Twins for the Rancher

by Trish Milburn

  “Have you heard me complain?”

  “Well, no, but—”

  “No buts. If I minded you bringing the girls, I wouldn’t have suggested it. I do, however, wish you could enjoy yourself without thoughts of your ex invading.”

  “I’m—” She caught herself mid-apology. “It’s hard not to see the world through a different lens now.”

  “I understand.”

  Maybe he thought he did, but how could he when he didn’t know the whole story?

  “Did I do something that reminded you of him?”

  “No,” she said, but then realized that was actually a lie. “I mean, yes, but in a good way.”

  He glanced at her briefly before returning his attention to the highway. “That’s going to require more explanation.”

  “I was just thinking I couldn’t imagine Phil actually having fun at the ice palace.”

  “Not even for his daughters?”

  “Considering he has barely acknowledged their existence and even tried to claim in court they weren’t his, no.”

  “He thought you’d been with someone else?”

  The way Adam sounded as he posed the question—as if he couldn’t fathom her cheating in a million years—caused a strange fluttering sensation in her chest.

  “More like he was looking for any way he could to punish me.”

  “For what?”

  “For ruining his grand plan to use me as his gravy train.”

  The look of confusion visible even by viewing only Adam’s profile told her he hadn’t dug too deeply into the details of the trial.

  For the first time, she found herself wanting to share what had happened. When she’d had to reveal everything before, it hadn’t been of her choosing. She’d been in a courtroom, forced to stick only to facts with little explanation allowed. Even though she’d won the case, thinking about the ordeal still made her feel raw and exposed.

  “You don’t have to explain,” he said.

  But there was something about riding along in the dark and not actually facing him that made it easier for the words to start tumbling out.

  “Phil and I were together almost two years. I thought I knew him or I would have never agreed to marry him. But it turned out I didn’t really know him at all.”

  When Adam didn’t ask any questions, and instead gave her the freedom to reveal as much or little as she wanted, Lauren took a deep breath and dove into the telling of the most exhausting time of her life.

  “I’ve been trying not to feel like a fool ever since I found out Phil wasn’t the person I thought. Some days are harder than others.” Like when the fear she’d make the same mistake again reared its head. “I found out he was making promises of business deals for my company without my knowledge. He was signing contracts and taking money when he had no legal right to do so. I didn’t want to believe it and couldn’t bring myself to confront him—at least not until I was certain. Violet convinced me to hire a private investigator. I still get sick at my stomach thinking about it. I was so afraid of what he’d find or if there was no evidence of wrongdoing Phil would feel betrayed and leave.”

  “But he did find something,” Adam said after a few seconds, making her realize she’d lapsed into silence.

  “Yeah. The PI posed as someone wanting to do business with Brazos Baker, and Phil went through with signing a fake contract, claiming he spoke for the company. One, he wasn’t an employee. And we weren’t married, so even that tie wasn’t there. He had his own job as a salesman for a company that sells commercial kitchen supplies. That’s how we met—at a trade show for chefs.”

  She’d once thought if she could go back in time, she’d skip that trade show and thus avoid Phil being a part of her life completely. But then she wouldn’t have Bethany and Harper, and despite how frazzled and tired she often felt, she couldn’t imagine her life without them now.

  “I confronted Phil about it and he tried to wave it off as a misunderstanding. That was until I slapped the evidence from the PI down in front of him. Then he got angry, said I was just trying to find an excuse to get out of the marriage and giving him what he was owed. He was talking nonsense and continued to do so with his attorney. I think the guy actually believed Phil’s lies.”

  “Did he claim he acted on your authority?”

  “Yes, and when he couldn’t provide proof of that, he claimed that I’d promised him half the company as a wedding present. I’d done no such thing, and he actually shot himself in the foot with that claim because an attorney came forward with evidence that Phil had him draw up a prenuptial agreement.” Lauren swallowed the bile rising in her throat. “He intended to get me to agree to it and rob me of half of what I’d worked so hard to build.”

  Adam reached over and took her hand in his. She latched on to his support before getting to the worst part of the story.

  “I sense there’s more,” he said.

  “When I found out I was pregnant, I still felt I should tell him he was going to be a father. A part of me thought it would make him back down, that it would change his entire outlook on things. Instead, he had his attorney blindside me in court, claiming the girls weren’t his. He knew they were, and a DNA test proved it. He just wanted to embarrass me, make my viewers question the entire wholesome, family-centered tone of my business. If he couldn’t have what he wanted, he didn’t intend for me to have it, either.”

  “Please tell me he’s rotting in a prison cell for fraud.”

  How many times had Lauren fantasized about that very thing?

  “No.”

  “I thought he lost the case.”

  “He did. It was my choice. It took some convincing of the people he’d conned, the judge, even my own attorney, but everyone finally agreed that it was better he remain free so he could make reparations and do a boatload of community service.”

  “Why did you let him off so easy?”

  “Because his going to jail would have just made bigger headlines, and I wanted all the negative attention to go away so I could move on and do damage control.” She paused, took a shaky breath. “And because I didn’t want the girls to grow up with the stigma of having a father in prison.”

  Adam was quiet for a long moment, one during which Lauren wondered if he now thought she was the fool she feared.

  “You’re a good mother. A great one.”

  “Thank you,” she said, her throat full of rising emotion she couldn’t name.

  Or was too scared to.

  Chapter Twelve

  Adam didn’t typically have violent tendencies, even less so than his normally pretty chill brothers. But the more Lauren told him about what Phil had done, the more he wanted to punch the guy into another galaxy. The thought of the jerk walking around free—even if he had lost his job and now had to do court-ordered community service, no doubt working as part of a sanitation crew—just didn’t seem right. The fact that Lauren had set aside her own hurt, and probably desire for revenge, in order to protect her daughters said a lot about the kind of person she was—the kind he liked more with each passing minute.

  When he pulled in to the parking lot of the Wildflower Inn, he wished the drive back had been longer. He didn’t want the night to end, but with two babies to get to bed, there was no chance of it extending further than the next few minutes.

  He expected Lauren to get out of the SUV as soon as he parked. Instead, she sat staring out the windshield toward the dark surface of Blue Falls Lake.

  “Other than family and attorneys, you’re the only person I’ve told any of that,” she said.

  Though he wished she hadn’t been put through such hell, he felt honored she trusted him enough to share the details with him—especially when he knew trust was a huge obstacle for her.

  “For what it’s worth, you’re one of the strongest women I’ve ever met. Not a lot of peopl
e could have gone through what you did without coming out the other side bitter and angry.”

  “Oh, trust me there’s been plenty of that.”

  “But it doesn’t rule you. It’s not what people see when they meet you.”

  She looked at him and he’d swear he’d never seen anyone so beautiful; she didn’t even have to be in full light for it to show.

  “What do they see?”

  He stared at her, wanting to pull her into his arms and kiss her until they both were forced to surface for oxygen.

  “They or me?”

  Lauren didn’t respond at first, instead licking her lips. “You.”

  He cupped her jaw, loving the feel of her soft skin against his rougher palm. “A woman who is strong, caring, hardworking and so beautiful I sometimes forget how to form words.”

  She placed her palm against the hand he held to her cheek and swallowed visibly. “Thank you. I haven’t heard anything like that in a long time—and then only from someone who probably didn’t mean it.”

  “Which in itself is a crime.”

  Lauren lowered her gaze, appearing as if she had no idea how to respond.

  Adam started to lean toward her, but one of the girls made a sound in the back, dispersing any romantic thoughts Lauren might have been entertaining.

  “I better get them inside. I don’t want them getting too cold.”

  The interior of the SUV might have been cooling now that the engine and thus the heater weren’t running, but Adam hadn’t noticed. His blood had heated at Lauren’s nearness, at the fact she hadn’t pulled away, even more so when he’d thought they might finally share a kiss.

  The speed with which she opened her door and slipped out caused him to wonder if it had less to do with getting the babies inside and a lot more with the fact he’d spooked her. What he’d said about her being strong was true, but he had to wonder if Phil’s actions had done more damage than Lauren realized.

  With a sigh, he got out as well, aiming to retrieve Harper from her seat behind his. When they reached Lauren’s room with the babies still half-asleep a few minutes later, he handed Harper off to Violet. He noticed Lauren’s sister glancing between them, no doubt curious how the date went. He’d likely encounter similar curiosity when he arrived home. The thought made him halfway want to get a room here at the inn tonight.

  Of course, that thought made him think of how he might use that room.

  When Lauren turned to say good-night, he wondered if she could see his thoughts. Especially when he considered she wore a smile that was shyer than he knew her to be.

  “Thanks for tonight,” she said. “I had a nice time. And though they can’t say it yet, the girls did, too.”

  He nodded. “Me, too.” The moment grew awkward. “Well, good night.”

  “Good night.”

  During his walk back to the parking lot, an odd emptiness accompanied him. A feeling of being incomplete. He walked a few feet past his mom’s SUV to the grassy crest of the hill that led down to the lakeside park. He shivered against a sudden brisk wind off the lake that eliminated what little of his earlier warmth still lingered.

  “Adam?”

  At first he thought he’d imagined Lauren’s voice, but then he heard footsteps behind him. He turned to find her standing a short distance away.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked.

  She appeared to be about to say something, but in the next moment she erased the few feet between them, placed her hands on his shoulders and lifted onto her toes. As her lips touched his, Adam wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer.

  And the incomplete feeling went completely away.

  * * *

  LAUREN LET GO of the last bit of resistance holding her back and fell completely into the kiss. When Adam’s arms came around her, pulling her closer, she didn’t think she’d ever loved the feel of anything more.

  Though the air around them was cold enough she’d seen her breath on the walk out here, she was fairly certain flames were licking at her body. Were it not for her sister and daughters inside, she would lead Adam back to the room and see where things went. It’d been so long since she’d been held by a man, since she’d felt any passion.

  Truth was she’d never felt a hunger like what was gnawing at her now. She wanted Adam, all of him, more than she could adequately describe. That should scare her, would have only minutes ago, but in this moment it didn’t. Because crossing this line had been her move. He’d given her that. And now he was showing her just how much he had been holding back. Because there was no way the hunger she felt from him had just been born when she captured his lips with hers.

  She had no idea how much time had elapsed when their lips finally left each other. Were it not for Adam’s hands against her back, Lauren would have been pretty certain she would have stumbled and perhaps toppled right over. The feeling in her head was similar to the dizzy feeling she got when on a boat.

  “I’m sorry,” Adam said, sounding breathless. “Too much?”

  Not enough. Not nearly enough.

  “Don’t apologize. I seem to remember I started that.”

  A slow, sexy grin transformed Adam from apologist to a man she was having an extraordinarily hard time not shoving into the back seat of his mom’s SUV and steaming up the windows so much that someone was bound to call the cops.

  That mental image caused her to laugh, which wiped the grin from Adam’s face.

  “My turn to apologize,” she said as she motioned toward her head. “Inappropriate thoughts.”

  The grin raced back to his mouth. “That right?”

  “And no, I’m not sharing them.”

  Adam tugged her closer, and there was no mistaking just what kind of effect their hot make-out session had on him. Honestly, she was surprised there wasn’t visible steam coming off her own body.

  Lauren thought about how she’d run out on Violet without an explanation, not that she didn’t think her sister had already come up with something juicy. “I should get back inside.”

  “Can’t say I like that idea.”

  She smiled up at Adam and hoped with all her might that he was the good guy he seemed. “I should be scared out of my mind right now, but I’m not.”

  Adam ran the tips of his fingers softly along the edge of her face. “Does that mean you’ll go out with me again?”

  “Yes. And maybe I can arrange a babysitter next time.” She hated to keep depending on her family to look after the girls so much, but if she didn’t get some alone time with Adam she was afraid she might combust. Maybe she could hire a babysitter and give them all a free night.

  “As cute as the girls are, I like the sound of that.”

  Though she didn’t want to, she made herself take a step backward and then another. “I’ll let you know, okay?”

  Another step and the only part of them that was still touching was their hands, but then Adam pulled her quickly back into his arms and kissed her again—a deep, thorough kiss that left her wondering if she had enough energy left to walk back to the room.

  “I better let you go before I act on some of my own inappropriate thoughts,” he said, but then gave her another mind-spinning kiss before breaking all contact and stepping toward the SUV. “I’ll wait until you get inside.”

  Inside the SUV? Yes, please.

  But no, he meant the inn. Somehow she remembered how walking worked, so she turned and headed for the light of the lobby. She didn’t allow herself to look back at Adam or she might walk right back to him. Possibly run. Her entire body was shaking as she entered the light and warmth of the lobby. A quick glance toward the check-in desk revealed that the young woman there appeared to be hiding a smile. Had she seen Lauren and Adam getting hot and heavy in the parking lot?

  Good grief, she had to be careful. Everyone had a cell phone, and the l
ast thing she needed was a video of her and Adam all over each other in a dark parking lot hitting the internet. It would shoot all her work to put the coverage of the trial and questions about her morality firmly behind her and out of the minds of her viewers.

  She walked on legs that felt like overcooked noodles down the hallway toward her room. When she reached it, she didn’t immediately enter. Instead, she leaned against the wall and tried to get her breathing under control. To slow her heart rate. To formulate some sort of response to the questions she knew waited for her on the other side of the door.

  She caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and her heart jumped into her throat. When she turned toward the end of the corridor, she fully expected to see Phil staring at her. She’d swear she saw him. Anger propelled her down the hallway. When she reached him, she was going to fire at him with both barrels with everything she’d imagined saying to him that she hadn’t been able to in that courtroom. Punish him for intruding on this moment when she was basking in the glow of having kissed Adam.

  But when she reached the end of the hallway and looked in both directions, there was no one in sight. And there was nowhere he could have hidden that quickly. She’d imagined him. Was this the universe’s way of warning her she was making a mistake again?

  No, Adam was a good guy. He’d proven that over and over, hadn’t he?

  With a sigh, she turned and walked back to her room. She took a deep breath and pulled the key card out of her pocket. But before she could slip it into the slot, the exit door at the end of the hall opened and she jerked toward the sound. But it still wasn’t Phil. Instead, Papa Ed stepped inside. Had he arrived back while she was gone to Austin? If so, why had he just been outside? Surely he hadn’t driven back this late.

  What worried her more than his driving several hours alone after dark was how he appeared to be carrying a heavy but invisible burden on his shoulders.

  “Papa Ed?”

  He looked up as he neared her, seeming startled to find her out in the corridor.

  “Did you just get back?”

  He gave a quick nod, looking as if he wanted nothing more than to slip inside his room and fall asleep. But he halted midway to reaching for his door and turned toward her.