out, keeping their two daughters from him. Adam and his brothers had been much too cool to play with younger town-girl cousins. They hadn’t seen much of the girls after the divorce, anyway, but Jason had come around more often.
Adam pulled his thoughts back to the topic at hand, far too important to lose focus. It was the whole reason he’d taken Riley’s plea that night and upped it with one of his own. “The cabins at Rockstead aren’t big enough for a family. Riley and I want a houseful of kids...”
His voice trailed off. Did she? He had no idea. But, all of a sudden, he could see a passel of them. Little girls with their mama’s wild hair and smiling mouth, little boys strutting about, begging to ride like he and the twins had done. Making babies with Riley — no, he couldn’t let his mind go there. Definitely not right now.
“Travis manages.”
“He’s only got Toby part-time, though. What if he married Dakota, and she moved to the ranch? Where would they live?”
Declan grunted.
Surely the man had considered the question. All six boys were in their twenties, Ryder just barely. Nathaniel had been set to propose. Noah claimed he was too busy to court a girlfriend, and Adam wasn’t close enough to Blake to ask. It wasn’t any of his business. What was his business was acquiring Running Creek Ranch for himself and his blood brothers.
“I know you’ve got the home-place rented out, but there’s enough time to give them notice. We’d want to start running calves there in spring and fix up the house some. Plus, I’d like to see all the records for Running Creek since you married my mother.”
Declan tugged on his black felt hat. His narrowed eyes burned holes in Adam’s skull as Diesel fidgeted between his knees.
Adam lifted his chin ever so slightly and stared back. He was twenty-eight. Fully a man, and the son of his father. Declan had no right to keep his heritage from him.
“You really going to marry that girl?”
“Of course, I am.” Adam spoke quickly, not allowing too much thought. “She’s amazing, and we’re madly in love.”
“She’s State Senator Dunning’s daughter, isn’t she? New Mexico?”
Was her dad really a politician? She hadn’t talked much about her family. Very, very little, now that he thought on it. Best not to reply too directly. “She was born and raised in Montana. Her sister lives in Missoula.”
His stepdad grunted again. “Spring wedding, you say? I’ll consider.” The man pivoted his black gelding and cantered away.
The air seeped out of Adam’s lungs as he sagged in his saddle. Had that gone well? He couldn’t really tell, but at least it wasn’t a flat-out no. He couldn’t talk to his mother about it, and had no idea if he had a legal leg to stand on if he consulted a lawyer.
Better by far if he could make a deal with Declan without involving anyone else.
Now that the picture had come in his mind, he couldn’t push it out. Maybe he didn’t want to. His parents had been happy at Running Creek. Why couldn’t he and Riley? They may have started on an awkward foot, but was there any reason they couldn’t admit they were really falling for each other?
Because Adam was pretty sure he was. The vision of Riley in the modest house at Running Creek, mothering his children, dug in and grew some roots.
He liked the look of it.
A lot.
“Tell us again how you and Adam met.”
Riley leaned on her pitchfork and looked over to see the twins hanging on the gate to the stall she was cleaning. Three weeks in, and she was still on stall duty. Looked like she’d be doing that until the day she left. Yay.
But it beat recounting stories to Alexia and Emma. She and Adam hadn’t crafted a super-detailed story. Enough to get by in general terms, not enough to satisfy the curiosity of two starry-eyed thirteen-year-olds.
Alexia’s brown eyes shone, while Emma held back, no less interested.
“There’s no time for tales. I need to get all these stalls mucked out before your father gets back.”
“We’ll help,” volunteered Emma.
“We’re bored,” moaned Alexia. “Why can’t we ever go to town when it’s not Sunday? We don’t even have hardly any friends besides each other.”
The twins’ life must be lonely. Riley could see that. At least they had each other. Think if there were only one of them. A solo girl in this remote, testosterone-driven place would be in