“Right.” He looked away, but not before she saw the sorrow flash across his face, settling in his eyes. She started to reach out but knew she shouldn’t. Her hand remained at her side.
Maybe they were feeling the same sense of loss but he didn’t seem to be a man who wanted comfort from a stranger. From her.
“So, you came for your inheritance?” He dropped the words, sharp and insulting.
“Is that why you think I’m here?”
“It would make sense.”
She shook her head. “No, it doesn’t. It’s insulting.”
He shrugged one powerful shoulder. “Your brother was my best friend. His daughters are my nieces. I have every right to keep them safe.”
“I’m not here for any reason other than to see them.” She turned and walked back to the kitchen.
“Running?” He followed her, light on his feet for a man so large.
“Not at all. I need a minute to cool off so I don’t hit you with something.”
At that, the smooth planes of his face shifted and he smiled. She was slammed with a myriad of other emotions that seemed more dangerous than her rage. At the sink she filled a glass with water and took a sip. He scooted a chair out from the island in the middle of the big room and bent his large form to fit the seat. She ignored the lethal way he sat, like a wild cat about to attack. She ignored that he had beautiful features, strong but beautiful. She could draw him, or chisel his likeness in stone.
Or grab a chunk of granite and…
His eyebrows lifted, as if he guessed where her thoughts had gone.
“I’m not here to take what I can and leave.” She remained standing on the opposite side of the island, not wanting to be anywhere near him. She needed that force of wood and stone between them.
“Really.” His voice was smooth but deep, and full of skepticism.
“Yes, really. I had a father and a brother that I never got to meet. I wanted to come here because this is where Lawton lived. I thought I might somehow…” She shook her head. “Never mind. He’s gone. I want to meet his daughters. Please, just let me meet them.”
*
Jake stood, rethinking what he’d come to tell her. Rethinking her. She stood on the other side of the counter, as if the granite could protect her. As he eased out of the chair, she moved a little to the right, her back against the counter. Brown eyes the unfortunate color of caramel watched him.
Unfortunate because her eyes were strangely compelling. And more, there were emotions that flickered in their depths—sadness, anger, loss. He hadn’t expected to feel anything for her other than distrust.
“I’m going to get a glass of water, nothing else,” he said.
He opened the cabinet and found a glass, filling it with cold water from the fridge. He took a drink and studied the sister of his best friend, looking for similarities. She had long straight dark blond hair that framed a face that he’d call beautiful but strong. She was tall and slim but not thin. The peasant skirt and blouse gave her a bohemian look. She would stand out in Martin’s Crossing. If she stayed. He doubted she would. She had city written all over her.
Yes, she looked enough like Lawton for him to believe she was his sister. Lawton had obviously believed it. Even before the DNA test.
“Well?” she asked.
“You remind me of your brother.”
“I hope that’s a compliment.”
“It’s an observation.” He watched her, still unsure. He’d been unsure from the beginning when Lawton first told him about her. “I need to head back to my place. You can meet me over there.”
Jake poured out the remaining water and put the glass in the dishwasher. She had moved away from him again. He didn’t comment, just walked past her and headed for the front door, grabbing his hat off the hook on his way out. She followed.
He had more on his mind than a sister who suddenly showed up when it looked as if the gravy train might have derailed in her front yard. Back at his place he had a mare about to foal. He’d lost a good cow that morning and now had a calf to tend to. He had fifty head of cattle heading to the sale tomorrow and a brother who couldn’t get his act together.
They both stopped on the porch. The temperature, typical of late November, had dropped fifteen degrees while they’d been inside. Clouds were rolling, gray and full of rain.
“How far?” She looked past him to the open land and seemed unsure. Then she focused her attention on the horse he’d tied to the post.
“Not far.” He untied his horse, tightening the girth strap and watching her over the top of the saddle. “Since I’m riding, you’ll need to go back down the drive, turn left and in a mile take a left at the entrance to the Circle M.”
“How long before you get there?”
“It’ll take me a little longer but I’m cutting through the field, so not much.” They stood there staring at each other and he noticed the softness in her brown eyes. The last thing he wanted was to give in to the softness. Lawton had immediately trusted her. That wasn’t Jake’s way. He had to be the one to draw lines and make sure no one got hurt. But he wasn’t an ogre. “I’m sorry.”
She gave a quick nod her eyes registering surprise. “Thank you.”
“He was a good man.” More words of kindness. His brother Duke would have been proud. He’d told Jake to be nice to their new sister. He’d almost laughed at that. She was not their new sister.
Jake didn’t need one more person to watch out for. His plate was full of siblings that couldn’t seem to stay out of trouble.
With a goodbye nod, he put a foot in the stirrup and swung himself into the saddle. She shot him a wary look and headed for her car.
He watched her go, holding the gray gelding steady as the horse tossed his head, eager to be on his way. The car was down the drive when he turned the horse and headed for home. The rain had blown over but the air was damp and cool. It felt good, to let Bud loose. The horse was itching to run. So was Jake. But he knew he couldn’t outrun the problem that was driving to his place in a compact car with Oklahoma tags.
Fifteen minutes later, with his horse unsaddled and back in the pasture, he headed for the house. Breezy was standing on the front porch of the stone-and-log home he’d been living in alone for more years than he cared to count. He’d be thirty-four soon. He guessed that made him a crusty bachelor.
“Pretty place,” Breezy said when he reached the front porch of the house.
“Thank you.”
He nodded toward the door. Time to get it over with. He figured she’d be here another ten minutes, and then she’d be gone and he wouldn’t have to worry about her. He’d hand her a check and they’d go their separate ways.
Today he’d said a few prayers on the matter and maybe it was wrong, but he’d prayed she’d take the out. Of course he knew God didn’t exactly answer prayers based on Jake Martin’s wants. But he’d sure be grateful if the good Lord made this easy on him.
“Let’s go inside.” He led her across the porch with the bentwood furniture. Ceiling fans hung from the porch ceiling and in the summer they made evenings almost bearable. Not that he spent a lot of time sitting out there.
“Do you live here alone?” she asked, turning a bright shade of pink. “I mean, do you have family here? In Martin’s Crossing?”
“This is my home and I do have family in Martin’s Crossing.” He didn’t plan on giving her the family history.
What would he tell her? That he and his twin sister had helped raise their younger siblings after their mom had left town, left their dad and them? This ranch had been in their family for over one hundred years and keeping it going had put his dad in an early grave. Now he’d lost his sister, and he was determined to find a way to keep the family together, keep them strong, without her.
But no, he wasn’t alone. He had his brothers, Duke and Brody. They had their little sister, Sam. Short for Samantha.
Duke lived in the old family homestead just down the road.
Their little brother, Brody, only came around when he needed a place to heal up after a bad ride on the back of a bull. The rest of the time he stayed with friends in a rented trailer in Stephenville.
Sam had been in boarding school and was now in college. Out of state. That was his idea, after she couldn’t seem to keep her mind off a certain ranch hand. Their dad, Gabe Martin, hadn’t seemed to connect with the thought that his family was falling apart. It had all been on Jake.
The house was dark and cool. He led Breezy through the living room and down the hall to his office.
He flipped the switch, bathing the room in light, and motioned for her to take a seat. He positioned himself behind the massive oak fixture and pulled out a drawer to retrieve papers.
Breezy took the seat on the other side of the desk. With a hand that trembled, she pushed long blond hair back from her face. Lawton had mentioned she sang and played guitar. Something about being a street performer in California. Jake had taken it upon himself to learn more.
“Why didn’t you come back here with Lawton?” Jake asked, pinning her with a look that always made Samantha squirm. He didn’t have kids of his own, probably never would, but he knew all the tricks.
She looked away, her attention on the fireplace.
“Miss Hernandez?”
“Call me Breezy,” she whispered as she refocused, visibly pulling herself together. “I needed time to come to terms with what he’d told me. I didn’t know how to suddenly be the sister he thought I would be. Or could be. And I have a sister in Oklahoma.”
“I understand.” It had come out of nowhere, this new family of hers. “Lawton’s dad kept his skeletons hidden pretty deeply. But as he got older—” he shrugged “—guilt caught up with him.”
“I see.” She bit down on her bottom lip. “I could have been a part of their lives.”
His heart shifted a little. And sympathy was the last thing he wanted to feel.
“Yes, I guess.”
“And Lawton’s wife. She looked very sweet.”
That’s when his own pain slammed him hard. He cleared his throat, cleared the lump of emotion that settled there. He hadn’t yet gotten used to the loss. “Elizabeth was my twin sister.”
She bit down on her bottom lip and closed her eyes, just briefly. “I’m so sorry.”
“So am I.”
“So why am I here?”
“Because Lawton came home from Oklahoma and changed his will.” He brushed a hand over his face, then he reached for the manila envelope on his desk. “He left you his house, money from his dad’s estate, as well as a small percentage of his software and technologies company. He left the twins a larger percentage as well as a trust fund. The business manager, Tyler Randall, also inherited a small percentage of the company.”
“I see.” But she clearly didn’t understand. He was about to make it clear. And he prayed she’d take the out.
“Breezy, Lawton and Elizabeth left us joint custody of their daughters.”
He and this woman were now parents to two little girls.
Chapter Two
“No.” Breezy shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. No one would give her custody, even shared custody, of two little girls. “He couldn’t have done that.”
“I’m afraid he did.”
She met his blue gaze, knowing he disliked her. Or at the least, disliked the situation he’d been forced into with her. He knew these little girls. They were the children of his twin sister. Of course he was angry. She was angry, too.
What had made Lawton, a man she barely knew, think this was a good idea? She’d never stayed in one place longer than six months until she moved to Dawson, Oklahoma. She’d never had real family until her sister, Mia, found her. She definitely didn’t know how to raise a child.
“I’m not sure what to say,” she admitted.
“That makes two of us. I never planned on losing my sister and my best friend. And I certainly couldn’t have seen this coming.”
Jake Martin studied her. His blue eyes were sharp; his generous mouth was a straight, unforgiving line.
He shook his head and hit a button on an intercom. A woman answered. “Okay,” he said.
She sat quietly, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with him. The door behind her opened. She didn’t turn, even when he looked past her, smiling at whoever had entered the room. There were footsteps and quiet voices.
Curiosity overrode her desire to hold his gaze, to not feel weak. She glanced back over her shoulder and the room spun in a crazy way that left her fighting tears, trying to focus. Twin girls toddled across the room wearing identical smiles on identical faces.
“These are your nieces.” His voice came from far away.
“Oh.” What else could she say? The toddler girls were smiling as they bypassed her to get to Jake Martin.
“The lovely lady behind them is Marty, their nanny,” he explained, nodding toward the older woman who had remained in the doorway. He leaned down, holding out his arms. The girls ran to him and climbed onto his lap. He hugged them both tight.
“They’re beautiful.” They were dark-haired with blue eyes and big smiles. After all they’d been through, they could still smile. Though she didn’t want to, she attributed that to the man sitting across from her.
“They are.” He kissed the top of each dark head. “And we are their guardians.”
“You should have told me.”
He shrugged and looked at the girls, who had picked up pens and were drawing on the papers on his desk. He moved the envelope out of their reach.
“I think I just did.”
“I meant from the beginning.”
“Really? I should have disclosed this to someone I’ve never met?” He shook his head. “I’ll do whatever I need to do to keep them safe.”
“I get that.” She kept her voice soft, not wanting the girls to hear anger. She had too many memories of loud and unforgiving voices as she hid beneath the bed with Mia and their brother, Juan.
Was she really angry with him? As she studied the little girls on his lap, she thought not. He wanted to protect them.
He grinned at the girls and they reached up to pat his lean cheeks. “Rosie and Violet, this is your aunt Breezy.”
She had nieces. She wanted to hug those little girls close. She wanted to hold them forever. They were looking at her, wide-eyed, curious but not ready to come to her.
“Hi, girls.” What else could she say? Her vision blurred. She raised her hand to wipe away the tears that drifted down her cheeks.
Jake Martin looked at the little girls he held, his gaze serious and then he refocused on Breezy. He studied her, as if looking for a sign that she might run. He pushed a box of tissues across the desk, never removing his eyes from her. She wouldn’t run. She didn’t know what he knew about her, about her past, but she wouldn’t run. She couldn’t. Not now.
“Marty, why don’t you take the girls back to their playroom?” He set the girls down, easing them onto their feet. They walked around the desk and Breezy wanted to touch them. Rose smiled up at her and toddled close, little legs and bare feet peeking out from her colorful sundress, white with big brightly colored flowers. Violet held back, letting Rose take the lead.
They were identical, but not. Rose had a slightly rounder face. Her dark hair had a bit of wave. Violet’s dark hair was perfectly straight.
“Hi, Rose.” She leaned and the little girl walked up, unafraid, her little face splitting in a dimpled grin.
“Hi, Rose,” the toddler repeated and giggled. Breezy smiled.
“You’re both very pretty.”
“Very pretty,” Rose repeated and Violet giggled.
“And smart.”
“Smart a…” Rose started what sounded like something inappropriate.
“No!” Marty jumped forward. “Uncle Duke is a bad influence.”
“I know he is.” Jake shook his head. “He’s going to start putting money in a college fund if he doesn’t
watch his language around them.”
Marty took the hand of each girl and they left the room with soft words, giggles and the patter of their bare feet.
“They’re precious.” Breezy turned to face what felt like her judge and jury. He had leaned back in the big leather chair and his booted feet were on the desk.
“Yes, they are. And I will do anything to protect them.”
“I’m sure you would.” She studied him for a minute. “But you don’t have to protect them from me.”
“That’s the problem. I don’t know you, Breezy. I know you were Lawton’s sister and he had the crazy idea that this would be best for his girls. But he also didn’t plan on dying so soon.”
“You don’t want me in their lives?”
He exhaled sharply and shook his head. Of course he didn’t. “I’m not sure what I want.”
The answer surprised her. “Did you hope I wouldn’t show up?”
He shrugged. “It would have made my life easier.”
“Right, but I’m here and those little girls are just as much my family as they are yours. Tell me what I need to do.”
Jake Martin tapped his pen on the desk and studied her.
“Lawton left us joint custody as long as you remain here, in his house. But there are stipulations. If you leave, you lose custody and ownership of the house. If I see a reason that you’re not capable of this, I take full custody. If either of those should happen and I should take full custody, the house goes to the girls. The money is yours no matter what happens. He had hoped…”
“That I would be in their lives.”
“Yes. He said you’d lived a life of independence and adventure. He wanted his daughters to learn that from you.” He brushed his hands through his hair and she saw the lines of exhaustion around his eyes. “Lawton had a very different life. Structure was the senator’s favorite word.”
“I see.” She let her gaze travel to the windows that offered a view of the rolling fields dotted with cattle. Craggy, tree-covered hills rose in the distance, gray and misty, as clouds spread across the sky.
Love Inspired December 2014 - Box Set 1 of 2: A Rancher for ChristmasHer Montana ChristmasAn Amish Christmas JourneyYuletide Baby Page 22