How could she deny him such a simple request when he’d just interrupted the past two days of his life to help her? Not to mention absorbing the expense of the trip.
With an indulgent shake of her head, she muttered, “Oh, all right. But I’m beginning to think you’d have been better suited to raise mules than Thoroughbreds, Conall.”
He chuckled. “I have a lot of Grandmother Kate in me.”
The door to the spare bedroom was slightly ajar and she reached inside to flip on the light before pushing the door wide.
Glancing around at him, she pointed out, “Your grandmother Kate is wonderful. Not stubborn.”
“That’s what I mean.”
The grin on his face made her heart flutter foolishly and she quickly turned her attention away from him to push the bedroom door wide.
“Oh!” The one word was quietly gasped as she stared in complete shock. The dusty drab room that she’d been planning to refurnish one day had been transformed into a fairy-tale nursery. Twisting her head around, she said with stunned accusation, “You knew about this!”
He motioned for her to step inside the room. “Perhaps you should take a look before you decide to chop off my head.”
Dazed, she moved slowly into the room while her gaze tried to encompass everything at once. The walls had been painted a soft yellow and bordered with wallpaper of brightly colored stick horses. A classic crib made of dark cherrywood with carved spokes stood in one corner while on the opposite wall a matching chest and dresser framed a window draped with Priscilla curtains printed with the same theme as the wallpaper. Behind them, in another available corner, a full-sized rocking horse made of carved wood, complete with a saddle and a black rag-mop mane and tail waited for little hands and feet to climb on and put him in motion.
“This is…unbelievable,” she said in a hushed voice. “It’s lovely, Conall. Truly lovely.”
“The crib is especially made to connect another one to it later on,” he said. “Maura tells me most parents let their twins sleep together until they get a little older. So we thought the one would do for now.”
Vanessa stepped over to the bed to see it was made up with smooth, expensive sheets and a yellow-and-white comforter. At the footboard, a mobile with birds and bees dangled temptingly out of reach.
“I think—” She paused as a lump of emotional tears clogged her throat and forced her to swallow. “It’s all perfect, Conall.”
She pulled back the comforter and placed Rick gently on the mattress. Conall bent forward and laid Rose next to him. Her throat thick, Vanessa watched as he smoothed a finger over the baby girl’s red-gold hair, then repeated the same caress on the boy.
Once he straightened away from the babies, he rested his hand against her back and murmured, “I’m glad you think it’s perfect, Vanessa. I wanted this little homecoming to be that way for you.”
She looked up at him as all sorts of thoughts and questions swirled in her head. “I don’t know what to think…or say. The cost, all the work—”
“Don’t fret about any of that, Vanessa,” he said quickly, cutting her off. “The cost wasn’t as much as you think. And the two stable hands that Maura borrowed from the ranch to help her were only too glad to get out of mucking stalls for a couple of days.”
Even though Maura and others had worked to prepare the nursery, no one had to tell her that Conall had been the orchestrator of the whole thing and the fact left her totally bewildered. For a man who said he would never have children, Conall was behaving almost like a new father.
What did it mean? Was he doing all this for her? Or the babies? None of it made sense.
Yes, innately he was a good, decent man, she reasoned. And he could afford to be generous. Being his secretary, she personally dealt with the charities he supported, and the people he helped, some of whom he didn’t even know. She could almost understand him paying for the trip, the nursery, the nanny. Almost. But the kiss, the touches, the smiles and easy words, those hadn’t been acts of charity. Or had they?
“Vanessa? There’s a tiny little frown on your forehead. Is something wrong?”
Hoping that was all he could read on her face, she said, “I’m just wondering.”
“About what?”
She couldn’t answer that, Vanessa decided. If he knew her thoughts had been dwelling on his kiss he’d most likely be amused. And she couldn’t stand that. Not from him.
“Nothing. Just forget it,” she said dismissively.
He studied her face for a quiet moment, then bent his head and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. “I’m going to go get the rest of your things from the truck,” he said gently.
As Vanessa watched him leave the nursery, she realized the twins had done more than made her an instant mother. For now, they’d turned her boss into a different man, one that was very dangerous to her vulnerable heart.
Chapter Five
A week and a half later, Conall stood inside the only barn on the Diamond D that was still the original structure their grandfather, Arthur Donovan, had erected back in the 1960s when the ranch was first established.
The walls of the structure consisted of rough, lapped boards while the wide span of roof was corrugated iron. Down through the years loving attention had allowed the old building to survive the elements and to this day the building was, in his opinion, the prettiest on the ranch.
Conall would be the first person to admit he’d always been attached to the old barn. It held some of his earliest and fondest childhood memories, many of which included his stern grandfather warning him not to climb to the top of the rafter-high hay bales.
“This old building is a tinderbox just waiting for a match or cigarette to come along and ignite it,” his brother Liam commented as the two men stood in the middle of the cavernous barn.
For the past few years Liam had been the sole horse trainer for the Diamond D and for the most part Conall allowed him to dictate how the working area of the ranch was laid out and what equipment was needed to keep the horses healthy, happy and in top-notch running and breeding condition. But the old barn was a different matter. It was full of history. It was a point of tradition and Conall was just stubborn enough and old-fashioned enough to insist it remain the same.
“Liam, I’ve heard this from you a hundred times. You ought to know by now that I have no intention of changing my mind on the subject.”
Rolling his eyes with impatience, Liam answered, “Fine. If you don’t want to tear the firetrap down, then at least you can renovate and replace the lumber with cinder block.”
Conall groaned. “Sorry. I’m not doing that, either. I don’t want our ranch to look like the grounds of a penitentiary.”
Slapping a pair of leather work gloves against the palm of his hand, Liam muttered, “I don’t have to tell you what a fire would do to this place.”
The sun had disappeared behind the mountains at least forty-five minutes ago and for the first time in months Conall had left his office earlier than usual with plans to drive to Vanessa’s. He didn’t want to waste his time going over this worn-out argument with Liam.
“Liam, I might not have my hands on the horses every day like you do, but I do understand their needs and how to care for them. You damn well know that I’m aware of the devastation a fire causes to a horse barn or stables. But—” he used his arm to gesture to the interior of the building “—we’re not housing horses in here now. Besides that, we have the most modern and up-to-date fire alarm system installed in every structure on the ranch. Not to mention the fact that we have security guards and stable grooms with the horses around the clock. The horses are safer than our own grandmother is when she’s sitting in a rocker on the back porch. So don’t give me the fire argument.”
Liam let out a disgruntled grunt. “You’ve got to be the biggest old fogey I know, Conall. What about the argument of updating the barn to make it more usable and efficient? Right now all we have in here are hay and tractor tires!”
&n
bsp; “This barn worked for Grandfather and it’s still working for us. And right now, it’s getting late. Let’s get to the house,” Conall told him.
With both men agreeing to let the matter drop for now, they stepped out into the rapidly fading light. As they walked to the main house, Liam kept his steps abreast of Conall’s.
“I’m going over to the Bar M after dinner,” he announced abruptly. “Want to come along?”
Mildly surprised, Conall glanced at him. “The Bar M? The Sanderses giving a party or something?” he asked, then shook his head. “That was a stupid question of me, wasn’t it? You don’t do parties.”
Beneath his cowboy hat, Liam’s lips pressed together in a grim line. “Why do you have to be a bastard at times, Conall?”
Conall bit back a sigh. It was true he’d purposely asked the question to dig at his younger brother. But he’d not done it out of meanness as Liam seemed to think. He’d done it out of care and concern. But trying to explain that to his younger brother would be as easy as making it rain on a cloudless day, he thought dismally.
“I don’t know—just goes with my job, I suppose,” he quipped.
Liam grunted. “Compared to my job, yours is like a day off. You should be smiling and kicking your heels.”
Even though Conall put in long, stressful hours, his job couldn’t begin to be compared to Liam’s. His younger brother was up at three in the morning in order to be at the stables at four and most nights he didn’t fall into bed until long after the rest of the household was sound asleep. When Ruidoso’s racing meet wasn’t going on, he was shipping horses to tracks in the mid-south and on to the west coast. And their health and racing condition was only a part of his responsibility. He had to make sure each one was strategically entered in a race that would enhance his or her chances of winning.
“I know it,” Conall admitted. “That’s why you’re going to have to give in and replace Clete. Or you’re going to end up in the hospital with a heart attack.”
Three years ago, Liam’s longtime assistant, Cletis Robinson, had died after a lengthy illness. The death of the seventy-five-year-old man had shaken the whole ranch and especially the Donovan family, who’d valued Clete’s friendship for more than thirty years. Liam grunted again. “According to Bridget I don’t have a heart.”
“She doesn’t believe I have one, either,” Conall half joked. “I guess our little sister thinks we should be like those namby-pamby guys she went to med school with.”
“Bridget is too soft for her own good,” Liam muttered.
“So why are you going over to the Bar M this evening?” Conall asked as they approached a side entrance to the main ranch house.
“Chloe has a two-year-old gelding she’s thinking about selling. I think he might be good enough to earn some money.”
Pausing with surprise, Conall looked at him. “There has to be a catch. Chloe would never sell a good runner.”
“Normally, no. But she was forced to geld this one. And Chloe doesn’t like to invest time or money into a horse that can’t reproduce.”
Conall tried not to wince as he reached to open the door. “Yeah,” he said, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice. “Throwing offspring is the most important thing.”
Close on his heels, Liam cursed. “Hell, Conall—“
“Forget I said that,” Conall quickly interrupted. “You do what you think about the gelding. I have plans to see the twins tonight.”
The two men entered the house and started down a long hallway that would take them to the central part of the house.
“The twins,” Liam repeated blankly. “You mean Vanessa’s new twins?”
“What other twins do we know?” Conall countered.
Liam stepped up so that the two of them were walking abreast of each other. “Well, there’s the Gibson twins. You know, the ones we dated in high school.”
Conall chuckled. “So you haven’t forgotten them, either?”
Liam grunted with faint humor. “Forget two blonde tornadoes? They might have been short on intelligence but they were long on entertainment,” he said, then glanced at Conall. “So what’s the deal with Vanessa’s twins? I thought after that trip to Las Vegas you had everything taken care of?”
Vanessa and the twins were settled now and from what she’d told him over the phone, everything was going fine. So why was he giving in to the urge to tear over to her house, Conall asked himself? Because ever since that evening they’d returned from Vegas he’d been dying to see the babies again. And more than that, he missed Vanessa, missed seeing her at her desk and talking with her, however briefly, throughout the busy day.
“They’re fine. I have a gift for the babies that I want to deliver.”
Liam studied him faint dismay. “Making a trip out to Vegas and bringing them home wasn’t enough of a gift?”
Apparently Liam didn’t know about the new nursery he’d funded for the twins or the fact that he was in the process of hunting for a full-time nanny. And Conall wasn’t about to tell him. What went on between him and Vanessa was none of Liam’s or anyone else’s business, he decided.
“No. I wanted to give them something personal. After all, Vanessa is my secretary. And it’s not like she had a baby shower.” Seeing they’d reached the staircase that led up to the floor where his bedroom and several others were located, he broke away from his brother’s side. As he started the climb, he threw a parting comment over his shoulder. “Good luck with Chloe. You’re going to need it if you try to deal with her. She’s tough.”
“She might be tough, big brother, but she’s not dangerous.”
Conall glanced behind him to see Liam was still standing at the bottom of the stairs staring thoughtfully up at him.
“What does that mean?” Conall asked.
With a dismissive wave, Liam began to move on down the hallway. “You figure it out,” he called back to Conall.
From the Diamond D to Vanessa’s place, the highway meandered through pine-covered mountains then opened up to bald hills spotted with scrub pinion, twisted juniper and random tufts of grass, and this evening he took in the landscape with renewed appreciation. It wasn’t often that Conall left the ranch for any reason. Unless there was an important conference or horse-racing event for him to attend, there wasn’t a need for him to leave the isolated sanctuary of his home. Clients came to him, not the other way around.
Going to Vegas with Vanessa had definitely been out-of-character for him. And this trip tonight was even more so, he admitted to himself. Especially since he’d sworn off women and dating.
So what was happening to him? he wondered as he rounded a bend and the turnoff to Vanessa’s house came into view. Had two little babies reminded him that his life wasn’t over? Or was he simply waking up after a long dormant spell? Either way, it felt good to be getting out, good to think of seeing the babies, and even better to envision kissing Vanessa again.
Vanessa was at the back part of the house in a small alcove used for a laundry room when she heard a faint knock at the front door. Surprised by the unexpected sound, she used her hip to shove the dryer door closed and hurried through the house. In the past few days she’d had a few old friends and acquaintances stop by to see the babies, but it was getting far too late in the evening for such a neighborly visit.
Before opening the door, she peeked through the lacy curtain covering a window that overlooked the front porch. The moment she spotted Conall standing on the tiny piece of concrete, her heart momentarily stopped. He’d not been here since the evening they’d returned from Las Vegas and a few days had passed since she’d talked to him on the phone. It wasn’t like her rigidly scheduled boss to show up unannounced on her doorstep. But then it wasn’t like Conall to leave the Diamond D, much less leave it to come here.
Momentarily pressing a hand to her chest, she drew in a bracing breath, then pulled the door wide to greet him. This evening he was dressed in old jeans and a predominately white plaid shirt with pearl snaps.
A black Stetson was pulled low over his forehead and she was struck by how much younger and relaxed he looked. This was Conall the horseman—not the businessman—and rough sexuality surrounded him like an invisible cloud.
She released the breath she’d been holding. “Hello, Conall.”
A sheepish smile crossed his lean features. “Sorry I didn’t call first, Vanessa, but I didn’t want you thinking you needed to rush around and tidy things before I got here. Am I interrupting?”
Her insides were suddenly shaking, making her feel worse than foolish. For weeks she’d worked with this man every day. It wasn’t like he was a stranger. But actually he was a stranger, she thought. This man on her porch wasn’t the same as the tough-as-nails boss who ran a multimillion-dollar horse ranch; he was a man she was just beginning to know and like. Far too much.
“Not at all. Won’t you come in?” she asked.
“Thanks,” he murmured as he stepped through the door.
As he walked to the middle of the small living room, his male scent trailed after him and as her eyes traveled over his broad shoulders and long muscular legs, Vanessa felt her own knees grow ridiculously weak.
“Please have a seat,” she offered, “or would you rather take a look at the babies first? They’re in the kitchen. Asleep in their bassinet.”
Two days after they’d returned from Las Vegas, a delivery truck had arrived at the door with a double bassinet fashioned just for twins. The card accompanying it had simply read, I thought you might need this, too.
She’d immediately called Conall and thanked him for the gift, but now that he was here in the flesh, now that his gaze was on her face, she felt extremely exposed and confused. Why was he really here? For her or the babies?
With a guilty little grin, he pulled off the black Stetson and placed it on a low coffee table in front of the couch. “If you don’t mind I’d love to see the babies.”
“Sure. I was just about to eat. Have you had dinner?” she asked as she motioned for him to follow her out of the room.
“I didn’t take time to eat,” he admitted. “Liam had me cornered and then it was too late to join the family at the dining table.”
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