"What skeletons?" Suzy asked.
"You know. The ones where he isn't sure what he's getting himself into, whether he'd be a good father or not—all that stuff men worry about." Priscilla sounded very practical about the whole matter.
Suzy shook her head as she turned onto the main road into town. "What do you mean, what he's getting himself into?"
"With the marriage proposal," Cricket said. "Now he'll know if he's really cut out for the job. One afternoon with a couple of kids can tell a man almost everything about himself he needs to know. Sometimes five minutes will do the trick. When I counsel couples, you'd be surprised how many men realize they can't handle—"
"Wait," Suzy said, "I don't care whether Dane can handle being a father or not. He's not going to be a father to my girls." She glanced over at Cricket who sat in the seat next to her. "Is that what this is all about? You two cooked up a babysitting job so that Dane could try on fathering?"
"It made sense to us," Priscilla said.
"After today, we'll know if he's a man who's honest
with himself. You know. I think the Morgan men have trouble with that. They're not terribly self-aware. At least that's what it sounds like to me." Cricket said.
T have a good mind to turn around and go back." Suzy said. "I invited you girls out to the ranch to be my friends, share a few laughs and protect my reputation. Not audition fathers and matchmake."
'We weren't the ones who offered you a business-marriage proposal." Priscilla said. u As a businesswoman, however. I think you need to give yourself forty-eight hours to think over the deal before you reject it out of hand"
*i could never cheat Mr.— He. look'" Suzy slowed her car down.
'That's the cowboy!" Cricket exclaimed, her voice full of awe and admiration. "Stop. stop. Suzy'"
Suzy wasn't sure if she was making the best decision, considering the tone of her dear friend and deacon's voice, but stop she did. slowing down so that Cricket could roll down the window.
"Need a ride?" Cricket asked, her tone laced w ith more come-hither than Suzy had ever heard from her before.
"With three hot ladies? Sure do." the cowboy said. and Suzy realized drapery fabric wasn't going to be bought today as Jack Morgan slid into the backseat.
Chapter Ten
"Where are you headed, ladies?" Jack asked.
"I think the question is, where do you want to go?" Suzy asked. "I'm Suzy Winterstone, by the way. This is my friend Priscilla Perkins and Deacon Cricket Jasper." She emphasized deacon because she could see Cricket making goo-goo eyes at Jack.
"Wait a second," he said to Cricket, "you're that girl from the rodeo."
Cricket nodded, stars in her eyes. "Good memory."
"Not really," he said. "I just never forget a beautiful woman."
Suzy groaned. "Can we perhaps drop you off. maybe, I don't know, at the Morgan ranch?"
He looked at her suspiciously. "Why?"
"Because you're Jack Morgan, the oldest, and hardest-to-get-hold-of Morgan. Pete and Dane have been hoping you'd swing by. In fact, we found a letter in a drawer today with your name on it," Suzy said hurriedly. "It would be no trouble to take you to the ranch
for a bit." She didn't say that Mr. Morgan's ill health was an even better reason for Jack to set foot on the ranch, but by the anger now blazing in Jack's eyes, she figured she was already pushing her luck.
"I don't need a ride anymore," Jack said, starting to get out o( the car, but Priscilla tugged him back.
"Or we could take you to a bar," she said, batting her eyes.
"I don't do bars," he said crossly. "I don't even drink/'
"Wow," Cricket said, "and you're supposed to be such a tough guy."
"Tough guys don't drink," Jack told her. "At least they don't if they want to ride bulls as long as I have. Thanks for the offer. I'll have to pass." He got out of the car.
Cricket got out, too. "I'll go with you."
Suzy's mouth dropped open. "Cricket!"
He grinned at Cricket. "I don't have a chariot, lady, as you can see."
"I like to walk," she said resolutely.
"I've only got a couple hours until I need to be in another town," Jack said. "And besides, I sort of smell a trap."
Cricket shook her head. "I'm a deacon. I'm honest by nature and by trade. And Suzy's your brother Dane's fiancee."
Jack glanced at wSuzy again. "Lucky Dane."
Suzy leaned her head out the window. "Cricket, honey, we need to get back to the ranch. Remember,
Dane is babysitting my twins, and he's probably in danger of losing his mind."
Jack laughed. "You left Dane babysitting twins?"
Suzy nodded. "He likes children. Sort of like your father," she said, trying to get Mr. Morgan into the conversation—anything to try to stir some familial feelings in Jack.
He glanced at Cricket, then slowly shook his head, like he was coming out of a fog. "Sorry, doll. It's best if I don't get sidetracked." Then he loped off down the road, catching a ride instantly with a redhead in a blue Corvette.
"Darn," Cricket said, getting back into the car. "We nearly had him."
"Km nearly had him," Priscilla said in wonder. "I didn't know you could sweet-talk a man like that!"
"I didn't, either," Cricket said. "My knees were knocking."
Suzy felt as if they'd missed a great opportunity, but she didn't know how they could have been more successful unless they'd locked the doors and dragged Jack back to the ranch. She didn't think he was the easiest man to kidnap, even with three women in the car to butter him up. "He's never going back."
"Heart of stone," Priscilla said. "Just like a cowboy is supposed to have, I guess."
"Heart of stone," Cricket murmured. "Mine is beating like a drum."
"Oh, boy," Suzy said. "Cricket, that is a man who should wear a vest marked Broken Hearts Ahead. Do
not think about him anymore. And I am not engaged to Dane! I'm of the serious opinion that Morgan men should be avoided."
"You're right," Cricket said, but the deacon looked out the window with a sigh, and so Suzy drove on to Union Junction.
One hour after the twins had awakened, Dane was ready to throw in the towel. The girls were darling and sweet but they were into everything, all at once, and it seemed he didn't have enough eyes in his head to see the temptations they couldn't resist. Cookies had been mashed into the carpet, shaving cream sprayed on the sofa, and—he couldn't even understand how they had found this—a broken jar of coins was spilled all over the floor. Big jar, too, probably an old pickle barrel jar, at least sixty-four ounces in size.
He had to scoot the girls away from the broken glass and the scattered coins, praying they wouldn't get cut. While he was engaged in emergency cleanup, the girls went back to the can of shaving cream, much to his chagrin.
And yet he couldn't be mad at them. Somehow, he adored their pixie faces all the more. How could anyone not love such girls after his own heart? "You girls think you're doing new things, but this is nothing. You should have seen the trouble my brothers and I could get into."
They looked at him, their fingers in their mouths, which he hoped didn't have a lot of shaving cream. He
resolved to wash their hands immediately, as soon as he vacuumed up the last bits of broken glass. Nicole and Sandra were finally still and they watched him from the bottom stair with great curiosity.
"You have to wear shoes now, all the time," he said. "I don't trust my cleaning skills around tiny bare feet. Come on. Let's go upstairs and find you something to wear."
The girls went upstairs with him rather docilely— this was a new game, searching through their bags with a man and not their mother, so they patronized him with good charm. "What are these things?" he asked, holding up a ridiculously small pair of rubber Crocs from Nicole's bag. "These look safe. And they have this furry stuff inside, which will keep you warm until your mother gets home and tells me I've dressed you wrong. But at least you'll be safe and warm "
He slid the Crocs onto Nicole's feet, examining them. "Not the most attractive shoes, but I can see the appeal. And glass won't get to you, best of all." He found a second pair to slide on Sandra's feet, and glanced at the bags again. "How come your mother hasn't unpacked your suitcases? Isn't she planning to stay for a while?"
Receiving no answer, he glanced into the closet. Suzy's things weren't unpacked, either. He thought about that for a moment, deciding it was none of his business.
Yet it bothered him. He wondered if she hadn't unpacked because of him. "Let's put some bows in your hair and surprise your mom," he suggested. "First we need to get the toothpaste and shaving cream out,
though." He rooted around, found some little hows and brushes and sal down, wondering how he was going to manage tidying little heads lull of shiny, flyaway hair.
Thirty minutes later, the girls showed no signs of their midday mischief. "Now." he said with satisfaction, "no one can sa I'm not a competent babysitter Let's go dow nstairs and find a proper container tor all those coins before your mother returns. We'll be finding those for weeks. I don't think the) even make glass pickle jars that si/e anymore."
The girls followed him on this new adventure, thrilled that they were getting so much attention from Dane. Babysitting was more fun than he thought it would be.
"Probably not something we should get used to." he said to the girls as he helped them down the stairs so the) wouldn't trip in their little rubber shoes. "Your mother is bound to sa I've done everything wrong."
He searched out a plastic rain bucket and began spilling the dimes, nickels and quarters into it. "Look at these relics, girls. These are buffalo heads and mercury heads. Pop was quite the collector, not just oi houses and property but coins."
That was the thing about Pop. Dane realized. He'd been born for success. Everything he touched—even loose change—turned out to be valuable. He had the Midas touch, except with his own family.
"You know." Dane told the girls, who were enraptured by the sound of the tinkling coins. "I thought I w as going to be a success like my old man. Only I wasn't going to
make the mistake of being a jackass along the way. I always thought it was his business dealings that made him hard, so I was going to prove to him and myself that one could be successful without being like him." He shrugged, dusted off his hands and stood. "Maybe if I'd been a little tougher, I would have known that my partner was scamming me, huh?" He went into the kitchen, and the girls followed, watching as he washed his hands. Then he washed theirs and they didn't even protest, much to his delight. "So that was today's lesson from the school of hard knocks. Try not to forget it, okay?"
The front door opened, and Suzy flew inside.
"Hey," Dane said, "find the perfect fabric?"
She halted, her gaze searching out her children anxiously. "No," she said, then hurried to hug her daughters. "You girls look beautiful."
"Yeah. Uncle Dane is good with the beauty tricks," he said proudly, earning himself a frown from Suzy.
"We saw your brother," she said, and he glanced at her.
"Pete?"
"Jack."
Now she had Dane's complete attention. "You saw Jack?"
"We even had him in my car for about sixty seconds."
"I can't believe it." Dane shook his head.
"We did our best to lure him to the ranch, but he wasn't biting," Cricket said, coming inside with a bag of cookies and some loose tea she'd bought in Union Junction.
"We even told him about (he letter Pete has for him
from your father," Priscilla said, "hut he didn't seem interested at all."
"No. He wouldn't." Dane looked at Suzy. "Thanks for trying, but I'm resigned to the fact that he's never coming back."
"He's a bit crazy/' Suzy said, but at the same time she thought all the men were. Her little girls were dressed up like angels and obviously completely happy to have spent some time with Dane—she'd expected all kinds of mess and drama when she returned. Dane hadn't seemed like he'd be the most organized when it came to small children. "Crazy in the sense that I think he's just rolling from town to town. He was hitching, so I guess he doesn't even have a vehicle of his own."
"Yeah. Well, whatever." Dane turned back to the sink and dried his hands. "So, no fabric?"
Suzy watched Dane's face carefully. He was upset, but he wasn't going to let on. "We'll get it next time."
Dane shrugged. "It's not my house. I don't care."
"Well. I think I'll grill some cheese sandwiches," Priscilla said brightly. "Do you think Pete will be back soon?"
"I doubt it." Dane said. "I tried reaching him on his cell phone but all I got was a recording that he'd be out of the States for the next month."
"The next month?" Priscilla looked shocked. "I thought he had to stay here for a year."
"I don't think that was his plan. He's more of a pop-in-when-you-least-expect-it kind of guy," Dane said.
"Anyway, guess I've got you ladies to myself now. All five of you. How lucky can a guy get?"
"Even luckier," Suzy said. "If your business proposition is still on the table, I'd like to accept."
Chapter Eleven
Cricket and Priscilla gasped, but Dane just stared at her. Suzy could feel her heart beating in her throat.
"Why?" he asked. "Seeing Jack change your mind?" "I'm not sure," she said, knowing that was indeed the big motivator. "It just came to me that this is the right thing to do."
She wasn't being completely honest, but she hadn't even told Cricket and Priscilla she was going to accept Dane's offer—it seemed to have flown out of her mouth. Yet she knew it was the right decision.
"Well," Dane said, "that makes me a lucky guy." "That's what your brother said," Cricket observed, and Priscilla nodded.
"Did he?" Dane looked at Suzy, watching her. "Yes," Suzy said, "but he was being polite." "I don't think polite describes Jack. I haven't seen him in years, but I remember him being more of a hell-raising, don't-give-a-dang-what-anybody-thinks per-
son. If he said I was lucky, he meant it," Dane said, grinning from ear to ear.
"I'm not saying his approval changed my mind," Suzy said.
"I hope money won't, either," Dane said. "I don't have any, except for what my father has promised each of us, and which I have, incidentally, decided to turn down."
The three women stared at him.
"Well," Dane said, "independence is a powerful motivator. I just need to start over in my life. 1 can do this on my own—I was too trusting and I paid for that mistake. Just thought you should know that the parameters of the proposal have changed."
Suzy put her hands on her hips. "Not for me," she said. "I wasn't marrying you for money. Mr. Morgan pays me quite well. You were marrying me for your money. I was marrying you so my girls would have a last name."
He considered that. "I'll have to think about it," he said. "Not the part about the girls, but whether I want to have a wife I can't afford."
"Oh, pish," Cricket said. "Two can live as cheaply as one, especially when neither of you is paying for this roof over your head."
"Except I won't be living here," Dane said. "There's no point. My brothers aren't here, and I don't want the money, so there's no reason to stay."
"Very mature of you," Priscilla said. "Independence in a man is attractive. Don't you agree, Suzy?"
"I don't know," Suzy said, "I'm not the one to ask
about family matters. But I have a two-bedroom house
I haen"t rented out yet, so technically— n
"Two bedrooms?" Dane said, brightening. 'That sounds quite cozy."
Suzy looked at him with some concern. "We haven't discussed the fact that this is an in-name-only marriage.* 1
Dane tried to look innocent, tailing miserably. "I'm up for discussing sex am time you want to."
"Ha." Cricket said. "Priseilla. maybe we should take the girls for a walk so these two can decide if a merger between two entire!) dissimilar people i^ a good th
ing."
"Come on. girls." Priseilla said. "Let's go look for some pecans. That wind the other night should have blown down plenty. We can make chocolate pecan pie."
"I never said you both couldn't be part ot this merger." Dane said agreeably "We could do a commune kind of thing."
Priseilla put some mittens on the little girls. "As you said, you don't have am money, and it would take money to keep Cricket and me. We're more hardhearted than Suzy."
"Hey,'* Suzy said. "I'm trying to raise two children. I think money i^ lovely."
But Priseilla and Cricket had alread} left, leaving her alone with a very handsome cow boy.
"What changed your mind?" he asked.
"You were right. It was your brother. Cricket looked like she was going to jump into the backseat and eat him up. I would have thought a deacon would have better
sense." Suzy blinked. Maybe she was no different than Cricket—same story, different man.
"What does that have to do with me?"
"I felt sorry for him." She tried to figure out if Dane was buying her story. "He seemed sort of lost to me. And I've decided the best way I can help your father is to tie you down for a year."
He laughed and the sound slid along her skin, tempting her. "You're going to settle me, Suzy Winterstone?"
She raised her chin. "It's my best offer."
He looked at her, his gaze suddenly resembling a wolf's. "I don't think so."
"You don't think what?" She was wading into ever deeper water, trying to read his mind.
"I don't think you're being completely honest, maybe with me, maybe with yourself, but honesty is not your strong suit at the moment." He slid a hand along her arm, which she jerked away.
"Look," she said, "my girls win if I marry you, my parents may even be slightly impressed that I'm no longer a single mother, and it will please Mr. Morgan." She gave him a cool glance. "He of all people will understand the sacrifice I'm making for the cause."
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