One Night, Two Heirs

by Maureen Child

  Looking around him again, Rick felt the peace of his home ranch slide into him once more, easing the tattered edges of his soul. He took a breath of hot summer air and smiled to himself as he thought that, yeah, he was especially grateful to Jeff Simpson. And maybe that’s the main reason Rick was going to leave the Corps. He didn’t want to waste the life that Jeff had made possible.

  He had a chance here, for more than he ever could have hoped for.

  And he was going to take it.

  Nine

  Later that night, Sadie arrived back at the Price family home exhausted. She’d spent most of the day with Abby, decorating the club for the upcoming TCC Founder’s Day dinner and dance. The annual event was the highlight of the year in Royal. Every member of the club would be there with their families, and Abby was bound and determined that this year would be something special.

  And once Abby had her mind made up, Sadie thought with a smile, nothing could stop her. Not even Brad—who had, of course, shown up to protest everything they were doing.

  “There’s nothing wrong with the decorations we use every year,” he had said, flatly challenging Abby to fight him on it.

  He wasn’t disappointed. Abby had climbed down from the ladder she was using to string twists of blue-and-gold crepe paper across the ceiling. Fisting her hands on her hips, she had faced him down.

  “And then we can have the same food, the same wine and maybe even the same songs. Heck,” Abby told him, “we don’t even have to hold new dances, we can just videotape it and play it for the members every year. That way nothing will ever change and you’ll finally be happy.”

  “Tradition means something in Texas,” Brad had argued.

  “Progress means something here, too,” Abby countered. “Else we’d all still be riding horses and sending telegrams instead of emails!”

  “Progress for progress’s sake means nothing.”

  “Holding on to tradition because you’re too cowardly to change means even less.”

  Sadie smiled just thinking about how her brother’s face had frozen into a mask of frustration and barely reined-in temper. It was at that point that Brad had stormed from the club, looking as if he was about to explode. To be fair, Abby hadn’t been doing any better by the time he left. It was a good hour and a half before Sadie’s friend was able to talk without grumbling.

  “The man just doesn’t know who he’s dealing with,” Sadie said aloud.

  She parked just opposite the front door, shut the engine off and dragged herself out of the car. She just stood there for a long minute, leaning against her SUV, looking up at the night sky, too tired to even walk the short distance to the house. Abby was a hard taskmaster, but Sadie knew this ball was going to be the best one ever.

  But, time was passing and she still had to get inside and give the girls their bath and tuck them into bed. Smiling, she forced herself toward the house only to stop when the front door was flung open. Her father stood in the open doorway, backlit by the hall light.

  “Dad.” Pleasure warred with a sinking sensation in her chest. She loved her father, but had figured out a long time ago that she was simply never going to be the daughter he wanted her to be. “When did you get home?”

  “This afternoon.” In his seventies, Robert Price was still a handsome man. His hair was mostly silver now, but he stood tall and straight and still carried the air of authority that had ruled Sadie’s entire life.

  Summoning a smile, she walked to him, went on her toes and kissed his cheek. “It’s good to see you. Did you enjoy the Caribbean? Catch lots of fish?”

  “I did,” he said grudgingly. “Until I arrived home expecting to get a little time with my granddaughters only to find they’re not here.”

  A ball of lead dropped into the pit of her stomach. Panic clutched at her heart. “Not here? What do you mean they’re not here? They have to be here. Hannah babysat them for me today while I was at the club with Abby and—”

  None of that mattered. Nothing mattered but finding her daughters. Where was Hannah? What could have happened?

  She pushed past her father, headed for the staircase, to the girls’ room, but her father’s stern, no-nonsense voice stopped her dead.

  “Don’t bother, they’re not in their room. Hannah tells me their father picked them up this afternoon and took them out to his ranch.”

  Slowly, Sadie turned around to face her father. His cool blue eyes were glinting with disapproval. The lead ball in her stomach iced over, then caught fire in a splintering shower of fury that swept through her in such a rush she could hardly draw a breath.

  “He did what?”

  “You heard me, Sadie. Rick Pruitt picked up the girls and took them home with him.” Frowning, he asked, “Is this going to be a regular thing now? Are the girls going to be tossed back and forth between you two with no notice at all?”

  “No,” she told him, feeling the fire of her anger slide through her veins. “They’re not.”

  “Hannah tells me that Pruitt has proposed to you.”

  “He did.” Sadie was already walking out of the house, the heels of her sandals clacking noisily against the floor. Her father kept pace with her, out the door, down the porch steps and across the driveway.

  Robert slapped one big hand on the car door to hold it closed when Sadie tried to wrestle it open. “And you turned him down?”

  “I did.”

  “Why the hell would you do that?” he bellowed. “The Pruitt boy wouldn’t have been my first choice, but you made that decision when you conceived your girls. Now he’s here, ready to do his duty and you tell him no?”

  “I am so bloody sick of the word duty!” Sadie shouted it and almost enjoyed seeing the shock written on her father’s expression.

  “I’ll thank you not to raise your voice to me,” Robert said coolly.

  “It’s the only way you’ll ever hear me, Dad,” she snapped. “I am no one’s duty. I won’t be forced into marriage. Not again.”

  This time, her father at least had the grace to look abashed. After all, it had been he who had forced her to marry Taylor. The man who had shown Sadie up close and personal just how humiliating a life could get.

  “You owe it to your children—”

  “That’s right, Dad,” she interrupted him and felt a rush of power inside her. She’d never stood up to him before and at that moment, she couldn’t for the life of her fathom why not. “The girls are my children. Not yours. I’ll make the decisions concerning them and I don’t need any help. Not from you. Not from Rick Pruitt.”

  “You’re obviously overwrought,” Robert said.

  “No, Dad,” she countered, “I’m not overwrought. I’m pissed.” She deliberately used a word she knew her father would find distasteful and felt another wash of freedom sweep through her.

  “Sadie,” her father said, his voice softer now, his eyes filled with concern.

  No doubt, she told herself, he was convinced that she’d had a nervous breakdown. One padded room, coming up.

  “I’m not crazy,” she said. “I don’t need to lie down. And I don’t need you telling me what to do. Not anymore.”

  He opened and closed his mouth several times, but not a sound came out. For the first time in Sadie’s memory, she was seeing her ever-so-perfect father speechless.

  Sadie looked up at him and realized that the man who had run her life…the man whose approval she had sought for so long…no longer worried her. She was an adult now. A mother. And she didn’t owe her father or any other damn person in Royal an explanation for anything she did.

  “As for what happens with my girls, that’s between me and Rick,” she added. “Frankly, Dad, it’s none of your business.”

  “Sadie!”

  “Oh,” she said, since she was on a roll and why stop now, “I’ll be finding a place of my own. The girls and I can’t stay here, Dad. I appreciate the interim help but it’s time I stood on my own two feet again.”

  Deliberately, she pee
led his fingers off the car door, opened it and slipped inside. She fired up the engine, rolled down her window and said, “I’m going to collect my daughters. I’ll talk to you later.”

  And fatigue forgotten, she stepped on the gas until her tires squealed a protest as she peeled out of the driveway. A quick glance in her rearview mirror showed her that her father was still staring after her, clearly thunderstruck.

  She smiled grimly.

  He wouldn’t be the last man she had it out with tonight.

  Rick was ready for her.

  He had been waiting for this confrontation since bringing the girls home to the ranch a few hours ago. Rick had to admit that without Sadie’s housekeeper Hannah’s cooperation, he never would have gotten away with it. Thankfully, though, the older woman was on his side in this mess. Also thankfully, Hannah had been with the Price family so long, was so much a mother to Sadie, that she wasn’t worried about the possibility of losing her job for helping him.

  It had been good, having his kids here for the afternoon. They had explored the stable, petted horses and fed carrots to the two ponies. They visited John Henry’s golden retriever, who just happened to have given birth to a litter of pups the week before. The twins had been delighted with those puppies and were already busy claiming all eight of them.

  Rick smiled, in spite of the battle that was looming in his immediate future. He was being sucked into a world filled with puppies, ponies and little girls’ laughter.

  And he loved it.

  No way was he going to lose it.

  When Sadie brought her car to a screeching halt out front, Rick opened the door and stood on the threshold, arms crossed over his chest, feet braced in a fighting stance. He knew she wouldn’t listen to reason, so he had decided to try different ammunition in their private little war.

  Looked like he had gotten her attention.

  Sadie slammed the car door and shouted, “Where are they?”

  “Right here,” he said. “Where they belong.”

  She came around the front of the car like an avenging angel. He wouldn’t have been surprised to see sparks flying off the top of her head, she was so furious.

  Well, she should join the club because he was pretty mad himself. And he was fed up. Not a good combination.

  “The girls belong with their mother.”

  “Wrong,” Rick said as she closed on him, fury obviously firing every step she took. “They belong with their parents. Both of us.”

  She actually growled and threw her hands in the air helplessly. “We are not together! Damn it, Rick…”

  “Hey, I tried to be reasonable. I tried to do the right thing. You don’t want to hear it.”

  Her eyes widened and both blond eyebrows shot high on her forehead. “And you think this is the way to convince me to marry you? Kidnapping my daughters?”

  He snorted derisively. “I didn’t kidnap anybody. Those girls are just as much mine as yours.”

  She stomped up the front steps, stepping into the light thrown from the entryway. Illuminated against the backdrop of night, she looked even more beautiful than ever, he thought. Her long blond hair was loose around her shoulders. Her green T-shirt was wrinkled, her blue jeans were faded and soft and the heeled sandals she wore displayed toenails painted a deep crimson.

  He wanted her so badly he could hardly breathe.

  She pulled in a deep breath that did wonders for that T-shirt, then she lifted her chin and glared at him with all the freezing power of the ice princess he had once thought her to be.

  “I want to see my daughters. Now.”

  “All you had to do was ask,” he said.

  “Why should I have to ask to see my own kids?” she snapped.

  “Huh. Exactly what I’ve been asking myself,” he told her.

  Her mouth tightened up and he knew she was gritting her teeth in pure frustration. Good to see she was feeling a little of what he’d been dealing with lately.

  “Are you going to let me pass?” she finally managed to grind out.

  “Absolutely,” he said and stepped to one side, allowing her to slip past him and into the house.

  “Where are they?”

  “In their room,” he told her, following her as she headed for the wide staircase. “They’re perfectly happy. Elena made them dinner, they’ve had a bath and now they’re playing before bedtime.”

  “Their beds are at home.”

  “This is their home.”

  The wall along the stairwell was lined with dozens of framed photos. Of Rick’s family, going back generations. This was the Pruitt home. Where Pruitt children were raised. Where his girls would grow up, he told himself firmly.

  She stopped halfway up, pausing on a wide stair tread, and turned her head to fry him with another hot look. “You had no right.”

  Rick grabbed her arm and held her in place. “I had every right. I’m their father.”

  “You should have asked me.”

  “Right!” He laughed shortly without a trace of humor. “Like you enjoyed just asking me to arrange visits with the girls? I’ll be damned if I’m going to ask permission every time I want to see my own kids.”

  She huffed out a breath, threw a quick glance at the top of the stairs, then turned her gaze back on him. “Rick, we’re going to have to work this out. Legally. Visitation. Schedules.”

  “Do I look like the kind of man who’s going to visit his kids according to a schedule some lawyer cooks up?” he asked her, keeping his voice low, so his daughters wouldn’t hear him arguing with their mother.

  Pulling her arm free of his grasp, she said shortly, “You won’t have a choice. This is how things are done, Rick.”

  “Not in my family,” he countered. “In my family, parents and children live together. They love each other. Those girls have a right to grow up on the ranch that will be theirs one day, Sadie. I want them to know it. To love it, like I do.” He waved one hand at the wall behind her. “Look at those pictures, Sadie. That’s family. The twins’ family. They belong here.”

  “They will be here,” she said, clearly trying to appease him. “But they’re not going to live here with you full-time, Rick. They’ll be with me. They need their mother.”

  “Yeah, they do,” he acknowledged. “But they need me, too.”

  He looked into those blue eyes and found himself fighting against his own instincts. Yes, he’d gone to her house to collect the children, not just because he’d wanted to be with them. But because he knew it would be a hard lesson for Sadie. He wasn’t going to be cheated out of his kids’ lives because their mother was too stubborn to do the right thing.

  “I won’t be bought off with weekends and part of the summer. I won’t be a part-time visitor to my own children.”

  “I didn’t say it would be like that.”

  “Yeah? How do you see it going, then?”

  She sighed heavily and he only now noticed the signs of weariness about her. Her eyes weren’t as clear as they usually were and there was a decided droop to her shoulders. Looked to him like she’d been getting by on very little sleep lately. Just like him. He didn’t know whether to feel bad about that, or to be pleased knowing that she was as affected by this battle between them as he was.

  He went with pleased.

  Sagging against the wall, she looked at him for a long minute and finally shook her head. “I came over here ready to skin you alive for taking the girls without so much as telling me what you were up to.”

  “I can understand that.”

  “Now, I’m just relieved they’re all right and truthfully, I’m too damn tired to fight with you and my father all in one night.”

  One of his eyebrows arched. “Your father? You took him on?”

  “I did,” she mused, a flicker of pride appearing briefly in her eyes. “In fact, I actually told him to mind his own business.”

  He whistled and felt a stirring of admiration for her. “Bet that came as a surprise.”

  “I’m sur
e,” she admitted. “But he’s not the only one I’m willing to stand up to, Rick.”

  “I get that, too.” He moved in closer, bracing both hands on the wall on either side of her, effectively bracketing her in a cage of his arms. “But, Sadie, I’m not some trained dog you can tell to come and go as you please.”

  She laughed at the image. “Trust me, I never thought that of you. No one would.”

  “Good,” he said, nodding. “And I’m not a civilized man, either, and you should know that about me. I’m a Texan and proud of it. I’m not the polite society type of man who’ll step aside and say thanks very much for whatever scraps you’re willing to hand me.”

  She sucked in a gulp of air and nodded. “I know.”

  “I won’t be shut out of the girls’ lives. I won’t take second best. And I won’t settle for less than everything I want.”

  Something hot flashed in the depths of her eyes and Rick felt a like fire start deep inside him. Even furious with her. Even so frustrated he could hardly think straight anymore, he still wanted her. Somehow, in the last couple of weeks, Sadie Price had become essential to him.

  She was more than the girl he used to dream of on those tours of duty. She was more than that one hot night that had resulted in two children. She was more than his memories of a cool, untouchable girl in a prissy white dress.

  Hell.

  She was everything.

  And suddenly, their battle wasn’t as important as having her in his arms again.

  “Stay with me tonight,” he whispered, leaning in until his mouth was just a kiss from hers.

  “I don’t think—”

  “Good,” he interrupted her quickly. “Don’t think. Just react, Sadie. To what’s between us.”

  “What would that solve?”

  “Why does it have to solve anything?” He kissed her, lightly, delicately, his teeth pulling gently at her bottom lip until she was nearly whimpering. When he let up, he raised his head, looked her in the eye and said, “The girls are ready for bed. You don’t want to go back and fight with your father again. So stay. Stay, Sadie….”

  Closing her eyes briefly, she reached out and wrapped her fists in his black T-shirt, crumpling the fabric. “This isn’t why I came here.”