Cowboy Sam's Quadruplets

by Tina Leonard

  Seton sighed. “I don’t think you’re ever serious about anything.”

  “There you’d be wrong. I’m serious about everything.”

  She shook her head. “Why don’t you just ask Jonas what’s bugging him? Maybe he’s upset about something.”

  “He is. He’s been mopey ever since your sister left. It’s like looking at Droopy Dog.”

  “I’ll just ask Sabrina if she’ll come visit me and Aunt Corinne.” She knew her sister wouldn’t, though.

  “You do that. Maybe it’ll work. In the meantime, I’ll go have blood drawn.”

  “You’re serious about this.”

  “Very serious. Dead serious.”

  Seton looked down at her fingers, then at Sam. “I don’t think so. It’s not going to be easy for me to get pregnant, and if I did, you strike me as the kind of man who’d be determined to drag me to the altar.”

  “Well, as you’re not certain you can conceive, we don’t have to worry about a pregnancy yet.” Sam smiled at her. “I say we go for a practice run.”

  “Sam.” Seton frowned. “I’m not going to just go jump in bed with you when we haven’t even kissed.”

  He leaned over and kissed her on the lips, in plain view of everyone at the Chinese restaurant in Diablo. “Mmm,” he said, “I do love Chinese food.”

  She blushed. “I’m sure it’s a rare man who claims to love sake kisses.”

  “Eat a fortune cookie and let me kiss you again,” he teased. “Just for comparison.”

  Seton stood, looking at him while feeling everything was all wrong. “I can’t do this, Sam.”

  “All right,” he said, signing the bill. “Don’t say I didn’t offer you a whale of a deal.”

  They walked out together, and she was relieved when he didn’t put his hand at her back. Her mind and heart were both racing, just from thinking about Sam. And Jonas and Sabrina. And the baby. But mostly Sam, and how good his lips had felt against hers.

  She hadn’t expected them to feel so sexy.

  “Tell you what,” he said, walking her to her car. “I’m going to be at a cute little bunkhouse on my property. If you’re in the mood later to come by and iron out some details, I’ll be there, reading briefs. No worries if you don’t.”

  Seton watched as he took her hand and brushed her fingers against his lips. Her pulse quickened, making her nervously aware of how much she liked him. She’d come back to Diablo for this man.

  And he was offering her almost everything she’d dreamed of.

  Not love, of course. But just about everything else.

  Maybe Aunt Corinne is right. Maybe playing it out is the right thing to do.

  She couldn’t. Getting involved with Sam would just complicate matters. “I won’t be there,” she told him, and he shrugged.

  “You know where the bunkhouse is. No one stays there anymore. Jonas lives in the main house, and when I say lives, I use the term loosely. He’s more like a fireplace vampire. He comes alive to feed horses and then settles back in his Count Dracula position with his tray table in an upright and locked position.”

  She looked at Sam. “Would you know if anyone ever used the word eccentric to describe you?”

  He laughed. “I’ll be seeing you, Nancy Drew.”

  Off he went, as if he had all the confidence in the world that she’d show up. Just because he wanted her to. A snap of his fingers, and the world fell at his feet.

  Well, not me, buster.

  AT NINE O’CLOCK that night, the sound of pebbles hitting her window pulled Seton from her bed, where she’d been reading a whodunit by one of her favorite authors. She pulled open her window and glanced down to see Sam grinning up at her from the ground below.

  “You’re going to wake Aunt Corinne, you ape!” she whispered. “You’re too old to be throwing stones at a lady’s window!”

  “You didn’t come see me,” Sam said. “I thought I’d pick you up.”

  “You’re so not funny.” He was like a big puppy, she decided, completely unlike the cagey barrister one saw in court. “I’m not coming down. I’m reading a book, and it’s very good.”

  She didn’t really expect him to buy her flimsy excuse, and he didn’t.

  “How can I find out if I want to marry you if you stay locked up in your tower?” Sam asked.

  “That’s a problem you’ll have to resolve on your own. Now go away.” Seton started to close her window, then heard her aunt’s voice on the porch.

  “Hello, Corinne,” Sam said. “Yes, it is a lovely night.”

  Seton eavesdropped shamelessly.

  “I’d love to come inside. Thank you, Corinne,” he said.

  She realized he’d gone into the house with her aunt. There was nothing she could do except get dressed and go downstairs. Somehow, she’d have to run Sam off before her aunt plied him with tea and cookies and questions about his aunt Fiona and uncle Burke. There was nothing Aunt Corinne would love more than to catch up on her dear friend.

  Seton jumped into a blue dress, pulled a brush through her hair, gargled, smoothed on some lipstick and flew down the stairs. Sam had his head under the sink, looking at the pipes. Aunt Corinne held the flashlight and a box of tools at the ready.

  “Aunt Corinne!” Seton exclaimed.

  “Ow!” Sam started and banged his head on the cabinet, and Aunt Corinne jumped like a cat startled by a barking dog.

  “Seton! I thought you were asleep!” her aunt exclaimed. “What are you doing up?”

  Sam raised a quizzical brow and grinned.

  “I’m…I thought I heard voices,” she said. She gazed back at Sam, annoyed.

  “Sam’s come to fix my sink,” Corinne said. “I saw him in town and told him I was having issues with it, and he said he’d stop by.”

  Seton glared at Sam, who shrugged. “Did he really?”

  “Yes,” Sam said, “and it turns out you did drop your ring down the drain, Corinne.” He handed it to her and winked at Seton. “She thought she had, but didn’t have her glasses on at the time.”

  “You didn’t mention that to me,” Seton said. “I could have helped you look for it. You didn’t need to bother Sam, Aunt Corinne.”

  “Oh, Sam’s never minded helping me out.” Corinne’s expression was blithe. “None of the Callahan boys mind coming by because I give them lots of cookies.”

  Sam smiled. “I actually come to see your aunt. The cookies are merely a nice benefit.”

  “Oh, you rascal.” Corinne handed him a wrench. “Thank you, Sam. Now you wash up and we’ll all have a snack. I’ve baked some Toll House cookies fresh, and they’re my best batch in weeks.”

  Seton frowned. “Surely we could send Sam home with his cookies, Aunt? I’m certain he has a busy day tomorrow, and it is late—”

  “Why, Seton.” Corinne handed Sam a dish towel to dry his hands. “No one goes to bed at nine o’clock.”

  Seton blushed. She’d been in bed with her book earlier. “Since everything seems to be handled down here,” she said. “I believe I’ll go back up to bed.”

  “You do that,” Sam said, and her aunt smiled.

  “Yes, Seton. Get your rest, dear.”

  She hadn’t really wanted to go upstairs while Sam was here. Clearly, he couldn’t take a hint to go. Seton pursed her lips, trying to decide what to do—had he not just asked her why she hadn’t shown up at his place?—and decided to call his bluff. “All right,” she said brightly. “Good night, all.”

  She forced herself to go back upstairs, and felt like a child who’d gotten sent to bed early. But she was doing the right thing. Sam hadn’t said a word about coming by to help out her aunt. He was playing games with her and the best thing to do was ignore him.

  It wasn’t going to be easy when she could hear Sam and her aunt downstairs laughing and reminiscing. Seton sighed and tried to focus on the mystery, which no longer seemed that riveting. After a while, unable to concentrate, she put the book down and tried to hear what they were saying.
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  Twenty minutes later, she heard the front door open and Aunt Corinne call, “Good night!”

  Sam said, “Good night!” Seton heard his truck pull away and realized she’d closed her book. She’d never be able to concentrate on the red herrings now.

  Sam stayed on her mind too much these days.

  “Seton?”

  “Yes, Aunt Corinne? Come in.”

  “He’s gone.” She entered and sat on the vanity chair. “Didn’t you want to see Sam?”

  Seton wondered if her aunt had dropped her ring down the drain on purpose just to get Sam and her niece in the same room together. “I don’t know,” she said. “We’ve had dinner together the past few nights. He keeps mentioning his proposal like he means it. Frankly, I’m confused.”

  “He seems honestly interested in you.”

  Seton wondered if Sam was interested or just being expedient about his plans. “I don’t know, Aunt Corinne. I’m not skilled in the dating game, I guess.”

  “Hiding up here is no way to encourage him,” her aunt pointed out.

  “I don’t really want to encourage him,” Seton said. “I think we might be too different.”

  “You came back because of Sam,” Corinne reminded her.

  “I know.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what he really wants.”

  “He wants a woman,” Corinne said. “He wants you.”

  Seton blinked at her aunt’s frankness. “He doesn’t know me.”

  “What’s to know? You like him, he likes you. There’s no perfect rubric for love, Seton.”

  She sighed. “He wanted me to visit him tonight.”

  Aunt Corinne gazed at her. “What can it hurt?”

  She didn’t know. Nothing, except her heart, of course. But maybe she was worrying too much. Seton got up, began to put her dress back on. “I’ll go. But I feel stupid.”

  “Why? Because he wants you to come over, and you want to go?” Corinne shook her head this time. “If you like the man, show up. You’ve practically got a steel cage wrapped around you, Seton.” Her aunt smiled to take the sting out of her words. “Sam’s a very nice, eligible bachelor. He likes you. What does it hurt to go find out if you like him?”

  Seton hesitated, not certain she was doing the right thing. She was a little intimidated by Sam and his potent, blatant allure. But if her aunt thought paying a man a call at his bunkhouse was a good idea, then what could go wrong?

  THIRTY MINUTES LATER, when she finally got up the courage to knock on the bunkhouse door, what Seton most feared came to pass.

  Lacey MacIntyre opened the door, and Seton could see Wendy Collins, the town’s much-married-and-on-the-hunt-again librarian in the background. “Hi, Seton. What are you doing here?” Lacey asked without much enthusiasm.

  Cold wind seemed to whip through her. “I think I’ve made a mis—”

  “Hi, Seton. You made it.” Sam peered around Lacey with a big grin on his face. “I knew you would.”

  “I don’t think you did know I’d come by,” Seton said, staring doubtfully at Lacey and Wendy. Wendy was a sultry brunette who loved men, and Lacey was a petite, built blonde who adored men like kids loved candy. “Even I didn’t know I would.” She wished she hadn’t.

  “Well, you’re here now. She’s picking me up,” Sam said conversationally to Wendy and Lacey. “It was good seeing you ladies, but I must be off.”

  “Must you?” Lacey asked with a glare for Seton.

  “Yes,” Sam said, putting his arm around Seton’s waist. “But I’m sure I’ll be seeing you soon.”

  Seton stiffened like a porcupine. She tried to dislodge Sam’s arm from her waist, but he hung on, guiding her away from his friends and out to her car.

  “You rascal!” Seton said. “How could you sweet-talk me and my aunt and have company waiting on you?”

  He kissed her temple. “You have a jealous streak, Miss McKinley.”

  “I do not!” Seton pulled away and put a hand against a chest that felt very firm and warm. She resisted the urge to splay her fingers to feel more. “You’re a louse with your harebrained proposal.”

  He grinned at her. “Let’s go for a drive.”

  “Let’s not.” She was too annoyed to consider being stuck in a vehicle with him. “Have you proposed to them, too?”

  “No,” Sam said, “you were first on my list.”

  She knew he was teasing her but couldn’t help her outraged response. “First!”

  “It’s a short list.” He tugged her toward his truck. “We’ll go in my ride. That way I know you won’t drive me out and drop me off somewhere far from home, considering your current mood.” He didn’t sound too worried about it, though.

  “It’s a thought,” Seton said. “Why did you have those women there?”

  Sam pulled out of the driveway. “They weren’t there to see me. They came to see Jonas.”

  “Jonas!” A sense of panic fluttered through Seton. “Those two man-hunters are after your brother?”

  “I’m not certain if they’re after him in the way you mean—”

  “They most certainly are!” Seton thought about cute, curvy Lacey in her tight pink dress, and statuesque, exotically brunette Wendy alone with Jonas. “I thought you wanted us to have a fake engagement so Sabrina would come home to an engagement party, and then she and Jonas would bump into each other. Or some scatterbrained plan like that.”

  “Yeah, we may not have time for all that, considering the look of things,” Sam said.

  “The look of what things?” Seton was worried about her sister. If Jonas was entertaining experienced man magnets, Sabrina was going to end up with a fatherless child.

  “Jonas is so mopey that the ladies are anxious to try to cheer him up. He could fall under some woman’s spell. It happens to men who have broken hearts.”

  “Broken heart?” Seton frowned. “You seem convinced that Jonas liked Sabrina.”

  “It’s just a hunch. But now that the ladies have come calling, could you blame him for finding comfort where he can?”

  Sam glanced at her, but Seton didn’t notice. Lost in worry, she watched the headlights passing occasionally on the country road. It didn’t really matter whether Jonas was pining after Sabrina or not. What mattered was that there was an unborn child who needed its parents to find their way to each other again. Sabrina and Jonas needed to talk, at the minimum.

  Seton had promised to keep Sabrina’s secret. Yet she had the responsibility to try to make the best happen for her niece or nephew. The only way to do that was to get Sabrina back to Diablo—or get Jonas to D.C.

  Seton slid her gaze to Sam. He glanced at her again at just that moment, and their eyes met, only to ricochet away.

  “You seem upset,” he said. “I promise you those ladies didn’t come by to see me. They brought Jonas a peach pie because he loves pie so much. Wendy had some frozen peaches from last summer and she thought one of her special desserts would perk Jonas up.”

  “I’ll just bet she did.” Seton simmered at the thought. “That means Lacey has her sights on you.”

  “Nah,” Sam said, reaching over to pat her leg. “All she brought me was a chocolate cake.”

  Seton whipped her head around to stare at him. “It’s a wonder you don’t weigh three hundred pounds with all the ladies in this town feeding you, including my aunt.”

  Sam smiled. “It’s good to be a guy in a town with lots of appreciative females.”

  He was so smug and so full of himself that Seton wanted to ignore him. She couldn’t do that. There was a higher issue to deal with than what she thought of Sam. “You’re not really worried that your brother would fall for one of those women.”

  “Look. Jonas is a weird bird. He gave up his successful practice in Dallas to come here and molder like month-old bread. He stayed busy around the ranch, and I’m pretty sure he had a thing for your sister. I don’t know that for a fact, but I live by my hunches and I’m usually not too far off.” He glanced over to se
e if Seton was listening. When he realized he had her complete attention, he continued. “Not to be telling tales on my bro, but when she left, it was like all the air went out of him. Who knows what he might do next? It’s Jonas. That’s all I can say.”

  Seton closed her eyes for a moment, then looked out the passenger window. “Sam, I don’t think it will work.”

  “What won’t?”