“Harrison?”
“Your high school sweetheart,” he said. “The one you spent the night with.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What makes you think we spent the night together?”
“I drove by the house to see if his car was there.”
“Why? Why would you even care? You don’t have feelings for me, Reed.”
He looked away for a moment, then back at her. “I have a lot of feelings for you.”
“Right. You feel responsible for me. You care about me. You’re righting wrongs when you’re with me.”
He shook his head but didn’t say anything.
“I should get back to work,” she said.
“Me, too,” he said.
She sucked in a breath. “I guess when we walk out of here, it’s almost like none of it ever happened. We were never really married.”
“I felt married,” he said. Quite unexpectedly.
“And you clearly didn’t like the feeling.” She waited a beat, hoping he’d say she was wrong.
She waited another beat. Nothing.
“There’s nothing between me and Harrison,” she said without really having to. What did it matter to Reed anyway? His urge to drive by the ranch had probably been about him checking up on her, making sure she’d gotten back okay, the detective in him at work. “He did come over for a bit and was so insufferable I couldn’t wait for him to leave.”
He looked surprised. “But what about all the firsts you two shared?”
“Firsts? I had my first kiss with someone else. I lost my virginity to someone else. I did try sushi for the first time with Harrison. I guess that counts.”
“So you two are not getting back together,” he said, nodding.
“We are definitely not.”
“So my position as father of the triplets still stands.”
“That’s correct,” she said even though she wanted to tell him no, it most certainly did not. This was nuts. He was going to be their father in between semi-dates and short-term relationships until the real thing came along for her?
“I’d like to spend some time with them after work, if that’s all right,” he said. “I have presents for them for their eight-month birthday.”
Her heart pinged. “It’s sweet that you even know that.”
“You only turn eight months once,” he said with a weak smile.
And you find a man like Reed Barelli once in a lifetime, she thought. I had you, then lost you, then didn’t ever really have you, and now there’s nothing. Except his need to do right by the triplets, be for them what he’d never had.
“Time to go, kiddos,” she said, trying to inject some cheer in her voice. “See you later, then,” she said, wondering how she’d handle seeing him under such weird circumstances. Were they friends now?
“I’ll get the door,” he said, heading up the aisle to open it for her. He couldn’t get rid of her fast enough.
Her heart breaking in pieces, she gripped the stroller and headed toward the Pie Diner, knowing she’d never get over Reed Barelli.
* * *
“Your grandmother would have loved Norah.”
Reed glanced up at the voice. Annie Potterowski was walking up the chapel aisle toward where he sat in a pew in the last row. He’d been sitting there since Norah had left, twenty minutes or so. He’d married her in this place. And been unmarried to her here. He couldn’t seem to drag himself out.
“Yeah, I think she would have,” Reed said.
Annie sat beside him, tying a knot in the filmy pink scarf around her neck. “Now, Reed, I barely know you. I met you a few times over the years when you came to visit Lydia. So I don’t claim to be an expert on you or anything, but anyone who’s been around as long as I have and marries people for a living knows a thing or two about the human heart. Do you want to know what I think?”
He did, actually. “Let me have it.”
She smiled. “I think you love Norah very much. I think you’re madly in love with her. But this and that happened in your life and so you made her that dumb deal about a partnership marriage.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “How’d you know about that?”
“I listen, that’s how. I pick up things. So you think you can avoid love and feeling anything because you were dealt a crappy hand? Pshaw,” she said, adding a snort for good measure. “We’ve all had our share of bad experiences.”
“Annie, I appreciate—”
“I’m not finished. You don’t want to know the upbringing I had. It would keep you up at night feeling sorry for me. But when Abe Potterowski came calling, I looked into that young man’s eyes and heart and soul, and I saw everything I’d missed out on. And so I said yes instead of no when I was scared to death of my feelings for him. And it was the best decision I ever made.”
He took Annie’s hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“I was used to shutting people out,” she continued. “But you have to know when to say yes, Reed. And your grandmother, God bless her sweet soul, only ever wanted you to say yes to the right woman. Don’t let her get away.” Annie stood and patted his shoulder. “Your grandmother liked to come in here and do her thinking. She sat in the back row, too, other end, though.”
With that, Annie headed down the aisle and disappeared into the back room.
Leaving Reed to do some serious soul-searching.
Chapter Sixteen
“Not married?” Shelby repeated, her face incredulous as she cut up potatoes for the lunch-rush pot pies.
Norah shook her head, recounting what Annie and Abe had said.
“Oh hell,” her mother said. “I really thought you two would work it out.”
“You pushed Harrison on me last night!” Norah complained even though she knew why.
“Yeah, but I only did that because he was here when you called and said you and Reed were stopping in for pot pies. I wanted Reed to know he had competition for your heart.”
“Well, he doesn’t. Harrison was awful. He freaked the minute one of the triplets did number two in his presence.”
“Norah, you and Reed belong together,” Aunt Cheyenne said as she filled six pie tins with beef stew. “We can all see that.”
“I thought we did,” Norah said, tears threatening her eyes. “But he never wanted a real relationship. He wanted to save me. And he wanted the ranch.”
“The ranch he gave up for you?” her mother asked. “You do something crazy like that when you love someone so much they come first.”
“There’s that responsibility thing again,” Norah said, frowning. “Putting me first. Everything for me, right? He wants me to have ‘everything I deserve.’ Except for him.”
“Coming through,” called a male voice.
Norah glanced up at her handsome brother-in-law, Liam Mercer, walking into the kitchen, an adorable toddler holding each of his hands. Despite being in the terrible twos, Norah’s nephews, Shane and Alexander, were a lot of fun to be around.
Liam greeted everyone, then wrapped his wife in a hug and dipped her for a kiss, paying no mind to the flour covering her apron. Norah’s heart squeezed in her chest as it always did when she witnessed how in love the Mercers were.
You should hold out for that, she told herself. For a man who loves you like Liam loves Shelby. Like Dad loved Mom.
Like I love Reed, she thought with a wistful sigh.
In just a few hours he’d be at the ranch, which they’d both have to give up, and the wonderful way he was with the triplets would tear her heart in two. She could have everything she’d ever wanted if Reed would just let go of all those old memories keeping him from opening his heart.
Hmm, she thought. Since being around the triplets did have Reed Barelli all mushy-gushy and as close to his feelings as he could get, maybe she could do a little inv
estigative detective work of her own to see if those “feelings” he spoke of having for her did reach into the recesses of his heart. She knew he wanted her—their night in Las Vegas had proved that, and she knew he cared for her. That was obvious and he’d said it straight-out. But could he enter into a romantic relationship with her and hold nothing back?
The man was so good at everything. Maybe she could get him to see that he could be great at love, too.
* * *
“Something smells amazing,” Reed said when Norah opened the door. For a moment he was captivated by the woman herself. She wore jeans and a pale yellow tank top, her long, reddish-brown hair in a low ponytail, and couldn’t possibly be sexier. His nose lifted at the mouth-watering aroma coming from somewhere nearby. “Steak?”
“On the grill with baked potatoes and asparagus at the ready.”
“Can’t wait. I’m starving.” He set a large, brown paper bag down by the closet. “Where are the brand-new eight-month-olds?”
She smiled. “In their high chairs. They just ate.”
“Perfect. It’s party time.” He trailed her into the kitchen carrying the bag. He set it on the kitchen table and pulled out three baby birthday hats, securing one on each baby’s head.
“Omigod, the cutest,” Norah said, reaching for her phone to take pictures. She got a bunch of great shots. Including Reed in several.
“For the eight-month-olds,” Reed said, putting a chew rattle on Bea’s tray. And one on Bella’s and one on Brody’s. “Oh, I set up a college fund for them today. And got them these new board books,” he added, pulling out a bunch of brightly colored little hardcovers. At first he’d gone a little overboard in the store, putting three huge stuffed animals in his cart, clothing and all kinds of toys. Then he’d remembered it wasn’t even their first birthday and put most of the stuff back.
“Thank you, Reed,” she said. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that they’re so special to you.”
“They’re very special to me. And so are you, Norah.” With the babies occupied in their chairs with their new rattles, he moved closer to their mother and tilted up her chin. “I’m an idiot.”
“Oh?” she asked. “Why is that?”
“Because I almost lost you to that French chef. Or any other guy. I almost lost you, Norah.”
“What are you talking about? I’m alive.” She waved a hand in front of herself.
“I mean I almost lost out on being with you. Really being with you.”
“But I thought—”
“I couldn’t get the triplets gifts and not get you something, too,” he said. “This is for you.” He handed her a little velvet box.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Open it.”
She did—and gasped. The round diamond sparkled in the room. “It’s a diamond ring. A very beautiful diamond ring.”
He got down on one knee before her. “Norah, will you marry me? For real, this time? And sober?”
“But I thought—”
“That I didn’t love you? I do. I love you very much. But I was an idiot and too afraid to let myself feel anything. Except these little guys here changed all that. They cracked my heart wide-open and I had to feel everything. Namely how very deeply in love with you I am.”
She covered her mouth with her hands. “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.”
He grinned and stood and slid the ring on her finger. “She said yes!” he shouted to the triplets, then picked her up and spun her around.
“I couldn’t be happier,” she said.
“Me, either. I get you. I get the triplets. And, hey, I get to live in the ranch because the owner is going to be my wife.”
She smiled and kissed him and he felt every bit of her love for him.
“So the Luv U Wedding Chapel?” she asked. “That would be funny.”
He shook his head. “I was thinking the Wedlock Creek Wedding Chapel.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Wait. Are you forgetting the legend? You want more multiples?”
“Sure I do. I think five or six kids is just about perfect.”
She laughed. “We really must be insane. But you’ll be in high demand to teach the multiples classes. You’ll never have a minute to yourself.”
“I’ll be too busy with my multiples. And my wife.”
“I love you, Reed.”
“I love you, too.”
After calling her mother, aunt and sister with the news—and Reed could hear the shrieks and cheers from a good distance away, Reed called Annie Potterowski at the chapel.
“So, Annie... Norah and I would like to book the chapel for an upcoming Saturday night for our wedding ceremony. We’re thinking a month from now if there are any openings.”
Now it was Annie’s turn to shriek. “You’re making your grandmother proud, Reed. How’s the second Saturday in August? Six p.m.?”
“Perfect,” he said. Norah had told him a month would be all she’d need to find a wedding dress and a baby tux for Brody and two bridesmaids’ dresses for Bella and Bea. Her family was already all over the internet.
“And we’ll spell our names right this time,” he added.
A few hours later the triplets were in their cribs, the dishes were done and Reed was sitting with his fiancée on the sofa, stealing kisses and just staring at her, two glasses of celebratory champagne in front of them.
“To the legend of the Wedlock Creek chapel,” he said, holding up his glass. “It brought me my family and changed my life forever.”
Norah clinked his glass and grinned “To the chapel—and the very big family we’re going to have.”
He sealed that one with a very passionate kiss.
Epilogue
One year later
Reed stood in the nursery—the twins’ nursery—marveling at tiny Dylan and Daniel. Five days ago Norah had given birth to the seven-pounders, Dylan four ounces bigger and three minutes older. Both had his dark hair and Norah’s perfect nose, slate-blue eyes that could go Norah’s hazel or his dark brown, and ten precious fingers and ten precious toes.
Norah was next door in the triplets’ nursery, reading them their favorite bedtime story. Soon they’d be shifting to “big kid” beds, but at barely two years old they were still smack in the middle of toddlerhood. He smiled at the looks they’d gotten as they’d walked up and down Main Street yesterday, Norah pushing the twins’ stroller and him pushing the triplets’.
“How do you do it?” someone had asked.
“Love makes it easy,” Reed had said. “But we have a lot of help.”
They did. Norah’s family and the Potterowskis had set up practically around-the-clock shifts of feeding them, doing laundry and entertaining the triplets the first couple of days the twins were home. Many of their students from the past year had also popped by with gifts and offers to babysit the triplets, couples eager to get some first-hand experience at handling multiples.
Even the Dirks had come by. David and a very pregnant Eden—expecting twins without having ever said “I do” at the Wedlock Creek chapel.
“I’ve got this,” David had said, putting a gentle hand on his wife’s belly. “I thought I’d be scared spitless, but watching you two and taking your class—easy peasy.”
Reed had raised an eyebrow. David might be in for the rude awakening he’d been trying to avoid, but Reed wasn’t about to burst his bubble. They’d have help just like the Barellis did. That was what family and friends and community were all about.
Norah came in then and stood next to him, putting her arm around him. “The triplets are asleep. Looks like these guys are close.”
“Which means we have about an hour and a half to ourselves. Movie?”
She nodded. “Jerry Maguire is on tonight. Remember when we watched that?”
&n
bsp; He would never forget. He put his arms around her and rested his forehead against hers. “Did I ever tell you that you complete me?”
She shook her head. “You said it was nonsense.”
“Didn’t I tell you I was an idiot? You. Complete. Me. And so do they,” he added, gesturing at the cribs. “And the ones in the room next door.”
She reached up a hand to his cheek, her happy smile melting his heart. Then she kissed him and they tiptoed out of the nursery.
But Dylan was up twenty minutes later, then Daniel, and then the triplets were crying, and suddenly the movie would have to wait. Real life was a hell of a lot better, anyway.
* * * * *
Be sure to check out the first book in the
WYOMING MULTIPLES miniseries:
THE BABY SWITCH
Available now!
And look for Melissa Senate’s next book, part of the MONTANA MAVERICKS:
THE LONELYHEARTS RANCH miniseries,
THE MAVERICK’S BABY-IN-WAITING,
coming August 2018,
wherever Harlequin Special Edition books
and ebooks are sold.
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Detective Barelli's Legendary Triplets Page 17