by Tina Leonard
“It’s okay,” Nina said. “At least you didn’t jump on the bed and break it again.”
“You only drank one. Last drank two or three or maybe four of those things,” Valentine said. “He told me he could put down a six-pack and never burp.”
“Well, he certainly did burp,” Navarro said. “Let’s go home.”
Nina looked at him.
“Don’t start,” he said.
“I wasn’t going to,” she replied. “It’s been a long day and all I want to do is go to sleep. Off to the ranch.”
He grinned and opened the truck door. “Your chariot awaits.”
TWO HOURS LATER, a group of Jefferson brothers stood on the porch, staring at Valentine and Nina. Navarro had apparently called ahead and announced their imminent arrival.
Last Jefferson didn’t make any attempt to hide his dismay at seeing Valentine when she got out of the truck.
“I don’t understand why you brought her here,” Last said to Navarro. “Are you trying to kill me?”
Nina swallowed, feeling sorry for Valentine. “Hi,” she said.
No one said anything in return. The brothers stared at her.
“Navarro, dude. What were you thinking, man?” Calhoun asked. “We’ve got a lot on our hands. We didn’t exactly need this right now.”
Archer nodded. “Not to be abrupt, Ms. Nina, but I’m sure you realize that, with your sister’s financial demands, we feel that our brother has made an error in bringing you here.”
“Easy, boys,” Navarro said. “Everything’s under control.”
“Clearly we have a lot to talk about,” Archer said. “Why don’t you come in, Nina?”
She hesitated, holding her sister’s hand to comfort her. Last was staring at Valentine, his face a myriad of mixed emotions.
“Ladies,” Navarro said. “Don’t get spooked by my brothers. They’re just a bit ornery and sometimes blunt-spoken because they don’t see many women. At least women they carry on a conversation with.” He grimaced at Last. “Don’t get on the lady’s bad side. You’re related to her now, dunce, so show her some respect. It’s the least we can all do.”
Nina flashed Navarro a grateful smile.
He nodded. “Can’t leave you hanging bare-assed around the crocs. They have no manners whatsoever.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Calhoun demanded.
Navarro shrugged, ignoring him to motion to the women. Nina and Valentine followed as he led them toward the house.
“I can offer you sleeping accommodations here, but I think you might be happiest in what we call house number three. Or, you can go to Mimi’s, next door. Mimi’s like our little sister, only more hellish. We love her dearly. She’s got a new baby, and you could get some practice holding her for when you’ll be an auntie.”
“Why are you suddenly being so easygoing about this?” Nina asked.
He frowned. “I should have explained. Townsfolk call our ranch Malfunction Junction for a reason. We don’t function well. My brothers have few manners and they’re hard to get along with in just about every situation. But I’m not going to leave you stranded.”
Her heart beat a little faster. He was good with the ladies, she reminded herself. It meant nothing that he was protecting her and her sister from his brothers.
It was all about the baby.
Navarro smiled at her reassuringly and Nina felt stirrings for him that she didn’t want to feel. It was a doomed emotion, and she recognized that.
“Where did you find her, is what I want to know,” Last asked, coming up behind them. “Not to be rude, but how did you end up bringing Valentine’s sister home?”
“It was a funny thing. She was looking for someone to carry some lumber to fix their bed. There I was.”
“There you were,” Last repeated. “What were you doing in Lonely Hearts Station?”
“He was trying to spy on my sister.” Nina gave Navarro a triumphant smile. “Not that it did any good.”
Last shook his head.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Nina said.
Last couldn’t meet her gaze. “I wish I could say the same. I’m not trying to sound unfriendly, it’s just that we as family tend to overhelp each other. It doesn’t always turn out right.”
“I understand.” She sent a glance to Navarro. “Too many crocs in the kitchen.”
Navarro held up a hand. “Hey, I was simply looking for the refrigerator.”
A car horn blaring made them all turn.
“Who is that?” Archer demanded. “Driving like a maniac?”
A powder-blue VW Bug drove up the ranch road, bumping and bouncing as a man waved his hat out the driver’s side window.
“If that’s not the silliest thing I ever saw,” Calhoun said. “Somebody tell the lil’ Bug not to hurt itself getting to the ranch. We’ll be picking parts out of the road for days.”
“That’s Doc, the crazy son of a mouse,” Bandera said. “What’s he driving?”
“I called him before we left Lonely Hearts Station,” Navarro said. “I want him to meet Valentine.”
Nina glanced at him with surprise. He really was all about the pregnancy. The VW horn beep-beep-beeped merrily as it rumbled toward them, a round harbinger of the moment they would all soon be facing. Last made a sound of disgust and left the gathering.
“While he’s here, he can examine Crockett, who’s still in the truck with a headache and a hangover. Though I doubt there’s much he can do. I could use some romantic escapism right about now,” Navarro said to Nina. “Relational issues are always so wearing in families. And now ours is growing. I feel so ganged-up-on.”
She gave him wide eyes. “‘Et tu, Brute?”’
He sighed. “Caesar wasn’t exactly escapism.”
The doctor got out of the car, his white hair gleaming in the sun. “Howdy, boys,” he said.
“Howdy, Doc Gonzalez,” they chorused.
“And two pretty ladies,” he said with a grin. “The Jefferson boys, ugly goats that they are, always manage to find nice women to put up with them.”
Nina grinned at Navarro. “Well, maybe this is the part of the story where everything is fun.”
Navarro looked at her, his brows raised.
“Nina, what are you talking about?” Valentine asked.
“Just that there are a lot of stories being told. Navarro, wouldn’t you love to invite us in so we don’t stand out here all day like a circus without a ring-leader?”
“Yegods, she has a sharp tongue on her,” Calhoun whispered.
“Yeah, but I like her sense of direction. She always seems to know where I should be going, and it’s usually someplace I didn’t expect. It’s kind of exciting,” Navarro said with a grin.
“Whatever,” Calhoun said under his breath. “Are you really inviting Last’s floozy into the house so she can scope out what we’ve got?”
“Which is, as far as I can determine,” Navarro said loud enough for Nina to hear, “not a damn thing more or less than we’re ever going to have. We have a baby to talk about, so, awkward as this may be, we need to head indoors and pour ourselves a cold one. Lemonade, that is, since we’re having a baby. Archer, you fix us up. C’mon, Doc. Thanks for coming out.”
Everyone waited, paralyzed by Valentine’s presence in their midst. Valentine clutched Nina’s hand, and Nina ached for her. “Come on,” she told her sister. “I’m listening to Navarro. He knows all about rescues.” She gave him an airy nod as she walked past him to go up the steps. “Thank you,” she said over her shoulder.
“You’re welcome,” he said. “I’m gonna keep close to you, though. There’s no telling what you might have up your sleeve.”
“Could be dangerous,” she told him.
“Could be.”
“Is there something going on between you two that I should know about?” Valentine asked as Nina dragged her sister forward. “Because you seem to have a certain repartee usually reserved for couples who—”
“No,” Nina said with finality. “We have no certain repartee.”
“None at all,” Navarro said cheerfully.
Chapter Five
The family gathered in the kitchen, an awkward conglomeration of people who knew they had to talk but didn’t really want to. Two dozen cupcakes, fresh from the Union Junction cafeteria, lay in the center of the table, untouched. And Crockett was missing.
“The sly dog.”
“Who?” Nina asked Navarro.
“Never mind. I’ll be right back.”
Navarro left the kitchen and headed upstairs. Crockett was in the second-floor rumpus room, his boots kicked off, his face under a Playboy magazine. The very picture of relaxation.
Navarro knocked the magazine off his brother’s face and then rescued it before it hit the floor. “No napping during family trauma time.”
“I’m keeping myself serene,” Crockett said, his tone injured. “I’m waiting for you to come up with a new angle to The Plan, now that we’ve brought Nina and Valentine here. I suspect you’re now wanting Valentine and Last to talk this out like mature adults?”
Navarro leaned against a wall, idly thumbing through the Playboy. “Too much to hope for, probably. I think we should focus on the final goal, what we want to achieve.”
“What about Nina?”
Navarro sighed. “Why does it feel like I’ve known her for six years?” He pawed his hair. “She’s intense for a merely peachy kind of girl.”
“I think you shot through peachy with her a few hours ago. Now you’re more into the pit of the relationship. The hard part. People get touchy when long-term goals are being discussed. And I don’t have to tell you,” Crockett said, “when a baby is thrown into the mix, matters usually get fairly elaborate.”
Navarro shook his head. “This was supposed to be a tag-team thing. It’s your turn.”
“My turn to what?”
“Keep an eye on Nina.”
“You’re doing fine,” Crockett said. “Besides, it’s Valentine we were keeping an eye on. Her sister was just the conduit of accidental good fortune. The ladder, if you will, to get inside the burning house.”
“Yes, yes, well, now I need to take some heat off. Go watch Nina and make sure the whole ranch doesn’t catch on fire if Last and Valentine decide to get over-unfond of each other.”
“I don’t want a turn. I want to reward my reconnaissance trip with a nap.”
“You can’t go through life eating cupcakes and snoozing under Playboy. I need to think. Relinquish the sofa and go moderate downstairs.”
Crockett sat up. “Wait a minute. You’re not going sweet on Nina, are you? Like, really sweet?”
“Hell, no.”
“Hell, yes, you are,” Crockett said.
“I swear I am not. I may be mildly attracted to her—mildly—but I am not going sweet.” Navarro gave his brother his most annoyed glance. “Nor is she one bit sweet on me.”
“Well, that I believe.”
Irritation flooded through Navarro. “So, can I have a break from our project? One of us should be down there to keep an eye on Last.”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking that he’s got to learn to face his own issues, Navarro. We’ve been facing them for him for years.”
“Whatever.” Navarro slapped his palm with the rolled-up Playboy. “I never knew having women around could be so disturbing.”
Crockett got up and took the Playboy. “Easy on Miss May, bro. Sure, I’ll take over for you. No problem. It’ll be a pleasure to watch Nina.”
Navarro snatched the magazine back and took his brother’s place on the sofa. Kicking off his boots, he lay down, sighing deeply as he opened the centerfold over his face.
Crockett sighed. “It’s only paper, bro.”
“Paper has its pluses, too,” Navarro murmured. “Paper dolls don’t argue with you. Don’t let Nina make you crazy.”
“I won’t. Enjoy your snooze.”
He would—except for worrying about his twin and his twin’s love of all things sweet.
NINA WATCHED one of the twin brothers come back into the kitchen. He had changed his shirt. All the cowboys wore the same basic attire, as if they all used the same laundry basket and grabbed whatever was clean that day. He’d changed and freshened up, and the grin he threw her was positively conspiracy-sharing.
It was Crockett. “Where’s your brother? Everybody’s waiting so that we can talk about what we’re going to do about…you know.”
“Nah,” he said. “We’re not going to talk about that today. We avoid deep discussions the first day we meet someone.”
“Oh.” Nina was surprised. “Okay. I thought they were waiting on your brother before they got serious.”
Because there was nothing serious about any of the brothers. The awkward silence had disappeared and now they were all eating cupcakes and laughing—except Last, who looked slightly ill. Neither he nor Valentine glanced toward each other. Nina felt sorry for both of them. “I think things might move along if your brother joined the family caucus,” she said.
“No, he’d only slow things down. Cupcake?”
She shook her head.
“You’re missing out. Mmm.” Crockett ate his cupcake with an expression of sheer joy on his face.
These men were all boys. Now that she’d made it to the ranch and seen how they lived, her duty was clear. No way were these emotionally stunted men of Malfunction Junction going to raise her sister’s child. She frowned, thinking about the man of mystery who’d napped under his hat and then brought her sister to the ranch. He was the wild card. He might be an adult. There might be hope here, gold yet uncovered. She owed it to him to find out before she made her decision regarding her niece’s or nephew’s future.
No one was looking at her. They were all busy eating cupcakes. Calhoun was pouring milk for Valentine.
Nina left the kitchen and crept up the stairs.
“Hello,” she said. “Anybody here?” Her blood pounding in her ears, she walked to the end of the hall.
And there he was, Mr. Mystery, stretched out on a sofa with a Playboy magazine on his face.
What a rascal.
She had to admit she found his elusiveness exciting, and, for a librarian, the fact that he hid behind printed reading matter was a bonus. Her pulse raced as she approached him. Miss May smiled up at her in a provocative pose. A light snore came from under the pages.
How many men would she ever meet who were comfortable snoozing with a centerfold on his face?
He can use my lacy lavender thong as a bookmark anytime.
“Hello,” Nina whispered. “Yoo-hoo.”
Navarro’s eyes widened as he recognized Nina’s voice above the magazine. “What do you want?”
“To see you when I talk to you.”
No way. He’d feel vulnerable without his disguise.
“Do you know you have a nudie magazine on your face?”
What did she expect in a houseful of men? Ladies’ Home Journal?
Come to think of it, Last had been known to swipe a copy of that from their next door neighbor, Mimi. He said he liked looking at the recipes, but Navarro had always suspected it was the feeling of hominess the magazine projected that warmed Last’s heart. “Do I really? What a strange thing. I thought I’d picked up the copy of Southern Living I was reading only yesterday.”
“Shall I remove it for you?” Nina asked.
“No, thank you. Black ink is black ink. The words aren’t important, but they make a great nightshade.” He figured that would be an insult to a card-carrying, card-cataloging librarian.
“That’s all right,” she said. “I feel like I’m talking to the phantom in the Phantom of the Opera. I actually like not seeing your face, Crockett.”
Oh, boy. There went her romantic escapism problem again. And she’d confused him with his twin.
“Everybody’s downstairs, except you. Do you always ignore your family?”
His eyes wi
dened. If she only knew how much he did not ignore his family. “Mmm.” He grunted.
“I don’t know about you guys,” Nina said.
Navarro rolled his eyes under the magazine.
Then her voice, tinged with that slight edge of smart-aleck that he felt so challenged, bedeviled and intrigued by, continued. “Navarro insists you all are going to raise Valentine’s baby, but frankly, I don’t see a baby fitting into your lifestyle.” She sighed. “Navarro doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Ha! Navarro knew exactly what he was talking about!
“In fact,” Nina said, “I don’t think he knows what he wants. You, on the other hand, Crockett, you know you want to relax with a magazine on your face, and you just do it. I admire that.”
Was she hitting on him? On Crockett? She was, the little minx! He could feel the pages start to steam around his face as his breathing picked up. She was sweet-talking his twin!
Now he understood his little peach. She wasn’t all Dewey decimal systems and matronly attributes. She had a severe case of wanting a bad boy.
Of course, he was an original, from a long line of boys who knew the real meaning of bad.
Navarro reached out, grabbed Nina and pulled her onto him. He kept the magazine plastered over their heads, but he pulled Nina’s face close enough to his for a lip-locking, breath-stealing, bad-boy kiss.
She didn’t even fight him for the paper canopy. Instead her hands held his face and, since she was on top—surely her favorite position, bossy girl that she was—she took over the kiss. Her lips touched his, stole his breath, and heated his blood. His hand stole down to her fanny. Damn, it was a peach, just as he’d suspected.
He was about to throw Miss May to the wall and really get moving with the bad boy romantic escapism Nina was craving when he heard a throat clear in the doorway.
Nina jumped away.
He kept the magazine over his face, praying they hadn’t been caught by one of his brothers. They’d never let him hear the end of it!
“Sorry,” Valentine said. “I was looking for the powder room. Nina, I think you’re needed downstairs.”