The Bull Rider's Twins (20 page)

“When you're looking down the barrel at thirty, you mean?” Judah shook his head. “Not me. I'll always want to know what happened. How did they die? Where were they?”

“They died,” Rafe said, “of some funky illness.”

“I thought it was a car accident.” Judah frowned. “You know, it's not that hard to request a death certificate. Sam probably has done so a thousand times for clients.”

Rafe turned to look at him. “Do you think Fiona would have told us, if we really wanted to know?”

“You mean we don't want to?”

Rafe shrugged. “Do you?”

“I—yeah.”

“Then order the certificate.” Rafe walked out of the barn into the storm, leaving Judah to wonder why he was the only one in the family who asked questions.

Finding out more about the cave was going to be first on his to-do list, Judah thought. After exiting the barn, he turned to slide the doors shut behind him, and suddenly felt a splitting pain in his skull, followed by blackness.

I
NSIDE THE KITCHEN
, Fiona had the entire family scattered about, perching wherever they could find space. “This is our last meal as an extended family,” she said over the din, “because tomorrow night our three little ladies go to their new home in Durant. So I cooked their
faborites—
” she stressed the word, imitating the little girls' pronunciation “—SpaghettiO's.
Real sauce and real pasta shaped like Os.” She kissed them on their heads. “And now, Judah will lead us in the blessing. Since he's the most newly married, he may have the honor. Judah.”

No one said anything. Fiona glanced around the room. “Darla, where's your husband?”

Darla shook her head. “I haven't seen him all day. And if someone does, will you tell him I want to talk to him?”

Everyone hooted at that. Fiona shook her head. “Someone please call his cell phone and tell him it's rude to be late to the little girls' going-away party, especially when their aunty has made them a pink-and-white cake with kitties on it.”

“I will.” Jonas rang his brother's phone, then said, “No answer. He'll be along soon enough.”

Rafe said, “I left him in the barn, so maybe he went to do something else.”

Rain pelted the windows. Fiona glanced outside, shaking her head. “All right. I guess we'll eat without him.” But she wasn't happy about it.

They were all eating, deep into the spaghetti, when the kitchen door opened. Judah stumbled in, blood running down the side of his face.

Darla screamed and ran to her husband. She waved everyone away as he sank to the floor. “What did you do, Judah?” she asked, grabbing a wet paper towel from Jonas, who hovered near his brother, looking over the wound.

“You've got a mighty big goose egg back here, son,” Jonas said. “You're going to need a few stitches. Maybe even a staple. Rafe, check the barn, since you were out there last. Sam, go with him. Look for…look for things,” he said, with a quick glance at Fiona.

Judah groaned and slumped toward his wife, and Darla knew at once that everything he'd been worried about had
been real. There was trouble, and he didn't want her to know, but was carrying the burden himself.

Her heart grew cold with fear.

“D
ON'T MOVE
,” Darla said two hours later, after Jonas brought Judah home from the hospital with a bandage tightly wrapped around his head. “You stay right in that bed. And no TV until I can ascertain that you aren't going to have latent swelling or something. You just sit there and don't move.” She was being unreasonable, but she couldn't help being afraid.

“Yes, Nurse,” he said. “But will you at least put on a crisp white nurse's uniform with a real short skirt if I have to put up with your bossing me?”

“You're trying to joke about what happened, but it's not funny. First you get shot—”

“Just some kids playing with their daddy's gun, for which they owe me three months' hard labor on the ranch. And I intend to work them harder than my brothers and I ever worked, not to mention mucking. We've got sixteen horses, you know.”

She ignored his effort to make light of the situation. “But then you took a knock on the head, and teasing about it just isn't funny right now.” She burst into tears.

“And I'm not laughing, either, my love.” He patted the bed. “Come over here and let me look down your blouse, and I'll feel ever so much better. The medicine I need is a little naked wife.”

Tears streamed faster, so she grabbed a tissue. She hated crying, but couldn't quit. “You scared me!”

“Darling, I scared myself.” Judah perked up. “Was it a two-by-four? It felt like a house. Tell me it was at least a really big board.”

She nodded. “Sam found it out by the barn. What were you doing, getting in the way of a thick, long piece of lumber?”

“I don't know. Silly of me, wasn't it?”

“Yes! Because you said that if we moved out here, we'd be safer, but clearly you're not!” Darla shrank onto the bed and curled up next to her husband so she could indulge in a little crying on his shoulder. “And you tried to buy Jackie out of her half of the wedding shop, so I really wanted to be angry with you, but now I can't because your head's all bandaged up, so I'm really upset!”

He laughed and tugged her closer. “Now there's the bright side.”

She sniffled. “It was horrible when you came into the kitchen all Lon Chaneyish. Never do that again.” Darla hiccupped, which she hated to do. But once it got started it always took a while to stop, so she sat next to Judah and hiccupped, aware she sounded pitiful.

“Your daughters aren't as needy as you are,” he teased, and Darla stated, “I know. They're angels.”

“About the wedding dress shop,” Judah began, but she said, “I don't want to fight right now.”

“We're not going to fight. I was just trying to buy it for you to help Jackie out. Pete says she's overwhelmed with the triplets right now.”

“Oh.” Darla thought about that for a few seconds. “Pete told Jackie you were a chauvinist pig who didn't want his wife to work. Not in those words, of course. Those are my words.”

“I'll put my brother in the corner with his dunce cap on later. You were really going to tell me off, weren't you?” Judah asked, planting kisses against her hair, and Darla smiled through her tears.

“Yes.”

“But since I'm not a chauvinist pig, I get to see you naked for a reward?”

Darla kissed him on the forehead. “The jury's still out on the pig part. Although you're starting to look more like
a prince all the time.” She got up to go check on the babies, who were nestled in their tiny bassinets.

“Hey,” Judah called after her, “what does a guy have to do to prove to his wife that he loves her even when she's not properly dedicated to his nursing care?”

Darla popped her head back in the room. “What did you say?”

“I said…” Judah tried to remember what he'd said that had made Darla return so quickly “…uh, what do I have to do besides take a beating with a two-by-four to get some attention from my wife?”

“Go on,” Darla said.

Pain was throbbing at the base of his skull. His long hair had been shaved off in back for the stitches, and his pride was pretty bent about that. Still, Judah tried hard to think. “Oh,” he said with a grin, “you're trying to get me tell you that I love you.”

“No, I'm not.” Darla shook her head. “I'm not trying to get you to
do
anything.”

“I love you, Darla,” he said. “I loved you long before you ever sneaked into my room and made wild love to me.”

“You did?”

She sounded genuinely surprised. Judah nodded, feeling better already. “Why else would I have failed the condom test? I say it was all subconscious.”

She advanced on him, her gaze lit with mock anger and a lot of laughter. “When were you going to tell me?”

“When I was certain I'd caught you.” He held a pillow in front of himself for protection from his wife. “I love you madly, Darla Callahan, but it was darn hard waiting on you to finally leave your slipper in my path.”

She got on top of him, straddling him, and he tossed the pillow away. “Mr. Callahan, are there any other surprises you'd care to share with me?”

He shook his head. “I just want you to know that you're not the only one capable of keeping one's cards to their chest.” He gazed at the front of her blouse reverently. “Or breasts, even.” He caught one finger in the top and tugged. The blouse fell open, and he sighed with pleasure. “Nurse, I have a terrible ache.”

Darla smiled. “I can help you,” she said, leaning over to kiss his lips, “but you'll have to undress so I can fix that ache.”

He kissed her all over, so passionately that Darla knew she was the luckiest woman on earth. Which was really no surprise at all, because she was married to the man she'd always loved, with all her heart.

“Sheriff says you've had some bad luck,” Darla told Judah once they'd taken out the stitches a few weeks later. “He says you shouldn't get in the way of flying boards like that. The storm really kicked up some things.”

Shingles had been ripped off the roofs of some houses. Fences had blown down. One of their cows had mysteriously moved onto Bode's property. He'd returned it promptly.

“Don't want you calling me a cattle thief,” he'd said, and Fiona had humphed at him.

Judah was glad it was just a board that had hit him, and not one of his brothers, his aunt or his wife. “There are worse things to be in the way of, I guess. Are you packed, wife? Itty bitty bikini and everything?”

Darla laughed. “There will be no bikini. Just a one-piece.”

“One-pieces are great. Lots of leg.” He rubbed his hands together.

“Did you bring your swimsuit?” Darla asked. “I want to see hunk for the whole week.”

He puffed out his chest. “I'm your hunk, darling.”

Darla laughed. “Shall we go say goodbye to the girls?”

Judah's face fell. “I'm not sure if I can. I'll miss them too much.”

It was true. They were up with him at the crack of dawn when he ate breakfast. He'd make bottles for them, since he'd
talked Darla into changing to bottles a bit before their trip. The girls had grown by leaps and bounds. They might have started out slow, but the pediatrician said they were catching up quickly on the growth chart. He said it was amazing. Judah thought it was his wife who was amazing.

Even he was flourishing, living with her.

“When we get this lawsuit settled,” he told Darla, “I have a surprise for you.”

“Tell me now, just in case,” she said, and he grinned at her. “Nah. I like making you beg. It's so much fun.”

She swiped at him. “I thought you didn't like surprises.”

He swept her into his lap while they waited for Rafe to drive them to the airport. “Well, once I realized surprise was your game, I decided to turn the tables on you.”

Darla smiled. “So tell me.”

“I'm going to build you your own house.”

His wife stared at him for a moment. “Here, at the ranch?”

He nodded. “I don't want to get your hopes up, in case we do lose the ranch.”

She kissed him. “I love the bunkhouse, but thank you for thinking of such a wonderful gift. I love you, Judah Callahan.”

“I know, Mrs. Callahan. I feel it every day.”

“And you know something else?” she said, wrapping her arms around him so she could pull him close, to tell him something she'd long been wanting to tell him, for his ears only. “I had a dream about you last night.”

He perked up. “You did? Did it involve naked you and whipped cream and maybe even some cherries?”

She kissed him on the lips. “Even better,” she said. “I think we're pregnant.”

His jaw dropped.

“Surprise,” she said.

Judah laughed and pulled her into his arms, the luckiest, happiest man alive.

When they had put their suitcases in the car, and Rafe was driving them away from Rancho Diablo, Judah saw the Diablos running like the wind, faster than the wind, disappearing on the painted horizon.

And he knew he'd found all the wealth and happiness a man could ever hope for, because the only treasure that truly mattered was love.