by Gigi Moore
“Pardon my sayin’, Jasmine, but I think you’re the last person she wants to talk to right now,” Pop said.
She frowned, but nodded. “Perhaps you’re right. She does have a lot to deal with.”
The six of them stood around shuffling their feet for a moment before Jeremiah said, “I reckon introductions are in order.” He indicated Jess and Jax with a nod of his head. “These are my boys, Jesse and Jackson.”
One of the young women burst out laughing and the other one elbowed her in the ribs.
“What?” the chuckler asked. “I’m sorry, but it’s funny.”
Jeremiah smiled. “It was either that, or Martin and Luther, but their mother and me liked the sounds of the J names a lot better.”
“You’re serious?”
“Dead serious.”
Jax interjected, proffering his hand to the young woman. “Just call me Jax. That’s with an x at the end.”
She shook his hand and smiled. “Maia Jensen. Tamara’s half-sister. Call me Maia.”
“Ma’am.” Jax tipped an imaginary hat and Maia giggled. He pegged her as the youngest sister, maybe about his and Jess’s age, definitely not older, and sensed a kindred spirit, at least as it concerned her outlook on life. She seemed like the fun-loving type.
Her sister elbowed her again. “Don’t mind her. She’s enamored by this entire experience. She’s never met a real live cowboy before, unless you count the Naked Cowboy on 42nd Street.”
Jax chuckled and offered his hand to the second woman. “And you, ma’am? Is this your first time?”
“I’m sorry?” she spluttered.
“Meeting a cowboy.”
“Oh, um, uh, why yes, it is.”
“She’s just too cool to admit that her hormones have been on overload from the moment we set foot on the ranch and caught sight of all the hunky male pulchritude,” Maia teased.
“Anyway, I’m Desiree Jensen. Tamara’s other half-sister.”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am.” Jax shook her hand.
Jess stepped forward and shook each woman’s hand, then waited as their dad introduced the young women’s mother who needed no introduction.
“This is Tamara’s mama, Jasmine…”
“Jensen.” She stepped forward and shook Jax and Jess’ hand in turn. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
With the introductions out of the way, Jax didn’t know what to do next. He still was of a mind to chase after Tamara, and he could see that Jess wanted to do the same.
Maia, the more frank and outgoing of the sisters, hooked an arm through Jax’s. “Why don’t you take me on a tour of the ranch while you’re waiting for Tamara to come around?”
“Maia,” Desiree ground through her teeth. “They just put their loved-one to rest. They’re in mourning.”
“Ain’t a problem, ma’am. I don’t think the deceased would object.” Jax patted Maia’s hand on his biceps, looking forward to getting to know Tamara’s baby sister. Even though they hadn’t been raised together, and didn’t even know each other to his knowledge, he thought maybe he could get a little insight. At least it would take him away from the house for a spell. And he needed the space, same as Tamara. Maybe by the time he came back, she’d be ready to talk…or forgive him for his part in keeping Bailey’s condition a secret.
Jax excused himself and led Maia from the study, toward the kitchen, surveying the crowd the entire way for any sign of Tamara. He finally gave up and figured she had gone upstairs and locked herself in her room.
He took Maia through the kitchen and out the back door of the main house, greeted by a burst of afternoon sunshine and the smell of blooming aspens in the air.
“It’s really beautiful country out here,” Maia commented.
“I agree.” He almost added that he wouldn’t live anywhere else but wondered if he could be as happy here in this country now without Tamara in it.
Jax paused and looked down at her, adjusting to the difference in height. She stood more than a few inches shorter than Tamara, maybe five-three, but not much more. “What part of the country you from?”
“East Coast. New York to be exact.”
Jax nodded, thinking that geographically it wasn’t really a big state, not nearly as big as Colorado and several other states in the West and Southwest. He wondered, what the odds that Maia or Desiree had ever come across their sister and never even known it?
“Seems pretty quiet for a working ranch. I guess everything’s shut down for the funeral?” Maia asked.
“Not quite.” Comparatively it proved quiet for a normal work day but only because most of the ranch’s guests remained out on a cattle drive with several cowboys. Bailey had made Jeremiah swear he wouldn’t shut things down, that he would keep things business as usual for the most part, and Pop had done his best not to disrupt ranch operations.
They walked away in silence before coming up on an outcropping of rocks near the pond where Maia didn’t waste a minute hitching up her skirt to take a seat.
Jax took a seat beside her, liking her earthiness and hoping she and her sister would be staying a while, hoping that Tamara could come to terms and reconcile with her Mom.
“You’re not a talkative type, are you?” Maia asked after a while.
Jax grinned. “You don’t know me very well.”
She chuckled. “I take it you’re the rabble-rouser between you and your brother?”
“I’ve been called that a time or two.”
“Same here.”
“Your sister does seem a little on the—”
“Stick-up-her-ass, stuck-up side?”
Jax winced but grinned when he saw Maia’s smile. She was definitely a firebrand and woe to the man who couldn’t deal with her sense of humor. “I wasn’t going to say anything nearly as—”
“Insensitive? Trust me, it’s said in love. I’ve tried to get her to loosen up, but haven’t been successful yet. I’m hoping all the fresh air and fresh cowboys will help with that.”
Jax chuckled, liking this sister a lot. They were two of a kind.
“So, what’s the scoop with you boys and my sister?”
Were they that obvious or was Maia just that perceptive? Or maybe she had spoken to someone at the house before she’d even been introduced to him and Jess?
Jax didn’t put much credence into the former. The Double R had its share of gossips and did its share of gossiping, but except for that day at the waterfall, he thought he and Jess and Tamara had been pretty discreet. Besides, no one on the ranch would be inclined to talk about the personal business of ranch denizens to a couple of strangers who had just arrived.
Maia nudged his arm with hers. “I’m a big girl. You can trust me. Besides, I may only have known her two minutes, but it doesn’t mean I don’t care about what happens to her.”
Jax looked at her, for the first time seeing the situation from her point of view and not just Tamara’s and his and Jess’s.
What thoughts must have gone through her and Desiree’s heads when they’d found out they had an older sister? What had their mother said to them when she broke the news?
He cleared his suddenly dry throat. “When did you two find out about Tamara?”
“Mom broke the news to us a couple of weeks ago when she mentioned she’d had a first husband, he was critically ill, and we might be making a trip out here for some reconciliation. So we’ve had a little more time than Tamara to adjust to the idea. But it still feels kind of weird to know I have two older sisters and not just one.”
Jax couldn’t imagine what his life would have been like without Jess, or how he would have reacted if he’d been introduced to him in his adulthood after not knowing about him at all.
What kind of head trip must that be?
“So, you two guys doing the nasty with my big sis?”
“You’ve really got a one-track mind don’t you?”
“Like a pit bull with a Chihuahua.”
Jax chuckled, realized he di
d this a lot with her and gave her an affectionate, one-armed hug. “I’m going to like having you as an in-law.”
“That serious?”
“She means the world to both of us,” he murmured. “We’ve been trying to convince her to stay here on the ranch with us instead of going back to New York.”
“Hmm, I can see where that might be a problem.” She rubbed her chin with a forefinger. “Especially with the whole white boys, threesome thing.”
“It’s more than just a threesome. We love her. We want to spend the rest of our lives with her.” Jax turned to face her and gauge her reaction. She didn’t seem shocked or disgusted by what he said as much as she seemed concerned. Just to be sure, he asked, “How about you? Do you have a problem with the white boys, threesome thing?”
“Not as long as Tamara doesn’t. If she loves you guys, I don’t see what the problem is. Love conquers all, and all that.”
“Not in this case.” He gave her the details of what Tamara had found out before she and her sister and mother had arrived in the study and mentioned Tamara’s career back in New York.
“Hmm, you guys are really up against some tough competition—career and guilt.”
In less than a half-and-hour she’d summed up their situation in a nutshell, on both sides.
Now what did he and Jess plan to do about it?
* * * *
His dad showed Jasmine and Desiree to a suite of guest rooms on the opposite wing of the house from where the master bedroom and his and Jax’s and Tamara’s rooms were while Maia stayed out with Jax. Jasmine had said they had made arrangements to stay at a hotel in town, but Dad insisted, and when he turned on his rare charm, not too many women could say no to him.
Once Jess had settled Jasmine and Desiree into their rooms, he went out to find Jax and Maia in the stables, smiling as he listened to his brother explain the fine art of caring for a horse, especially after a hard ride.
“So that’s where that saying ‘rode hard and put up wet’ comes from?” Maia beamed, looked like a student who had just learned something exciting and new at school.
“That’s about the size of it,” Jax said, brushing Cappuccino’s hide. “You guys stay here for any length of time, I’ll take you out for a ride so you can really see the countryside the way it’s meant to be seen.”
“I’d like that.”
“Am I invited?” Jess asked and watched as the pair turned to him—not embarrassed or jolting, just comfortable in each other’s company and welcoming him into their circle.
He took a place on the opposite side of Jax’s stallion, letting the animal push his head against his hand.
“I wouldn’t say no to being escorted around the countryside with two strapping cowboy hunks like you guys,” Maia said. Jess could tell that she teased although she probably wouldn’t turn down a tour in their company.
Jess liked her despite her irreverence, guessed that he knew how to deal with it after growing up with his irreverent brother all these years.
He thought Tamara the perfect balance between and combination of her sisters—not too serious or timid and not too audacious or foolish. She proved just right for him and Jax. Now if they could only get Tamara to see this.
“We’d be flattered to have a woman like you by our sides to show off,” Jax said.
Maia bumped her hip against his. “Don’t get used to it. You two have got another woman to do some tending to.” She stared at Jess over Cappuccino. “Have you talked to her yet?”
“I thought my brother and I would do that together since it involved us all.”
“Good. And when you guys aren’t working on her, Desiree and me and Mom will.”
“You barely know us,” Jess said with a tinge of wonder he didn’t mean to show slipping into his tone. “How do you know we’re even worth the trouble?”
Maia shrugged. “I’ve got a good feeling about you two. Call it a…sixth sense if you will.” She gave them an enigmatic smile before continuing. “This and I follow my gut whenever I can. Desi doesn’t believe in intuition and gut feelings. She’s a traditionalist, says my kind of feelings are what’s going to get me into trouble one day, but they haven’t so far.”
A traditionalist, huh? He wondered what Desiree’s take would be on him, Jax and Tamara together. For that matter, he wondered what Maia’s was and how much of the situation Jax had shared with her.
As if reading his mind, Maia gripped his biceps as she passed him on her way out of the stable. “You guys hang in there, Jess. We’ll make this work.”
He liked that she included herself in the equation, like she had something to lose or gain, like they were all family and she cared about them. He swallowed hard and said, “We will.”
Jess watched Maia as she left then turned to his brother, waiting for him to say something totally inappropriate and flirtatious, but he just said, “She’s going to be a great sister-in-law.”
Jess realized that Jax had finally grown up, and they had Tamara to thank for that. “We can’t lose her,” he said.
“We won’t.”
Chapter 29
A couple of days later and after official introductions to her sisters and her mother, the house had settled into a reasonable routine of civility with an invisible line drawn down the middle of it except during meal times.
Short of moving out to her dad’s house to await the scheduled reading of the will, Tamara decided to stay and avoid the rest of the house as much as possible—no small feat.
She Remembered how she’d felt at the sight of Jax and Maia walking away from the house arm-in-arm the day of her dad’s funeral. It helped her maintain a wall and avoid the boys and her sisters as much as possible without seeming outright rude.
The big flirt didn’t waste any time getting over me.
Tamara couldn’t remember being so jealous in her life. Later she’d noticed Jess go out to the stables where Jax and Maia had gone. She’d wondered if her sister would be able to resist them the way she hadn’t and whether or not her boys would even try anything with Maia.
She knew she judged unfairly. Despite their dishonesty with her on a couple of key issues, they’d never disrespected her or shown any interest in another woman since she’d been on the ranch. They’d been the perfect, attentive boyfriends any woman would be proud to call her own—any woman except her.
Why did she torture herself with these thoughts when she wasn’t much more for this place after she heard what the executor of her father’s will had to say?
But deciding to leave proved a double-edged sword for her. Staying on the ranch kept her close to her father and the people who had loved him the most, kept her close to his memory and his life. Staying kept her close to the people she loved the most, but at what price? Her career and…What else did she have really? It wasn’t like she had lots of friends or anyone who cared about her in New York like her family at The Double R did. And the family she did have in New York remained on The Double R now, though she didn’t know for how long.
Her mother and sisters seemed to have dug in their heels the last couple of days, blending into ranch life as if they had been born to it, and not pushing her for anymore than she wanted to give—at least not yet.
Unlike her usual pro-active self, Tamara lived on pins and needles waiting for the ultimate showdown. She knew it would come. Her mother and sisters hadn’t come all this way and set up shop to just turn tail and run because she put up a little resistance avoiding them. None of them seemed like the type. Except that her mother had turned tail and run from her and dad more than thirty years ago. Tamara’s curiosity alone made her want to confront her mother, finally, and find out why, but she wasn’t sure she’d like what she heard.
She guessed she came by her running-away genes honestly.
Suddenly, she shook her head and leaned forward in her seat, couldn’t believe what she had just heard come from the executor’s mouth. “I’m sorry. Did you say something about thirty percent share of The D
ouble R?”
Mr. Clemson, an older man nattily dressed in a charcoal suit, white shirt, and red tie that all went with his distinguished gray hair, reminded her of many a judge she’d presented cases in front of, and she trusted him. But he couldn’t have said what she thought he’d said.
But the man nodded. “Your father expressed the wish that you receive all his worldly possessions, including his share of The Double R on the stipulation that you maintain residence at the ranch at his house. Otherwise, his house and shares of the ranch will be equally split between Jesse and Jackson Reynolds.”
Stay at the ranch?
All sorts of questions flew through her mind, the paramount ones being when had the will been drawn up and signed and whether or not the twins and her favorite meddling, surrogate father had had anything to do with the distribution of her dad’s possessions.
But her dad had his own mind until the end. She couldn’t very well see anyone influencing him to do something he didn’t want to do, especially if it involved his estranged, wayward daughter he hadn’t seen in almost two decades.
Why would he do such a thing? He’d obviously had a problem with her involvement with Jess and Jax. Why would he force them together if only to hammer out the details of the will once she decided what she wanted to do?
She looked at the boys who seemed just as surprised as her when they met her gaze and simultaneously shrugged.
Tamara next directed her gaze at Jeremiah who returned her look with an unreadable expression that spoke volumes. Obviously, he’d been up to his old tricks, and she thought he might have had a hand in nudging her father if not downright influencing him in the end. The only way to know for sure would be to ask Mr. Clemson directly. She’d been tuning out during most of his recitation—so certain that her father wouldn’t dare leave her anything—she must have missed that part. “When did you draw this up?”
“If you’re worried about anyone contesting your father’s will, I assure you, it’s ironclad…”
As a lawyer she knew no contract ironclad. They all had loopholes. A person just needed to know how to find them.