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Twins Under The Tree
Leigh Riker
He never stayed put…until she gave him a reason to Rebel cowboy Hadley Smith had never been one to stick around. Then he suddenly became a single father—to twins. Hadley doesn’t need Jenna Moran looking over his shoulder, but he grudgingly starts to fall for her compassion and strength. When faced with an impossible choice, can Hadley prove to Jenna he’s willing to put down roots?
He never stayed put…
…until she gave him a reason to
Rebel cowboy Hadley Smith had never been one to stick around. Then he suddenly became a single father—to twins. Hadley doesn’t need Jenna Moran looking over his shoulder, but he grudgingly starts to fall for her compassion and strength. When faced with an impossible choice, can Hadley prove to Jenna he’s willing to put down roots?
LEIGH RIKER, like so many dedicated readers, grew up with her nose in a book, and weekly trips to the local library for a new stack of stories were a favorite thing to do. This award-winning USA TODAY bestselling author still can’t imagine a better way to spend her time than to curl up with a good romance novel—unless it is to write one! She is a member of the Authors Guild, Novelists, Inc. and Romance Writers of America. When not at the computer, she’s out on the patio tending flowers, watching hummingbirds, spending time with family and friends, or, perhaps, traveling (for research purposes, of course). She loves to hear from readers. You can find Leigh on her website, leighriker.com (http://leighriker.com), on Facebook at leighrikerauthor (https://www.facebook.com/LeighRikerAuthor/) and on Twitter, @lbrwriter (https://twitter.com/lbrwriter).
Also By Leigh Riker (#u4c1dd979-e42f-549f-9259-52b654d85705)
Kansas Cowboys
The Reluctant Rancher
Last Chance Cowboy
Cowboy on Call
Her Cowboy Sheriff
The Rancher’s Second Chance
A Heartwarming Thanksgiving
“Her Thanksgiving Soldier”
Lost and Found Family
Man of the Family
If I Loved You
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
Twins Under the Tree
Leigh Riker
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09897-7
TWINS UNDER THE TREE
© 2019 Leigh Riker
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Note to Readers (#u4c1dd979-e42f-549f-9259-52b654d85705)
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“Maybe I should let it go at that. This, too.”
He leaned away, his eyes somber on hers. He tilted her chin up with one finger. “Because all I have to offer you is this.”
With tears trailing down her cheeks, he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her. His lips felt firm yet soft, and she wanted to tell him he was wrong. He could care about someone other than his twins and his brother. He could care about her. She sensed it in his kiss.
But was he telling her goodbye? Was that the best thing for Jenna? She’d always known this time would come, that she shouldn’t trust him.
For another brief moment it didn’t seem to matter. She cared about him, and even with the words between them that should have made her leave now, as he would leave Clara’s ranch, she stayed in Hadley’s arms…
Dear Reader (#u4c1dd979-e42f-549f-9259-52b654d85705),
I’m so excited about this latest book in my Kansas Cowboys miniseries! This is Hadley Smith’s story (he was the foreman in The Rancher’s Second Chance), and this bad boy seriously needed reforming. That’s now Jenna Moran’s job, which she’s not quite prepared to take on—along with Hadley’s twins.
Twins have always fascinated me. When I was a teenager, my best friend and I used to babysit her cousin’s twins. Although as toddlers they were a bit older than my fictional babies, they were equally adorable. Add their five-year-old sister, who was part of our babysitting assignment, too, and we really had our hands full. But the fun more than made up for the trouble!
It’s the same way for Hadley in this book—even when he never expected to become a father and doesn’t think he’d be very good at it. We all learn the hard way. At first, he doesn’t welcome Jenna’s involvement, and she’s definitely not eager to risk her own heart again. But I hope you enjoy watching these two struggle as they develop a love, and a family, that neither of them dared to dream of.
As always, happy reading!
Leigh
For my family
Because that’s what matters most
Contents
Cover (#u0964577c-87ff-5db9-a3e6-3fc36228b041)
Back Cover Text (#u79af7e50-ab50-5f2f-82df-7316a5202c9a)
About the Author (#ud90f9bcc-b8af-56ad-927b-ea8b86fc128a)
Booklist (#ua6d61beb-f4fd-5387-824f-007e88d143b3)
Title Page (#ufdc5fd5c-5fe1-5329-b200-551fabdb75ea)
Copyright (#u65c46c00-df59-554b-8f10-84758aa49b1c)
Note to Readers
Introduction (#uc0c1a508-c41b-5b0a-83b0-424b6aec75dc)
Dear Reader (#u834e919d-ebd9-5713-b7c9-1924e6d5a508)
Dedication (#u9ae9c9a2-d6a3-57e3-83c2-6be20b147f58)
CHAPTER ONE (#ud819ab4e-8183-56e8-9bf4-2234c61a4a2a)
CHAPTER TWO (#u6f003480-401e-5b3b-b60d-141e3040c009)
CHAPTER THREE (#u9a6dba15-0d36-53e9-ab5e-79e6e31dfbde)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u5b1e98ef-8ee4-5269-88e1-b9d4feb42772)
CHAPTER FIVE (#ub37769b2-e334-50d3-9868-b1eb6d4cf0c1)
CHAPTER SIX (#u87920673-9fb7-583e-8e85-4611b44a5b4d)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u4c1dd979-e42f-549f-9259-52b654d85705)
November Near Barren, Kansas
“WOULD YOU LIKE to hold your babies?”
The nurse’s soft voice reached Hadley as if it had come down a long tunnel, the words echoing inside him. He stared through the big window of the nursery in Farrier General Hospital, where the two little infants wrapped in pink and blue blankets, looking for all the world to him like a pair of burritos, wriggled in their plastic isolette. One tiny hand waved in the air as if to say hello. Another set of china-blue eyes gazed straight at him. They were less than an hour old—and they had no mother.
Hadley couldn’t seem to grasp the notion. Only this morning Amy had pressed his hand to her swollen abdomen. “I think it’s today,” she’d said with an angelic smile, not afraid at all of the painful process to come. She should have been.
Before she’d even turned thirty, Amy was no more. “Complications during delivery,” the doctor had tried to explain, but nothing registered with Hadley. The words banged around in his skull like so much mumbo jumbo, and even Sawyer McCord’s comforting hand on his shoulder couldn’t make it real.
Hadley had stumbled from the waiting room down the brightly lit hallway in a daze, and he was still in it. Underneath the fog that had taken over his brain, though, something else kept demanding his attention, tapping at his memory and telling him to pay notice. Hadley just couldn’t remember what that was.
The nurse repeated her question, then said, “We have a small lounge you can use.” She gently took his arm and led him a short distance away to the open door of a room. “I’ll bring them to you.”
“No,” he began, heart in his throat. Even after the long months of waiting, he wasn’t ready; he’d told Amy often enough that he would never be ready, which had only led to yet another of their usual impasses.
But the nurse had already disappeared through the door across the way where Hadley was able to pick out the low murmur of voices among the other nurses. He saw one of them swipe at her eyes.
This was not the happy occasion it should have been—most of all, for Amy—but Hadley didn’t quite know how to grieve. They’d separated earlier in the year, but during one last night together they’d created two new lives. The news that she was pregnant had cut short their divorce proceedings.
He’d promised to stay with her until the babies were born, then they’d decide about the future.
The situation now seemed bizarre, and everything in Hadley’s life had been temporary. His whole approach to things was what he called the finger-in-the-dike method, plugging up one hole as it sprang a leak, then the next. He didn’t stay long anywhere he happened to land. He’d never had a home, a real family. What was he going to do now with the twins?
In the lounge, he sank onto the faux-leather couch, trembling inside. Trying to steady himself, Hadley looked down at his blue chambray shirt, faded jeans and scuffed boots. Even in their better moments, he was never the guy Amy had hoped he could become.
