The four full-size white cribs were fit together in the middle of the room, like a foursquare. All were decked out in “baby boy” blue. Colorful, eye-catching mobiles were attached to each bed. The babies all wore engraved bracelets that coincided with the names written across the tops of all the side railings.
Mitzy made the introductions proudly. “This is Joe.” The most social, Chase guessed, taking in the long lashes. “He is always smiling and laughing and cooing.”
She moved to the next bed. “And this is Zach.” Who still seemed sleepy, Chase observed, as the little one yawned. Mitzy smiled. “He’s my little Zen baby. Peaceful, content, never complaining.”
She moved on to the third crib, announcing proudly, “Here’s Alex.” The little fella had worked one arm out of his swaddling, Chase noted with admiration. And was attempting to free the other. “He’s going to be my athlete,” Mitzy proclaimed.
“And then—” she paused at the fourth crib “—there is Gabe.” The infant was staring up at them, intent, seeming wise beyond his days. “He seems to be the most perceptive of the four,” she said softly. “He’s always vigilant, always aware.”
Chase started to speak. Briefly, he was so overwhelmed with emotion it felt like he had a frog in his throat. Finally, he managed to say in a rusty-sounding voice, “They’re amazing.”
“I know.” Mitzy’s eyes gleamed suspiciously, too.
Chase took her in his arms, hugging her. “Congratulations, Mom,” he whispered, his voice still sounding a little hoarse.
She nodded, overcome.
Hanging on to him until it became clear if this continued they would kiss, she cleared her throat. Blinking, she extricated herself and turned away. Chase could hardly blame her. The situation between them was precarious enough as it was.
Plus, the babies needed to be fed.
There would be plenty of time in the month to come for them to explore the rest of their feelings. And hopefully discover why they shouldn’t search out closure...
Mitzy took the elastic from her wrist in one hand, captured the thick silky length of her hair with the other and secured it in a high bouncy ponytail on the back of her head.
Smiling, she pushed up the sleeves on her close-fitting T-shirt, all earth mom now. “Would you mind pushing the play button on the stereo, then starting all the mobiles? The combination helps keep them calm while I change their diapers.”
“Happy to.” Glad she was finally including him in this part of her life, Chase did as asked. The soothing sounds of orchestral lullabies filled the room. He edged closer, wanting to be more than a bystander. Waiting until she was done with the bottle of hand sanitizer, he then helped himself to some and asked, “Can I give you a hand?”
“You know how to do this?” Still rubbing her own hands together, disinfecting them, she shot him an astonished look, reminding him he hadn’t been much for babies when they had been together.
“I helped my brother Jack with his three little ones after he lost his wife.”
She handed him a couple of clean diapers, some wipes. “I remember you being in town a lot for a while after.”
A long while, actually, Chase thought. “He had a nanny, too, but he needed family.”
Mitzy sent him a commiserating glance. “Don’t we all.”
They worked in silence. Unsnapping. Diapering. Until all four boys were clean, dry and comfy.
“Now what?” Chase couldn’t imagine how she faced this alone. Even for a moment. Although to her credit, all four babies were still calm. Patient.
Mitzy smiled, looking both grateful for and appreciative of his help. “We take them downstairs.”
A feat that took two trips for each of them. He was looking forward to giving bottles, too. Would have, if a few members of Mitzy’s volunteer army of other women hadn’t arrived.
The next thing Chase knew, the two helpers were with the babies, and he and Mitzy were alone on the front porch.
She’d waved off his offer to wait while she got a jacket—probably because she wanted to keep this goodbye short—and instead stood, arms crossed in front of her chilled breasts. “So about what we were talking about earlier. I know you have your own work to do during the days.” She lifted her chin to search his eyes. “Would it be possible for you to get started helping me tomorrow evening?”
The sooner he could make inroads on restoring his friendship with Mitzy, the better. “Sure,” he agreed, glad to help her in any way he could. Even if she wasn’t exactly making it easy. “What time?”
She raked her teeth across her lush lower lip. Shivering harder now. “Between eight and ten?”
Chase felt the sharp urge to haul her against the warmth of his body and kiss her again. But instead, he tamped down that desire and settled for touching her hand briefly, telling himself their time would come. “I’ll see you then.”
Chapter Four
Mitzy’s heartbeat accelerated the minute she heard the doorbell ring the following evening.
She inhaled deeply and headed for the door.
Chase was on the other side of the portal. His short sandy-brown hair clean and neatly brushed, his face closely shaven and smelling of aftershave, he was as gussied up as if they had been going on a date.
She’d spent a little time on her appearance, as well.
“Hey,” she breathed, resisting the urge to bring him in close for the casual hug she gave most of her good friends. “You’re right on time.” Something that had almost never been true, years before, when they’d actually been a couple.
He hefted the big beautiful Christmas wreath in one hand, the oversize bag from the hardware store, bearing what appeared to be prelit evergreen garlands and red velvet holiday bows, in the other. She caught a whiff of his brisk woodsy cologne as he stepped over the threshold. He winked at her genially. “And bearing gifts.”
Something he had done a lot, when they were together.
Feeling another whoosh of attraction, she took the packages that he handed her. A self-conscious flush moved from her chest up to her cheeks. “You didn’t have to do this.”
He shrugged affably, his gaze moving up and down the length of her. “I thought decorating the front of your home might help put you in the holiday spirit. You know,” he roughly paraphrased her favorite Christmas story, “deck the halls. And mistletoe...and presents to pretty girls...”
Just being with him again made her heart skip another beat. She focused on the wispy curls springing from the open collar of his shirt. “There isn’t any mistletoe here.”
“Really?” He leaned closer, his warm breath whispering across her ear. “That’s a shame.”
She shot him a “contain yourself” look. “And there better not be any in this bag, either, cowboy.”
“Sad to say.” He sighed comically, holding her eyes in the rakish manner she knew so well. “There’s not.”
Yet, she thought, knowing him a lot better than she wished she did.
Past experience told her he would put the moves on her again.
The current sizzle of chemistry promised she would have a very hard time resisting. No matter how much she wanted to keep them from hurting each other again...
“In any case...” Ignoring the mixture of excitement and ambivalence roaring through her, she worked to get the conversation back on track. “Sorry if I’ve been a little glum. I don’t mean to bring you or anyone else down.” She took his coat and hung it in the hall closet. “But it’s hard to be merry when I’ve got business problems on my mind.”
“Hey.” He curved a gentle hand over her shoulder. Understanding glowed in his gray-blue eyes. “Whatever the difficulties are,” he promised in his husky baritone, “they’re nothing we can’t fix.”
Mitzy swallowed and licked her lips. “We?”
Another spark lit between them. Hooking his th
umbs through his belt loops, he rocked forward on the toe of his boots. Shrugged carelessly. “I said I’d help you, and I meant it.”
“I appreciate it.” She refused to let down her guard. “But as for the decorations...” She knew it would be a mistake to be more beholden to him than she was already going to be.
He lifted a hand before she could offer to reimburse him. “We’re going to need a reason to explain why I’m suddenly coming over here evenings. Tonight, it happens to be a holiday errand slash housewarming slash hostess gift.”
She wasn’t surprised he had a plan. He always had a plan. It was one of the things that made being around him so reassuring. At least when she was in a situation where she needed help or yearned to feel protected. At other times...like when he’d worked for her dad at MCS...the fact he’d entertained a plan—to modernize a business that was not in need of change—had caused an undue amount of havoc. Not just for the two of them personally, but for her whole family and, in a sense, MCS, too.
Prior to that, Gus had never fired anyone.
After that, there was the fear he might do so again.
Although he never had.
Luckily, since this arrangement was going to be brief, and just between the two of them, she figured it would be okay. As long as they were careful, that was.
She led the way down the hall, into her father’s old study. The one room in the house she had inherited from him that she had not changed. “So you’ve had questions from others about our ‘relationship,’ too.” She led the way into the wood-paneled abode with the massive desk, built-in bookcases, leather sofa and chair. He looked as at home here as he had always been.
Sitting down at the desk, she turned on the computer.
Chase stood, hands curved over the high back of the reading chair in front of him. “Five different people today mentioned they’d heard about us keeping company again.”
Mitzy waited for the antiquated system to boot up, then logged on. “I only had three. And they were just gentle inquiries.”
Chase winced and revealed wryly, “Mine were more along the line of ‘I better not break your heart again, or else.’”
Trying not to notice how the blue-gray fabric of his shirt nicely delineated the sculpted muscles of his chest, and brought out the stormy hue of his eyes, Mitzy wrinkled her nose at him. “Ouch.”
“I told them all not to worry,” he returned mildly, more confident than ever. “I won’t ever do anything to hurt you again.”
She knew he wouldn’t mean to hurt her. He hadn’t in the past, either. Just as she hadn’t meant to dis him. But their differing priorities and mind-sets had caused them to do just that, anyway. Which was why she wanted to proceed cautiously. See if they could find a way to be friends again first. And then, and only then...when they could trust each other again...move on from there.
Mitzy swallowed and focused on getting into the MCS business database.
Aware he was waiting for her reaction to his contrite assertion, she said, just as penitently, “You really shouldn’t have to take all the blame for that.” She girded herself against the attraction simmering between them, then paused to meet his appreciative gaze. “I was as single-minded and hotheaded as you were back then.”
His broad shoulders flexed. “Luckily, we’ve both matured.”
They had. It didn’t mean she was any less aware of him, though. If anything, she wanted him more than ever. And that could be a problem, given the fact they still wanted very different things in life. She wanted a laid-back small-town existence for herself and her quadruplets. He was still building his multimillion-dollar leather goods empire. Yes, he had recently bought a ranch here in Laramie County, but according to his only sister, Lulu, he also had a loft in Fort Worth, a condominium in a downtown Houston high-rise, a place on the beach in Galveston and a home in the Panhandle.
Real estate, for him, was just another investment, and a bottom-line-friendly place to stay whenever—wherever—he was doing business.
So she couldn’t make too much of the fact he was back in Laramie County, when he could just as soon be gone tomorrow.
Aware that for every good thing in her life, there was also something troubling, Mitzy sighed.
Chase tilted his head, listening to the quiet in the house and the lack of sound coming from the baby monitor on the study shelf. Brow furrowing, he asked, “Where are the quads?”
Mitzy typed in another command. “Asleep in the family room in their bassinets, although for how long I don’t know.” She made a face. “They’ve been really off schedule since my mother and Walter visited.”
Finally seeing what she wanted on-screen, she gestured for him to come closer. He pulled up a chair next to her and sat down.
“Where do you want to start?” he asked.
Good question, Mitzy thought, aware all over again how ill-equipped she was to be running the financial side of the business. Yet she had promised her father she would preserve the company he had built. Make sure his legacy endured. She intended to keep that vow even if it meant putting aside her usual independence and enlisting Chase’s help.
“I logged on to the MCS system earlier in the day. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t really figure out how we’re doing, at least when it comes to the bottom line.”
Chase soon saw why. Every business transaction was entered in a general document, and there was one for each day of the work year. So, they knew everything that had happened on June 1, for instance, but they didn’t know how each action impacted the MCS balance sheet.
He rocked back in the chair, while Mitzy perched on the edge of the desk, to his left. “Has it always been like this?” he asked eventually, aware he still didn’t know much about the financial side of MCS. During the brief time he’d worked for her dad, after he and Mitzy had become engaged, he had been focused on learning the ins and outs of working with leather, and the complex craft of saddle making.
He’d seen even then, improvements could be made. But Gus hadn’t wanted to change anything, even if it would add nicely to the bottom line.
Looking back, understanding fully the hand-crafted artistry of what they did, Chase understood his mentor’s point of view.
But back then, his firing, followed by Mitzy’s refusal to back him up in any way, had been a bitter pill to swallow.
Pushing his disappointment away, he forced himself to concentrate on the task at hand. “Has MCS always kept their records in such a haphazard manner?”
The fragrance of lavender-scented baby powder clung to her. Inundating him. She bit her lower lip. For a moment, surprisingly vulnerable.
Surprisingly like the woman he’d once fallen in love with.
“I think so.”
He pushed aside the desire to take her in his arms and kiss her senseless.
“But you’re not sure?”
Mitzy shrugged. “I never tried to look at the books until this morning. I just talked to the employees from time to time, and they said everything was fine. Which must mean that financially the company is still okay. Right?”
Not necessarily, Chase thought. But not wanting to alarm her until he knew the facts, he turned his glance away from the kissable lines of her mouth and asked, “Who is in charge of managing the financials now?”
She took a deep breath that lifted and lowered the luscious curves of her breasts. “Buck Phillips, our chief operating officer.” Restless, she stood and walked away, then pivoted back to him. “And he told me he was doing all the record keeping the way my dad always did, and then figuring everything out at the end of the fiscal year. Which for us is December 31.”
A hell of a way to run a business.
Mitzy blinked and came closer. “You didn’t know any of this?” she asked.
Chase shook his head. As he reflected, his gaze drifted over her. Taking in the way the soft light of the s
tudy illuminated the peachy hues of her skin, and her shimmering honey-brown hair draped her shoulders.
She might not want to admit it to him, but—new mother or not—she was a very sensual woman. It was apparent in the smooth lines of her ivory V-neck cashmere sweater and the perfect fit of her skirt over her gorgeous derriere.
His body tightening, he said, “Gus never showed me the books. He and I talked mostly about craftsmanship and modernization issues.”
Mitzy perched on the edge of the desk, her arms folded in front of her. Mouth sober, she guessed, “And my dad didn’t want to make any changes.”
“No.” And Gus really should have, Chase reflected grimly. Because then Mitzy wouldn’t be in such a mess.
“So what next?” she asked, stretching her long lissome legs out in front of her and crossing her ankles.
Chase was not one to hold back, especially in situations this potentially serious, but as he looked at her sweet, vulnerable expression, all he felt was an overwhelming need to protect her, the way he hadn’t done in the past.
He swallowed. “I’d like to take all of this data, organize it by category, run it through some business management software and figure out just where MCS is financially.”
Mitzy’s smile remained in place but he thought he saw it tighten a notch or two. “How long will that take?” she asked.
“It’s hard to say exactly. I’m guessing a couple of hours every evening for a few weeks.” Which would not only give him time to do a very thorough accounting of the last two years, but educate Mitzy on the issues before she had to make any hard decisions. He leaned back in the desk chair and met her contemplative gaze. “The question is, where would you like me to do this? Here, or at my ranch?”
She ran her finger along the edge of the desk.
Once again, it looked like they were on the same page.
“Here. Definitely,” she said. A long heated look passed between them.
The Texas Cowboy's Quadruplets Page 5