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Ty stared at him, stunned. “What’s happened to you?” he whispered. “You’re a shadow of your former self!”
Well, that was a question he didn’t care to ponder too much. Mackenzie came to stand beside him, smiling up into his face, and his poor stupid heart felt like it took the final dive into his stomach.
What had happened to him, indeed.
Mackenzie and four babies were happening to him, and they were going to require a great deal of consideration. This was a bad idea, this tiny woman with the big eyes and her sweet family. A very bad idea, because he wasn’t a family man; he wasn’t a staying man.
“You ready?” he asked Mackenzie, and she nodded.
“If you’re not going to chicken out,” she teased.
Oh, he might. He was thinking about it. Thinking about it hard.
But something told him he probably wouldn’t.
* * *
FOUR HOURS LATER, when Ty stopped by the house, Mackenzie wondered what her old friend was really up to. Ty had sent Justin to her, now he wanted him to hit the road?
It all seemed very convenient. As if Justin might have conned his buddy into helping him escape the Hanging H with a good reason.
“Anyway,” Ty said as the three of them sat at the wide wooden kitchen table, “the reason I stopped by is to get a game plan going with Mackenzie.”
“Game plan?” Mackenzie glanced at Justin. If Justin had been part of Ty’s game plan, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what the next play was.
“I wouldn’t leave you here without backup,” Ty said. “I know that in spite of his knee—”
“My knee’s fine,” Justin said, clearly annoyed.
Mackenzie glanced at him. Occasionally she saw Justin favor his knee, but it did seem as if he’d been limping less since he’d arrived at the Hanging H. The doctor in town had given him a soft knee brace, which he wore without hesitation. Now there were days when Justin walked like he wasn’t in any discomfort at all.
“I know your knee’s getting better,” Ty said. “I’m just saying that in spite of your knee, you’ve been a big help here. I can see a lot of improvement.” Ty shook his head. “Still, I wouldn’t leave Mackenzie in the lurch, so I was wondering if you mind, Mackenzie, if I swap cowboys on you.”
Mackenzie hesitated. “Swap cowboys?”
“Replace Justin, in a manner of speaking,” Ty said. His words ceased entirely when the kitchen door opened and Jade walked in.
“Howdy,” Ty said. He stood up to greet the tall, sexy redhead, removing his hat for a moment. “Jade Harper, long time, no see...and clearly I’ve been missing out.”
Jade laughed. “No sweet talk from you, Ty.” She gave him a hug and he might have tried to pinch her bottom, but Jade was too fast for him. “Hi, Justin. Mackenzie, who are the three hunky guys who just pulled up in the black truck outside?”
Mackenzie got up to look out the window.
“That’s the game plan,” Ty said with a glance at Justin. “I don’t want you to miss my buddy Justin when I take him with me, so I thought I’d trade you, three for one.”
“Wow,” Jade said. “Grab this deal, is my advice, Mackenzie.” She laughed at Justin’s smirk.
“Ty, I don’t know if I need three—” Mackenzie began.
“You need help out here,” Ty said.
Justin didn’t say anything, and a bit of unease began to hit Mackenzie. Did he want to leave? Maybe he’d told Ty that he wanted to. She looked at his face, hazel eyes giving away nothing, his dark hair awry as he ran a hand through it. He looked distinctly uncomfortable.
As Ty had noted, Justin’s knee was better—not well enough to ride or run a fast race, maybe, but better—and the last place he wanted to be was stuck here with her and four little baby girls.
“I’ll get that,” Mackenzie said when knocking erupted on the front door. “Might as well give the candidates a grand tour, let them know what they’re getting themselves into.”
Justin glanced at her, his eyes widening like he was surprised by her comment. She went through the den, checking the babies quickly—still sound asleep, as was Mrs. Harper in the corner chair—and opened the front door.
Whoa. So much testosterone, so many muscles. “Hi,” Mackenzie said, a little startled by all the masculinity crowded on the front porch.
They took off their hats.
“Ty sent us,” the tallest one said with a rascally grin. “He said the Haunted H was looking for help to get ready for the county’s biggest haunted house and pumpkin patch for miles around.”
Mackenzie blinked. What had Ty meant by that? She was selling the place, not going back into business.
“Hello, fellows,” Justin said from behind her. “If you’re looking for Ty, you’ll find him in the side paddock.”
“Thanks.”
They tipped their hats to Mackenzie and left the porch. Mackenzie turned to look at Justin.
“I don’t want to get in the middle of things,” Justin said, “but if you want me to leave, just say the word.”
“I don’t want you to leave.” That was the last thing she wanted. “Do you want to go?”
“No. Not if you don’t want me to.” He shrugged as if he could go either way, whatever she decided. Still, she had the feeling her answers mattered. “I’m not going to say that I know everything about your town or your ranch. But so far things have been working pretty smooth. Or at least I thought they were.”
“Ty seems to think he needs you with him.” Mackenzie stepped off the porch.
“I’ll make that decision.” Justin followed her. “Or you will.”
Something about this whole thing felt like a setup. Ty’s story to the three hunks who’d come riding into town in their big black pickup, that she needed to restart the old family business, felt fishy. Never had she mentioned breathing life back into the haunted house to anyone. It was a dream she’d kept buried, knowing it wasn’t practical. She couldn’t run that kind of people-intensive business herself, and especially not with four newborns. The small remaining funds she had needed to go into their care—not the vague hope of bringing back the Haunted H.
And yet she had to admit restoring all her family traditions would be a wonderful way to raise her girls. She had had a storied childhood, full of wonder and magic and fairy tales.
But for a fairy tale, one needed a prince.
She looked at the five men leaning against the corral, studying her, waiting for something, some signal. Big, strong, handsome men. They all had rugged appeal, Justin most of all, in her opinion.
A prince had no reason to stay in Bridesmaids Creek—not unless there was a quest, something to make him stay and fight.
“So, Ty,” Mackenzie said slowly as Jade came to put her arm through hers for support, “maybe you’d like to explain why you’re offering me three cowboys for the price of the one I’ve already got?”
Chapter Four
“These fellows here,” Ty said, grandly waving his arm to indicate his friends, “go by the names of Sam Barr, Squint Mathison and Frog Grant.”
“I’m sorry.” Mackenzie stared at the last big man who’d been introduced. He was a broad-shouldered man with bright blue eyes and a shock of saddle-brown hair that wouldn’t lay flat even if he used molasses on it. “Frog?”
The men laughed. “Gets ’em every time,” he said, not minding the attention. “That’s not my real name.”
“We call him Frog because he looks like he’s hopping around like a frog on the back of a bronc.” Ty slapped the man on the back. “Anyway, he kind of looks like an amphibian, so it fits.”
“I don’t see any frog about him,” Jade said, and silently Mackenzie agreed.
“These gentlemen have come to apply for the position of hanny,” Ty said, delighted to have a stage to sell his snake oil from.
“Hanny?” Mackenzie tried not to laugh. “Is that what you call a working hand now?”
“It means, Miss Mackenzie,” Squint said, his brown eyes earnest, “that Ty tells us you need hands to work this place and sometimes some occasional babysitting.”
“Oh, a manny,” Jade said.
“No.” Ty shook his head. “A manny is a male nanny. These men are hands. They’re also willing to help out with Mackenzie’s munchkins.”
“That wouldn’t be necessary—” Mackenzie began, but Ty shook his head.
“These men haven’t seen the inside of a home in so long that a little babysitting would make them happy as clams.” He looked at his friends. “And they don’t have any problems cleaning up stuff.”
“Stuff?” Mackenzie echoed.
“Oh,” Jade said. “You promised you wouldn’t mention what I told you on the phone, Ty.”
Mackenzie glanced at Justin, who shrugged, his whole demeanor screaming, I had nothing to do with this.
“Baby spit,” Ty said helpfully.
“Upchuck,” Squint elaborated.
“Hurl,” Sam said.
“Giveback,” Frog said, and Mackenzie held up a hand.
“Thank you, but I have it under control,” she said with a glance at Jade.
Jade looked guilty. “She handles poo just fine. It’s the other that gives her a little trouble.”
Embarrassment swept Mackenzie. She couldn’t meet Justin’s gaze, though she could feel him looking at her. “It was tough in the beginning, but I’m fine now. Anyway, I don’t need help with my children.”
“And I’m not going anywhere,” Justin said.
Mackenzie glanced at him. “You don’t have to stay if you need to go with Ty. I’ll totally understand. But I haven’t got a need for three hands, fellows. Sorry.”
“Darn,” Jade said. “I wish I’d known that all I had to do to get three handsome hunks to show up in their black truck was have babies. I’d have given that a shot.”
The three newcomers seemed to appreciate Jade’s comment. Some of the bravado had gone out of them at Mackenzie’s refusal of their services, but at Jade’s words their air of jauntiness returned.
“You could always give us a free trial,” Frog said.
Mackenzie shook her head. “I don’t need any help. But come into the kitchen. Let me at least feed you lunch before you go.”
“That’s an offer I won’t refuse,” Sam said.
All three gentlemen grouped close around her as she turned to walk to the house.
She looked at them. “I’m okay, guys, really I am.”
“You should be resting,” Squint said.
“We’ll take care of you,” Frog told her.
“Guess you’re stuck with me, beautiful,” Ty told Jade. He put his hand around Jade’s arm as they walked.
“I’ve got some work to do,” Justin said, and Mackenzie turned.
“Lunch first. Then you can work all you like.” She didn’t want him leaving her with Ty. His buddy was working on a plan—maybe big plans—and anyone from Bridesmaids Creek knew that when plans were afoot, you’d better have backup around.
Justin was really handsome backup.
“Sure. I’ll come along.”
She flashed him a grateful smile. The group went inside, crowding the kitchen, and Mrs. Harper smiled at them.
“Are these the hands Ty was telling me about?” she asked. “I’m Jade’s mother, Betty Harper. It’ll be nice having more help around here. Now sit down and eat before Mackenzie puts you to work.”
Mackenzie started to say that she wasn’t hiring anyone, but Jade gave her arm a light pinch.
“What?” Mackenzie said.
“Don’t send them away yet,” Jade whispered.
“It’s not fair to keep them here when I don’t have work for them!”
“You have work for them. You could hire a dozen of them and it wouldn’t be enough.”
Mackenzie looked at the five strong, large men sucking down huge quantities of food. “If I hire these hannies—really harebrained idea of Ty’s, by the way—I’d have to pay them. And that’s not in my budget.”
“We’ll figure something out. An idea will come to you,” Jade said, comforting her.
“No, it won’t.” She went into the den to check on her babies, who were all asleep except Hope, who was gazing at the mobile over her playpen. Mackenzie picked her up. “If I had spare money, I’d be putting it away for college educations. Besides, I’m selling the Hanging H.”
“Don’t be so hasty.” Jade took Hope from her. “Give Justin and Ty a chance to help you.”
Mackenzie watched as Mrs. Harper fed the big men seated on the wooden barstools around the island. Her gaze wandered to Justin. “If I thought there was a way, I might give it a shot.”
“You don’t want to get rid of the family home, do you? Wouldn’t you like the girls to grow up here?”
“It’s just me and four babies,” Mackenzie said. “I have to be practical. My folks were a team, and they only had me for many years before my sister was born. My focus needs to be on my children, not running a business and a ranch.” She knew from experience that good times could be few and far between when it came to running what amounted to an amusement park.
“You’re overlooking one small detail,” Jade said. “According to Ty—”
“And that reminds me, you seem to be getting chatty with Ty.”
“Not chatty. We talked once. I let slip about the baby spit-up bothering you. Sorry about that.”
“I’m past that now,” Mackenzie said. “I don’t get queasy anymore. I think it just scared me because Hope did it so often.”
“The thing you might not be aware of is that these men are looking for a place to stay,” Jade said, glancing at the muscled hunks at the kitchen island. “Ty told them they had to pay rent. You’d essentially be a landlord. In other words, money coming in right away. They’d throw in some ranch work, some babysitting, for their meals.”
Mackenzie looked at her. “Why is Ty so involved in my business?”
“He says you need help. He needs help. They need help.” Jade went to the counter, then returned with two pieces of pumpkin spice cake in one hand and a baby in the other arm. She handed a plate to Mackenzie. “Ty says that if you sell, some developer is going to grab this place and cut it up into tiny lots for houses. I’m pretty sure he’s right. You’re sitting on five hundred acres, Mackenzie. If each house is put even on a large one-acre lot, that’s five hundred homes. A thousand homes if they built smaller.”
“Is that a bad thing? More housing for Bridesmaids Creek?” She got the image Jade was trying to draw.
“Not necessarily. You think about whether that’s what you think should happen in our small, friendly community.”
“We don’t know that would happen.” Mackenzie took a bite of the cake. As always, Mrs. Harper’s cake was scrumptious. “The land might go to a hospital, or we could use a new elementary school. Something more beneficial than the Retirement Home for Beat-Up Riders Ty seems to have in mind.” She studied the cowboys. Fit, handsome, hunky. But definitely not young enough to keep up on the circuit. And that’s what this was really all about. “Justin says he’s not going anywhere. So this is all really moot. I don’t need help with the babies, and I don’t need any more help than Justin.” If he was planning on staying.
“Are you counting on him too much?” Jade asked.
Her gaze slid to Justin. She was startled to find his eyes on her. “I don’t know,” she murmured. “Maybe.”
Jade had a good point. It was a mistake to count too much on another person. Witness her ex. She couldn’t allow herself to get overly comfortable again.
She heard a motorcycle roar outside, glanced at Ty. Was he having yet another buddy come by? She looked at the cowboys having a great time eating Mrs. Harper’s food and regaling her with rodeo stories. Maybe one couldn’t have too much of a good thing.
A knock on the paned window of the back door sounded above the laughter. Jade opened the door and Daisy Donovan sashayed in, long brown hair spilling from her helmet, short black leather skirt swinging, black cowboy boots showing off shapely legs even Mackenzie had to admire.
Daisy Donovan had always had radar for hot guys.
“Hello, fellows,” Daisy practically cooed. She basked in the sudden stares from the hunks. Ty’s buddies had ceased eating, ceased talking and maybe ceased breathing, stunned by the wild-child vision that was Daisy Donovan.
“I brought you a baby gift, Mackenzie,” she said, handing her a pink-and-silver wrapped box she pulled from the band of her skirt. The men’s gazes never left her. “Hello, Mrs. Harper. Jade.”
The guys jumped off their stools to allow Daisy to sit. She smiled and went to stand beside Justin. “I’d love a piece of your delicious cake, Mrs. Harper,” Daisy said, her eyes on Justin. She then made certain every man in the room got the full benefit of her smile. Mackenzie was astonished that they all didn’t faint from the feminine firepower launched at them.
“Thank you for the gift, Daisy,” Mackenzie said. She unwrapped it to find four engraved silver teething rings. A very nice gift, indeed—for a woman who had never really been her friend. Daisy was a natural-born competitor for the male eye, and guys adored her.
“It’s just a little something for those sweet babies of yours,” Daisy said, smiling at the men. She took a bite of her cake, Marilyn Monroe–sexy, and Mackenzie imagined she heard hearts popping in the kitchen.
“Wonder what the Diva of Destruction wants?” Jade muttered under her breath.
The answer to that was obvious. Daisy was manhunting. And by the looks of how she was staking her claim, she appeared to be hunting Justin.
Mackenzie told herself it didn’t matter if Daisy was hunting Justin or not.
She didn’t quite convince herself.
* * *
“WHAT ARE YOU up to, buddy?” Justin had managed to catch Ty in an unguarded moment in the barn, where he was showing the three new guys the layout of the Hanging H. “It’s time you share the plans that are buzzing around in that brain of yours.”
“The plans are for you and me to hit the road,” Ty said, giving him a genial thump on the back. “I told you—we’re going to hunt up recruits.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t say what we’re going to be recruiting talent for.” Justin glanced toward Sam, Squint and Frog. “Did those guys make your recruitment list?”
Ty laughed. “Them? No way. They’re just replacing you, which I think is fair, considering I brought you here. I couldn’t leave Mackenzie without help.”
Justin leaned against a post, crossed his arms. “Why are you so interested in Mackenzie’s welfare?”
“It’s not just her. It’s you, too. And Bridesmaids Creek, if you really want to know.”
“You’re trying to bring men into Bridesmaids Creek.” Justin shook his head. “They have a matchmaker here, you know. Aren’t you kind of bumping the competition?”
“Just giving the matchmaker some material to work with.”
“Why?” Justin’s curiosity was getting the best of him.
“You’d had to have grown up here to understand.” Ty shrugged. “The Haunted H was a great draw. Lots of jobs were lost when the Hawthornes had to close it down.”
“That’s what this is all about? Bringing jobs back to your hometown?”
“Not exactly.” Ty wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“Oh, I get it.” Justin thought he suddenly saw into the cracks of his buddy’s mercurial brain. “You’re trying to find a man for Mackenzie.”
Ty shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
“Not that complicated.” Justin snorted. “When did you decide to play guardian angel to Mackenzie?”
“Since I was the guy with the not-too-swift idea of setting her up with her ex. My onetime good buddy, who turned out to be a weasel of epic proportions.”
Justin stared at his friend. “Have you ever considered that maybe Mackenzie doesn’t want another husband?”
Ty snorted. “Don’t be silly. She’s a woman. A woman needs a husband to feel complete.”
“I’m not sure I ever saw this chauvinistic side of you before.”
“Yes, you did. You just didn’t recognize it, because you and I were thinking alike.” Ty laughed. “Don’t worry, good buddy. I’m not including you in my plan. Just the opposite. I’m clearing you out to make room for some cowboys who don’t wear the rebel badge as enthusiastically as you do.”
If being a hard-baked bachelor earned him that honor, he supposed he’d go with the rebel badge. “And that’s why I’m being dragged on a recruiting tour? You want me out of the way so your matchmaking has a better chance of succeeding?”
“Look. The idea came to me after I’d sent you here.” Ty looked at him patiently. “I realized that Mackenzie didn’t just need help bringing back the old place—she needs a husband and a father to those children. I’m the man who fixed her up with the loser, so I’m going to put it right.”
“Why don’t you just put your own neck into the marriage noose and save everybody some agony if you feel so guilt-ridden?”
Ty put up his hands as if to ward off the very idea. “My conscience is guilty but not stupid.”
Justin stared at his friend. It was true. Ty wasn’t husband material.
Neither was he.
Justin sighed heavily. “I think you’re nuts. But whatever. It’s not my town. Nor are these my friends.”
Ty brightened. “So you’ll do it? The lead stallion agrees to head off and leave the pen to the lesser junior stallions?”
“You make it sound like Mackenzie’s ever looked my way twice in a romantic way, which I can assure you she hasn’t. We haven’t spoken that much since I’ve been here.”
“Call it a hunch. Clearing out the pen, as they say. The ladies always want the one they can’t have. Mysterious types seem romantic. Like Zorro.”
Justin shrugged. “I think you took one too many falls off the mechanical bull, Ty, but whatever. I’ll go with you,” he said, “but you better hope Mackenzie never finds out what you’re up to. I have the feeling that little lady doesn’t think she needs any man to rescue her.”
“Mechanical bull! I was no dime-store cowboy,” Ty said, following Justin as he headed back to work. Justin couldn’t stand around examining the holes in his friend’s head any longer. Mackenzie hadn’t given one signal that she might be interested in him in more than a foreman–boss lady relationship.
Still, he had a slightly uneasy feeling about leaving her to the romancing of the Three Dating Daddies—a thought that totally brought him up short.
That’s what one of those men might become: a dad to Mackenzie’s four little girls.
Maybe the most troubling thought of all.
Chapter Five
“You’re going to have to keep an eye on Daisy,” Jade told her as Mackenzie settled her daughters down for an afternoon nap. Late-day sun filtered through the windows of the family room, twilight just arriving at nearly seven o’clock. Mackenzie loved summer days when there was so much cheery sunshine.
She couldn’t be bothered to think about Daisy Donovan.
“I’m not going to keep an eye on Daisy. I don’t care what she does.”
“You do care. All of Bridesmaids Creek cares. Her and her band of rowdies are bent on making certain this town drops off the map for families. That way Daisy’s father can keep buying up the land around here in his quest for mineral rights and selling huge land parcels to the government. Or worse.” Jade flopped down onto a flowered sofa, fanning herself. “As our town bad girl, Daisy lives for herself. My guess is she didn’t come here today to bring you a gift, but to check out the new foreman. Everyone is town has been chattering about the hot guy you’ve got working the place.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not even going to think about Daisy’s shenanigans. Even if Justin decided to hop on the back of her motorcycle and roar off into the sunset, I wouldn’t think about Daisy.”
Jade laughed. “Methinks you protest a bit too much. So what did you think about the three new guys?”
“That Ty and I are going to have to talk. The men are welcome to stay here and bunk in the bunkhouse, but I don’t know if I have enough work here for three more men.”
“Not unless you reopen the haunted house.”
“Which I’m not going to do.”
“It’s August. We have plenty of time until October,” Jade said.
“I know. But my only priority right now is my babies. We’ll do fine living in a small cottage in town.”
“There might be a miracle. You never know.” Jade got up to stare out the window. “She bugs me—I swear she does. Why are men always so blinded by Daisy?”