His, Hers and...Theirs?

“And you’ve had the kids all that time?”

“No, they just moved in with me a couple of weeks ago.”

If Eva wondered why that was, she didn’t ask. But for the damnedest reason, Dan felt compelled to explain. “After the funeral, my sister’s roommate, Catherine, suggested that they stay with her. And it seemed like a good idea to me. They hardly knew me. I’d only seen them once—when they were three. My sister came for a visit, but she didn’t stay long.”

They’d argued, as they were prone to do, and she’d left earlier than she’d planned.

Eva remained silent, but seemed to be hanging on his words. Her eyes asked, And you agreed to leave them in New York with a stranger?

“The only other option I had at the time was to take them away from their comfort zone and drag them back to Texas to live on the ranch with me, and, like I said, they didn’t know me very well.” He didn’t mention Uncle Hank, who’d finished raising Dan and his sister, Jenny, when they’d had nowhere else to go. The crotchety old cowboy meant well, but he spent the bulk of his day grumbling about his lot in life.

“How are they doing?” Eva asked. “Was the move hard on them?”

“Probably. Who knows?” Dan lifted his chocolate milkshake and took a sip, relishing the cold, creamy drink. “Catherine recently landed her dream job—the lead dancer in a Broadway musical—and daycare became an issue for her.”

To be honest, even if he didn’t feel like sharing it with Eva, when he’d left the kids in New York after the funeral, he’d felt a little uneasy about the whole setup. He’d wondered how Catherine would handle the childcare on her own, but she’d seemed so sure of herself.

And, just as he’d suspected, when the kids had become too much for her to juggle, she’d contacted him and he’d immediately jumped on a plane.

“So now they’re living in Texas with you,” Eva said, connecting the dots with the information he’d given her.

“Yeah. That’s about the size of it.” If there was one thing to be said about Dan, it was that he tried his best to do the right thing, and that come hell or high water, he was loyal and responsible.

“What did you think of New York?” she asked.

“It wasn’t my cup of tea.” He preferred wide-open spaces and rolling hills to skyscrapers.

“How long were you there?”

“Too long.” His flight had been delayed in Houston, and by the time he’d arrived in New York, it had been too late to get the kids. So he’d taken a cab to an over-priced hotel, where he’d been too keyed up to sleep a wink. Then he’d gone to Catherine’s apartment the next morning and picked them up. “To be honest, I felt like a real fish out of water in Manhattan.”

As awkward as he’d felt, as afraid as he was that he’d somehow mess up and do damage to their psyches and scar them for life, he hadn’t been able to get them to the airport fast enough.

But once he’d brought the kids back to the ranch and tried to create some kind of family, he’d been more out of place than ever.

“How about you?” he asked.

“Me?” Eva reached for her milk.

“Have you ever been to New York?”

“I’ve always wanted to go. I’d love to see a Broadway show. But I doubt that I’ll get to travel anytime soon.”

“Why’s that?” he asked, reaching for a fry.

“Because I’m pregnant.”

His hand froze in midreach. “You gotta be kidding.”

She wasn’t, and he soon came to that conclusion.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “but you don’t look…pregnant.”

“I’m only about three months along.”

He paused for the longest time, the French fries long forgotten. “Is that why you were hanging out at the play ground, watching the kids?”

“In a way. I’m not used to being around small children, so I’m intrigued by them.”

“I never would have guessed that. You were so good with Kaylee. If you would have told me that you were a preschool teacher or a mother of three, I wouldn’t have doubted it for a minute.”

Eva couldn’t help but smile. Her sole purpose for being at the park this morning was to learn how to parent and deal with two kids at one time, and here someone assumed she was a natural.

She certainly wouldn’t admit otherwise. But it was nice to know that even after growing up in a dysfunctional family, she had what it took to be a loving mother and that she would have enough TLC to go around.

She lifted her apple juice and took a drink. “I didn’t just chance upon the park today. I went specifically because I’d heard there was going to be an event sponsored by the Parents of Multiples. I was hoping to learn a few tricks in dealing with a set of twins.”

He furrowed his brow, looking even more confused. “You have twins at home?”

“Not yet.”

Before he could respond, little Kaylee ran to the table. “Uncle Dan, Kevin said you’re going to give him a horse and teach him how to be a real live cowboy.”

Dan nodded. “Yep, that’s what I told him.”

“But what about me? I want to ride a horse and be a real live cowboy.”

“I thought you wanted to be a princess,” Dan said.

The child nibbled on her bottom lip, then looked up at him with please-don’t-say-no eyes. “Can I be both?”

Dan chuckled. “Sure. Why not?”

Kaylee broke into a bright-eyed grin. “And can Eva be a cowboy, too?”

“I doubt she’d like that,” Dan said.

“Yes, she would.” Kaylee turned to Eva, placing a small hand upon her knee. “You could ride a horse and everything.”

Eva hadn’t meant to encourage a relationship with the girl, though she could see how Kaylee had jumped to that conclusion. Now she needed to do some serious backpedaling. “I’ll have to pass on becoming a cowboy, but maybe someday, after you learn how to ride, you can show me how it’s done.”

Kaylee quickly turned to her uncle. “Is it okay? Can Eva come to our house and watch me ride?”

“Sure,” Dan said. “She can even invite her husband, if she wants to.”

Apparently, he’d made the natural jump from “pregnant” to “married.”

It seemed important that she set the record straight, so she said, “I don’t have a husband.”