Oh, Babies!

RUST CREEK RAMBLINGS

We here at The Gazette just love a happy ending, and if anyone needs a little Christmas, it’s Jamie Stockton. The stoic rancher has been raising his triplet babies alone since his wife died. Thanks to Rust Creek Falls’s volunteer “baby chain,” Jamie has had many helping hands. But his bed is still empty, and so is his heart.

Could family friend Fallon O’Reilly be the one to brighten his holiday? Babies Henry, Jared and Kate surely love having Fallon around, but their lonely dad may take a little more convincing. Hang the holly, dear readers, and deck the halls as our cautious cowboy rediscovers his Christmas spirit—and the “girl next door” gets a present she will never forget!

“Jeez, Fallon—you’re not actually hoping to stir up trouble, are you?”

“Maybe I am,” she said. “Maybe I’m tired of every man I know treating me like a buddy. Maybe I want someone to look at me and realize I’m a woman, to want me as a woman.”

And suddenly he got it. “You mean me,” he realized. “You want me to see you as a woman.”

She sighed as she shook her head. “No, Jamie. I think I’ve finally accepted that that is never going to happen.”

“But I do see you as a woman,” he assured her. “A genuinely warm, funny and smart woman.”

“Maybe it’s un-PC,” she admitted. “But I don’t want to be admired for my personality or my intelligence. I want to be wanted.”

Jamie swallowed. “You’re looking for a hookup?”

“That wouldn’t be my first choice,” she said. “But I’ve decided to open my mind up to any and all possibilities.”

“A hookup should not be one of them,” he told her. “You deserve better than that.”

“What does the song say—we can’t always get what we want, but we get what we need?”

“Don’t go, Fallon.” The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying.

She paused with her hand on the door.

“Don’t go out to the Ace tonight.”

She slowly turned around, her expression carefully neutral.

“Are you making me an alternate offer?” she asked.

He nodded. “Stay here. With me.”

* * *

MONTANA MAVERICKS:

The Baby Bonanza—Meet Rust Creek Falls’ newest bundles of joy!

Dear Reader,

I have two wonderful sons, both teenagers now, but they came into my life one at a time. Though the memories of those early days and sleepless nights have faded, I haven’t completely forgotten how terrified and overwhelmed I felt at times, knowing that I was responsible for the care and well-being of a helpless baby (and, two years later, a toddler and a baby!). So while I have absolutely no practice caring for triplets, I imagined the experience would be somewhat similar to my own…times three!

But I also had a partner with whom to share the work and the worry, which Jamie Stockton—suddenly a single dad to three premature babies—does not. Thankfully, Rust Creek Falls is the kind of community where friends and neighbors are always willing to lend a hand to others in need.

Fallon O’Reilly is happy to help take care of her friend’s beautiful babies—and determined to do everything she can to make sure that their first Christmas is a merry one, despite the obstacles their dad keeps putting in her path. Jamie has a lot of reasons not to look forward to the festive season, but Fallon refuses to let him dampen her holiday spirit.

As she works her magic spreading Christmas cheer around his ranch—a tree in his living room (that she made him cut down), cookies baking in his kitchen (that she enticed him to help decorate), carols playing on the radio (that he finds himself humming along with)—he realizes that his feelings have started to change. Not just about the holidays, but about the woman who’s always been one of his best friends…

And if Fallon gets her holiday wish, she’ll find a handsome Maverick—and his three adorable children—under her tree on Christmas morning.

I hope you enjoy Jamie and Fallon’s story, and that all of your holiday wishes come true!

Brenda Harlen

The More Mavericks, the Merrier!

Brenda Harlen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

BRENDA HARLEN is a former attorney who once had the privilege of appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada. The practice of law taught her a lot about the world and reinforced her determination to become a writer—because in fiction, she could promise a happy ending! Now she is an award-winning, national bestselling author of more than thirty titles for Mills & Boon.. You can keep up-to-date with Brenda on Facebook and Twitter or through her website, www.brendaharlen.com.

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For Connor—it doesn’t seem so very long ago that we were celebrating your first Christmas. Now you’re in your first year at university, and I’m counting the days until you come home for the holidays. A lot has changed over the years, but there are two things that never will: how very proud I am to call you my son, and how much I love you. xo

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

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

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Jamie Stockton turned the page on the calendar and stared at the letters that spelled out the month. D-E-C-E-M-B-E-R. The final month of a year that had mostly been a blur in his mind.

Twelve months earlier, he’d been anticipating the upcoming holiday and already thinking about this Christmas, when he and his wife would celebrate the holiday with their babies. Now Henry, Jared and Katie’s first Christmas was only weeks away, but Paula was gone and instead of being excited about the event, he was simply exhausted.

His fingers automatically wrapped around the heavy mug that was thrust into his hand. He lifted it to his lips and swallowed a mouthful of hot, strong coffee. The caffeine slid down his throat, spread slowly through his system.

He turned away from the calendar to face his sister. “Thanks.”

“You looked like you needed it,” Bella said, as she started breaking eggs into a bowl.

He swallowed another mouthful of coffee. “Henry was up three times last night.”

“Teething?”

“I don’t know. His cheeks weren’t red, he wasn’t drooling and he didn’t have a fever.”

“Hmm.” Bella turned and looked at the triplets, lined up in three high chairs beside the butcher block table, each of them focused on the cut-up pieces of fruit she’d offered to tide them over until she could cook breakfast. “He looks okay now—certainly a lot better than you do.”

“Thanks,” he said dryly.

She added a splash of milk and began whisking the eggs. “Did Jared and Katie sleep through the night?”

He shook his head. “Jared was awake once. Katie made it all the way through until her wet diaper woke her up at four this morning.”

“And since you had to be up at five, you probably didn’t even try to go back to sleep after she was changed.” She poured the egg mixture into the hot pan on the stove.

“Nope,” he agreed.

The truth was, even when the kids were settled in their cribs at night, sleep didn’t come easily to him. When he tumbled into his own bed, unable to keep his eyes open a minute longer, his body would immediately shut down. His mind, not so much.

Although he’d always wanted to be a father, he never planned to be a single father. But that’s what he was, and while the joys of being a parent to ten-month old triplets were countless, the trials were also numerous.

“I really think you should consider putting them into day care,” Bella said gently.

It wasn’t the first time she’d made the suggestion, and he understood that—for a lot of reasons—it was a valid one. Of course, he’d nixed the idea the first dozen times she’d mentioned it, vehemently when the town was in the midst of an RSV outbreak. But now that the epidemic had passed, maybe he would reconsider.

He nodded, because he agreed that socialization in a structured setting would be good for his children. And while the cost of day care for three babies was somewhat prohibitive, he also knew that he couldn’t continue to rely on community volunteers to provide in-home care for his young family.

Since the tragic death of his wife after the birth of their babies, he’d been the grateful recipient of an outpouring of support and assistance from the residents of Rust Creek Falls. Under the direction of his sister, Bella, several volunteers had come together to create what she called a baby chain and help him take care of the triplets in rotating shifts.

For the past ten months, his sister had been the anchor of that system. Despite the demands on her, she’d somehow found the time to meet and fall in love with Hudson Jones. And Jamie knew it was time for him to take control of his own life so that she could get on with hers and the planning of her wedding.

“So you are thinking about day care?” she prompted, evidently surprised.

He lifted his mug again, to hide his smile behind the rim. “I’ve heard a lot of great things about Country Kids.”

Bella, who worked at Just Us Kids—the day care center managed by her fiancé—narrowed her gaze as she stirred the eggs in the pan.

He chuckled. “I’m kidding.”

“I hope so.”

“On the other hand, Fallon does work at Country Kids,” he pointed out. “And they offer a discount for more than one child.”

“Just Us Kids does, too,” she told him, as she took the platter of bacon and toast out of the oven and set it on the table. “Plus, I’m pretty sure I can wrangle a family discount for you.”

“I’m not looking for anything full-time,” he told her, snagging a piece of bacon as soon as she turned her back.

“Of course not,” Bella agreed, tearing a slice of toast into pieces for Henry, Jared and Katie to chew on. “Half days would be a better introduction for them. Any change in daily routine is an adjustment for a child, although the triplets do have something of an advantage in that they’re accustomed to being cared for by different people.”

Because they’d never had the benefit of a mother and a father to tend to their day-to-day needs, Jamie lamented silently. “That’s an advantage?”

She winced. “I’m sorry. You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know,” he confirmed.

“So...half days,” she said, attempting to refocus their conversation as she set a plate of eggs in front of him. “Mornings?”

He nodded as he picked up his fork to dig into his breakfast. “But not every day.”

Bella sighed as she scooped smaller portions of egg into three bowls on the counter to cool off for a few minutes before she gave them to the babies. “Part-time only a few days a week isn’t going to be very helpful to you when you’re juggling so much,” she pointed out. “You leave the house at the crack of dawn every morning, then you come back to have lunch with your kids, then you head back out to work and drop whatever you’re doing to come back to check on them again in the afternoon.”

“And yet I still feel guilty about relying on other people to care for them during so much of the time that they’re awake,” he admitted, adding a couple slices of thick, buttered toast to his plate.

She sat down with her own breakfast. “You’ll feel less guilty when they’re in day care—and less inclined to interrupt your day to check on them.”

“Three days a week,” he decided.

“Four,” she countered, reaching out to snag a couple of pieces of bacon before he emptied the platter.

He scowled. “They’re only ten months old.”

“And I’ll be at the day care every minute that they are,” Bella assured him.

“I don’t know,” he hedged.

She didn’t press any further as she finished her own breakfast, then gave the babies their eggs.

Jamie had just pushed his own plate aside when a brisk knock sounded on the back door, then Fallon O’Reilly walked into the room without waiting for an invitation.

He didn’t mind. Fallon had been a friend of both him and his sister since childhood and one of the first women to volunteer for the baby chain. She was also one of the most regular, and expediency had required that they dispense with the usual protocols months earlier.

“Good morning,” Fallon greeted Jamie and Bella, her tone and her smile confirming that she believed it to be true. Then she turned to the babies, lavishly kissing each of their cheeks, making them giggle.

The sound filled his heart with joy and he looked at Fallon with sincere gratitude. She was so great with the babies—so natural and easy. She seemed to love them as he’d hoped their mother would have done, but Paula had never had the chance to be the mother he’d believed she could be—dying only hours after their babies were born by emergency C-section.

“I brought blueberry muffins.” Fallon set a plastic container in the middle of the table, then moved across the kitchen to retrieve a mug from the cupboard. She brought it and the carafe to the table, offering refills to Jamie and Bella.

But Bella shook her head. “I should be getting into work.”

Jamie picked up his mug and stood. “And I need to get out to the barn and check on Daisy. Brooks said she could foal any day now.”

Fallon frowned at both of them. “Why are you racing off? It’s barely seven-thirty.”

“Hudson wants to expand Just Us Kids to offer a newborn group and I promised to help him review the applications and set up the interviews,” Bella told her.

“And I’ve already had breakfast,” Jamie said.

Fallon looked from sister to brother and back again, her eyes narrowing. “This is about the coffee cake I made for the Fourth of July potluck, isn’t it?”

Jamie and Bella exchanged a look.

Fallon huffed out an exasperated breath as she lifted the lid off the container. “I misread the recipe,” she explained, selecting a muffin and peeling the paper off of the bottom half. “Once. And no one in this town will let me forget it.”

“Because you served the cake at the potluck.”

“Three years ago. And it wasn’t really that bad,” Fallon defended.

“You used two tablespoons of baking powder instead of two teaspoons,” Bella reminded her, settling back in her chair. “The cake was tough and chewy.”

“And tasted like metal,” Jamie chimed in.

Color filled Fallon’s cheeks as she tore a piece off the muffin. “Okay, it was bad,” she acknowledged, as she popped the morsel into her mouth. “But these are delicious.”

Jamie sat down again and reached into the container—because even after eating a full breakfast, there was room for a muffin. Bella continued to look dubious.

“I brought something else, too,” Fallon said, as she broke up the bottom of the muffin into pieces and set them onto each of the babies’ trays.

Henry, Jared and Kate showed no hesitation, gleefully stuffing the pieces into their mouths.

“What?” Jamie asked, nibbling tentatively on the muffin.

Fallon hesitated, not wanting to overstep. But she’d spent a lot of time with this man and his children over the past ten months, and although she understood that he was still grieving the loss of his wife, he needed to start to look forward instead of back—for the sake of his babies if no one else.

So she pulled the paper out of her pocket and unfolded it, then slid it across the table for Jamie to read.

He gave it a cursory—almost curious—glance, then looked away to focus his attention on the muffin that he suddenly couldn’t shove into his mouth fast enough.

Bella leaned forward to peer at the words on the page.

“It’s Henry, Jared and Katie’s first Christmas,” Fallon reminded Jamie gently, sliding the paper closer to him. “And I want to help you make it the best Christmas ever for them.”

“They’re not even a year old,” he pointed out. “It’s not as if they’ll remember the occasion.”

“Maybe not,” she acknowledged. But she loved the holiday season almost as much as she loved the triplets, so she’d decided that she was going to do everything in her power to ensure that their first Christmas was a truly memorable one. That was why she’d come up with a list of suggested activities to introduce HJK—as Jamie affectionately referred to his children—to some yuletide traditions and get everyone in the holiday spirit.

Unfortunately, she knew that she would face an obstacle in their father. It was Jamie’s first Christmas without his wife, and she understood it wouldn’t be an easy one for him. She also believed that it wouldn’t help him or his children to dwell on what they’d lost.

“But you will remember,” Fallon told him. “And when they look back on the pictures you take over the holiday season, they’ll see that you made it a wonderful one for them.”

“I don’t know—”

“Fallon’s right,” Bella interjected, reaching across the table to touch her brother’s hand. “You need to do something special—for all of you. It’s your first Christmas as a father—”

“And a widower,” he pointed out.

“As a father,” she said again, determined to emphasize the positive. “And that’s a cause for celebration.”

He glanced at the list again, his thick brows drawing together. “First Christmas photo with Santa? Am I supposed to ask the fat guy to pose with HJK after he squeezes down the chimney on Christmas Eve?”

“No,” Fallon said, with what she thought was incredible patience. “You’re supposed to take them to the mall in Kalispell.”

He was shaking his head before she even finished speaking. “I don’t do malls and I don’t have the time—or the inclination—to bundle up three babies, strap their screaming, squirming bodies into car seats, and trek into the city to stand in line with dozens of other harried parents for a photo op with a phony Kris Kringle.”

“Well, the real one is kind of busy at the North Pole this time of year,” she shot back, deadpan. “And you need to make the time and fake the inclination if necessary, because this is important.”

“To whom?” he countered.

“To me,” Bella interjected, obviously attempting to play peacemaker. “I’d love a picture of my niece and nephews with Santa.”

“Then you can take them,” Jamie told her.

Fallon drew in a slow, deep breath and mentally counted to ten. It wouldn’t help the situation if she lost her temper, but she was so frustrated with him—and for him. She knew he was grieving, but she also knew he loved his babies and, when he finally stopped grieving, he would regret the opportunities he’d missed. She wasn’t going to let him have regrets.

“We’ll put that one aside for now,” she finally relented. “The outfits I’ve ordered haven’t come in yet, anyway.”

His frown was back again. “You ordered outfits?”

“Wait until you see them. They’re the—”

“I don’t want to see them,” he told her. “I want you to send them back. I can afford to buy clothes for my kids. I don’t need your charity.”

Fallon sighed. “It’s not charity. It’s a gift.”

“And very thoughtful,” Bella interjected again, with a pointed look at her brother.

Jamie sighed. “Bella’s right. I’m sorry.”

“Prove it,” she said.

His brows lifted. “How am I supposed to prove it?”

“By agreeing to fulfill the requirements of my list.”

“I’m not that sorry.” He pushed the paper away from him.

She shoved it at him again.

With a sigh, he reached out to take it, his fingertips brushing against hers in the transfer. Little sparks skipped through her veins in response to the brief contact.

She glanced up, to see if he’d experienced any kind of reaction. His gaze remained focused on the page, his expression neutral.

“I have no objection to a tree,” he finally conceded.

Fallon ignored her own disappointment. “Great,” she said. “We’ll bundle the kids up this afternoon, take them in the sleigh out to the woods and find an appropriate specimen.”

“That’s a wonderful idea,” Bella agreed.

Jamie frowned. “This afternoon? What’s the hurry? It’s only the first day of December.”

“A tree is the most obvious symbol of Christmas,” Fallon pointed out reasonably. “Having one in the house will help you get into the spirit of the season.”

Nothing in his expression hinted at the tiniest bit of holiday spirit, but he shrugged. “Fine. Whatever. If you want to take the kids out and chop down a tree, I’ll see if one of the kids from next door is available to help you drag it back.”

“Uh-uh,” Fallon said, shaking her head. “I’m not taking the kids out to chop down a tree—we are.”

“I don’t have time—”

“Make time,” she said, interrupting his familiar refrain.

He frowned. “When did you get to be so bossy?”

“She’s always been bossy,” Bella chimed in. “I don’t know how it’s possible that you’ve known her for more than twenty years and not known that.”

But Fallon wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t noticed her ability to take charge and assert herself when the situation warranted. There were a lot of things that Jamie had never noticed about her. Most notably the Montana-sized crush she’d had on him since she was a girl experiencing the first stirring of adolescent hormones.

And while a part of her was grateful that he’d never discovered her feelings for him, another part continued to be frustrated that he’d always viewed her as his kid sister’s friend. Sure, over the years they’d developed a friendship of their own outside of their mutual connection to Bella, but Jamie had only ever seen her as a pal to hang out with and an occasional confidante.

She was the only person he’d shared his anger and frustration with when he’d discovered that his wife had secretly been taking birth control while he’d thought they were trying to get pregnant. Of course, when Paula finally had conceived, Jamie had shared the good news with everyone in Rust Creek Falls. He’d been so thrilled, he’d practically shouted it from the rooftops. But he’d subsequently admitted to Fallon that Paula wasn’t nearly as excited about having a baby as he was—and even less so when they learned that she would have three of them.

“I thought you were the bossy one,” Jamie responded to his sister’s comment while his speculative gaze lingered on Fallon.

“I’m not bossy,” she denied.

His lips twitched. “Of course not. And now, I really do need to get out to the barn to check on Daisy,” he said, suddenly remembering his expectant mare.

Fallon nodded. “Will we see you at lunch?”

“Not if I’m going to finish up early to go out hunting for a Christmas tree.”

“I didn’t ask you to do that,” she pointed out.

“It gets dark early this time of year.” He snagged a couple of muffins out of the container on the table, then winked at her on his way to the door. “These will tide me over.”

She started to offer to wrap them up and fill a thermos with coffee, then clenched her teeth to hold back the words. She was pleased that he liked the muffins, but while offering baked goods was an acceptable and neighborly gesture, sending him off with a bagged lunch and a hot beverage was something a wife would do.

And Fallon wasn’t his wife—she was his friend and his children’s babysitter, nothing more. She needed to remember that—for the sake of her own heart.

Chapter Two

While Jamie was making his way to the door, his sister started clearing the breakfast dishes off the table.

“If you have to get to work, I can take care of that,” Fallon offered.

“I’m not really in a hurry,” Bella admitted.

“You don’t have to meet Hudson to look at applications?”

“Not until this afternoon.”

Fallon shook her head. “Really? You were so afraid to sample my baking that you made up that story?”

“I didn’t make it up,” her friend denied. “I just fudged the timeline a little.”

“I’ve prepared lunch and occasionally dinner here numerous times over the past ten months and you never balked at eating anything I’ve cooked,” she pointed out.

“You know how to put a meal together,” Bella confirmed. “Dessert? Not so much.”

“Ouch.”

“You have a lot of talents,” her friend soothed. “Baking just isn’t one of them.”

“But the muffins were good, weren’t they?”

“They were very good, but one batch of muffins isn’t going to make anyone forget the potluck experience.”

Fallon scowled as she washed the babies’ hands and faces, then she and Bella carried the triplets into the living room.

Because Henry, Jared and Katie were preemies—born almost two months ahead of schedule—they were a little bit delayed in their development and had only recently started to crawl and climb. Their sudden mobility had Jamie in a panic about childproofing the house, so there were now caps in all of the outlets, child locks and latches on all of the doors and drawers and baby gates to block off the rooms that were completely off-limits to the little ones.

He also had a play yard—which Fallon thought was intended to go in the yard, but he’d assured her was also suitable for indoor use and gave the babies a little more room to roam around than a traditional playpen. But for now, with Bella there to provide an extra set of eyes, they were letting the babies crawl around the floor.

While her brothers were playing with wooden toy cars, Katie was preoccupied with the sparkly ring on Bella’s finger. “Pretty, isn’t it?” Fallon said.

Katie, of course, didn’t respond but continued to be mesmerized by the massive diamond.

“You’re a smart girl,” her Auntie Bella said. “You already know that diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

“And her brothers are already obsessed with cars,” Fallon noted.

“Whatever keeps them busy...and happy,” Bella said, smiling as she watched them play. “For a long time, I didn’t think they’d ever learn how to occupy themselves.”

“It’s amazing how much they’ve grown and changed over the past ten months,” Fallon agreed. “And speaking of changes...have you and Hudson set a date for the wedding?”

“We have,” her friend happily confirmed. “Saturday, June 10. We’re having the ceremony at the church followed by a reception at Maverick Manor.”

“Have you found a dress?”

“I’ve been looking at bridal magazines and browsing online, but that’s it so far. I’m hoping to get to Mimi’s Bridal in Kalispell on Saturday, but I have to make sure my maid of honor can go with me.”

“Who are you having stand up with you?” Fallon asked.

“Hopefully my best friend,” Bella said.

“Me?”

The bride-to-be smiled. “Of course you, if you’re willing.”

“I would be honored,” Fallon told her sincerely.

“And are you up for wedding dress shopping on Saturday?”

“Absolutely. Have you decided who will be your bridesmaids?”

Bella shook her head. “I’m not having any other attendants.”

“Why not?” Fallon wondered.

“Because I always imagined that I’d have Dana and Liza in my wedding party,” the bride-to-be admitted softly, referring to the two sisters she hadn’t seen in years. “And if they can’t be there... I don’t want anyone else.”

Fallon reached over to squeeze her friend’s hand in a silent gesture of comfort and support.

“So the wedding party is going to be very small,” Bella continued. “Bride and groom, maid of honor and best man, flower girl and two ring bearers.”

“Katie, Henry and Jared?” she guessed.

Her friend nodded. “Jamie thinks I’m crazy, but I want my niece and nephews in my wedding party.”

“That’s not crazy,” Fallon assured her. “Crazy would be letting Homer Gilmore anywhere near the wedding punch.”

Bella chuckled at her mention of the old man who had confessed to spiking the wedding punch with his homemade moonshine when Jennifer MacCallum and Braden Traub got married last Fourth of July. As a result, the celebration had resulted in several new romances and started the local baby boom. “Apparently he learned his lesson. Although I have to admit, I’ve found myself wondering if ‘what happened at the wedding’ wasn’t much ado about nothing.”

“I’m sure Will Clifton and Jordyn Cates, Lani Dalton and Russ Campbell, Trey Strickland and Kayla Dalton would argue otherwise.”

“Hmm.”

“I know that tone,” Fallon said, sounding a little worried. “What are you thinking?”

“I was just thinking, if Homer Gilmore’s moonshine really does have special powers, I should try to get my hands on some.”

“Why do you want Homer’s moonshine when all of your dreams are about to come true?”

“It wouldn’t be for me, but for Jamie.”

“I think your brother’s hands are full enough with Henry, Jared and Katie,” she said.

“I don’t mean for him to have more babies,” Bella said. “Although there was a definite rise in pregnancies for wedding guests who drank the spiked punch, there was also a noticeable increase in the number of couples falling in love,” she pointed out. “That’s what I want for Jamie—for him to fall in love, and for real this time.”

Fallon didn’t say anything. She wasn’t going to ask, but her curiosity must have shown on her face because Bella’s lips curved into a slow smile.

“Apparently Jamie doesn’t tell you everything,” his sister mused.

“Maybe that’s because he wants to keep his private life private,” she suggested. Because she knew that Jamie and Paula’s marriage hadn’t been without its share of problems, but she also knew that Jamie had loved his wife.

Bella waved a hand dismissively. “If I’ve learned nothing else this past year, I’ve learned that keeping secrets doesn’t help anyone. My brother needs a wife, his babies need a mother and most of the women in town are keeping a respectable distance because they think he’s still mourning Paula.

“I’m not saying he didn’t care for her,” his sister hastened to explain. “He wouldn’t have married her if he didn’t believe he was in love with her. But even I could see that they were ill-suited. Paula might have wanted Jamie, but she never really wanted to live in Rust Creek Falls and...” she paused now, as if reluctant to say aloud what she was thinking “...I don’t believe she ever wanted those beautiful babies.

“Of course, by the time my brother realized the truth about who she was and what she wanted, they were already married. And Jamie being Jamie, he was determined to make it work.”

“She would have loved Henry, Jared and Katie,” Fallon said. “If she’d been given a chance to be a mother to them, she would have loved them.” Unfortunately, complications resulting from her pregnancy had taken that chance along with her life.

“You always did have a huge and forgiving heart,” Bella told her. “And that’s what I want for my brother—for him to find someone like you who will help him open his heart again.”

She felt her own heart beat faster as she wondered if her friend had somehow guessed the truth of her feelings for Jamie.

But Bella continued, oblivious to Fallon’s inner thoughts and deepest emotions. “Someone down to earth, preferably a Rust Creek Falls resident who understands life on a ranch and might be willing to become an instant mother to these precious babies.” She grabbed a tissue from the box on the table to wipe the drool off Henry’s chin. “Can you think of anyone who might fit the criteria?”

Me! Me! Fallon wanted to respond, while jumping up and down with her hand in the air like an eager second grader.

“I’m sure there are more than a few suitable candidates,” she said instead, and hoped her friend didn’t guess that her lack of enthusiasm was based on a reluctance to watch Jamie hook up with anyone else.

It had been difficult enough for her to see him with Paula, but she’d tried to be happy for him because she knew he was in love with his wife. She’d been sincerely pleased when he told her about his wife’s pregnancy, because she knew how much he wanted to be a father, to have a family of his own. Her heart had ached, but she’d put a smile on her face because she loved him so much she valued his happiness above even her own.

But now, she wasn’t sure she could go through that again. She didn’t want to sit back and be a spectator while the man she loved fell in love with another woman.

“Has he indicated any interest in meeting someone new?” she asked cautiously.

“No,” Bella admitted. “But why wouldn’t he be content with the status quo when he’s got someone here taking care of his babies every day and often putting a meal on the table? The only thing he’s not getting is sex.”

Fallon felt her cheeks flush. “How do you know he’s not having sex?”

“Because he’s too exhausted to ever leave the ranch and find a willing woman,” his sister said matter-of-factly.

Which didn’t preclude him finding a willing woman on the ranch, and that wasn’t completely outside the realm of possibility considering that several of the baby chain volunteers were single women. On the other hand, it wasn’t very likely with Jamie’s sister living under the same roof.

“So what do you think?” Bella prompted. “Can you help me come up with some prospects for him?”

“Sure,” Fallon agreed, because apparently she was enough of a masochist to play matchmaker for the man she’d been crushing on for more than a decade. Or maybe she was finally ready to face the truth and acknowledge that, if Jamie was ever going to show any interest in her, he would have done so years earlier. But aside from one single, solitary kiss the summer between his first and second years of college, their relationship had never been anything but platonic.

Henry crawled into Fallon’s lap, stuffed his thumb in his mouth and dropped his head against her breast. “I think someone’s trying to tell me that he’s tired.”

“Already?” Bella glanced at her watch. “I guess we’ve been gabbing longer than I realized.”

Fallon nodded toward Jared, who had fallen asleep with his cheek on the carpet and a car in his hand. Only Katie was still upright, although Fallon could tell by the little girl’s flagging movements that she wouldn’t object to being put down for a nap.

Bella helped her get the babies changed and settled into their individual cribs before she headed off to work with a reminder to Fallon about their upcoming trip to the bridal salon.

She was genuinely happy for her best friend, and maybe feeling just a little sorry for herself, because she had no imminent plans for a wedding or a family of her own. But she would put a smile on her face, stand up beside the bride, continue to lavish Henry, Jared and Katie with attention and affection and, most important, pretend that she wasn’t seriously infatuated with their father.

* * *

Jamie had more than enough work to keep him busy throughout the morning and most of the afternoon. After he checked on the mare and fed the heifers, he worked on fixing the fence on the north border that was in desperate need of repair. Though he couldn’t say for certain, the look of the damage—combined with some talk he’d heard in town about Craig Garrison needing parts to fix his ATV—suggested to Jamie that his neighbor’s idiot son had run into the fence while he was out joyriding, probably in the middle of the snowstorm a couple of weeks earlier.

He immediately felt guilty for the thought. Craig wasn’t really an idiot; he was just a teenager. The spoiled youngest son of a successful rancher who didn’t care that Jamie was struggling to keep on top of countless daily tasks without additional fence repairs added to the mix.

He’d bought the Circle K ranch from the bank when Dierk and Gretchen Krueger opted to walk away after the floods decimated their land three years earlier. They’d worked the ranch for almost forty years with the intention of passing it on to their own children someday. But none of their children was interested in the property—especially not after the floods—so they’d opted to sell and move to a more temperate climate for their golden years.

Jamie had been fresh out of school and eager to put down his own roots in Rust Creek Falls independent of the grandparents who had let him and Bella live with them in town but never showed them an ounce of affection. He was also familiar with the Circle K because he’d worked as a ranch hand for Dierk in the summers during high school. The old man had taught him a lot about ranch management, and though Jamie had felt uncomfortable taking advantage of his misfortune, Dierk assured him that he’d be happy knowing the ranch was in the hands of someone who cared about the land and wouldn’t turn it into some kind of tourist attraction for the Hollywood types who had been flocking to Montana in recent years to pretend to be cowboys.

So Jamie had scraped together enough money for the down payment, financed the rest of the purchase and taken what was left of the Kruegers’ herd on a consignment basis. He renamed the property The Short Hills Ranch in recognition of its topography, then he’d refurbished the house and moved in with his new bride.

He’d been happy then—and so full of hope for the future. Now he was just trying to get by, one day at a time.

That was the problem with physical work—it left his mind free to wander without direction. Usually he appreciated the mundane tasks that he could perform without thinking, but today, Fallon’s desire to cut down a tree suddenly had him thinking of Christmases past.

He had fond memories of holidays with his family during the first fifteen years of his life, before his parents had been killed in a car wreck. Hiking out into the woods to find the perfect tree, arguing over who got to cut it down—and then who had to lug it back to the house.

While his father set up the tree, his mother would make hot chocolate, rich and creamy, and float little marshmallows on top. When the chocolate had been drunk, they’d work together to decorate the towering evergreen. Lights. Garland. Ornaments. And then, finally, the serious countdown toward Christmas would begin.

With seven kids in the family, there was always a pile of presents under the tree. Never anything too expensive or impractical, of course, but there was always something that was needed—like an extra pair of long johns or a new razor—and something that was wanted—a coveted toy or favorite treat. And his mother always knitted a new sweater for each of her seven children.

The first Christmas after his parents were gone had been starkly different for Jamie and all of his siblings. Agnes and Matthew Baldwin—their maternal grandparents—were their only living relatives, and they had not been pleased by the prospect of taking in seven grandchildren.

Luke, Daniel and Bailey made it easy on them—opting to leave Rust Creek Falls to make their own way in the world. Because the three eldest siblings were all of legal age, their grandparents couldn’t stop them. But Jamie knew that they didn’t even try, that they were relieved by this immediate lessening of their responsibilities.

And still, four kids were a lot for the older couple to take in, especially when they lived in a modestly sized house in the center of town. Without any consultation—or even any warning, Agnes and Matthew had signed the two youngest siblings over to the local child welfare authorities to be adopted. Jamie remembered saying goodbye to Dana and Liza before he left for school early one morning, and when he returned home that afternoon, they were gone.

Only Jamie and Bella—too young to be independent like their brothers and too old to be considered adoptable like their sisters—were left. Was it any wonder that he and Bella had adopted a “you and me against the world” mentality? Or that they’d never felt close to the grandparents who had reluctantly taken them in?

Their first holiday with the grandparents had been an eye-opener. Agnes and Matthew hadn’t bothered with a real tree for years and didn’t see any reason to change their tradition of putting out a ceramic tree on the coffee table. There were a few other decorations scattered around the house and a holly wreath on the exterior door.

He’d thought that was quite possibly the worst Christmas ever. He’d been wrong.

He scrubbed a gloved hand over his face as the cold wind swirled around him, making his eyes water, and forced his attention back to the fence.

A sound came from somewhere in the distance—something that sounded like a dog barking.

He didn’t have a dog. He’d always planned to get one, but when he’d suggested to Paula that they make a trip to the nearest shelter to pick one out, she’d balked. If they were going to bring an animal into the house, she didn’t want it to be what she called a flea-infested mongrel. And maybe that should have been one of his first clues that their differences were greater than their similarities, but he’d ignored the concerns, so certain that they could make their marriage work.

He heard the bark again—far in the distance. Near the end of the summer, he’d noticed a dog skirting the edges of the property. A once-beautiful golden retriever now with matted fur and distrustful eyes. He didn’t know if she’d been abused or abandoned, but she hadn’t let him coax her to come near. After a few weeks, he noticed that she hadn’t ventured too far away, either.

So he’d put a couple of stainless-steel bowls outside of the barn, ensuring one was always filled with fresh water and the other with kibble he’d picked up when he was at the feed store. And he’d hammered together some spare boards into a makeshift shelter that he’d set out on the north side of the property, where she seemed to linger.

Though he’d never seen her inside, he felt better knowing that it was there, that she had an escape from the elements if she chose to use it. And though he’d never seen her at the barn, the water and food needed to be replenished on a regular basis.

He’d immediately thought of her as a she, though he didn’t know for sure. But any uncertainty as to her gender had been put to rest early in October when he’d seen her hovering at the edge of the woods. She was pregnant.

So before the first snowfall, he’d tossed a couple of old blankets into the shelter he’d built, hoping she would take refuge there when her birthing time was near. He wished he could do more. He wished he had the time to track her down and bring her in out of the cold to ensure that she and her puppies were safe, but he had all he could handle taking care of his own kids—and then some.

And now Fallon had launched a Christmas campaign to get him in the spirit of the holidays. He appreciated that her heart was in the right place—he just wished he could make her understand that his was still battered and bruised. He did want HJK’s first Christmas to be a memorable one, and he was confident that Fallon would make it so. He was less certain that anything could change his own “bah, humbug” attitude this year, though he was almost tempted to let her try.

* * *

Fallon had just finished programming the slow cooker when she heard one of the babies stirring. Wiping her hands on a towel, she quickly climbed the steps to the upper level, eager to get to whoever was awake before he or she woke the others.

She’d been part of the baby chain since the beginning and she’d fallen in love with Henry, Jared and Katie almost instantly. She loved taking care of them and, on the rare days that she didn’t see them—and their dad—she missed them all unbearably. On days like today, while she was tending to the children, tidying the house and preparing meals while Jamie worked on the ranch, it was all too easy to pretend that this was her life—that Jamie was her husband and his children were her children, too. But that was only a fantasy. The reality was that when he came in from his chores at the end of the day, she would say goodbye and go back to her regularly-scheduled, lonely life. But today, the fantasy would be extended just a little bit longer, because when Jamie came back, they were going to cut down a Christmas tree together.

After caring for HJK for so long, she’d learned to distinguish the identity of the crier and the nature of their cries. This time it was Henry, she guessed. Either he was hungry, had a wet diaper or a tummy ache. She’d been pleased when he’d crawled into her lap earlier—and a little surprised, because he wasn’t usually a cuddler, except when he was tired or sick. She’d assumed he was just tired, but now she wondered.

“How are you doing, big guy?”

He held his arms out to her, a silent plea to be picked up. And though his big blue eyes were swimming with tears, he smiled at her. A quick glance into the other two cribs confirmed that his brother and sister were both sleeping peacefully.

“You didn’t nap for very long,” she said, speaking softly as she lifted him into her arms. She patted his bottom, checking his diaper. Though it didn’t feel wet, she changed him anyway, then lifted him into her arms again. “You shouldn’t be hungry,” she said. “Auntie Bella said you had some fruit and eggs this morning, plus a piece of blueberry muffin and a bottle.”

“Ba,” he said, which was his word for ‘bottle.’

“Are you thirsty?” She continued to chat quietly with him as she carried him out of the room and down the stairs. “Or hungry?”

She set him in his high chair and found some grapes in the refrigerator, already washed and cut up so they wouldn’t be a choking hazard. She put a few pieces on his tray. He squished them between his fingers then smeared the broken fruit over his tray.

“Okay, not hungry,” she decided, as she prepared a bottle for him.

Bella had created charts so that, at the end of the day, Jamie could clearly see each baby’s input—the amount of food and drink—and output—the number of wet and dirty diapers. There was also a column for other notes. In the past few weeks, there had been a lot of other notes—explanations for red marks and warnings of possible bruises that attested to their increased mobility.

As Henry continued to muck around with the grapes, Fallon added a tally to the diaper column. Then she wiped off his hands and lifted him out of his high chair again and carried him to the living room.

Although all of the babies could hold their own bottles now, she’d read somewhere that human contact was important for a baby’s development—and especially for preemies—and she liked to cuddle with each of them as much as possible. Since Jared and Katie were still sleeping, she took advantage of this one-on-one time with Henry, settling into the rocking chair and offering him the bottle.

He grabbed it with both hands and guided the nipple unerringly into his mouth and immediately began sucking.

“I guess you were thirsty,” she noted.

As he continued to drink, she touched her lips to his forehead. Hmm...maybe he was a little warm. And in the late morning sunlight streaming through the window, his cheeks did appear a little blotchy and red.

“Maybe you’re cutting some more teeth,” she suggested. His bottom central incisors had broken through the gums only a few days earlier—two days later than Katie had cut hers, while his brother, Jared, was still waiting for his.

Henry continued to suck on the empty bottle until she gently eased it from his grasp and set it aside.

“Do you feel better now?” she asked him.

He responded by projectile-vomiting all over her.

Chapter Three

Fallon was having second thoughts about the tree-cutting plan before Jamie came back to the house that afternoon. She’d barely finished cleaning up Henry and herself—having to borrow a shirt from her friend’s closet in order to put her own in the wash—when Jared and Katie woke up and began demanding their lunch. Of course, Henry’s belly was empty, too, and though she was wary of what might happen with anything he ate, she couldn’t let him go hungry.

Thankfully, whatever had upset Henry’s tummy earlier seemed to be out of his system, and he dug into his pasta with enthusiasm. After they’d finished eating and she’d finished cleaning up the kitchen, she bundled them into their snowsuits and took them outside to play in the snow. It was fun to watch them crawl around in it, and as an added bonus, it tired them out quickly.

While they were outside, she scanned the property, looking for any sign of their father, but she didn’t see Jamie anywhere. She knew he’d planned to fix the fence on the north border of the property, but unless the damage was worse than he’d suggested, he should have been finished by now.

When the babies finally collapsed in the snow, exhausted, she carted them back inside, wrestled them out of their snowsuits, changed their diapers, gave them their bottles and settled them back in their cribs. She touched the back of her hand to Henry’s forehead, but whatever had ailed the little guy earlier seemed to have truly passed.

When they were finally all settled, she said a silent prayer of thanks that she was able to get them all to sleep at the same time. By that point, she was just as exhausted as they were.

But she threw another load of laundry into the washing machine, added a couple of items to Jamie’s grocery list, and tidied up the toys in the living room because she knew if she sat down, she might not get up again.

She was accustomed to taking care of children all day long. When she wasn’t helping with Jamie’s babies, she worked part-time at Country Kids Day Care. But she worked with the preschool group, children who generally listened to instruction, sat happily at a table to complete an assigned task and enjoyed story time.

As much as she loved Henry, Jared and Katie—and she did—it wasn’t easy trying to keep up with their demands. Although she couldn’t deny that they were much easier to deal with now that their schedules were somewhat synchronized. For the first few months, it seemed as if one baby would go down for a nap, then the second would want to be fed, the third would need to be changed and by the time the second one was almost asleep, the first was waking up again.

In those early months, only a few hours with the babies had exhausted her. Thankfully, during that time, there had been a lot of volunteers in the baby chain so that no one had to do more than a four-hour shift and often there were two volunteers during a given period.

Over the past couple of weeks, however, as holiday preparations put more demands on everyone’s time, the number of volunteers had started to dwindle. While Fallon understood that people had other responsibilities and obligations, she couldn’t abandon Henry, Jared and Katie. Their father was already doing everything he could to keep the ranch running and there was no way he’d be able to do that if he was also responsible for the full-time care of his babies.

The dryer buzzed, signaling the end of the cycle and prompting her return to the laundry room. She knew Jamie appreciated the extra chores she did around the house, but as she folded diapers shirts and sleepers, she found herself wishing that he would—just once—see her as more than a link in the baby chain.

* * *

It wasn’t quite three o’clock when Jamie returned to the house. After kicking off his boots at the back door, he was immediately struck by the unfamiliar sound of silence. Obviously HJK were down for their afternoon nap—but where was their babysitter?

“Fallon?” he called out.

There was no response. But he did hear water running and realized the sound was coming from the laundry room. As he headed in that direction, he was once again struck by the uncomfortable realization that he would never be able to repay her for everything she’d done for his family over the past ten months—and continued to do. Not only did she take care of his babies, but she also helped prepare meals, kept the house tidy and ensured that HJK—and he—always had clean clothes to wear.

But he could at least thank her, and with that thought in mind, he pushed open the partially closed door to reveal Fallon standing in front of the dryer, shaking out a garment that she’d just removed from it.

He didn’t know what it was; he didn’t note the shape or color or anything because he couldn’t tear his gaze away from Fallon’s naked body.

Okay, she wasn’t actually naked.

Not even half-naked really.

She was only topless. And wearing a bra. But it had been a long time since he’d seen so much bare female skin. Temptingly smooth and pale. He wondered if it could possibly be as soft as it looked and, from out of nowhere, he was almost overcome by the urge to step forward and press his lips to her bare shoulder.

She turned slightly as she slid an arm into a sleeve, and he realized the garment was a shirt. And now he had an even better view of the bra she was wearing. A barely there scrap of lace with low-cut cups that hugged the curve of her breasts.

He swallowed. Hard.

He started to back away, so that she wouldn’t know he’d caught her half-undressed. But he suddenly seemed to be having trouble with blood flow to his brain. Or maybe it was to his legs, because instead of backing out the doorway, he backed into the door, causing it to crash against the wall.

Fallon gasped and whirled around.

Now he had a perfect and unobstructed view of her front, and it was even more spectacular than her back. Because, of course, there were breasts front and center. Delicate swells of creamy flesh that were beautifully showcased by the white lace.

“Jamie!”

He lifted his gaze to her face, saw that her cheeks had turned the same color as her hair. “What?”

“Get out!”

“Oh. Right.”

He backed into the door again, then turned around and fled.

* * *

Fallon’s fingers were unsteady as she worked to fasten the buttons of her shirt. She could still feel the heat in her cheeks, though she didn’t think the rush of blood to her face had been the result of embarrassment as much as arousal.

And it had been arousal she’d seen in Jamie’s eyes, too. She was certain of it. Okay—almost certain.

But how would she know? When had a man ever looked at her with desire in his eyes? Maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to see, because she so desperately wanted to believe he might feel even a tiny bit of what she felt for him.

Aside from some flirting and a few kisses, she didn’t have a lot of experience with the opposite sex. Yeah, she’d been hit on occasionally. Probably because there were a lot more men than women in Rust Creek Falls and any woman who walked through the doors of the Ace in the Hole on a Friday or Saturday night could expect to be hit on. But now that she was thinking about it, she couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. True, she hadn’t been to the local bar in several months, but since the flood a couple of years earlier, there had been an influx of people from Thunder Canyon and other neighboring towns to help the residents of Rust Creek Falls. And while the majority of those people had gone back to their own homes, many had chosen to stay—most of them women. As a result, the local demographic had shifted. Now that there were a lot more young and single women in town, the local cowboys were happy to spread their attention and affection around.

Fallon had absolutely no objections. She’d never wanted anyone but Jamie. Unfortunately, except for that one kiss seven years earlier, he’d never given her any indication that he felt the same way.

She huffed out a breath and pressed her hands to her still-hot cheeks. Obviously she needed another minute or two before she could face him again. Thankfully, there was the rest of the load of laundry to be folded, which she did while trying not to think about what he’d been thinking when he’d looked at her.

Because it was possible that his wide-eyed, slack-jawed expression had been shock rather than arousal. Certainly he would have been shocked to discover her in his laundry room in a state of semiundress. Maybe even appalled—and wasn’t that possibility like a bucket of icy water in her flushed face?

Before she’d finished folding the clothes, she heard, through the baby monitor that she carried with her everywhere she went, sounds of rustling and cooing that were the general precursors to any or all of the triplets waking up. And then she heard Jamie—the low, soothing murmur of his voice as he entered the room and began talking to his children.

She knew it wasn’t easy for him—being both a father and a mother to three babies in addition to performing the majority of day-to-day chores that came with owning and managing a ranch. And yet, when he finally got back to the house at the end of his long days, his first thought was always of his children.

Of course, she knew how much family meant to Jamie, and she understood why it was so important to him to ensure that his children always knew how much they were loved. Because he’d been orphaned at fifteen and separated from his siblings soon after. And as far as she knew, neither Jamie nor Bella had heard a single word from any of the others since.

Losing most of his family in such a short period of time had made him determined to keep his own family together, no matter what. Which was why Jamie had been not just furious but deeply hurt when he ran into his grandfather at Crawford’s a few months after the babies were born and Matthew Baldwin had suggested that the children might be better off if Jamie put them up for adoption, so they could go to homes with two parents to care for them.

Although Fallon believed the old man had offered this advice out of a sincere desire to help guide his grandson through a difficult situation, she didn’t believe it was the right advice. And it renewed her determination to help in any way that she could to ensure that Jamie never needed to worry about losing his children.

When the laundry was folded, she headed upstairs and found him in the babies’ room, changing Katie’s diaper. Henry was standing up, holding on to the bars of his crib and chewing on the top rail. Jared was still sleeping, his arms flung out at his sides. He was the only one of the babies who had hated being swaddled as an infant.

“Need a hand?” she asked.

He lifted Katie off of the changing table. “Sure—you can take her downstairs. I’ll bring Henry and Jared when they’re ready.”

“Okay.” She took the little girl from his arms, and he immediately turned toward Henry’s crib without looking at her.

“Apparently this is going to be awkward,” she said, standing beside the changing table with Katie propped on her hip.

“I’m sorry.” He carried Henry to the table and began unfastening his overalls.

“Sorry this is awkward?”

He finally lifted his gaze to meet hers. “Sorry I walked in on you in the laundry room,” he clarified.

“Forget it,” she said. “It was just unfortunate timing.”

One side of his mouth curved. “Or fortunate—depending on your perspective.”

She felt heat rise into her face again.

“But I wouldn’t have walked into the laundry room if I’d known you were in there. Naked,” he said.

Her gaze shifted to the trio of cribs lined up along the far wall, settling on the closest one, in which Jared was still sleeping. Of course, none of the babies was paying any attention to their conversation. And even if they had been listening, they wouldn’t have understood what the adults were saying. But that knowledge didn’t prevent Fallon’s cheeks from burning. “I wasn’t naked.”

“Close enough,” he said.

“I was topless,” she clarified. “And wearing a bra.”

“White lace,” he said, confirming that he’d noticed.

“A lot of women wear bathing suits that cover less,” she pointed out.

He finished with Henry’s diaper and turned back to face her. “Not in Montana in December.”

“I’m just saying—it’s not a big deal.”

“It is to a man who hasn’t seen an even partially naked female body in almost fifteen months.”

Fifteen months?

He nodded, obviously having read the confusion on her face. “Yeah, the minute Paula found out she was carrying triplets, she shut me out of the bedroom.”

Fallon didn’t know how to respond to that, so she said nothing.

“So if I was staring—” He shook his head as he set Henry back in his crib so that he could perform the diaper routine with Jared, who was just waking up. “There’s no ‘if’ about it—I was staring. And I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said, and managed a small smile. “Truthfully, I’m flattered. My breasts are too small to garner much notice.”

“Your breasts aren’t too small, they’re—” He broke off again, swallowed. “Wow, this is a really inappropriate conversation.”

“Forget it,” she said again. “Please.”

“I don’t know if I can,” he admitted. “But I’ll try.”

* * *

The scent of something rich and savory teased Jamie’s nostrils and made his mouth water as he made his way back down the stairs. After setting Henry and Jared in the enclosed play yard with their sister, he headed toward the kitchen, where he could hear Fallon moving around.

“Something smells good,” he noted. And looks even better, he thought, surreptitiously glancing at her. Though she was fully dressed now, it was as if he could see right through her clothes to the creamy skin beneath, the tantalizing feminine curves, the peaked nipples pressing against white lace.

“I figured you would probably be ready for dinner by the time we got back from getting the tree,” Fallon said, “so I put a roast and vegetables in the slow cooker.”

He snapped a leash on his wayward libido and turned his attention to the pot. “We’re not eating until we get back?”

“The plan was to go out before it gets dark,” she reminded him. “And the roast won’t be ready for another hour, anyway. But to be honest, I’m not sure we should get the tree today.”

“Why not?” He had no objection to the reprieve, but he was curious as to why Fallon—who had been so eager to get the house decked out for the holidays—had suddenly changed her mind.

Was it his fault? Had his gawking at her nearly naked breasts made her uncomfortable? He mentally shook his head at the ridiculousness of the question. Of course, his gawking had made her uncomfortable. Unfortunately there was no way for him to unsee what he’d seen, even if he wanted to...and he wasn’t certain that he did.

“Well, the reason I was doing laundry today—” she glanced away, her cheeks flushing prettily “—is that Henry threw up on me earlier.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she assured him.

“But I knew he was feeling off,” Jamie said, relieved that she didn’t blame him for the incident, and especially that she didn’t seem to feel uncomfortable after the laundry room encounter. “He was awake a couple of times in the night, not for any particular reason that I could tell, but he was definitely unsettled.”

“Well, he seems fine now,” she said. “But I’m not sure that being out in the cold for an extended period of time is a good idea.”

“My mom always sent us out to play in the winter so the cold could kill off our germs.”

The words were out of his mouth before he even knew what he was saying. If she realized the significance of his statement, the implication that she was as close to a mother-figure as his babies had, she didn’t show it. In fact, she didn’t react at all, except to ask, “What if it wasn’t some kind of bug?”

“What else could it be?” he asked.

“Maybe...the muffins I made,” she suggested tentatively.

Jamie shook his head. “Your baking did not make him sick.”

“How do you know?” she challenged.

“Because all of the babies had the same thing and only Henry threw up.”

“So far,” she muttered.

“Besides, I ate four of those muffins,” he pointed out. “And they were delicious.”

She still looked dubious.

“He’s fine, Fallon. If I’ve learned nothing else over the past ten months, I’ve learned that kids get sick—and preemies more often than most. There’s no way to prevent it,” he assured her.

“I’ve also learned that three babies living in close proximity usually share germs and viruses much more willingly than toys—so it’s quite possible that whatever caused Henry’s stomach upset might already have been passed on to Jared and Katie.”

She nodded in acknowledgment of that fact. “Which is another reason it might be a good idea to delay the tree-cutting.”

“That will also give me a chance to haul down the boxes of decorations from the attic,” he said. “Because I assume that, after we cut down the tree, you’re going to want to decorate it.”

“No, you’re going to decorate it,” she said, but softened the directive with a smile.

A smile that drew his attention to her mouth and made him wonder if her lips could possibly be as soft and sweet as they looked. He pushed the tempting question aside. “There you go, being all bossy again,” he said, his tone deliberately light.

“But I might be persuaded to help,” Fallon relented.

He lifted the lid on the pot and peered at the roast beef and vegetables in an effort to avoid focusing on her and the new and unexpected hunger that was churning inside him. “Are you sure it’s going to be another hour before it’s ready?”

She took the lid from his hand and set it firmly back on top of the stoneware. “Longer if you keep letting all the heat out,” she warned.

Except he suspected that her proximity was generating even more heat than the cooking pot. He took a deliberate step away. “Sorry—but I worked through lunch, and dinner smells so good.”

She plucked a muffin out of the container on the table and tossed it to him.

He immediately took a bite out of the top, because he was hungry and wanted to reassure her that he had no concerns about the treats she’d baked, but also because focusing on the muffin would help him resist the urge to reach for her. “These are really delicious.”

“See? I’m not as inept in the kitchen as people like to believe.”

“Hmm.”

She narrowed her gaze. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well...that was a pretty awful cake that you took to the potluck.” He couldn’t resist teasing her a little.

She huffed out a breath and shook her head. “One mistake. One. And no one will let me live it down.”

“On the other hand, the roast in that Crock-Pot smells really good.”

“Crock-Pot cooking is easy,” she admitted. “You just toss in the meat and veggies, add some liquid and seasoning, and it pretty much cooks itself.”

“Still, I appreciate the effort,” he said.

“If that’s a ‘thank you,’ then you’re welcome,” she said, lifting her coat off the hook by the door.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Home.”

He should let her go. He needed some time to catch his breath and think about the sudden and unexpected awareness between them—and he couldn’t do that while her presence was wreaking havoc on his hormones. But instead of nodding and advising her to ‘drive safely,’ when he opened his mouth, the only word that came out was, “Stay.”

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