The Tycoon's Tots. Stella Bagwell

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       Chapter Three

      “Wyatt, sugar, I can understand how cute and sweet your sister’s babies are, but I don’t believe you’ve stopped to consider what sort of care and responsibility it would take to raise them to adulthood. Not to mention the expense.”

      Wyatt gazed out the Ruidoso motel room window as Sandra’s voice droned in his ear. It had been several hours since his encounter with Ms. Chloe Murdock, and he was still smarting from her high-handed attitude. He’d called Sandra back in Houston, thinking she would understand and commiserate with him. But so far she wasn’t making him feel a bit better.

      He’d met her through a mutual friend and had found her blond, blue-eyed looks and classic taste in clothes reminiscent of a young Grace Kelly. He’d dated her a few times and the idea of proposing marriage to her had once crossed his mind. Not because he’d been in love with her. He hadn’t been. In fact, Wyatt was sure he’d never felt the real thing. He wasn’t even sure it existed. But he and Sandra had got on well enough and, though she liked money, she never put any emotional demands on him. Since he’d turned thirty the idea of marrying was starting to appeal to him, and he’d thought they might make a compatible team.

      But he’d quickly learned Sandra wasn’t wife material for him or any man. Her career consumed the bigger part of her time, and since Wyatt had started talking about bringing the twins home to live with him, he could see that motherhood was not her forte either. Thank goodness, he and Sandra were no more than good friends now.

      “I know babies require a lot of care, Sandra. But I have the money to provide them with a good nanny, and later on a college education. I can give them most anything they’ll need to have a relatively good life. And I think I owe them that much.”

      “I can’t see that you owe them anything, Wyatt. Sure, they’re your sister’s kids, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your life for them.”

      His brows drew together at her insensitive comment. The idea that all women were born with maternal instincts was a bunch of malarkey. Sandra had just proven it. And then there was his mother, whom he hadn’t heard a word from in the past twenty-six years. Dear Lord, had Belinda been just as uncaring of her twins? No, he didn’t believe it for a minute.

      “I’d hardly call it a sacrifice, Sandra. I happen to like babies and children. I’ve always wanted some of my own.”

      Sandra chuckled. “That’s hard to believe, Wyatt. You’ve never even talked about wanting to be a husband, much less a father.”

      “That doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about it. I just haven’t found the right woman.”

      She laughed again. “I guess that means I was never in the running.”

      He grimaced. “You and I both know you’d make an awful wife and mother, Sandra.”

      She groaned with good humor. “You’re right. I’m a career woman. Period. But what about this Chloe Murdoch? You haven’t said that much about her. Does she seem like the mothering sort?”

      Instead of the mountains, Wyatt was suddenly seeing Chloe’s pale golden skin and deep red hair, the fierce look in her green eyes when he’d talked about taking the twins home with him. Yes, she was a mother at heart. It was the very thing about her that bothered him the most.

      Later that evening, when Rose arrived at the Bar M to help Chloe with the evening chores, her thirteen-year-old stepdaughter, Emily, was with her.

      The moment the girl stepped down from the pickup truck, Chloe gave her a tight, affectionate hug. “Don’t tell me your mother is making you work this evening,” Chloe teased. “You know, if you let her, she can be a real slave driver.”

      Emily cast Rose a loving smile. “No, she never makes me do anything. She always asks. But I volunteered this evening. I wanted to see for myself how Martin was doing.

      Chloe waved a hand toward the calf’s pen. “He’s getting fat and slick and sassy. If you want to give him his supper, his bottle is in the feed room.”

      “I would!”

      Emily hurried away, leaving the two sisters standing on the worn foot-path leading to the stable.

      “Aunt Kitty called and told me all about Mr. Sanders,” Rose said gravely. “Does Justine know?”

      Chloe nodded. “I saw her this afternoon. She’s going to have Roy run a check on him.”

      “What do you think she’ll find?”

      Ever since Chloe had left Justine’s house, she’d been asking herself the very same thing. “I’m afraid Roy won’t find anything out of order.”

      “So the guy seems respectable.”

      Respectable? Chloe could think of a dozen other ways to describe the man. Cool, slick, insensitive and arrogant.

      “On the surface,” she told Rose. “But who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll turn out to be a piece of trash.”

      “Chloe!” Rose gently scolded. “That’s an awful thing to say.”

      Chloe started walking in the direction of the stable. Rose followed, her long legs easily keeping up with Chloe’s shorter, quicker strides.

      “Chloe, have you stopped to think that Adam and Anna are his relatives, too? It can’t be easy for the man having his sister die a drug-related death. And in a facility for the criminally insane, to boot.”

      Chloe rolled her eyes at her sister. Like Justine, Rose was a beautiful woman. Tall and slender with long, wavy chestnut hair, she had a quiet gracefulness about her that Chloe had always admired. She was smart and strong and steady and Chloe had been thrilled a few months ago when she’d finally fallen in love and married. Yet there were times Chloe wanted to shake Rose’s composure.

      “Rose, surely you haven’t forgotten the woman nearly killed you and Harlan!”

      “I don’t know that she was intentionally trying to kill us,” Rose said thoughtfully. “There wasn’t any way she could have known we were riding fence when she started that fire. I think her plans were simply to kill our cattle and destroy our pasture-land. Not murder us.”

      “You’ve too generous a heart, Rose,” Chloe said with a groan.

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