Loe raamatut: «Her Triplets' Mistletoe Dad»

CHAPTER ONE

GABBY ROGERS AND SETH STRAIGHT had driven out to Benton, Colorado, for the privacy—because if they’d done this in Eagle’s Rest, their secret would be impossible to keep. Gabby pulled her honey-blond hair away from her face, then rubbed her hands over her arms. Her cream knit dress wasn’t warm enough in the chill of the courthouse. She shivered. The old building was decorated for the holidays—Christmas was only two weeks off—but there were drafts coming from windows, and Gabby found herself wishing she’d left her thick winter coat on. Except that didn’t seem quite appropriate for her wedding—even this wedding. In all her fantasies, her wedding day had never been like this—so sterile and logical. She’d been positive that when she did marry, it would be for love—what other reason made it worth it? But this was smart; they’d agreed on that much.

Times were tough right now. She was a mother to triplet newborns, and that had changed her life in every possible way. The father wasn’t in the picture. Just about the time she discovered she was pregnant, he’d revealed that he was already married. She’d been stunned, heartbroken. She’d been thinking he might be the one, only to find out he’d been lying from the start. So though she’d delivered her babies with his financial assistance, their relationship was over. Now she was on her own, back in her hometown of Eagle’s Rest, Colorado, with a broken heart and trying to figure out where her ex’s lies had started and ended. Recovering after childbirth and now realizing she had no way to afford her baby boys’ expensive formula… This idea of marrying her best friend had made so much sense a few days ago, when she and Seth Straight were making their plans. They were getting married for mutual benefits, and love didn’t have to factor into their arrangement. Love never steered her right, anyway, and Seth was the best man she knew. This was sensible…wasn’t it?

“Are we crazy?” Gabby asked, looking over at Seth. She fiddled with the flowers and realized belatedly that she’d been slowly shredding a rose petal.

“Maybe.” Seth shot her a wry smile. He had worn his Sunday best—a suit and cowboy boots, with his white cowboy hat tucked under one arm. The last five years had aged him, with some silver laced through his auburn hair, and eyes that were a whole lot sadder. He’d always been the guy who was so cautious and organized that she’d assumed heartbreak would skip him. But no one was immune, it seemed, so here they were, along with their mangled hearts.

Gabby missed her babies right now, and that lonesome feeling was squeezing out her other misgivings. This was the first time she’d been separated from her newborns since they’d been in the NICU at the hospital. Funny how the same feeling of panic seemed to rise even when they were healthy, growing, and safely being cared for by Aunt Bea for the afternoon. Gabby’s mother was working a double shift, which was actually a good thing. This wedding was top secret and she had no idea how she’d explain it. One thing at a time.

Gabby glanced at the clock. They had five minutes until it was their turn in the judge’s office. Then they’d be married. This would be very final, if she went through with it.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Gabby asked, stepping closer to Seth, searching his face. “Because we can still back out.”

Was she hoping that he would change his mind? Maybe. It would be easier to step away from this solution if Seth pulled out first. And he was the rational one—the guy who was logical to the extreme. If anyone could find a good reason not to do this, it would be Seth.

“Do you have a choice?” he asked.

“There’s always a choice.”

“Yeah, but…” He shrugged. “Your mom is broke right now, and she’d be the one you could normally rely on, right? If you’ve thought up a better solution…”

“I’d considered contacting my father,” she said quietly. “But he never paid my mother a penny of child support, so I doubt that he’d suddenly want to help with his grandchildren. And Uncle Ted said he didn’t have a job for me. I mean, he did give me some cash, but I need more than money—I need a way to support my kids.”

“And you need my health insurance, right?” he asked, his dark eyes meeting hers.

“You know I do,” she said.

Her newborn sons—Aiden, Beau and Andy—had been born prematurely and their digestive tracts hadn’t been ready for regular milk. Their formula cost a small fortune, and her savings had been bled dry in the past couple weeks just trying to keep them fed. Uncle Ted, who was actually more of a family friend than actual kin, had given her a financial gift that had helped, but their need for formula wasn’t going to end soon. Seth was the ranch manager at the Ross Ranch, and as management, he had decent health insurance. That was where this idea had come from.

Was it selfish of her to want to shield her sons from the gossip surrounding their conception, too? She wasn’t proud of that, and in a place this size, people were going to talk.

“I don’t see any other way you’re going to get the help you need,” Seth replied. “Unless you can suss up a job with benefits real quick. Besides, don’t they always say you should marry your best friend?”

They’d been best friends for years, but kind of an odd couple in that respect. She was the fun-loving risk taker, and he was the overly cautious worrier. They were direct opposites in so many ways, but somehow their personalities clicked.

“Marrying your best friend… Yeah, I’m not sure they had this in mind,” she said wryly. “I just need to know you aren’t going to regret this. I’d hate myself for taking advantage of your health insurance if you’re going to wish you hadn’t. I mean, what if you fall in love with someone and—”

“I won’t.” He paused. “Look, we talked about this. This whole modern notion of marrying for love sets people up for disappointment. It used to be that parents chose their children’s spouses by looking at the more practical things, like how well he could provide, how their personalities might click, how they could succeed if they worked together. And those marriages worked! We can’t say there were thousands of years of marital misery, because there wasn’t. I really think this is smart. We don’t have sky-high emotional expectations from each other. But we do have a really solid friendship.”

Look at him—logical to the extreme. But she did agree with him on this point. She’d already been burned by Craig, and it was her own stupid, romantic hopes that blinded her to reality. That wasn’t her worry here.

“You might meet someone, Seth,” she countered.

“I’ve already had the love of my life,” he said softly. “You know that. There isn’t going to be another love like Bonnie. Besides, you’re my best friend, Gabs, and I want to help. But if you don’t…”

The door to the judge’s office opened and a woman in a black robe smiled and looked down at a notepad. She was short and middle-aged, with chin-length brown hair. She looked tired, Gabby thought, as the judge studied her tablet.

“Gabrielle Rogers and Seth Straight?” she said, looking up.

“That’s us,” Seth replied, then he looked down at Gabby and lowered his voice. “If you don’t want to…”

Standing there in a knit dress that wasn’t quite warm enough, a bouquet of white roses that Seth had splurged on in one hand and the ring box in the sweaty palm of the other, she found her options sweeping through her mind.

She could continue her search for a job—any job—that offered decent health insurance, and then put her sons into day care. She could do what other moms did and get used to this hollow, lonely feeling of being away from her babies. And in the meantime, she could see if the bank would give her another line of credit to cover the cost of formula until she could sort something out… If she could sort something out. She couldn’t count on Uncle Ted to give more than he already had. She had three hungry newborns gobbling back bottle after bottle of specialty formula. God forbid they need more hospitalization or surgery… And Seth’s offer had been so kind and generous. He didn’t have cash to share, but he did have health insurance. Because of his offer, she’d felt genuinely cared for by a man for the first time in years. Besides, she wasn’t about to follow her heart again, either. What she needed was a logical marriage—one that actually had a hope of lasting.

“Gabby?” Seth murmured. “What do you think? You want to do this?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes. It’s a good plan.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.” She sounded more decisive than she felt. “Let’s get married.”

Another couple slid onto a bench behind them. The woman wore a lacy wedding gown over a bulging belly. The couple’s fingers were entwined, and they leaned their heads together, whispering. They looked excited, those two. And young—so young. Good grief, were they even twenty? Her gaze lingered on the couple, and she sighed. By the looks of it, that bride was marrying the father of her baby. Gabby hadn’t managed that—the father of her babies was already father to two preteens in Billings. Still, even though Gabby wasn’t going to be an excited, dewy-eyed bride, she would be married. And life would be easier because of it.

“All right,” the judge said with a smile. “Let’s get started. Come inside, please.”

Gabby went into the office first, followed by Seth. He’d always been the polite sort—ladies first and all that. She used to tease him about his old-fashioned ways. He’d have to loosen up if he wanted to catch a girl, she used to say…but then he’d married Bonnie, disproving that theory. And watching Seth using those antiquated manners on his wife, she’d wondered if she’d been the one to miss out.

Gabby felt Seth’s warm hand linger on her back as the door to the spacious office shut behind them. Was he as nervous as she was? She glanced back and found his dark gaze drilling into the carpet in front of him. Whatever he was feeling, it was locked away.

A desk dominated one side of the room, but there was a nice open area by the window. There were two court-appointed witnesses sitting in visitors’ chairs—an older woman in sensible slacks and a bored-looking young man whose hair didn’t flatten all the way at the back. They each gave her a cordial nod. How many weddings had they seen today?

“Let’s just take a look at your paperwork,” the judge said, and Seth handed it over. They spent a couple minutes going over everything, and then the judge gestured for them to stand by the window.

“Let’s get started, then,” she said. “I normally do the vows over here by the window. It’s a little nicer for pictures.” She paused. “Do you have anyone to take a few photos?”

“Uh…” Gabby shook her head. “We didn’t really think of it.”

“Sorry,” Seth murmured.

It hardly seemed appropriate to be taking joyful photos of this sort of wedding. They’d look like those stricken couples in old black-and-white photos—the ones where the bride and groom stood a foot apart in every shot.

“I’ll take a few shots, if you like,” the older woman said. “I’ve got my phone right here. I could email them to you.”

Seth smiled. “Thanks. We appreciate that.”

Did they really appreciate that? She’d have her own stricken pictures to pass down to her sons… She wasn’t sure she wanted pictures. It was better to remember this day the way she wanted to—taking an intelligent step that would benefit them both—instead of seeing actual photos that might betray her memories somehow. But now wasn’t the time to quibble. They stood where the judge indicated, and the older woman came and took a couple photos of them facing each other. Seth seemed more stable than she did—more resolute. Mind you, he’d been married before, so he knew how all this worked.

“Join hands,” the judge instructed.

Seth held out his broad, calloused palms and he gave her a small smile. There he was—the best friend. It almost felt like a joke, an act they were putting on, two collaborators once more. Normally, she was the one who lured him into drama, and maybe that hadn’t changed. His hand was warm, and he gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze.

“We’re here together today to join you in marriage. Have you both come of your own free will?”

Gabby nodded.

“We need you to answer aloud with a yes or a no,” the judge said.

“Yes,” they said together.

“As expected,” the judge said with a soft chuckle. “So let’s just get right into the vows then. Seth Straight, do you take this woman to be your wife from this day forth and for the rest of your life?”

Seth’s dark gaze met Gabby’s, but only briefly before he cleared his throat and looked toward the judge instead.

“I do.”

“And Gabrielle Rogers, do you take this man to be your husband from this day forth and for the rest of your life?”

Gabby licked her lips. “I do.”

“Rings?” the judge asked brightly.

Gabby picked up the ring box, which she’d set on the desk, and cracked it open. They’d bought very simple, cheap wedding rings. Gold, but barely, Gabby had joked earlier. But now, they seemed weightier, more important. She started to put the ring on Seth’s finger, though he had to shimmy it the rest of the way past his knuckle. Then he slipped the matching slim band onto her hand.

“Repeat after me,” the judge said. “With this ring, I thee wed.”

“With this ring, I thee wed,” they murmured together.

“Then by the power vested in me by the state of Colorado, I now pronounce you husband and wife.” The judge smiled warmly. “If you would like to share a kiss to commemorate your marriage, now would be an appropriate time for that.”

And that was the moment that Gabby realized she’d never kissed Seth before. Not when they agreed to this wedding, not when they first saw each other all gussied up. Even when she’d broken up with boyfriends and Seth had been the one to let her cry on his shoulder… They’d never crossed that line because they’d never been attracted to each other.

She’d never kissed the man that she’d just married!

“Brace yourself,” Seth murmured, as if reading her mind, then dipped his head down and caught her lips with his.

SETH DIDN’T KNOW what he’d expected kissing his best friend to feel like, but perhaps a little less wide-eyed shock on her part would have been nice. Her lips were tense at first, but after a moment, her eyes fluttered shut and they softened under his own.

Married. He hadn’t thought ahead to the kiss after the ceremony, but with a judge and two witnesses expecting something, he felt he’d better oblige. He didn’t want to embarrass Gabby on his very first day as her husband, after all.

He pulled back and Gabby’s eyes opened again, and they exchanged a serious look.

“Congratulations!” the judge said with a smile. “This is a big day. We’ll all just put down our signatures here—”

“I got that shot!” the older woman said with a brilliant smile, her phone held up in front of her. “Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Straight!”

A surge of guilt swept through him, and he attempted to push it back. He’d sworn he wouldn’t take these vows again, but this was different, wasn’t it? Bonnie had been his first love—his first kiss! He’d been a late bloomer in that respect. While the other guys were dating around, he’d been the serious one, focused on his career and not wanting to waste his time with the wrong girls. His parents had gotten divorced when he was twelve, and he’d never wanted to endure that kind of misery in his own romantic life. He’d always been cautious to a fault. And when Bonnie died in childbirth, the light of his life blinked out. He’d been prepared to keep their marriage healthy and strong for a lifetime, but he had no control over mortality. He’d lost a baby girl and wife all in one day, and he’d been in a fog of depression for two years.

Seeing Gabby again had flicked a light back on, scattered the fog and given him a bit more clarity at last, though he was determined to keep to his resolution to never fall for anyone again. But now, he’d just given his name to another woman for some very logical reasons, but it still felt like a betrayal to his wife’s memory.

What exactly had he gotten himself into?

The paperwork was quickly dispatched, and the older lady had already emailed her snapshots to Gabby’s account. They thanked her, thanked the judge, and headed out of the office, all without once looking at each other. The ring felt funny on his hand, and he fiddled with it with his thumb.

“Congratulations!” the young couple next in line said in unison. They got up from the bench and moved toward the office. “How does it feel?” the woman asked.

“Great.” Gabby smiled and nodded. “Congrats to you, too.”

Did she really feel great about this? He eyed her uncertainly. The judged called the next names, and the young, pregnant couple disappeared into the office.

Gabby shot Seth an annoyed look when she noticed his scrutiny. “What?”

“How does it really feel?” he asked, his voice low.

“Weird.” She shrugged. “But a good weird. We’ll be okay.”

Seth sure hoped so. He’d done it for her, and for those three little babies. They were so small, and when they cried, his heart clenched in his chest like he was the one causing their distress. They’d reminded him of his own baby girl—Hazel Marie. She’d been too tiny to make it, but he’d had the opportunity to hold her, at least.

He pushed back the memory. He was doing this for those babies. They needed two things: food and their mother, and this time around, he was going to be able to protect a mother and her babies—make sure they had the long and healthy life that Bonnie and Hazel had deserved.

“I know I didn’t speak up when she called us Mr. and Mrs. Straight back there,” he said. Did he dare take that back? “It’s no pressure. I was just… I don’t know, acting the part for the audience, you know?”

“No, I get it.” She put a hand on his arm. “I was, too. But I think I’ll keep my own last name for now. It’s simpler. My sons have Rogers as their last name, so—”

“No, no, that’s perfectly fine.” A wave of relief crashed over him. His last name was something he could hold back for himself…for Bonnie. He looked down at Gabby again, and she gave him a tight smile.

What was with them? They’d known each other for decades, and here they were dancing around each other like painfully polite strangers, discussing what last name she’d have now that he’d married her. Gabby had always been the irreverent type, and here she was meeting him toe-to-toe with manners. He went over to the coatrack and took down their jackets.

“What do we tell people?” she asked, as she pulled her puffy, cream-colored coat around her shoulders. A few people passed them in the tall main entrance of the building, and Seth caught the smiles cast in their direction.

What would they tell people? Everyone had a “how we met” or even a proposal story, and people loved to hear it. But their story wasn’t exactly romantic, and that wasn’t going to go over well, was it?

“Well, uh…” Seth swallowed. “Why don’t we move you in to my place first, and then we can take some time to hammer out the details.”

“Something more palatable than we did this for health insurance?” she asked with a teasing smile. There she was—the old Gabby.

“Yeah, pretty much,” he agreed, and they exchanged a mildly amused smile. “We always did get ourselves into messes, didn’t we?”

And every single time, he’d been furious with her for dragging him along into trouble. A sparkle came into Gabby’s eyes, and he was gratified to see it.

“So we just…keep the secret for a bit?” she clarified.

“You okay with that?” he asked. “I mean, people will ask questions once you’ve moved in, but by then, I’m sure we’ll have something sorted out between us. I don’t want to look like I’m lying to my boss—I mean, our reasons for this marriage shouldn’t matter so much to our friends, but my reputation at work matters. If they thought I was scamming the system, or whatever—”

“No, I understand,” she said.

“United front, right?”

“United front.” She gave him a nod. “You sure you’ll be okay with three babies in your house? And me?”

“I’ll be fine.” He’d been prepared for one baby a couple years ago. He could stretch for three.

“I do appreciate this,” she said. “You have no idea, Seth. You’re a really good friend.”

Seth slid an arm around her shoulders, and for the first time today, some physical contact felt natural between them. He gave her a squeeze.

“Now that we have a marriage license, I’ll get you on my insurance right away. I’m sure we can scrape up enough money for the formula between now and when it kicks in.”

“I’m relieved.” Gabby put a hand against her chest and her gaze misted. “I’ve been alone in this, and I don’t think I even realized how worried I was until just now. I mean, to have the basics be almost out of reach… Milk! It shouldn’t bankrupt a woman, you know?”

“You’re not alone in this.” He dropped his arm and caught her hand in his. “It’s a burden shared, right? You’ve got me now.”

She nodded, and he felt a flood of relief, too. They would be okay. Gabby was a good person, and she didn’t deserve to be struggling on her own. Neither did those tiny boys. And for once, he was able to do something—fix something—and feel like he was making a bad situation better for someone he cared about.

They headed down the stairs to the main floor. As he held open the door for her, they were met by a rush of frigid air. It was snowing again—large flakes floating down in lazy pirouettes. Gabby pulled on a pair of gloves.

“How should we celebrate?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t mind a piece of cake,” Gabby said, glancing up at him. “To go, though. I miss my babies.”

Cake. Yeah, that was oddly appropriate. Years ago, they would go out for cake together—normally when Gabby was mourning a breakup from some unworthy boyfriend.

“Yeah, you bet.” Who was he to argue about what helped her feel better? As they turned down the street toward his truck, Seth spotted someone he knew ambling toward them. Heck, they both knew him, but what was he doing here on the one day Seth and Gabby needed a bit of privacy? He instinctively put a hand out to touch Gabby’s arm. But she’d seen him, too.

Taylor Shirk was dressed in a pair of jeans and a fleece-lined denim jacket. A cowboy hat was pushed back away from his face. They’d gone to high school with him, and they’d all known each other for years. He was staring at them with a look of shock on his face. Seth looked down at Gabby—she stood there with the bouquet in one gloved hand. She looked every inch a bride, even in a winter coat. They were in front of the courthouse, after all. He sighed.