Her Secret Sons

Pacing the room, Pepper stopped to look out a window, then faced him again. Her eyes were so big in her face that she seemed startled.

“Go on,” he said, “tell me what’s on your mind. You’re starting to worry me.”

Tears jumped into her eyes, and her hands frantically wiped at her face. He didn’t know what else to do, so he put an arm around her, surprised by how quickly she collapsed and put her head against his chest.

The moment was too brief. Pulling away from him, she squared her shoulders and stuck out her chin. “Luke, years ago, you and I—”

“Wait. I think I know where you’re going with this. I don’t even think about it much. What happened, happened. We were just kids.”

Pepper swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Well, we kids made kids.”

He stared at her, perplexed. “You were pregnant?”

Dear Reader,

I loved writing THE TULIPS SALOON series, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the Forrester family. Pepper Forrester struck me as the kind of woman who held strongly to family and friends and community, and therefore she reminds me of the best of what many of my readers have shown me in their own lives. I’ve enjoyed the notes and letters you’ve sent me over the years, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything I’ve learned from you. Pepper is her own woman, but like many of you, she’s strong and giving, and charms her bad boy on her terms. That, for me, is the essence of a happy ending for a heroine—my own personal happy ending is the great honor you’ve given me by letting me tell you my stories.

Best wishes,

Tina Leonard

Her Secret Sons

Tina Leonard

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Tulips Saloon Red Velvet Cake

Cream 1½ cups granulated sugar and 2 eggs. Sift 2½ cups self-rising flour with ½ tsp salt. Add 1 cup buttermilk and 1½ cups vegetable oil to sugar and eggs. Slowly add flour to mixture. Mix 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp vinegar together and quickly pour into batter. Add 2 oz red food coloring and mix well. Makes three 8-inch cake layers.

Grease and flour cake pans. Bake at 350°F for twenty to twenty-five minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

For the frosting, mix:

8 oz cream cheese (softened)

1 stick margarine

1 box powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Add:

1 cup chopped nuts

Frost layers and enjoy!

—Many thanks to Julie Goode for sharing this recipe with me twenty years ago.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tina Leonard loves to laugh, which is one of the many reasons she loves writing Harlequin American Romance books. In another lifetime, Tina thought she would be single and an East Coast fashion buyer forever. The unexpected happened when Tina met Tim again after many years—she hadn’t seen him since they’d attended school together from first through eighth grade. They married, and now Tina keeps a close eye on her school-age children’s friends! Lisa and Dean keep their mother busy with soccer, gymnastics and horseback riding. They are proud of their mom’s “kissy books” and eagerly help her any way they can. Tina hopes that readers will enjoy the love of family she writes about in her books. A reviewer once wrote, “Leonard had a wonderful sense of the ridiculous,” which Tina loved so much she wants it for her epitaph. Right now, however, she’s focusing on her wonderful life and writing a lot more romance! You can visit her at www.tinaleonard.com.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Epilogue

Chapter One

“I’ll be wasting my time and your breath if I let myself care what anybody thinks about me.”

—Pepper Forrester, on a warm June day to everyone within earshot in Tulips, Texas

Men were Pepper Forrester’s downfall—and her salvation.

For the past thirteen years Pepper had lived in the north with her aunt Jerry, bringing up her twin sons. They were thirteen now, and they were her salvation.

She had two brothers, Zach and Duke, who were both happy to disrupt her life, although mostly with charm and well-meaning opinions. Her brothers were also her salvation.

The twins’ father—the man responsible for seducing Pepper out of her good sense and virginity—was Luke McGarrett, the only man she’d ever loved. As to why Pepper loved him, there was an obvious, yet painful answer: he’d been glib, sexy, hot. She’d said yes—and therefore he’d been her downfall.

But that was the past. It was time to bring closure to her life, so she’d chosen to return to Tulips, Texas, to confess the secret she’d kept all these years: she had done her own bit to increase the tiny town’s population on the sly.

But while she would be proud to introduce her sons to friends and family alike, Pepper hoped that no one would suspect Luke was the father.

She comforted herself by thinking about how he had taken off after high school to find his way in the world, never to be seen again, and only heard from infrequently.

Pepper packed the last box, looking around at the place where she and the twins had lived for the past thirteen years. They’d been happy here, and yet to her, Tulips and the Triple F ranch were home, sweet home. She looked forward to the move home even though she knew her brothers were going to be mad and hurt that she’d kept their nephews from them. Duke and Zach had been adamantly opposed to their own women having a baby without them—no child of theirs would be unaware of who their father was! Unbeknownst to them, Pepper had done just that—deprived her sons of their father. She wasn’t proud of it.

This would be a shock for everyone. The citizens of Tulips considered her to be an intelligent and responsible person.

Pansy Trifle and Helen Granger, town elders, members of the Tulips Saloon Gang and two of her dearest friends while she was growing up, would be stunned. Bug Carmine and Hiram Parsons, two of the local men who kept Tulips running, would have plenty of thoughts on the matter.

Pepper dreaded the confession. Thirteen years wasn’t long enough for people’s memories to fade. Back then Pepper had been a bright-eyed girl who’d recently lost her parents, and Luke had been her hero. She’d fallen so deeply in love that still, after all these years, she wished their relationship had been more than a high school dream.

Too bad he’d turned out to be such a rat.

Pepper had been an excellent student, determined to get into college and then medical school. Immediately following her high school graduation, after Luke had made his own departure from town—and before she really began to show—Pepper had fled to the North. Her aunt Jerry loved her in spite of everything, and helped her out with the twins while Pepper attended classes. She felt guilty for keeping the boys from their father, but knew from her brothers that Luke had never returned to Tulips, not even for a holiday. That salved her conscience somewhat.

She’d recently purchased a house in Tulips, as well as a building she’d converted into a medical clinic to service the small town. It was her way of giving back to the people who had taken such good care of her over the years; it was her way of returning with grace and honor and hope for belonging.

“Come on, boys,” she said, “it’s time to go home.”

“I guess you’re sure this is the right thing to do,” Toby said.

“No. I’m not.” She locked the door behind them. “But now I have my own clinic and so we’re moving to where my job and your family are.”

“They don’t feel like family. Aunt Jerry is family,” Josh said.

Duke and Zach might never forgive her for this. “Aunt Jerry may come live in Tulips next year.”

“Really?” Both boys perked up.

They all piled in the car, and Pepper nodded. “I think so. After I have some time to get us settled.”

“So…will our father be there?” Toby, who sat beside her in the front seat, asked.

Pepper swallowed hard. “No. He never returned to Tulips. I don’t know where he is. I’m sorry.”

Toby shrugged and took a last look out the window; in the backseat, Josh had his face pressed up against the glass—two sad boys saying their goodbyes to the only home they’d ever known.

“I love you both so much,” she said.

“People are going to make fun of us. The kids are going to know we don’t have a father,” Josh stated.

“I don’t think that will happen. I believe you’ll be embraced with open arms. It’s me everyone is going to be a little surprised by, but…” She took a deep breath…“I never said I was perfect. And you guys are my saving graces. My life is good because of you.”

They accepted that in silence, and Pepper didn’t begrudge them their mood. At least she didn’t have to face the one thing she probably never could: Luke McGarrett. From him, she was safe.

Although after she jumped this hurdle, she really was going to have to think about introducing Luke to his sons. Somehow.

LUKE MCGARRETT HELPED three women onto the luxury yacht with his usual courteous smile. Then he assisted their father, the general, on board, as well, scanning the landscape to make certain they weren’t being followed by paparazzi, mischief-makers or beggars.

It was a tough life having to guard beautiful, leggy blondes every day of his life, but someone had to do it, he thought with a grin. Being a world traveler and in the employ of the general definitely had its rewards. Mainly the scenery.

The “scenery” was untouchable, of course, since protecting them was his job, but he had to admit he wasn’t attracted to the girls. If anything, he was attracted to the traveling and the money and the fact that he’d never have to return to Tulips, Texas.

He sat at the stern once everyone was seated and pulled a letter from his inside shirt pocket to reread.

Luke, you’ve been gone a long time. I’m getting older and need some help with the family real estate business. I’d like my only son to learn my profession and I’d like to spend some time getting to know you. I’ve missed that.

Love, Dad

Luke put the letter away, resisting the urge to toss it into the sea. There was nothing in Tulips for him. He didn’t care about the family business. The last thing he was ever going to do was find a wife and settle down and start having kids—and he knew very well that was on his father’s mind. Oh, no, sir, not me. I’m single and proud of it.

One of the blondes smiled at him, and he felt much better. The scenery was just so damn good it nearly hurt.

THERE WAS NO EASY WAY to do this. Pepper had thought long and hard for years about how to tell people her secret. Just imagining herself saying the words was difficult.

But it was time. So Pepper called a meeting at the Tulips Saloon, knowing it was best to tell her family and friends all at once.

Duke and Zach were seated in the antique chairs of the saloon with their wives, Liberty and Jessie, beside them, their children bouncing on their knees. Pepper turned her attention to their friends Helen Granger, Pansy Trifle, Hiram Parsons and Bug Carmine. This was her family, extended and otherwise, and the best thing to do when spilling a secret was to do it surrounded by people who loved her.

She stood, and everyone smiled at her. “Thank you for coming today and spending your Sunday afternoon with me.”

There were murmurs of “That’s all right” and “We’re glad to have you back, Pepper.” She felt tears prickling at the back of her eyes. Having left the boys in the car, instructing them to come inside the saloon in ten minutes, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. Had she ever?

“Today I’m going to tell you something I possibly should have told you long ago,” she began. “I should have told you, but I couldn’t.” She glanced at her brothers for understanding and support. “I want to apologize to you in advance for that. A teenage miscalculation on my part, because you’re the best men I’ve ever known….” She stopped, not knowing how to continue. They were going to be so shocked, so dumbfounded….

“Mom?” Toby said, walking through the door just ahead of his brother. “Is it time for us to come in?”

The whole room went very still. Each face was riveted upon her sons, who looked back at them shyly, their expressions holding nervousness and maybe embarrassment.

Thank you, Pepper thought. Always my heroes, riding in to rescue me from myself. “Yes, it’s time to come in, boys.” She went to hug them. Taking a deep breath, she held their hands and turned around to face the small assembly. “I’d like to introduce you all to my sons, Toby and Josh. They’re my family and the reason for my being.”

No one said a word. Pepper thought she saw sympathy in Liberty’s and Jessie’s faces, but everyone else sat thunderstruck.

Helen rose first, walking to Toby and Josh with an expression of determination and interest behind her black-rimmed glasses. “I’m Helen Granger,” she told the boys, with a solemn handshake for each. “We’re so glad you’ve come to live in Tulips.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Pansy Trifle said, hopping up to join her friend. “This is a wonderful place for boys to grow up. You’ll really like it here.”

The twins shook hands with each woman, but Duke and Zach couldn’t seem to move from their chairs. So their wives got up, dragging their husbands with them.

“I’m your aunt, Liberty, and this is your uncle, Duke. He’s the sheriff of Tulips,” Liberty said. “You also have three small cousins.”

“Uncle?” Duke repeated. “How old are you boys?”

“Thirteen,” they said together.

He nodded, giving Pepper a swift glance. “I’ve been an uncle for thirteen years.” Looking back at the twins, he shook their hands. “Guess I’m the lucky one.”

“Me, too,” Zach said swiftly, following behind. “I’m your uncle, Zach, and this is your aunt, Jessie, and our babies, Mattie and James.”

Everyone else in the room got up to introduce themselves, but the boys were stilted and awkward with the adults. After a while, Pepper knew it was time to take them to the Triple F. “We’re going home now,” she said, looking at her brothers. “We’re going to spend the night at the ranch until we can get our things unpacked at the house. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take them there by myself for some alone time. Just about an hour.” It meant a lot to her that her boys not be nervous or worried. She knew how they were feeling. If she could, she wanted to keep them from being completely overwhelmed, sothat they could acquaint themselves with the Triple F slowly.

“By all means,” Duke said, “it’s where you all belong.” He looked at his young nephews. “You’ll like it at the ranch.”

“Mom says she’s bought a house and a clinic,” Toby said. “We get our own bedroom.”

Duke nodded. “You like to bunk together or separately?”

“We’re used to sharing,” Toby said. “One room is enough.” He looked up at Duke. “Will you have enough space for us?”

“Space is something we don’t have to worry about at the Triple F,” Duke said. “I promise you’ll be in good shape while we get your house fixed up. And anyway, the Triple F will always be your home, too. You’ve got two, now.”

Pepper felt the tears coming again and brushed them away impatiently. “Thank you.”

Zach shook his head. “No need for thanks. It’s your house just as much as ours.”

She hadn’t been sure her brothers would still want her there. Liberty and Jessie hugged her, and the tears Pepper had been determined to hold back poured from her eyes. She reached out to hug her boys to her, fiercely proud of them, glad she’d finally brought them home.

Chapter Two

The Tulips Saloon Gang watched as Pepper left with her two sons. The silence inside the place…well, Duke thought it said a whole lot. Everyone was thinking, searching their minds, trying to recover from the shock.

Duke looked at his brother. Both of their wives were seated, silently gazing up at them, as were Pansy, Helen, Hiram and Bug. Duke shook his head, completely at a loss. “We’ve been too hard on her over the years,” he told Zach.

Zach nodded. “I was thinking the same damn thing.”

Duke shoved his hands in his pockets. “Part of me is angry as hell that she never told us. The bigger part of me knows exactly why she did it.”

Zach sank into a chair and Duke did the same, though he was surprised his knees would bend. He felt more like falling over, poleaxed. “We always looked to her to be the responsible one,” Zach said.

“Because she was,” Duke said. “Obviously. She’s managed to do more with her life than I’ve done with mine.”

Zach nodded. “I was still sowing oats while she was finishing up med school. I don’t know how she did it with kids.”

“Well, clearly Aunt Jerry was a very helpful conspirator. That must be why Pepper lived up north all those years—to be close to Aunt Jerry.”

“It still couldn’t have been easy.” Zach looked at his brother. “I wish she’d felt that she could have come to us when she was in trouble.”

Duke shrugged. “I doubt Pepper ever thought she was in trouble. I think she just took care of her business, as she always has.” He glanced at Pansy and Helen and the rest of the gang. “I hope everyone will take in our new family members with open arms.”

Pansy gasped. “Why, Duke Forrester, how could you suggest that we’d do anything but?”

He put up a mollifying hand. “I didn’t mean that quite the way it sounded. I should have said, ‘Thank you for accepting our new family members with open arms.’”

Helen sniffed. “I think Pepper Forrester has more grit in her than most women I’ve met in my life, and men, too.” She glanced at Hiram and Bug. “There’s a difference between grit and being gritty.”

They nodded at the friendly teasing.

“We’re gonna have to teach those young boys a thing or two about life,” Bug said.

“Like how to lead a parade?” Pansy asked, since he was Tulips’s unofficial parade master.

“No,” Hiram said, “how to be responsible.”

“You live in a jail,” Helen pointed out, returning to Hiram’s odd propensity to reside in the one and only jail cell in Tulips. “Though you do keep your cell quite tidy.”

“Yes, but I have a room at Liberty’s when I feel like it,” Hiram said proudly, “and I’m willing to offer it up when you all figure out how you’re going to get him home.”

“Him who?” Bug asked. “All of us are here tonight, except Holt, who had an unexpected hair emergency at the salon.” He looked at Bug. “I hope your wife quits trying to color her own hair soon. This is the third time she’s gone green.”

“Him—the father of Pepper’s boys,” Hiram said, as if no one else had the sense to think clearly.

Duke sat up straight in his chair. “Father?” he repeated, his brain in a stunned fog. “There is no father.”

They all stared at him, and for a moment, Duke wondered if his shocked brain had calcified in his head. What was so obvious to them that was not obvious to him? “What?” he asked. “I don’t understand.”

“She didn’t adopt those boys, Duke,” Zach said.

“I know that, damn it!” The whole situation was making Duke grumpy. “Liberty, I think I need some tea or something, please.”

She hopped up to get it, setting a tiny floral teacup in front of him. How the hell was he supposed to loosen up with that little bit of sustentation? Asking for a shot of whiskey in it would likely get him in big trouble with the ladies, so he bit his tongue and tried to unscramble his thoughts.

Liberty patted his shoulder, smiling down at him sympathetically.

“What?” he said. “What the hell am I not getting?”

“That Pepper had a love interest, and the odds of him not knowing about his boys are probably about as good as none of us knowing. Especially since most of us thought we were pretty close to Pepper, didn’t we?” she asked, gently kneading Duke’s shoulder.

“Well, hell, yeah.” He looked at Zach. “So tell me.”

“Jeez, Duke,” his brother said, looking as if he’d rather be anywhere but four feet away from him. “Of course you know who the father of those kids is. You’re just not thinking.”

He didn’t want to think. As far as he knew, Pepper had never had a boyfriend…. Light flashed behind his eyes as he thought back to the summer she was seventeen, with a terribly immature crush on—“No,” he said. “They can’t be his. It has to be someone she met at college.”

They all stared at him, and Duke’s scalp began to crawl. “You’re not saying those boys are Luke McGarrett’s, are you?” he asked, horrified. “Why, they were never serious about each other! I don’t think they had more than one or two dates before he left town, and I don’t know if I’d even call those dates!”

Zach shrugged. “The boys are the right age.”

Helen sighed. “And, unfortunately, they are the spitting image of Luke.”

Pain crashed into Duke’s chest. “I’ll kill him!”

“You’ll do no such thing,” Helen said sternly. She stood up, glancing around the room. “Overreaction is exactly why Pepper never felt that she could come to us. Any of us. Think about the secrets we’ve kept over the years. Think about that damn box you guard so jealously in your cell, Hiram, which has every piece of information about this town in it. Everyone has something they’ve kept to themselves…. Only Pepper did it for a long time and with no one to advise her. Not from this community, anyway. She was just a girl when she left but now she’s a woman. A mother. Don’t dare think to harm someone she never felt needed harming.”

Duke began to pace. “How could he not know? The weasel probably did know, and that’s why he’s never returned to Tulips.”

“No.” Bug shook his head. “Luke’s old man says his boy is just lucky, which I found a strange comment from a man who didn’t get along with his only child. But I don’t think McGarrett meant it as a compliment. He said there was no luck in Tulips for Luke, so he hit the rodeo like many other hotheaded young men around here. He cowboyed, and won. Then he decided he needed more danger and worked as a rodeo clown. He was lucky, and saved the son of a retired U.S. general from a severe goring. The grateful general hired Luke to vacation with him on his party barge—McGarrett said it was a yacht, but to his mind, it was likely just a floating party—for the summer, though Luke’s main focus is protecting the general’s family. Being lucky, Luke invested the money he earned in the stock market and made a fortune. He then parlayed the money into commercial real estate investments, which were touched by gold. He’s so fortunate that even the general’s daughters now travel with him, considering him the best man they’ve ever known besides their father. Three months has turned into a year of work as a bodyguard, and old man McGarrett says the only reason he knows any of this is because of his connections in the military, some old chums of his who keep up with him.” Bug scratched his head. “Of course, none of this was said with a fatherly gleam of pride in McGarrett’s eyes. I got the distinct impression he equates ‘lucky’ with ‘ne’er-do-well.’”