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“Stay with you?” Avery looked shocked. She ought to. He was still shocked he’d made the offer at all.
“No,” Gabe clarified a second time, “with me, my housekeeper and her husband.” When both Avery and Mrs. Sackett still stared at him, he reached down and began gathering the markers off the floor. “If nothing else, four adults might give you a fighting chance against these two.”
Debbie reached over and began picking up markers herself, but ended up knocking Gabe’s hat off his head.
They all fell into stunned silence. No one, especially not a preschooler, knocked a cowboy’s hat off his head. Gabe felt his face tighten into a frustrated scowl before he could stop it. Debbie, cued by his frown, caught on to the grievous nature of what she’d just done. Her bitty blue eyes went wide, the tiny pink lip below them jutted and quivered, and she dissolved once again into tears.
Gabriel Everett now added host to his list of demanding jobs—and it was the one that just might be the death of him.
* * *
Avery was sure she looked exasperated. Mostly because she was. Some days it felt like she hadn’t known a moment’s peace since Danny left.
No one should have to raise two precious little girls on her own. Debbie and Dinah should know their father, should see every day how much daddies loved mommies. How could any man she had been so sure she loved be capable of what Danny had done? Just up and decide that two children at once were too much? Had all his “faith” been false? He’d never been overly free with affection, but lately she wondered if he’d ever really loved her at all. Did the man ever give a thought to his dear daughters and how they fared?
Only her pride made her go on about needing to get back to Tennessee. Dickson was where she lived, where she was trying to make a life without Danny, but the truth was, precious little was back there. A house, a smattering of clients, some acquaintances, but no true friends.
Not that she’d admit any of that to anyone here. Successful businesswomen didn’t up and leave their enterprises for weeks at a time to help with some charity case. She’d end up a charity case herself if she kept that up. Every eye in Haven seemed to stare at her in either expectation or suspicion. And as for the whole town being ready to help, she didn’t much believe that. Not after Mrs. Sackett’s persnickety scrutiny.
“Avery?” Gabe was clearly expecting an answer to his startlingly generous offer. It was clear he would do anything to get her to stay, and the pressure of that choked any reply.
Life had dropped too many emotional bombs since her arrival here to let her think clearly. Coming to Haven had felt like stepping into a crammed-full kind of chaos. Really, who ever discovers they’ve been impersonated? Some gold-digging woman had actually come here earlier claiming to be her. Clearly, she was supposed to be someone important. The whole town was in an uproar over the fate of her grandfather Cyrus’s estate. It had been set—along with a mountain of stipulations, one of which included her presence—to become the new home of a ranch for troubled boys. The huge house went to a worthy cause, while she, evidently his only surviving relative, got a run-down cabin. Everyone wanted something from her despite the fact that she was just trying to hold her life together. Someone important? Ha! The number of nights she fell into bed exhausted and near tears ought to be illegal.
Should she stay? Could she stay?
“You’re serious?” she finally asked Gabe as she tried unsuccessfully to fetch the poor man’s toppled hat. “I mean...look at them.” She loved Dinah and Debbie to pieces, but even she knew they could be a handful. Gabriel Everett did not seem at all like the kind of man who would suffer any children—much less four-year-olds—with any grace.
Time came to a prickly halt while the man bent over, grasped his hat and settled it back on his head. He seemed as shocked at the proposition he’d just made as she was.
“Marlene will love them,” he said almost begrudgingly. “She and Jethro have their grandkids in college now, and Marlene needs someone to coddle. I caught her staring at an ad for puppies the other day.” Avery got the distinct impression he was trying to convince himself as much as her.
“No, I’d expect it would be best if we just went back.”
“You can’t.” He wiped his hands down his face. “I mean, the whole town would be obliged if you’d stay. I’ve got the space, and things aren’t so—” he gestured around the boardinghouse “—fussy out there. Not much they could break or stain.”
Dinah and Debbie had indeed excelled at breaking and staining recently. Mrs. Sackett hadn’t asked her to pay for or replace anything the girls had damaged, but she could tell the woman was getting close to drawing up a bill. The dolls—which they had been warned about several times—were clearly the last straw.
Would it be so awful to stay a bit longer? At a place with extra helping hands? Experienced grandparent hands? “Well,” Avery said, pulling in a deep breath, “I suppose we could give it a try.”
Avery’s eye caught Mrs. Sackett’s hard stare, one that practically shouted “you sure as shooting better give it a try.”
Stay with Gabriel Everett?
Help with the girls was a hard prospect to refuse right about now, even though Haven wasn’t turning out anything like she’d hoped.
“How soon can you take them, Gabe?” Mrs. Sackett asked with a hurtful sense of urgency. Clearly, she meant every word of her threat to toss them out.
“Well, it’s Monday. I think I can have them off your hands by tomorrow noon, Roz. Just a matter of a phone call and a bit of rearranging.” He turned to look at Avery. “If that’s agreeable to you.”
“Well, then, I guess I should thank you kindly for the hospitality,” she said, handing markers to Dinah to put back in the box. Just like that, the girls went back to their coloring. Her sweet little girls had returned—at least until the next calamity.
But something needed to be said. “Just for a week or so. Maybe less. I haven’t made up my mind about anything after that.” She’d gotten the distinct impression that being a Culpepper wasn’t a positive in this town—nothing she wanted a big dose of, for her or the girls.
“Let’s tackle that subject in a day or two.” Gabriel turned his gaze to the innkeeper again. “After all, we can’t have you run out of town now, can we?”
Mrs. Sackett just huffed, held the doll close to her chest as if the thing was alive and turned back toward the door.
“I don’t know.” Resentment at Cyrus for putting her in this position boiled in her blood—right now she could barely bring herself to care about whatever else the old man was leaving her, if anything.
Avery reached down to touch Dinah’s soft brown curls. “They’re not difficult all the time, you know. They really can be sweet as pie some days.”
Gabe returned an orange marker to the table. “I’m sure that’s true.” He didn’t look like he meant it.
“I’m sure the boys ranch is a fine cause, but I need to think about what’s best for the girls, and for me.” Avery hated how tight and forced her voice sounded.
“No one can fault you for that. Just take some time before you decide.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking down at the little girls with a mixture of bafflement and irritation. “Give us a chance to work all this out.”
She didn’t have it in her to fight. At least not today. “We’ll see.”
It wasn’t a yes, but he looked relieved anyway. “I’ll come by tomorrow around eleven and we can load my truck with whatever doesn’t fit in your car. I’ll call Marlene right now. I’m sure it’ll set her into a storm of happy preparations. Is it okay if I give her your phone number if she has any questions?”
“Sure.” The prospect of getting out of the boardinghouse lifted a weight off Avery’s shoulders she hadn’t even realized was pressing down so hard. “Thank you,” she said, fighting the awkward and indebted feeling that settled cold and hard against her rigid spine. “Really. It’s a very kind offer.”
Gabriel shrugged. “I’ve got the space, and nothing gets solved if you leave. It works for everybody.” He seemed more at peace with the idea than he had been even two minutes ago.
That peace wasn’t likely to last. “We’ll see if you say that after twenty-four hours of these two, cowboy,” Avery teased. He couldn’t really know what he was getting himself into, could he?
“I’ve handled far rougher bulls at the ranch. How hard can a pair of little girls be?”
Bless his heart, Avery thought, he’s about to find out.
Chapter Two (#udda3a390-468b-5857-9bb8-da36a273e3de)
Following a mountain of exasperating Lone Star Cowboy League business, Gabe came home that Monday afternoon to find Marlene and Jethro Frank cleaning a batch of old toys. Even the squeal of joy Marlene had given over the phone hadn’t prepared him for just how much the older couple was going to enjoy this spontaneous setup. As he cut the ignition on his truck, Gabe couldn’t help but wonder if he was looking at his last quiet evening on the ranch for a while.
“Evening, Gabriel,” Jethro called from over a bucket of sudsy water. “Just getting things ready.”
Gabe looked to his left to see child-sized pastel sheets hanging on the line. “You had all this?”
“A few calls around church was all it took,” Marlene said with a smile. She chuckled as she handed a bright green doll carriage to Jethro. “Little girls! And twins at that!”
Jethro shot Gabe just a hint of a “you sure you know what you’re doing?” glance, one gray eyebrow raised as he plunged a sponge into the soapy water.
Gabe had no idea what he was doing. He’d been asking himself all afternoon what on earth had made him offer to house Avery and the twins. He didn’t especially like children—but he liked failing a whole town even less.
It wasn’t as if life hadn’t complicated itself tenfold in the past few months. Cyrus’s will was forcing him to hunt down Theodore Linley, his maternal grandfather—someone Gabe never wanted to see again. Worse yet, Linley clearly didn’t want to be found. No one else in Haven had been able to locate him, and even the private investigators hired to find the man had failed.
Cyrus Culpepper’s set of demands was beginning to look more impossible with each passing day.
Desperation, he decided. That’s what made him do it. The desperation he felt to save the boys ranch from losing the larger facilities it so dearly needed.
If necessity was the mother of invention, it seemed desperation was the father of foolishness.
“Supper’s in the slow cooker,” Marlene called as Gabe pulled his briefcase from the truck. His stomach growled at the mention of supper—Gabe hadn’t had time to eat lunch today. He’d spent the time after seeing Avery in an endless stream of appointments for his role as president of the Lone Star Cowboy League’s Waco chapter. The civic organization did important work supporting area ranchers, but lately it seemed the league devoured all his time. Gabe was a highly organized and precise man, and the length of his list of undone tasks was making him nuts. “We’ll eat in thirty minutes,” Marlene advised. “We’ve got enough for Harley, if you want to fetch him over.”
Harley Jones was an old ranch hand who had been here since Gabe’s stepfather owned the ranch. Gabe could never bear to put him off the property, even though the man had long outlived his usefulness.
Much as he liked Harley, Gabe was too tired and hungry for extra faces around the table tonight. In fact, if he thought Marlene would let him get away with it, he’d prefer to spend the evening eating at his desk, working through the pile of emails and other documents that still needed tending today. “Put some in the freezer and I’ll drop a pot of leftovers over on Friday.” Gabe grinned at his cleverness—it might serve him good to pile up a bunch of reasons to visit Harley and escape the house once those girls descended.
Marlene cooed at a doll she had plucked from a box. “Your mail’s on your desk.”
“Thanks. Did you manage to make it out for extra groceries?” he asked as he walked up his ranch house’s wide front porch. The house was expansive—“too large for one man alone” Marlene never stopped saying. He would always point out that he wasn’t alone—he had her and Jethro—but she would just scowl and give him a “you know what I mean” motherly glare.
On his worse days, Gabe called her Meddling Marlene. On his better days, he tolerated her attempts to fix up his life as well as his house with a begrudging affection. Much as he preferred solitude, the Franks were good company. Big-hearted people, faithful, loyal and kind. What would the state of that beloved solitude be after the three weeks he needed Avery to stay? Shredded, no doubt, but the boys ranch was worth the price.
“We stocked up at the store,” Jethro informed him. “Marlene’s baked cookies already.”
Gabe’s stomach paid attention to those words. “Cookies?”
“Gingerbread,” Marlene said. “You don’t want something too sugary with little ones in the house.”
Marlene had better be more worried about her cookie jar being raided by the big guy in the house. “Better hide those cookies,” Gabe teased as he pulled open the door. “I’ve always liked gingerbread.”
“I knew that,” Marlene declared. “Why do you think I made a double batch? No sneaking till after supper, Gabriel.”
Gabe laughed, but detoured through the kitchen to what he knew to be Marlene’s hiding spot. He grabbed half a dozen of the delicious-smelling goodies before dragging himself to his desk. Only a fool would attack the mail on an empty stomach, he justified.
On top of his far-too-tall stack of mail was a hand-addressed envelope from Mike Tower. Gabe smiled as he broke the seal to open an invitation to Mike’s thirty-fifth birthday party in Houston.
That’s why I’m doing this. Mike had been a best friend during Gabe’s years at the boys ranch. They’d both had tough starts in life, but turned out fine. Gabe ran a prosperous ranch and was president of the Lone Star Cowboy League. Mike ran one of Houston’s top law firms. The boys ranch turned lives around and deserved to expand. If he had to suffer a pair of little girls for three weeks—three weeks! He surely hadn’t thought this through carefully—to ensure that the ranch could continue its good work, he could ride it out.
He started to fill out the reply card, then changed his mind and picked up the phone. The mountain of mail could wait another five minutes.
“Howdy there, Gabe!” The sound of a squalling baby filled the air behind Mike’s distinctive drawl.
“Caught you at a bad time, did I?”
“It’s Terri’s night out with the girls. Me and Mikey are just a couple of happy bachelors tonight.”
Gabe winced at the weariness that tugged at the corners of Mike’s joke. “One of you fellas doesn’t sound too happy.”
“Teething,” moaned the new father. “I’ll never take a set of pearly whites for granted ever again. My little buckaroo’s been miserable for days, and he’s taken Terri right down with him. She needed to get out of Dodge tonight, that’s for sure, and I’m coming to realize why.” As if to underscore Mike’s point, Mikey let out an enthusiastic howl.
Gabe tried to imagine the halls of Five Rocks Ranch reverberating with a pair of such howls. Just the five minutes of crying on Roz’s porch had set his nerves on edge. Four-year-olds didn’t cry as much as babies, did they? “I guess I should let you go, then.”
“No, please,” Mike begged above the wailing, “I need the human contact.”
“Aren’t lawyers humans?” Gabe replied with a laugh.
“Only barely. One of my cases has the staff in fits, so work isn’t as much fun as usual. Speaking of fun, how are those investigators working out? My or Phillips’s guys turned up anything on your grandfather yet?” Mike had added the best private investigators he knew to a set hired by local attorney Fletcher Snowden Phillips. All in an effort to find Theodore. All without success. After today’s complication, Gabe had a few choice words for the late Cyrus and his preposterous demands.
Gabe tossed his hat onto the bentwood coatrack that stood in the corner of his office. “Nothing past the jail term we knew about before. Honestly, Mike, it’s like the guy disappeared into thin air. I hate having to hunt him down. The only good side to finding him is that I can finally give him a piece of my mind. What man gives his daughter the slip like that? Leaving Mom and me to scrape by in the world?”
Gabe tamped down the burn of resentment that rose too easily these days and eased himself into the big leather chair behind his desk. Right now he could see exactly why Avery might want to put Cyrus and all of Haven behind her. Not much in life stung worse than being abandoned by the family that was supposed to love and care for you.
He heard Mike’s sigh above the baby’s noisy cries. “Think of it this way. That’s what makes the boys ranch so important. A boy can go so wrong so fast when he’s ignored or abandoned.”
“True, counselor.” Gabe pinched the bridge of his nose and reached for a cookie.
“And that’s why you’ve got to find him,” Mike said. “It’s up to you to ensure the boys ranch won’t lose the chance to expand. That place can’t be sold to a strip mall and half those kids sent elsewhere. You and I both know that.”
“I know, I know. And I’ve gone to extremes, Mike, believe me.”
“How so?”
“I invited the real Avery and her girls to stay here since Roz Sackett was fixing to kick them out of the boardinghouse on account of their ‘rambunctiousness.’”
“You what?” Mike was understandably shocked at a move so far out of character for Gabe.
“You remember Roz Sackett.”
“I remember she can be mean.”
“Mean enough to hand Avery a reason to head back to Tennessee and keep us from our goal. Who boots out a single mom with a pair of four-year-olds?”
“Wait a minute,” Mike said, nearly laughing. “You mean to tell me you invited children to stay at your house? Just how pretty is this single mama?”
Avery Culpepper was pretty, but that didn’t have anything to do with it. Even the prettiest mom, if she came with kids in tow, wasn’t for him. Gabe was many things, but a family man hadn’t ever been one of them. He’d stayed a bachelor all his years by choice, thank you. “I had to keep her from heading out of town, Mike. She’s got to stay for the seventieth anniversary party—you know it’s one of Cyrus’s cockamamy demands. I was fresh out of options.”
“I’ll say. Boy howdy, I’d like to see you with a pair of little girls pulling on your pant legs. Sounds entertaining.”
“About as entertaining as that opera singer you got there,” Gabe joked back. Every minute Mikey kept up the crying dug a deeper hole of doubt regarding what he’d just done in offering his own home. Little girls. What had come over him?
“You coming to my party?” Mike asked. “I mean, if you live that long?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Gabe growled, thinking it would have been far smarter to just fill out the reply card.
“Good,” Mike replied. “Say, when do the kiddos move in?”
“Tomorrow afternoon.”
Mike laughed. “I’ll call you Thursday and see if you’re still standing. Let me know if my guys find your grandpappy. Sure would be nice if this whole circus actually worked out, but then again, this is Cyrus we’re talking about. Anything could happen.”
“Don’t I know it. Cowboy up and get through the night watch, okay? I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t you worry about me,” Mike responded with a weary laugh. “I’m not the one about to be surrounded by females.”
Gabe ended the call with the sinking feeling that Mike was all too right.
