Twins For The Texas Rancher

“Are you tired?”

“I’m fine, honey.” Tyler was a sweet boy and it broke her heart that she couldn’t focus more attention on him because she was constantly monitoring and containing Tommy’s wild ways. “Close your eyes and rest. Tomorrow we’ll see Aunt Lydia and Great-Aunt Amelia.” Aunt Lydia was actually a cousin, but the boys had become confused when she’d explained how they were all related, so aside from their grandparents everyone was an aunt or an uncle.

Not a mile had passed since leaving Madison, Wisconsin, that Sadie hadn’t second-guessed her decision to drive to Stampede. She’d called ahead and warned her aunt and cousin Lydia of her impending visit. If anyone understood Sadie’s need to jump off the crazy train and catch her breath, it was her other cousin Scarlett. She had a front-row seat to Sadie’s frenzied life—parenting twins with little help from her ex, working forty hours a week, then spending Saturday and Sunday catching up on the laundry and shopping. Throw in an emergency doctor visit, a missed child-support payment or a flat tire and the crazy train derailed.

A sliver of guilt pricked her. She hadn’t yet told her parents that she’d been laid off because she knew they’d insist she and the twins move to Florida, where they could better meddle in her life. She’d planned to look for another job, but then the director of the boys’ new preschool had suggested she register Tommy in a special program for kids with ADD, insisting he’d benefit from the extra attention. The recommendation made sense except without a job Sadie couldn’t afford the higher tuition and because it was already the end of August, enrollment for the program was closed. Tommy had been placed on a waiting list for the spring semester. With the lease on her apartment up for renewal and Tommy having difficulties in school, Sadie had packed up their belongings and put them into storage so she and her boys could take a much needed break from life.

Tommy’s troubles made her feel like a failure as a mother. She worried that if she didn’t get a handle on Tommy’s behavior by the time he entered full-day kindergarten in just over a year, he’d risk being held back. Splitting up the boys would only create a new set of problems for her to deal with.

The rain finally let up, and Sadie loosened her death grip on the wheel, then switched the wipers off. If not for having to drive through several downpours after leaving San Antonio, they would have made better time.

“Mom?”

“Yes, Tyler?”

“Is Dad gonna miss us?”

“Of course he will, honey.”

She took several slow, deep breaths, a trick she’d used to help keep her calm when Tommy tried her patience. The day the boys had been born, Sadie’s stress level skyrocketed and had remained high ever since. As if giving birth to twins wasn’t enough strain on a working mother, being married to a man who had never pitched in had made her days even more taxing. But that hadn’t even been the worst part—Pete had been disloyal. The first time she learned he’d cheated on her, she’d been eight months pregnant. For her sons’ sake, and because being a single mother of twins had terrified her, she’d given Pete a second chance. Two years later he’d “slipped up” again—his words, not hers. Marriage wasn’t a game of baseball, so after two strikes she called him out.

“If you want to talk to your father while we’re visiting Aunt Amelia, let me know and I’ll call him.”

Silence greeted her offer.

She had no regrets about the divorce. Pete had spent so little time with the boys that they’d barely noticed a difference when he’d moved out of the apartment. And they didn’t think it odd that they saw him only the second Wednesday and third weekend of each month—that was, when Pete didn’t cancel on them. Not only did her ex go back on his promises to his sons, but he was often late paying his share of the preschool bill. When that happened, she had to cover his portion, then wait a week or more until he paid her back.

If there was anything good about the boys growing accustomed to their father’s absence in their everyday lives, it was that they hadn’t objected when Pete had announced his plans to move to Baltimore with his girlfriend. Sadie admitted that it was difficult to watch her ex date—not because she was jealous of the other women, but because she was envious of Pete never having to worry that the twins might sabotage his relationship. Sadie’s two brief forays into dating had ended immediately after she informed the men she was a mother of twins.

Learning that her cousin Lydia had married the infamous Gunner Hardell, Stampede’s notorious bad boy—a man who’d flirted with rodeo and hadn’t planned on settling down and having children—gave Sadie hope that one day she’d meet a guy who was willing to be a father to her boys. She wouldn’t care what he looked like or what he did for a living as long as he was dependable and helped make her life easier, not more stressful.

“Who’s Amelia?”

No surprise that Tyler didn’t ask any more questions about his father.

“She’s your great-grandmother’s sister. You can call her Aunt Amelia.” The boys had just turned two when she’d taken them to Texas for the first time. Back then, she’d needed to regroup after she’d filed for divorce, and she’d chosen to visit her aunt instead of her parents, who’d moved to an adult community in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

She wished she was closer to her mother and father, but she’d disappointed them badly when she’d become pregnant. Neither of them liked Pete and they’d offered to help Sadie financially if she didn’t marry the babies’ father. But Sadie hadn’t wanted to be a single mom, and Pete had been willing to give marriage a try, so they’d tied the knot, hoping for the best. Unlike her parents, Aunt Amelia had always treated Sadie warmly and hadn’t judged her for the mistakes she’d made. It was only natural that her great-aunt was the first person Sadie would turn to when her life was crumbling around her.

“You’ll like Aunt Amelia’s house. She has a lovely attic that I played in with your aunt Scarlett and aunt Lydia when we were kids.” Every summer, Sadie had tagged along when her grandmother visited her eldest sister in Stampede for a month. She had fond memories of running around in the big Victorian.

“What’s an attic?”

“A secret room tucked up under the roof.”

“Are Poppa and Nana gonna be there?”

“Nope. They’re leaving tomorrow on an Alaskan cruise.” Sadie’s parents had visited Madison for a week in May, carving out two afternoons to spend with the boys. Because they’d insisted Tommy was too difficult to handle, Sadie had used two of her vacation days to join their visit to the zoo and a museum, where she’d been subjected to her mother’s parenting lectures. She’d been told that if she didn’t get a handle on Tommy’s behavior, he’d end up serving time in a juvenile detention center. Poor Tyler hadn’t been mentioned at all, as if he didn’t even exist. Needless to say she’d been relieved when her folks left town, and she wouldn’t have to see them until Christmas.

“What did you do in the attic?” Tyler asked.

“We played school and pretended we were trapped in a castle waiting for Prince Charming to rescue us.” She peeked in the mirror and Tyler’s big blue eyes blinked at her. He was a worrier just like her.

“Can I read in an attic?”

“Of course you can.” Tyler had learned to read before Tommy and at first Sadie had believed it was because he was smarter. Then one evening Tyler had been reading on the living-room floor, and Tommy had thrown a Lego block at his head to get his attention. Tyler hadn’t even flinched. It was then that she understood her son’s obsession with books. The only time Tyler was able to escape the chaos that followed his brother everywhere was when he was lost in a story. With such different personalities she often wondered how long it would be before the boys drifted apart.

Sadie’s thoughts shifted back to work and her stomach churned. Surely it wouldn’t be difficult to find another job when she returned to Madison. She’d worked in Dr. Kennedy’s dental office the past five years as a bookkeeper/office manager and had been caught by surprise when he’d announced he was merging his practice with another dentist and her job was being eliminated. Dr. Kennedy had offered her a generous severance package, which included six months’ income and health insurance coverage for her and the boys, so she had time to find another job and a place for them to live.

“Is Dad gonna come to Aunt Amelia’s house?” Her little copilot refused to go to sleep.

“I don’t think so. Baltimore is a long way from Texas.” The boys and their father had said their goodbyes last month when Pete had stopped at the apartment with toys from the dollar store. The schmuck had enough money to wine and dine his new ladylove, but he couldn’t buy a decent parting gift for his sons. If he’d paid more attention to the twins, he’d know that one of them preferred books over plastic toy boats.

Sadie had asked Pete not to tell the boys he was moving in with his girlfriend and her three children—she’d wanted to break the news to them in her own time. But he’d ignored her request and had brought along one of the woman’s sons that afternoon, which had opened the door to a million questions about why Dad was living with another little boy and not them. Pete promised the twins they could visit him at Thanksgiving, but when Sadie had asked if he planned to pay for the plane tickets, he’d balked and amended his promise to hopefully seeing the boys during the holidays.

“We’ll find lots of things to do to in Stampede to keep busy,” she said. But not too busy. Sadie was looking forward to sitting still, sipping her aunt’s lemonade and catching up with her cousin Lydia, who was expecting her first child next spring.

When the exit for Stampede came up, Sadie lifted her foot from the gas and veered off the highway and onto a frontage road that led to the Moonlight Motel. She drove another three miles before a blue neon moon came into view in the distance. “Vacancy” flashed in the middle of the sign and she breathed a sigh of relief.

If she hadn’t gotten lost, run into bad weather and had to make an emergency stop along the highway so Tommy could pee, they’d have arrived before dark. But because Tommy hadn’t pulled his pants down far enough he’d soaked his jeans and by the time she’d located a clean pair of pants in their luggage and gotten back on the road, they’d lost an hour of daylight.

She stopped in front of the motel office and shifted the van into Park, then turned off the engine. Four vehicles sat in front of the six rooms. Hopefully that meant two rooms were still available.

“Are we here?” Tyler asked.

“Yep. This is the motel that Aunt Lydia just renovated.” She unsnapped her seat belt. “We’re sleeping here tonight, because both of your aunts are already in bed and I don’t want to wake them.” She opened her door. “Stay in the car with your brother while I see if they have a room for us.”

Sadie made sure she locked the van, then entered the office. When she stepped inside, the handle slipped from her grasp and the door banged closed. The sound woke the dark-haired man who’d been asleep in a rocking chair. He bolted upright, brown eyes blinking.

Lydia had texted photos of her and Gunner after they’d gotten married in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, and this man wasn’t him although he looked around her age. “I’m sorry I startled you.” She flashed an apologetic smile.

He rubbed a hand over his chiseled face, wiping his sleepy expression away. Then he stared at his sock feet for a moment before sitting back down in the rocker again and shoving his feet into a pair of worn cowboy boots.

“Apologies for falling asleep on the job.” He unfolded his frame and stood. He was tall, a little over six feet, and the breadth of his shoulders suggested that monitoring a motel wasn’t his true occupation. His long strides ate up the distance between the rocker and the check-in desk. Her gaze latched on to the shirttail sticking out of the waistband of his Wranglers, which fit him very nicely.

“The sign said vacancy, so I’m hoping you have a room available with two double beds.”

“All the rooms have double beds.” He rubbed the five-o’clock shadow covering his cheeks. “I’m filling in for my brother tonight, but I’m sure I can figure out how to register you.”

“You don’t look anything like Gunner.”

His head jerked up. “You know my brother?”

“We haven’t officially met, but he’s married to my cousin. You must be either Logan or Reid.”

“Logan.”

“Sadie McHenry.” She stepped up to the desk and offered her hand. “I think the last time I saw you and your brothers was at my great-uncle’s funeral years ago.”