The - Cowboy’s - Secret - Twins (12 page)

Fast and furious, he stroked into her and she encouraged him by clutching his buttocks and pulling him into her.

Lost. She was lost in him and once again she felt the wild tide rushing in. As it washed over her she felt him tense and moan against her, knowing it had claimed him, too.

He collapsed on her and she wrapped her arms around his back, wishing she could hold him there forever. But all too quickly he got up and padded into the adjoining bathroom.

Melissa turned her head to one side and fought a sudden rush of tears. Of all the foolish, reckless things she’d ever done in her life, this was probably the worst. She’d chosen to make love to a man who apparently wasn’t capable of loving her back.

MysteryMom couldn’t have known that she was sending Melissa into a new heartbreak. The woman had probably simply wanted to unite a man with his sons, ease the burden of single parenting for Melissa. She’d accomplished that. Melissa would no longer be alone in the task of raising her sons. She knew in her heart, in her soul, that Henry would always be a support and help in the parenting process.

But MysteryMom couldn’t have known that Melissa would fall mindlessly, desperately in love with Henry. She couldn’t have known that Melissa would repeat the same mistake that she’d made on that snowy night over a year ago. At least he’d used a condom and there wouldn’t be another accidental pregnancy.

As he came out of the bathroom she assumed he’d leave to go to his bedroom, but instead he surprised her by sliding back beneath the sheets and taking her in his arms. He kissed her on the temple, a sweet, soft kiss that touched her more than anything that had occurred between them.

“Definitely better in a bed,” he said. He lay on his back and pulled her into his side. His hand stroked her hair as she placed her head on his chest. “I really hate to see you take off tomorrow.”

“It’s time, Henry. It’s been a wonderful holiday but now it’s over and I have to get back to my real life.” It was more important than ever that she leave here as soon as possible. Her heart had gotten involved in a way that already would ache when she left. More time here would only make the ache sharper when she did go home.

She raised her head to look at him. “You know I’ll do whatever I can to make it easy on you to see the boys.”

“I know that.” He raised his hand and trailed a finger down the side of her cheek, across her lower lip. “I can’t think of a better woman to be the mother of my boys.”

The tears that had hovered just under the surface sprang to her eyes at his words. “You’re just saying that now because you have me naked in bed with you,” she replied with a choked little laugh.

“You know that’s not true,” he chided. “You have the values I want the boys to have. I know you’ll teach them to have integrity, to have strong but gentle hearts.”

She ran her hand across his chest and placed it on his heart. Her last thought before she fell asleep was that the one thing she would teach her boys was to believe in the power and wonder of love, something apparently nobody had ever taught Henry.

Henry stood at the window in his study and watched the snow swirling in the air. It had snowed about two inches overnight, effectively postponing Melissa’s plans to leave first thing that morning.

He was now waiting for Jimmy to arrive. Jimmy had called earlier to tell Henry that the snow wouldn’t keep him from his appointment. Staring at the carriage house in the distance, Henry thought of the night before. Making love to Melissa had been amazing and he’d been in no hurry to leave her bed.

Henry couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept with a woman in his arms. He’d never stayed the night with Hilary, had always preferred the comfort of being alone in his own bed. But sleeping with Melissa had been not just comfortable, but comforting in a way he’d never imagined. It had been nice to feel the warmth of her next to him as he’d drifted off to sleep. And it had been equally as nice to wake up with her curled in his arms.

Surely these crazy feelings he was developing for her were nothing more than gratitude. After all, she’d given him the greatest gift a man could get

—children.

He wasn’t going to mention the carriage house solution to her again. He recognized that over the past two days he’d become a bore and bordered on becoming a bully in trying to get her to do what he wanted. Whatever she decided, they’d make it work because it had to work. Even though they weren’t married, he knew they’d do whatever was in the best interest of the twins.

At the moment Melissa and his mother and the twins were all in the kitchen. It was Etta’s day off and they were in the process of making dinner.

As he’d walked to his study he’d heard the sound of laughter and merriment coming from the kitchen. The house would feel empty once Melissa and the boys were gone.

Actually, the house had felt empty for a long time. And if he thought about it long enough he’d admit that his life had been fairly empty for a very long time. He frowned, irritated with the direction his thoughts were taking. Maybe it was a good thing Melissa was leaving soon. She was messing with his mind in a way that was distinctly uncomfortable. He turned away from the window as a knock fell on his door. The door opened and Jimmy poked his head in. “Your mom told me to come on in,” he said.

Henry motioned him inside. “How are the roads?” he asked as he gestured his friend into the chair in front of the desk.

“A little nasty but not too bad. The road crews are out working so if we don’t get any more accumulation we should have everything under control.” He eased into the chair. “You got any of that good scotch hidden away in here?”

Henry walked to the minibar in the corner and poured himself and Jimmy a drink, then handed Jimmy his and sat at the desk with his own. Jimmy took a deep swallow and sighed. “I don’t know if Willie told you or not, but he found the bullet that shot out your tire still in the rubber that was left on the truck. It was a .22 caliber. I know it wasn’t Hank. At the time your truck was fired on, Hank was down at Lazy Ed’s, completely sauced.”

Lazy Ed’s was a popular tavern for the ranch hands in the area. “I’m not surprised. His drinking is what caused him to get fired in the first place,”

Henry said.

“Before we get into all this, I want to know about those twin boys that your mother introduced me to in the kitchen. They sure do have the Randolf chin. You been holding out on me about your love life?”

Henry smiled and knew in an instant he wasn’t about to tell Jimmy the truth about how the twins were conceived. Although Henry certainly wasn’t a prude, he didn’t want to give anyone in town a reason to think less of Melissa.

“Melissa is a friend from Amarillo. She’s a terrific woman and we’ve been close for some time. When she got pregnant we agreed that we’d share the parenting of the boys and remain friends.”

“I never even knew you wanted kids,” Jimmy said.

Henry smiled. “I didn’t know I wanted them until they were here. I got to tell you, Jimmy. They change your life. They make you want to be a better man. That’s why it’s so important we get this mess cleaned up, these attacks that are happening on me. I can’t have them around if it’s not safe.”

Henry leaned back in his chair. “You know who is at the top of my suspect list.”

Jimmy nodded. “Tom Burke. You scare him, Henry.”

“He should be scared,” Henry said with a scowl. “You and I both know he’s a criminal.”

Jimmy nodded. “I’ve been in contact with the FBI and I’m hoping they’re going to look into his actions as city manager. The problem is we both know he’s a likely suspect. What we don’t have is any proof.”

“Did you question him about his whereabouts at the time my tire was shot out?”

Jimmy nodded. “According to his wife, he was at home with her.”

Once again Henry frowned. “You know damn good and well she’d lie for him.”

Jimmy nodded. “I’ve put a couple of my men on Tom. Full-time surveillance as long as I have the manpower. If he tries anything we’ll be on top of him. It’s the best I can do, Henry.”

Henry nodded. He knew Jimmy was as frustrated as he was by what had been happening. He took a drink of his scotch.

“If this had all started the night that Melissa showed up here with those babies, I would ask you if you thought Hilary might be playing a woman scorned,” Jimmy said.

Henry laughed at the very idea of Hilary hiding out in the woods with a gun. “No way. I’ll grant you she wasn’t too happy to discover I had two babies, but Hilary knew the score where I was concerned. Besides, she’d never risk breaking a nail to do anything like this.”

“And the first attack happened to you before Melissa arrived on the scene,” Jimmy said.

Henry nodded. “I’m telling you it’s Tom Burke or it’s somebody he’s hired. He’s the only person who has a hell of a lot to lose if I become mayor.”

Jimmy tilted his glass up for another drink of the scotch. “I just wanted to come out here and tell you that I’m doing the best I can.”

“What about a ballistics test on the bullet Willie dug out of my tire?”

Henry asked.

“Unfortunately the bullet hit your rim and was pretty mangled. Besides, in order to do a ballistics test you have to have a weapon to compare it to and Tom Burke insists he doesn’t have a rifle.”

Henry snorted in disbelief. “I don’t know a man in this entire county who doesn’t own a rifle. This is Texas, for God’s sake.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, Henry.”

For the next thirty minutes the men spoke about other potential suspects. There were only two that Henry could think of, both council members and friends of Tom Burke.

“You definitely have the support of the people,” Jimmy said. “People like you, they admire your integrity and they trust you. If you can stay alive until February there is no doubt in my mind that you’ll be voted in as mayor.”

“That’s nice to hear,” Henry replied.

Jimmy glanced toward the window. “I’ve got to head back into town.” He stood.

“I appreciate you coming out on such a crummy day.” Henry stood as well.

“I swear I’m going to get to the bottom of this, Henry,” Jimmy said as they left the study.

“I just hope you do before this mysterious shooter gets lucky,” Henry said dryly.

The two men walked to the front door, where they said their goodbyes. The snow had begun to fall again and as Henry closed the door he realized that he was more worried now about whoever was trying to hurt him than he’d been before Melissa had arrived in the house. Before, he’d just been irritated by the whole thing. But now all he could think about was if anything happened to him the boys wouldn’t have their father. He had every reason in the world to want to stay alive…for them and for Melissa.

The laughter coming from the kitchen pulled him away from the front door and to the source of the sound. Once there he found his mother and Melissa finishing up dinner preparations.

As he walked into the room, the twins flashed him smiles that as always filled him with warmth. “Something smells wonderful,” he said.

“Melissa can cook,” Mary exclaimed.

“It’s just spaghetti with meat sauce,” Melissa replied as she took a pot of boiling pasta off the stove top.

Henry took a seat at the table and watched as she dumped the spaghetti noodles into an awaiting colander. “You don’t understand. Mom would think you were amazing if you could just boil an egg. She’s the worst cook in the entire state of Texas.”

Melissa shot a quick glance to Mary. “Don’t worry,” Mary said with a laugh. “He’s quite right. It’s one of the reasons Big Henry hired Etta. He knew if we tried to live on my cooking we’d all starve. Henry, why don’t you set the table and I’ll get the salad.”

As always, dinner was a pleasant time. They chatted about favorite foods and Mary regaled Melissa with some of her war stories at the stove. The boys kept up their end of the conversation by babbling and cooing. At one point James blew a raspberry. He looked startled and as they all laughed, he grinned and blew another one.

Henry smiled at Melissa. “You might have gotten his very first smile, but at least I didn’t miss out on his very first raspberry.”

After they’d finished eating Mary took the boys into the living room while Henry and Melissa cleaned up. “Dinner was terrific,” he said as he stacked the dishes she rinsed into the dishwasher. “Do you like to cook?”

She nodded. “I do, but most of the time it seems like a lot of trouble to cook for one. When my mother was alive I did a lot of cooking, but not so much since she passed.”

“You miss her.”

She smiled with a touch of sadness. “Every day. Unfortunately diabetes is a ruthless disease and I think she was tired of fighting. It’s some comfort to know she’s not in pain anymore.”

“I miss my father, too. He and I weren’t just father and son, we were friends.” Henry smiled at thoughts of his dad. “He was bigger than life, one of those colorful characters that people didn’t forget after meeting him.”

Melissa handed him the last plate. “And he taught you everything you need to know about being a wonderful father.”

Henry smiled. “Yeah, I hadn’t thought about it before, but he was a wonderful role model.” He took the towel she offered him and dried his hands.

“It worried me that I was all alone,” she said, her expression somber. “I worried about what would happen to the boys if I got hit by a car or had a sudden heart attack. Now I don’t have to worry anymore. I know if anything happens to me you’ll love them and take care of them.”

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he assured her. “You and I are going to parent those boys until they’re hulking adults and we’re old and gray.”

She smiled. “I like that plan, and speaking of the boys, I think it’s probably time for a diaper change.”

The rest of the evening passed and by nine o’clock it was time to put the boys down for the night. Mary said her good-night and retired to her wing of the house while Melissa carried Joey and Henry carried James up the stairs to their room.

Once the boys were settled into their beds, Melissa motioned Henry into her room. “Do you think I’m going to be able to head home tomorrow?”