The Texas Cowboy's Quadruplets. Cathy Thacker Gillen

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      She ignored his question. Stood, walked a short distance away, then swung back to face him. “What’s your point, Chase?”

      He hated to be the bad guy. In this situation, he had no choice. Gently, but firmly, he said, “You can’t simultaneously run MCS—at least not the way your late father would have wished—and be Laramie County’s best social worker. And all the while care for four infants all by your lonesome to boot. No one could.”

      Mitzy stalked toward him. “I’m not trying to do all that. I’m on maternity leave from the Department of Family and Child Services for the next ten months. Maybe longer. I haven’t decided yet.” Ignoring the seat close to him, she perched on the porch railing. “And Buck Phillips is running the business side at the saddle company, same as always.”

      Noting the way the dark denim hugged her slender thighs, and the swell of her breasts beneath the snug-fitting black fleece top, he rose and ambled toward her. “Are you sure about that?”

      “Someone would have told me if there were issues. Financially, or otherwise.”

      Unless they were trying to protect her.

      Her lower lip slid out in a sexy pout. “The employees there are not just personally invested in the success of the company, they’re like family to me and each other.”

      With effort, Chase ignored the urge to kiss her. “It takes more than good intentions to run a company, Mitzy,” he said quietly.

      She tilted her chin at him, a myriad of emotions running riot in her pretty eyes. “You don’t think I have it in me?”

      He came closer and perched beside her. Bracing his hands on the rail on either side of him, he murmured, “Your father had a passion for saddle making.”

      “I know that.”

      He knew this would hurt. Still, it had to be said. “And you don’t.”

      She gasped, indignant. Hands balled into fists at her sides, she bounded to her feet and swung on him once again. “I don’t need to have that same passion. All I need to do is keep everything exactly the way it was when he was alive, and honor him by carrying on his legacy. And we—the company and all its employees—will be fine!”

      Taking charge of a business was a lot more complicated than that. Clearly, though, she wasn’t ready to hear that.

      Help my daughter make it through the holidays, Gus Martin had said. The first, after my death, will be the most difficult.

      And with Thanksgiving almost upon them...

      Chase could see Mitzy was struggling. Even if she wouldn’t admit it. He tried again, even more gently this time. “The point is, darlin’, I’m interested in doing that, too.”

      Abruptly, Mitzy looked like she wanted to deck him. “Like you did when you worked for my dad? Before he was forced to fire you?”

      Of course she would bring up the business crisis that had precipitated the end of their engagement. Their breakup had ripped him up inside. Chase shrugged regretfully. “I admit, I was overly ambitious.”

      An even rosier hue flooded her high, sculpted cheeks. “You insulted him and everything he stood for with your plans to turn his artistry into a mass-manufacturing business.”

      Chase squinted. “I’m not sure your dad saw it that way.”

      You’re meant for bigger things, Chase. You’ll never be happy here...was what Gus had said, when he’d cut him loose.

      And Mitzy’s father had been right.

      Then.

      Chase had since had time to reevaluate and reconfigure his earlier career plan to something much more laudable and practical. But, sensing Mitzy was in no mood to hear that now, if ever, he slowly rolled to his feet. “Regardless of the way I left MCS, I learned a lot from your dad when I worked for him, Mitzy. I also built my own company, McCabe Leather Goods.”

      Her expression both contemptuous and resentful, she scoffed, “Yes, I know. It’s the premier provider in the entire Southwest of all sorts of leather products. Everything from boots to saddles to leather interiors on pickup trucks and automobiles. And you did it by buying up lots of little entities and folding them into the one bearing your name!”

      So she had been following his rise in the business world, Chase noted in satisfaction. He met her level gaze. “Every one of those business units is better off, their employees happier and more financially secure.”

      Her expression guarded, she raked her teeth across her lower lip. “So what does that have to do with me?”

      “If your family business is in even half as much trouble as is rumored, you’re going to need help getting it back on track.”

      She rolled her eyes skeptically. “You’re volunteering?”

      Yes, although first I was drafted. “Your dad was always good to me, even after I stopped working for him,” Chase admitted, acutely aware of how much he missed Gus. And Gus’s beautiful, intractable daughter.

      Missed the extended family they might have been. “I’d like to repay his kindness.”

      Mitzy tilted her head at him, thinking. Seeming to know instinctively there was more to this than what he was letting on. Not about to tell her about the deathbed promises he had made, however, Chase waited for her to make a decision.

      Finally, she swallowed, let out a soft little sigh. Wearily, she asked, “Don’t you think it would be a little awkward under the circumstances?”

      He could handle awkward. Hell, he could handle anything if it got him back into her life, and her into his. Because actually getting to have a sit-down with her, brief as it might be, had shown him certain things had not changed.

      The sparks were still there.

      His need to protect her was stronger than ever.

      And as for the rest? Well, he guessed time would tell.

      Although he couldn’t imagine either of them ever being content to be just friends. Not after what they had once shared...

      From the first time he’d laid eyes on her when they were kids, he’d known she was something special. Not just because she was smart and pretty or kinder and more inherently compassionate than anyone he’d ever met. From the very beginning, she just “got” him the way no one else ever had.

      She hadn’t wanted to date him. She’d preferred to be friends. So, they started there, but by the time they were in college there was no denying their sexual chemistry. One thing led to another. Before they knew it they were a couple and then engaged. He’d expected to spend his entire life with her.

      Would have, if his need to tell it like it was, in business and in life, and her wariness of lasting love, hadn’t gotten in the way. But both had, so...

      Aware she was waiting, he shrugged with a great deal more carelessness than he felt. “We’re both adults, Mitzy,” he reminded her gruffly. “We can СКАЧАТЬ