Callahan Cowboy Triplets

by Tina Leonard

  But he wasn’t complaining. The sex wasn’t the issue; that would come back into their lives. What was making him crazy was the ever-present feeling that they were being watched. River was so vulnerable now, though she seemed completely relaxed. She knitted things, she read books, she wrote letters. Her favorite activity was decorating the nursery in the foreman’s cabin they’d decided to renovate. It hadn’t been used in years, and River thought they could easily build onto it.

  Of all the bunkhouses and other outbuildings that could be renovated, the foreman’s cabin was closest to the house, so Tighe had agreed. It was built in a rugged style, and on days when the snow wasn’t piled thick, workers banged away, creating extra bedrooms.

  And River sneakily had brought in a decorator, who was helping her create a spacious nursery for the triplets. The two of them busily studied books and paint chips and fabric selections—and every once in a while a burst of laughter would erupt, making Tighe smile.

  “You can’t look,” River told him once when he’d walked into the den to see what all the fun was about. “You don’t want to know if we’re having boys or girls, so go away.”

  He clapped his hands over his eyes in mock horror—but not before he’d seen lots of pink and blue. And white and teal.

  Then it hit him: he was actually going to be a father to three little people. He sagged onto a sofa in the upstairs library and tried to take that in.

  River was almost at her due date. They had a C-section scheduled just in case, for the end of the month. Dr. Simone really didn’t see River being able to carry longer than that. She said the babies were growing fast, and that they were actually quite large for triplets. Tighe puffed up with pride at the time, thinking, Of course they’ll be big, they’re Callahans. Had the doctor expected runts?

  All Callahan men were big.

  But he’d seen pink just a moment ago, so there were going to be girls in the picture. He saw spots just thinking about three girls. Three River types. Three fearless, hell-raising rodeo sweethearts, with River, Fiona and Ash for role models.

  He broke out into a cold sweat, knowing that he would stand little chance in a home where four women ruled the roost.

  “They’ll wrap me around their little fingers,” he muttered to himself, just as Ash walked into the room.

  “What, brother dear?” she asked. “Were you talking to yourself?”

  “A little. It wasn’t very productive, though.”

  “Your beautiful bride is snoring downstairs. It’s attractive.”

  He grinned. “I know. I love it when she does that.”

  “It’s so soft and peaceful, isn’t it?” Ash gave him a teasing glance as she fixed them both a drink. “You know, I never thought I’d see you be so happy to hit the altar.”

  “Wild horses couldn’t have stopped me from marrying River.”

  “And that turquoise squash blossom necklace you got her for Christmas is gorgeous. You’re really coming along.” She handed him his drink and sat next to him. “Now we just need to make some little tweaks, and you really will be Prince Charming.”

  He shook his head. “No tweaking. I’m already Prince Charming. Tweaking at this stage ruins the prince.”

  “Tweaking,” Ash said. “I just want you to promise me that when the babies are born, you’ll quit going around with that hangdog expression on your face, like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. You’re scaring River. In fact, you’re scaring all of us.”

  “I’ll try. But I’m not making any promises. I’m pretty sure my face is just my face. It does its own thing.” He brightened. “River hasn’t mentioned that I’m scaring her. In fact, just this morning she said I was her handsome Studly-Do-Right.”

  “Oh, no,” Ash groaned. “I’m pretty sure she’s the best wife in the world. She’s propping your ego up.”

  He deflated again. “You think?”

  “Probably. Anyway, when the babies are born, I want you to remember to smile. You’ll scare the poor things.”

  “Of course I’ll smile at the babies!” He was indignant. “They’re going to love me. And think I’m the best, most handsome dad ever.”

  “Good. Hold on to that positive mind-set,” Ash told him, “because your bride asked me if you’d take her to see the doctor.”

  He blinked. “We don’t have an appointment today.”

  “I know. She said she’s having twinges. Then she dozed off.”

  It was as if electricity zipped through him. He jumped to his feet, slammed his glass on the end table. “Why didn’t you say so?”

  “Because you need to smile! You’re going to scare River! She needs peace and calm around her, not the beast face that’s been permanently puckering your puss.”

  He heard his sister’s words, but he was shooting down the stairs so fast he nearly took a face-plant at the bottom. Dashing into the den, he rushed to River’s side, waking her. “Are you all right? What’s happening?”

  “Everything is fine. I called the doctor and said I was having some twinges, and she said that we should make our way over. Do you think the roads are clear enough?” River looked out the window, obviously tense.

  “The roads are fine. I’ll get your bag. Jace! Galen!” he bellowed, and his brothers came running. “Please help River to the jeep. Don’t let her fall, or I’ll hurt you.” His chest was tight as he glanced around for his keys, his hat, River’s bag.... Tighe looked at River. “Don’t move. I’ll carry you.”

  She shook her head. “Your sister will help me to the car, because you make me nervous and we’ll both slip and go ass over applecart into the snow. Just calm down, and everything will be fine.”

  He hoped so.

  * * *

  THE BABIES WERE born that evening and Tighe thought he’d never seen such an amazing sight. Two boys and a daddy’s girl, for sure. Burkett, Liam and Chloe.

  He grinned at his amazing wife. “Look at these children. They’re Callahans, every last ounce of them.”

  He was proud as he could be. It came to Tighe that he had the same rush he’d gotten when he’d been on the back of Firefreak, that same sense of sliding-down-a-slide-and-can’t-turn-back-now, but this was a good sensation. It was wonderful, a wild ride, something that would be his for the rest of his life. “Thank you,” he told River, kissing her. “I know you need to rest now, but I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to be my wife.”

  She smiled. “You’re a lucky man, indeed.”

  “Exactly what I think.” Tighe took her hand in his, kissed her fingertips and remembered to do exactly what his sister had recommended: he smiled.

  He smiled big as the moon.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The babies changed Tighe’s life in ways he’d never imagined three little tiny bundles of joy could. He brought River and the babies home after a week in the hospital, and settled them into the new house and the cozy nursery, which before now he hadn’t even peeked at. He’d had no idea what magic she was cooking up, and had been too focused on her to worry about baby cribs and drapery swatches.

  “Every time I go into the nursery,” he told River, who was trying to do a little walking from the bedroom to the nursery to help heal her body, “I’m amazed by how much you got done. That’s quite a wonderland for babies.” He grinned. “You realize that had I come to view your handiwork early, I would have known exactly what we were having.” She had the babies’ names painted on a plaque over each white crib.

  River winked at him. “I knew you wouldn’t look. You had too much on your mind.”

  That was certainly true. To him, the births had been a far-off dream, an amorphous event he knew was coming, but like everything else, couldn’t exactly plan for.

  “How did you do all that?”

  “I had a lot of help.” She eased onto the leather sofa she’d ordered for the den, and he sat next to her, determined to rub her legs. “For one, the Books’n’Bingo Society ladies turned me on to a great decorator. And they did all the
shopping for baby gear and supplies. I can’t thank your aunt’s friends enough.”

  He grinned. “They’re old hands at it.”

  “By the way, they’ve decided to put the ball off until June, the month of weddings.” River situated the monitor next to her and allowed him to spread a soft blanket over her. He never let her out of his sight now. He had four people to protect, and he knew Wolf was out there somewhere; Running Bear had said so. “They’re going to do a masquerade ball with some kind of scavenger hunt.”

  “Matters not to me. I’ve already been won.” Tighe leaned over to kiss her, once again loving the fact that he could kiss her now whenever he wanted, for as long as he liked.

  It was heaven, a great change in his life that agreed with him very much.

  “Hey,” he said, “I don’t know if you know this, but June is the month for weddings.”

  River looked at him with a suspicious smile. “Didn’t I just say that?”

  “You know,” he said, getting up next to her and wrapping his arms around her, “I think we should get married.”

  “We got married, Tighe. Remember?”

  “Yeah. But I don’t think you got married enough.”

  She laughed. “Enough?”

  “I’ve waited an awfully long time to tie you down, darling. Maybe I need to double tie those knots. All the Callahan brides marry twice.”

  “Tighe.” River sighed with pleasure as he kissed her neck, along her collarbone, and then pretended he was going to nose around in her sweater. “I feel pretty tied. Don’t you?”

  “Well, we have those three little ties in there,” he said, pointing to the nursery. “But I think that one day they’re going to want to see video of their mom taking their father off the market.”

  “Really?” She raised a brow. “Not the other way around?”

  He stroked her hair and smelled it, and wished he could tell her how much he loved her without sounding as if he was crazy. Which he was—for her. “Maybe the other way around.”

  She kissed him. “They’re going to love their daddy. All kids love their daddy, but they’re going to know you’re awesome.”

  “I am, aren’t I? He brightened, thought about sneaking down in her shirt a little more, figured he’d better not push his luck and settled for holding her hand instead. “I want to be able to give my kids what I never had.”

  River looked up at him. “Being there for them?”

  He nodded. “Lately I’ve realized how much of a sacrifice my parents made. When I hold those babies, or I watch you holding them, I think about how terrible and wrenching it would be if we had to leave them behind.”

  “You’re scaring me, Tighe.” River curled up against his chest, and he held her tight.

  “I’m not scared. I’ve got my own personal bodyguard. I’m feeling very safe these days.” He wondered if he could make the same decision his parents had had to make. It was a high price they’d paid—all of them had paid. The alternative was to be hunted by the cartel, and worse. His parents—and the Callahan cousins’ parents—wouldn’t have wanted that to happen to their children. They’d chosen a life in hiding rather than risking their family.

  He saw goose pimples had risen on River’s skin and kissed them away, comforting her. “We’ve got Wolf on the run. He knows what kind of women we have here at Rancho Diablo now. You’re tough, babe.”

  “I know. I knew what I was getting myself into when I seduced you.”

  “Ah, one of my favorite words.” He kissed her lips, and then her forehead. “How long until the doctor says I can return the favor and seduce you?”

  “Easy, cowboy,” River teased, and Tighe held her close, stroking her hair as she lay on his chest. “It may be a few months.”

  “We’ll see if you can hold out that long,” he said, and she laughed, and then they napped together for a whole twenty minutes until they heard sweet baby noises on the monitor.

  Tighe grinned. It was music to his ears.

  * * *

  THE BABIES GREW fast over the next several months, and it seemed to River that her husband tried to capture every minute and every action of his babies’ young lives, taking constant videos and pictures. River thought her husband was pretty sexy, given how enamored he was with his children.

  He barely ever left the babies—or her—alone. When he had his post assignments, he did his job and then hurried back home.

  It had been like this for the past four months.

  At first he’d said that she needed his help with the babies while she healed. He waved off all offers of assistance from the Books’n’Bingo Society ladies, and everyone else who wanted to help.

  Fiona and the rest of the family had returned, and while he allowed them to help River while he was gone, he stuck close to home and insisted on being in the thick of things.

  River tried to shoo him back to work, telling him that he’d had his eight weeks of maternity leave. Tighe’s response was that in some countries around the world, he’d get a year.

  “I’m never going to get rid of him, Fiona,” she said, when his aunt came to visit and bring cookies. “I used to be a nanny bodyguard, but now I have my own personal bodyguard. He won’t go anywhere unless I have four cell phones, three armed guards, two babysitters and a bat signal in a pear tree.”

  “It will wear off.” Fiona gazed at the new babies with a smile. “He’ll calm down. His twin did. Of course, Ana wasn’t kidnapped for several months.” The older woman looked up. “Then again, maybe he won’t get over it anytime soon.”

  “It could get worse over time.” The thought bloomed, large and worrisome. “Can you imagine how he’ll be when Chloe wants to date?”

  “Well, she just won’t,” Fiona said, laughing. “At least not without her father in the backseat.”

  They giggled together. River smiled at Tighe’s aunt. “Did I ever tell you how much I appreciated you keeping my spirits up in Montana?”

  “The spirit is important. That’s what Running Bear always says.” Fiona sat down with a cup of tea and rocked in one of the new white rockers, complete with ruffled teal cushions. “Speaking of spirits, did you know Storm Cash offered to sell us the land across the canyons? He was dead set on getting that parcel, all twenty thousand acres, and now he’s told me he’d like to sell. He’s giving us first right of refusal. But he didn’t have the land long enough to make a profit or clear his commission. I’m not sure what’s up with that old goat.”

  River shook her head. “Tighe has never mentioned it, so I don’t think he has any better idea.”

  Fiona sipped her tea. “I’m suspicious that Storm planted his niece over here, too. I’m not certain, but I believe Sawyer’s got a target drawn on Jace.”

  “I’m not sure how I can help, Fiona. I don’t know anything about all that.”

  “Here’s the thing,” she said, setting down her cup and reaching for Burkett when he started up a tiny squall. “I feel a cold chill coming from that side of the property.”

  “You mean from Storm?”

  Fiona nodded. “Yes.”

  “Talk to Tighe. Maybe he can find something out.”

  “I was wondering if you’d talk to Sawyer.”

  River hesitated. “Me? And ask what?”

  “Just see where her interests lie. What’s on her mind. She just might let something slip.”

  “I can talk to her,” River said. “But Kendall might know more, since she’s Sawyer’s employer.”

  Fiona made faces at Burkett to get him to smile, which he was too young to do. “You know that you and Tighe would be up for ownership of those twenty thousand acres, if Rancho Diablo takes them on. You’d have your own real house.”

  River blinked. “That would be up to Tighe, Fiona. I have a feeling he won’t want to be farther from the main house than necessary.” She could pretty well bank on Tighe not wanting her and the children to be across the canyons.

  “Imagine having your own place, though. Your very own. Not
part of a conglomerate, where everybody has a piece of everything. Stake your own claim, as it were.”

  “Fiona, are you asking me to spy on Sawyer in lieu of a favorable outcome to the ranch raffle you’ve been trying to set up for the Chacon Callahans all along?”

  “Yes, I am,” Fiona said. “Just something to consider.”

  River took that in. “I don’t see how this helps Jace.”

  “It helps all of us to know whether the Cashs are friend or foe,” Fiona said. “It’s important to know who’s on your side.”

  River closed her eyes, then opened them. “Fiona, I spent many months with you in Montana. We spent a lot of time talking to each other, and I believe I’ve gotten to know how you think. You want to keep Sawyer and Jace apart.”

  “Well,” the older woman said slowly, “now that you mention it, yes. I don’t want my nephew falling for a woman who is out to get to us through him.”

  “Isn’t that Jace’s business? Who he falls for?”

  “Jace is a smart man, but he’s not going to be able to withstand the amount of feminine firepower Sawyer’s aiming at him. I saw her the other day taking a basket lunch out to him in the barn.” Fiona looked outraged. “Every woman knows the fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and my nephews are all very susceptible to that type of lure.”

  “I never cooked for Tighe.”

  “That’s right. You caught my nephew fair and square, without lures.” Fiona nodded. “Believe me, I recognize a trap being carefully set when I see it.”

  River laughed. “Fiona, you’re a treat. Don’t ask me to help you with keeping Jace and Sawyer apart. I can’t do that, not even for a house of my own on a few acres of land, tempting though it is. Ask Ashlyn. She’s always up for a plot.”

  Fiona sighed. “I think you should accept the challenge. You’re a new Callahan, and a new mother. No one will suspect you.”

  “I’m so sorry, but no.” River shook her head with a huge smile. “I don’t even know if Tighe wants any of that land over there. But even if he did, he’d want to win the raffle fair and square.”