Her Twins' Cowboy Dad. Patricia Johns

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СКАЧАТЬ tight. “Really?”

      Peg wore a flour-powdered apron over a ’70s-style housedress, and she came closer, peering into the car until Jane emerged with one of the toddlers. She put the girl down and shot Peg a smile.

      “Hi, I’m Jane.”

      “Pleasure.” Peg have her a nod.

      “She’s here for a week or so while we iron out an inheritance issue,” Colt said. “She’ll stay upstairs with you, if you don’t mind.”

      “We’ll work something out.” Peg pressed her lips together into a thin line. “What’s the issue with the will?”

      “Beau left me the land, and he left the cattle to Jane’s daughters,” Colt said. “So Jane is going to stay with us while we get that ironed out. I need to buy the cattle back.”

      A smile of amusement tickled the corners of Peg’s lips. “You’d almost think he was trying to get you married off, wouldn’t you?”

      To his cousin’s widow? Not likely. Josh’s estrangement from the family had been an endless source of upset around here, and Colt highly doubted that his uncle would have wanted that. It might not have been logical because Josh got married a few years after he left home, but Beau blamed “the wife” as much as anyone else for his son’s refusal to talk to him. Anything but admit it was his own fault.

      “It had a whole lot less to do with me, and more to do with wanting to fix things with Josh,” Colt replied. Besides, Colt wasn’t interested in marriage, and Beau had known why.

      Jane emerged from the car with the second toddler, and she slammed the door shut.

      “Well...these would be my great-nieces, then,” Peg said, softening immediately. “Do they ever look like their father.”

      They did, and if Josh hadn’t been killed, he would have loved being a dad. He’d always had that gentle-giant quality about him, and with his jovial sense of humor, Colt could see him sliding easily into being a family man.

      Aunt Peg scooped up one of the toddlers in her arms, looking the girl over from head to toes.

      “That’s Micha,” Jane said. “This here is Suzie.”

      “We might as well go inside,” Peg said. “I cleaned up the kitchen, Colt. You’re welcome.”

      Colt had started to expand a little bit in the house—and he’d made his breakfast upstairs in Beau’s place. He’d left some oatmeal out for Peg. Maybe it would be best to keep to his own space until Peg went back home.

      “Sorry about that,” he said with a short laugh. He hadn’t left it in a mess or anything.

      Colt followed the women into the house, letting the screen door bang shut behind him. The house felt different with Beau gone. The kitchen was as it always had been—just the way Beau’s late wife, Sandra, had kept it. She’d been a good cook, unlike Peg, who never did get the touch.

      “Aunt Peg, I asked Jane if she’d give you a hand with emptying out the house,” Colt said.

      “Did you think of asking me what I thought of that?” Peg retorted. She put down the toddler, who beelined back to Jane.

      “It’s my house now, Peg,” he said, but he sent his aunt a tired smile to show her he wasn’t taking it to heart. “I figured it might help. If you’d rather do it alone, I mean—”

      “No, no,” Peg said, sadness filling her eyes. She pulled a dish of what appeared to be apple crisp off the counter and deposited it onto the table along with a serving spoon. “I don’t want to do it alone. Besides...” She looked down at the toddlers. “There’s family to get acquainted with, isn’t there?”

      “I didn’t know Beau,” Jane said quietly. “But he did remember my girls in his will, and I’m grateful for that.”

      “Did Josh talk about us?” Peg asked.

      “A little,” Jane replied.

      “Did he mention why he left and never wanted to come back?” Peg asked, and Colt felt his chest constrict. Did they have to do this—with a relative stranger? He, for one, didn’t want to talk about it.

      Color rose in Jane’s cheeks, but she didn’t answer.

      “Ah, so he did,” Peg went on, then sighed. “Beau wasn’t as bad as he seemed, my dear. We’re all just human.”

      Colt couldn’t help but feel like he’d been the one to chase off his cousin. Josh and Beau had been at odds for years. Josh wanted to join the army and his father had wanted him to stay home and work the land. For most families that wouldn’t be relationship ending, but for the stubborn Marshalls it snowballed into a bigger and bigger issue, picking up the detritus of every single disagreement they’d ever had. Josh wasn’t the kind of son Beau wanted. Beau wanted a son to take over the ranch. Well, Colt wanted a chance at that life, and Beau was more than happy to teach him the ropes.

      Was it wrong of Colt to take advantage of that? Probably. While Josh’s father was alive, someone had to run this place, and Josh hadn’t been interested. But Beau told his son that when he died, the land wouldn’t be sold so that Josh could use the money for his own goals—Josh wouldn’t inherit at all. When it came right down to it, Beau could leave the ranch to anyone he chose, but the cost of that had been a splintered family. Standing here in his newly inherited kitchen, it didn’t feel quite so satisfying as Colt had imagined it would. This was all his, and he couldn’t help but feel like a cheat.

      He was glad Jane was here, and that her daughters would get something. It would even the score a little bit. Make it right.

      * * *

      “It really isn’t my business,” Jane said and she dropped her gaze. Josh had gone on and on about that inheritance, and she’d simply put it out of her mind. There was money tied up in land that would never come to them. Wasn’t a life together worth more than cash? But it had hurt her husband deeply because it meant that his father didn’t respect his goals in life and didn’t love him enough to leave him anything. For Josh it was about the money and his father’s respect, and for his dad it was about the land. Period. Josh never made his peace with it.

      Jane bent down to dig out that zippered bag of crackers again, mostly as an excuse not to look at them. There was so much sadness and frustration in this home that she could actually feel it in the air, and she shivered.

      “We missed Josh,” Peg said, her voice trembling a little. “There was a hole here—it never filled in. My brother might have had his faults, but he did love his son something fierce. If Josh looked to punish him for his sins, he sure succeeded.”

      And maybe Josh had been trying to punish his family. He hadn’t wanted Jane anywhere near them. That hadn’t been her choice, though. She’d wanted family, and she’d wanted to know his, too, even if there was tension and bickering. People didn’t hatch from eggs, and she’d felt certain that she would have understood her husband better if she could have met the family that raised him. Maybe their marriage could have been a little bit easier, if she did. Here was her chance, apparently. A little late, but still a chance to understand the man she’d married.

      Colt cleared his throat, and an awkward СКАЧАТЬ