Harlequin American Romance October 2013 Bundle: Twins Under the Christmas Tree\Big Sky Christmas\Her Wyoming Hero\A Rancher's Christmas (6 page)

“Three or four months after my father disappeared, my mother received an eviction notice because she'd fallen behind on the rent. My brothers dropped out of school, joined a gang and sold drugs to help keep a roof over our heads.”

“Your mother allowed your brothers to do that?”

“She wasn't the same after my father disappeared. She went through the motions for us kids but a part of her died when she lost my dad.”

“How long were your brothers in the gang?”

“Almost four years. They'd bring me supper in the evenings and ask about my school day then take off again and spend the rest of the night on the streets.”

“What happened to them?”

“I was nine when they didn't show up at the apartment with my supper. The next morning the police knocked on our door and told my mother that her sons had been gunned down in a drug raid.”

Conway squeezed Isi's hand. “I'm sorry.” Sorry didn't convey the hurt he felt for her.

“My mother cried for days, missing work at both her jobs. Then one morning she said, ‘Isadora, you will stay in school and graduate.' Then we moved out of the apartment and rented a room in a boarding house, where I helped with chores in exchange for my meals.”

“And you stayed in school?”

“I went to class every day and studied hard. I learned English and promised my mother that one day we would move to the U.S. and make a better life for ourselves. After I completed my education, I got a job tutoring students in English and I began saving money. Then my mother was hit by a bus on her way to work.”

Conway couldn't find his voice to express his sympathy.

“There were a lot of pedestrian accidents in the city and my mother wasn't paying attention when she crossed against the light.”

At eighteen Isi had been the only surviving member of her family. His chest physically ached as he envisioned her burying her mother next to her brothers and an empty grave for her father.

“I had an aunt and uncle who lived in Buenos Aires, but they didn't offer to take me in, so I packed my bags and came to the U.S. by myself.”

“Your mother would be proud of you.”

“I hope so.”

“Are the twins named after their uncles?”

“Yes.”

“The boys are lucky to have you for a mother. They're going to grow up to be fine men.”

“I want them to have a good life and be happy.”

“Mind if I ask who Miguel and Javier's father is?”

“Tyler Smith,” she said.

“The bull rider?”

“That's him.”

Smith was in his early thirties and was the construction foreman for Desert Builders—a company that competed against Will's boss for projects in the Yuma area.

“I'd gotten a work permit in the U.S. and began waitressing at the pancake house on Main Street when Tyler walked in after a rodeo and asked me out on a date.” She sighed. “I knew he was trouble, but he was handsome and I was lonely.”

Conway clenched his jaw, refusing to picture Isi with Tyler. “What did he say when you told him you were pregnant?”

“He insisted the baby wasn't his.” Isi's soft brown eyes implored Conway to believe her. “I didn't cheat on Tyler.”

“He's an ass.” A surge of protectiveness filled Conway. Isi had no one to defend her and a part of him wanted to confront Smith and demand he do right by his sons.

“You know what?” she said. “All the times you've talked about your family, you've never mentioned your father.”

“I told you that my brothers—”

“I know you were all fathered by different men, but how did growing up without a father affect you?”

“I never really gave it much thought.” He hoped Isi wouldn't read the truth in his eyes. When he'd been a kid, Conway had thought about his father a lot. It wasn't until after he met the man that he quit thinking about him.

“Does it bother you that he wasn't involved in your life?” Isi asked.

“Not really.” His standard response—the one he gave to avoid telling the truth.

“Right now the boys are young and they don't know any different because Tyler hasn't been involved in their life, but I worry that down the road they'll ask why he never visits.”

The twins would ask. And when Isi's explanation wasn't good enough, her sons would go to bed at night feeling sick to their stomachs like Conway had.

“Javier is more sensitive than Miguel. I worry he'll believe there's something wrong with him and that's the reason Tyler doesn't visit.” She nudged Conway's side. “Is that how you felt when your father stayed away?”

Conway didn't know how to address Isi's concern without making her more anxious. It had bothered the hell out of Conway that his father hadn't wanted a relationship with him, but after meeting the man, he didn't see any point in getting to know him better. “I had my brothers and grandfather to make up for an absentee father.”

“It's amazing the changes I've seen in the boys since you began watching them. Javier isn't as shy and Miguel is more cooperative.” She finished her drink and set the cup aside. “Once I graduate and find a full-time professional job, I'll get back into dating. You've proven to me that the boys need a male in their lives.”

“Don't rush into anything. It'd be worse for Javi and Mig if you date a guy and break up with him soon after.”

“True, but there will come a time when I'm going to have to take a leap of faith.”

Conway stood. He didn't care to discuss Isi's plans for her love life. “I better head to the farm.”

She followed him to his truck. “Thanks for spending the day with us. I enjoyed the carnival as much as the boys did.”

“See you on Monday.” He offered a quick wave then drove off. The trip to the farm lasted forever as Isi's words rang through his head....

I'm going to have to take a leap of faith
.

With his paternal family history a leap of faith was the worst thing Conway could take. After spending a week with Javier and Miguel he admitted that he enjoyed being with the twins, but he wasn't so naive as to assume the fun and newness wouldn't eventually wear off and be replaced by the heavier burden of responsibility. And then what? Would the itch to move on hit him?

As much as he might be tempted to open himself up to dating single mothers or women who wanted children, the risks were too great.

Chapter Six

Thursday night Isi marked off the last day in October on the calendar. November sure had taken its sweet time arriving. She'd been buried under midterm exams on top of waitressing at the bar, but it was more than school and work that had caused the days to crawl by—she and Conway hadn't spent much time together.

And she hadn't expected to miss him.

After Erica had left for California, Conway had been the only person she'd had regular contact with outside school and her job. Listening to Conway's girl troubles had made her feel connected to the real world. The two weeks that had passed since the carnival made her admit how alone she and the boys really were. She wished she could go back to the days when Conway swaggered into the bar after a rodeo and flashed his sexy grin. Now, she woke each morning to the boys chattering about the fun they'd had the previous day with Conway.

You're jealous
.

She was jealous of her sons and wished she could switch places with them. She wanted to ride the tractor with Conway and learn how to shell pecans. She wanted to watch TV in the bunkhouse where Conway and his brothers slept. And she wanted to see Conway hold Dixie's son, Nathan, and stop him from crying.

Blast it, she wanted to see and experience all the things her sons had with Conway, but not once had he asked her to visit the farm. She didn't understand why he was pulling away from her, especially after the day they'd spent at the carnival. The heated looks they'd exchanged and Conway's accidental touches proved their attraction to one another was as strong and hot as it had been two years ago when they'd first met.

She wasn't foolish enough to believe she might be Conway's
the one,
but at the pace he was going, he might not find that woman for years. In the meantime, why couldn't they flirt? And if flirting led to sex...was that so terrible? She was a grown woman—a mother of four-year-old twins, whose sex life was as dry as the desert landscape outside the trailer. Didn't she deserve a night of steamy sex once in a blue moon? She'd never been promiscuous. The boy's father had only been the second man she'd slept with—the first had been her high school crush, but they'd been forced to break up when his parents discovered she lived in La Boca.

The twins were getting the best of Conway—why couldn't she have the best of him, too, for a short while?

“When's Conway gonna get here?” Miguel stood by the window.

“Soon,” Isi said. Conway had offered to take Miguel and Javier trick-or-treating because Red had scheduled her to work at the bar tonight. When Sasha learned that Isi wouldn't be able to go trick-or-treating with the boys, she'd insisted on covering Isi's shift. Isi had texted Conway that he was off the hook, but he still wanted to go out with them.

She studied her son's costumes. The superpower duo had been decided upon months ago, making it easy for Isi to save the money and buy them before the stores sold out. Miguel was Captain America and Javier was the Green Lantern. “Let me take your picture.” She grabbed the disposable camera and moved closer. “Smile.” One day when she had the money, she intended to make a scrapbook using the photos she'd taken through the years and then add the few pictures she had of her brothers, mother and father, so the twins wouldn't forget their family.

“What are you, Mom?” Javier asked.

“I'm a sheriff, silly.” She'd worn tight-fitting jeans and strapped the boys play pistol belt around her hips then pinned a sheriff's star to her long-sleeved Western shirt. Her straw cowboy hat and leather cowboy boots completed the outfit.

A knock on the trailer door sent the boys running across the room.

“Is that you, Conway?” Miguel shouted, his hand on the knob.

“It's me.”

Miguel opened the door and Javier's face lit up with excitement. “What superhero are you, Conway?”

“I'm not a superhero, Javi. I'm a caveman.”

Isi nearly swallowed her tongue when Conway stepped into the trailer wearing a fur cape. Her gaze traveled over his muscular bare chest, across his leatherlike kilt and down his naked legs—which she'd never seen before now—to the flip-flops on his feet.

“What's a caveman?” Miguel asked.

“A man who lives in a cave.” Conway smiled.

Isi couldn't take her eyes off him. He'd thought of all the details—a battery-operated torch and armbands that showed off his biceps muscles. He'd spiked his sandy hair with gel, leaving the ends sticking up in all directions. He was the sexiest caveman she'd ever seen.

Fighting a smile she said, “For a cowboy you sure have tan legs.”

“There's a swimming hole at the farm,” he said.

“How come we don't get to go swimming?” Miguel asked.

“Because I don't know if you guys can swim.”

“They've never had lessons,” Isi said.

“Maybe next spring when the water warms up, I'll teach you two how to swim.”

Isi winced at Conway's promise. Spring was a long way off and what if he found
the one
before the pond warmed up?

“Mom's a sheriff,” Javier said.

Conway studied her outfit then he flashed a sexy grin and raised his hands in the air. “I surrender.”

The boys giggled, but Isi wasn't laughing at the heat in Conway's eyes. She swallowed hard when she imagined his strong, naked legs entwined with hers on the bed in the room at the back of the trailer.

“Conway switched his attention to the boys. “What superheroes are you guys?”

“I'm Captain America,” Miguel said, then motioned to his brother. “Javi's the Green Lantern.”

“See?” Javier held out his hand.

Conway examined the plastic ring on Javi's finger. “What does it do?”

Miguel answered for his brother. “Javi has to think real hard and then he can make stuff happen.”

“And Captain America can throw his shield and it'll come back to him,” Javi said.

“You guys will give Superman a run for his money.” Conway turned to Isi. “Ready to leave?”

“Let me take a picture.” She'd buy double prints of the photo—one for the scrapbook and one for her nightstand drawer. “Move next to Conway.” Isi snapped the photo. “Go fetch your candy bags.” The boys raced to their room.

“Where do you usually trick-or-treat?” Conway asked. “In the trailer park?”

“Not many of the neighbors hand out candy, so I take the boys to the mall. Most of the merchants give out treats.”

“I have a better idea. One of Dixie's friends lives a few miles away in a subdivision. We'll go there.”

“Are you sure we're allowed to do that?”

“Dixie used to trick-or-treat there when she was younger.”

“The boys would love to walk from house to house with other kids,” she said. Once the twins returned with their bags, they piled into Conway's truck.

As they drove through town, Isi couldn't stop herself from admiring Conway's naked thighs and the way the muscles bunched when he pressed the brake or accelerator. She recalled the first time he walked into the bar and turned his smile on her—she'd almost fainted. And for a short while she'd lived in a fantasy world, believing Conway might be her “the one.” Once she understood how strongly he opposed becoming a father, she'd accepted that they'd only ever be friends. Would he rethink his stance on fatherhood after helping her with the boys, or was she reading too much into the time he spent with them?

“Hey, Conway,” Javier said.

“What?”

“When I grow up I'm gonna be a farmer like you.”

Isi smiled.

“I'm gonna ride broncs like you,” Miguel chimed in.

“When I grow up,” Conway said. “I want to go to Tiny Tot Learn and Play like you guys.”

The boys erupted in laughter, but Isi wasn't smiling. She stared out the window at the passing cars and second-guessed her decision to allow Conway to take care of her sons. She'd believed the boys would benefit from having a man in their lives, but she hadn't considered how the twins would react when Conway stopped coming by.

You'll have to find a man to replace him
.

No one could replace Conway, but the idea had merit. If she had a boyfriend by the time she graduated, then when Conway quit babysitting, the twins wouldn't feel his loss as deeply.

Conway turned into a neighborhood and parked at the end of a block. “This is a good place to start.” After they got out of the truck, he said, “You guys stick together. Don't walk off by yourself.”

As they followed the boys, Isi whispered, “You'd better be careful, you're sounding like a father.”

“Sorry, that slipped out.”

“No need to apologize. You've been watching the boys almost a month. It's only natural for you to take charge.” And surprisingly it didn't bother Isi that he took the lead with her sons. After four years of having sole responsibility for the twins, she enjoyed the brief respite.

Isi and Conway waited on the sidewalk as Miguel and Javier walked up to the first door. “Don't forget to say thank you,” she called after them.

Miguel rang the bell and they hollered, “Trick-or-treat!” After receiving their candy they shouted a thank-you then cut across the lawn to the next house.

“The weather's beautiful tonight,” she said, feeling nervous as she walked beside Conway.

“You can't beat southern Arizona in the fall.” Conway set his hand against her lower back and guided her through a crowd of kids. They continued walking, but he didn't remove his hand, and Isi's pulsed raced as the skin beneath his touch warmed.

“You look hot in your sheriff's getup,” he whispered in her ear.

“I bet you say that to all the ladies.” She forced a smile. “Speaking of ladies...we haven't talked about your latest ‘the one.'”

“Who's that?”

She shrugged. “I assumed you'd found a new woman.”

“Between watching the boys and working on the farm I haven't had time to date.”

They strolled to the next house in silence, Isi lost in thought. She'd been so relieved when Conway had volunteered to take care of the boys while she finished out the semester that she hadn't given a thought to how it would affect his personal life. “I'll keep searching for a permanent sitter.”

“Why?”

“Because you said you don't have any time to yourself.”

“Neither do you.”

“I'm not supposed to. I'm a single mother.”

“Mom!” Javier raced toward her, holding out his bag. “The lady gave us a giant candy bar.”

“She sure did.” Isi waved at the woman. “Did you thank her?”

“Yep.” Miguel pointed to the house at the end of street where a large crowd of kids gathered. “She said that man gives out lot of treats to kids who don't get scared and run away.”

“It's a haunted house,” Isi said.

Miguel tugged his brother's arm. “C'mon, Javi.”

The boys ran off and Isi and Conway both called, “Stay together!”

“We'd better catch up.” Conway took Isi's hand and they walked fast, keeping the boys in sight.

“This guy went all out,” Conway said.

Ghosts hung from tree branches. Skulls and skeletal hands stuck out of the ground next to tombstones. The dark porch was filled with cobwebs and scary music blasted from an open window. The front door had been covered in white butcher paper with the words
Keep Out
painted in red.

The boys were at the back of the line, so Isi settled in for a long wait. “You've more than made up for Bridget punching me in the nose, Conway. There's no reason your love life should suffer any longer.”

The heat in his eyes burned the side of her neck. “Is that all you think I care about—having sex?”

The group of women standing nearby stopped talking. Isi lowered her voice. “C'mon, Conway. It's me, Isi, you're talking to. Finding ‘the one' has been your main preoccupation since we met two years ago.”

“Hey, a guy's entitled to take a break from romance every now and then.”

She snorted.

“I'm not a stud machine who can switch on and off, you know.”

“I'm still going to try to find a sitter.”

They stood for a few more minutes, watching the fray of kids then Conway stiffened next to her. “I see Miguel, but where's Javier?” He didn't wait for Isi to respond before charging up the sidewalk. “Javi?” he shouted.

Miguel raced toward Conway.

“Where's Javi, Mig?” Isi asked when she caught up.

“He was next to me when the man gave us candy.”

“Did he go inside the house, Miguel?” Conway asked.

“No, the man didn't open the door.”

Conway noticed a hand poked through the hole in the paper that covered the door and dropped candy into the waiting bags.” He glanced down the block. “I'll follow that group. You two stay here in case Javier comes back.”

Heart racing, Conway caught up to the mass of goblins and fairies. One by one he surveyed the kids' costumes but didn't see a Green Lantern in the group. Panic squeezed his gut. Javier had most likely gotten swallowed up by a wave of kids as they passed by him.

Where are you, Javi?

If Conway hadn't suggested trick-or-treating in a larger neighborhood, the boy wouldn't have gotten lost. He reached the end of the block then called Javier's name.

“Excuse me. Did you lose your child?” A woman pushing a stroller approached Conway.

“Yes, ma'am. He's wearing a green superhero costume. Have you seen him?”

“I'm sorry, I haven't.” She motioned to a crowd up the block. “That's our church group. We'll keep an eye out for him.”

“Thanks. His name's Javier.” Conway jogged ahead of the group and caught the next crowd. “Has anyone seen a kid wearing a Green Lantern costume?”