Tina Leonard - A Callahan Outlaw's Twins (9 page)

“I will.” Kendall went off to check on the kids, most of whom were playing in what had been the formal parlor, an all-white room with only an ebony piano to relieve the icy formality. For the season, Kendall had had a twelve-foot-tall Christmas tree brought in, draping it with colored lights and red bows and candy canes—and a huge sparkling star on the top.

The children had loved it.

This room would never again be a fancy parlor. Kendall grinned, watching the kids run their toy trucks and remote cars over the white marble floor. She’d never realized how much fun children could be. It was a strange thing for her to think, because she’d always been dead set against having children herself.

But it might not be so bad to be a mother. She looked at all the Callahan wives, seeing how happy they were—and then it hit her like a winter blizzard.

She hadn’t had a period this month.

Chapter Ten

Just when he thought his feelings for Kendall had been an amazing fantasy of a man who had been too long without a woman, Sloan learned just how deep inside him Kendall had gotten.

“Hi,” she said, sitting at the kitchen table as if she’d never been away.

Fiona grinned and put a tray of gingerbread cookies on the counter near Sloan. She took off her apron, her eyes merry with laughter. “I’m going to go kiss Handsome,” she said, and went off to hunt for Burke.

“What are you doing here?” Sloan asked, ignoring the startled leap of his heart at seeing Kendall. God, he’d missed her.

“I have a job, remember? Building on the bunkhouse starts next month.”

True. By the way his heart was banging around in his chest, clearly he’d hoped she’d come back because of him. “It’s good to see you.”

She picked up a cookie, gave him a sideways look, but didn’t say anything.

The ball was in his court. “It really is good to see you.”

She laid the cookie on a napkin in front of her. “We don’t have to be friendly with each other, Sloan, beyond the ordinary hello, goodbye.”

He supposed he deserved that. He’d run her off, hadn’t he? And it didn’t matter that he’d been right—she had been safer elsewhere. But it was obvious she didn’t hold him in high esteem for his caution.

It was even more obvious that the sexual side of their friendship was never happening again.

“I’m pregnant,” Kendall said, and Sloan felt as if the floor dropped out from beneath him.

“What?”

“Pregnant.” She hesitated. “I didn’t mean to blurt it out. I wanted to tell you in person. I thought of a million ways I could say it.” She looked at him, and Sloan was conscious only of the craziest feelings running through him: shock, fear, joy, insane lust. “I didn’t mean to tell you so ungracefully.”

He blinked, frozen.

“I know you’re stunned,” Kendall said softly. “Believe me, I was, too. I still am.”

He leaned against the wall, staring at the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, who was telling him she was pregnant. His mind was completely blown. It was like nothing he’d ever experienced.

“I know it was just one night,” Kendall added. “Clearly, my diaphragm didn’t hold up to the task.”

“I’m going out now,” Sloan finally said, after a long moment during which she was afraid he might not say anything at all. “And then we’re going to talk, you and I.”

Her eyes widened. She had no idea how badly he wanted to kiss her. Take her upstairs and make love to her again and again.

He had to control the emotions swamping him. She didn’t feel the same way about him that he felt about her. It was obvious by her coolness. She might not even want him involved with the baby. Which would kill him.

He had to be very careful. She was tough, she was brave and independent, and she didn’t need him.

He
needed
her.

Sloan jammed his hat on his head and went out into the cold January night.

* * *

F
IONA
CAME
BACK
INTO
the kitchen five minutes after Sloan left, which was good, because Kendall definitely didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts.

“Did you tell him?” she asked.

“I did. Not very gently, I’m afraid.” Kendall smiled. “I handled it more like a business conversation than a bombshell.”

“Hmm.” Fiona pondered that for a moment. “Let’s have some tea.”

She picked up a blue-willow-patterned teapot, filling it with water from the copper kettle that was almost always sitting on low heat for whoever might come in and want a cup of tea, then placed sugar and milk on a wooden tray decorated with a beautiful Santa Fe-style runner. Kendall joined her at the long family dinner table, glad for the female companionship.

“What did Sloan say?” Fiona asked, as they took teacups from the tray and filled them with the steaming brew.

“Not much. He said we’d talk later. Then he left.” Kendall smiled a bit sadly. “He looked like I probably did when I saw that blue line on the pregnancy test.”

Fiona smiled, sipped her tea. “Well, things have a way of working out. And he’s had a lot on his mind, keeping things together around here.”

The door blew back open, startling both of them. Sloan came inside, not even stopping to stomp the snow off his boots—which he always did—or dust off his coat. He walked to the table, his gaze on Kendall.

“Marry me,” he said.

Kendall didn’t move, but as she stared into his dark blue Callahan eyes, she was conscious of a shocking desire to say yes
. Gladly, yes.

Which wasn’t like her at all. She wasn’t the kind of woman to do anything impetuous.

“I think I’ll carry some tea up to Burke,” Fiona said. “Maybe some gingerbread cookies. He has such a sweet tooth at this time of the evening.”

She left, humming under her breath. Kendall barely realized Fiona hadn’t taken any tea or cookies with her. “Sloan. You’re...not thinking straight.”

“I
know.
It’s impossible to think straight.” He paced a few steps before turning around to look at her. “I’m going to be a father. Am I supposed to be able to think straight?”

Kendall looked down at her hands. “It took me a few weeks to wrap my head around the idea that I’m going to be a mother.”

“You’ve known for a while?” Sloan demanded. “Why haven’t you told me before?”

“It’s not the kind of thing one drops on someone over the phone,” Kendall said. “It was the holidays, for one thing, and I know you’ve been busy—”

“Don’t do that again,” Sloan said. “Please. If you have something to say, just tell me. I like your direct approach. I’m not the kind of guy who needs information fed to him. Just the facts, ma’am.” He sank into the chair across from her. “Marry me, Kendall.”

“Why?” People got married when they were in love. She and Sloan were not in love. Lust was very different from love.

“Because we’re having a baby,” Sloan said. “That’s why we’re going to get married.”

“I’m too old to do things for the sake of reputation.”

“I’ve never done anything for the sake of reputation,” Sloan said. “I never had a reputation except in the military. I’m not thinking of reputations. I’m thinking about our child, who’s going to want to know who his father is. That his father’s going to be around. I’ll teach him to ride, and how to shoot a bow and arrow, and how to find the proper medicinal herbs in the wild.... What?”

Kendall shook her head. “You can do all that without us being married, Sloan. And it goes without saying that our baby will probably be a girl, which you’ll richly deserve. Soften up that alpha-male gene, fractionally.”

He ignored all that. “If you don’t want to stay married to me after the baby’s born, that will be your choice. But it’s not a choice for the baby not to have the Callahan name.”

Kendall blinked. She hadn’t thought of it in those terms.

“I’ll have to locate a
hitaathli.
I’ll have to ask the chief if there’s one around here.”

She didn’t even know where he was from, not to mention what a
hitaathli
was. Kendall assumed it was some kind of Navajo ceremonial overseer, and tried to envision herself wearing an Oscar de la Renta bridal gown to a Navajo wedding. She’d never really thought about getting married, so it wasn’t as if she had preconceived notions of what she wanted. Still, the differences between Sloan and her were many.

There was absolutely no reason the two of them should get married.

Except that in her heart, Kendall knew he was a good man, a man of honor, and he intended to do right by her child. She had plenty of money, didn’t need financial help.

She didn’t need anything.

But she
wanted
Sloan.

It wasn’t enough to base a marriage on.

All her life she’d been Gil Phillips’s daughter, struck from the same mold as her tough-minded corporate father. And now she was being offered the chance to be swept off her feet, throw all caution and prevailing logic to the wind, and find out what was on the other side of
yes
with this hunky, mysterious man.

She put her hand over Sloan’s. “I’m not an easy person to live with.”

He looked at her. “You’re not an easy person to live without. Anyway, you’ll get better with time.”

“
I’ll
get better with time?”

“Sure. Motherhood is known to improve most women.”

“You’re not much of a chauvinist, are you?”

He laughed. “There’s not one bit of chauvinist in my entire body. I just want to take care of you and my child. That’s not chauvinism.”

Kendall lowered her gaze, thinking that Sloan was actually very sexy in his rather autocratic way.

“I
am
slightly pigheaded,” Sloan said. “My brothers are pretty generous with their synonyms for that term, so I know it’s probably true. The good thing is that fatherhood is known to change a lot of men for the better, too, so it wouldn’t be completely unlikely that fatherhood might have a beneficial effect on me. It’s a risk, but it could happen. You’ll just have to take a leap of faith and find out.”

By the sparkle in his eyes, Kendall figured Sloan knew very well that he was a bit more than simply pigheaded. “You’ll be leaping, too.”

“I know. And my leap has a helluva longer drop than yours, lady.” He turned his hand up into hers, then lifted her fingers to his lips, brushing them briefly. “So we’re agreed? I’ll talk to Grandfather about finding a
hitaathli.
We’ll marry as soon as I can locate one.”

He assumed she’d say yes. Kendall looked at Sloan for a long time, gazing into his eyes, then got up.

She was never going to get over the feelings she had for him. Time apart had done nothing to alleviate her desire, the emotions she felt when he touched her.

“Yes,” she said.

He nodded.

There was nothing else to say. Kendall went upstairs to her room and looked out the window, seeing Xav and Ashlyn walking a black horse between them. Working together, as a team.

She and Sloan were going to make a very strange team.

* * *

“Y
OU
’
RE
GETTING
MARRIED
?
” Dante stared at him, as did his other brothers as they loafed in the upstairs library. Ash never loafed. She was more deceptively elegant, belying her strength and quickness.

The shattered window had been repaired long ago, the shards cleared away. Sloan still had his doubts about their strangely friendly neighbor, but for the moment, he had other things on his mind.

“Did hell freeze over?” Galen asked.

“It is colder than a bear’s hiney outside,” Tighe observed, “and the temperatures will drop more. Maybe hell did freeze over.”

“Who’s the lucky girl?” Jace asked.

Sloan sighed, sipped his whiskey for courage. “Kendall Phillips.”

His brothers laughed. Then sobered as they saw the serious look on Sloan’s face.

“You can’t settle down,” Ash said. “Of all my brothers, you’re the least suitable for a woman like that. Too many rough edges.” She grinned at him mischievously.

“It’s probably true,” Falcon said. “Does Kendall know you’re a loner? Not suited to matrimony or anything else that requires sociability?”

“Ha, ha, ha,” Sloan said, not surprised by the generous ribbing he was receiving. “I think she’s seen my best points.”

His family gazed at him silently.

“Well, congratulations,” Galen said, getting up to shake his hand and pound his back. The other brothers followed, and Sloan felt mildly better, even if he’d left out one small detail.

“I’m not congratulating you,” Ash said. “I can tell you’re not telling us the whole truth. It’s in your eyes, dear brother. I can read them like a book.”

“Maybe he’s turned into a romantic overnight,” Galen said. “It could happen.”

“And pigs could fly if they had wings.” Ash leaned forward, staring at him, her short, spiky hair giving her an elfin appearance. “Tell little sister the truth.”

Sloan swallowed. “Just seems like the right time to settle down.”

She made a sound of disgust. “I have my suspicions.”

He nodded. “That’s fine.”

“The thing is, all my brothers are very readable.” Ash seemed to be talking to herself. “Falcon, he’s brilliant, right? A poet and out-of-the-box thinker. At thirty-three, you can think a lot of cool stuff, maybe even about settling down, so I could see him convincing himself somehow that marriage is a good thing.”

“Not me,” Falcon said defensively. “Don’t put that on me.”

“And Galen, he’s the oldest. He’s driven, and as an allopathic doctor and medicine man, he might want to find a lady.” Ash nodded, ignoring Falcon. “Or Jace. Jace is thirty, but he’s been talking for a while about settling down. He wants to find someone to share his hopes and dreams. If he wasn’t such a knucklehead, he just might do it.”

Ash ticked them off on her fingers. “Okay, Tighe, we can forget about. He’ll never let a woman tie him down. You’re too crazy.” She smiled at Tighe fondly. “But your twin, Dante, he’s a thinker and a trickster. He’s the one I can count on to do something crazy, like go off on a bender to Australia and marry some gorgeous Aussie native. Maybe even Africa. Something really unexpected and faraway and crazy-romantic. But you, Sloan, dearest brother, you’re not cut out for the married life. You’re a loner, and you resent the hell out of authority. How are you ever going to share anything with a woman? Especially a woman like Kendall, who’s very outgoing and social?”

All of his brothers had been enjoying Ash’s roasting until their own names got called; now they wore slightly perplexed, maybe even annoyed, expressions. Sloan laughed. “It’s easy. She caught me fair and square.”

“How?” Tighe asked. “I want to know how so I can avoid a woman with catching on her mind.”

“Yeah,” Falcon said. “Because we didn’t see a whole lot of romancing going on around here. If it’s one of those sneaks-up-on-you things, I really want to be on my guard.”

Sloan sighed, then stood. “I’m going to bed. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”