Luke perched on the couch. “So. You wanted to talk.”

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.’”

“Oh, my,” Pansy said, “I do think Pepper did the right thing, after all. I’m not sure Luke would have been the steadying influence on those boys that she and her aunt Jerry clearly were.”

Helen nodded. “A man is not always the solution.”

Duke’s brows furrowed. “Let’s not take sides against a guy we haven’t seen in years. He was just a boy when he left. I was a hotheaded kid once, too, and I’ve turned out well, given time.”

Liberty smiled. “Parenting skills are a tricky business, Duke, is all Pansy and Helen are saying. Children have been known to be raised by a mother, or grandparents, or aunts, and turn out fine.”

Duke looked at his wife. “I’ll just be happy that the boys are where they belong now.”

“And yet,” Zach said, “it might not hurt Luke McGarrett to learn just how lucky he really has been.”

Every head turned to stare at him.

“I suppose you’re suggesting we tell his father he has grandchildren?” Pansy asked worriedly.

Silence reigned for a moment as the thought sank in.

“McGarrett is getting up in years,” Hiram said reluctantly, “though he’s no friend of mine.”

“He’s not been a friend to many folks,” Bug added, “and I say it’s not our place to make that decision. It’s Pepper’s.”

Helen shifted in her chair. “Luke’s never coming back.”

“Oh, he will,” Hiram said.

“Maybe for his father’s funeral,” Bug suggested.

“Oh, boy,” Duke muttered. “That’s not a good thought.”

Zach shook his head. “Listen, we could do something radical here.”

They all frowned at him. “Last time you did something radical—” Pansy began, but Helen waved at her best friend to be quiet.

“Like what?” Helen demanded, her black eyeglasses perched on the end of her nose.

Jessie whispered in her husband’s ear, and Zach nodded. Helen noted the two of them had been doing a lot of whispering, which was a sure sign of a conspiracy or a brainstorm, and right now, either would be better than what they had. “Tell us,” she prompted with impatience.

“Unresolved situations are never good,” Zach said, “and while I am not one to advocate being involved in other folks’ business, it seems that there are suddenly a lot of people in this town who could benefit from seeing Luke McGarrett in the flesh. As I say, he’s luckier than he knows, so it’s not like we’d be interfering in his affairs in a bad way.”

Duke looked at his brother. “You’re saying because his father’s old, and because Luke has two young sons he doesn’t know about, that we should get him home somehow?”

“Couldn’t hurt,” Zach said, and Jessie nodded.

“Could hurt,” Hiram said, “when Pepper kicks your tail for butting in.”

“There is that,” Helen agreed. “Plus she’d say we were playing matchmaker or something, and that would be awful for her to believe of us, because clearly Luke McGarrett is not the man for a responsible woman like Pepper. Lucky, indeed.” She gave a righteous sniff.

Bug sat up straight. “That’s exactly the way his father says ‘lucky’ when he’s talking about Luke.”

“How the hell would we find him on a floating party barge in the middle of the big blue sea?” Duke demanded. “Even if we did all vote that this scheme was a good idea?”

“His father sends the odd message through the general’s office,” Bug said helpfully, “though he never gets a reply.”

“What a jacka—” Duke halted abruptly, censoring himself for the sake of the ladies and children present. Although he was sure it didn’t matter what he said, because they all had the same low-down opinion of Luke at this moment. “We’d do better to send a P.I. after him so it could be done discreetly, instead of using a military office, anyway.”

“There’s trackers over in Union Junction,” Zach said.

“Yes. They came into my bridal salon one day to help out the bride of the young cowboy who used to assist Valentine in transporting cakes,” Liberty said. “Blaine was his name, and his older brother’s name was either Hawk or Jellyfish—I can’t remember which.” She nodded. “At any rate, Valentine would know how to get hold of them. I don’t think they actually work out of Union Junction.”

Duke stood and grabbed his wife’s hand. “We’ll think about all this,” he said. “I’m too much in shock to make a proper decision. I’m taking my bride home, because we have a baby who’s getting restless,” he said, staring down into the stroller where his son, Michael Zachariah, was just starting to wake from his nap. “Nobody do anything until we have a chance to think this through.”

Helen kissed him on the cheek and hugged Liberty, as Pansy did. “The Forresters sure do know how to grow a town all by themselves,” she said, her voice slightly teasing. “Remember when you insisted we had to grow the town organically?”

Zach slapped his brother on the back. “Sometimes you get what you wish for.”

Everyone laughed at Duke, since he’d been against bachelor balls, parades, rodeos and every other idea the Tulips Salon gang had come up with to lure settlers to the area. He’d insisted they should grow the town the old-fashioned way.

Duke put on his hat. “Well, at least I’m an uncle again. I’m pretty excited to get to know my nephews. I have a lot of catching up to do.”

The Forresters all departed, leaving the four town elders to grin at each other.

“That was a great surprise Pepper lobbed into our laps,” Helen said.

Pansy giggled. “I love that girl. She’s so dang independent!”

Helen nodded with satisfaction. “You just wait until big brother charges in to rescue his sister from evil Luke McGarrett’s neglect of his duties. I have a feeling things will be settled around here mighty fast.”

The four of them sipped tea and smiled, until Helen sat straight in her chair.

“Of course, we’re all assuming Luke would come home and that Pepper would forgive us for meddling,” she said, and everyone groaned.

“It’s too late now.” Pansy shook her head. “Pepper’s big brother is a man of action, as you all know, too well. He’ll drag Luke back here if he has to, once his brain starts functioning again. Whatever he thinks might be best for his nephews is exactly what those boys are going to get!”

Chapter Three

Luke McGarrett sat in a deck chair on the general’s yacht, anchored off an isle in Greece. The scenery, as always, was good, and he was, as usual, feeling lucky.

Except for the nagging sensation that something wasn’t quite right. The general and his daughters had gone into town—or the small fishing village that passed for a town—leaving Luke to his own devices. They’d acted a bit secretive, claiming they wanted to go by themselves, insisting they didn’t need a bodyguard.

This was unusual, as he was normally treated as part of the family. Maybe that’s what had his senses on edge. The general had insisted that he stay behind and watch the boat, when always before he’d insisted Luke watch his girls.

His neck prickled, a telltale warning that he was being watched. He knew it. That lucky feeling of warning had dug him out of investments just before they sank, and human relationships just before they got dramatic. Now it was sending shivers along his nerves. Rising, he scanned the horizon. Nothing at sea and nothing unusual from the dock into the quiet village, where fisherman worked their trade and women shopped and chatted.

A man suddenly leaped over the side of the yacht with a fluid flash of tanned skin. “Peace, brother,” he said, and Luke wondered where this American had come from. Luke reached for his gun, but the big man said, “No,” just as another figure appeared by his side to take it.

“Sorry,” the wiry accomplice said. “We don’t do guns. They’re dangerous.”

Luke thought he was perhaps looking danger in the face. The accomplice had long dark hair pulled tight into a ponytail and deep, serious eyes. These two wanted something, but if they wanted him dead, it would have happened without him having a chance to take a second breath. Damn, I’m slipping. “What’s up, fellows?”

“I’m Hawk,” the wiry stranger said, “and this is my buddy, Jellyfish. We know some of your people in Union Junction and Tulips, and we’ve had to come a long way to meet you, my friend.”

Luke raised his brows. “Friend?”

Hawk nodded. “In the loosest manner of speaking. Friend of a friend, perhaps.”

Jellyfish nodded solemnly. “Of course, we’re not sure yet if you’re really our friend.”

Luke sighed. “Okay. I’ll bite. What do I have to do to be your friend?”

Hawk seated himself while Jellyfish kept a lookout. Hawk ran admiring fingers over the yacht rail as he glanced speculatively at Luke. “You need to make a trip to Tulips part of your itinerary.”

“My father sent you?”

Hawk shook his head. “No. He doesn’t know we’re here. But it’s time to return to your birthplace.”

“No,” Luke said, frowning. “Not a chance in hell.”

Jellyfish dropped a hand to his shoulder, setting off alarms inside Luke. “It would be better if you did, friend.”

Jeez. “Look. Not that it’s any of your damn business, but my dad and me…we never got along. The old man pretty much thought I was a failure no matter what. Why he’s crying over me now is a mystery.”

“You should respect your elders,” Jellyfish said, and Hawk nodded.

“Not to mention that running away doesn’t solve anything.” Hawk eyed Luke pointedly. “But we weren’t sent by your father.”

“Speaking of that, how in the hell did you find me?” Luke demanded.

“Wasn’t hard,” Hawk said, and Jellyfish laughed.

“Ex-military connections,” he explained. “Sometimes it shaves a few weeks off a mission for us.”

Bingo. No wonder the general had scrammed with his precious trio. “Just great.” Luke shook his head. “So, do I even have employment anymore? Or did you tell the general what a bad guy I was just so I’d go home?”

Hawk grinned, leaning back against the rail. “Actually, you’re getting a paid leave of absence. At least until you make up your mind.”

Luke frowned, annoyed that his luck had finally run out. He also wasn’t thrilled with the breezy way in which his life was being decided for him. “And the general and his daughters?”

Jellyfish smiled. “We’ve agreed to take over here until a replacement for you can be found. The general said it shouldn’t be too hard.”

Luke stood. “Just great. A year of my life and I’m not that hard to replace.”

Hawk shrugged. “Depends upon whose opinion you’re interested in, I would imagine. Someone might think you’re worth a hell of a lot. Then again, maybe not. Guess only you know that.”

Jellyfish nodded. “The answer lies within.”

Luke gave each man a sharp look. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Jellyfish shook his head. “Would you like an escort to Tulips?”

“You mean a guard?” Luke snorted. “I think I can manage it. Thanks, pals.”

They grinned, setting themselves up on the deck. “You can borrow our little bicycle there,” Hawk offered. “You just ride up into town and a fishing boat can take you back to the big island to catch a plane. You can be home by this weekend. The sun is heavenly here, isn’t it, buddy?”

Luke ignored that, and went to pack his things. Boiling anger rolled through him. Of all the stinking tricks his old man had to pull, sending goons after him was the worst. He would have gone home eventually…one day.

No, I wouldn’t. I never want to see Tulips again, or anyone who lives there.

“Just peachy,” he muttered to himself, hopping out of the boat with his few belongings and giving his new “friends” a rude gesture. They laughed, and Luke privately cursed the general for so easily giving him up.

This was not his definition of being lucky.

ONCE PEPPER HAD introduced her children to the Triple F and let them settle in for a few days, she quietly—over Duke’s and Zach’s protests—moved them into the small home she’d bought. Pepper wanted to make the move together, she and the boys sleeping under one roof for the first time in Tulips as a family, so they would know that she’d bought the house for them. The house was made of red brick with white shutters, of a typical ranch style, and close to the clinic. She loved it, and so far, it seemed Toby and Josh did, too. There were bedrooms for all of them—even one for Aunt Jerry, once she came to stay—room to spread out and a huge backyard.

Either Duke or Zach stopped by every day, picking up the boys to run errands with them. They had a thousand excuses for spending time with their nephews. This gave Pepper time to clean the clinic and establish her practice, but most importantly, it gave her time to think about what she’d told the boys over the years about their father.

She’d been as honest about Luke as possible, deciding that the truth always came back to haunt a person. Carefully, she told the boys—when they asked—that their father hadn’t been ready for marriage, nor had she. She also admitted that she hadn’t told Luke about them. One day, when the time was right, she promised, they would find him and tell him.

Toby and Josh had been all right with that, somehow understanding that she was genuinely trying to act in their best interests to the utmost of her ability. As a doctor, she’d presented the facts gently; as a mother, she’d waited anxiously for tears, recriminations, bitterness.

The boys had simply taken the information into their hearts, knowing that one day they would meet their father.

Pepper glanced around the clinic. It was freshly painted and all her diplomas and certifications had been hung. She was proud of what she had accomplished. If she could make a go of this, she hoped to bring on a pediatric specialist in the future and maybe enlarge the clinic. Tulips deserved a good medical complex. That, as much as good schools, would bring people to their town, she figured. Moreover, she wanted to be able to take care of folks who had given her so much over the years.

Maybe she’d even have a door made for her clinic just like the beautiful one that welcomed visitors to the Tulips Saloon. People liked calming, pretty things when they visited a doctor, and a matching door would be symbolic. There were a lot of connected hearts in this town, and Pepper intended to honor them.

She locked the door and headed over to Holt’s salon.

“Hey,” he said, looking up from a magazine. “You’re right on time.”

“This time,” she said, sliding into the chair. “I love the clinic. The boys love the house. Thank you for helping me find them.”

Holt grinned, running a hand through Pepper’s tangled, auburn mop. “Let’s find something gorgeous here, okay? How long has it been since you’ve had a complete style?”

Pepper looked at herself in the mirror, smiling at the mess Holt was examining with somewhat concealed disdain. “Long enough. I’ve been busy.”

“Yes. Now that you’re back in town, you can slow down a bit. Your hair is telling on you.” He began combing out her locks, and Pepper sighed with pleasure. “If our hair is our nod to the day, I hear you may be needing a real brave new look.”

She looked at him in the mirror. “Are we going to share our little gossip?”

He smiled. “Perhaps. There was a council meeting the other night after you introduced your boys.”

“Oh? I’m not surprised.”

“All I’m saying is be on the lookout.” Holt flashed his scissors. “I can’t say more than that, but I do feel that a friendly heads-up is in order.”

“Could you clarify?”

He sighed. “Not really. You’re a Tulipian. You know how it works around here. Still, you’ve been gone long enough that you might have forgotten, so I’m just reminding you.”

“Should I be worried? Is it about the boys?”

“No.” Holt gave her a reassuring grin. “Not in the sense you’re thinking. Everyone here is glad you brought them home. But you know that, around here, love is equated with trying to be helpful.”

“Well, as long as it’s well-meaning….” She wondered what to make of Holt’s secretive expression.

“It always is, my dear.” He smiled. “It always is.”

She wasn’t sure that made her feel a whole lot better.

ON A CLEAR SUNDAY EVENING, at an hour when most people should be snuggled up in their beds or in front of their televisions, Luke McGarrett returned to Tulips. He was looking for zero fanfare and no welcoming committee.

Of course, he wouldn’t get one, anyway.

The taxi driver sped away, glad to get back to Dallas. Luke watched as the last vestige of up-to-date civilization left him. Feeling very much the pawn, he glanced around, deciding not much had changed. He hadn’t expected it to.

The Tulips Saloon was new. It had a pretty door, with lots of stained glass flowers worked into it. Quite inviting for a man who had come a long way and who’d dreaded every step. There was an Open sign in the window, and Luke felt as if he could use some fortification before he went to see his father, so he swung the door wide.

Four gray heads turned to stare at him, and one by one, their jaws dropped.

Not exactly an enthusiastic greeting, Luke thought. “Hi,” he said, “I’m Luke McGarrett.”

“We know who you are.” Helen Granger—he remembered her giving him a talking-to in church when he was a boy—stood to greet him. Pansy Trifle—he remembered her telling on him to his dad about how he didn’t eat his lunch in the cafeteria, preferring to play outside with the boys instead—stood, as well. “You got home quick.”

He nodded. “Howdy, Mr. Parsons. Mr. Carmine.”

Hiram and Bug stood in turn. They shook his hand solemnly.

“A couple of fellows happened to swing by the yacht I was on to let me know I was needed here.” Luke recalled how the grapevine worked in this small town. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

They shook their heads. Luke sighed to himself, realizing that starting out on the defensive was going to make him no friends. Whatever was brewing in Tulips would be revealed to him eventually. “So, I guess some coffee might be on the menu? I could use some before I go home.”

Pansy went to get him a mug. Helen, Bug and Hiram just stared at him, making him more apprehensive. “It’s only me,” he said. “I probably haven’t changed all that much.”

They looked down at their own coffee mugs. Luke was struck by their closemouthed behavior. When Hiram had owned the pawn shop, he’d been active in the community, and one wouldn’t have called him quiet. Bug…well, Bug was Bug, and he could be given to long bouts of quiet—he liked to take off to think, and drink, solo—until Mrs. Carmine had him brought home from the fields.

“Long time no see,” Pansy finally said bravely, and then he understood that maybe their feelings were a little hurt.

“I guess so,” he said with a nod. “I deserve you pointing that out.”

“Maybe a Christmas card or two wouldn’t have killed you,” Helen complained. “Your dad didn’t often seem to know much about you.”

“Enough for someone to figure out how to find me,” he said. “Who sent the goons after me?”

“We had nothing to do with that,” Pansy said. “We don’t send goons, anyway.”

But they all looked away, and Luke knew he wasn’t getting the straightest answer. “So, do any of you want to tell me what’s on your minds?”

“No,” Hiram said, “we just sit at this table most of our days and drink tea. Sometimes we go to Pansy’s house and sit and sometimes we sit at Helen’s. But our lives are pretty much about tea and cookies these days.”

Somehow, Luke doubted that. “Thanks for the coffee, then.” He stood. “It was good to see you again. I’d best go see Dad.”

They stared at him.

“I suppose you’d tell me if he wasn’t all right,” Luke said slowly, beginning to worry.

“He’s fine,” Bug said. “Mostly lonely, which, I’ll be the first to admit, he tends to bring upon himself. Still, he misses you.”

“All right.” Luke tipped his hat. “I’ll head that way.”

They watched him leave, and at the door, he turned to look back, again catching them staring at him.

They definitely had something on their minds they weren’t sharing with him. He sighed. “How about a hint?”

“No,” Helen said, “we daren’t.”

“All right, then.” He appreciated the honesty. “I’ll find out on my own.”

He left, and started heading to his father’s.

“Oh,” Helen said, sticking her head out the door. “Would you mind dropping this batch of cookies off at the new clinic? It’s a grand-opening gift, you might say.”

“New clinic?”

“Yes. Off Cotton Blossom street, four blocks away. You remember. Short walk.”

He looked down into her eyes, searching for clues, but she gave nothing away except the cookies, which she pressed into his hand. “Thank you,” Helen said primly.

“No problem.”

In fact, it gave him a reason not to hurry home. One more delay before seeing his father wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

PEPPER LOOKED AROUND her clinic, feeling proud of it, proud of her new home and of her boys. Holt had made her hair pretty and she had a new dress Liberty had sewed for her. Tomorrow was the big day. The grand opening. The day she started giving back to Tulips.

“I’m so excited,” she said to herself, glad that she had one last moment to herself to enjoy her brand-new surroundings. The boys were off with her brothers, but they’d be here tomorrow to help her celebrate.

They had so much to celebrate together.

The door swung open, and Pepper turned with a welcoming smile. But the face in the doorway was the last one she’d expected to see.

Chapter Four

Luke McGarrett looked at her, and Pepper stared at him, her heart leaping like a deer. As her worst fear materialized, her veins ran cold. “Hi,” she said, not ready at all for this moment.

He looked around, just as handsome and sexy as he’d ever been. “Hi. Pepper Forrester, right?”

She took a deep breath. “Yes. Luke McGarrett, of course.”

He nodded. “Here’s some cookies the ladies sent over for some grand opening. Is this your place?”

“Yes.”

“You’re a doctor?”

He said it as if he was implying You turned out to be more than just a bookworm?

She put the cookies on a shelf as an excuse to break eye contact. “Yes. And you?”

“I’m just…drifting,” he said slowly. “I don’t think I realized that until just now.”

She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Well, congratulations.” He looked around him again. “I’ll think of something cool and witty I could have said after I’m gone.”

“Why?” Pepper asked, wondering why he’d bother.

“I don’t know.” Luke sounded surprised. “I don’t remember you being so pretty. I mean, you were always the smartest student in our class, but…you’ve really changed.”

She thought about laughing, then about slapping him, then decided it didn’t matter worth a damn. Obviously, she was one virgin he hadn’t thought much of after the heat of the moment. “Goodbye, Luke.”

“Yeah. Bye,” he said.

He stared at her so long that he made her even more uncomfortable, and awkward enough to realize she still found him the most tantalizing male she’d ever come across. Blasted female hormones.

It hit her that she’d made children with this man. Shock flared inside her. The boys had been just hers for so long she’d forgotten that one day… She looked at Luke again, considering. One day she was going to have to tell this hunk, this person with whom she had nothing in common, this gorgeously unreliable specimen who claimed he was just a drifter…that he was a father and that they, together, were parents.

“Let’s do lunch sometime, okay?” Luke said, and Pepper shook her head.

“I don’t think so.”

He hesitated. “Dinner? Coffee? For old times’ sake?”

She walked behind the protective barrier of an island countertop. “There are no old times’ sakes for us.” Please don’t let him remember us rolling around groping each other as lusty teenagers. I want to be a bookwormish memory to him.

“There’s something about you I can’t quite remember—”

“There’s nothing,” she told him. “Nothing at all.” Pointedly, she looked at her watch. “I’m sorry. I must get home.”

“Family?”

She put on a coat. “Yes.”

He reached to help her, brushing her cheek in the process. Tingles ran through Pepper, making her grit her teeth. “Please,” she said, turning to face him. “I like to do everything myself.”

His grin was, slow and sexy. “I know what I was trying to remember about you.”

She held her breath.

“Some of our classmates secretly voted you Most Likely to Be Town Spinster. I guess they were wrong.”

She glared at him. “As long as you’re proud of being the town drifter, I’ll be proud of not being the town spinster.” She steered him out the door, shut it and locked it. When he turned and stared through the window at her, clearly surprised to be shoved into the cold, Pepper put a Closed sign up, then went out the back way.

She had a lot to think about.

LUKE WENT AROUND to the back of the clinic and watched Pepper get into her car. She was prettier now than in high school, though she’d been cute then in a studious sort of way. Her features had a warm glow of maturity now, giving her an appealing femininity that was new and refreshing to his jaded eyes.

He’d been lying, of course. He well remembered the last time he’d seen Pepper Forrester. His body remembered how she’d wrapped herself around him with innocent sighs of pleasure. A man didn’t forget that much passion, no matter how distant the memory might be.

He also knew she’d been lying, pretending she didn’t remember what they’d been to each other. A woman who gave her virginity to a man never let go of the knowledge that it had happened, for better or for worse. He hoped her memories of that afternoon—and of him—were kind ones, and his guilty conscience and ego wondered if perhaps the reason she dismissed him now was because the memory wasn’t a sterling one she’d recorded with happiness.

He hoped that wasn’t the case. He’d always prided himself on making women happy.

She got into her car, a serviceable minivan, which surprised him. It was almost a matronly vehicle, far too maternal for such a sexy woman. He would have imagined her, with that hair and her peaches-and-cream complexion, in some sort of fancy roadster. She was, after all, from the wealthiest family in Tulips. A little spoiled behavior from the only female of the Forrester clan wouldn’t have surprised him; the age and make of her vehicle did. The general’s daughters wouldn’t be caught dead driving or even riding in such a vehicle, unless it was an emergency and they had Gucci sunglasses to hide behind. He chuckled to himself. Pepper was a refreshing surprise to him.

Yet he couldn’t afford to linger over pleasant memories of his boyhood. His father—the reason he’d been called home—waited for him, no doubt with dragon’s breath ready to sear him. There was no putting it off any longer, so after Pepper had ridden away in her mommy-mobile, Luke turned to go.

Suddenly, a thought made him spin back around. A mommy-mobile was for a woman who had children, of course. She was married, and he hadn’t even bothered to scan her finger for a ring. Not that it mattered, he decided. He wasn’t the marrying kind himself.

Her van pulled up beside him as he prepared to walk back to the Tulips Saloon and try to hitch a ride off the old fogeys.

“I’m going to regret asking this,” Pepper said, “but where’s your car?”

“Not here. I had a taxi drop me off in town. I was stalling, to be honest,” he said.

She looked regretful. “So you need a ride.”

“If you’re offering.” He raised his brows and waited, hopeful she’d say yes.

She sighed. “This is so not a good idea.”

He grinned and climbed in. “Thanks. I appreciate it.” He chuckled when she rolled her eyes. “We can catch up on what has happened in the past many years of our lives.”

“No, thanks.”

Stiffly keeping her walls up, he noted. That was okay with him. He liked a woman who didn’t throw herself at a man. “You could at least ask something about me.”

“And feign interest in the answer?” She shook her head. “I’m giving a drifter a lift, nothing more.”

Okay, she was starting to hurt his feelings. “I don’t think I’ve ever met such a resistant female.”

“I hardly know what to say to that. The obvious reply, too obvious, is that you haven’t met many bright females. But I prefer to take the high road and tell you that I’m not resistant, I’m merely busy.”

“And have a lot on your mind.”

“Exactly.”

God, he wanted to touch her. She’d jump right out of her straight-laced skin if he did. Luke looked out the window, his ego flattened and his enthusiasm for baiting her declining. “I guess I’ll relieve you of my horse’s-ass attempts at socializing for the moment, then.” He leaned back, closing his eyes for a second. Truthfully, it was kind of nice to be around a woman who didn’t want a thing from him.

He relaxed and made himself stare out the window so he wouldn’t keep annoying a woman whose naked body, he remembered, was quite beautiful.

PEPPER TRIED TO DECIDE what had made her turn back around and pick up Luke. What drove her to dance on the fiery edge of an emotional volcano? He was every bit the dark-haired scoundrel with easy charm he’d always been; if anything, time had put a glossy veneer of sophistication on him that made him more dangerously sexy than ever. The cocktail was devastating to her heart, Pepper noted, analyzing her overrapid pulse and trembling, adrenaline-laced fingertips.

One day, I’m going to have to tell him….

She couldn’t imagine pushing a confession to this suave, confident man past her lips. Luke and she were strangers to each other, even more awkward than total strangers because neither of them wanted to accidentally refer to their past affair. She doubted he’d forgotten her naive crush on him and her willing surrender. Likely, he was being the gentleman by pretending to forget that it had ever happened.

It never happened, Pepper told herself. Toby and Josh were wonderful gifts from heaven.

But no. Her boys were wonderful gifts from the man seated next to her. She clenched her fingers on the steering wheel. “Here you are,” she said, “home again at long last.” She stopped the car outside the front door of the McGarrett farmhouse. Luke had become more and more quiet with every passing mile, and she could feel his dread of the meeting between him and his father. Mr. McGarrett had never been easy on him, therefore laying the groundwork for conflict, to Pepper’s mind, of a son who rebelled in all the requisite bad-boy methods.

“Thanks,” Luke said, opening the van door reluctantly.

She softened for a second, knowing he wasn’t looking forward to the meeting. Her fondest wish would be for her sons to never dread talking to their father…when they got to know him.

Prickles ran over her scalp. Duke and Zach had never had any reason to expect anything other than respect and love from their dad, as had she. “Good luck,” she murmured.

Luke looked at her. “Yeah. Thanks.”

She nodded, their gazes meeting. He hesitated, perhaps recognizing sympathy in her expression, so she broke eye contact and looked at her hands.

“I hope I see you again,” Luke said softly. “I have a feeling you turned out to be a very remarkable woman.”

She didn’t look up. She couldn’t. So he closed the door and walked away. She heard his footsteps crunching up the gravel drive, and sneaked a peek. Toby and Josh walked like their father, she realized, with that same loose, arm-swinging gait of busy alertness. While the walk was cute on her boys, it was darn sexy on a grown man, giving Pepper a flash that one day, her boys were going to turn out much like their father in the girl-magnet department.

They were thirteen, not so much younger than when she and Luke—

Not letting herself think about it, Pepper backed up the van and drove off.

LUKE WALKED INSIDE his boyhood home with reluctance. The front door was open, so he didn’t need the key his father kept under the cracked flowerpot. Luke had checked to make sure it was still there, knowing that nothing would have changed despite time’s certain march.

The house smelled musty, closed up, like library stacks in an unventilated basement. It was a world away from the open ocean and thrilling waters of Greece. Setting down his small bag, he headed to the den, where he knew his father would be on a Sunday evening.

His dad was parked in front of a blaring TV with a cereal bowl perched on a TV dinner tray. Luke swallowed hard, looking at the round top of a nearly bald head, all that was visible from behind the green recliner. “Dad.”

His father got to his feet, finally realizing someone was in the house with him. “Luke. You’re back.”

They stared at each other for a tense ten seconds before the older man finally stretched out his hand. “Good to see you.”

Luke nodded. “You, too.” He shook the offered hand with trepidation.

“Nice of you to come home to see your old man,” his father began, and Luke stiffened.

“You sent for me,” he said. “I assumed it was important.”

“My letter?” His father shook his head. “I didn’t send for you. I merely suggested you might want to take over the family business.”

“It’s your business, Dad,” Luke said, not wanting to jump immediately into a conflict. “Thanks, though. Residential real estate isn’t my cup of tea.”

By the looks of his father’s home, it wasn’t his cup of tea, either. There was a lot of work needing to be done, both inside and out.

Stepping back, his father accidentally bumped the TV table. When he reached to steady it, the cereal bowl went crashing to the floor, and Luke realized that he hadn’t been called home for business matters at all.

His father appeared quite feeble. A flash of despair and recognition washed over Luke as the truth hit him. His dad couldn’t take care of himself as well as he used to, and most certainly could no longer care for a large acreage. My footloose traveling days are over. Luke saw himself locked into the finality of caretaking for a man who’d never loved him or been proud of him.

He swore to himself on the spot that if he ever had children, they were going to know he loved them every day of their lives. Every single damn day.

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