by Tina Leonard
She heard his laughter echo down the hall.
Chapter Two
“So Suzy Winterstone is cute,” Gabriel Morgan said to his older brother, Dane, who was visiting him and his wife, Laura, at their comfortable house. Dane had to admit, Gabriel had adapted well to living in this small domain with his growing family. But still, that just meant the youngest of all the Morgan boys had fallen under Josiah’s thumb.
Dane would not be doing the same. “She’s much more attractive than I would’ve imagined. I suppose I have to give Pop points for good taste in women.” He sighed, heavily put-upon. “However, she has a bit of a mouth on her.” A mouth he’d kissed, and would love to kiss again. He liked blondes, especially round, sunny ones like Suzy.
He shouldn’t have done it.
Dane heard Laura laugh in the kitchen as she caught his remark. Her children—his niece and nephew—were baking sugar cookies with their mother. It was a nice way to take the edge off a cold day, and his stomach rumbled at the aroma. He sure hoped he’d be offered one of the treats.
“What kind of mouth?” Laura asked, setting a glass of milk in front of him. His hopes for being included in the cookie-tasting rose exponentially. “Pink and tempting?” she teased.
“I meant she talks a lot,” he said with a mock growl, knowing his sister-in-law was giving him grief. Still, he wasn’t going to admit to kissing Suzy—he’d never live it down since he’d protested his father’s incessant matchmaking from the start. “She doesn’t shut up.”
“Hmm,” Laura said, “how much could she have said in such a short amount of time? Didn’t you say you only talked for about five minutes?”
“And that was plenty. During that time she set rules, gave commands and pretty much tried to show me who was going to be boss.” He looked hopefully toward the kitchen, wondering if that confession had been enough to earn him a cookie.
Seeing his eager glance, Laura laughed. Gabriel chuckled.
“Penny, will you please bring your uncle Dane and your dad that platter of cookies?” Laura said. “Suzy simply sounds organized to me, Dane.”
“Like someone in law enforcement, and I’ve had my fill of people like that.” Dane took the platter from Penny gratefully. “Very pretty. How many am I allowed?” he asked Penny.
“Only two if you don’t want to spoil your supper.” Penny was nearly five years old now and wise to the house rules.
“Two?” he asked, looking at Penny with his best uncle smile. “But I don’t think I’m going to be getting any supper.”
“That’s because you didn’t play your cards right with your housekeeper.” Gabriel took the platter, moved two cookies to Dane’s plate, three to his own, and handed the tray back to Penny. “Please put temptation out of Uncle Dane’s way, honey.”
She smiled at Gabriel and took the plate back to the kitchen. Her little brother, Perrin, followed, anxious for his own treat.
“How come you get three?” Dane asked. “Not that I’m trying to be ungrateful or anything, but I am older than you.”
“Because I’m in good with the women of my house.” Gabriel grinned. “I get extra sweets.”
“Great.” Dane bit the head off the sugary reindeer and closed his eyes. “She sings, Gabriel, all the time.”
“Bro, she’s only lived there since this morning.”
“But it’s nonstop. She sings to the children. The children sing back, in those little nonsense voices, and then Suzy praises them, so proud of their efforts. The noise level is pretty constant.”
Laura laughed again. He considered the lightly falling snow outside, and the gray skies—both signs the temperature would be dropping. “I can’t stay long. There’s wood to bring in for all four fireplaces, among other manly chores I’ve been assigned.”
Gabriel raised his brows. “Expecting a deep freeze?”
Dane sighed. “It’s just not peaceful and quiet there like I imagined it would be. Like you have here. I thought I’d be out at Pop’s alone, at least until you or Pete or Jack showed up.”
“I got my million dollars,” Gabriel confessed. “I won’t be coming, bro. You’re on your own at the Morgan ranch with your trio of singing females.”
Dane stared at him. “When did that happen?”
“Dad gave me my money before he went back to France.”
“Because you sold out,” Dane whispered, with a careful glance at Laura. “Wedding bells coaxed Pop to give in on the part about you having to live at the ranch for one year to get your money?”
Gabriel shook his head. “Nope. He just felt that I’d proven myself.”
“Proven yourself?” Dane glanced around the small, clean home. “You’re living in pretty tall cotton, Gabriel. Can’t see that your life is all that hard.”
Gabriel shook his head. “You don’t get it.”
Dane didn’t think it was fair that Gabriel had been let off the hook. “Sucking up to Pop shouldn’t be part of the deal.”
“Why?” Gabriel looked at him. “All Dad wants is family harmony.”
“And grandchildren!” Dane tried to sound horrified and maybe even accusative—Gabriel had definitely sold out, the weasel—but looking at Laura’s gently rounded stomach made it a bit hard to be completely indignant.
The fact was, Gabriel had done what Dane, Pete and Jack didn’t want to do. Jack would never make up with Pop, not after Pop kicked him out for luring his too-young brothers to the rodeo all those years ago. Dane and Pete still harbored enough bad feelings to fill a valley. Still, he couldn’t fault Gabriel. “Never mind,” Dane said, morosely finishing off his cookies. “The baby always has it the easiest.”
He brushed off the crumbs and stood to leave. Laura handed him a lace napkin full of cookies to take with him. He headed to the door, glanced around at Gabriel and his family and the life he’d chosen. Then he tipped his hat to Laura, kissed both the children, thanked them for sharing their delicious cookies, and braced himself for the cold outside.
It was nothing, he knew, like the cold he was going to get at the ranch. He only had three hundred sixty-four more days to go. It wasn’t a lifetime, something he’d already felt he’d lived.
He’d retired from the Texas Rangers following years of service. After enlisting in the military—just to get away from Pop—Dane had gotten his college degree, then moved on. He went into the police academy, becoming a top recruit. With his competitive nature, he’d pushed himself hard enough to make it into the Rangers.
And then, at twenty-eight, he’d burned out. He’d seen the worst in people while on the job, but always felt he had his friends to fall back on, no matter what. The final straw was his best friend talking him out of his life savings. Dane realized he wasn’t as much of a tough guy as he thought he was, and began to doubt his ability to see the good in people.
Suzy seemed good, but she sure had dug her way into an old man’s life with ease. Pop was supposed to be a tough guy, too.
Maybe Morgans were just easy marks for a sad story. He’d find out in the next year of hell with the rulemaking Miss Winterstone.
He got into his truck, carefully placing the cookies on the seat next to his so they wouldn’t break. On the other hand, there was something to be said for sucking up, he decided. Yet, he wasn’t sure he could survive three hundred sixty-four more days in a house with a woman he’d kissed, since he frequently found himself wondering about kissing her again.
He’d always been a bit of a rebel, something that irked Pop no end. The practically neon sign the little mother was wearing that said No Trespassing made him definitely want to jump the fence.
But knowing Pop would be rewarded for his manipulative ways, Dane vowed to give up trespassing, at least where Suzy was concerned. He’d refused to even look at the babies this morning—he knew that if he wasn’t careful, he could get sucked into a life just like Gabriel’s.
It was all about the children, and Dane understood the game.
SUZY PUT HER TWO TODDLERS down for a
nap, then lay beside them, rubbing their backs as they snuggled into the bed comforter. She’d chosen the large back bedroom for herself and the children. It was big enough for them to sleep in the same room with her. That way, if she needed to get up in the night to check on them, she wouldn’t risk running into Mr. Loves-the-Dark Ranger. She didn’t trust him, not one bit. He’d probably jump out and grab her again just for the pleasure of hearing her yelp. And he’d made it obvious this morning that he didn’t want her there—he hadn’t spoken a word to her. Not even a polite good morning. So she’d sung to keep the frosty awkwardness in check.
“Fine by me,” she told the girls. “It’s better when he’s not around being pigheaded.”
The babies slept on without heeding her comment. She’d named the eighteen-month-old girls Nicole and Sandra after her mother. For the hundredth time, she thought about calling her mother, then decided it wouldn’t be a good idea. Her mother, who lived in Fort Wylie, had told Suzy in no uncertain terms that being pregnant and unmarried was a disgrace. Her mother and father were scions of Fort Wylie and reputation mattered to them. Appearances were important.
Suzy’s appearance was one of loose living, her mother had said, and they hadn’t spoken since. She’d never visited the hospital to see the newborns. It killed Suzy, broke her heart, but it was her mother’s right to feel as she did. “I wasn’t delighted when your father packed up, either,” she murmured to her daughters. “I didn’t foresee Frank being so afraid of responsibility.”
He’d liked her well enough for her family’s money—but when he’d realized that the Winterstones were, well, wintry about their new grandchildren, cutting off even Suzy’s trust fund she would have received at age thirty, well, Frank had disappeared like a puff of dust under a vacuum cleaner.
“Speaking of vacuums,” she said, closing her eyes, “just as soon as we finish our beauty rest, girls, we need to lug that monstrous canister up here and vacuum all the rooms thoroughly. Don’t think it’s been done in thirty years.”
She hadn’t planned on napping, but the wind was howling outside, the snow sugaring the ground, and at the moment, she felt so blessed lying on the bed with her children that she drifted off to sleep.
DANE WALKED IN WITH A LOAD of firewood, and remembering Suzy’s caution about dirtying up the floors, swept off the snow and ice as best he could from the logs and his boots. Last thing he wanted was a further discourse on his cleanliness. He carried the wood upstairs. There were two fireplaces up, plus two downstairs. He’d take care of the upper level fireplaces first, particularly in his room. It was a great night for a nice, cozy fire in the hearth in Pop’s bedroom, which he had decided to commandeer for himself as the only son in residence.
He deserved some of the finer things in life. One, for living in this godforsaken backwater and, two, for having Suzy and her tiny crew cast upon him.
At the door of the bedroom, he stopped in his tracks. On his bed lay Suzy, her two little angels sleeping soundly beside her. Well, they weren’t angels, they were more like time bombs, he reminded himself, backing into the hallway. Set to explode his world, drawing him in with their cherubic faces. Tingles ran over his arms. He allowed himself to give Suzy a thorough, yet lightning-fast once-over, avoiding the pink-wrapped dolls beside her.
“Holy smokes, that was close.” He went down the hall, placed the firewood in the stacker in the smaller bedroom. What the hell was she doing in his room? On his bed? She couldn’t stay there, that was for certain. Somehow he was going to have to explain to her that she just couldn’t fall asleep on the job, cushy employment though it was, in the first available reclining apparatus she came upon. His bed should be his domain—and anyway, hadn’t she already read him the riot act about how she was never stepping in his room?
His heart thundered in his chest. Pop stayed in France almost year-round, giving the boys a lot of time to gnash their teeth over his wily proposal. Dane was proud that he’d been wilier. Pop believed that money would buy love, like castles in France and sandboxes in the Caribbean, but Dane knew money and love were not always good bed partners.
Dane intended to tell Goldilocks when she awakened that his bed was not “just right” for her. She could just stick that in her proverbial little pipe and move into a smaller, less-appointed chamber.
No. Sighing, he knew he wouldn’t do that. There were three of her family and only one of him. Besides, he could be a gentleman if it was absolutely required, and in Suzy’s case, it probably was. Besides, he didn’t actually need the gold-outfitted bidet and tub Pop had in his master bath; he didn’t need the slipper sofa by the hearth, nor the lush rugs underfoot surrounding the massive canopied bed. One of the other starker, less decked-out rooms would be fine for him—like this one.
Restlessly he rose to light a fire in the small fireplace. The tinder caught slowly, the cold, damp logs reluctant to take the heat.
He realized that no matter how much he fought it, staying on the ranch for a year was not going to be the easiest assignment he’d ever had. He’d talked himself into this “cream puff” of a situation, but Pop would certainly laugh if he saw him now, cowed into a small bedroom and padding around with clean, silent feet, all thanks to Pop and his Grandchildren Conspiracy.
Chapter Three
In the morning, Suzy was awakened by her children stirring. Nicole gently touched her mother’s face. Sandra waved a tiny hand at some sunlight streaming into the room. Suzy smiled, enjoying the gentle wake up. “You must be getting hungry,” she told her girls, and then realized they had slept the entire night in the house without any incident concerning Dane Morgan. “This is going to work just fine,” she said, putting on her clothes.
She helped her daughters dress, a slow process because they were at the age when they wanted to do things themselves. Their little fingers weren’t quite ready for pulling on tights to keep their legs warm, or brushing their own hair. Finally, they were all ready to leave the sanctuary of their bedroom and head into the kitchen.
“Hold my hands,” she told her girls. “We have to be very careful on these stairs.” She tiptoed by the other bedrooms on the hall in order to avoid a run-in with Josiah’s son, breathing much easier when she made it to the kitchen.
But the dark-haired, cold-eyed handsome stranger sitting at the table pulled a startled shriek from her. He jumped to his feet, spilling hot coffee on his hand and swearing a blue streak. Her daughters began to cry so she clutched them to her, glaring at the stranger. “Who are you?”
“Who are you?” he demanded. “You don’t live here.”
She raised her chin. “I do live here. And if you don’t leave right this instant, I’ll scream. There’s a man sleeping upstairs and he’ll come running down—”
The back door opened. “It’s durn cold out—” Dane stopped when he saw the scene in the kitchen. His gaze swept over her, registering her panic, and then went to the stranger. He calmly walked over to the sink to wash his hands.
Suzy gasped. “What are you doing?”
“Washing my hands to warm them up.” Dane smiled at her. “Is there a problem?”
She blinked. “Do you know this person?”
The man took off his hat, nodding to her. “My name’s Pete. I’m one of Dane’s brothers,” he explained. “I let myself in,” he said to Dane who merely nodded. “I apologize if I frightened you.” He gave Suzy what she supposed was a reassuring smile. “Dane says I unnerve him when I pop in, too. I didn’t realize he had company.”
“I am not his company,” Suzy said, stiffening. “I’m the housekeeper.”
Pete grinned hugely. “Pop,” he said to Dane. “He’s got you by the short—”
“Ah, let’s get some breakfast on the table,” Dane interrupted. “Is that in your job description?” he asked Suzy. “I’m not quite sure of all the parameters yet.”
These two were quite the pair. There was some unspoken joke going on between them, but Suzy was in no mood to guess what it was. “I cook
for myself and my daughters,” she said, getting out a box of oatmeal. “You two are on your own.”
She waited for Dane to move away from the sink so she could fill a pot with water. He looked at the pot a trifle regretfully before turning to his brother.
“We’re still working out the kinks in this housekeeping thing,” he said, and Pete nodded.
“I see that.” Pete slouched into his chair and put his feet up on another one, making himself right at home. Suzy’s irritation rose, because, after all, it was his home and she hadn’t factored being in a house with one man much less two. But no one had been on the ranch in six months—surely both of these men weren’t planning on staying long.
“Hope I won’t be any trouble,” Pete said.
Suzy whirled to look at him, ignoring how fast her heart had begun to beat as she’d stood next to Dane at the sink. “Trouble?”
“Living here.”
Dane grinned. “Come to sweat it out for your share?”
Pete shrugged. His gaze went to Suzy for just an instant. “Hadn’t planned on it, but you two need a chaperone. Pop clearly didn’t consider that in his scheming, but I might be persuaded.”
Suzy’s daughters stared up at the big man, completely perplexed by the presence of two males. They hadn’t been around many, and the Morgan men had deep voices and large, masculine presences. Suzy decided to skip the chaperone comment and went straight to the ominous word in Pete’s analysis. “Scheming?”
“You know. To get you two to fall in love with each other.”
Suzy froze. “Are you implying that my job is nothing more than a sham? A cover to induce me into playing house with your brother so that we’d somehow end up together?”
Dane winced. “That might be putting it a bit bluntly—”
“Actually, I think she nailed Pop’s plan,” Pete said. “That seems to be the gist of it.”
“Now that we’re all feeling very awkward, why don’t we eat some oatmeal? Matters will probably seem less complicated on full stomachs.” Dane glanced longingly at the pot Suzy still held in her hand.
