The Rancher Wore Suits

THREE HOURS LATER and too many drinks to remember, they’d each learned a lot about their respective families. Ty lived on a sprawling ranch with a big close-knit family while Dex was a doctor who managed a huge medical conglomerate with his grandfather.

Finally, Ty convinced Dex of the only reasonable explanation. Dex Montgomery was not only his brother, but his identical twin. They’d both missed their flights home, but neither cared. Dex had phoned his financial advisor to brief her on his change of plans, and Ty had phoned his family, then his neighbor Leanne who’d planned to pick him up.

The stories of their parents’ whirlwind courtship, marriage and tragic deaths matched down to the dates. Dex was told, as Ty had been, that he had no other family. Ty could just imagine his grandparents’ reaction when his mother had married a banker’s son. Dex had been told nothing about their mother, Ty had been told zilch about his father.

“What I want to know,” Ty said, his tongue thick in his mouth, “is how the hell they decided who would take whom.”

For one long moment they simply stared at each other. Ty couldn’t believe his loving family had lied to him. An image of his twin nephews surfaced. They seemed to have a special bond; he couldn’t imagine anyone separating them. Yet that was exactly what his family had done to him and Dex. His family had pounded into his head ever since he could remember the importance of family and togetherness. He’d always felt a part of himself was missing, yet they had torn him away from his identical twin and told him he’d died.

Would he and Dex have had a special bond if they had been raised together?

On the heels of that disappointment, he wondered what his life would have been like if the other grandparents had chosen him? Would he be a different man today? Would he wear suits and make his living crunching numbers, sitting in countless boring meetings like those he’d had to endure the past three days?

He shuddered at the thought.

Dex cleared his throat. “My grandfather—”

“Our grandfather,” Ty corrected.

Dex frowned. “Yes, our grandfather Montgomery will go ballistic when he finds out we met. He likes control.”

“You think he was behind the separation?” Ty asked.

Dex nodded. “One-for-me, one-for-you—that sounds like his kind of scheme.”

“So what do we do now?”

Dex drained his glass. “We should show up together and stage a confrontation.”

Ty grinned. Both their families deserved to be shaken up. “You may have something there. I say we give ’em a taste of their own medicine.”

A flash of concern darkened Dex’s Scotch-hazy eyes. “What do you have in mind?”

Ty motioned to the waitress and then pointed to their empty glasses once more. “I’m talking about trading places, brother. For just a little while,” he added quickly. “Just long enough to teach our families a lesson. And we’d get to meet the other side of the family.” Ty had to admit he was curious about the Montgomerys. And his father. Maybe meeting them would help him feel closer to his dad.

Dex hesitated at first, but finally a smile slid onto his face. “Yes, that’s good. All we have to do is bring each other up to speed on how to act and what to do.” He flared his hands and inclined his head in a gesture of nonchalance. “It’s simple on my end. You leave the business decisions to the old man. I have a secretary and a financial advisor who take care of things at the office. They’ll keep you straight on the day-to-day schedule.” Dex paused. “If a problem does come up and you need to make a financial decision on your own, just use your own discretion. After all, technically you are a Montgomery, too.”

Only in blood, Ty thought. He had nothing in common with those ritzy people. Family meant everything to him. Money meant nothing, except it was a necessary evil, he reminded himself, if he was going to help his grandfather.

“What about the Coopers?”

“You shouldn’t have any problems either,” Ty assured him. “Between Chad and Court and the ranch hands, they can handle things at the Circle C. It’ll be good for both of us. We can get to know the other side of the family.”

Dex nodded. “All right, then. I guess I could use a little rest and relaxation in the country. Kick back and get away from the grindstone.”

Ty chuckled. He thought ranching would be restful? Hell, his brothers would probably wear him out. “Yeah, and I’ll enjoy sitting on my butt in the air conditioning for a change.”

Dex laughed. “We have ninety minutes before the next flights leave for home,” Dex said. “Let’s do it.”

Ty folded his arms across his chest. “You go first. I have a feeling your folks are a lot more complicated than mine.”

Dex ordered another round of drinks. “All right. Here’s everything you need to know in order to be Dex Montgomery.”

Chapter One

Jessica Stovall had cold feet.

Not in bed, as her ex-husband had once said, but cold feet about meeting Dex Montgomery. She was seriously considering turning her car around and heading as far away from the Atlanta airport as possible.

Had she actually volunteered—no insisted—she’d pick up Dr. Montgomery from the airport?

She must be a glutton for punishment.

Her 1985 VW Bug hit the curb as she parked in the short-term parking area, and she coasted backward, wincing when the gears ground together. She parked on a slight incline, then removed the rock from the floorboard and placed it behind the front wheel to keep the car from rolling. Someday, she had to get that emergency brake fixed. Her ex-husband had wanted her to sell the car a long time ago. But Nellie had been with her forever.

Just as she’d once thought her husband would be.

Only, Nellie hadn’t let her down the way he had. A hollow emptiness pulled at her, the old pain re-surfacing. He had left her when she’d needed him most. She kept Nellie because she needed to know something was constant in her life, that she wouldn’t lose everything.

She hopped out, crossed the busy crosswalk, dodged a taxi and stumbled into the baggage claim area where Dr. Montgomery’s financial advisor had told her to meet him. This morning she’d knocked on his office door, hoping to beg him to reconsider his decision about funding the new children’s wing at the hospital, but the doctor’s gorgeous assistant, Bridget Holmes, had greeted her with a cool smile instead. Bridget was supposed to pick up Dex, but she planned to call a limo service for him. Jessica had jumped at the chance to give him a ride. Since she’d gone out of her way to make a trip to drive him home, he’d have to feel indebted to her and listen to her spiel.

At least she hoped he’d listen.

Dex Montgomery, doctor turned entrepreneur, was a shrewd businessman and seemed to have a heart for nothing but stock dividends and flow charts.

Jessica was the opposite. She loved her patients, the children at the hospital who needed tender loving care along with medical treatment. And she intended to see that they received the best of both. After all, the kids were her family now. The only one she would ever have.

She couldn’t let them down.

According to Dr. Epstein, she only had two weeks to get the money, too, or the plans for the children’s wing would be cut off completely. Besides, there were a few children who desperately needed money for treatment now.

Gathering her composure, she straightened her suit jacket and searched the crowd flooding the baggage-claim area for Dr. Montgomery. She was a respected pediatrician, a woman who’d risen from poverty to make a good life for herself by caring for others and keeping them from suffering. She refused to let Dex Montgomery intimidate her or reduce her to a jittery female.

His six-foot-plus, Armani-clad self would appear any second. All she had to do was play nice, dig deep enough to unearth his compassionate side, and ask him for money.

Piece of cake.

Yeah, right.

Facing a firing squad might be easier than getting money from a Montgomery.

A DEEP SENSE of panic mushroomed inside Ty as the plane coasted to the runway. Two hours and a few drinks ago, this trading places idea had sounded like fun.

But now his beer-induced bravado had worn off and reality had hit with the force of a two-by-four.

This charade was a mistake.

He should get off the plane and book a return trip to Bozeman. And fast.