The Bull Rider's Twins

by Tina Leonard

  “You better rescue the princess tout suite then,” Pete told him. “You can do it. You’re a Callahan.”

  Judah nodded. “Thanks.”

  “Danger, here we come!” Sam said, kissing his nieces and hugging his sister-in-law goodbye.

  Judah shook his head. Sam had no idea just what kind of danger lay in wait. And he couldn’t tell him.

  “YOU DID NOT INFORM ME that babysitting was your idea of dangerous,” Sam said with a groan twenty minutes later, when they’d made their way to Creed’s house. Sometimes Creed’s sister-in-law Diane’s three daughters stayed in the house with their little cousin, too, but tonight, it was just Creed and Aberdeen and their daughter, Joy Patrice.

  “Not only is it dangerous,” Judah said, holding out a stuffed pony for the baby, “it’s essential. You should do one thing every day that scares you. It’s important for your growth. And in my book, diapers are dangerous.”

  “Growth comes in the shape of luscious, eager females, too,” Sam said, “but I can tell you’re on a mission, so never mind.” He sighed heavily and took the pony from Judah. “She’s a baby. She can’t hold a stuffed animal, idiot.”

  Judah gave Creed a stern eyeing. “Did you give us condoms that were basically party balloons?”

  He grinned. “Seemed like a great groom’s gift, as far as I was concerned.”

  “Why?” Judah demanded. “Do you mind me asking why?”

  “To help you along. And clearly it did.” Creed put on an innocent face. “It would be selfish of me to cheat you out of marital bliss. A little lambskin shouldn’t stand between you and the most happiness you will ever know.”

  Judah snorted. “The mother of my children wants to marry someone else. Is that what you had in mind?”

  “Now that sounds like a personal problem to me. Can’t blame that on a neon party favor.” Creed handed him a beer. “The box clearly said—”

  “I know. I know. Only I’m not an owl. I don’t see things in the dark, like very small print.” Judah took the beer, more in the mood to bean his brother with it than to drink it. “I just thought that if a lady bothered to make love with a guy, then surely she had some kind of feelings for him.”

  Aberdeen looked at him with sympathy. “Darla does have feelings for you, Judah.”

  “What those feelings are could be anything,” Creed said unhelpfully, and Sam laughed. Judah hugged the baby in his arms, setting down his beer to gaze into her face. “Hey,” he told her, “your uncles are pigs. But me, I’ll rescue you. Don’t worry, little princess. You’ll always know Uncle Judah had your back.”

  “Knowing you,” Creed said, “you’ve tried overwhelming Darla with your machismo. You’ve even given her the ol’ I-know-what’s-best-for-you treatment.” He glanced at Judah. “So that only leaves romancing her socks off.”

  “Darla doesn’t wear socks,” Judah said, and everyone groaned.

  “You have to go slowly for him,” Sam said. “He’s not the sharpest knife in the Callahan knife block.”

  “So, romance,” Creed said, speaking slowly for Judah’s benefit, as if he didn’t know what to do with a woman, “is done with a gentle conductor’s baton, a wand, if you will. Not a crashing bull-in-a-flower-bed thunderclap.”

  “Like you did with me?” Aberdeen said sweetly, and Judah and Sam hooted at their brother. “Judah, don’t let Creed tell you he had all the answers, because he didn’t.”

  “But he still won your heart,” Judah said. “Though I don’t know what you see in him.”

  That earned him a glare from Creed, which made Judah feel better.

  “He won my heart by being persistent.”

  Creed stared at his wife. “No, I didn’t. I won your heart by being the most awesome, irresistible—”

  Aberdeen waved at Creed to be quiet. “Trust me, your brother made some mistakes in the wooing process. He was not a perfect prince. Nor was he a love machine, as he might lead you to believe.”

  Sam and Judah snickered as Creed was put in his place.

  “But,” Aberdeen said, “he hung in there, no matter what hoops I made him jump through, and I admired that. It made me realize that he actually loved me, in spite of all the doubts I had about us being together. And so he won my heart.” She smiled at her husband, and Creed perked up like a plant in the sunshine.

  “So how do I hang in there, when Darla doesn’t even want me hanging in there? I left her a ring—a ring I was guaranteed would make a lady jump into my arms. And I got nothing,” Judah said sadly. “Not even a phone call.”

  “Well,” Aberdeen said, “perhaps it would be good to present your case in person.”

  “Yeah, dummy. You don’t just leave a ring for a woman and hope she gets the clue. It takes more effort than that,” Sam said. “Now can we go do something dangerous?”

  Judah kissed his niece on the head. “Why is it that all we have on the ranch are baby girls?” he asked, thinking about the sons who would be in his arms before he knew it. A few months was nothing. He could hang in there.

  He could hang in there. Just like Aberdeen said.

  “We have baby girls,” Creed said, “because it takes a real man to pack pink booties. Deal with it.”

  “WHERE’S THE DANGER?” Sam asked, when Judah pulled in front of Darla and Jackie’s wedding shop. “This is just a dress store. It’s a wedding dress store, but unless there’s man-hunting brides around—and there’s not, since it’s nearly midnight—then I don’t see the danger. Enlighten me.”

  Judah took a deep breath, wondering if he was going to be standing at an altar in two days or not. It was going to take everything he had to do it. “The danger is that you get to find a ride home,” he told his brother. “I travel alone from here.”

  Sam gawked at him. “You would leave me in town with no ride?”

  Judah nodded. “You wanted danger.”

  “I get it.” Sam hopped out of the truck, wearing a sour expression. “This is not my idea of danger.”

  “Yes, but your day is coming.” Judah waved at his brother. “I’m going to go find an ex-nurse and see if she wants to take my temperature.”

  “Huh,” Sam said, “good luck with that.”

  He loped off, heading toward the town’s only secret night spot, in the back of Banger’s Bait and Tackle. Judah drove away, thinking about everything he’d seen in his brothers’ homes. It was true that they probably hadn’t had the smoothest routes to the altar. They were certainly not hard-core princes.

  But they had made it across the finish line.

  And that’s where Judah wanted to be.

  Chapter Seven

  It was rude to pay a visit at midnight, particularly without calling first, but time was of the essence. Judah figured he could blame his lack of manners on his nonexistent concussion, which he considered overcautiousness, and maybe even passive-aggressiveness, on Sidney’s part. The bronc buster had known that Judah was winning. He hadn’t wanted to give his rival any reason to look like a hero, so he’d scratched Judah.

  Therefore, it was completely legit to be here. And there was a lamp shining in the window, so a tap on the door would let him know whether Darla wanted company.

  There were no vehicles in the drive, and Judah figured she had no nocturnal guest sleeping over. “That’s a good thing,” he murmured. “I would have hated to toss ol’ Sid out on his bony butt.”

  He knocked.

  “Who is it?” Darla asked, and Judah took a deep breath.

  “The father of your children.”

  “Judah,” Darla said through the door, “it’s late. I have work tomorrow, and I have a doctor’s appointment. I don’t have time for fun and games.”

  Fun and games? Was that how she saw him? “I could play the pity card and tell you I had to scratch from the rodeo due to a slight concussion, and that only a nurse would understand, but—”

  The door opened. She looked out at him, her expression wary. “Did you really?”

  “Yes
. And no. I actually don’t think I hit my head, but Tunstall scratched me, and the E.R. said I had a hairline concussion, or stage one. Something like that—I wasn’t paying attention.” He shrugged. “I think it was Tunstall’s evil plot to get me out of the rodeo.”

  She shook her head. “Sidney’s not like that.”

  “I was fine,” Judah insisted. “I’ve ridden with worse injuries.”

  She sighed and opened the door. “Come in, but only for five minutes.”

  He took off his hat and sat awkwardly on the sofa. She looked so cute in her blue robe and little flip-flops. Okay, maybe those weren’t sex-goddess garments, but he liked her comfy. It felt homelike here. “This is a nice place.”

  “No room at the inn.” She crossed her arms. “Judah, what did you want to talk about?”

  He forced himself to pay attention to why he’d come in the first place. “I don’t think you should get married. It’s too soon. You could be making the biggest mistake of your life, which will affect my sons.”

  She frowned. “I don’t know the sex of my children, because I haven’t asked the doctor. I don’t want to know until they’re born. So please don’t refer to them as males.”

  “They’ll be boys,” Judah said. “Pete and Creed might not be capable of manly offspring, but I am.”

  Darla sighed. “Judah, I’m getting married in two days. Whatever you think about what I’m doing isn’t important.”

  “Can I get a restraining order or something?” Judah pondered this. “There has to be a law where a man can stop a woman from making a foolish mistake in his sons’ lives.”

  Her frown deepened. He could see he’d landed in deep cow droppings with that tack. He decided to change course before he got thrown out on his ear. “What I’m trying to say, Darla, is that I don’t think you’ve given us a chance.”

  Once he’d said it, it was like a cork popping out of a bottle. “We’ve started off on the wrong foot for a number of reasons, but there’s a spark between us.”

  “And we should blow on that spark and see if it bursts into flame or goes out altogether?” Darla didn’t look convinced. “Judah, there isn’t one compelling reason you can offer for me to call off my wedding. I’m not convinced you and I have any sparks, but where you’re concerned, I’m pretty flame-resistant.”

  Well, wasn’t that just a pearl every man wanted to hear falling from his beloved’s sweet lips? She didn’t think there were sparks.

  There was only one thing to do. He could be run off by his pumpkin’s frosty ways, or he could be a fireman.

  He pulled Darla into his lap and said, “I don’t know why you’re fighting so hard. Maybe you just like a chase. But I’m good at running. And as long as I know you haven’t returned my ring, I’m going to believe that you’re just fighting your practical side.”

  She slid from his lap onto the sofa. “You make me sound…like a tease.”

  He kissed her neck. “Mmm, you smell delicious. And don’t put words in my mouth. You’re a hot little number, Darla Cameron, and I’m not afraid of a little teasing. You tease me all you like, and I’ll tease you back. Although, that night we shared might have been a one-off, come to think of it,” he said, angling for a kiss, which he adroitly stole. He noticed she wasn’t exactly fighting him. “What’s holding us back from having a really kinky lovefest, anyway? Just me and you and a bowl of fruit, maybe?”

  “Sidney.”

  Judah raised a brow. “Didn’t you tell me that you and Tunstall aren’t exactly burning holes in the bedsheets?”

  She stiffened like a dress mannequin with a pole up its back. “That isn’t how I phrased it, thank you, speaking of putting words in someone’s mouth.”

  He leaned back comfortably against the sofa and indicated she should go on with her explanation. “I think a woman who is planning on a sexless marriage—a business arrangement—probably has a very good reason for locking herself in a gilded cage.”

  “You don’t know everything,” Darla said, “and it’s really none of your affair. Now, if you don’t mind, I have to be at work early in the morning. We have a shipment of gowns arriving.”

  He nodded. “And you need all the beauty sleep you can get before the wedding. I understand. It’s a bride thing.” He stood. “Not that I think Tunstall’s much of a catch, but—”

  “It doesn’t matter what you think,” Darla said. “Anyway, what’s wrong with him?”

  “Nothing,” Judah said, a tad too quickly. “Nothing at all.”

  “You’re just annoyed because he made you scratch. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

  “No,” Judah said, “I’m here to kiss you good night.”

  He kissed Darla like he might not ever kiss her again. He held her, framing her face with his hands, touching her skin, telling her with his kisses how he felt about her. He couldn’t bear the thought of her marrying another man. Darla belonged with him, and he couldn’t imagine why she didn’t see it the same way he did. He kissed Darla with his whole heart and soul, thrilled to finally have her in his arms. So it was a horrible shock to his soul when banging erupted on the front door.

  Darla jumped away from him as if she’d been zapped by a cattle prod. “Who is it?”

  “Sidney.”

  “He can’t find you here!” She started shooing Judah toward the bedroom.

  “I’m not hiding,” he declared. “But even if I would hide like a weasel, don’t you think the bedroom is the last place he’d want to find me?”

  Darla shook her head. “He won’t come in here. Don’t move! If you do, I swear I’ll…you’ll wish you only had a slight concussion!” She closed the bedroom door.

  Judah shrugged. “Well, this wasn’t how I planned to get in here,” he said to himself, “but I’m okay with it.” He pulled off his boots, his shirt, his jeans, his socks, hesitated at the black Polo briefs, then shrugged and tossed them on the pile, too. What the hell. He didn’t sleep in anything at home; no reason to stand on ceremony now. No telling how long Boy Wonder would be pressing his case with his not-gonna-be-bride, so Judah slid into Darla’s bed wearing nothing but a grin.

  “Now this is living dangerously,” he said in the dark, briefly wondering if Sam had made it home and was as comfortable as Judah was at this very moment. Impossible. This bed—Darla’s bed—was simply the best place to be in Diablo. And then Judah fell asleep in Darla’s soft, cozy, clean smelling sheets, wondering when she’d remember that Judah’s truck was parked out front where even Tunstall couldn’t miss it.

  Sam was right. It was huge fun living dangerously.

  “DO YOU HAVE COMPANY?” Sidney asked, and Darla glanced nervously at the bedroom door. She wasn’t certain she could trust Judah not to come popping out like a jack-in-the-box to annoy Sidney. Even now, she was pretty sure Judah had his big ear pressed flat to the door, listening to every word, carefully choosing his moment to spring.

  “I actually do have company,” she said, unable to lie to Sidney. He’d been too kind to her. He really was a nice man, and they made a good team. Sometimes she suspected that he felt a little more than friendly toward her, and then other times he was strictly professional.

  Yet Judah wouldn’t play nice and understand the unique situation she was in. Stubborn ass.

  “Do you mind me asking who it is?” Sidney asked, and Darla sighed.

  “It’s Judah.”

  “He’s in there?” Sidney jerked his head toward her bedroom.

  “He’d be happy to come out, if you want. I told him to go in there while you were here. I wasn’t aware you’d planned to stop by.” She looked at him, gauging his reaction, but he seemed like the Sidney of always, calm and unconcerned.

  Not in love with her. Which was a relief.

  “No.” Sidney sat on the sofa, making himself comfortable. “I’m happy for him to cower in there if you’re okay with it.”

  Darla sat at the other end of the sofa. “So what’s on your mind?”

  “I just
want to make certain you still want to go through with this, now that Judah knows he’s the father.” Sidney looked at her. “I’d completely understand if you feel that your circumstances have changed.”

  “There’s nothing between Judah and me,” Darla said. “He wants to be a father to his children, which I’m grateful for. But there’s no reason…” She stopped, thinking about the beautiful diamond ring Judah had given her. She remembered the satiny feel of the magic wedding gown as she’d slipped it on. It had felt so right, so real, like she was meant to wear it and be a beloved bride.

  Then she thought about Judah standing behind her in the mirror, his handsome face gazing at her with love and passion—yes, she’d seen passion in those dark blue eyes—and she shivered. He’d made love to her with an intensity that had rocked her. She knew that side of Judah Callahan.

  But not much else. And she didn’t want a man who simply felt that she should be his because he’d made children with her. “Nothing needs to change between us, Sidney. You still need a wife to satisfy your inheritance, and I’m more than willing to be a stand-in.”

  Sidney looked as if he was about to say something, then closed his mouth. His lips, she noticed, weren’t full and capable of being demanding—like Judah’s. Sidney’s lips were thinner, almost nonexistent, as if he was used to holding back his emotions a lot. She considered his dark brown hair, dark eyes, kind face. “Sidney, why haven’t you ever married, anyway?”

  He shrugged. “I’m always on the road. I have a house that’s nice enough, but no woman wants to go home alone at night for months on end.”

  “That’s true, I guess.” Darla thought about how nice it was that Judah was so close to his family. They were always around. Sometimes they aggravated each other, but most of the time it was obvious that they all loved each other a lot.

  She really wanted a big family for her babies.

  “I guess I’ll be alone much of the time,” she murmured.

  He winced. “If you marry me, that’s unfortunately part of the deal. I will take very good care of you, when I’m around. And financially you won’t lack for anything. Nor will your children, whom I’m willing to adopt as my own.”