“Honestly, Rick. I was going to tell you about the girls when you came home. I want them to know their daddy.”

Shaking his head, he grabbed her upper arms, pulling her close.

Sadie felt heat radiating off his body and reaching into hers. Just the touch of his hands on her skin was enough to start small brushfires in her blood.

His gaze moved over her features like a slow caress. And his eyes were still churning with too many emotions to count. “I want to believe you, Sadie.”

She tipped her head back to meet his eyes. “You can trust me, Rick.”

“That’s to be seen. But there’s only one thing to be done now.”

A ripple of apprehension scuttled through Sadie and still she asked, “What’s that?”

“We’re getting married.”

Dear Reader,

Being invited to be a part of a continuity series is always an honour. But I have to say, I was especially excited to write one of the MILLIONAIRE’S CLUB books. I love this series myself, so writing one was a treat!

In One Night, Two Heirs, you’ll meet Sadie Price and Rick Pruitt. They both grew up in Royal, Texas, but never really connected. Rick was raised on the family ranch when his career military father wasn’t dragging them all around the world. Sadie was raised to be the perfect daughter—never a step out of line. Until of course, one spectacular night that changed both of them forever.

But it’s not just Sadie and Rick’s relationship going through some major upheavals! There are all kinds of interesting things happening in Royal. Big changes are floating around and not everyone is happy about that!

I really hope you enjoy Rick and Sadie’s story. I had such a good time writing it—I can’t wait to see what you think of it.

Visit my website at www.maureenchild.com and take a second to e-mail me. I love to hear from my readers.

Happy Reading!

Maureen

One Night,
Two Heirs
Maureen Child

www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author

MAUREEN CHILD is a California native who loves to travel. Every chance they get, she and her husband are taking off on another research trip. The author of more than sixty books, Maureen loves a happy ending and still swears that she has the best job in the world. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children and a golden retriever with delusions of grandeur. Visit Maureen’s website at www.maureenchild.com.

To Charles Griemsman, a world class editor.

Thanks for making working on this continuity

such a pleasure, Charles!

One

Marine First Sergeant Rick Pruitt had thirty days’ leave to decide the rest of his life.

“But no pressure,” he muttered and loped across Main Street. He lifted a hand to wave at Joe Davis. His boyhood buddy was still driving that battered, dusty red truck. Rick paused on the sidewalk when his friend pulled to the curb to talk to him. Joe rolled the passenger-side window down and grinned. “Look what the east Texas wind blew home. When’d you get here, Rick?”

“Yesterday.” Rick tipped the brim of his hat back a bit, leaned his forearms on the window frame and only winced a little at the red-hot feel of the metal against his arms. If there was one thing a Texas boy learned to deal with at an early age, it was the summer heat.

Right now, the sun was blazing down from a brassy sky and there wasn’t so much as a hint of a cloud in sight. July in Texas was good training, weather wise, for a marine who spent his time deployed to the Middle East.

“You home to stay?” Joe asked.

“That’s a good question,” Rick replied.

“And not much of an answer.”

Truth was, Rick didn’t have an answer yet. He had spent a lot of years in the Corps and he had enjoyed them all. He loved serving his country. He was damn proud to wear the uniform of a U.S. Marine. But, he thought, glancing at his surroundings, he’d missed a hell of a lot, too. He hadn’t been here when either of his parents died. Hadn’t been around to run the family ranch, instead trusting in their longtime foreman to do the heavy lifting. And, since the Pruitt ranch was one of the biggest in Texas, that was some serious duty to push off on someone else.

Funny, all those years in the Corps and not one of his buddies had ever known that he was one of the richest men in Texas. He had always been just another marine—and that’s how he had wanted it.

He’d been around the world and back. Had seen more, done more than most men ever would. But, he thought, his heart had always been here. In Royal.

Rick smiled and shrugged. “It’s the only answer I’ve got. For right now, I’ve got thirty days’ leave and decisions to make.”

“Well,” Joe told him, “if you want any help deciding, you give me a call.”

“I will.” Rick looked at his old friend. They’d grown up together, had their first beers—and hangovers—together. They’d played side by side on the high school football team. Joe had stayed put in Royal, married Tina, his high school sweetheart, had two kids now and was in charge of the family garage. Rick had gone to college, joined the Corps and had come close to love only once.

For a second or two, he allowed himself to remember the girl he’d once thought unattainable. The woman whose memory had kept him going through some ugly days in the last few years. There were some women, he figured, just designed to get into a man’s soul. And this one surely had.

“While you’re in town, we should do some fishing,” Joe said, drawing Rick up out of his thoughts.

Grateful, he said, “Sounds like a plan. You get Tina to make us some of her famous fried chicken for lunch and we’ll make a day of it at the ranch lake.”

“That’s a deal.” Joe stretched out his right hand. “It really is good to see you home, Rick. And if you want my opinion, maybe it’s time you stayed home.”

“Thanks, Joe.” Rick shook his friend’s hand and blew out a breath. “It’s good to be back.”

Nodding, Joe said, “I’ve got to get back to the shop. Mrs. Donley’s old sedan had another breakdown and that woman hasn’t let up on me for days about it.”

Rick actually shivered. Mrs. Marianne Donley, the high school math teacher, could bring a cold chill to the spine of anybody in Royal who had survived her geometry class.

Joe saw the shudder and nodded grimly. “Exactly. I’ll call you about the fishing.”

“Do that.” Rick slapped his hands against the truck, then stepped back as Joe pulled away.

He stood there for a long minute, just soaking up the feeling of being home again. Only three days ago, he’d been with his men in the middle of a firefight. Today, he was on a street corner of a quiet little town, watching traffic roll by.

And he wasn’t sure which of those two places he most belonged.

Rick had always wanted to be a marine. And the truth was, since his parents were both gone now, there wasn’t much to hold him in Royal. Yeah, there was the duty he felt to the Pruitt dynasty. The ranch had been in the family for more than a hundred and fifty years. But there were caretakers out there, a foreman and his wife, the housekeeper who lived in and saw to it that the Pruitt ranch went on without him. Just as Royal had.

He narrowed his gaze to cut the glare of the summer sun and quickly scanned his surroundings. Things didn’t change in small-town America, he told himself and was inwardly glad of it. He liked knowing that he could go away for a couple years and come home to find the place just as he’d left it.

The only thing that had changed, he admitted silently, was him.

Tugging the brim of his Stetson lower over his eyes, Rick shook his head and turned back toward the Texas Cattleman’s Club. If there was one place for a man to go to catch up on the news about town, it was the TCC. Besides, he was looking forward to the cool quiet. The chance to do a little thinking—not to mention the appeal of a cold glass of beer and a steak sandwich in the dining room.

“Bradford Price, you’re living in the Stone Age.” Sadie Price glared up at her older brother and wasn’t the slightest bit surprised to notice he wasn’t denying her accusation. In fact, he looked proud.

“If that’s your roundabout way of telling me that I’m a man of tradition, then I’m all right with that.” Brad leaned down and kept his voice low. “And I don’t appreciate my baby sister coming in here to read me the riot act because I don’t agree with her.”

Sadie silently counted to ten. Then twenty. Then she gave up. Her temper wouldn’t be cooled by counting, or the multiplication tables or even with thoughts of her twin daughters’ smiling faces. She had been pushed too far and, like a true Price, she was fighting mad.

The main room of the Texas Cattleman’s Club might not have been the perfect spot for a throw-down, she thought, but it was too late to back off now. Even if she had wanted to.

“I didn’t move back to Royal from Houston just to sit at home and do nothing, Brad.”

In fact, now that she was home again, she intended to make a name for herself. To get involved. And the TCC was just the place to make a start. She had been thinking about this all night and the fact that her older brother was making things hard on her wouldn’t change her mind.

“Fine,” he said, throwing both hands high. “Do something. Anything. Just not here.”

“Women are a part of the club’s world now, Brad,” she insisted, glancing over at the two elderly men sitting in brown leather club chairs. At her quick look, they both lifted the newspapers they were hiding behind and pretended they hadn’t been watching.

Typical, Sadie thought. The men in this once-exclusive club were determined to ignore progress of any kind. Heck, they’d had to be hog-tied to get them to allow women in the club at all. And they still weren’t happy about it.

“You don’t need to remind me of that,” Brad said tightly. “Haven’t I got Abigail Langley riding me like a bull in the rodeo? That woman’s about to drive me out of my mind and I’m damned if I’m going to take it from you, too.”

She hissed in a breath. “You are the most hardheaded, ornery …”

“I’m going to be in charge around here, little sister,” he told her. “And you’d best remember that.”

Here being the Texas Cattleman’s Club, of course. Brad was planning on running for club president and if he won, Sadie knew darn well that the TCC would stay in the dark ages.

Sadie bit down on her bottom lip to keep the furious words that wanted to spill from her locked inside. Honestly, the TCC had been the bulwark of stubborn men for more than a hundred years.

Even the decor in the place reeked of testosterone. Paneled walls, dark brown leather furniture, hunting prints on the walls and a big-screen TV, the better to watch every single Texas sporting event. Until recently, women had only been allowed in the dining room or on the tennis courts. But now, thanks to Abby Langley being an honorary member—with full club privileges—due to her late husband Richard’s name and history with the club, all of that was changing. And the women in Royal were counting on the fact that now that Pandora’s box had been opened, the men in town wouldn’t be able to close it again.

But if dealing with her brother was a sign of how difficult change was going to be, Sadie knew she and the other females in town were in for a whale of a fight.

“Look,” she said, trying for her most reasonable tone—which wasn’t easy when faced with a head as hard as her brother’s—”the club is looking to build a new headquarters. I’m a landscape designer. I can help. I’ve got the name of a great architect. And I did some sketches for the new grounds that—”

“Sadie …” Brad sighed and shook his head. “Nothing’s been decided. We don’t need an architect. Or a landscape designer. Or a damn interior decorator.”

“You could at least listen to me,” she argued.

“I may have to put up with Abby Langley giving me grief, but I don’t have to listen to my baby sister,” Brad said. “Now go on home, Sadie.”

He walked away.

Just turned his back and walked off as if she didn’t matter at all. Fuming silently, Sadie thought briefly about chasing him down and giving him another piece of her mind. But that would only give the old coots like Buck Johnson and Henry Tate even more to gossip about.

Her gaze shifted to those two men, still hiding behind their newspapers as if they were completely oblivious to what was going on. Well, Sadie knew better. Those two had heard every word of her argument with her brother and by tonight, she expected that they would have repeated it dozens of times. And men said women were gossips.

Grumbling under her breath, she tucked her cream-colored leather bag beneath her arm, got a hard grip on the folder of sketches she’d brought along with her and stormed for the front door. The sound of her needle-thin heels clicked against the wood floor like a frantic heartbeat.

Disappointment and anger warred inside her. She’d really hoped that she would be able to at least count on her brother’s support. But she should have known better. Brad was like a throwback to an earlier generation. He liked his women to be pretty pieces of arm candy and he liked the club just as it was—a male bastion against the ever-encroaching idea of equality of the sexes.

“He’s a caveman,” Sadie muttered, rushing out of the dark interior of the club into the bright sunlight of a July morning in Texas.

She was still running on pure temper and her eyes were so dazzled by the brilliant light, she didn’t see the man until she crashed right into him.

One day back in his hometown and Rick Pruitt ran smack into a tornado. A tall, sleek, blond tornado with eyes as blue as the Texas sky and legs that went on forever. He’d been thinking about her only a minute or two before and now here she was. She stormed out of the Texas Cattleman’s Club in such a fury, she’d run right into him only to bounce off like a pebble skipping across the surface of a lake.

He reached out to grab her shoulders and steady her. Then she lifted those big blue eyes up to him and the look on her face said clearly that he was the last person on earth she had expected to see.

“Mornin’, Sadie,” he said softly, letting his gaze sweep over the patrician features he remembered so well. “If you’re really looking to run me over, you should maybe try it in a car. You’re not nearly big enough to do it on foot.”

She blinked at him. Her face paled and her eyes were wide and shining with shock. “Rick? What are you doing here?”

A long, humming second or two passed between them and that was all it took to get Rick’s blood rushing and his body tightening. But Sadie swayed unsteadily.

“Hey,” he asked. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” she murmured, though she didn’t look it. “I’m just surprised to see you, that’s all. I didn’t know you were home.”

“Only arrived yesterday,” he told her. “Guess the town gossip chain needs a little time to get up and running.”

“I suppose so.”

Her cheeks got even paler and she looked uneasy. Rick wondered why.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry about running into you. Coming out of the gloom of that man-cave into the bright daylight, I couldn’t see and I was just so darn mad at Brad….”

Good to know, he told himself. He’d much rather she be furious with her brother than him. The one night they’d spent together had been haunting him for three long years. He’d spent a lot of time in the desert, remembering her taste, her touch. She was the kind of woman who slipped up on a man. Got under his defenses. Which was why he’d been glad to be leaving for his tour of duty right after their night together. He hadn’t been looking for permanent back then, and Sadie Price was not the kind of woman to settle for a one-night stand.

He took a breath, inhaling her scent—that soft swirl of summer rain and flowers that always seemed to cling to her skin. That scent had stayed with him while he was deployed. And it didn’t seem to matter where he was stationed or the misery that surrounded him … if he closed his eyes, she was there.

Thoughts of her had pulled him through some dark times. Looking down into her blue eyes, he could only think, Damn, it’s good to be home.

“How about you?” he asked. “Last I heard you were living in Houston.” Which was why he’d planned to drive into the city to look her up in a day or two. Much handier this way—having her right here in Royal.

“I was,” she said and chewed at her bottom lip. Her gaze shifted from him. “I, um, moved back a few weeks ago.”

“You okay?” he asked, noticing just how nervous she really was. Shaken, really, and he didn’t like how pale she was, either. In fact, she looked small and fragile and every protective instinct he had rose to the surface, temporarily, at least burying his physical reaction to her.

“You know what? Let’s just go back inside and sit in the cool for a minute. You don’t look too steady on your feet.”

She shook her head and said, “Oh, I’m fine, really. I just …”

“You’re not fine. You look like you’re going to pass out. This heat’ll kill you if you’re not careful. Come on.” He took her elbow in a firm grip and steered her right back into the clubhouse.

“Really, Rick. I don’t need to rest, I just need to go home.”

“And you can, as soon as you’ve cooled off a little.” He drew her to the bench seat beneath the legendary plaque that read Leadership, Justice and Peace.

She took a breath and Rick watched her gather herself. Her fingers clutched at her purse until her knuckles whitened and he had to wonder what the hell had her so upset? Was it seeing him again? Was she embarrassed by the memory of their night together?

“What’s going on, Sadie?” he whispered and shook his head as one of the club attendants stepped up to see if he could help.

She laughed shortly, but there was no humor in it. Her gaze lifted to his and he read worry and trepidation in her eyes. Now he was really confused. “Just talk to me.”

For most of his life, Sadie Price had been the dream girl for him. She was beautiful, popular and even as kids, out of his league. Rick ran with a crowd that didn’t appreciate the country-club parties that Sadie and her friends attended. He’d always thought of her as pretty much perfect, except for the prim and proper attitude. He used to dream about getting past all of her barriers to find out who she really was.

Then he’d joined the Corps and Sadie married a rat bastard who’d ended up cheating on her and making her miserable. Three years ago though, Sadie had been divorced and Rick was about to ship out for Afghanistan when they ran into each other at Claire’s restaurant. They’d shared a drink, then dinner … then a hell of a lot more.

Just remembering that night had his body stirring to life again with a kind of hunger he’d never known before. After three long years, she was close enough to touch again. And damned if he was going to waste any time.

“You’re just as beautiful as I remember,” he said, lifting one hand to smooth her silky blond hair back from her cheek. His fingertips skimmed along her skin and he felt a jolt of heat hit him hard.

She sucked in a breath of air at his touch and he smiled to know that she felt the same sizzle he had.

“You know, why don’t we head over to Claire’s?” He leaned in closer. “We could get some lunch and catch up. Tell me everything you’ve been up to the last few years.”

“What I’ve been up to,” she repeated, then huffed out a sigh and looked up into his eyes. “That’s going to take some time. Oh, God. Rick … we really have to talk.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” he told her, a smile curving his mouth.

“No,” she said, “I mean we have to talk.” She looked around and seemed relieved that no one was close by before she turned back to him and added, “But not here.”

“All right,” he said, a little wary now. What the hell was going on with her? At first she’d just seemed shocked to see him. Now she was a little jumpy. Not exactly the welcome-home response he would have hoped for. “You want to tell me what this is all about?”

“Not really,” she admitted.

“Sadie …”

She stood up, tucked her purse under her arm and said, “Just, take me to my parents’ house, will you Rick? I’m staying with Dad until I get my own place. Once we’re there, I’ll explain everything.”

Standing, he nodded. Whatever the hell was going on, Rick would deal with it as he did everything else in his life. Head-on. “Right. Then let’s get going.”

Two

Sitting in Rick Pruitt’s black truck brought back a flood of memories. Three years ago, she and Rick had shared one amazingly hot, sexy night that had changed her life forever. The next morning he left, reporting for a tour of duty in the Middle East.

And maybe that was partly why Sadie had given into her impulse to grab at that one night with him. She had known he’d be leaving again right away. But the reality was, Sadie had just needed someone. Back then, she had felt as though she was disappearing. Becoming nothing more than the socialite daughter of a wealthy man. She never did anything for herself. Never stepped out of line from what was expected.

Until that night. Neither of them had made the other any promises. Neither of them had been looking for anything more than exactly what they had found together. A little magic.

But the truth was, that night with Rick had changed Sadie’s life forever—and he had no idea.

She looked at him from the corner of her eye and felt a flutter low down in her belly. His square jaw, gorgeous mouth and deep brown eyes were enough to make her body tremble with a need she hadn’t felt since that long-ago night. She remembered it all so well. The soft touches, the hungry sighs, the frantic whispers. She could almost feel his hands on her skin again. His hard-muscled body covering hers, his heavy thickness sliding deep inside—

“So,” he asked companionably, “how’ve you been?”

Sadie jolted, called herself an idiot and forced a smile. She wasn’t going to have the conversation they needed to have while riding through town in his truck, so she stalled. “Fine, really. No complaints. How about you?”

“You know,” he said with a shrug, “I’m good. Nice to be home for a while though.”

A while?

“How long are you home for?” she asked.

“Trying to get rid of me already?” He shot her another quick look and steered the truck down Main.

“No,” she said and half expected her tongue to fall off due to that whopper. “I was just curious. You haven’t been around much the last few years.”

“And how would you know that? Weren’t you living in Houston?”

“Houston isn’t the moon, Rick,” she said. “I talk to friends. My brother. They keep me up on hometown news.”

“Me, too,” he said. “Well, not your brother. He and I never really were friends.”

“True,” she said and silently added they were even less likely to be friends now, though Rick didn’t know it yet.

“Joe Davis told me when you moved out.”

Sadie smiled and nodded. Joe and Rick had always been close. Not surprising that the town’s best mechanic had kept Rick up to date on things. She was more glad than ever that she had left Royal when she had. If not, Joe would have told Rick her big secret and heaven knew what might have happened then.

“He, uh, also told me about Michael. I’m sorry.”

A twinge of pain rattled through her heart at the mention of her late brother. Michael Price had led a troubled life. Somehow, he had never been able to find happiness, but he’d always looked for it in the bottom of a bottle. Eight months ago, he had been driving drunk and driven off a cliff road in California. She would always miss her brother, but Sadie hoped that he had at least found the peace he had been searching for.

She lifted her chin. “Thanks. It was hard. Losing him like that. But I was grateful that he hadn’t killed anyone else in that wreck,” she said simply.

“He was a good guy,” Rick said softly.

“He was a good brother, too,” Sadie said, smiling sadly. Her memories of Michael were mostly good ones and she clung to them.

“And,” Rick said, changing the subject, “now you’ve left Houston to come home again. You’re living with your dad?”

“Just temporarily,” she said. “Until I find a place of my own. Ever since Mom died several years ago, Dad spends most of his time on fishing trips. He’s in the Caribbean now, and Brad doesn’t live there anymore, so …”

“You’re not lonely in that big place all by yourself?”

She nearly laughed. “No. It’s fair to say, I haven’t been lonely in a long time.”

Rick frowned. “What’s his name?”

“His? Who his?”

“The guy you’re seeing,” he countered. “The I’m-too-busy-to-be-lonely guy.”

Sadie snorted. “There’s no guy. Too busy for one of those, too.” She left it at that, not bothering to explain what he would find out for himself all too soon.

Silence stretched out between them, the only sounds the crunch of the wheels against the asphalt and the soft sighing of the truck’s air conditioner. Outside, summer sun beat down on Royal, Texas, making even the trees seem to slump with fatigue.

“You know,” he said finally, “I seem to remember you being a hell of a lot friendlier the last time I saw you.”

Oh, boy. She remembered, too. In fact, her memory was so clear and so strong, it was all she could do not to squirm in her seat. A flush of heat spread through her body as images rushed through her mind. His body. Hers. Locked together. Desperate kisses, amazing sensations. Didn’t seem to matter that she was already so nervous she could hardly swallow. In spite of everything, Sadie knew that if he reached over to touch her right now, she would probably go up in flames.

“You okay?” he asked from beside her and that deep voice of his seemed to roll across her skin.

Oh, she really was not okay.

“Sure,” she lied. “Fine.”

The familiar scenery raced past them as he left town behind and drove along the highway toward the Price family mansion in the exclusive development of Pine Valley. Three years ago, Sadie had walked away from the home where she grew up to live in Houston, losing herself in the hustle and the crowds. At the time, she had definitely needed to get away. To find a fresh start where no one really knew her. Where her private life wouldn’t be fodder for local gossips.

Now though, she was back and the past was reaching out to grab her.

She looked at Rick again. Funny, she’d known him most of her life and yet hadn’t connected with him at all until that one, memorable night. He’d changed, she thought. He looked older, more serious, more self-confident somehow. And that was saying something, since Rick had never been lacking in confidence.

His brown hair was trimmed military short, his brown eyes locked on the road in front of them. His hands were wrapped around the steering wheel and she watched as the muscles in his arms flexed.

“You sure you’re okay?” Rick asked, glancing at her briefly before shifting his gaze back to the road.

That was Rick, she thought. He wasn’t the kind to be distracted from what he saw as his duty—which at the moment, was driving. He appreciated rules and order and as far as she knew, always did the “right” thing, whatever that might be at the time.

There was simply no way he would ever accept her version of “right.” This day wasn’t going to end well, yet Sadie couldn’t find a way out of it. Now that she was home in Royal, people were going to talk. And the fact that Rick had only been home for a day was probably the only reason he hadn’t heard whispers already.

Well, she couldn’t let him hear this news secondhand. She owed him the truth. At last.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Just trapped like a rat, she added silently. Oh, she had known that this day was going to arrive, sooner or later. She had just been hoping for later. Much later. Which was ridiculous really, she argued with herself. She had moved back to Royal. She knew that, eventually, Rick would return. And keeping a secret in a small town was just impossible. Wasn’t that one of the reasons she had left in the first place?

Frowning, she focused on the road and tried not to think about what would happen when they got to her family home.

“If you say so,” he said, his tone telling her he wasn’t convinced. “So. Since you’re fine and I’m fine and we’re not talking about anything else, why don’t you tell me what you were doing at the TCC besides making your brother crazy?”

She blew out a disgusted breath at the mention of her brother. “Shoe was on the other foot, actually. Brad is the most stubborn, hardheaded man in the state of Texas.”

“This is news to you?” he asked with a chuckle.

Brad Price had long had the reputation in town of being the most hidebound traditionalist in the known universe. His hard head only added to the fun.

“No,” Sadie said, grateful to have a safe subject to talk to him about. “But I keep hoping that somehow, someday, Brad will wake up in the twenty-first century. Anyway, I went in to talk to him about being a part of designing the new clubhouse.”

“There’s going to be a new clubhouse?” Rick whistled, long and low. “Never would have believed that. The club’s been the same for more than a hundred years.”

Sadie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “So it should always stay the same? Why put in electric lights? Why aren’t they still using oil lamps or candles? Why have a telephone? Is tradition so important that no one wants progress?”

“Whoa!” He laughed, then asked, “Is progress so important you just forget about tradition?”

She glared at him, those warm, sexy feelings she’d been experiencing only moments ago dissolving as surely as sugar in hot coffee. “You sound just like Brad. Is this a guy thing? Is it only women who are willing to look at the future?”

“No, but looking to the future doesn’t mean forgetting the past.”

“Who said anything about forgetting?” Sadie waved her hand in dismissal. “All we’re talking about is an up-to-date, comfortable club that every member can enjoy.”

“Now I know what this is about.” He smiled and nodded sagely. “I heard Abby Langley’s a member now. I suppose that’s what’s got the women in town up in arms?”

She just stared at him. “Is it all men or just Texans?”

“Huh? What?”

“You have that drawling tone to your voice when you say ‘women’ like you’re describing a child throwing a tantrum.”

“Hold on a minute, I wasn’t trying to start a fight.”

“No, you’re just stuck in the same rut every other man in town is in.”

“I’ve been home for a day and suddenly I’m the enemy?”

“No,” she said on a sigh. “You just caught me at a bad moment. Sorry.”

He shrugged. “No problem. I know what it’s like to be up to your eyeballs in something and take it out on someone else.”

“Still not much of an excuse. It’s just that Brad makes me so furious.”

“Isn’t that what brothers are for?”

“I suppose so,” she acknowledged, then she smiled. “Besides, I think Brad having to deal with Abby is going to be payback enough.”

“Who knew you had such a mean streak?” he asked, his grin taking the sting out of his words.

“I’m a Price, too, don’t forget.”

“Wouldn’t dare.” He steered into a left turn lane and stopped for the red light. “I’ve done a lot of thinking about you in the last few years, Sadie.”

“You have?” She tensed up again. What was it about this man that could set every nerve in her body to jangling?

His long fingers tapped against the steering wheel. “Sometimes, thoughts of you were all that kept me sane.”

“Rick …”

“You don’t have to say anything,” he said. “I just wanted you to know that the night we had together has stayed with me.”

“It stayed with me, too,” Sadie said, then turned her head to avoid his gaze.

That single night with him three years ago had changed her life so completely, it was no wonder that she’d thought of him often. But now, knowing that he had been doing the same, made her feel even more of a terrible person than she had been. What could she possibly say to him? How would she ever explain?

She’d spent a lot of time assuring herself that one day, she’d tell him everything. That when he got back she would apologize and do whatever she could to make things right.

Yes, she could have written to him, but she had talked herself out of that. She’d been … worried about him. A career marine, he had been in harm’s way for most of the last few years, and every night, she’d said a prayer for his safety. If she had told him the truth in a letter, it might have distracted him when he could least afford it. Besides, a letter would have been the coward’s way out. Face-to-face was the only honorable way. And like she said, Sadie was a Price, too. Her parents had raised their children to be honest, to keep their word and to never break a promise. Honor meant something to the Price family.

But that didn’t mean that she had room for him in her life. She wasn’t looking for a husband. She didn’t need a man, her life was busy enough at the moment, thank you very much. But she did owe him the truth.

And that was something she wasn’t looking forward to.

He pulled to a stop at a red light, then turned his head to give her a quick grin. Only one corner of his mouth tipped up, and in that instant, Sadie felt a flash of heat wash over her. Just like it had on their one and only night together three years ago.

“So tell me what you did in Houston.”

She eased back into the seat. “I did a lot of charity work. The Price family foundation is based in Houston,” she said with a lift of her shoulders. “And I served on the board of my father’s art museum.”

“You enjoyed that?”

She looked at him. “Yes, but …”

“But?”

“But, I always wanted to go into design. Landscape design, really.” She turned to face him. “Planning out gardens, parks, working with the city to fix the roads along the highways …”

When he just stared at her, Sadie stopped talking and shrugged. “It just appeals to me.”

“You should do it then,” he told her. “Go take classes. Learn. Doing what you love is what makes life worth living.”

The light changed and he drove on.

“Is that why you’re still a marine?”

He laughed. “There’s an old saying—once a marine, always a marine.”

“Yes, but you’re still active duty. Why?” She was watching him closely, so she noticed when his jaw tightened slightly. “You could come back to Royal, run your family ranch. Why stay in the Corps?”

“Duty,” he said simply. “It’s an old-fashioned word, but I was raised to take it seriously. My father was a marine, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“We traveled all over the world when I was a kid. Finally settled here when he left the Corps, because my mom had roots here.” He glanced at her. “But when you grow up on bases, when you see what people are willing to give to serve their country … Well, it makes you want to do the same. And by doing my duty, serving my country, I help keep everyone I care about safe.”

She felt a sting of tears in her eyes and frantically blinked them back. Here he was talking about honor and duty and she had been lying to him for nearly three years. She was a rotten human being. She deserved to be flogged.

They drove down her street and suddenly Sadie had to say something. Try to prepare him for what he was about to find out.

“Rick, before we get to the house, there’s something you should know—”

“If it’s about the flamingos, I’ve got to say that maybe you should rethink landscape design.”

“What?”

Grinning, he pulled into the driveway and that’s when Sadie noticed the flock of pink plastic birds on the front lawn. Thank heaven her father was off on his fishing trip. If Robert Price had seen his elegant lawn covered with the tacky pink birds, he—well, Sadie wasn’t sure what he’d have done, but it wouldn’t have been pretty.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” As soon as Rick parked the car opposite the front door, Sadie hopped out and walked around the hood. She crossed the front yard until she came to the closest flamingo. The birds were staggered across the expertly trimmed lawn and looked so ridiculously out of place, Sadie couldn’t help laughing.

“What’s this about? A new trend in decorating?”

She jolted when Rick came up behind her. As hot as the July sun felt on her skin, his nearness made her temperature inch up just that much higher. There had never been another man in her life who had affected her like Rick Pruitt did. Not even her ex-husband-the-lying-cheating-weasel.

She took a breath, steadied herself, then looked up at him, trying not to fall into those dark brown eyes. It wasn’t easy. He was tall and muscular and even in his jeans and T-shirt, Rick looked like a man used to giving orders and having them obeyed.

He was the quintessential Texas man. Add the Marine Corps to that and you had an impossible-to-resist combination. As the quickening heat in her body could testify.

Swallowing hard, Sadie fought past the dry mouth to say, “Actually, the flamingos are a fundraising drive for a local women’s shelter.” She tore her gaze from his and scanned the fifty or more pink birds scattered across the yard and sighed. “Summer Franklin runs it.”

“Darius’s wife?”

“Yes. The idea is that whoever receives the pink flamingo flock pays the charity to remove them and pass the birds onto the next ‘victim’. Then that person pays and so on and so on …”

Rick laughed, pulled up one of the flamingos and looked it dead in its beady eye. “Sounds like a fun way to make money for a good cause.”

“I suppose,” she said, and worriedly looked at the hot-pink birds. “But they’re so tacky. I’m just grateful my father’s not here. He’d have a fit, wondering what the neighbors would be thinking.”

Shaking his head, Rick stabbed the flamingo’s metal pole back into the lawn and looked at Sadie. “Now that sounds like the prim and proper Sadie Price I used to know. Not the woman I spent that night with.”

Prim and proper.

That’s how she had lived her entire life. The perfect Price heiress. Always doing and saying the proper thing. But that, she assured herself, was in another life.

“I’m not that girl anymore, believe me.” She looked up at him again and said, “Can you come in for a minute? There’s something you need to see.”

“Okay.” He sounded intrigued but confused.

He wouldn’t be for long.

She headed for the front door, let herself in and almost sighed with relief as the blissfully cool air-conditioned room welcomed her. A graying blonde woman in her fifties hurried over to her. “Miss Sadie, everything’s fine upstairs. They’re sleeping like angels.”

“Thanks, Hannah,” she said with a smile, not bothering to look back at Rick now. It was too late to back out. Her time had come. “I’ll just go up and check on them.”

The housekeeper gave Rick a long look, shifted her gaze to Sadie and smiled. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.”

Rick pulled his hat off and waited until Hannah was gone before he spoke. “Who’s asleep? What’s this about?”

“You’ll see.” She still didn’t look at him, just walked across the marble floor toward the wide, sweeping staircase. “Come on upstairs.”

She slid one hand across the polished walnut banister as she climbed the steps. Her heart was racing and a swarm of butterflies were taking flight in the pit of her stomach.

“What’s going on, Sadie? In town, you said we had to talk. Then you say I’ve got to see something.” He stepped around her when they reached the second-floor landing and blocked her way until she looked up at him. “Talk to me.”

“I will,” she promised, finally staring up into his eyes, reading his frustration easily. “As soon as I show you something.”

“All right,” he told her, “but I never did care for surprises.”

The thick, patterned floor runner muffled their footsteps as they walked down the long hallway. Every step was more difficult than the last for her. But finally, she came to the last door on the left. She took a breath, turned the knob and opened it to a sunlit room.

Inside were two beds, two dressers, two toy boxes. And sitting on the floor, clearly not sleeping like angels, were her twin daughters.

Rick’s twin daughters.

The girls looked up. Their brown eyes went wide and bright and they smiled as they spotted their mother. Sadie dropped to her knees to swoop them into her arms. With her girls held tightly to her, she turned her gaze on a stupefied Rick and whispered, “Surprise.”

Three

Rick felt like he’d been kicked in the head.

Twin girls.

With his eyes.

They were jabbering nonstop as they climbed over their mother.

Their mother.

Sadie Price was the mother of his daughters.

Shock slowly gave way to an anger that burned inside him with the heat of a thousand suns. He was blistered by it and forced to contain it all because damned if he’d lose his temper in front of his children.

The girls were wearing matching pink overalls with pink-and-white checked shirts. Tiny pink-and-yellow socks were on their impossibly small feet and they laughed and danced in place as Sadie held on to them.

Sadie’s gaze locked with his and he read her guilt in her eyes. Her regret. Well, it was a damned sight late for regret. She’d kept his daughters from him their whole lives.

There would be payment made.

For now though, he dropped to one knee and looked at the girls. Their brown hair curled around their heads, their cheeks were pink and their brown eyes sparkled with life. Love. His heart clenched hard in his chest. One of the girls looked at him warily, and then slowly gave him a smile that tore up his insides.

“Girls,” Sadie said, laughing as the twins continued to chatter a mile a minute.

“Birds, Mommy.”

“Lots.”

“I know,” Sadie said, giving first one of her daughters then the other a big kiss. “I saw them.”

“Pretty.”

“Yes, they are pretty,” Sadie agreed.

“Who him?”

Who him. Rick swallowed back the tight ball of anger lodged in his throat. His daughters didn’t know him. He was a damn stranger to his own flesh and blood. That knowledge hurt more than he would have thought possible.

“This is your daddy,” Sadie said, watching him as she spoke the words that made all of this a reality.

He sat down, drew one knee up and rested his forearm on it. He wasn’t going to crowd the little girls. But he wanted more than anything to hold them. Instead, he smiled. “You are the prettiest girls I have ever seen.”

The one closest to him gave him a sly smile and looked up at him from beneath lowered lashes that lay like black velvet on her cheeks. Oh, this one was going to be a heartbreaker when she grew up.

“Daddy?” she said and pushed away from Sadie to walk to him.

Rick’s heart stopped as she approached him. He was afraid to move. He worried that anything he did now might shatter the moment. And he didn’t want to risk it. When she was close enough, the little girl reached out and patted his cheek. Her small hand was feather-soft against his skin and she smelled like shampoo and apple juice.

“Daddy?” She leaned in to give him a hug and Rick held her as carefully as he would have a live grenade. This tiny girl, so perfect, so beautiful, had accepted him without reservation and he’d never been more grateful.

“Daddy!” The second twin rushed him, cuddling up to him just as her sister had and Rick closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around them. He held them close, feeling the warmth of their bodies, the fluttering of their heartbeats. And in one all-encompassing instant had his life, his world, altered forever.

Opening his eyes, he looked at Sadie and saw that she was crying. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she watched him with their children and he asked himself what she was crying for. Was she pleased that he was finally meeting his daughters? Or was she regretting telling him at all?

“Story!” One of the girls blurted the word and pushed away from him, running to a bookcase beneath the window. Meanwhile, her twin settled in on Rick’s lap and played with his hat.

“How old are they?” he asked tightly.

“You know exactly how old they are,” Sadie whispered.

“What are their names?” That question cost him. He didn’t know the names of his children. His heart was being ripped into pieces in his chest and there didn’t seem to be a damn thing he could do about it.

Sadie scooted closer to them, reaching out to fix a sliding pink barrette in one of the twins’ soft, wispy hair.

“This one is Wendy,” she said, dropping a kiss on the girl’s nose.

“Wenne!” the toddler repeated with a gleeful shriek. She put her father’s hat on and the Stetson completely swallowed her head. Her giggle was as soft as a summer wind.

“Wendy has freckles on her nose.”

“Nose!”

Smiling, Sadie captured the returning twin and swooped her up into her lap. She kissed the top of the child’s head and met Rick’s eyes when she said, “This one is Gail.”

Another surprise in a morning full of them.

His heart, which he would have sworn had already been ripped in two, shredded even further as he looked down at the smiling child on Sadie’s lap. He actually felt a sharp sting of tears in his eyes and swiped one hand across his face to rid himself of them. Only then did he trust himself to look at Sadie again. “You named her for my mother.”

“Yes,” she said as the little girl opened the storybook and started “reading” to herself.

“Doggie and a bug and running and …”

Her commentary went on, but Rick hardly heard the mumble of disjointed words and phrases. He was caught in the moment. Struggling hard for the rigid self-control he had always been able to count on.

But he would challenge any man to walk into a situation like this one and not be shaken right down to the bone.

“Gail has a dimple in her left cheek that Wendy doesn’t have.” She smoothed one hand over her daughter’s hair. “And Gail’s hair is straighter than Wendy’s. When you get to know them, you’ll see other differences, too. Their personalities are wildly different.”

“Sadie …”

“Wendy is the adventurer. She was getting into things the minute she could crawl,” Sadie said, her words coming faster and faster, as if she didn’t want to give Rick a chance to say anything. “Gail is the cuddler. Nothing she likes better than curling up on your lap with a book. But she’s no pushover, either. She holds her own with her sister and, honestly, the two of them are so stubborn that sometimes …”

“Sadie,” he said, his voice deeper, more commanding.

She blew out a breath and slowly lifted her eyes to his. “I know what you’re going to say.”

“Oh, I don’t think you can even guess what I want to say,” he told her, anger rippling just beneath the surface of his voice.

“Let me explain, all right?”

“Can’t wait to hear it,” he assured her, though Rick knew there was absolutely nothing she could say that would make what she had done okay.

He’d been cheated out of his daughter’s lives.

Wendy pushed his hat off her head and left him for her mother. Both girls were in Sadie’s lap as she read them a story. Their laughter filled his heart even as he struggled with the fury he felt toward their mother.

As he watched her with them, he saw a completely different Sadie than the one he knew. He’d always seen her as an untouchable princess. Born and raised to be the perfect southern lady. Until their one night together, he would have been willing to bet that Sadie Price had never done a damn thing that was even remotely undignified.

Yet here she was now, on the floor, cuddling with two babies like she didn’t have a care in the world.

“Daddy! Story!” Wendy reached out a tiny hand to him and Rick’s aching heart did a flip-flop in his chest. He would have his answers, he promised himself. But for now, he wanted to make up for lost time. He wanted to be with his children.

And the woman who had kept them from him.

He moved in closer, taking Wendy onto his lap and the four of them became a unit while Sadie’s voice wove threads of family around them.

An hour later, the girls were asleep and Sadie and Rick stepped into the hall. She was so tense she was half afraid her spine might snap.

“You just leave them alone up here?” Rick asked as Sadie quietly closed the door behind her.

“There’s a baby monitor in the room with receivers downstairs and in my room. I can hear everything that goes on in there.”

He nodded and gripped the brim of his hat so tightly his knuckles went white. Sadie could feel anger radiating from him and the worst part was she couldn’t blame him for any of it. What man wouldn’t be furious to suddenly be faced with the fact that he was a father and hadn’t been told about it?

“I think it’s time you and I had that talk,” Rick said, taking hold of her elbow to steer her down the hall and away from their daughters’ bedroom.

“Let’s go downstairs, then,” Sadie said, pulling free of his grip. Yes, he had a right to be angry, but she wasn’t going to be bullied. Not by anyone. Never again.

She walked ahead of him, head held high, and took the stairs at a brisk clip. Once downstairs, she turned and walked into the family living room. “Have a seat. I’m going to ask Hannah for some iced tea. Do you want anything?”

“Just answers.”

“You’ll get them.” He wouldn’t like them, she thought as she walked through the house to the kitchen. But she couldn’t help that. What was done was done and they’d just have to go forward from here.

In the cavernous kitchen, Hannah was sitting at a table with a cup of tea and a plate of cookies. “Miss Sadie. Did you want something?”

“Just some iced tea please, Hannah. And some of those cookies if you’ve got extra.”

Hannah grinned. “With those two little angels in the house? I always have spare cookies. You just go on out to the front room. I’ll bring it along.”

Sadie turned for the door, then stopped as Hannah asked, “Is your friend still here? Would he like some as well?”

“Yes, thanks Hannah. Tea for both of us.” As she walked back to the living room, Sadie told herself giving Rick something cold to drink, whether he wanted it or not, might just help cool him off.

Back in the living room, she found him standing at the bank of windows overlooking the front lawn. The pink flamingos looked so silly, she almost smiled. Until Rick turned to give her a glare that could have brought snow to Dallas.

“Start talking,” he said thickly, tossing his hat to the nearest chair.

“It’s a long story.”

“Cut to the part where you give birth to my children and don’t bother to tell me.”

“Rick, it’s just not that simple.”

“Sure it is. Lies aren’t complicated. It’s living with them that makes things tough.” He shoved both hands into his jeans pockets. “Though you’ve managed to do it just fine for nearly three years.”

Sunlight streamed into the room and lay across glossy wood floors. Scatter rugs dropped splotches of color in the room and the oversize sofas and chairs gave a cozy feel in spite of the chill she was feeling from Rick. This had always been her favorite room in her family’s home. Though now, she had the feeling she would never again walk into it without seeing Rick’s accusatory stare.

Sighing, she bent to the baby monitor sitting on a side table and turned up the volume. Then she walked to him and stopped in a patch of sunlight, hoping the warmth would ease some of the cold she was feeling. Rick stood his ground, as immovable as a mountain. He was tall and broad and, right now, he looked like fury personified. His brown eyes flashed with banked anger and his shoulders were so stiff, she could have bounced a quarter off the tendons in his neck.

“You should have told me,” he said flatly.

“I wanted to.”

“Easy enough to say now.”

“Nothing about this is easy, Rick,” she countered and wrapped her arms around her middle. She took a deep breath and then continued. “You weren’t here, remember? You left the day after we—”

“—made twins?” he finished for her.

“Yeah.” Sadie had thought about this moment so many times, she’d even practiced what she would say.

How she would explain. And now that the moment was here, her mind was a total blank.

“By the time I found out I was pregnant, you were in a war zone.”

“You could have written,” he argued. “My mother had my address. She knew how to get in touch with me.”

“I know.” Sadie rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “I went to see your mom, actually.”

“You what?” He looked stunned.

“When I knew I was pregnant, I went to talk to your mother and—”

“Here we are,” Hannah announced as she pushed a rolling cart carrying a pitcher of tea, two glasses filled with ice and a blue-and-white plate full of cookies.

She settled the cart in front of one of the matching sofas, then smiled at the two of them. “You just help yourselves, and don’t mind the cart when you’re finished, Miss Sadie. I’ll come back to collect it later.”

“Thank you, Hannah.” Desperate for something to do, Sadie hurried to the cart and poured tea into both glasses. “Sure you don’t want any?”

“No, thanks. And stop being so damn polite.” He walked closer and waited for her to take a sip of her tea. “Why did you go see my mother?”

Sadie set the glass down, sorry now she’d had any. The cold she felt was deeper now, thanks to the icy tea sliding through her system. Looking into Rick’s eyes didn’t warm her any, either.

Sighing a little, she slumped onto the sofa and leaned back into the cushions. “Because I thought she had the right to know that I was pregnant with her grandchildren.”

“She knew?” Those two words sounded as if they had been strangled from his throat. Rick shook his head and she knew he was even more shocked than he had been before. “My mother knew you were pregnant and even she didn’t tell me?”

“We talked about it,” Sadie said, turning toward him as he dropped onto the sofa beside her. “We both decided that it wouldn’t be right to give you something else to worry about while you were on the battlefield.”

He laughed and the short, sharp sound was brittle. “You decided. Between the two of you, you decided to keep this from me.” Rick shook his head. “I don’t believe any of this.”

Sadie reached out and laid one hand on his arm. When he glared at her, she pulled back. “Don’t you get it? Your mother was terrified for your safety. She’d already lost your father and the thought of losing you to war was killing her.”

His jaw worked as though he was actually biting back words that were struggling to get out.

“She didn’t want you distracted. Neither did I,” Sadie said. “If you had known, you might have been less focused on what you needed to do.”

“I had the right to know.”

“We were trying to protect you.”

He laughed again and this time Sadie actually winced at the sound.

“That’s great. You and my mom protect me by hiding my kids from me. Thanks.”

His features were hard and tight, his eyes still flashing with the anger she knew must be pumping thick and rich inside him.

“I know you’re mad,” she said.

“There’s an understatement.”

“But I still think we did the right thing,” she told him.

“Yeah?” He turned on the sofa to glare at her. “Well, you didn’t. You should have told me. She should have told me.”

“We were going to tell you,” Sadie argued, “when you came home on leave. But—”

“—Mom died in that car wreck and instead of coming home for her funeral, I took R&R in Hawaii. I couldn’t face coming back here with her gone.”

“Yes.”

He scrubbed one hand across his face, then rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t even know what the hell to say about all of this, Sadie.” He glanced at her. “There’s one more thing I need to know.”

“What?”

“If we hadn’t run into each other this morning were you ever going to tell me about my children?”

Now it was her turn to be angry. “Of course I would have. You’ll notice the girls weren’t afraid of you, right? It was almost like they knew you already?”

He frowned, but nodded. “Yeah, I noticed that.”

“That’s because I showed them your picture. Every day. I told them who you were. That you were their daddy. They knew about you from the first, Rick.”

He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “I don’t even know if that makes it better or worse.”

Pushing up from the sofa, he stalked across the room, then turned to stare at her. “You showed them pictures of me, but I was never there. Did they wonder why? Do kids realize more than we think they do?”

Sadie stood up, too. Absently, she noted the overloud ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner. It hit the quarter hour and a bell chimed and still the silence between Rick and her continued. When she couldn’t stand it any longer, she spoke up. “You’re here now. You can get to know each other. I’m not trying to keep your girls from you, Rick. I never was. I just—”

“You moved to Houston because of them, didn’t you? Because you were pregnant.”

“Yes.” She lifted her chin to meet his eyes. She wouldn’t apologize for how she’d handled the biggest upset of her life. She had done the best she could and had never once regretted getting pregnant. “I couldn’t stay here. Not with the town gossips. I didn’t want the girls to suffer because of decisions you and I made.”

His frown deepened.

“I wanted a fresh start.”

“But you’re back in Royal. Why now?”

“It was time. I was … lonely. I missed my home. My family. I wanted the girls to know their grandfather and their uncle.”

“And their father?”

“Yes.”

“Not so worried about the gossips now? What changed?”

“Me,” she said simply. “I love my daughters and I don’t care what any gossip has to say. Anyone tries to hurt my girls and they’ll have me to deal with.”

“And me,” he assured her.

She could tell he was having a hard time believing anything she said and she really couldn’t blame him for his doubts. But the truth was she had had every intention of telling him. “Honestly, Rick. I was going to be right here in Royal, waiting for you—whenever you came home. I was going to tell you about the girls. I want them to know their daddy.”

Shaking his head, he walked toward her, gaze never leaving hers. He moved quietly for such a big man and she sensed the tension still holding him in its grip. When he was near enough, he reached out and grabbed her upper arms, pulling her close.

Sadie felt heat radiating off his body and reaching into hers. Just the touch of his hands on her skin was enough to start small brush fires in her blood. Her heartbeat was thudding in her chest and her mouth was so dry she could hardly swallow.

His gaze moved over her features like a slow caress. And his eyes were still churning with too many emotions to count. “I want to believe you, Sadie.”

She tipped her head back to meet his eyes. “You can trust me, Rick.”

“That’s to be seen. But first things first.” He released her, braced his legs in a wide-apart stance and folded his arms over his chest. “There’s only one thing to be done now.”

A ripple of apprehension scuttled through Sadie and still she asked, “What’s that?”

“We’re getting married.”

Four

“You are completely out of your mind.” She took a halting step back, forgetting the couch was right behind her. She toppled onto the cushions, but it took her but a second to scramble back up.

Maybe he was. Rick could admit that getting married wasn’t something he had even considered until just a moment ago. Not that he was against marriage—for other people. But as a marine, he had never wanted to go off and leave a wife and kids behind for months at a time. Not to mention the hazards of his job. Why risk making a wife a widow? Sure, it worked for a lot of guys, but he’d seen enough marriages either dissolve or end in grief to not want to take the chance.

Now, though, things were different.

“It’s the only honorable thing to do,” Rick said, gaze following her as she pushed past him to hurry over to the front window.

“Honorable? You think marrying someone you don’t love is honorable?” She laughed, shook her head and pointed one finger at him when he started for her. “You just stay away from me, Rick Pruitt.”

“Not a chance,” he snapped. He’d been put through an emotional wringer in the last hour or so and damned if he was even seeing straight yet.

He was a father.

He had twin girls who had his eyes and their mama’s mouth and he hadn’t even known they existed a few hours ago. How was that even possible? A man should know when he’s created a life. When he’s got family in the world.

Until today, he had thought himself alone. With both of his parents gone now, he’d had no real reason to leave the Marines. The Corps was his family now, he had told himself. Hell, he hadn’t even wanted to come back to Royal on leave. Being in the empty ranch house was … lonely. Too many memories. Too much silence. Still, he had done his duty, come home to check on things, make sure the ranch was still operating as it should.

If he hadn’t come home … would he ever have learned of his daughters? Sadie claimed she would have told him, but how did he know that for sure?

“I think we both need a little space right now, Rick,” she said stiffly. “Maybe you should go.” At her side in a couple of long strides, Rick pulled her in close again and this time wrapped his arms around her to hold her in place.

“You just dropped a bomb on me, Sadie,” he ground out. “And if you think I’m gonna walk away from that, you’re the one who’s crazy.”

“I’m not asking you to walk away,” she argued, squirming in his grasp, trying to break free of him. “I’m just saying we should take a break. Get our thoughts straight before talking again.”

“I don’t need time to think,” he told her. “I know everything I need to know. You’re trying to keep my girls from me. Again.”

Her jaw dropped. “Didn’t I bring you here? Introduce you to the girls? I want you to be a part of their lives.”

“On your terms though,” he said, reading the truth in her eyes. “Come and go when you say? Show up for appointed visitation? Damn it, Sadie, I’m their father. I want more than weekends.”

“It doesn’t have to be like that,” she said softly.

“No, it doesn’t.” The very thought of being cut off from his children was like a knife in the gut to him. He’d already missed too much. He hadn’t seen Sadie pregnant. Hadn’t heard the first cries of his babies being born. Hadn’t seen that first smile or heard that first laugh.

A man alone treasured the thought of family. He wasn’t about to lose his chance at having one.

“We can be together.” Nodding, he took a breath. “We’re their parents. It’s only right we be married.”

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