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Yet here she was now, on the floor, cuddling with two babies like she didn’t have a care in the world.
“Daddy! Story!” Wendy reached out a tiny hand to him and Rick’s aching heart did a flip-flop in his chest. He would have his answers, he promised himself. But for now, he wanted to make up for lost time. He wanted to be with his children.
And the woman who had kept them from him.
He moved in closer, taking Wendy onto his lap and the four of them became a unit while Sadie’s voice wove threads of family around them.
An hour later, the girls were asleep and Sadie and Rick stepped into the hall. She was so tense she was half afraid her spine might snap.
“You just leave them alone up here?” Rick asked as Sadie quietly closed the door behind her.
“There’s a baby monitor in the room with receivers downstairs and in my room. I can hear everything that goes on in there.”
He nodded and gripped the brim of his hat so tightly his knuckles went white. Sadie could feel anger radiating from him and the worst part was she couldn’t blame him for any of it. What man wouldn’t be furious to suddenly be faced with the fact that he was a father and hadn’t been told about it?
“I think it’s time you and I had that talk,” Rick said, taking hold of her elbow to steer her down the hall and away from their daughters’ bedroom.
“Let’s go downstairs, then,” Sadie said, pulling free of his grip. Yes, he had a right to be angry, but she wasn’t going to be bullied. Not by anyone. Never again.
She walked ahead of him, head held high, and took the stairs at a brisk clip. Once downstairs, she turned and walked into the family living room. “Have a seat. I’m going to ask Hannah for some iced tea. Do you want anything?”
“Just answers.”
“You’ll get them.” He wouldn’t like them, she thought as she walked through the house to the kitchen. But she couldn’t help that. What was done was done and they’d just have to go forward from here.
In the cavernous kitchen, Hannah was sitting at a table with a cup of tea and a plate of cookies. “Miss Sadie. Did you want something?”
“Just some iced tea please, Hannah. And some of those cookies if you’ve got extra.”
Hannah grinned. “With those two little angels in the house? I always have spare cookies. You just go on out to the front room. I’ll bring it along.”
Sadie turned for the door, then stopped as Hannah asked, “Is your friend still here? Would he like some as well?”
“Yes, thanks Hannah. Tea for both of us.” As she walked back to the living room, Sadie told herself giving Rick something cold to drink, whether he wanted it or not, might just help cool him off.
Back in the living room, she found him standing at the bank of windows overlooking the front lawn. The pink flamingos looked so silly, she almost smiled. Until Rick turned to give her a glare that could have brought snow to Dallas.
“Start talking,” he said thickly, tossing his hat to the nearest chair.
“It’s a long story.”
“Cut to the part where you give birth to my children and don’t bother to tell me.”
“Rick, it’s just not that simple.”
“Sure it is. Lies aren’t complicated. It’s living with them that makes things tough.” He shoved both hands into his jeans pockets. “Though you’ve managed to do it just fine for nearly three years.”
Sunlight streamed into the room and lay across glossy wood floors. Scatter rugs dropped splotches of color in the room and the oversize sofas and chairs gave a cozy feel in spite of the chill she was feeling from Rick. This had always been her favorite room in her family’s home. Though now, she had the feeling she would never again walk into it without seeing Rick’s accusatory stare.
Sighing, she bent to the baby monitor sitting on a side table and turned up the volume. Then she walked to him and stopped in a patch of sunlight, hoping the warmth would ease some of the cold she was feeling. Rick stood his ground, as immovable as a mountain. He was tall and broad and, right now, he looked like fury personified. His brown eyes flashed with banked anger and his shoulders were so stiff, she could have bounced a quarter off the tendons in his neck.
“You should have told me,” he said flatly.
“I wanted to.”
“Easy enough to say now.”
“Nothing about this is easy, Rick,” she countered and wrapped her arms around her middle. She took a deep breath and then continued. “You weren’t here, remember? You left the day after we—”
“—made twins?” he finished for her.
“Yeah.” Sadie had thought about this moment so many times, she’d even practiced what she would say.
How she would explain. And now that the moment was here, her mind was a total blank.
“By the time I found out I was pregnant, you were in a war zone.”
“You could have written,” he argued. “My mother had my address. She knew how to get in touch with me.”
“I know.” Sadie rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “I went to see your mom, actually.”
“You what?” He looked stunned.
“When I knew I was pregnant, I went to talk to your mother and—”
“Here we are,” Hannah announced as she pushed a rolling cart carrying a pitcher of tea, two glasses filled with ice and a blue-and-white plate full of cookies.
She settled the cart in front of one of the matching sofas, then smiled at the two of them. “You just help yourselves, and don’t mind the cart when you’re finished, Miss Sadie. I’ll come back to collect it later.”
“Thank you, Hannah.” Desperate for something to do, Sadie hurried to the cart and poured tea into both glasses. “Sure you don’t want any?”
“No, thanks. And stop being so damn polite.” He walked closer and waited for her to take a sip of her tea. “Why did you go see my mother?”
Sadie set the glass down, sorry now she’d had any. The cold she felt was deeper now, thanks to the icy tea sliding through her system. Looking into Rick’s eyes didn’t warm her any, either.
Sighing a little, she slumped onto the sofa and leaned back into the cushions. “Because I thought she had the right to know that I was pregnant with her grandchildren.”
“She knew?” Those two words sounded as if they had been strangled from his throat. Rick shook his head and she knew he was even more shocked than he had been before. “My mother knew you were pregnant and even she didn’t tell me?”
“We talked about it,” Sadie said, turning toward him as he dropped onto the sofa beside her. “We both decided that it wouldn’t be right to give you something else to worry about while you were on the battlefield.”
He laughed and the short, sharp sound was brittle. “You decided. Between the two of you, you decided to keep this from me.” Rick shook his head. “I don’t believe any of this.”
Sadie reached out and laid one hand on his arm. When he glared at her, she pulled back. “Don’t you get it? Your mother was terrified for your safety. She’d already lost your father and the thought of losing you to war was killing her.”
His jaw worked as though he was actually biting back words that were struggling to get out.
“She didn’t want you distracted. Neither did I,” Sadie said. “If you had known, you might have been less focused on what you needed to do.”
“I had the right to know.”
“We were trying to protect you.”
He laughed again and this time Sadie actually winced at the sound.
“That’s great. You and my mom protect me by hiding my kids from me. Thanks.”
His features were hard and tight, his eyes still flashing with the anger she knew must be pumping thick and rich inside him.
“I know you’re mad,” she said.
“There’s an understatement.”
“But I still think we did the right thing,” she told him.
“Yeah?” He turned on the sofa to glare at her. “Well, you didn’t. You should have told me. She should have told me.”
“We were going to tell you,” Sadie argued, “when you came home on leave. But—”
“—Mom died in that car wreck and instead of coming home for her funeral, I took R&R in Hawaii. I couldn’t face coming back here with her gone.”
“Yes.”
He scrubbed one hand across his face, then rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t even know what the hell to say about all of this, Sadie.” He glanced at her. “There’s one more thing I need to know.”
“What?”
“If we hadn’t run into each other this morning were you ever going to tell me about my children?”
Now it was her turn to be angry. “Of course I would have. You’ll notice the girls weren’t afraid of you, right? It was almost like they knew you already?”
He frowned, but nodded. “Yeah, I noticed that.”
“That’s because I showed them your picture. Every day. I told them who you were. That you were their daddy. They knew about you from the first, Rick.”
He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “I don’t even know if that makes it better or worse.”
Pushing up from the sofa, he stalked across the room, then turned to stare at her. “You showed them pictures of me, but I was never there. Did they wonder why? Do kids realize more than we think they do?”
Sadie stood up, too. Absently, she noted the overloud ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner. It hit the quarter hour and a bell chimed and still the silence between Rick and her continued. When she couldn’t stand it any longer, she spoke up. “You’re here now. You can get to know each other. I’m not trying to keep your girls from you, Rick. I never was. I just—”
“You moved to Houston because of them, didn’t you? Because you were pregnant.”
“Yes.” She lifted her chin to meet his eyes. She wouldn’t apologize for how she’d handled the biggest upset of her life. She had done the best she could and had never once regretted getting pregnant. “I couldn’t stay here. Not with the town gossips. I didn’t want the girls to suffer because of decisions you and I made.”
His frown deepened.
“I wanted a fresh start.”
“But you’re back in Royal. Why now?”
“It was time. I was … lonely. I missed my home. My family. I wanted the girls to know their grandfather and their uncle.”
“And their father?”
“Yes.”
“Not so worried about the gossips now? What changed?”
“Me,” she said simply. “I love my daughters and I don’t care what any gossip has to say. Anyone tries to hurt my girls and they’ll have me to deal with.”
“And me,” he assured her.
She could tell he was having a hard time believing anything she said and she really couldn’t blame him for his doubts. But the truth was she had had every intention of telling him. “Honestly, Rick. I was going to be right here in Royal, waiting for you—whenever you came home. I was going to tell you about the girls. I want them to know their daddy.”
Shaking his head, he walked toward her, gaze never leaving hers. He moved quietly for such a big man and she sensed the tension still holding him in its grip. When he was near enough, he reached out and grabbed her upper arms, pulling her close.
Sadie felt heat radiating off his body and reaching into hers. Just the touch of his hands on her skin was enough to start small brush fires in her blood. Her heartbeat was thudding in her chest and her mouth was so dry she could hardly swallow.
His gaze moved over her features like a slow caress. And his eyes were still churning with too many emotions to count. “I want to believe you, Sadie.”
She tipped her head back to meet his eyes. “You can trust me, Rick.”
“That’s to be seen. But first things first.” He released her, braced his legs in a wide-apart stance and folded his arms over his chest. “There’s only one thing to be done now.”
A ripple of apprehension scuttled through Sadie and still she asked, “What’s that?”
“We’re getting married.”
Four
“You are completely out of your mind.” She took a halting step back, forgetting the couch was right behind her. She toppled onto the cushions, but it took her but a second to scramble back up.
Maybe he was. Rick could admit that getting married wasn’t something he had even considered until just a moment ago. Not that he was against marriage—for other people. But as a marine, he had never wanted to go off and leave a wife and kids behind for months at a time. Not to mention the hazards of his job. Why risk making a wife a widow? Sure, it worked for a lot of guys, but he’d seen enough marriages either dissolve or end in grief to not want to take the chance.
Now, though, things were different.
“It’s the only honorable thing to do,” Rick said, gaze following her as she pushed past him to hurry over to the front window.
“Honorable? You think marrying someone you don’t love is honorable?” She laughed, shook her head and pointed one finger at him when he started for her. “You just stay away from me, Rick Pruitt.”
“Not a chance,” he snapped. He’d been put through an emotional wringer in the last hour or so and damned if he was even seeing straight yet.
He was a father.
He had twin girls who had his eyes and their mama’s mouth and he hadn’t even known they existed a few hours ago. How was that even possible? A man should know when he’s created a life. When he’s got family in the world.
Until today, he had thought himself alone. With both of his parents gone now, he’d had no real reason to leave the Marines. The Corps was his family now, he had told himself. Hell, he hadn’t even wanted to come back to Royal on leave. Being in the empty ranch house was … lonely. Too many memories. Too much silence. Still, he had done his duty, come home to check on things, make sure the ranch was still operating as it should.
If he hadn’t come home … would he ever have learned of his daughters? Sadie claimed she would have told him, but how did he know that for sure?
“I think we both need a little space right now, Rick,” she said stiffly. “Maybe you should go.” At her side in a couple of long strides, Rick pulled her in close again and this time wrapped his arms around her to hold her in place.
“You just dropped a bomb on me, Sadie,” he ground out. “And if you think I’m gonna walk away from that, you’re the one who’s crazy.”
“I’m not asking you to walk away,” she argued, squirming in his grasp, trying to break free of him. “I’m just saying we should take a break. Get our thoughts straight before talking again.”
“I don’t need time to think,” he told her. “I know everything I need to know. You’re trying to keep my girls from me. Again.”
Her jaw dropped. “Didn’t I bring you here? Introduce you to the girls? I want you to be a part of their lives.”
“On your terms though,” he said, reading the truth in her eyes. “Come and go when you say? Show up for appointed visitation? Damn it, Sadie, I’m their father. I want more than weekends.”
“It doesn’t have to be like that,” she said softly.
“No, it doesn’t.” The very thought of being cut off from his children was like a knife in the gut to him. He’d already missed too much. He hadn’t seen Sadie pregnant. Hadn’t heard the first cries of his babies being born. Hadn’t seen that first smile or heard that first laugh.
A man alone treasured the thought of family. He wasn’t about to lose his chance at having one.
“We can be together.” Nodding, he took a breath. “We’re their parents. It’s only right we be married.”
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