LITMIR.BIZ

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long-term engagement?”

      “Your point?” she asked.

      “I’d be as good as married, and you wouldn’t be afraid of getting tied down. Best of all, Sabrina would probably come home to our engagement party.”

      Seton stared at him. “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.”

      Sam blinked. “Which part?”

      “All of it. Order the pupu platter. I can’t plot on an empty stomach.”

      He asked for a pupu platter and veggie egg rolls and maybe some dim sum—she wasn’t paying attention to anything but Sam’s face as he ordered—and then looked at her earnestly. “This could work.”

      “I’m not following,” she said cautiously.

      “They just need to be brought together,” Sam explained. “Then they could both move on with their lives, for better or worse.”

      Seton had forgotten to ask how far along her sister was. She’d been too shocked to do so. She counted back how long it had been since Sabrina and she had left for D.C. It had been around four months.

      Sabrina should definitely be showing.

      “I don’t think she’d come back even to an engagement party,” Seton said. “Not that I’m considering a fake engagement to you, anyway.”

      “You should,” Sam said. “There would be many pluses to being my fiancée.”

      “I can’t think of a single one.” She dragged a crispy noodle through some sauce and munched it happily. “Besides, if Sabrina wouldn’t come back to Diablo, we’d be engaged for nothing. Then we’d have to break it, which would be a mess, and—”

      “What if I told you,” Sam said slowly, thoughtfully, quietly, in a tone she’d never heard from him before, “that I wasn’t entirely opposed to having a baby?”

      Seton blinked, nearly choking on her sake, which made her eyes water. She coughed and shook her head. “You’re so manipulative it’s scary. Or impressive. I can’t decide.”

      “I’m serious,” Sam said. “I could tell as soon as I proposed that a baby was going to be your sticking point. As you said, both parties have to get something in an agreement. I’d get a wife and you’d get a baby. Stick that coin in your baby meter and see if it registers.”

      She gave him a stern look and dabbed at her eyes with the white dinner napkin. “Sam, parenthood shouldn’t be negotiated. Babies aren’t bargaining chips.”

      “No, they’re more like time bombs. Trust me, there’s several of them ticking away around the ranch, and something’s always going off.” He looked pretty cheerful about his observation. “One more would just add to the energy.”

      He was already having one more Callahan. Seton shook her head. Their pupu platter arrived, along with more goodies Sam had ordered, and Seton dug in, hoping he would eat, too, and forget all about his newest idea. “This is delicious.”

      “I know. This restaurant is great. They’ll deliver out to the ranch, too, which makes all of us very happy.” Sam frowned. “Jonas has quit cooking, and it’s really a pain.”

      “Can’t you warm up a burger for yourself? Open a bag of Bertolli?” Seton looked at him curiously as she bit into an egg roll and moaned with joy. “I’ve never had egg rolls as good as they serve here. I literally craved them when I was in D.C.”

      “Another reason you should never have left.” Sam waved his at her before dipping it in mustard and plum sauces. “When your aunt told me you were returning, I knew you belonged in Diablo. ‘That’s my girl,’ I told your aunt, and later, I realized that’s exactly what I meant.”

      Seton put down her egg roll. “What, exactly, did you realize you meant?”

      “That you were my girl. Or you should be. How many times do I have to tell you I need a wife?” Sam gazed at her. “Your aunt warned me that you might be a little stubborn. I told her I could handle it.” He started on the dim sum with gusto.

      “Maybe I don’t want to be your girl,” Seton said with some heat. “You know, in some places, in a lot of places, this domineering attitude of yours could be construed as chauvinism.”

      “Nope. Desire.” Sam closed his eyes as he licked his fingers. “This is so good I could eat it for breakfast.”

      Seton sighed and joined him in eating the dim sum. “Sam, you were quite certain you didn’t want children.”

      “But I’ve had time to reconsider my position,” he said, “and you’d be cute pregnant. You’re tall, but not too tall, and have nice curves, so you’ll be a stunner. Sabrina’s short and has that bright red hair, so she’d probably look like a plump, cute—”

      “Ugh,” Seton said, “don’t talk about it.”

      “Why?” Sam looked at her. “I just meant that you’d be very beautiful carrying a baby, Seton. And I’m willing to make that happen.”

      “How?” she asked, with some acerbity. “Didn’t you say that our fakey thing would be in name only?”

      “I’m flexible.” Sam grinned at her, and Seton’s heart jumped.

       “Flexible.”

      “Sure. See how hard I’m trying to make this agreement work?”

      “I wasn’t aware we were negotiating.”

      “Aren’t we?” Sam poured some more sake into her cup.

      “I don’t think so.” Seton stared at him, wondering what it was he really wanted. Corinne and Sabrina had both said that there was more to Sam’s offer than it seemed. Seton wondered if they were right.

      “We have to get those two back together somehow,” Sam said. “All parties benefit.”

      “I thought you weren’t attracted to me.”

      Surprise crossed Sam’s face. “Did I say that?”

      “You said something like it.”

      Sam laughed out loud. “Give me a chance, angel face.”

      “This is so crazy,” Seton said under her breath. “You’re absolutely nutty.”

      “Probably,” Sam said cheerfully. “But I can tell you like me, even if you don’t know why.”

      Her lips twisted. “My, what a big ego you have, wolfie.”

      “Needs a good woman to keep it in check.” Sam didn’t seem too bothered by that. “Think of how much fun we could have trying to start a baby. Practice makes perfect, I hear.”

      She stared at him. “I doubt it.”

      “Well, we’d know in nine months,” Sam said. “We probably shouldn’t waste any time finding out.”

      Seton eased back, so full that she felt stuffed, and so annoyed with Sam she didn’t know what to think.

      “I understand that you need a guarantee,” he continued. “I wouldn’t buy a horse without checking it out thoroughly, either. We could give it a few months, see if the stork has room in his calendar for us, and then announce our engagement. Or marriage, whichever you’re in the mood for at that time. Then Sabrina would come home for your baby shower—”

      Seton narrowed her eyes. “You seem very determined to get my sister back to Diablo. What’s with that?”

      “My brother’s suffering,” Sam said. “You’d pity him if you saw him. He’s practically wasting away.”

      “Not over Sabrina.” Seton wondered exactly what had transpired between Sabrina and Jonas that she hadn’t noticed. A pregnancy, for one thing.

      But

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