LITMIR.BIZ

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she readily acknowledged, “but it can only get better from here on in.”

      Before Dan could ask about either Bella or Dana, Jamie told him, “Bella’s still in Rust Creek Falls. She’s married now. And Dana came for a while late last year. Turns out she’s living in Portland, Oregon with a nice family who had adopted her. No word on Liza yet, but we’re still looking.” He smiled broadly at Danny. “Bella and Dana will both be thrilled to know that you’re actually alive.”

      The revelation stunned Dan. He stared at his brother. “You didn’t think I was alive?” he asked Jamie incredulously.

      “Well, I didn’t hear from you for twelve years. The thought had crossed my mind,” Jamie said. “Anyway, it was Fallon who encouraged me to start looking, not just for you but for all the lost sheep of our family,” he said. He paused to press a kiss to his wife’s temple. “I don’t mind telling you that this woman saved my life.”

      Fallon put her hand on her husband’s chest. “Now, don’t get all melodramatic on your brother, Jamie,” Fallon chided.

      “No melodrama,” Jamie responded. “Just the plain truth. I was in a really bad way after Paula died,” he told Dan.

      “Paula?” Dan asked. It occurred to him that he knew next to nothing about what Jamie had gone through in the last twelve years, just what he had gotten from the TV program.

      A pang twisted his gut. He should have been here. Somehow, even though his grandparents had all but thrown him and his older brothers out, he should have found a way to be there for Jamie and his sisters. A way to get over his all-but-soul-crushing guilt, a way to keep them all together as a family.

      “His first wife,” Fallon interjected.

      The fact that Jamie had been married to someone else first didn’t seem to bother her, Dan observed. She seemed to take it all in stride. Jamie had really lucked out with Fallon, Dan thought. He was genuinely happy for his brother. At least one of them had found happiness, despite the fact that the odds had felt as if they were against all of them.

      “The triplets were born prematurely,” Jamie explained, continuing to fill his brother in. “Paula died shortly after that from complications caused by the C-section. For a long while, I felt it was all my fault.”

      Confused, Dan wondered how that could possibly be his brother’s fault.

      “Paula didn’t want kids. I did.” A semi-sad smile played on his lips. “I guess I missed the sounds of a big family.”

      Fallon took over her husband’s narrative. It was clear that she didn’t want him to dwell on what she felt were his unfounded feelings of guilt.

      “The whole town pitched in to help Jamie out when Paula passed on. A bunch of us took turns volunteering to take care of the triplets so that he could regain his foothold.”

      “I wouldn’t have made it without you,” Jamie told her.

      “Without us,” Fallon corrected. “Like I said,” she told Dan, “the whole town pitched in.”

      Deftly, Fallon changed the subject, asking Dan, “So, have you come back to Rust Creek Falls to stay?”

      “Not to sound as pushy as this redhead,” Jamie interjected, “but have you?”

      Dan was still trying to make his mind up about that. “I’m not sure yet.”

      Fallon didn’t hesitate. “Well, you’re staying with us while Jamie helps you to make up your mind,” she told Dan. Her tone, warm and friendly, left no room for argument.

      Still, Dan felt he had to at least offer a protest. “I can’t impose.”

      “Family never imposes,” Jamie insisted. “End of discussion. You’re staying,” he said with finality. Then he got back to his initial question. “So where have you been all this time?”

      That was simple enough to answer. “The last ten years I’ve been in Colorado.”

      “Colorado?” Jamie repeated. “I can’t picture you in Colorado.”

      Dan understood where Jamie was coming from on that. Colorado brought up images of big cities and he was a country boy at heart.

      “I’ve been booking dude ranch vacations for city dwellers who fancy themselves cowboys,” Dan told his brother and Fallon. “It’s not a bad living,” he was quick to add. “And I get to spend most of my time on horseback.”

      “Now, that I can picture,” Jamie told him. “You said you’ve been in Colorado for the last ten years, but you’ve been gone from Rust Creek Falls for twelve. Where did you go before then?”

      “Cheyenne,” Dan answered. “I worked as a ranch hand there—along with Luke and Bailey. But they didn’t much care for it,” he confessed with a sad smile. “They got restless and then, one night, they just took off.” He paused, trying to deal with an unexpected wave of sadness that washed over him. Suppressing a sigh, he told Jamie, “I haven’t seen them since.”

      Fallon leaned forward and put her hand up on her brother-in-law’s shoulder. “We’ll find them,” she promised.

      “Isn’t she amazing?” Jamie asked him. There was pride in his eyes. “She just keeps spreading optimism wherever she goes, no matter what.”

      A light pink hue rose to Fallon’s cheeks as she pointedly ignored her husband’s compliment. Rerouting the conversation again, she asked Dan, “Would you like to meet our kids?”

      He could think of nothing that he would like better. “I’d love to,” Dan responded.

      “Then come this way. You can come too, Jamie,” she added playfully, as if it was an afterthought. “Now, brace yourself,” she told Dan. “These are not your typical year-and-a-half-old babies. They could use Jared, Henry and Kate in caffeine commercials,” she confided.

      “By the way, Kate’s the one with a bow on her head,” Jamie told him as they walked to the bedroom that the triplets occupied when they were downstairs.

      He explained that the official nursery was upstairs, but because they wanted the triplets near them as much as possible, they’d created a second room for the babies downstairs where they could take their naps.

      “She had such short hair,” Jamie explained, “everyone thought I had three sons. After a while, I got tired of telling them that Kate was a girl, so I put a bow on her to set them straight.”

      “Now her hair is finally growing in,” Fallon told him as she led the way into the back room. “Which is a good thing, because she keeps pulling that bow off.”

      Dan couldn’t hold back the smile when he stepped into the room and saw the triplets. The two boys were both on their feet, their chubby little fingers grabbing the side of their playpen and shaking it. Dan had a feeling that the playpen’s life expectancy was in serious jeopardy of being severely shortened.

      The third triplet was seated on her well-padded bottom, serenely playing with a floppy-eared stuffed bunny, seemingly totally oblivious to the commotion her brothers were creating.

      Beaming with unabashed pride, Jamie introduced his triplets.

      “Dan, I’d like you to meet Henry and Jared,” he said, indicating the two standing boys. “And this little sweetheart is Kate. Kids,” Jamie said to his triplets, “this is your uncle Danny. Can you say ‘Hi’ to him?” he prompted.

      An uneven chorus of something that could be thought to pass for “Hi!” rose up following Jamie’s request.

      “They talk?” Dan asked, his voice a mixture of surprise and envy. He knew next to nothing when it came to children and even less than that when it came to babies.

      “Talk?” Jamie echoed, then said with a laugh, “They don’t stop talking. Not even in their sleep. Of course, most of the time it sounds like

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