Home on the Ranch: The Colorado Cowboy's Triplets
Autor
Laura Marie Altom
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18
HarlequinChapter 1
“Monroe, you hit worse than a pack of third-grade girls in a tickle fight!”
“Yessir.” Even though Navy SEAL Jed Monroe had sunk four of his last five shots into the long-range shooting target’s bull’s-eye, he saluted his CO and sucked up the constructive criticism like a man—like a freakin’ SEAL. God, he loved his job. Was there any more beautiful place in the world than the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, California? Toss in this sunny May day and having his life finally back on track and he reckoned it would be impossible to top this level of contentment. “I’ll nail them all next time, sir.”
“You’d damn well better, or I’ll demote your sorry—”
“Excuse me, Chief!” Fellow SEAL Adam Rhodes cleaned sand from his weapon. The rest of the sixteen-man platoon had been sent on an open-ocean swim to wash the stupid out of their unmentionables. “But your cell’s going apeshit in your office.”
CO Bartoni growled. “I’ve got my eye on you, Monroe.”
“Yessir.” Jed dropped onto his belly in preparation for his next rounds.
He was good to go until overhearing snippets of a heated conversation taking place in the CO’s field office—an ammo box he used for a seat in the shade of their transport vehicle.
“...tell him. You’re his closest friend.”
Adam said, “But he’s in a good place, sir.”
“Fine.” The CO stood. “I’ll deliver the news.”
“No. Let me.” Adam’s expression was grim as he headed Jed’s way.
Jed raised his hand to his forehead, shading his eyes from the already hot morning sun. What the hell’s going on?
His stomach turned queasy.
So much for his great mood...
When Adam’s shadow blocked the sun, Jed rolled onto his back and groaned. “If this is about Alyssa, who has a nasty habit of popping in and out of my life, just keep on walking. Now that she and Mr. Hollywood are officially hitched, she’s not my problem.” Only she was, because he still couldn’t believe that after two happy—okay, mostly happy—years of marriage, she’d cheated on him and was now married to another guy.
“Sorry, man.” Adam bowed his head. “Shit. I don’t even know how to say this...”
“Spit it out. Did something happen to my mom?” She worked as a traveling nurse at missionaries and remote villages in parts of Africa that were notoriously dangerous. He prayed every night she’d live to see the next day. For years, he’d begged her to head back to the States, find a nice condo and spend her golden years reading on some nice beach.
“No.”
“My sister or the babies?” Emily just had triplets and could be the official spokesperson for Fairy Tales-R-Us. She and her husband, Chase, weren’t just blissfully happy, but rainbows and unicorns happy. For real. During the heat of his divorce, watching the two of them together had hurt. Now that they had the triplets, whereas most sane people would go off the deep end, Emily and Chase’s world had only grown brighter. “I keep telling her to move closer to town. I know Chase fancies himself a cattle rancher, but those babies are tiny—only ten weeks old. They get sick and it’s like a good hour to the nearest clinic—all the way to Aspen for a legit hospital.” He knew he was rambling, but couldn’t seem to stop. “Emily is constantly lecturing me on being more positive, but I’m all about keeping it real.”
Adam rubbed his closed eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
“If Mom, Emily and the babies are good, then what’s the problem?” His physician father had passed from an aneurysm ten years earlier. The ladies in his life were all the family Jed had—aside from Chase. Wait... “Is it my brother-in-law? Is he hurt?”
“Shit...” Adam kicked at the sand. “There’s no good way to say this. Chase is dead. Freak heart attack.”
“Wait—what?” Jed wasn’t sure if it was the heat or the news, but his mind was spinning. He stood, only to stumble, grabbing hold of the transport vehicle’s side mirror to keep his wobbly legs upright. “Has to be a mistake.”
He gazed out at the calm Pacific, where the rest of his team finished their swim.
The sun shone just as brightly.
The surf’s steady crash sounded just as relaxing.
Yet in that instant, his entire world had changed.
“Somehow your mom got ahold of the CO’s wife. Your sister’s inconsolable and there’s no way your mom can return to the States anytime soon. Emily needs you in Colorado ASAP.”
“Take the truck back to base.” In a rare show of compassion, the CO cupped his hand to Jed’s shoulder. “I’ll radio for another. Go to your sister. The few times I met her, she seemed like a nice gal. I’ll file the necessary paperwork for your leave. Take as long as you need.”
“Yessir.” Numb, Jed knew he should be running toward the truck. Toward his little sis. But he couldn’t move. All he could do was stare out at his SEAL brothers, the weight of the news he’d just received anchoring him in place.
“Change in plans.” Hands on his hips, the CO turned to Adam. “Monroe’s in no shape to drive. You take him and help find the necessary flights.”
“Yessir.” Adam saluted their CO before turning to his friend.
“I’ve got this.” Jed brushed off Adam’s help, then struggled to his feet. “I’m good. Just needed a minute. This is a lot to take in, but Emily’s strong. I’m sure I’ll be back in a few days...”
“Jed?”
“Camille?”
The mere sight of her former fiancé gave retired Miami detective Camille Hall cold-hot chills.
The last time they’d been together...
The hurtful things they’d both said...
The love she’d felt for him that had been too intense—like standing too close to fire. Her soul had instinctively known surrendering her heart to him would only get her burned.
Hugging herself, she stepped back from Grandpa Ollie’s Colorado cabin door. Past nine on a cold and windy Thursday night, there were zero logical reasons for the only man she’d ever loved to be standing in the dim porch light, piercing green eyes red-rimmed from...tears?
Jed didn’t cry.
As far as she’d known, he had never cried—certainly not when their relationship had been decimated as effectively as if there were such a thing as a heart grenade.
“What’s wrong?” Why are you here? She willed her runaway pulse to slow. “Are Em and the babies okay?”
He nodded, then shook his head.
“I owe her and Chase a visit, but I’ve only been back in town a few days,” she said. Part of the reason she hadn’t visited her longtime friend was because of how much Emily and Chase’s home—the family home where she’d spent so much time during endless summers with Emily and Jed—reminded her of him and the happy times they’d shared.
“You don’t know?”
“Know what?” Her heart had been pounding, but now stopped.
From deeper inside the house blared gunshots from one of her grandfather’s favorite Westerns. A cowboy shouted, “That’s right! Run, you lily-livered toad sucker!”
“Tell me. What’s wrong?” When Jed’s expression paled to the point she feared he might puke in the bushes, she left the house to put her arm around him. Though touching him should have felt achingly familiar, her motions were stiff. More of an autopilot reflex courtesy than a case of wanting her arms around him.
But to be fair, their breakup was very much two-sided.
“Chase is dead.” After a sharp exhale, he brushed his hand over his military-buzzed hair. “Em is on her way to the hospital in Aspen. I think she may have accidentally overdosed.”
“What? I just saw Chase a few months ago. He was fine.”
“Sudden heart attack. Total fluke.”
“Ohmygosh.” She covered her mouth with trembling hands. As if hit by a physical blow, she grasped a porch post.
“Anyway, I was going to ask Ollie to watch the girls while I go to Em.”
“Gramps is crashed in his recliner, but I’ll do it—as long as you need. Go.”
“Thanks.” He jerked his thumb toward the SUV. “Mind helping me unload?”
“Right. Of course.” There were a hundred questions she wanted to ask, but they could wait. Her lingering personal pain over his quickie marriage meant nothing compared to this current disaster. But now that her heart had mentioned it, where was his wife?
Working in tandem, it took maybe fifteen minutes to haul diaper bags and blankets inside and assemble the portable playpen Jed had thought to bring for use as a crib.
Ollie continued snoring while she and Jed transformed his living room into a temporary nursery.
Camille muted the TV before they brought in the babies.
Jed took two infants from their car safety seats, while Camille took the third into her arms.
“I still can’t believe this happened,” she said. “Last I saw him, Chase was barbecuing chicken on their deck while it snowed.” She and Emily had watched, laughing while gumball-sized flakes messed with his saucing technique.
“Em’s gutted. I’ve never seen her like this. Not even when our dad died.”
“Go to her. I’m happy to keep the girls as long as you need.”
“Thanks.” He hovered near the door. “I put extra formula in one of the diaper bags.”
“No worries. Gramps has a spare key to Emily and Chase’s house. If I run out of essentials, it’s a quick trip over.”
The set of his mouth grim, he nodded. “Again, thanks for helping on such short notice. Hopefully I won’t be long and will bring my sister home in the morning.”
“I’ll say a prayer for her. Drive careful. That road’s a beast at night.”
“Will do.”
He slipped out of the suddenly too warm house and into the dark. Camille stood at the door, watching him go. Between them, they’d said goodbye to far too many people. Her grandmother and father. His father and now brother-in-law.
Each other.
As his taillights faded into the dirt road’s rising dust, she pressed her hands to her chest. “Please God, let Emily be all right. Please don’t let her be the next loss...”
Not hearing any crying or fussing, Camille took her time heading back inside. She breathed in gallons of cool, damp night air. Eyes closed, she whispered a few more fervent prayers.
Then she forced herself back to reality—to the fact that she had suddenly become the temporary caregiver of newborn triplets.
In the cabin, with the front door closed and locked behind her, she found her grandfather not only awake, but cantankerous.
“What’s wrong with the TV?” Ollie snatched the remote from the table beside his recliner and gave it a shake. “The sound’s not coming out, and this is the best part.”
“The TV’s quiet because I muted it. Look...” She nodded toward the three wide-eyed infants staring up at the cabin’s pine-plank ceiling. “We have company.”
“What in the world are Emily and Chase’s girls doing here?”
She sat hard on the sofa. “Did you hear Chase died?”
“What? That can’t be right.”
“That’s what I said.”
“He was so young. Why didn’t we hear anything?”
She snorted. “Probably because you’re so crotchety no one wants to even stop by for a visit.”
He grunted.
Only a few minutes later, he’d drifted back into a deep sleep.
One of the babies fussed.
While Camille technically knew all their names, now that she was seeing them in a row, she didn’t have a clue which name went with which identical cherubic face.
“I should have had your uncle put name tags on you,” she said, while scooping the fussy cutie from the playpen. The baby settled her chubby cheek against Camille’s breasts and promptly fell asleep.
The feeling of trust placed in her by this tiny, perfect being was indescribable. More than anything, Camille had always wanted to be a mom. Then she’d earned a coveted position on the Miami-Dade County Special Victims Bureau and everything changed.
She’d believed the promotion had been a dream come true—a chance to sink her teeth into meaty cases that truly mattered. What she hadn’t expected were daily emotional gut-punches stemming from viewing unfathomably horrific crime scenes or meeting with victims’ grief-stricken families. Then there were the times she’d interacted with the men and even women who’d committed the heinous crimes.
Just thinking about the emptiness in their dark gazes left her chilled.
She gave the baby an extra squeeze, kissing the crown of her head. As much as she loved children, she no longer yearned for motherhood. The risk of losing them—potentially losing herself—was far too great. “Let’s get you back with your sisters.”
After gingerly placing the infant in the crib alongside her snoozing siblings, she covered them all with their fuzzy pink blankets, taking extra care in making sure their tiny toes were protected from the night’s chill.
“You’re next,” she said to her still-sleeping grandfather, giving his shoulder a light shake. “Hey, Gramps. Let’s call it a night.”
He grunted, slow to wake or even recognize his surroundings. “What?”
“Come on...” She took his hands, planting her feet to help him from his chair. “Let’s get you to bed.”
“I need to pee.”
“For now, let’s just get you out of your recliner and down the hall.”
“I’m fine.” Finally on his feet, he grunted again. “All this coddling is gonna give me heartburn.”
“Duly noted.” She kept a firm hold on his arm while he shuffled in his worn house shoes she’d bought him for Christmas ten years earlier. Time for a new pair.
“Was I dreaming, or did you tell me that neighbor boy, Chase, died?”
“He did...”
“Damned shame. He was a good kid. The best I’ve seen around these parts in a good long while.”
She nodded. The loss must have been unimaginably tough for Emily. She still barely had a grasp on caring for three newborns. But to now tackle the job solo?
Impossible.
Once Emily left the hospital, Camille would remind her that she had a lifelong friend just down the road who was ready to lend a hand whenever needed.
As for her feelings for Emily’s brother?
Camille released a long, slow exhale.
It took thirty minutes to get her grandfather washed and changed into flannel pj’s, then tucked into bed, before convincing him to take his blood pressure medication. Of course, he complained during each step, arguing he was fine sleeping in his clothes, but she argued right back that she wasn’t fine with him rolling around in the dust and grime he’d picked up that day while working his mine.
Her grandfather had worked the shafts on his mountain claim all her life. To her knowledge, he had yet to find a thing other than dirt, spiders and tons of worthless rocks, but the task kept him busy and the dream of one day hitting the motherlode kept him alive.
“Good night, Gramps,” she finally said, with a kiss to his weathered cheek. “Sweet dreams.”
He delivered his usual grunt.
Before switching off his bedside lamp, she surveyed his mess of a room. One more thing to add to her growing to-do list. It wasn’t that his room was dirty, just cluttered to the point that her long-deceased grandmother’s beautiful antiques were no longer visible beneath piles of survey maps, mining magazines, mining equipment and even a collection of vintage gold pans.
Wearing an indulgent grin, she darkened the room and closed the door on her grandfather’s snoring.
Back in the living room, she eyed the portable crib and its three tiny occupants. “Now, what am I going to do with you?”
Since they were sleeping, for the moment her only task was to watch them. Make sure they were safe from any number of things that could do them harm. Choking on toys. Suffocating under their blanket. Kidnappings...
Okay—considering their remote location, that last fear was beyond irrational, but back in Miami, she’d seen it all. In one case she was on, a set of newborn twins had never been found. No doubt they’d been taken, then sold on the black market to some whack-job who had more money than sense.
She collapsed onto her grandfather’s recliner, but instead of leaning back, she lurched forward, resting her elbows on her knees. Didn’t matter that she was tired. Protecting her precious charges was her top priority.
No matter what, she wouldn’t let Jed and Emily down.
Like you did so many other families?
Her pulse hammered and her palms sweated.
How many innocent lives had been lost on her watch? How many families had she destroyed by sharing grim news?
It didn’t matter how often her supervisor told her she couldn’t take the cases personally.
She had.
Every. Single. One.
These lost, stolen, abused or murdered children weren’t just nameless, faceless victims to her, but sons and daughters who had been ripped from families.
Forcing herself to do the deep breathing the department shrink had advised, Camille momentarily felt better. But then her cell rang—shattering her nerves all to hell.
She hadn’t heard that merry ringtone in what? Nearly ten years? Camille was surprised Jed still had her number.
After a sharp exhale, she answered, “How’s Emily?”
“Holding her own.”
“Good.”
“How are the babies?”
“Sleepy.” Thank goodness. Just because she’d always wanted her own children didn’t mean she knew the first thing about caring for them.
“They’re usually okay until around two a.m., then all hell breaks loose. Grab yourself some shut-eye until then.”
“Will do. How long have you been with her? Here—on the mountain?”
“A couple weeks. Since hearing about Chase.”
“How’d you get away?” His insane work schedule had been but one of the myriad reasons their relationship had proved impossible.
“Emergency leave. How about you? Your mom told my mom about your promotion. Why aren’t you back in Miami?”
“Long story.” She wasn’t proud that she’d resigned. She was even less proud of being emotionally incapable of handling the job. Her shrink said burnout in that kind of intense work environment was common—certainly nothing to be ashamed of. But Camille still felt as if she’d let down not only her department, but the dozens—if not hundreds—of children still needing her help.
“I’ve got time,” he said. “Only thing to do around here is pace.”
“Let’s just say the job wasn’t what I thought it would be. When I heard Gramps needed help, this seemed like as good a place as any to regroup.”
“True. There’s no place on earth like our mountain.” Emily and Chase’s home had once belonged to Jed’s grandparents. They’d left it to Jed’s parents, who had gifted it to the once happy couple. Camille had visited her grandparents every school holiday. She and Emily had been best friends. When the girls discovered boys, they’d run with a few teen bull riders from town, but one summer Camille had broken her leg riding and Jed had been grounded for nearly starting the barn on fire with bottle rockets. His punishment had been weeks of hard labor. When his parents had run out of chores for him to do, they’d sent him to Ollie and her grandmother, Mable. A misty smile tugged the corners of Camille’s lips when her mind’s eye caught on the memory of teen Jed mowing and mucking stalls and weed-eating, all while wearing cowboy boots, Wranglers, his favorite beaten brown leather cowboy hat and nothing on his chest save for sweat coating tanned muscle.
“You still there?”
“Yeah.” Camille gave herself a mental kick. Thank goodness her trip down memory lane ended before recalling their first kiss. Gifting each other their virginity. Whispering “I love you” beneath the stars. “Sorry. My mind blanked for a sec.”
“No worries. I should let you sleep. I just wanted to check in and thank you again.”
“Glad I could help.”
“You’re a good person, Cam—always have been. Guess all this mess with Chase, and now my sister, has me feeling sentimental, but for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. You know, about how things went down between us. I never meant for it to turn out that way.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “Me, neither.”
“Right. Anyway, with luck, see you in the morning with Emily in tow.”
“Sounds good.”
Camille disconnected the call and wasn’t sure what to think. The last thing she’d expected when returning to Marigold to care for her grandfather had been running into Jed. Or learning that Chase had died. Poor Emily.
At least when Camille lost Jed it had been a choice.
