LITMIR.BIZ

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what enough money in the right hands can accomplish.” He leaned against the doorjamb, folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes on her.

      A flicker of heat skittered through her system under that watchful stare. “Why?” she asked. “Why do this if you’re leaving again? By the time you get back, they’ll be too old for this room.”

      He frowned and his eyes darkened. “I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do, but whatever it is, the girls will be a part of my life. I wanted them to have a place here. To know this ranch as home.”

      “Their home is with me,” Sadie said quietly with a quick glance at the girls as they squabbled over the stuffed animals.

      “Could be with both of us,” he pointed out.

      “Don’t start again, Rick,” she said with a shake of her head. “We’ve been down that road too many times already.”

      “And never really talked about it.”

      “There’s nothing to say.”

      When the girls scampered into an adjoining room, Sadie grabbed at the excuse to halt her conversation with Rick and called out, “Hold on, you two….”

      “Don’t worry,” Rick said quickly, reaching out to take her hand. At the first touch of his skin to hers, Sadie sucked in a gulp of air. She felt his reaction as strongly as her own and she knew that whatever else lay between them, the sexual heat was still burning fiercely.

      He gave her hand a squeeze and released her reluctantly. “Nothing in here can hurt them. I had experts come in and baby-proof the place. Hell, the whole house has had a toddler remodel.”

      Sadie curled her fingers into a fist to keep from reaching out to him again just to feel that sizzle of heat. Nodding to him, she relaxed her guard on the girls a little.

      She’d already noticed the window gates and the plugs in the electrical outlets. And she had to admit that, even with the worry over Rick trying to swoop her girls out from under her, she was touched that he’d gone to so much trouble. But still … “What’s in that room?”

      He tucked his hands into his jeans pockets and shrugged. “Not a room. It’s their closet.”

      “Their—” Stunned speechless, she followed her girls and found them pawing through rack after rack of dresses, shirts and jeans. The closet had been designed so that everything was on toddler level, so both girls had no trouble reaching all of the new clothing that had been purchased just for them.

      On the floor of the closet, clear boxes of different types of shoes were stacked. Chortling gleefully, the twins indulged themselves. Wendy was tugging at a pair of miniature cowboy boots, while Gail was trying to force her sneaker-clad foot into a princess slipper.

      “Sweetie, wait a minute,” Sadie said, dropping to her knees and taking the slipper from greedy little hands.

      “Wanna,” Gail argued, her bottom lip poking out in a pout that was a herald of a tantrum to come.

      Sadie braced for it, almost looking forward to seeing Rick handle one of his daughters when she was less than the loveable toddler he knew. But she didn’t get a chance. Instead, she listened.

      “Well, now, you two girls could play in here … or we could go and see your ponies,” he coaxed.

      “Pony!” Both of them leaped up and charged to Rick as if he was Santa Claus. And no doubt that’s just what he looked like to two dazzled little girls.

      Their mother however, was a different story. “Ponies?”

      “Tiny ones,” Rick assured her, scooping both girls up into his arms. “Really. Hardly even related to horses, they’re so small.”

      “The girls don’t need ponies,” Sadie said, congratulating herself on the calm even tone of her voice.

      He grinned. “Wouldn’t be much fun to get things only when you need them, would it?”

      “Pony, Mommy!” Wendy slapped her hands together and Gail laid her head down on her father’s shoulder.

      Sadie, looking at the three of them united together against her, knew she’d lost this battle. Rick was making all of her girls’ dreams come true. From the castlelike tower on his house, to princess shoes, to ponies. Heaven knew what would be next. Just that thought was enough to have her say quietly, “Rick, you can’t keep doing this. You’ll spoil them rotten.”

      Surprise etched itself into his features. “How can you spoil a child by loving her?”

      She sighed again. The man was hopeless.

      “Sadie, I missed their first two years.” He looked from one tiny face to the other. “I missed too much. Let me make it up to them and to myself.”

      She looked at the three of them and something inside her liquefied, becoming a warm, bubbling pool of emotion. How was she supposed to stand firm when he melted her with his love for their girls?

      Shaking her head, she said, “I draw the line at them riding those ponies. At least not until they’re three.”

      “Riding alone? Absolutely not. But we can hold them in the saddles …” he coaxed.

      “You’re impossible.”

      “To resist, you mean,” he added with a wink.

      “Watch me,” she countered.

      “I do,” he said softly. “Every chance I get.”

      John Henry’s wife Elena had made them dinner. A feast of enchiladas, rice and homemade beans. The twins had their supper upstairs, with the older woman who had insisted on taking care of them to give Rick and Sadie time to talk.

      Rick made a mental note to give Elena a raise. He’d been wanting to get Sadie all to himself for hours. God knows, he loved those two girls, but their mother was his main focus. With dinner over, dishes done, he had a chance to simply sit with her in the moonlight.

      For two weeks now, he’d spent nearly every day with Sadie and their daughters. And while he was enjoying getting to know his girls, what he craved was getting reacquainted with Sadie. She was making him crazy.

      Dinner on the stone patio, with candles in hurricane lamps and music drifting to them from inside the house was as romantic a setting as he could imagine. Having the woman driving him to distraction sitting across from him was just the icing on the proverbial cake.

      “That was wonderful,” Sadie said, sipping at her wine.

      “Elena’s the best cook in Texas.”

      Above them, the moon rose in the sky and a soft wind rattled the leaves of the black oaks standing along the perimeter of the yard. The candle on the table dipped and swayed behind its glass walls and the resulting shadows played across Sadie’s features.

      “I’ve thought about you,” he said quietly. “A lot over the last few years.”

      She dipped her head then looked up at him from beneath lowered lashes. “I thought about you a lot, too.”

      He grinned. “Yeah, I can imagine you did, what with those two little reminders running around.”

      “It wasn’t just the girls,” she admitted.

      “Glad to hear that,” he said, and his pulse quickened. Getting Sadie to acknowledge that there was something between them was just the first step. He had to remind her how good they had been together. Had to show her what they could have together now.

      She smiled to herself and lifted her face to the night sky. “It doesn’t change anything, Rick. Wanting you, I mean.”

      “From where I’m sitting it does.”

      “Excuse me.” Elena stepped out onto the patio. “I hate interrupting, but I wanted to let you know, both girls are fast asleep.”

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