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was held by Pete and one by Cricket, continued walking along the sidewalk. There wasn’t enough room for him, unless he wanted to walk in the street, which he didn’t, because that would feel as if he wasn’t part of the group—a mere hanger-on pedestrian. Didn’t Pete have some secret agent-spy stuff he needed to attend to? Dane wondered sourly.

      Some chaperone Cricket was turning out to be—more like the fairy matchmaker. Suzy was supposed to be his responsibility, according to Pop’s instructions—those very same instructions he’d cursorily read last June and then shuffled onto an intermediate, he recalled. And then he’d headed off for six months, keeping himself well away from the mother and her twins. Thwarting Pop was great, but he didn’t like Pete weaseling in on his assignment.

      He let himself think up the most impressive thing he could possibly hope to say to a group like this.

      “Let’s go to the rodeo tomorrow,” he suggested, and with Pete gesturing No to him, it was like a comet he could latch on to with joy. “Anybody up for watching cowboys get thrown in Lonely Hearts Station?”

      “That sounds like so much fun!” Suzy exclaimed. Cricket nodded enthusiastically, but Pete’s lips turned down in a tight frown.

      Dane clapped him on the back. “Remember when you wanted to grow up to be a rodeo clown?”

      “At least one of us has achieved clown status,” Pete said.

      “We’d best get back,” Suzy said, “the girls are starting to get a little fussy. And we want to be well rested for the rodeo tomorrow.”

      “What’s the problem?” Dane asked Pete under his breath. “It’s just harmless fun.” Of course, that’s what he’d thought about tonight’s outing, and look where it had gotten him: showboating into another outing with Suzy.

      Not with Suzy—with the group, he told the mocking voice chiding him.

      “If you’re smart,” Pete said as the ladies walked ahead of them, “you’ll figure out what you’re going to do to cure the case of hots scorching your brain.”

      “What do you mean?” Dane demanded, but Pete just shook his head.

      “Knucklehead,” Dane said as Pete galloped off with Sandra on his shoulders, “you just want every woman for yourself.”

      He understood himself well enough to know that the family closeness and brotherly harmony his father dreamed of wasn’t going to happen if he and Pete hit a rough patch because of a woman.

      The best thing he could do was to forget about Suzy and her twins altogether.

      “At least I still have Mexico,” he muttered, and then wondered why the idea of palm trees in January didn’t seem quite as exciting as it once had.

      Chapter Five

      That evening, after tucking the little girls in bed, Suzy and Cricket sat sharing a pot of hot tea in the Morgan ranch kitchen. Suzy stirred sugar into her cup. “Any regrets for coming out here?”

      Cricket grinned. “It’s been a productive day. You could have warned me what handsome rascals the Morgan brothers are.”

      Suzy shook her head. “I had a handsome rascal. He turned out to be a weasel.”

      Cricket nodded. “Pete and Dane don’t seem all that steadfast, either. But they have some good points.”

      “Fortunately, I’m not in the market, so it doesn’t matter.” Suzy glanced around, glad that the men had gone out to the barn. Heaven only knew what they were doing there, in the darkness of one of the coldest January nights on record. “Neither of them strikes me as father material, anyway.”

      “You never talk to your old fiancé?”

      “No. It’s not like I shut the door on Frank to deliberately keep him away from Nicole and Sandra. But he made it clear he wasn’t interested in being a father.” Suzy was sad for her children, but his desertion was really no different from her parents’ feelings. She’d chosen to go into parenthood alone. It wasn’t a decision she regretted for even a fraction of a second. “The girls have a wonderful godmother in you, though,” Suzy said, smiling so that Cricket wouldn’t know how sad she felt about her girls’ father and grandparents.

      “It must be hard for you, Suzy,” Cricket murmured.

      “My life is so much better since the girls were born. They make me laugh, they make me smile, they give me focus. There’s nothing I want more than to see them grow up to be happy and loved.”

      “I want children,” Cricket admitted, “but not necessarily a husband. Does that sound awful?”

      “Not to me,” Suzy said, “but the church might be concerned.”

      Cricket smiled. “What I meant was, I believe I could handle the responsibilities that go along with children better than I could handle a man. Your girls are such angels.”

      Suzy felt surrounded by a warm glow over the mention of her babies. “Don’t let the Morgan men hear you say you want children.” Suzy thought about how far away from her girls Dane managed to stay. Pete, on the other hand, seemed more than happy to play stand-in uncle. “Supposedly there’s a Grandchildren Conspiracy, to hear Dane tell it.”

      “Oh. No worries on that score.” Cricket smiled. “Your kids are enough for me for now. But what about you? What do you dream of?”

      Suzy hesitated. Her family was cold, aloof from each other. She’d spent hours watching family TV shows where the characters were happy being close-knit, supportive and affectionate. “I’d love more children.”

      Cricket lifted her teacup in a cheers motion. “My hat is off to you.”

      Suzy shook her head. “Put your hat back on. I said I’d love them, not that I plan to have more.”

      “Suzy, why don’t you take the girls by to see your parents?” Cricket asked, her voice soft.

      Suzy shook her head. “My folks are the complete opposite of Mr. Morgan. Children born out of wedlock are not welcome.”

      Cricket hesitated, then sighed. “Don’t you think that if your parents just saw the girls, saw how adorable and sweet they are—”

      “The girls and I are a family, and that’s enough.” Suzy didn’t mean to be rude by cutting off Cricket’s encouragement, but her friend couldn’t possibly understand how impossible some bridges were to cross.

      JOSIAH MORGAN KNEW SOMETHING about being alone. It was why he wanted his boys to have loving marriages and children to comfort them in their old age. When his wife left him and the boys behind all those years ago, he’d tasted the bitter, galling taste of rejection. When his boys left him, he’d been shattered by the knowledge that he was an utter failure.

      Was that too simple? Hell, no. Josiah knew it deep in his bones. He’d lost a good wife, he’d made his own children hate him. There was nothing painless about that.

      It took a very hard-hearted man to realize he was an unlikable human being.

      When his wife left, he’d accepted it without complaint. A woman was a free-willed creature. In spite of his best efforts to make Giselle happy, it had taken him many years to realize his best efforts were not pointed in the right direction. His passion had been to make himself happy as he built worlds outside of his home. She had responded by returning to France.

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