The Cowboy's Twin Surprise
Page 1
DAD ON THE DOUBLE
Frankie Hartman never thought she’d see Spence Bohanan again. Not after he broke her heart and walked away before she could tell the wandering cowboy about his twin daughters. Now that he’s back in Mustang Valley, Frankie has to reveal the truth. At least about his kids—Spence can never find out that she still secretly aches for him.
Spence finally has his life together and he’s ready to prove himself to the only woman he’s ever loved, but her revelation shakes everything up. It doesn’t take long for him to fall in love with his little girls, but repairing the trust between him and Frankie won’t happen quite so quickly. Spence is ready to be a family man—will Frankie give him a chance?
“Newborn pictures are never the best,” Frankie explained.
Spence needed a moment. Swallowing, he waited for his heart to sink back into place from where it had lodged in his throat. These were his daughters when they were just a day, maybe hours, old!
“I think they’re beautiful.”
“I might have extra copies stored in a drawer I can give you along with the thumb drives.”
He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
“I wish I’d been there,” Spence said without thinking and realized with a start how much he really did wish it.
Frankie turned her face to his, and tears shone in her eyes. “This is harder than I thought it would be.”
“Aw, honey. Don’t cry.”
Spence put an arm around her and she angled her body toward him and lifted her chin—something she’d done when they were dating and she wanted him to kiss her.
Wait. Take a breath. Think.
He had to be mistaken, right? Then again, not all old habits were bad, were they?
Dear Reader,
I’m always on the lookout for new and fresh elements to include in my stories. Something that hasn’t been done before or, at least, done often. The inspiration for these elements almost always comes from an unexpected source.
Such was the case for The Cowboy’s Twin Surprise. While on a trip two years ago, we stopped in a used bookstore (I can’t ever resist). There, in the children’s section, I found a book published in 1955 called Old Bones the Wonder Horse. Old Bones is the horse that, in 1918, came from out of nowhere to win the Kentucky Derby and continue on with one of the most impressive racing records of all time.
I know only a little about horse racing, mostly from watching it on TV. But the idea stuck with me and when the time came, I just knew I had to make Spence Bohanan, first and only love of Frankie Hartman—and father of her twin girls—part of the quarter horse racing world. I really enjoyed researching The Cowboy’s Twin Surprise and hope that comes through when you read it. And I’m pretty fond of Spence, Frankie and their two girls—who deserve to be one big happy family.
Warmest wishes,
Cathy McDavid
Facebook.com/CathyMcDavidBooks
@CathyMcDavid
CathyMcDavid.com
THE COWBOY’S
TWIN SURPRISE
Cathy McDavid
Since 2006, New York Times bestselling author Cathy McDavid has been happily penning contemporary Westerns for Harlequin. Every day, she gets to write about handsome cowboys riding the range or busting a bronc. It’s a tough job, but she’s willing to make the sacrifice. Cathy shares her Arizona home with her own real-life sweetheart and a trio of odd pets. Her grown twins have left to embark on lives of their own, and she couldn’t be prouder of their accomplishments.
Books by Cathy McDavid
Harlequin Western Romance
Mustang Valley
Last Chance Cowboy
Her Cowboy’s Christmas Wish
Baby’s First Homecoming
Cowboy for Keeps
Her Holiday Rancher
Come Home, Cowboy
Having the Rancher’s Baby
Rescuing the Cowboy
A Baby for the Deputy
Harlequin American Romance
Reckless, Arizona
More Than a Cowboy
Her Rodeo Man
The Bull Rider’s Son
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
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To Clay and Caitlin,
my own grown twins who will
forever be my little babies—XXOO
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Excerpt from A Son for the Cowboy by Sasha Summers
Chapter One
“When are you going to quit this job and run away with me?”
The man, seventy if he was a day, stared up at Frankie Hartman with an endearing smile.
She refilled his mug from the pot that was never far away and always contained freshly brewed coffee. Propping an elbow on the counter, she said, “Now, Everett. What about my girls? They’re just three. I couldn’t possibly leave them.”
“Ah. The twins. I forgot.”
He hadn’t. Everett passed through southern Arizona at least twice a month, hauling gravel and sand for a regional supplier. The Cowboy Up Café, where Frankie worked her tail off as head waitress, was a regular stop for him and he often engaged her in a flirtatious exchange that both of them knew would lead nowhere.
She didn’t mind. Everett was a good tipper. He was also funny and a lot smarter than his good ol’ boy appearance and personality would have people think.
In that regard, he wasn’t unlike Spence, the errant father of Frankie’s twin daughters. But she refused to think about him. Not today. She had much more important matters on her mind.
Tia Maria, owner and manager of the café, would be assembling the staff at any moment and announcing the name of the new manager. Though Tia Maria had dropped only occasional vague hints, Frankie was one hundred percent convinced she’d get the promotion.
Who else? Besides having the most seniority, she’d covered for Tia Maria off and on this past year during the café owner’s increasing absences. While Tia Maria wasn’t seriously ill, advancing age and health issues had begun to take their toll, and she’d decided to finally retire.
Frankie had been mentally spending the increased salary that came with the promotion for weeks now. Between two young daughters and the house she’d recently purchased, her budget was stretched to its limit.
“Maybe before my next run, you’ll reconsider.” Everett wasn’t ready to give up.
Frankie flashed him the smile she reserved for her favorite customers. “Anything’s possible.”
She hurried to the pass-through window, grabbed her order and delivered it to the waiting customers. Because the café was shorthanded today, she’d been filling in wherever needed, covering the counter more than the dining area. In between, she watched the door for Tia Maria’s return and counted the minutes.
From the corner of her eye, Frankie caught sight of her two younger sisters, Mel and
Ronnie. At four months pregnant, Mel had recently started showing and switched from wearing her standard jeans and tucked-in work shirt to stretchy pants and loose tops. She looked both different and adorable.
Waving hello, the pair slipped into a recently vacated booth.
Frankie informed her nearest coworker she was taking a break. She then prepared Mel’s favorite herbal tea and a hot chocolate for Ronnie. With luck, they’d be celebrating Frankie’s promotion.
“You came.” She placed the mugs in front of her sisters. Since Tia Maria frowned on employees sitting at tables with customers, Frankie stood. It was actually a practice she supported.
“Dad and Dolores send their apologies,” Mel said.
“No problem.”
Frankie hadn’t expected either her father or stepmom to show. Cattle buyers were visiting The Small Change Ranch this morning, where her father worked as foreman, and her stepmom lay in bed, recovering from a minor surgical procedure.
Of course, Frankie would love to have all her family here to share in her moment of excitement, but she understood why it wasn’t possible.
“Is Sam home with the girls?” Ronnie asked.
“She’s picking them up after preschool and bringing them by for a dish of ice cream.”
“Did she tell you she’s competing at the Camp Verde Rodeo this weekend?”
Frankie sighed. “I swear, I hardly see her anymore.”
They’d recently connected with their unknown teenaged sister—when she’d crashed their father’s birthday party and demanded a share of his lottery winnings. While accepting of Sam, Mel and Ronnie still had their ups and downs with her, struggling to come to terms with her sudden appearance, her decision to say in Mustang Valley, and the fact their father had had a child with another woman and never told anyone.
Frankie, however, had taken instantly to the eighteen-year-old, who stayed with her when she wasn’t on the road and fit in as if they’d been together their entire lives.
“When’s the announcement?” Ronnie blew on and then sipped her hot chocolate.
“Any minute. Whenever Tia Maria gets back.” Frankie glanced around, noting the new busboy hadn’t cleared two of the tables. “She’d better hurry. We’re going to get busy soon.”
Though customers continued to come and go, the crowd had thinned during the typical lull between breakfast and lunch. Frankie didn’t worry. The well-trained staff, with the exception of the new busboy, would handle the few new customers straggling in.
“Are you nervous?”
Frankie beamed down at Mel. “I’m excited. I can’t wait. I have so many ideas for this place.”
Had she really been employed at the café fourteen years? She could remember ditching school one afternoon during her junior year to interview with Tia Maria, who, with her steel-colored hair, sharp features and vivid red lipstick, had scared the pants off Frankie. Truth be told, she still did once in a while.
“Will you be able to keep up with the catering after the promotion?”
Mel’s question was one Frankie had pondered endlessly since Tia Maria first mentioned retiring.
“If work gets too demanding, I’ll just cut back on the catering. Limit myself to friends and family. And the really high-paying jobs, of course.”
“How’s your crowd-funding campaign coming along?” Ronnie asked.
“I’ve only raised a few hundred dollars so far.” Hardly enough to launch a business, even a side one.
“No one makes better barbecue brisket and ribs than you,” Mel added. “Even that place the New Times voted number one doesn’t compare.”
Frankie unabashedly agreed. “But side jobs don’t provide company benefits. I need the employer-paid health insurance and vacation days.”
They chatted a couple more minutes, until Frankie noticed the new busboy had yet to clear the two tables. This wasn’t the time for her to fall behind in her duties, not with a promotion nearly clinched.
“I’d better get going.”
“We’re rooting for you, sis.”
She hurried off, still not understanding why Tia Maria hadn’t simply given her the promotion. What was with all this big announcement stuff?
Frankie located the busboy in the storeroom, hanging out with the assistant cook, and hurriedly dispatched him to the dining area. She then admonished the assistant cook, a notorious flirt who was much too old for the kid, before returning to the counter, where customers were waiting for either refills, their check, to place their order or be served.
At least three new people had arrived. She summed them up in a flash. A middle-aged couple—tourists judging by their cargo shorts and T-shirts—and a young cowboy, probably in his early thirties, though it was hard to tell from this angle.
Frankie delivered an order of pancakes, and then snatched the coffeepot from the warming plate, ready to offer the cowboy and middle-aged couple a steaming mug. At that moment, the cowboy turned from talking to Everett and looked directly at her.
He wore an enormous grin, and his green-gray eyes danced with amusement.
Frankie froze as if hit with a stun gun. Only her heart moved, and it beat hard enough to crack a rib.
No, no, no! This could not be happening.
She closed her eyes. When she opened them, Spencer Bohanan still sat there, acting as if he hadn’t been gone for over four years and without so much as a phone call. A text. An e-mail. A greeting passed on from a mutual friend.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded, storming over to him.
“Now, now, honey.”
Honey! Frankie came unglued. Who did he think he was?
“I’m busy, Spence.”
“Cook still making those special hash browns with the green peppers and onions?”
“I don’t have time for this.”
Her legs started to shake, knocking together at the knees. Worse, Tia Maria had just entered the front door, accompanied by a well-dressed man Frankie hadn’t seen before. She needed to get Spence out of there.
“I’ll have the two-egg special, over easy with wheat toast and a side of the special hash browns.” Turning his coffee mug right side up, he said, “Seeing as you have the pot, I’ll take a shot.”
She wanted to strangle him for too many reasons to count. Not the least of which was the last time he’d left, he’d given her all of fifteen hours’ warning. She’d told him to stay away for good. To never come back. Find someone new who could tolerate his wandering ways.
And, he had. The first two, anyway. Maybe the third. She hadn’t inquired.
Everett didn’t bother hiding his stare. Frankie sought out her sisters, who looked on with slack-jawed wonder. Probably half the café customers were observing Frankie and Spence. Those who knew their history were relaying it to their neighbors in hushed whispers. If Frankie strained, she swore she could hear them.
“Sweethearts since high school.”
“He’d leave for some rodeo or ranch job, then appear on her doorstep six months later.”
“She always took him back. Well, except for that last time. Heard they had a lulu of a fight.”
“Do you think he’s the father of her girls?”
“She refuses to say who is, but my money’s on him.”
“Does he know?”
“If not, he will soon enough. No one keeps a secret in this town.”
That last statement—imagined or real—sent Frankie into a state of panic. Coffee sloshed out of the pot and landed on her shoe, the result of her unsteady grip.
“You need to go. Now,” she muttered between clenched teeth.
Spence’s grin didn’t waver. “Can we talk first?”
He’d heard about the girls! She should leave for the preschool this very instant, not wait for Sam. At th
e least, she needed to call her youngest sister and warn her to...what? Pack the girls’ clothes so that Frankie could whisk them away?
“I owe you an apology,” Spence said, his tone sounding contrite in that boyish way of his. “More than one. I’d like the chance to issue them. That’s all.”
Okay. Perhaps he didn’t know. Frankie’s head swam. This was confusing. And alarming. She’d considered telling him about the girls a thousand times, always talking herself out of it before placing the call.
Was fate giving her a push, reminding her of all the good reasons she should inform Spence he was a father? Only one way to find out.
“I’m off at three,” she said.
“I just so happen to be free at three. I’ll pick you up.”
“No way. I’ll meet you. Six o’clock at the park.” And don’t talk to anyone in town between now and then.
His face lit with the same smile she remembered from high school, when they’d been assigned as lab partners in chemistry class, and he’d stolen her heart. He’d yet to return it, even to this day. In her weaker moments, she admitted she had yet to reclaim it.
Frankie started to speak, only to be cut off by the busboy tapping her on the shoulder.
“Tia Maria says for everyone to meet her in the office.”
The moment was here. The announcement naming her the new manager. Struggling to control the myriad emotions whirling around inside her, she shakily poured Spence’s coffee.
“Stay out of trouble,” she warned him before following the busboy, remembering at the last second to return the pot to the warmer.
“I’ll be waiting for you,” Spence called after her, laughter in his voice.
Frankie balled her hands into fists. He would have to be every bit as good-looking as always. Tall, broad-shouldered, and perfectly proportioned in all the right places.
“A little advance notice would have been nice,” she grumbled to herself while untying her apron. She refused to be wearing an orange juice stain the size of a saucer when she accepted her promotion.
* * *
THE ENTIRE STAFF on duty, including the cook, had gathered in the area outside the manager’s office. Standing beside Tia Maria was the well-dressed man Frankie had noticed earlier. Who was he, and why was he there?