Triple Trouble / A Real Live Cowboy

“I’m Charlene, the nanny.” Charlene tried not to stare, but the silver-haired woman’s attire was eyepopping. She wore a turquoise T-shirt with a bucking horse and rider picked out in silver rhinestones. The black leggings below the T-shirt clung to her nonexistent curves and hot-pink, high-top tennis shoes covered her feet. Skinny arms poked out of the loose short sleeves of the shirt, and both hands boasted jewelry that dazzled. Charlene was pretty sure the huge diamond on her left hand was real, and more than likely, so was the sapphire on her right. Not to mention the large diamond studs that glittered in her earlobes. She was tan, toned and exuded energy that fairly vibrated the air around her pixie frame.

“Nanny?” LouAnn’s penciled eyebrows shot toward the permed silver curls of her immaculate, short hairdo. “Why does Nick need a nanny?”

“Have a seat, LouAnn, and we’ll fill you in.” Melissa pulled out a chair next to hers and across the island’s countertop from Charlene. “Charlene, this is Nick’s neighbor, LouAnn Harris.”

“Pleased to meetcha.” LouAnn hopped onto the tall chair, crossed her legs and beamed at Charlene. “You might as well know you’re likely to see a lot of me. I’m a widow. I live alone and my son and daughter live too far away to visit me often, so I tend to get bored. I was delighted when Nick moved in here and hired Melissa—we’ve known each other for at least twenty years. My, you’re young, aren’t you?”

“Uh, well…” Charlene looked at Melissa for guidance. The housekeeper grinned, her eyes twinkling. Clearly, she wasn’t bothered by the neighbor’s bluntness. “I suppose I am, sort of,” Charlene replied, taking her cue from Melissa.

LouAnn snorted. “No ‘sort of’ about it, honey. Compared to me, you’re a child. But then, I’m seventy-six, so most everyone is younger.” She sipped her coffee. “I have to get me a coffeemaker like Nick’s. Your coffee is always better than mine, Melissa.”

“That might be because I grind the beans. Nick has them sent from the coffee shop he used to go to in L.A.,” Melissa explained to Charlene.

“I thought it was the coffeemaker.” LouAnn leaned forward and lowered her voice to a raspy whisper. “It looks like it belongs on a space ship.”

Charlene laughed, charmed by LouAnn’s warm camaraderie.

LouAnn grinned at her, winked, and turned back to Melissa. “Now, tell me why Nick needs a nanny. I thought he was a confirmed bachelor with no interest in kids.”

“He is—and he doesn’t, or didn’t, pay attention to children,” Melissa agreed. “At least, he had no interest in children until recently. It’s a sad story, really.”

When she finished relaying a condensed version of the situation, LouAnn clucked in sympathy. “How terrible for those poor little girls. And how lucky for them—and Nick—that you were willing to step in and help,” she added, reaching across the marble countertop to pat Charlene’s hand.

“It was fate,” Melissa said firmly. “That’s what I think.”

“Three little ones—all the same age.” LouAnn shook her head. “How are you all coping?”

“Except for a serious lack of sleep, fairly well, I think.” Charlene looked at Melissa. “Sometimes it’s chaos, of course, but the girls seem to be doing okay. Jessie has an ear infection at the moment, so she’s a little cranky. But by and large, they’re very sweet little girls.”

“I can’t wait to see them. How old are they?”

“They’re a year—uh-oh.” The sound of one of the girls, chattering away upstairs floated down the stairway and into the kitchen. “I think you’re about to meet the dynamic trio.” Charlene slipped off her chair and headed for the door.

“I’m coming up with you,” LouAnn announced, joining Charlene.

Melissa brought up the rear as the three women left the kitchen.

Nick had a long list of priorities for the day, but as he backed his Porsche out of the garage and drove away, he wasn’t focusing on the work waiting for him at the Fortune Foundation. Instead, he was distracted by the memory of Charlene coping with the babies in the middle of the night.

The picture of her in the bedroom, lit only by the glow of a night-light, was seared in his memory. Her auburn hair had been rumpled from sleep, her long legs covered in soft-looking, blue-and-white pajama bottoms. Jackie had clutched the neckline of the brief little white tank top Charlene wore, pulling it down to reveal the upper curve of her breasts.

Even half-asleep, he’d been damn sure she wasn’t wearing anything under that top. He felt like a dog for looking, and hoped she hadn’t noticed.

He’d known having the beautiful redhead living in his house was bound to cause difficult moments, but he hadn’t been prepared to be blindsided by a half-naked woman when he was barely awake.

Which was stupid of me, he thought with disgust. She’s living in my house. I knew she’d be getting out of bed if one of the triplets woke during the night.

And as long as he was being brutally honest, he had to admit the pajamas she wore hadn’t come close to being blatantly suggestive. Nevertheless, Charlene’s simple pajama bottoms and tank top would stop traffic on an L.A. freeway.

Maybe he wouldn’t have felt as if he’d been hit by lightning when he saw her in those pajamas if she were a woman with fewer curves.

Or maybe, he thought with self-derision, if she’d been wearing a sack I’d still have been interested.

He knew he was completely out of line. He just didn’t know how to turn off his body’s response to her. Not only was she his employee, she was too damned young for him. His office assistant had telephoned with results of a preemployment background check before he’d left his hotel to drive to the triplets’ foster home. The report not only confirmed Charlene had a spotless employment record, it also told him she’d graduated from college only three years earlier.

A brief mental calculation told him that if she’d gone to college immediately after high school, then graduated after four or five years before working for three more years, she most likely was twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

And he was thirty-seven. Too old for her.

Unfortunately, his libido didn’t appear to be paying attention to the math.

He’d reached the office while he’d been preoccupied with the situation at home, and swung the Porsche into a parking slot. He left the car and headed for his office, determined to put thoughts of the curvy redhead at home, busy with his new instant family, out of his mind.

He quickly scanned the pink message slips the receptionist had handed him and tossed the stack on his desktop. He rang his brother Darr while he plugged in his laptop and arranged to meet him for lunch at their favorite diner, SusieMae’s. Then he closed his office door and tackled an inbox filled with documents and files.

Nick gave the waitress his and Darr’s usual lunch order and she bustled off. SusieMae’s Café was crowded, but he had a clear view of the door, and saw his brother enter.

Darr swept the comfortable interior with a quick glance, nodding at acquaintances as he crossed the room and slid into the booth across from Nick.

“Where have you been?” he demanded without preamble. “I left two messages on your machine. You never called back.”

“You didn’t say it was an emergency.” Nick shrugged out of his jacket and eyed his brother across the width of the scarred tabletop. “Was it?”

“Not exactly. I wanted to know if you’d talked to Dad or J.R. lately.”

“I haven’t.” Nick took a drink of water. “Why?”

“Because I called and neither one answered. Come to think of it,” Darr frowned at Nick, “none of you called me back.”

Nick grinned. “Probably because we all assumed you were too busy with Bethany to care if we called you or not.”

“Huh,” Darr grumbled.

Nick noticed his younger brother didn’t deny the charge.

“How’s Bethany doing?” he asked. He felt distinctly protective toward the petite, pregnant blonde, especially since Darr was in love with her. When the two married, she’d become Nick’s sister-in-law. As far as he was concerned, Bethany Burdett was a welcome addition to their all-male family.

“Good.” Darr leaned back to let their waitress set plates and coffee mugs on the tabletop in front of them. “She’s good.”

Nick didn’t miss the softening of his brother’s face. He was glad Darr had found a good woman. Bethany made him happy, and he seemed content in a way Nick hadn’t seen before.

“You didn’t answer my question, where have you been?”

Nick waited until the waitress left before he spoke. “I made a trip to Amarillo. I’ve been pretty busy since I got back.”

“Yeah? What were you doing in Amarillo?” Darr took a bite of his sandwich, eyeing Nick over the top of a double-decker bacon-and-tomato on wheat.

“I picked up Stan’s kids.” Nick saw Darr’s eyes widen. “Three of them,” he added, smiling slightly at the shock on his brother’s face. “They’re all girls—only a year old. Triplets.”

Darr choked, set down his sandwich, grabbed his coffee and washed down the bite in record time. “What the hell? Why? What happened?”

Nick lost any amusement he’d felt at his brother’s dumfounded expression. “He and Amy were in a car accident—neither one of them made it out alive.” Saying the words aloud didn’t make the truth any less surreal.

The shock on Darr’s face made it clear he was just as stunned as Nick had been at first hearing the news.

“Both of them?” He shook his head in disbelief when Nick nodded. “They were so young. You and Stan are the same age, right?”

Again, Nick nodded. “And Amy was a year younger.”

“And you have custody of their babies?” Darr queried,

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because Stan’s will named me guardian if Amy’s sister Lana couldn’t take them.” Nick took a drink of coffee, hoping to erase the lump of emotion in his throat. He still hadn’t come to terms with the abruptness with which Stan and Amy had disappeared from the world. “So they’re with me until the attorney locates Lana.”

“Where is she?”

“No one knows.” Nick stared broodingly at his plate, holding a sandwich and chips. “She and her husband work in Africa and Amy seems to have lost track of them a few months ago.”

“Damn.” Darr eyed him. “Who’s taking care of the kids while you work?”

“I hired a nanny,” Nick replied. “And Melissa’s working longer hours while I’m at the Foundation during the day.”

Darr stared at him. Nick took a bite of his sandwich.

“And?” Darr prompted when Nick didn’t elaborate.

“And what?”

“Don’t give me that. You’re stalling. What else aren’t you telling me?”

“The nanny I hired works full-time. Her name is Charlene. She’s a redhead and she’s great with the triplets.”

Darr lowered his coffee mug to the table without taking his gaze from Nick’s face. “She’s a babe, isn’t she.”

It wasn’t a question. Darr knew him too well to be fooled.

“Yeah. She is.” Nick shoved another bite of sandwich into his mouth.

“Full-time,” Darr said consideringly. “What hours does she work?”

“She’s pretty much on call twenty-four hours a day.”

“So…he’s living at your house?”

“Yeah.”

“Sleeping down the hall from you?”

Nick nodded, saw the glint appear in Darr’s eyes and bristled. “Yes, down the hall. She has her own bedroom. What the hell did you think, that she was sharing mine?”

Darr shrugged. “It did cross my mind. Face it, Nick, you’ve never been slow with the ladies. You said she’s pretty—and she’s living in your house…” He spread his hands. “Sounds like a no-brainer to me.”

“Well, it’s not,” Nick snarled, restraining an urge to wrap his hands around his brother’s neck and choke that grin off his face. “She works for me. Have you heard of sexual harassment? She’s off-limits.”

“Too bad.” Darr lifted his coffee mug and drank. “So,” he said, setting the mug down and picking up his sandwich, “just how good-looking is Charlene?”

Too beautiful. Nick bit back the words and shrugged. “Beautiful.”

“On a scale of one to ten?”

“She’s a fifteen.”

Darr’s eyes widened. “Damn.”

“And she’s too young,” Nick continued.

“How young?”

“She’s twenty-five.”

“Thank God.” Darr pretended to wipe sweat off his brow in relief. “I thought you were going to tell me she’s underage and jailbait.”

“Might as well be,” Nick growled. “She’s twelve years younger than me. That’s too damned young.”

Darr pursed his lips. “Let me see if I’ve got this straight. You’re cranky because you’ve got a nanny you can’t make a move on because you’re her boss and she’s younger than you.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Nick conceded.

Darr grinned. “Maybe you should fire her. Then you can date her.”

“I can’t fire her—and I don’t want to,” Nick ground out. “She’s good at her job. If she wasn’t helping me take care of the girls, I’d be screwed.”

“So hire someone else—and then fire her.”

“Yeah, like she’s likely to go out with me after I’ve fired her.” Nick rubbed his eyes. They felt as if there was a pound of sand in each of them. If he didn’t get some sleep soon, he’d need more than the saline eyedrops he’d been using in a vain attempt to solve the problem. “There’s no solution that’s workable. Believe me, I’ve considered all the angles.”

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

“Stop being so damned cheerful,” Nick growled.

“Aren’t you the one who told me there’s always another girl just around the corner? Wait a week and there’ll be another corner, another girl. If things don’t work out with the redhead, why do you care?”

Because I’ve never met anyone quite like her.

Nick didn’t want to tell Darr that Charlene was unique. He was having a hard enough time accepting that he’d met a woman who broke all the rules he’d spent thirty-seven years setting.

“Maybe you’re right,” he said with a slight shrug, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. “Have you heard anything new about the note Patrick got at the New Year’s Eve party? Or about the ones Dad and Cindy received?”

“No.” Darr didn’t appear thrown by Nick’s abrupt change of subject. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to Dad and J.R.—to ask if they’ve learned anything more.”

The Fortune family had gone through a series of mysterious events over the last few months, starting with the cryptic note left in Patrick Fortune’s jacket pocket during a New Year’s Eve party. The strange message—“One of the Fortunes is not who you think”—baffled the family, even more so when they learned the same message had been left anonymously with Cindy Fortune and William, Nick and Darr’s father.

Patrick had called a family conference at Lily Fortune’s home on the Double Crown Ranch in February, on the very day Red Rock had been hit with a freak snowstorm.

Darr hadn’t been present at the gathering, since he’d been snowed-in with Bethany in her little house. But Nick had brought him up to speed on everything that happened, including the family’s assumption the notes were the precursor to a blackmail demand. So far, however, no such demand had been made. But two subsequent fires—one that burned down the local Red Restaurant, and a second that destroyed a barn at the Double Crown—were suspicious. And potentially connected to the mysterious and vaguely threatening notes.

“Let me know if you reach Dad and J.R.,” Nick said. “Meanwhile, I had a message from Ross Fortune when I got back to the office today. We set up a meeting to discuss the notes and fires. Has he contacted you?” Nick and Darr’s cousin was a private investigator with an agency in San Antonio. His mother, Cindy, had convinced the family they should hire him to check into the cryptic threats.

“Not yet,” Darr said, “but I heard he’s in town. The Chief said he called and asked for copies of the department’s report on the fire at Red.” Darr pushed his empty plate aside and leaned his elbows on the tabletop, his voice lowering. “This isn’t for public knowledge, but I’m sure my boss agrees with us—he has serious reservations as to whether the fire was accidental.”

“What about the barn that burned at the Double Crown?”

“He didn’t want to talk about that one—I suspect he believes I’m too close to the subject, since it happened on Lily’s ranch.”

“Do you have a gut feeling as to his opinion?”

“Yeah. I’m convinced he believes the Double Crown fire wasn’t an accident, either.”

“I hope to hell Ross’s investigation gets some answers,” Nick said grimly. “You or someone else could have died in those fires.”

“Bethany damn near did,” Darr said darkly, his features hardening. “She was barely conscious when I found her on the bathroom floor at the restaurant. She could have died of smoke inhalation.”

“We have to find out who’s behind these threats to the family before someone loses their life,” Nick said. “I hope Ross is good at his job.”

“When are you talking to him?”

“Tomorrow afternoon at one.” Nick glanced at his watch. “I have a meeting in a half hour. Gotta get back to the office.”

Darr nodded and both men dropped money on top of the check.

“Thanks, guys,” their waitress called after them as they left the booth and headed for the exit.

Nick shrugged into his jacket as he stepped outside, a brisk breeze cooling the air, although the sun beamed down, warm against his face.

“Let me know what Ross has to say tomorrow,” Darr said, pausing on the sidewalk. “I have the day off, but I’m not sure what Bethany’s plans are or if I’ll be home, so call my cell phone.”

“Sure.” Nick stepped off the curb. “Tell Bethany hello from me.”

“Will do.” Darr headed down the block to his vehicle.

Nick climbed into his Porsche, the powerful engine turning over with a throaty, muted roar when he twisted the key. The low-slung car had only two seats—room for the driver and one passenger.

“Too small,” Nick murmured as he backed out of the slot. “I need to get an SUV.” Or a minivan. He shuddered. He didn’t think he could bring himself to drive a minivan—even for the triplets. Minivans were mommy cars. For a guy who loved fast cars and powerful engines, a minivan was a step too far, vehicle-wise.

He made a mental note to go SUV shopping on his lunch hour tomorrow. Charlene could use it to drive the babies during the week and he’d use it on the weekends if he needed to take the little girls anywhere.

If anyone had told him two weeks ago that he’d be contemplating buying a vehicle to transport babies, he would have laughed at the sheer insanity of the idea.

He didn’t do kids. Never had. And kids hadn’t been part of his plans for the future.

There was some kind of cosmic karma at work here. Nick couldn’t help but wonder what fate planned to hit him with next.

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