The Bull Rider's Twins (6 page)

“No one can own the Diablos. They're free.”

“For now,” Fiona said. “As long as they are on Callahan land, the spirits are free.”

A cool breeze passed over his skin. “And if we lose the ranch?”

“Everything is lost. The mine, and the secret that the mine hides.”

“Surely there's not all that much silver. It was a small cave, as caves go.”

Fiona looked at him sharply, her mouth opening as if to say something. Then she closed it, before rising to put his book on the nightstand and collecting his dishes. “Try to rest. I believe the doctor said a concussion requires absolute stillness for forty-eight hours, in your case.”

“Funny thing is, I don't remember hitting my head,” he complained. “I swear it's a conspiracy to keep me from riding.”

“You'll live to ride another day if you rest now,” Fiona said with a smile. “Good night, nephew.”

“Good night, Aunt. Thanks for telling me about the cave. I'll take the secret with me to my grave.”

She looked at him, her eyes deep and troubled. “You have no idea how much is riding on your ability to do just that.” Then she left his room.

Judah felt restless now that he'd heard so much family lore. Inaction was never his strong suit.

What he needed was someone to annoy, to take his mind off all the family stuff. Nothing like a little late-night foray to make a man feel less starved for adventure.

Instead of staying here and allowing Fiona to put ten pounds on him, he decided to go make a different kind of midnight raid. After hearing about Bode bothering his aunt and the family treasure, he was in a dangerous mood.

J
UDAH HESITATED ONLY ONCE
, and that was in the hall outside Jonas's old room, where Sabrina now resided. Normally, the brothers slept in one of the large bunkhouses, having moved out once they hit the teen years, though occasionally they slunk back to their old rooms in the main house if they had an injury, which, thankfully, wasn't often. But it was easier to be where Fiona wouldn't have to run out to check on them twenty times a day, which she did when they were injured, no matter how many times they told her it wasn't necessary. His brothers hadn't even asked him where he wanted to sleep off his trifling—in his opinion—concussion; they'd dumped him unceremoniously at the house.

But Jonas shouldn't be in residence, nor any of the other brothers. Judah froze outside Sabrina's room, surprised by the answering murmur of a man's voice. If he didn't know better, he'd think…

He didn't know better. He knew nothing at all, Judah told himself, tiptoeing past her room. He had bigger fish to fry tonight than who was paying a nocturnal call on Fiona's personal secretary.

He sneaked past Fiona and Burke's room without any trouble, and flitted past the family library where they held their meetings, just in case any of the brothers were hanging out in there. One never knew where a Callahan might be loitering, and Judah didn't want to answer any questions.

Then he was out the door and into his truck. Not a soul would know he was laying his pride on the line.

“Where are we going?” Sam asked through the window of the truck, and Judah swallowed a good-size howl.

“
We
are going nowhere,” he said. “
I'm
taking a short,
private
drive.”

“Ah. To see Darla.” Sam leaned his arms on the door. “You know what your problem is?”

“Tell me,” Judah said. “I'm just dying to know.”

“Your problem is that she's getting married in two days, and it's not to you. Getting that concussion is the best thing that ever happened to you.”

“Why?” Judah asked, irritated.

“Because you need to be defending your castle, not riding rodeo.”

“There's nothing to defend. I don't have a castle.”

“If my lady was pregnant, there wouldn't be any discussion of her marrying another man. That sucker wouldn't dream of encroaching on my territory, because he'd know I'd knock his block off. In fact, my lady wouldn't be thinking about marrying another dude, because she'd be so wild to get into my bed.” Sam gazed at him. “Like I said, you have a problem.”

“Thanks for letting me know,” Judah said, “because I hadn't figured that out on my own.”

“You need to buck up. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party,” Sam said.

“If there was a party to be had. Will you get out of my truck so I can go?” he demanded.

“You don't know of any women I could go carousing with tonight, do you?” his brother asked. “I'm in the mood for
looove.
”

“Do I look like a dating service? Did you lose your little black book?” Judah was getting steamed. “Why would any sane woman want to carouse with you?”

Sam sighed. “This case is getting on my nerves. I could use a distraction.”

Judah straightened. “Are there new developments?”

“Well, Bode's pretty endless with his tricks and appeals.
He's got a pretty seamy team of lawyers. And as you know, law isn't my strong suit.”

Judah blinked. “You're the best lawyer around. No one bites the pants off the enemy like you. You're legendary for being a butt—ah, bulldog-like in the courtroom.”

“But this is personal,” Sam said, and Judah realized his brother needed to talk.

“Come on,” Judah said. “Let's go carousing.”

“Thought you'd never admit that you need a break from hearth and home.” He got in the truck, grinning.

“Fiona's driving me nuts,” Judah admitted. “She feeds me like a lost lamb.”

“Ah, the benefits of home life.” Sam looked at him. “So where are we going? Howling at Bode's bedroom window? I wouldn't mind giving the old goat a good fright.”

“How about Darla's?” Judah turned down the drive.

“That doesn't sound like much fun unless the doc is there. We could run him off.
That
would be fun.”

Judah's thoughts instantly ground to a halt. He'd never considered Darla might be having company. In his mind's eye, she was tucked up in her pristine bed waiting for his embrace—not the good doctor's.

“I'm not sure this is going to be as much fun as I thought it would be,” he growled.

“Kind of tame stuff,” Sam said, “when we should be painting ‘Bode Sucks' on the water tower.”

“That's kid's stuff.” Judah frowned, thinking about Darla in bed with a rangy, loose-limbed retired bronc buster-turned-doctor. He had a horrible vision of Dr. Tunstall using his stethoscope to listen to Darla's heart going thumpety-thump for him—or even worse, listening to Judah's babies cooing inside Darla's nicely watermelon-shaped tummy. “I need something dangerous.”

“Thinking about Darla sleeping with the good doc after the
‘
I do's' are said?” Sam asked, his tone commiserating.

Judah turned onto the main road. He was loaded for bear, his mood as territorial as he could ever remember it being. He was tired of Bode looming over them; he was tired of Tunstall, nice as he might be. But nice and in-the-way were two different things. “‘Hang on to your ass, Fred,' to quote a favorite movie of mine. We're going to look in the face of danger with no regret.”

Sam rubbed his hands together with enthusiasm. “Danger, here we come!”

“This is your idea of dangerous?”

Sam glared at Judah as he held Jackie and Pete's girls, Molly and Elizabeth, on his lap. Judah waved a small stuffed pony he'd bought at the rodeo at the toddlers; he'd bought one for every Callahan child, passing them out like Santa Claus.

Judah grinned at Sam. “This is definitely my idea of dangerous. What did you have in mind, bro?”

Sam allowed little Fiona to crawl up in his lap. The triplets were dressed in their jammies, and old enough to realize they were being given a special treat of staying up past their bedtime. Jackie and Pete looked on fondly and with some amusement as Judah tried on daddy skills.

“I don't know,” Sam said, “maybe lobbing a peck-happy chicken through Bode's bedroom window? Perhaps heading into town and seeing if we could rustle up some female attention? That's my idea of living on the edge. Of course you
are
darling,” he said to mini-Fiona. “You're my niece, so what else would you be?”

“This is plenty dangerous for me,” Judah said. “I'm not good with kids. I'm not cut out for fatherhood.”

Pete laughed. “No one is. It just creeps up on you and you deal with it.”

Jackie gave her husband a light smack on the arm. “You
are
cut out for being a dad,” she told Judah. “You're a Callahan. All the brothers have a latent dad gene. I'm positive.”

Judah grunted. “I can't convince Darla of that.”

“But did you try?” Jackie asked, smiling. “Did you give her a reason to believe you were interested?”

“I suggested prenatal yoga. And vitamins. And good nutrition.” Judah kissed his niece on the top of her head. “What more can I do?” He glanced to Jackie, puzzled, very aware that Pete was trying not to snicker.

“You offer to go
with
her to prenatal yoga,” Jackie said gently. “And offer to cook those nutritious meals for her. Things like that. And offer to rub her belly.”

“She won't let me rub anything of hers,” Judah said morosely. “I'm pretty sure she thinks her pregnancy is a result of my, um, mishandling of the situation.”

“It was,” Sam said, unable to keep from tossing in his two cents.

“I used protection,” Judah said defensively, frowning when everyone started laughing. “What?”

“You never read the box, did you?” Sam asked.

“The box of what?” Judah knew he was the butt of some secret joke, but he wasn't certain why. He'd come here for a little sympathy, and a bit of no-pressure, hands-on baby guidance. Not guffaws.

“Condoms,” Sam said. “Creed gave us all joke condoms.”

Judah blinked. “There's nothing funny about condoms.”

Sam grinned at him. “You don't read directions.”

“I'm a man of action,” Judah shot back.

“And you fired away and asked questions later.” Sam nodded. “That's the reason you're going to be a father.”

“No,” Judah said, “my box said something like ‘For the Man Who Has Almost Everything.'
That
was the joke.”

His family laughed harder. Judah shrugged. “It doesn't matter. Even if I begged to attend prenatal yoga, or promised
to attend a cooking school for pregnant parents, Darla would still be determined to marry Doc Skin-and-Bones,” he said. “You'd think she'd want a fellow with a little more muscle and meat to him. Those bronc busters always look like a string bean reverberating on the back of a horse to me. I'd rather my sons have a man to look up to who has muscles,” he said with a sigh. “Strength.”

“Meathead,” Pete said, his tone kind. “You've got to quit letting Sidney bother you. Tell Darla—without being an ape—how you really feel about her.”

“I don't know how not to be an ape.” Judah stood, clapped his hat to his head, kissed the little girls goodbye. “Thank you for letting me be an uncle who doesn't call before he drops in at bedtime. I promise not to make a habit of it.”

“Come anytime you like,” Jackie said, giving him a hug. “We love you, Judah. We want you to be happy. You're a good man.”

“Sometimes,” Sam said. “When he's not a stupid man. Now can we go do something dangerous? Something that'll really rock the epicenter of wild-n-crazy? Like maybe drive to the Sonic, at least?”

Pete thumped Judah on the back. “It's always darkest before the dawn, dude. It'll work out.”

“It's pretty damn dark out there,” Judah said. “She's getting married in two days.”

“You better rescue the princess
tout suite
then,” Pete told him. “You can do it. You're a Callahan.”

Judah nodded. “Thanks.”

“Danger, here we come!” Sam said, kissing his nieces and hugging his sister-in-law goodbye.

Judah shook his head. Sam had no idea just what kind of danger lay in wait. And he couldn't tell him.

“Y
OU DID NOT INFORM ME
that babysitting was your idea of dangerous,” Sam said with a groan twenty minutes later, when
they'd made their way to Creed's house. Sometimes Creed's sister-in-law Diane's three daughters stayed in the house with their little cousin, too, but tonight, it was just Creed and Aberdeen and their daughter, Joy Patrice.

“Not only is it dangerous,” Judah said, holding out a stuffed pony for the baby, “it's essential. You should do one thing every day that scares you. It's important for your growth. And in my book, diapers are dangerous.”

“Growth comes in the shape of luscious, eager females, too,” Sam said, “but I can tell you're on a mission, so never mind.” He sighed heavily and took the pony from Judah. “She's a baby. She can't hold a stuffed animal, idiot.”

Judah gave Creed a stern eyeing. “Did you give us condoms that were basically party balloons?”

He grinned. “Seemed like a great groom's gift, as far as I was concerned.”

“Why?” Judah demanded. “Do you mind me asking why?”

“To help you along. And clearly it did.” Creed put on an innocent face. “It would be selfish of me to cheat you out of marital bliss. A little lambskin shouldn't stand between you and the most happiness you will ever know.”

Judah snorted. “The mother of my children wants to marry someone else. Is that what you had in mind?”

“Now that sounds like a personal problem to me. Can't blame that on a neon party favor.” Creed handed him a beer. “The box clearly said—”

“I know. I know. Only I'm not an owl. I don't see things in the dark, like very small print.” Judah took the beer, more in the mood to bean his brother with it than to drink it. “I just thought that if a lady bothered to make love with a guy, then surely she had some kind of feelings for him.”

Aberdeen looked at him with sympathy. “Darla does have feelings for you, Judah.”

“What those feelings are could be anything,” Creed said
unhelpfully, and Sam laughed. Judah hugged the baby in his arms, setting down his beer to gaze into her face. “Hey,” he told her, “your uncles are pigs. But me, I'll rescue you. Don't worry, little princess. You'll always know Uncle Judah had your back.”

“Knowing you,” Creed said, “you've tried overwhelming Darla with your machismo. You've even given her the ol' I-know-what's-best-for-you treatment.” He glanced at Judah. “So that only leaves romancing her socks off.”

“Darla doesn't wear socks,” Judah said, and everyone groaned.

“You have to go slowly for him,” Sam said. “He's not the sharpest knife in the Callahan knife block.”

“So, romance,” Creed said, speaking slowly for Judah's benefit, as if he didn't know what to do with a woman, “is done with a gentle conductor's baton, a wand, if you will. Not a crashing bull-in-a-flower-bed thunderclap.”

“Like you did with me?” Aberdeen said sweetly, and Judah and Sam hooted at their brother. “Judah, don't let Creed tell you he had all the answers, because he didn't.”

“But he still won your heart,” Judah said. “Though I don't know what you see in him.”

That earned him a glare from Creed, which made Judah feel better.

“He won my heart by being persistent.”

Creed stared at his wife. “No, I didn't. I won your heart by being the most awesome, irresistible—”

Aberdeen waved at Creed to be quiet. “Trust me, your brother made some mistakes in the wooing process. He was not a perfect prince. Nor was he a love machine, as he might lead you to believe.”

Sam and Judah snickered as Creed was put in his place.

“But,” Aberdeen said, “he hung in there, no matter what hoops I made him jump through, and I admired that. It made
me realize that he actually loved me, in spite of all the doubts I had about us being together. And so he won my heart.” She smiled at her husband, and Creed perked up like a plant in the sunshine.

“So how do I hang in there, when Darla doesn't even want me hanging in there? I left her a ring—a ring I was guaranteed would make a lady jump into my arms. And I got nothing,” Judah said sadly. “Not even a phone call.”

“Well,” Aberdeen said, “perhaps it would be good to present your case in person.”

“Yeah, dummy. You don't just leave a ring for a woman and hope she gets the clue. It takes more effort than that,” Sam said. “Now can we go do something dangerous?”

Judah kissed his niece on the head. “Why is it that all we have on the ranch are baby girls?” he asked, thinking about the sons who would be in his arms before he knew it. A few months was nothing. He could hang in there.

He
could
hang in there. Just like Aberdeen said.

“We have baby girls,” Creed said, “because it takes a real man to pack pink booties. Deal with it.”

“W
HERE'S THE DANGER
?” Sam asked, when Judah pulled in front of Darla and Jackie's wedding shop. “This is just a dress store. It's a
wedding dress
store, but unless there's man-hunting brides around—and there's not, since it's nearly midnight—then I don't see the danger. Enlighten me.”

Judah took a deep breath, wondering if he was going to be standing at an altar in two days or not. It was going to take everything he had to do it. “The danger is that you get to find a ride home,” he told his brother. “I travel alone from here.”

Sam gawked at him. “You would leave me in town with no ride?”

Judah nodded. “You wanted danger.”

“I get it.” Sam hopped out of the truck, wearing a sour expression. “This is not my idea of danger.”

“Yes, but your day is coming.” Judah waved at his brother. “I'm going to go find an ex-nurse and see if she wants to take my temperature.”

“Huh,” Sam said, “good luck with that.”

He loped off, heading toward the town's only secret night spot, in the back of Banger's Bait and Tackle. Judah drove away, thinking about everything he'd seen in his brothers' homes. It was true that they probably hadn't had the smoothest routes to the altar. They were certainly not hard-core princes.

But they had made it across the finish line.

And that's where Judah wanted to be.