The Texas Cowboy's Quadruplets. Cathy Thacker Gillen

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СКАЧАТЬ to keep his promise to Gus as well as atone for any and all mistakes he had made in the past. He paused to give her a long, steady look. “Anything at all, just pick up the phone and call.”

      * * *

      Two days later, Chase still hadn’t heard from Mitzy. So he did what he always did when he was trying to understand a woman. He went to see his little sister, Lulu, hoping she’d have the insight he lacked.

      She listened to the recap of his visit while making her own special brand of honey iced tea for the McCabe family Thanksgiving celebration they were having later in the day. “You didn’t even see the quadruplets?”

      Funny how disappointed he was about that. He’d never been what one would call a baby person, but he’d been hoping to lay eyes on the four infants the stalwartly independent Mitzy’d had via an anonymous donor and a fertility clinic, nevertheless. Keeping his feelings to himself, he shrugged. “Kind of hard to do when she didn’t even let me in the door.”

      His cell phone buzzed. Chase looked at the screen. Speak of the devil... Smiling, he strode a distance away. “Hey, Mitzy. What’s up?”

      “Are you busy?”

      She sounded stressed.

      “Not at all,” Chase said.

      Lulu grinned and shook her head, then sauntered out of the kitchen to give him privacy.

      “I’m headed over to Martin Custom Saddle,” Mitzy continued in the too-casual voice he knew so well. “Want to meet me there?”

      Luckily, his sister’s honeybee ranch was closer to town than his. “Be there in ten.”

      When Chase arrived, he expected her to already be inside the ten-thousand-square-foot production facility.

      Instead, she was sitting in the new custom eight-passenger luxury SUV she’d been driving around town, staring at the front of the one-story rectangular terra-cotta brick building emblazoned with her father’s name like she had never seen it before.

      Noticing his pickup truck parking next to hers, she shook herself out of her reverie and emerged from the driver’s seat. Her hair was swept up in a neat twist on the back of her head and she was wearing a burnished gold wool dress and heels that seemed more appropriate for a formal afternoon tea.

      As she neared him, he saw the diamond earrings she’d received for her college graduation glittering in her ears, and caught the whiff of her citrus and floral perfume. He also saw faint shadows beneath her eyes that hadn’t been there when he’d last seen her. Sensing her mother’s holiday visit was already doing a number on her, he asked gently, “Everything okay?”

      She squared her shoulders defensively. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

      He moved to stand beside her, wishing he could take her in his arms and not get chastised for trying to comfort her. “You look tired, I guess. A little on edge.”

      She flashed a wry, self-effacing smile and led the way toward the sprawling brick building. “Guilty—to all.”

      He moved swiftly to catch up with her and fell in step beside her, adjusting his strides to hers. He tucked his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Figuring the very least he could do was be a sounding board for her, asked kindly, “Babies giving you a hard time?” Maybe if she would actually allow him to assist her in some way, the way her dad had privately wanted, he would actually get to see them.

      “No. My four boys are sweet as ever.” Mitzy sighed. Her eyes took on a turbulent sheen. “It’s the rest of my family that’s putting me through the ringer.”

      The idea of rescuing her was a lot more appealing—on a soul-deep level—than it probably should have been. “Judith?”

      Her lower lip slid out in a delectable pout. “She and Walter—”

      Her mom’s fifth husband, Chase recalled.

      “—arrived in time for dinner last night. Along with four nannies.”

      Four again. Wow. But then that was Judith. She never did anything on the down low when the completely spectacular was possible. “One for each baby,” he guessed, noting how the sunlight brought out the honey-gold highlights in her hair.

      “Right.” Mitzy paused to punch in the security code. Failed. Then, releasing a frustrated sigh, she looked at her phone and tried again. This time the light turned green.

      She pushed open the door and, together, they walked on in.

      He caught a whiff of her flowery shampoo as she sauntered beside him. His body reacted, way too fast. Ignoring the pressure behind his fly, he asked, “You’re not happy about that?”

      Oblivious to the desire welling up inside him, Mitzy waved a dismissive hand and continued to look around as if she had never seen the place. Which was ludicrous. She’d been there frequently as a kid. When he briefly worked there, too. And in all this time nothing had really changed. There were a couple of offices and a break room near the front door. The rest was comprised of the twenty-nine different workstations needed to handcraft the custom leather saddles.

      It smelled the same, too. Like leather and dye and industrial-strength cleaner.

      Aware she hadn’t answered him yet, he turned back to her again. Even in the fluorescent lighting near the door, he could see she was pale.

      “This set of nannies is fine.” She looked over her shoulder at him, as she walked over to the main panel and switched on the rest of the lights in the facility. “I mean, they’re warm and gentle, not stern and impersonal like the first group she brought with her. And they’re just going to be here for the holiday weekend. They’ll all be leaving Sunday afternoon.”

      Chase studied her, befuddled over what was really bothering her. “Then what’s the problem?” he asked.

      * * *

      The problem, Mitzy thought, was that she should have come back here way before now. Instead, she’d neglected to do so, figuring time and the birth of her children would ease her grief.

      They had.

      And they hadn’t.

      Because being here at the warehouse-like workshop that her father had built over the course of forty-five years, in the very place that held so many bittersweet memories for her, was like a punch square in the solar plexus. Making her entire chest hurt to the point that it was hard to breathe. As images of her larger-than-life dad striding through the facility flashed in her brain, she remembered how he had called out to everyone, stopped to admire the workmanship even as he gently added suggestions for making the final product better. How he had charmed the customers and cared for his employees with the same loving familial attitude he exhibited toward her.

      With a disgruntled sigh, she also recalled the day he and Chase had gotten into it right in the middle of the shop, their voices rising. How her dad had been forced to do what he had never done in his entire business life—fire someone outright. How furious Chase had looked as he had sworn he was quitting anyway and stomped out.

      And most of all, she remembered how frail her dad had been, his body ravaged from multiple surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy, the last СКАЧАТЬ