The Rancher's Texas Twins. Allie Pleiter

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      Life had dropped too many emotional bombs since her arrival here to let her think clearly. Coming to Haven had felt like stepping into a crammed-full kind of chaos. Really, who ever discovers they’ve been impersonated? Some gold-digging woman had actually come here earlier claiming to be her. Clearly, she was supposed to be someone important. The whole town was in an uproar over the fate of her grandfather Cyrus’s estate. It had been set—along with a mountain of stipulations, one of which included her presence—to become the new home of a ranch for troubled boys. The huge house went to a worthy cause, while she, evidently his only surviving relative, got a run-down cabin. Everyone wanted something from her despite the fact that she was just trying to hold her life together. Someone important? Ha! The number of nights she fell into bed exhausted and near tears ought to be illegal.

      Should she stay? Could she stay?

      “You’re serious?” she finally asked Gabe as she tried unsuccessfully to fetch the poor man’s toppled hat. “I mean...look at them.” She loved Dinah and Debbie to pieces, but even she knew they could be a handful. Gabriel Everett did not seem at all like the kind of man who would suffer any children—much less four-year-olds—with any grace.

      Time came to a prickly halt while the man bent over, grasped his hat and settled it back on his head. He seemed as shocked at the proposition he’d just made as she was.

      “Marlene will love them,” he said almost begrudgingly. “She and Jethro have their grandkids in college now, and Marlene needs someone to coddle. I caught her staring at an ad for puppies the other day.” Avery got the distinct impression he was trying to convince himself as much as her.

      “No, I’d expect it would be best if we just went back.”

      “You can’t.” He wiped his hands down his face. “I mean, the whole town would be obliged if you’d stay. I’ve got the space, and things aren’t so—” he gestured around the boardinghouse “—fussy out there. Not much they could break or stain.”

      Dinah and Debbie had indeed excelled at breaking and staining recently. Mrs. Sackett hadn’t asked her to pay for or replace anything the girls had damaged, but she could tell the woman was getting close to drawing up a bill. The dolls—which they had been warned about several times—were clearly the last straw.

      Would it be so awful to stay a bit longer? At a place with extra helping hands? Experienced grandparent hands? “Well,” Avery said, pulling in a deep breath, “I suppose we could give it a try.”

      Avery’s eye caught Mrs. Sackett’s hard stare, one that practically shouted “you sure as shooting better give it a try.”

      Stay with Gabriel Everett?

      Help with the girls was a hard prospect to refuse right about now, even though Haven wasn’t turning out anything like she’d hoped.

      “How soon can you take them, Gabe?” Mrs. Sackett asked with a hurtful sense of urgency. Clearly, she meant every word of her threat to toss them out.

      “Well, it’s Monday. I think I can have them off your hands by tomorrow noon, Roz. Just a matter of a phone call and a bit of rearranging.” He turned to look at Avery. “If that’s agreeable to you.”

      “Well, then, I guess I should thank you kindly for the hospitality,” she said, handing markers to Dinah to put back in the box. Just like that, the girls went back to their coloring. Her sweet little girls had returned—at least until the next calamity.

      But something needed to be said. “Just for a week or so. Maybe less. I haven’t made up my mind about anything after that.” She’d gotten the distinct impression that being a Culpepper wasn’t a positive in this town—nothing she wanted a big dose of, for her or the girls.

      “Let’s tackle that subject in a day or two.” Gabriel turned his gaze to the innkeeper again. “After all, we can’t have you run out of town now, can we?”

      Mrs. Sackett just huffed, held the doll close to her chest as if the thing was alive and turned back toward the door.

      “I don’t know.” Resentment at Cyrus for putting her in this position boiled in her blood—right now she could barely bring herself to care about whatever else the old man was leaving her, if anything.

      Avery reached down to touch Dinah’s soft brown curls. “They’re not difficult all the time, you know. They really can be sweet as pie some days.”

      Gabe returned an orange marker to the table. “I’m sure that’s true.” He didn’t look like he meant it.

      “I’m sure the boys ranch is a fine cause, but I need to think about what’s best for the girls, and for me.” Avery hated how tight and forced her voice sounded.

      “No one can fault you for that. Just take some time before you decide.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking down at the little girls with a mixture of bafflement and irritation. “Give us a chance to work all this out.”

      She didn’t have it in her to fight. At least not today. “We’ll see.”

      It wasn’t a yes, but he looked relieved anyway. “I’ll come by tomorrow around eleven and we can load my truck with whatever doesn’t fit in your car. I’ll call Marlene right now. I’m sure it’ll set her into a storm of happy preparations. Is it okay if I give her your phone number if she has any questions?”

      “Sure.” The prospect of getting out of the boardinghouse lifted a weight off Avery’s shoulders she hadn’t even realized was pressing down so hard. “Thank you,” she said, fighting the awkward and indebted feeling that settled cold and hard against her rigid spine. “Really. It’s a very kind offer.”

      Gabriel shrugged. “I’ve got the space, and nothing gets solved if you leave. It works for everybody.” He seemed more at peace with the idea than he had been even two minutes ago.

      That peace wasn’t likely to last. “We’ll see if you say that after twenty-four hours of these two, cowboy,” Avery teased. He couldn’t really know what he was getting himself into, could he?

      “I’ve handled far rougher bulls at the ranch. How hard can a pair of little girls be?”

      Bless his heart, Avery thought, he’s about to find out.

       Chapter Two

      Following a mountain of exasperating Lone Star Cowboy League business, Gabe came home that Monday afternoon to find Marlene and Jethro Frank cleaning a batch of old toys. Even the squeal of joy Marlene had given over the phone hadn’t prepared him for just how much the older couple was going to enjoy this spontaneous setup. As he cut the ignition on his truck, Gabe couldn’t help but wonder if he was looking at his last quiet evening on the ranch for a while.

      “Evening, Gabriel,” Jethro called from over a bucket of sudsy water. “Just getting things ready.”

      Gabe looked to his left to see child-sized pastel sheets hanging on the line. “You had all this?”

      “A few calls around church was all it took,” Marlene said with a smile. She chuckled СКАЧАТЬ