The Cowboy's Triplets

by Tina Leonard

  “Of course it’s difficult to keep your eyes on five thousand acres and six nephews,” Pete said, thinking about what his aunt had gone through.

  “Well, we were up to the task, but Bode didn’t make our lives any easier.” Fiona pulled her hands back from his and put them in her lap. “As long as nothing happened to you boys, I didn’t care. I wasn’t worried when the acreage down near the ravine caught on fire. Didn’t get overly excited when he sent a couple of brawny men over to put an offer on the ranch.” She sniffed. “I sent them packing in a hurry.”

  Pete reminded himself that he’d just solemnly promised his aunt he wouldn’t go thrash the daylights out of Bode Jenkins. He could feel the blood boiling between his ears, though, and told himself to remain calm for his aunt’s sake. “I’m sure they never bargained on you,” he told Fiona. “I wish you’d let us help you, though.”

  “You were younger then. And I was supposed to be your guardian. Frankly, I’ve got enough Irish in me not to be afraid of a little battle between neighbors,” she said with a rueful smile. “Tell you the truth, I always thought Bode was dumber than a rock. But I didn’t foresee his daughter, Julie, whom I’d held on my knees when she was a baby, growing up to be his ace in the hole.” Fiona shook her head.

  “How?” Pete asked, trying to imagine sweet Julie being much of a threat to anyone. She could be a rascal, and certainly raised hell on his brothers when she deemed it necessary—and he’d always admired her for it—but Julie was a lady.

  “Next thing I knew, about five years ago, the discussion of eminent domain came up. That alarmed me, as you might imagine. Suddenly, the state was talking about needing our land for a highway. Burke and I fought it, of course. They weren’t willing to pay a whole lot for the property, and I felt there were better avenues to consider. So we suggested alternative routes to the state, and to our surprise, they agreed with us. I thought it was over. I should have been suspicious then.” Fiona took a deep breath. “We had the property paid for, the house paid off, it was all Callahan. And then Judge Julie was appointed to the state federal bench. Julie does whatever Bode wants her to do, as I suppose any good daughter would. So, we were told we had a year to relocate. It’s been six months now. We’ve run out of appeals.”

  “What does this have to do with Julie?”

  “Bode’s buying the land. There’s nothing we can do about that. He has a deal with the land commissioner—thanks to Julie—to take over the property. It’s no secret that Bode may be an unpleasant person, but the old miser’s a savvy investor and has been sitting on his wealth for years. And he has lots of friends in high places.”

  “You have lots of friends,” Pete murmured, thinking of his social little aunt.

  “Not political friends. My friends play bingo, read books, raise their kids. I was never politically minded. You’d be surprised what money can buy.”

  No, I wouldn’t. Pete shook his head. “So what was the hurry for all of us to get married and have children for a ranch we were never going to get?”

  “Oh,” Fiona said, “I just wanted you boys to get down off your slow-poke butts and give me some babies. While we still have the ranch, while we can still have weddings here if you want to, why not? Before everyone finds out how low the Callahans are falling.”

  He regarded his small, determined aunt with some puzzlement. “You wanted us to find brides who would think that they were marrying into the Callahan family name, but would later find out we weren’t what they thought we were?”

  Fiona sniffed. “Marriage is full of surprises. Anyway, it wouldn’t matter if you boys picked women who loved you.”

  He hesitated. Jackie wouldn’t care if the Callahans still owned the biggest and best ranch around or not. But I might. The truth was, everything he had, everything he thought he was, was tied up in this land, a place where his sons would never run and play the way he and his brothers had. His heart felt like it was breaking. “I guess you considered selling off part of the ranch.”

  She nodded. “For about half a second. No longer than that. Bode would just get injunctions. I couldn’t bear to part with anything my brother and his wife had built, anyway. But I do despise Bode Jenkins, who is a thief if there ever was one.”

  It was really hard not to get up and go kick Bode’s ass. Pete couldn’t stand to see the worry etched on Fiona’s face. She’d carried this burden so long by herself. Pete got up. “Don’t worry, Aunt Fiona,” he said. “Everything is going to be fine.”

  “Except the basement door got kicked in,” she said, and he stopped.

  “Do you think Bode did that?”

  She shrugged. “Nothing was taken.”

  “We don’t keep cash in the house.” That was all kept in a locked safe, whose whereabouts only the eight of them knew. They’d been vigilant about people breaking in to their home, knowing it would be a temptation.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Fiona said, “but I think Bode has wanted this house for so long it’s just about made him crazy.”

  “This is simply solved. I’ll just go ask Sabrina if Bode left the house last night.”

  “Oh, no,” Fiona said faintly, “you can’t ask Sabrina that.”

  “Why?” Pete sat back down, realizing he was about to hear more.

  “Because I hired Sabrina to be a fortune-teller and tell you boys that you had to get married.”

  “I know.” He nodded. “I heard the whole scheme.”

  She raised her brows. “I know that. I could see your shadow and your big ears practically pressed flat against the tent wall.”

  He looked at her, finally grinning. “Not much gets by you.”

  She nodded. “But what you didn’t know is that I also hired Sabrina’s sister, Seton, who is a private investigator, to dig up dirt on Bode.”

  Pete’s jaw dropped. “Aunt Fiona!”

  She jutted out her chin. “I finally decided two could play dirty, and that all was going to be fair in love and war. And I love nothing like I love my boys.”

  He was stunned. “We love you, too, redoubtable aunt…but is that why Sabrina McKinley is working as his caregiver? She’s really a mole?”

  “Sabrina is neither a fortune-teller nor your usual caregiver. She is an investigative reporter. She was doing a piece on animal cruelty, which is how she wound up at the circus. I met Sabrina and Seton through my friends. They are nieces of Corinne Abernathy.”

  Pete closed his eyes. “Does the sun ever rise without your cagey little brain working on a new scheme?”

  “Nope,” Fiona said happily. “I feel so much better now that I’ve told you all this, Pete. You have no idea how cleansing that was!”

  His head felt as though it was about to explode. “So you want to ruin Bode?”

  “I want,” Fiona said with deadly purpose, “to make sure he never gets my brother’s property.”

  “Maybe we could just talk to Julie?”

  “Bah,” Fiona said. “Bode’s her father. Who would you believe in? Who would you want to make happy? Your father or your neighbor? The people who live on five thousand acres of prime land while you’ve grown up on a postage stamp of canyon in a tiny wooden foreman’s house next door?” Fiona waved a hand at Pete. “He’s got her convinced he’s at death’s door so she’ll live there taking care of him, waiting on him hand and foot. She’ll never marry because of that old fool. She’s got her job, which makes him happy because of the political clout, and he’s got her. Life is happy for Bode Jenkins, the miserable rat.”

  Bode wasn’t the only one capable of playing the feeble card. Pete remembered Fiona working that angle a bit with Jonas. Or maybe she hadn’t been. Pete scrubbed at his morning stubble. “You still don’t think that telling the others would—”

  “No.” She shook her head. “You’re the only one who’s rational enough not to go do something stupid. You’re the only one responsible enough to realize that there’s more than one way to skin a cat without getting fur in your mouth. I can count on
you, Pete.”

  He sighed and reached over to pet his aunt’s delicate hands. “Yes, you can, Aunt Fiona. Everything will be all right.”

  He just wasn’t sure how.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Pete did the lion’s share of the chores he needed to do, realizing a thousand questions were still left unanswered. If anything, his aunt had given him more things to ponder. Fiona never told a whole tale—there was always one more curve just ahead of the brothers’ slower brains. But one thing he did know for certain: He had to talk to Jackie.

  At noon, he found her at the wedding shop. “Can I buy you lunch?”

  “Oh, Pete,” Jackie said, her hair delightfully mussed as she moved dresses around the shop, “today is rearranging day. Darla and I have planned to organize the merchandise by classification.” She smiled at him. “But thanks for the invite.”

  He looked at her, wanting nothing more than to carry her off on his white steed and make love to her for about a week. He was certain he’d feel much better after he did.

  Unfortunately, he had no white steed—only black-as-night Bleu—and Jackie wasn’t the kind of girl who’d put up with heroic nonsense like a man just riding off with her. She’d tell him he was a chauvinistic ass and probably lame him. “Jackie, I need to talk to you.”

  She looked at him over the top of a wedding gown. “About?”

  He brightened. “That one suits you.”

  “What one? Oh.” Jackie hung the dress on the rack. “Don’t get any ideas, Pete. I have no intention of walking down the aisle.”

  That was the trouble. She had no intentions. He had a short deadline. Fiona was right—he’d love to get married at the ranch, while they still had it. “Could you rethink that? I was hoping we could stick to the I-do-next-week plan.”

  “No. I have to get my appointment in Santa Fe taken care of. I can’t think past that.” She hauled another dress over to a different stand.

  “Those look heavy.” He frowned. “I thought wedding dresses would be airy and light. Maybe you shouldn’t be carrying them.”

  “Pete!” Jackie laughed. “You’re going to get in trouble if you try to supervise my pregnancy.”

  “Well.” He shifted, not exactly certain how to get Jackie to succumb to his wishes. “I’m coming with you to the appointment. Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.”

  “I might let you. Maybe.” She shot him a glance. “If you don’t drive me nuts between now and Monday.”

  “Monday?” He perked up. “So soon?”

  “Dr. Graybill called their office. So they fit me in.” She slid some plastic off some dresses to examine them. Pete watched her morosely. How could she stand to look at wedding gowns every day and not want one for herself?

  “Is there something wrong with me?”

  She glanced at him. “Other than you can’t get yourself out of a basement that isn’t locked, no. You seem all right to me.”

  He decided not to tell her that the basement had been trashed sometime in the night. Fiona hadn’t really wanted their personal family business broadcast. He frowned, realizing Fiona had never mentioned who she thought might have done it. Bode wouldn’t stoop that low if he thought he was already getting their ranch. Fiona had no enemies to speak of. He and his brothers might have enemies, but none of them would stoop to being so wienie as to destroy preserves. Someone had gotten into the house and locked him in—he was sure of it. Then when he’d left, they’d gone through the basement.

  Someone was looking for something. And someone was watching their comings and goings. He and his brothers weren’t around much. It was just Fiona and Burke, two stalwart, older folks on a big ranch where no one would hear them if they needed help.

  Maybe he was overthinking it. Yet it did occur to him that the only new people in town were Sabrina and her yet-to-be-seen sister, Seton. He didn’t think he completely approved of his aunt’s plan to hire spies, but Fiona had never asked for his approval.

  “Pete?” Jackie said, and he snapped his gaze to her face. She was lovely. Pregnancy was making her blossom. He’d always thought the myth about a pregnant woman glowing was something women said to make themselves seem desirable, but Jackie was more beautiful than ever. He wanted her, right now.

  He had to put those thoughts away for the moment or he was going to ravish her in the store. “Yes?”

  “Are you all right? I was teasing about the basement.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He moved his hat back on his head. “Jackie, let me ask you a theoretical.”

  “Okay.”

  She wasn’t really paying attention to him. Her gaze had gone to the window. He glanced, too, seeing nothing unusual on the Diablo town streets. “Say I had been locked into the basement.”

  She smiled. “All right, let’s suppose you had been.”

  “And then you let me out, which I should reward you for later.”

  Jackie looked at him. “Is that part of the question?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “If someone went into the basement not too long after I’d been locked in, and made a big mess—although I’m not saying that happened—would you suppose the two events were related?”

  Jackie shrugged. “If things had happened in that way, and no one in your house was responsible for the mess, one might think that the house was searched while you were locked in. And then when you were let out of the basement, it was searched. That’s what you’re trying to tell me, isn’t it? Someone’s been in your house?”

  He held up a hand. “It was just a theoretical.”

  “Has someone been in your house?” Jackie’s eyes were huge. “What would they be looking for?”

  “No, no,” Pete said, wondering why he hadn’t thought about someone being in the house while he was conveniently locked away. “Don’t go jumping to any ideas.”

  “I’m not. You are. You just wanted me to say it out loud to give your brain permission to think it. It was there all along.”

  “No, I wasn’t.”

  “You set me up to give you the answer you wanted. You know, you’re more like Fiona than you think you are.”

  She went back to rearranging dresses, which he hated to see. He was pretty certain heavy lifting couldn’t be healthy for his little wife in her condition. He wondered how Jackie would take to him mentioning that she should probably quit working until the stork arrived.

  He frowned. “I’d feel better if you were staying with me.”

  She stared at him. “Why would I want to be in a house where there’s a random thief wandering around? Isn’t that what you’re trying to tell me?”

  He shook his head. “I said nothing of the sort, and Fiona will kill me if you share that gossip with anyone. I just want you near me. My motives are pure, I swear.”

  “I can’t tell if you’re being romantic or a pain in the ass.”

  “Both?”

  She smiled. “Tell you what. You go away now, and I’ll make you a salad for dinner.”

  “Salad?”

  “I’m watching my weight. Too much weight gain isn’t supposed to be good for the baby. And for some reason, the weight seems to be packing on pretty quickly now.”

  “I can handle a salad,” he said, thinking she looked sexy as hell to him, “but I think my sons need more sustenance than rabbit food. How about if I bring them a steak?”

  She waved him out of the store.

  “Rare, medium or well done?” he called as she pushed him onto the sidewalk.

  “Goodbye, Pete,” Jackie said, but he swiped a fast kiss and went whistling down the sidewalk.

  Jackie went back into the store, trying to remember what she’d been doing before Pete had come in, nearly undoing her resolve where he was concerned.

  “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. That man is crazy about you,” Darla said. “How can you keep such a sweetheart at arm’s length?”

  Jackie shook her head. “Pete just likes the chase. He’ll get tired soon enough.”

&nb
sp; Darla didn’t look convinced. “Maybe you underestimate him. He seems like he’s made up his mind. Once you told him he was going to be a dad, he’s made a point to see you every day he can.”

  Jackie thought about that, the surprise of it catching her off guard. “You’re right.”

  “Yes. And you’re the happiest I’ve ever seen you.”

  Darla was right about that, too. She sighed. “Life is tricky right now. Pete and I were always about the cozy, comfortable sex. I don’t know what’s going on, but I know sex would not be cozy and comfortable right now. My waistline is expanding at warp speed.” She shook her head. “I do not feel sexy at all.”

  “Give him a chance. He may like caftan-wearing, big-bellied ladies.” Darla grinned. “You don’t know until you strip, girlfriend.”

  “Eek.” Jackie supposed she could keep the lights off, but she was pretty certain in the history of women trying to do the same, that plan had often backfired. “I miss the days of candlelight, don’t you?”

  Darla laughed. “Go for it. Buy a bunch of candles. And let that gorgeous hunk decide whether he can handle you big and babylicious or not. I’m thinking he’s not going to be all that focused on anything but naked you.”

  Chills ran all over Jackie at the thought of Pete being in bed with her again. She missed making love with him. She missed his deep voice whispering husky naughty things to her. Missed his arms wrapped around her and going to sleep knowing he was beside her until the dawn. “I’m going out for a minute,” Jackie said.

  “Go get him, Tiger!”

  Jackie hurried after Pete. “Pete!”

  He was walking down the sidewalk, big-shouldered, tall and lean, and it didn’t escape Jackie that about ten women were casting their eyes at him, saying hello, trying their best to get his attention. Mine, she thought, and then stopped, horrified. Her pregnancy wasn’t easily hidden now—in fact, it was pretty obvious despite the empire-style, long-sleeved, fashionable dress she wore—and she was running after Pete.