Texas Blaze Read online

  Family. It was everything. She hoped to high heaven Scarlett would forgive her, but this was for her own good—the girl was too busy to do it for herself.

  Scarlett had big plans, as did Ian. She was convinced folks would drive from Austin and San Antonio to eat her gourmet fare, and she was giving Ian’s ranch and others new life by featuring organic beef and local produce. Why anyone would drive an hour or two for supper, Ruby could not imagine, but Scarlett swore that they would. She had plans for an events center to take up the rest of the courthouse, to boot, a place that would host corporate retreats and family reunions, for instance, and put people in Sweetgrass to work. It could revive this old town Ruby had been trying to save for so long that she’d about given up.

  The price, however, was that Scarlett couldn’t find time to marry the man who loved her more than life. Oh, Ian said he was all right being patient, but any fool could see how badly he wanted to make Scarlett his—not that the girl didn’t spend every night of the world in his bed. But Ian’s mother had abandoned him and his father when Ian was a little boy, so of course he’d want to be more certain.

  Scarlett wanted it, too, but she kept thinking Ruby was going to kick the bucket or something and was intent on showing Ruby that her years of keeping Sweetgrass breathing weren’t for naught.

  Shoot, it would take something powerful to yank Ruby out of this world right now, when things were just getting interesting.

  But at the moment, everyone here was working harder than they should have to. Folks in Sweetgrass depended on her diner, the only place in town to get a meal, but she couldn’t impose on all this family beyond what they already had volunteered for.

  So she made a snap decision and wiped her hands on her apron as she walked through the kitchen door. “We’re closing the cafe tonight instead of only tomorrow. Spread the word. We’ll see you at the courthouse in the morning.”

  Sure there was muttering and protests, but folks around here knew better than to try to change her mind once it was made up.

  “What am I supposed to do for supper, Ruby?” Harley Sykes whined. “Melba is busy with the quilters. She said I’m on my own.”

  “Grow a pair, Harley,” she snapped. “A grown man can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

  “Don’t like peanut butter,” he grumbled as he left.

  Scarlett was grinning as she returned to the kitchen. “Thank you.”

  “Only good sense. We have a passel of folks to feed tonight, and all of these people have homes to go to. They need to be getting a good night’s sleep anyway.”

  Perrie giggled.

  Lacey laughed. “I love you, Aunt Ruby. You’re the best. We’re all going to need a good night’s sleep.”

  Everyone joined in, and the shared laughter felt good. Some of Ruby’s nerves settled as the warmth of family wrapped around her.

  The back door opened, and Rissa entered. “What’s so funny?”

  “None of your business, nosy. We’re busy here. Go back to your horses.” But Scarlett was grinning.

  Rissa rolled her eyes. “You know you missed me. Anyway, I have something for Aunt Ruby.”

  “What you got there, sweetie?” Ruby asked.

  Rissa stepped aside, and a tall figure stepped in, all city clothes and long legs.

  “Penny, honey!” Ruby cried. She crossed the kitchen and grabbed Rissa’s sister close. “I am so glad you’ve come.”

  Ruby felt Penny tremble and frowned. They’d seen little of her for years, but she’d always been the picture of confidence and power. “Aunt Ruby…I’m so happy to be here.”

  “Hi, Pen,” Scarlett said from behind them. “Thank you very much for coming to help. I know how busy you are.”

  For a second, Penny looked oddly lost. Quickly she gathered herself. “Couldn’t miss all the fun.” She moved into the room, greeting her cousins and trading hugs. Where she’d always been so independent and somewhat remote, now she seemed hungry for connection.

  Of course she would be, with her closest connection gone.

  Oh, Jackson… Only Ruby knew for certain that Penny’s twin was alive, and the burden of that knowledge weighed on her more as time passed.

  She’d called him, though. Made no bones of the fact that it was time for him to come home. Seventeen years was long enough. Too long.

  Then Penny straightened and banished her sorrows from her beautiful face. “So—” She rubbed her hands together. “What’s the plan? Put me to work.”

  Ruby gestured over her shoulder to Henry Jansen, the busboy whom Scarlett was teaching to cook. He’d taken to it like a natural. “Henry, load up that tray with the cookies we made this morning, then hand it to Penny.” She glanced at her great-niece. “Take them over to the menfolk at the courthouse to keep them out of our hair. It’s all right if you spend a minute slobbering over that Josh Marshall. Every other woman in town has.”

  Penny’s eyes popped. “Did you say Josh Marshall?”

  Ruby nodded. “He’s a friend of Mackey’s, and somehow that boy has roped not only Josh but his brother Quinn and cousin Case into coming and bringing their families to help.”

  “That Josh…Marshall? Sexiest Man Alive?”

  Ruby glanced over at Rissa. “Your husband is a troublemaker. We won’t get a blooming thing accomplished tomorrow if folks don’t stop gandering at that movie star.”

  “He is real pretty, Aunt Ruby,” Maddie said.

  “I don’t care if he’s the King of France, we got work to be done.” She glanced at Penny. “And you’d best change your clothes as soon as you get back. You can use Scarlett’s room at my house to change in—” Her lips curved. “Seein’s how my granddaughter goes missing most every night. You can stay there, if you want.”

  “She’s going to stay in Cooter’s house,” Rissa said, referring to her ranch’s retired foreman.

  “Fine and dandy, but for right now, I want somebody to keep that Mackey out of my hair.” She glanced at Penny. “You tell him if I see him over here before supper, he’ll go to bed hungry. Boy is always causing trouble, and I can’t get a lick of work out of Rissa when he’s around.”

  Penny snickered at her sister. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Rissa muttered. “I get things done.”

  “Precious little,” Ruby retorted. “Boy has always been a bad influence.” That she adored Mackey was immaterial right now. “Shoo, now—and you—” She pointed at Rissa. “If you can’t behave yourself, I’m not letting you go over there with her.”

  “Bwidge, wanna see Mama.” The moppet on his shoulders gripped Bridger’s hair as her little voice wavered.

  “Honey, your dad will be back in a minute, and your mommy is helping Aunt Ruby cook.”

  “I cook.” No wobble there, but definitely some temper. “I help Mama cook.”

  Get your butt back here, Gallagher. She was Boone’s child, after all.

  The door right beside them opened, and Lilah Rose lunged. “Daddy!”

  “Whoa!” Bridger grasped for the little girl while sweeping Josh’s toddler son Eli out of harm’s way, but not soon enough to keep the woman in the doorway from stumbling.

  Bridger glanced up.

  Wow. Hot babe. Wearing killer stilettos at the end of long, long, looong legs.

  “Cookies!” Eli charged, and the tray in the woman’s hands listed his direction.

  He grabbed her around the waist to steady her.

  Immediately she stiffened. Pushed at his chest.

  She was nearly as tall as him in those skyscraper heels, something he rarely encountered. She was also reed-thin, he thought, looking down into eyes of such a stunning Caribbean-waters blue that he momentarily lost the power of speech.

  “Excuse me,” she sniffed. “Your children are a handful, apparently.” It wasn’t a compliment.

  “My—?” He laughed. “No, these aren’t—”

  I shouldn’t have come, he thought he heard her mutter.

  Just as all
hell broke loose.

  “Penny!” Ian McLaren called out. “What are you doing here, Princess?”

  The woman froze. Faltered, her too-skinny frame with a quiver running through it.

  Penny. Rissa’s sister. Hotshot lawyer. He’d heard about her and her mysterious twin Jackson.

  Princess, huh? It fit.

  He watched her straighten her shoulders and stiffen her spine as if girding herself for battle. Battle had never described a single interaction he’d seen from this family, not even of this town, for the most part, yet she was in full-bore defensive mode.

  But he’d felt her tremble.

  “Want Daddy,” pouted the little girl on his shoulders. “Bwidge, want my daddy.” Apparently her mother had been forgotten, but not her wish for one of her parents.

  Uh-oh. He knew that tone. Little Lilah Rose looked like an angel and often was. She’d taken a shine to him on his last visit and delighted in treating him like her personal servant, either wanting to ride in his arms or on top of his shoulders. As the tallest man in the room, he didn’t read too much into it—Lilah Rose was a queen bee in the making, and being perched at the highest point of the room would appeal to her.

  But however much she liked Bridger and he liked her—liked all kids, always had—Lilah was, above all, a daddy’s girl. Bridger’s fellow former SEAL Boone wasn’t hard to find, only a couple of inches under Bridger’s six-five. “We’ll go see Daddy, honey. Hang on.”

  She dug her little fingers into his hair again, and Bridger winced. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. You don’t have to hold on so tight.” He demonstrated by gripping her legs.

  “Daddy!” she squealed, spying Boone, and her little feet drummed on Bridger’s chest while her fingers tightened even more, yanking his hair half out of his head.

  Bridger picked up the pace, lengthening his strides while dodging the piles of materials scattered over the floor.

  “Bridger!” gasped Mackey’s soon-to-be-adopted son Eric. “You gotta come see!” He tugged at Bridger’s hand, and around him, people chuckled.

  Abruptly the weight on his shoulders vanished as Boone plucked his daughter from her perch.

  “Daddy!” Lilah Rose crowed as though Boone was newly returned from the dark side of the moon. “Missed you! Kiss, Daddy!”

  Boone laughed and obliged her. “Missed you, too, honey.” He stroked the little girl’s back as she curled into his chest, sighing happily. “Thanks, man. Maddie needed my help with something.”

  The telltale traces of lipstick made Bridger laugh. “Uh-huh. Bet Ruby appreciated the interruption.”

  Boone grinned unrepentantly. “Hey, I’m all about being helpful.”

  Bridger had never known his fellow warrior back in the day—he and Mackey had graduated BUD/S a few years behind Boone—but he knew enough to understand that Boone had his ghosts, just as they all did.

  But this man had been healed by love. Had everything Bridger wanted from life: three children, land to call his own and, most importantly, a woman to share that life with, one who reveled in family and making a home.

  If he didn’t like the guy so much, envy would eat him alive.

  But Bridger had lost one family, and he couldn’t expect fate to allow him another when he was the reason they were gone.

  Hot Dad was…hot. Not that Pen cared.

  But he made an impression, that’s for sure—if you were into the rugged, physical type, which she wasn’t.

  Only wow, he was one prime specimen: broad chest, flat belly, powerful frame—and tall. She almost never met men who exceeded her height in heels. Not that she minded. She enjoyed having the power equation in her favor. But this man? A tiny shiver ran through her.

  Didn’t matter. Give her a man with brains any day, a sophisticate. A man who could order fine wines in French, who knew star chefs personally.

  A man like…

  Don’t go there. That’s over. He’s over. But blast it, that life wasn’t over. It couldn’t be.

  “C’mon.” Rissa put the tray on a makeshift table and tugged at her wrist, half-dragging her across the room.

  “Where are we going? What is all this?” But before her sister could answer, they were swallowed up in family and friends.

  “What did I tell you, Ian?” Mackey’s lazy grin had set hearts thumping for years, she was sure. “Girl cleans up nice.”

  Pen rolled her eyes at her brother-in-law. “Like you haven’t seen designer clothes before.” Mackey was a former SEAL turned Hollywood stuntman, and he rubbed elbows with film royalty all the time.

  “Yeah, but I remember when you were all knobby knees and no boobs. Look at you, power babe. D.C. probably bows at your feet, right, Princess?”

  Sorrow speared through her, shame close behind. But she couldn’t let anyone see her vulnerable side.

  Rissa laughed and jammed an elbow in his gut. “She remembers you when you barely reached her shoulder.”

  Pen chuckled. She and her twin had gotten their height early.

  “Aw, babe…” Before Mackey could say anything else, though, Pen found herself whirled and lifted off her feet. “There you are,” said Ian McLaren, her twin’s best friend. “How are you, kiddo?”

  Ian was the unofficial mayor of Sweetgrass Springs, and he was probably the best man she’d ever met. She’d once had a crush on him in high school—for about five minutes—but they were more like brother and sister or cousins. “I’m good. I thought you all were supposed to be working over here.”

  “We’re still at the making-manly-noises stage,” her cousin Boone said with a grin.

  “Who’s that, Daddy?”

  So…the little girl wasn’t Hot Dad’s.

  “That’s my cousin Penny, sweetheart. Penny, this is Lilah Rose.”

  “My daddy,” was the child’s only response as she wrapped little arms around Boone’s neck.

  Pen had to laugh. “I see that.”

  Lilah Rose pointed. “Unca Mitch. Unca Dev.” Then her face lit. “Bwidge. My Bwidge.”

  “Hey, Penny.” Boone’s brother-in-law Devlin Marlowe gave her a quick, easy hug.

  Boone’s older brother Mitch, as usual, didn’t have a lot to say, but he smiled and nodded. “Good to see you.”

  “You, too.” She glanced behind her. Hot Dad stuck out a hand. “Bridger Calhoun.”

  “SEAL teammate,” Mackey explained.

  Pen accepted the handshake. Ignored the shivers touching him induced. Or tried to.

  She was relieved to see his amber eyes widen at the contact. The reaction was immaterial, but at least it wasn’t one-sided. “Pen Gallagher,” she managed.

  From her right elbow Ian spoke. “Have some folks for you to meet. Mackey brought reinforcements. Quinn Marshall, his cousin Case, his brother Josh.” Mackey’s voice remained casual, as though Josh Marshall didn’t have one of the most-recognized faces on the planet.

  Pen behaved the same, though she privately wondered exactly how much male beauty a room could hold. Stars above, but the women of Sweetgrass had better protect their ovaries. This was a full-on testosterone assault. “So how did Mackey rope you into this, exactly?” she asked Quinn, a tall man with long dark hair.

  Quinn’s lips curved. “My brother wanted to help.”

  Case Marshall grinned. “Quinn and I came along so some actual work could get done. Pretty Boy isn’t good for much.”

  “Bite me.” Then the man millions sighed over stepped in front of her. “Pleased to meet you, Penny. Don’t listen to Trucker Dude. All he knows is how to drive.”

  Up close, Mr. Sexiest Man Alive was just as gorgeous as he was on screen. There was no makeup miracle.

  But the screen didn’t convey how genuinely nice he seemed. “Mackey roped you in, huh? I only have one thing to say to you three: Beware.”

  “Hey!” Mackey protested.

  Then a woman’s voice. “Hi, boys.” Click-clack click-clack went the sound of cha-cha shoes on bare wood.

  Mackey’s grin we
nt wide. “Watch out, guys,” he muttered, then turned that wide grin on the small blonde who’d entered. In a voice Pen had learned years ago to be wary of, he introduced her. “Pen, this is Hayley. She and I have worked together in L.A.”

  “Pleasure, I’m sure.” Wide blue eyes topped by five-hundred-dollar white-blond highlights, the woman greeted her with a perfectly French-manicured hand. “I’m Hayley Sullivan. Love your Louboutins. That was a great season.”

  A fellow shoe lover. “I thought hard about those Manolos you’re wearing.” Pen sighed. “If only my life wasn’t all power suits…”

  They grinned at one another, bonding over one of life’s real pleasures.

  “Oh, good grief, nobody needs five hundred dollar shoes.” Rissa all but arched her back and hissed at Hayley as she shouldered her way to get between the blonde and Mackey.

  Pen started to grin at Hayley. Five hundred wouldn’t touch either pair.

  But Rissa was her sister, and clearly Hayley wasn’t a favorite. She also stuck out like a sore thumb in Sweetgrass. What on earth was she doing here?

  “Would one of you big, strong men help me with something?” Hayley cooed.

  “Put on some boots and do it yourself, Barbie,” Rissa snapped. “Or show me. I’m not helpless.”

  “Ris…” Mackey cautioned.

  “You big, strong men just keep making manly noises. I’ll take care of Barbie.”

  “Excuse me?” Hayley flipped her hair. “I was only—”

  “Come on, Hayley,” Josh offered. “I’ll be your minion.” He rolled his eyes as Mackey grinned.

  Then Mackey drew his steaming wife toward the back room.

  Pen was relieved to see by their expressions that apparently all the husbands were onto L.A. Barbie’s tactics.

  So Hot Dad wasn’t a dad, after all. He was still a man who loved kids, and kids loved him. He had the whole Pied Piper thing going for him, that was for sure.

  She left the cafe without Rissa, who hadn’t reappeared from being spirited away by Mackey, likely in some alcove making out. The two of them were gooey in love, and their devotion made Pen’s heart ache. All around her were devoted couples whose relationships were based on real love, genuine affection not tainted by power games. How had she deluded herself that she’d had that with Hugh? He’d never leave his wife, she saw now with a clarity that had once been typical of her, as natural as the color of her eyes.