Twins Under The Tree. Leigh Riker

Чтение книги онлайн.

      AFTER HE LEFT the NLS, Hadley had grabbed a quick lunch at the Sundown Café—he wasn’t a big fan of the fancy French food served at the Bon Appetit—then ate his burger on the way to the Circle H.

      Begging didn’t come easily to him, but if that’s what it took… Only Logan Hunter, Sawyer’s brother and part owner of the ranch, quickly dashed his hopes. At the moment they were fully staffed.

      After their brief conversation, Hadley left his cell number, then climbed back in his truck, disappointed. Still, he had to envy Logan, who didn’t have to worry about his family ever being kicked out of their house.

      As he drove back to Clara’s, he tried to appreciate what he had for now.

      His mood softened, as usual, the minute he stepped into the kitchen at the house. When he lifted his girl from her baby seat, Gracie reached out her arms to him and giggled. Both twins had recently learned to laugh, which lit him up inside like a candle in a pumpkin. Trying to forget the past few hours, he scooped up Luke, too, but on his way in he’d ignored the stack of mail on the hall table—including a notice from the hospital, probably. “This wasn’t exactly my day,” he told Clara. “I’m not going to complain except to say that I almost got fired.”

      The last word made his stomach burn. For most of his life Hadley had been a loner, certainly since he was ten years old, the last time he’d seen his brother. And here he was with two tiny beings who depended on him for everything. Had he been out of his mind to quit his job at the NLS? Any severance pay was off the table now, because in the end, leaving had been his choice. Hadley had always believed he knew when it was time to go, but now he had second thoughts. He guessed he was getting his comeuppance. In the end his temper had gotten the best of him.

      “Oh, Hadley. Fired. Why?”

      “Being late for work, and instead I quit. But I’ll find something else.” He explained his brief visit with Logan, who’d been sympathetic, though in the end, he couldn’t offer a job.

      Maybe he should go back to the NLS tomorrow where he’d done some begging before the twins were born, see if Cooper might settle up after all.

      Clara didn’t look at him, but she kissed his cheek on her way to turn off the stove where the twins’ bottles were heating in a pan of water.

      When she faced him, he could see his story had affected her, too. And he remembered she was also facing a challenging and painful situation.

      “You’re sorry to be leaving here, aren’t you?” he asked Clara, taking one of the bottles from her. Her skin felt cool under his warmer hand.

      “Yes,” she said. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to sort through all the things Cliff and I accumulated in forty years. Well, me at least.” Her husband had been gone almost a decade, years after Hadley left, and Hadley had never had a chance to say goodbye to the man who’d had such an influence on him. “Cliff and I never had children of our own, but my memories of the girls and boys we fostered—” Clara glanced at Hadley “—are in every nook and cranny of this house. When you left us, and you were the last, Cliff told me I’d made a shrine of your room.”

      A wave of loss ran through Hadley. That room for now was the twins’ nursery. The McMann ranch was the closest he’d ever come to a home and a family in many years, until the twins were born. Clara sat at the table, and Hadley stood beside her.

      He hadn’t found another place in town that might suit him and the babies, and he recalled again Clara’s entreaty to buy the ranch.

      “I know what you asked me, Clara,” he said, passing Luke to her. The baby latched onto the bottle, noisily sucking. Hadley sat down, too, and teased the other nipple into Gracie’s mouth. Clara’s challenge had been between them ever since. And here he was, out of a job… “If I could, I’d buy this ranch. Then you could stay right where you are. But I can’t,” he finished, hating to let her down all over again as he had his brother Dallas in a different way.

      “Stay, you mean?” she asked.

      “No, I mean I don’t have the money to buy you out.”

      “If you could, though, would you stay? With the babies?” Her gaze fixed on Luke nestled against her chest. “And before you СКАЧАТЬ