thank you.”

  He was only gone a couple of minutes, but by the time he returned, she’d managed to get the children securely buckled up inside her SUV. And a typically nonsensical preschool discussion was already underway.

  “Mommy, how come you didn’t get to ride the pony and we all did?” Sophia asked.

  “Yeah, it’s not fair!” Stephen chimed in. “Why couldn’t you?”

  “Because I am too big. Isn’t that right, Mr. Clint?” She gave him a pointed look from the driver’s seat when he handed over the shirt.

  “Absolutely,” he replied. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he opened the rear passenger door and leaned in. Their booster seats were lined up across the middle bench. “Ponies are for little children. Horses are for big kids and adults. And as it happens, I have gone riding with your mom earlier this week. So...it is fair. Everyone has had a pony or horsey ride, okay?”

  Silence fell as they all ruminated on that.

  “Can we do it again?” Scarlet finally asked.

  “We sure can,” Clint promised.

  Which was, Rose thought wistfully, a very nice idea.

  He quirked a brow at the kids. “You-all ready to go home now?”

  “Nooooo!” the triplets shouted in unison.

  “Well, you have to be because I am about to dole out the final hugs goodbye. Okay, here goes,” he teased. “One hug for you, one for you, and one for you! And because she’s been such a good sport all day, a—”

  Rose braced herself for him to come around to her side and plant a big kiss against her cheek.

  “— simple wave for Mommy!” Clint stepped back to comically bid her adieu.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. The triplets all dissolved into laugher, as they were meant to.

  “I owe you one,” she mouthed at him as she started the engine, wondering all the while what she had ever done without him.

  He leaned in and gave her a G-rated hug anyway. “And you can bet I will be there to collect.”

  Rose was counting on it.

  * * *

  VIOLET CAME OVER the next morning to help Rose make cobblers for the family barbecue.

  “You’re doing Clint’s laundry now?”

  Rose knew that was a couple thing, but not in this case. Here, it was mainly guilt and responsibility at play. She held the blue-and-white tattersall up to the light. “Just the one the kids messed up.” Which now also happened to be Clint’s lucky shirt.

  Violet eyed the stain. “Have you already pretreated it?”

  Rose nodded. “A couple of times. I think the mustard and ketchup sat too long on the fabric. Either that—” she went to work with another concoction of dish soap, white vinegar and water and began to see some improvement “—or the stains really set while they were in the dryer, after they were washed the first time.”

  Violet lifted her brow. “I hate to say it, but I think it might be a hopeless cause.”

  Giving up on this would be like giving up on...well, her and Clint. “There has to be a way.” Rose went back to the washer and set it on the soak cycle.

  “Why is it so important to you when you could easily go out and buy a replacement?”

  Exactly what Clint had said.

  “You’re not trying to show Clint how good a wife you could be to him, are you?”

  “Come on, Violet. You know how I feel about marriage.” Rose had crashed and burned at it once. She wasn’t about to do it again.

  “I know how you used to feel. But in the past few weeks, something’s changed.”

  Violet was right. Something had changed.

  And Rose was still thinking about that when Clint arrived to pick her and the kids up.

  As they loaded the desserts and the kids into the back of her SUV, she couldn’t help but think about how quickly she and Clint and the kids had come to feel like family.

  She loved being with him like this. The kids adored their group adventures, too.

  Maybe it was time she rethought her stance on her own happily-ever-after.

  And, as it happened, Rose wasn’t the only one who was pleased Clint was around.

  “I’m so glad you came today and brought Clint,” her Aunt Annie said shortly after they arrived. “I’m working on a new line of fresh fruit–based barbecue sauce and marinades, and I’d really like to use Double Creek blackberries. Do you think Clint would be interested in setting some aside for my company?”

  Rose smiled. “We can ask.”

  Together they went to talk to Clint.

  Although he readily agreed to provide Annie McCabe with any of the produce that was not already spoken for, he was not as thrilled as Rose had expected him to be.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked after they had strolled away. Being a supplier for Annie’s Homemade was a major coup!

  Clint waved at the triplets, who were busy playing tag with their cousins, then went to her SUV to bring in the cobblers. “I didn’t know this was going to be a business meeting.”

  “It wasn’t.” Rose carried one, too. “That was just a conversation.” But she knew he had a point. Today was supposed to be their only day off all week, the event a fun-filled party. Still...this was a McCabe gathering, and a lot of their family businesses were linked in some way.

  “People always talk shop at social gatherings,” she added as they walked onto the screened-in back porch and set the dishes on the buffets already set up.

  He grimaced. “Not always, Rose.”

  Rose sized up the tense set of his broad shoulders. “You’re really going to stay mad at me over this?”

  He shook his head. “Not mad. Frustrated.”

  Was this their first fight—as a couple? She only knew she did not want it to be. Not on a beautiful day like today. Not when their relationship—and it was a relationship—was going so well.

  She’d had one failed union.

  She was not about to have another.

  Rose glanced around. Seeing the kids were still well-supervised, she took Clint’s wrist in hand. “Well, then,” she told him defiantly, “you leave me no choice.”

  She skirted the house, then led him beyond an impossibly long row of SUV’s and pickup trucks. “Now what are you doing?” he asked wryly.

  Rose dragged him behind the barn, aware she hadn’t felt this brazen in, well, forever.

  She wound her arms about his neck and went up on tiptoe. “I’m collecting on that kiss you owe me—from last night.”

  He put his hands on her shoulders, his expression stern. “Someone could come by.”

  “No,” Rose said just as stubbornly, “they won’t. And even if they did,” she rushed on impulsively, “I don’t care.” She pressed her lips to his, wanting him to know that it wasn’t just business bringing them together. It wasn’t just sex or friendship or the way he was with her kids. It was so much more than that. She felt it every time they were together, and she could tell by the way he was kissing her back, first sweetly and tenderly, and then hotly and without restraint, that he felt it, too. And that was when they heard the distinct cough.

  The kind meant to interrupt.

  Rose and Clint broke apart abruptly. Pivoted around and then saw, to Rose’s dismay, none other than her father, Jackson McCabe.

  * * *

  “IT’S NOT A BIG DEAL,” Rose said moments later, after her father had departed.

  “Really?” Clint grumbled, thinking it a very big deal that the parent of
a woman he was serious about had just gotten the idea that he was anything but honorable. This wasn’t how he wanted to start a dialogue with Rose’s dad. And it certainly wasn’t how he had been brought up. “Because I think if we hadn’t already been behind the barn, your dad would have taken us both there.”

  Rose rolled her eyes. “He barely said anything.”

  Clint caught her hand in his, furious with himself, because instead of protecting her as was his intent, he had made her vulnerable. Although Rose did not seem to realize that. “One disapproving lift of the eyebrow was enough, don’t you think?”

  Rose walked toward a pasture, where some of the ranch horses were grazing. She leaned against the railing, looking out at the pastoral scene. “It was just a knee-jerk reaction. The kind he always had when we were teens.”

  Aware this was the kind of setup he wanted for himself—with cattle and horses on different parts of the land—Clint took a place next to Rose. “So you and your sisters made a habit of this?”

  “No,” she said, chagrined. “I was the one who always seemed to get caught kissing my boyfriend.”

  Clint’s jaw tightened. He didn’t want to think about Rose in the arms of anyone else. “I gather it hasn’t happened lately?” he asked, studying the hint of sun-blushed color across her cheeks. “Not even with those three guys you dated recently?”

  “Nope.” She shook her head. “Not in maybe...ten...years.” She gazed at him from beneath her lashes. “What about you, cowboy?”

  Figuring she already knew the answer to that, he smirked. “I haven’t acted like a love-struck teenager in about that amount of time, either.”

  “Teenager, huh?” She seemed pleased.

  “What can I say?” He shrugged, took her hand in his and looked deep into her eyes. “I’ve got a thing for you.”

  Her expression softened in the way he loved so much. “And I have a thing for you,” she whispered.

  Silence fell between them, easy now.

  Figuring it was his turn to risk something, too, he took her all the way in his arms, lowered his head and kissed her with all his heart.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Do you mind leaving for Dallas a little early?” Rose asked Clint the following week after they had unloaded the blackberries. “Say, Thursday noon instead of evening?”

  Farmtech had offered to put them up in a downtown Dallas hotel so they’d be rested and refreshed for the meetings and contract signings scheduled for Friday morning and the introduction to select members of the agricultural press, set for later in the day.

  “Sounds good to me.” He came closer, his low voice heightening her anticipation of their trip and rare time alone even more. He threaded a hand through her hair, his gaze skimming her upturned face. “Any particular reason why?”

  In no hurry—since her kids were on an after-school play date that included dinner—Rose leaned against the closed barn doors. “A very good one, as a matter of fact. Fresh Foods Market in Dallas heard about the blackberries. They’ve asked me to bring in a truckload for their metroplex stores.”

  Clint nodded, understanding what a boon that would be for both their businesses, even as he asked, “Will there be enough?”

  Rose nodded, explaining, “It’ll be the last big harvest. After that, I think the yield will be a lot smaller, and then disappear entirely within a week. At least until next year.”

  She tried not to feel too sad about that or think about what that would mean in terms of daily visits from Clint. After all, they didn’t need an outside reason to see each other.

  And she wanted to keep seeing him, she realized. She wanted him to be a permanent fixture in her and her kids’ lives.

  She moved away from him, still struggling with the knowledge of just how deep her affection for him was, of how very much she wanted them to have a future together.

  Trying not to worry whether or not he was just as serious about her and the kids, she swallowed. “Anyway, we can get them all picked and crated by late Wednesday and keep the fruit refrigerated in the barn overnight. I’ll get co-op members to help load up the truck again on Thursday morning, and we can take off after that.”

  He waited while she cut him a check for the previous week’s crop. “I assume we’re taking two vehicles?”

  Realizing how amazing he looked, even with his hair all windblown and a day’s shadow of beard lining his handsome face, she nodded. “We can park my SUV at the hotel, but not the refrigerated truck. The store said I can leave that at their distribution center until I leave Friday night.” So at least she didn’t have to worry about finding a place to park it in the city.

  Clint caught her wrist, lifted it over her head, and spun her around in an unexpected dance move that ended with her dipped back over his arm. “Do we have time for a date Thursday evening?”

  Heart pounding, she wreathed her arms about his shoulders and batted her eyelashes flirtatiously. “Are you asking me out?”

  He leaned closer and brushed his lips against hers. “I am. We have to work on that chemistry that so impressed the bigwigs.”

  Rose sighed wistfully and let him kiss her again, more thoroughly this time. “Then, yes,” she breathed.

  Slowly he brought her upright, slid his hands down her spine and cupped her against him. “Yes to the date?”

  Her eyes sparkled. There was no mistaking his desire. Or hers. “Yes.” She pressed her lips to his once, and then again. “To...everything.”

  * * *

  TO ROSE’S DELIGHT, all went smoothly on their trek to market. And it was even better once they arrived.

  “The blackberries are every bit as good as everyone said they were,” the regional produce manager from Fresh Foods Market said Thursday afternoon after sampling them. “How do you want us to advertise them? Under the Rose Hill Farm banner or the ranch where they originated?”

  Wanting to give credit where it was due, Rose replied, “Let’s go with Double Creek Ranch blackberries since that’s where they originated.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to sell them under the Rose Hill Farm name?” Clint asked. He shrugged his broad shoulders amiably. “Your business is more widely known for all sorts of quality local produce.”

  And hence had better name recognition.

  But they were from his land! Didn’t he feel the pride in that? The emotional connection to such a great crop? Shouldn’t he want the credit?

  “Clint has a point,” the produce manager interjected. “It might mean more to the consumer.”

  Clint nodded. “Better sales benefit us all.”

  “Okay. You fellas have convinced me.” Pushing aside any residual guilt she felt at stealing the thunder from his ranch, Rose smiled and accepted a check. They all shook hands. Then she and Clint headed for the hotel.

  Once there, Rose wasn’t surprised to find their rooms were located on the concierge level. Farmtech had promised to give them luxury accommodations. Nonetheless, she was stunned to realize their rooms opened onto a shared living room and a balcony with a breathtaking city view.

  With no kids to care for and the rest of the afternoon and evening stretching out ahead of them, the situation was suddenly filled with endless romantic possibilities. “Our dinner reservations aren’t until eight,” Clint said, gathering her in his arms. He gave her a squeeze and bussed her temple. “So we have plenty of time if you want to lie down.”

  Actually, she did.

  He caught her mischievous grin.

  “I was thinking, rest.”

  Rose wasn’t. She turned, gliding her hands across the solid warmth of his chest. “Are you tired?”

  Eyes crinkling at the corners, he cupped her face in his large hands. “No.”

  “Neither am I.” She reached up and gave him a light, lingering kiss that was both a celebr
ation of the moment and a down payment for later. Reluctantly she broke off the embrace. “I do feel a little grungy, though.” She closed her eyes with a little moan, luxuriating in the feeling of his fingers entwined in her hair. “Want to check out the showers?”

  He chuckled with undisguised affection, then let her go long enough to slip his arm around her waist. “Good idea.”

  They walked into her bedroom. A king-size bed outfitted with sumptuous white hotel linens and a half dozen pillows dominated the plushly carpeted room. Beyond a luxurious dressing room was another door. They moved past it, into a large marble bathroom with a glassed-in shower and a sunken tub big enough for two. There were plenty of thick, fluffy towels, two spa robes, and an array of scented soaps, lotions and bubble baths.

  Rose drew a deep breath, imagining the pleasure that could be had. Impulsively she turned to face him. “Care to join me?”

  “What do you think?”

  Rose knew what she hoped. That this evening would be their most sexy and romantic yet!

  Clint grinned as if reading her mind. He caught her against him for another tantalizing kiss that had her heart racing. Then he drew back, his eyes dark and intent. “I’ll be back in ten minutes.” He gave her another brief, affectionate squeeze then disappeared.

  Rose started the water and put in a generous amount of the fragrant bubble bath. She went back to turn down her bed, then returned to the bath. Quickly she washed the grime off her face, brushed her teeth and swept her hair into an updo off her neck. She had just stripped down and slid into the chest-high bubbles when a knock sounded on the door.

  Clint strolled in with his usual innate grace. He dispensed with his robe and set it aside in a way that left her mouth dry.

  Like her, he was already physically, visibly aroused. Oh. My. She flashed her best come-hither smile. “Come on in. The water’s fine.”

  He tipped an imaginary hat, seeming to like what he saw as much as she did. “Don’t mind if I do.”

  She was trembling as he settled opposite her. The tub was just big enough for him to stretch out his legs on either side of her. She took the back of his hand and kissed the inside of his wrist, loving the warm, masculine texture of his skin. Unable to help herself, she teased, “Is this how you imagined our evening beginning?”