Gabriel Everett had one job.
Well, two actually. One was standing in front of him, and the other was nowhere to be found. Spring in Haven, Texas, was shaping up to be one giant mess after another.
“So you’ll consider it?” he said to the young woman sitting on the Haven Boardinghouse front porch. More like standing, for the pair of little girls at her feet hadn’t let poor Avery Culpepper sit still for very long as he tried to hold a serious conversation. “You’ll stay on just a couple more weeks until the celebration?” Gabe wasn’t much for pleading, but she’d talked of heading back home and there was a lot at stake here. He had no intention of being the failing link in the long chain of events that led to the future success of the Lone Star Cowboy League Boys Ranch.
“Well,” said Avery, handing a marker to one of her girls, “there’s a reason I didn’t respond to Darcy Hill’s attempts to reach me. I didn’t really want any part of this to begin with. And now, I have to say this isn’t turning out well.” One of the little girls began bickering with the other over the red marker. “I can’t exactly put my life in Tennessee on hold while you all...look out!”
The box of markers tumbled off the table, covering Gabe’s left boot in a cascade of colors. One of the girls lunged after the spill and careened into Gabe’s shin. Was it Debbie at the table, so Dinah was clinging to his leg? Or the other way around? He couldn’t keep the four-year-old twins straight—did Debbie have the darker hair or did Dinah? Then again, did it really matter which pair of hands was now smearing marker on his jeans?
“Oh, Dinah, look what you’ve done.” Avery fished in her pocket and pulled out a lint-covered tissue as Debbie began to chatter an explanation—or an excuse. Gabe waved off the suspicious tissue and instead began wiping at the purple streak with his own handkerchief. His housekeeper, Marlene Frank, would have fun trying to get that stain out.
Avery already sported three similar stains of her own. He’d met this young mother only a handful of times since Darcy had convinced her to come to Haven, but already it stumped him how the poor woman made it through the day with her sanity intact. Kids mostly annoyed him—how did she stand that whining hour after hour? A single mom with twin four-year-olds—that was the very definition of outnumbered in his book.
Appeal to her practical side, maybe, he thought. “I find it hard to believe you don’t want to know what your grandfather’s will has in store for you. Could be an explanation. Or an apology for the way he wasn’t there for you. Or maybe he’s left you something significant, something you could really use.”
She blew her chin-length brown hair out of her face with a frustrated huff. “What I could have really used was to have a grandfather in my life. I doubt there are any pleasant surprises in that will, Mr. Everett. And in all honesty, I’m starting not to care.”
She seemed so weary and bitter, Gabe found himself amazed Darcy had gotten her here at all. “What if it’s enough money to get you well settled with the girls?”
“Who says I’m not well settled in Tennessee? I have a job, Mr. Everett. I have clients and decorating jobs waiting on my return. We have a house in Dickson. It may not seem like much to a big rancher like you, but it’s the place the girls have known all their lives. I can’t imagine needing whatever is in that will.”
He noticed she had not mentioned friends or family. And she’d said house not home. Avery Culpepper might not have much, but she surely had her pride. “Please stay,” he said as congenially as he knew how. “I know it’s asking a lot, but lots of boys’ welfare depends on us meeting the requirements of your grandfather’s will. And you’re one of those requirements, even though I know that doesn’t sit well with you.”
“You’re right. It doesn’t.”
“Haven’s full of good people. Kind folks I know would help with the girls while you’re here and all.” He was desperate for any argument that would convince the woman not to head back to Tennessee.
Exhaustion pulled at her pretty features. His mother had worn herself thin trying to raise him all on her own, and there had been only one of him. Almost every memory he held of his mother contained the same bone-tired countenance Avery Culpepper now wore. The pain that singed her brown eyes told him she was feeling alone, used and overwhelmed.
Could he really blame her for being ready to put the drama of Haven behind her? Her estranged grandfather, Cyrus Culpepper—who was evidently just as ornery on both sides of the grave—had ignored her all her life only to demand her appearance now. Half the town had been on a wild-goose chase to find her and bring her here. And to receive what? So far Cyrus had bequeathed her just a run-down cabin. True to Cyrus, he’d hinted that there might be more. Only how much more—and what—was anybody’s guess until they opened a designated envelope at the seventieth anniversary celebration of the boys ranch a few weeks from now.
An unusable half an inheritance with a commanded appearance for a mystery other half—that was pure Cyrus. It was just like him to pull some ridiculous stunt as a final goodbye to the town that had put up with his bullheadedness all his life.
Gabe hated having to plead with this poor young woman. Was Cyrus fool enough to think an inheritance could make up for years of being ignored? At least Gabe had a mom—even if it was a tired one; Avery had been shuttled from foster home to foster home from what he’d heard.
No, Avery had dozens of reasons not to go along with that old curmudgeon’s ridiculous set of final demands. Only Gabe didn’t have the luxury of her refusal.
The eyes of the ranch’s residents—problem kids through little fault of their own, just like he’d been—seemed to stare down the back of his neck as if the boys stood behind him. Tomorrow is March 1. The clock was ticking on the March 20th deadline for the anniversary celebration. Keep her here. Do whatever it takes. Grinding his teeth, angry that a coot like Culpepper could still stir up such trouble from the grave, Gabe tried again. “Please say you’ll stay. Just until we get this all straightened out. We’ll all pitch in to make it as easy on you as possible.” He hated that it sounded like he was begging. He hated even more that he was begging.
“I don’t know.” She didn’t look at all convinced. She was barely paying him any attention with the wiggly girls skipping all around the porch as they played some noisy singsong of a game. Mercy, but there was a good reason he’d never married or started a family. Gabe’s fingers twitched as if he could reach out and grab Cyrus’s spindly neck and shake the endless meanness from the man. “Honestly,” she continued as she grabbed Debbie just before the girls started skipping in circles around each other. “I just can’t see how...”
The porch door swung open and a very irritated Roz Sackett emerged holding a frilly doll. Oh, no. Roz owned the boardinghouse, and her doll collection was her pride and joy. Everyone in town knew it. Everyone also knew Roz was not a woman known for grace or patience. One look at the colored smears on the doll’s china face told Gabe that Roz had reached the end of her already-short fuse.
“Miss Avery,” the innkeeper began in a clipped tone, “I’ve told you more than once to keep those girls away from my collection.”
At the sight of what was evidently her handiwork, Dinah left her skipping to head over toward the delicate doll. “She’s pretty. Can I hold her?” Gabe grabbed the girl before she could reach her target. Nobody dared mess with Roz’s precious doll collection—but Debbie and Dinah didn’t know that.
Debbie, not to be bested by her sister, squealed, “Me first!” and darted around the table, rocking it and sending more markers rolling out over the porch floor.
Roz cried out in alarm, holding the doll above her head as if the thing was in mortal danger. While still holding Dinah by one elbow, Gabe managed to wedge a leg in front of Debbie. He’d hoped to simply impede her progress, but ended up tripping her instead, which sent her to the porch floor in tears. Naturally, Dinah began to cry, as well.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Sackett,” Avery called over the increasing wails as she ducked around Gabe to reach Dinah and pick up Debbie. “It won’t happen again.”
“Oh, yes, it will,” countered Roz as she continued to hold up the doll, out of little hands’ reach. “Bless your heart, child, I know you’ve got your hands full, but this simply won’t work. They’re too rambunctious.” Given everything that had just happened, Gabe found himself surprised Roz hadn’t called the girls flat-out wild. “I’m at my wit’s end!” the innkeeper declared, throwing up her free hand.
She wasn’t wrong. The girls were wild. That wasn’t necessarily Avery’s fault. From what Gabe knew about four-year-olds—which was next to nothing since the youngest guests of the boys ranch were in first grade—preschoolers didn’t come any other way but rambunctious.
Avery’s eyes went narrow with hurt. “Well, I suppose we’ll just have to head back to Dickson.”
Gabe threw Roz a look he hoped said “we can’t let her leave.” The Blue Bonnet Inn—the only other place in Haven to stay—was full up and, as fancy as it was, would be no place for these youngsters.
Roz threw back an exasperated glare. “Well, I’m sorry to say it, but you can’t stay here.” She didn’t look one bit sorry to have said it. Avery Culpepper didn’t need anyone handing her reasons to leave. Didn’t Roz realize half the town had been working toward meeting Culpepper’s absurd ultimatums—which meant finding Avery and keeping her here—since October?
Do something. Anything. It jumped out of his mouth before he had even a moment to think better of it, the foolish notion of a desperate man. “You don’t need to head back. You can come stay at Five Rocks.”
Roz Sackett’s eyebrows nearly popped through her hairline at the offer. If a face could shout impropriety for no good reason, it was hers.
“With me and Jethro and Marlene,” he clarified immediately, adjusting his hat, which had gone askew in the mayhem. “My housekeeper and her husband live on my ranch with me, remember?”
“Stay with you?” Avery looked shocked. She ought to. He was still shocked he’d made the offer at all.
“No,” Gabe clarified a second time, “with me, my housekeeper and her husband.” When both Avery and Mrs. Sackett still stared at him, he reached down and began gathering the markers off the floor. “If nothing else, four adults might give you a fighting chance against these two.”
Debbie reached over and began picking up markers herself, but ended up knocking Gabe’s hat off his head.
They all fell into stunned silence. No one, especially not a preschooler, knocked a cowboy’s hat off his head. Gabe felt his face tighten into a frustrated scowl before he could stop it. Debbie, cued by his frown, caught on to the grievous nature of what she’d just done. Her bitty blue eyes went wide, the tiny pink lip below them jutted and quivered, and she dissolved once again into tears.
Gabriel Everett now added host to his list of demanding jobs—and it was the one that just might be the death of him.
* * *
Avery was sure she looked exasperated. Mostly because she was. Some days it felt like she hadn’t known a moment’s peace since Danny left.
No one should have to raise two precious little girls on her own. Debbie and Dinah should know their father, should see every day how much daddies loved mommies. How could any man she had been so sure she loved be capable of what Danny had done? Just up and decide that two children at once were too much? Had all his “faith” been false? He’d never been overly free with affection, but lately she wondered if he’d ever really loved her at all. Did the man ever give a thought to his dear daughters and how they fared?
Only her pride made her go on about needing to get back to Tennessee. Dickson was where she lived, where she was trying to make a life without Danny, but the truth was, precious little was back there. A house, a smattering of clients, some acquaintances, but no true friends.
Not that she’d admit any of that to anyone here. Successful businesswomen didn’t up and leave their enterprises for weeks at a time to help with some charity case. She’d end up a charity case herself if she kept that up. Every eye in Haven seemed to stare at her in either expectation or suspicion. And as for the whole town being ready to help, she didn’t much believe that. Not after Mrs. Sackett’s persnickety scrutiny.
“Avery?” Gabe was clearly expecting an answer to his startlingly generous offer. It was clear he would do anything to get her to stay, and the pressure of that choked any reply.
Life had dropped too many emotional bombs since her arrival here to let her think clearly. Coming to Haven had felt like stepping into a crammed-full kind of chaos. Really, who ever discovers they’ve been impersonated? Some gold-digging woman had actually come here earlier claiming to be her. Clearly, she was supposed to be someone important. The whole town was in an uproar over the fate of her grandfather Cyrus’s estate. It had been set—along with a mountain of stipulations, one of which included her presence—to become the new home of a ranch for troubled boys. The huge house went to a worthy cause, while she, evidently his only surviving relative, got a run-down cabin. Everyone wanted something from her despite the fact that she was just trying to hold her life together. Someone important? Ha! The number of nights she fell into bed exhausted and near tears ought to be illegal.
Should she stay? Could she stay?
“You’re serious?” she finally asked Gabe as she tried unsuccessfully to fetch the poor man’s toppled hat. “I mean...look at them.” She loved Dinah and Debbie to pieces, but even she knew they could be a handful. Gabriel Everett did not seem at all like the kind of man who would suffer any children—much less four-year-olds—with any grace.
Time came to a prickly halt while the man bent over, grasped his hat and settled it back on his head. He seemed as shocked at the proposition he’d just made as she was.
“Marlene will love them,” he said almost begrudgingly. “She and Jethro have their grandkids in college now, and Marlene needs someone to coddle. I caught her staring at an ad for puppies the other day.” Avery got the distinct impression he was trying to convince himself as much as her.
“No, I’d expect it would be best if we just went back.”
“You can’t.” He wiped his hands down his face. “I mean, the whole town would be obliged if you’d stay. I’ve got the space, and things aren’t so—” he gestured around the boardinghouse “—fussy out there. Not much they could break or stain.”
Dinah and Debbie had indeed excelled at breaking and staining recently. Mrs. Sackett hadn’t asked her to pay for or replace anything the girls had damaged, but she could tell the woman was getting close to drawing up a bill. The dolls—which they had been warned about several times—were clearly the last straw.
Would it be so awful to stay a bit longer? At a place with extra helping hands? Experienced grandparent hands? “Well,” Avery said, pulling in a deep breath, “I suppose we could give it a try.”
Avery’s eye caught Mrs. Sackett’s hard stare, one that practically shouted “you sure as shooting better give it a try.”
Stay with Gabriel Everett?
Help with the girls was a hard prospect to refuse right about now, even though Haven wasn’t turning out anything like she’d hoped.
“How soon can you take them, Gabe?” Mrs. Sackett asked with a hurtful sense of urgency. Clearly, she meant every word of her threat to toss them out.
“Well, it’s Monday. I think I can have them off your hands by tomorrow noon, Roz. Just a matter of a phone call and a bit of rearranging.” He turned to look at Avery. “If that’s agreeable to you.”
“Well, then, I guess I should thank you kindly for the hospitality,” she said, handing markers to Dinah to put back in the box. Just like that, the girls went back to their coloring. Her sweet little girls had returned—at least until the next calamity.
But something needed to be said. “Just for a week or so. Maybe less. I haven’t made up my mind about anything after that.” She’d gotten the distinct impression that being a Culpepper wasn’t a positive in this town—nothing she wanted a big dose of, for her or the girls.
“Let’s tackle that subject in a day or two.” Gabriel turned his gaze to the innkeeper again. “After all, we can’t have you run out of town now, can we?”
Mrs. Sackett just huffed, held the doll close to her chest as if the thing was alive and turned back toward the door.
“I don’t know.” Resentment at Cyrus for putting her in this position boiled in her blood—right now she could barely bring herself to care about whatever else the old man was leaving her, if anything.
Avery reached down to touch Dinah’s soft brown curls. “They’re not difficult all the time, you know. They really can be sweet as pie some days.”
Gabe returned an orange marker to the table. “I’m sure that’s true.” He didn’t look like he meant it.
“I’m sure the boys ranch is a fine cause, but I need to think about what’s best for the girls, and for me.” Avery hated how tight and forced her voice sounded.
“No one can fault you for that. Just take some time before you decide.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking down at the little girls with a mixture of bafflement and irritation. “Give us a chance to work all this out.”
She didn’t have it in her to fight. At least not today. “We’ll see.”
It wasn’t a yes, but he looked relieved anyway. “I’ll come by tomorrow around eleven and we can load my truck with whatever doesn’t fit in your car. I’ll call Marlene right now. I’m sure it’ll set her into a storm of happy preparations. Is it okay if I give her your phone number if she has any questions?”
“Sure.” The prospect of getting out of the boardinghouse lifted a weight off Avery’s shoulders she hadn’t even realized was pressing down so hard. “Thank you,” she said, fighting the awkward and indebted feeling that settled cold and hard against her rigid spine. “Really. It’s a very kind offer.”
Gabriel shrugged. “I’ve got the space, and nothing gets solved if you leave. It works for everybody.” He seemed more at peace with the idea than he had been even two minutes ago.
That peace wasn’t likely to last. “We’ll see if you say that after twenty-four hours of these two, cowboy,” Avery teased. He couldn’t really know what he was getting himself into, could he?
“I’ve handled far rougher bulls at the ranch. How hard can a pair of little girls be?”
Bless his heart, Avery thought, he’s about to find out.