Her Twins' Cowboy Dad Read online

  “Beau left me the land, and he left the cattle to Jane’s daughters,” Colt said. “So Jane is going to stay with us while we get that ironed out. I need to buy the cattle back.”

  A smile of amusement tickled the corners of Peg’s lips. “You’d almost think he was trying to get you married off, wouldn’t you?”

  To his cousin’s widow? Not likely. Josh’s estrangement from the family had been an endless source of upset around here, and Colt highly doubted that his uncle would have wanted that. It might not have been logical because Josh got married a few years after he left home, but Beau blamed “the wife” as much as anyone else for his son’s refusal to talk to him. Anything but admit it was his own fault.

  “It had a whole lot less to do with me, and more to do with wanting to fix things with Josh,” Colt replied. Besides, Colt wasn’t interested in marriage, and Beau had known why.

  Jane emerged from the car with the second toddler, and she slammed the door shut.

  “Well...these would be my great-nieces, then,” Peg said, softening immediately. “Do they ever look like their father.”

  They did, and if Josh hadn’t been killed, he would have loved being a dad. He’d always had that gentle-giant quality about him, and with his jovial sense of humor, Colt could see him sliding easily into being a family man.

  Aunt Peg scooped up one of the toddlers in her arms, looking the girl over from head to toes.

  “That’s Micha,” Jane said. “This here is Suzie.”

  “We might as well go inside,” Peg said. “I cleaned up the kitchen, Colt. You’re welcome.”

  Colt had started to expand a little bit in the house—and he’d made his breakfast upstairs in Beau’s place. He’d left some oatmeal out for Peg. Maybe it would be best to keep to his own space until Peg went back home.

  “Sorry about that,” he said with a short laugh. He hadn’t left it in a mess or anything.

  Colt followed the women into the house, letting the screen door bang shut behind him. The house felt different with Beau gone. The kitchen was as it always had been—just the way Beau’s late wife, Sandra, had kept it. She’d been a good cook, unlike Peg, who never did get the touch.

  “Aunt Peg, I asked Jane if she’d give you a hand with emptying out the house,” Colt said.

  “Did you think of asking me what I thought of that?” Peg retorted. She put down the toddler, who beelined back to Jane.

  “It’s my house now, Peg,” he said, but he sent his aunt a tired smile to show her he wasn’t taking it to heart. “I figured it might help. If you’d rather do it alone, I mean—”

  “No, no,” Peg said, sadness filling her eyes. She pulled a dish of what appeared to be apple crisp off the counter and deposited it onto the table along with a serving spoon. “I don’t want to do it alone. Besides...” She looked down at the toddlers. “There’s family to get acquainted with, isn’t there?”

  “I didn’t know Beau,” Jane said quietly. “But he did remember my girls in his will, and I’m grateful for that.”

  “Did Josh talk about us?” Peg asked.

  “A little,” Jane replied.

  “Did he mention why he left and never wanted to come back?” Peg asked, and Colt felt his chest constrict. Did they have to do this—with a relative stranger? He, for one, didn’t want to talk about it.

  Color rose in Jane’s cheeks, but she didn’t answer.

  “Ah, so he did,” Peg went on, then sighed. “Beau wasn’t as bad as he seemed, my dear. We’re all just human.”

  Colt couldn’t help but feel like he’d been the one to chase off his cousin. Josh and Beau had been at odds for years. Josh wanted to join the army and his father had wanted him to stay home and work the land. For most families that wouldn’t be relationship ending, but for the stubborn Marshalls it snowballed into a bigger and bigger issue, picking up the detritus of every single disagreement they’d ever had. Josh wasn’t the kind of son Beau wanted. Beau wanted a son to take over the ranch. Well, Colt wanted a chance at that life, and Beau was more than happy to teach him the ropes.

  Was it wrong of Colt to take advantage of that? Probably. While Josh’s father was alive, someone had to run this place, and Josh hadn’t been interested. But Beau told his son that when he died, the land wouldn’t be sold so that Josh could use the money for his own goals—Josh wouldn’t inherit at all. When it came right down to it, Beau could leave the ranch to anyone he chose, but the cost of that had been a splintered family. Standing here in his newly inherited kitchen, it didn’t feel quite so satisfying as Colt had imagined it would. This was all his, and he couldn’t help but feel like a cheat.

  He was glad Jane was here, and that her daughters would get something. It would even the score a little bit. Make it right.

  * * *

  “It really isn’t my business,” Jane said and she dropped her gaze. Josh had gone on and on about that inheritance, and she’d simply put it out of her mind. There was money tied up in land that would never come to them. Wasn’t a life together worth more than cash? But it had hurt her husband deeply because it meant that his father didn’t respect his goals in life and didn’t love him enough to leave him anything. For Josh it was about the money and his father’s respect, and for his dad it was about the land. Period. Josh never made his peace with it.

  Jane bent down to dig out that zippered bag of crackers again, mostly as an excuse not to look at them. There was so much sadness and frustration in this home that she could actually feel it in the air, and she shivered.

  “We missed Josh,” Peg said, her voice trembling a little. “There was a hole here—it never filled in. My brother might have had his faults, but he did love his son something fierce. If Josh looked to punish him for his sins, he sure succeeded.”

  And maybe Josh had been trying to punish his family. He hadn’t wanted Jane anywhere near them. That hadn’t been her choice, though. She’d wanted family, and she’d wanted to know his, too, even if there was tension and bickering. People didn’t hatch from eggs, and she’d felt certain that she would have understood her husband better if she could have met the family that raised him. Maybe their marriage could have been a little bit easier, if she did. Here was her chance, apparently. A little late, but still a chance to understand the man she’d married.

  Colt cleared his throat, and an awkward silence filled the kitchen. Jane gave the girls each another cracker to munch on, and she wondered if she’d made a mistake in coming here. This family had baggage and they’d be sorting through it now that Beau had passed away. She didn’t belong in the middle of this mess. Josh was gone, after all.

  There was always that reserve credit card if she decided to stay in a cheap hotel.

  Peg sighed. “I’m going to go set up one of the guest bedrooms. Can the girls sleep with you in a double bed?”

  “This seems like a sensitive time for the family,” Jane said. “I can easily stay in town. Colt was kind enough to offer, but I can see that—”

  “You think this is tense?” Peg asked with an abrupt laugh.

  “A little...” Jane murmured.

  “Jane, you’re the only connection we’ve got to Josh now. And maybe you’ll be able to give us some insights, too. You’re family. You’re very welcome here. I come across a bit harshly, or so I’ve been told. Is that it?”

  “No, not at all...” Jane said. Now was not the time to admit to that.

  “Now, about the sleeping arrangement for the little ones,” Peg said.

  “Yes, I could have them sleep with me,” she conceded. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

  “Not at all.”

  That prim, downturned mouth never changed expression as Peg headed out of the kitchen, leaving Jane and Colt alone with the little girls.

  “I really did try to get Beau to call his son,” Colt said. “It was never my intention to get between them.”
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  “But you managed to,” she replied, raising her gaze. “I don’t want to get in the middle of this, and I have no interest in this ranch...but Josh felt completely abandoned by both of you. You ganged up on him.”

  “Not the case,” Colt said, and his voice softened a little. “Josh hated ranching. He thought it was boring. He wanted excitement, and that wasn’t here with the cattle. He didn’t want this life, and ranching was in Beau’s blood.”

  “And yours, it would seem,” she said.

  “I’m not going to apologize for that,” he replied with a shake of his head. “I’m a cowboy to the bone. I love the early mornings, the physical work, the cattle, the smell, the rhythms of the seasons. This is the life I’ve always wanted, and I’m not going to pretend it means less to me than it does.”

  “Josh didn’t like that stuff,” she admitted. “I know that. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to pick a fight with you.”

  “For Beau it was about the ranching legacy,” Colt said.

  “Josh was his son,” Jane said quietly. “He wanted to be his father’s legacy. Not some land.”

  Colt met her gaze for a moment, then nodded. “I know. You’re right. Like I said, I never meant to get between them. Beau and I might have had the ranching in common, but we butted heads about everything else. He was a stubborn man.”

  “Peg joked about Beau trying to get you married, though,” Jane said. “It sounds like you two were pretty close, in spite of it all.”

  “Getting me married,” Colt said with a short laugh. “That would be ironic. I’m not the marrying kind, and Beau knew that. From what I can see, marriage is a piece of paper—nothing more.”

  Jane looked at him, curious, but afraid to ask. Where Colt stood on the idea of marriage really wasn’t her business.

  “Look, this family has its own set of problems,” Colt went on. “My aunt died in a swimming accident when Josh and I were teenagers, but Sandra and Beau were never happy. They fought constantly, and my family hated Beau for obvious reasons.”

  “Obvious?” she said.

  “He was a jerk to her, and everyone knew it. But Sandra gave as good as she got. Those two could barely stand each other.” He sighed. “I can’t point out too many happy couples in this family.”

  Colt was bitter—that much was obvious. But she didn’t agree with him. “Marriage is more than a piece of paper. I’ve been married. I know what those vows mean.”

  “No offense, but I don’t see it.”

  “Commitment matters,” Jane countered with a shake of her head. “There is a difference between staying together for a lifetime because you chose it at the beginning, and staying together because you just didn’t break up yet. To be able to promise to stand by each other, no matter what—”

  “People can promise that without the ceremony. Do you think a piece of paper makes those promises any stronger?” he retorted.

  “Maybe not the paper, but the vow before God should,” she said. “In my experience there’s a vast difference between a boyfriend and a husband.”

  Jane had stood by her husband. If it weren’t for those vows, she might not have had the strength. Vows mattered.

  Colt eyed her for a moment, then sighed. “I’m not saying that good marriages are impossible. I just don’t think they’re guaranteed, and too many go down in the dust for my comfort.”

  It wasn’t like she was interested in getting married again, either, so she didn’t know why she felt so compelled to argue about this. She had her own reasons for not wanting to take those vows again.

  “Fair enough, I guess,” she said.

  Colt’s phone blipped, and he pulled it out of his back pocket and looked down at the screen. “It’s the ranch cook. He needs to talk to me about something.”

  “Should I get Peg to show me where to start with cleaning things out, then?”

  “Yeah, that would be the best,” he said. “If you want me to carry anything in for you—”

  “I’ll be fine.” She waved off his offer. “Go on and get back to work.”

  Colt headed toward the door, and Micha toddled after him, so Jane boosted up her toddler and kissed her plump cheek.

  “You’re staying with me,” she said with a low laugh, but she watched as the door shut behind Colt, then looked around at the silent kitchen.

  She had no idea what was waiting for her here in Creekside. She was among family, but they were the people her late husband hadn’t trusted.

  She pulled her hair out of her face and heaved a sigh.

  Father, guide me... She didn’t know what else to ask.

  * * *

  As Colt headed outside, the hot, grass-scented wind enveloped him and he felt the tension start to fade away.

  Lord, keep me focused on my job, he prayed silently. I don’t know what Beau was thinking. If he was going to leave me the ranch, why complicate it on me? But she’s Josh’s wife, and I have no problem with sharing this with her... I just need Your help holding the ranch together. You know where the finances stand! The sooner this is resolved and Jane is on her way back to her life, the better. So smooth the road for that, Lord. And give me some grace in the meantime.

  There was a lot of work to get done that day, and he’d already used up a good chunk of it there at the lawyer’s office. Beau hadn’t been doing a lot of the day-to-day managing of the ranch anymore before he died, so the ranch hands already looked to Colt as the one to answer to. But he wasn’t just the ranch manager now, he was owner. He’d have to hold a meeting when he told everyone together at the same time. If rumor didn’t reach them first.

  The main house was on the crest of a hill, and the dirt road that led toward the ranch hands’ bunkhouse and canteen wound around the hill and toward the west where a patch of forest served as a backdrop for the low wooden buildings. The trees melted into some scrubby grassland beyond that served well in winter, giving the cattle the shelter of trees in the coldest weather, and some iron feeders and water troughs that were filled daily once the snow came. Now that it was summer, the cattle were enjoying the lush pasture farther east. Even in the summer months, Colt’s mind skipped ahead to the next season. The work never eased up; it just changed form. That was ranch life.

  His truck bounced over a pothole, and his vehicle rattled. The canteen and the bunkhouse weren’t too far from the main house. When he arrived, he parked out front in his usual spot. A couple of work trucks were parked along the side, and he could hear the buzz of some male voice filtering out through the propped-open door. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed his mom’s number in Wyoming. She’d moved out there five years ago, and it still felt strange to have her so far away. The Marshalls seemed to chase off anyone without a real good reason to stick around.

  “Colt? That you, honey?” his mother said, picking up.

  “Yeah. Hi, Mom.”

  “How’s it going over there?” she asked. “Don’t you have the reading of the will today?”

  “Yeah. I just got back from it.”

  “And?” She sounded slightly breathless.

  “And Beau came through. The ranch is mine.”

  “Yes!” His mother heaved a deep sigh. “I’m so glad. I was praying for this. You deserve that land, son.”

  Wasn’t that the way...everyone praying for their own stake in something that didn’t belong to them to begin with. It still felt wrong.

  “There’s a bit of a wrinkle, though,” he said. “Josh’s widow is here. Beau left her kids the cattle.”

  “He left them the—” his mother began. “What kids?”

  “Josh had twins. He died before they were born. Two girls. And Beau left them the cattle.”

  “Josh had kids?” His mother paused for a couple of beats. “That egotistical jerk!”

  “Josh?” Colt asked wryly.

  “No, your uncle. Obviously. Ev
en from the grave, he wants to ruin other people’s happiness! He could have just left the ranch to you free and clear. Would that have been so hard? He didn’t bother making up with Josh, so he was going to try and make up for that after the fact?”

  “It was the right thing to do,” he countered. “These are Josh’s daughters, Mom. They look just like him.”

  “So give them something else. The cattle?” She was only getting started, he could tell.

  “Mom, it’s done,” Colt said irritably. “And Beau’s dead. There’s no one left to be mad at.”

  “So Josh’s widow is there?” his mother clarified.

  “Yep. She’s here. Just for a week or two while we sort out the paperwork and I get a loan to buy my cattle back.”

  “Your cattle. I like the sound of that. This was a long time coming, son, but I’m glad. I know you’re a bit guilty right now, but trust me on this—you have nothing to feel guilty about.”

  He wished he felt as certain about that as his mother did.

  “I just wanted to let you know what happened,” he said. “I’ve got some stuff to take care of here, so I’d better let you go.”

  “All right. Back to work. I love you, son.”

  “Love you, too, Mom. Bye.”

  He hung up the phone and heaved a sigh. The family turmoil surrounding this inheritance wasn’t quite so easy for him to dismiss. His mother was Sandra’s sister, and she’d hated Beau. Beau had been the “idiot husband” who made her sister miserable. There hadn’t been a lot of love lost between the two of them. But work called, and Colt didn’t have the luxury of sitting around and beating himself up.

  As Colt headed inside the canteen, his eyes took a moment to adjust after the bright sunlight.

  “Hey, boss,” a couple of cowboys said as he passed by a table where they were eating some wrapped sandwiches.

  “Morning,” he said, continuing on by.

  Shawn, the ranch cook, was in the kitchen, wrapping up some hoagies in plastic wrap, and he turned when Colt came in, the door swinging shut behind him.