“DA-DA!” In Hadley’s embrace, Luke waved the yellow plastic truck he’d opened Christmas morning. “Da!” he cried as if to say, look. At dawn, Hadley, the twins and Clara had gathered in front of the tree. The air buzzed with the children’s excitement. With his other arm, he cradled Gracie and the soft doll with orange braids she’d gotten from Santa Claus.
Outside, the first real snow of the season was still falling, the dark clouds yesterday having given way to fat white flakes that drifted past the windows and accumulated on the lawn, the driveway, the hood of his truck. In the barn, Mr. Robert and Trouble, wearing their coarse winter coats, were enjoying extra grain, water buckets full, breaths frosting in the cold air. Anticipating the storm, Hadley had delivered flakes of hay to the cattle in the field.
Not quite in the holiday spirit himself, he gently pushed Luke’s arm down before the little boy hit Hadley in the face with the truck. As Luke wailed, Gracie leaned over to wordlessly offer her brother her doll. The twins exchanged their gifts and Hadley sent Clara a look.
“They share everything,” she said with a smile.
Clara had been in charge of handing out the presents, this last with Hadley’s name on the tag in her handwriting.
“Clara, you shouldn’t give me anything more.”
It wasn’t her offer to pass the ranch to him one day that had changed his mind about staying. Clara had already given him all she had to give, and he remembered her saying, This is your home. You’re my son. Hadley felt a lingering regret for Jenna, who wasn’t here this morning, and for Dallas, the other person still missing from his life. If it wasn’t for the twins, or Clara’s delight at the goings-on, he would have skipped Christmas after all. He had no idea how he was going to approach Jenna.
“Open it,” Clara murmured, handing him a modest-sized box.
With Luke’s help, he tore off the shiny red paper, revealing first the corner of a small framed picture showing Hadley’s younger face, his dark hair and, finally, the complete picture of him standing beside his four-year-old brother. It was the same image Hadley carried in his wallet. “Where did you get this?”
“I have my ways,” she told him, looking far too mysterious. “It’s not the best copy, but we can fix that tomorrow, dear, if you’re willing to brave the stores in town the day after Christmas when everyone else is exchanging their unwanted gifts.”
The small dig at him was to let Hadley know she was pleased that he’d stayed. Nothing could trouble Clara at the moment. “I won’t be one of those people,” he managed. “Thank you, Clara. This means a lot to me.”
So did she, the calm and steady presence he relied on. Clara was a huge part of why he was still here, and he had to let her know how he felt. Yet for long moments he studied the photograph, holding it out of Luke’s reach while his boy fussed until, finally, Hadley put him and Gracie in their playpen. Then once more Hadley traced a finger over the glass surface between his and Dallas’s faces. Four years later, Dallas had been whisked away from Hadley, the food thief.
The old sorrow flowed along his veins. But it was Luke’s face that threatened to crumple—he always guessed Hadley’s mood before he knew it himself—and Hadley leaned over the playpen to press a quick kiss to Luke’s cheek. “I’m okay, pal.”
He couldn’t stop staring, though, at that last picture of the other little boy he’d wronged. No wonder Dallas hated him and, since he hadn’t answered Hadley’s messages, seemed to want no contact with him.
The front bell chimed, but he scarcely heard it except to hope briefly it might be Jenna. Clara jumped up from her chair. “You stay with the twins. I’ll get the door.”
“What’s going on?” he asked.
As the door opened, to Hadley’s amazement there stood the man himself, tall and broad, wearing jeans and a sheepskin-lined jacket, stamping his boots to free them of snow and…leaning on a cane. His brother’s face, although older, looked much the same with that glint in his eyes, that smile.
“Hey,” Dallas said, then made his way across the living room, propped the cane against one leg, eyed Gracie, then Luke. And grinned. “Your favorite uncle is here,” he told them, even when the twins had begun to howl like banshees. They weren’t fond of strangers these days. Dallas had barely noticed Hadley.
Hadley swallowed, speechless. He’d sent a follow-up message yesterday to Dallas, who seemed to have read his mind. “I was up in Cheyenne, thought I’d take a drive. Man, this was a long way. Snow coming down horizontal, a near whiteout.” He turned to Clara. “You have any coffee, ma’am? The all-nighter has me wanting a nap.”
To settle himself, and the twins, Hadley plucked them from the playpen. As soon as they both stopped crying, he set Gracie on the rug, too, and she crawled at top speed after Luke. His boy idly inspected the toys under the tree, but then Luke suddenly stood up, using the playpen for support. He did that all the time, but now, to Hadley’s astonishment, he turned, took one halting step, then another, and staggered into Hadley’s arms. A second later, not to be outdone, Gracie scrambled to her feet, then took off and flung herself at him, too.
“They’re walking,” he said.
“Better than me.” Dallas watched them. “First time?”
Hadley swallowed. “Yeah,” and Gracie laughed, being the newest center of attention. Hadley said to Dallas, “Maybe they were waiting for you to show up.”
“About time,” Dallas agreed. “Let’s talk.”
His heart pounding, Hadley led him to the kitchen. He poured Dallas a cup of strong coffee, then handed him the mug, which had the twins’ faces printed on it. He felt certain he was in for a real tongue-lashing, at best. “For openers, where did Clara get that picture of us?”
“From me.” Dallas grinned. “I got your messages. At first, I didn’t know what to do, wasn’t sure it was you. Then yesterday, when you didn’t answer your cell, I called the other number you’d sent, Clara’s house phone.” Hadley had probably been putting bags in the car when Dallas tried his number. “After we talked, I scanned and sent the image to her. She wanted to surprise you.” Dallas reached into his back pocket and drew out his billfold that contained the same photograph. “You gave this to me the last time I saw you. You still have yours?”
“Yeah.” Which Clara had never seen, and Hadley shook his head. He couldn’t believe Dallas still cared for him. “I threw you to the wolves. Aren’t you angry with me?”
“Because you took some beef jerky and a couple of Devil Dogs from the corner market?” He raised his dark eyebrows. “Not that I condone theft, but I admired that more in my case than I can tell you.”
“But because of that, because of me, they sent you away—both of us—I never found out where you went.”
“And yeah, I was a mad little guy for a while. Not at you,” he added. “At those people, the whole system… I know how you fought to keep me with you. If I’d been able to locate you, I would have, but yours is a pretty low profile. Once or twice I thought I’d tracked you down, but you’d already left for somewhere else. You’re a hard man to find.”
“Not anymore.” Hadley spoke around the lump in his throat. “You don’t blame me for betraying you? We were the only two people left in what passed for our family. I don’t even know what happened to Mom or our dad.”
Dallas winced. “Last I heard he was in prison where he belongs.” His voice lowered. “Sorry to tell you like this, but I hear Mom died of an overdose years ago. He probably gave the drugs to her.” Hadley would have cursed them, yet he still felt a sense of loss. Dallas continued. “They hung on to us as long as they could.” Just as Jenna had thought. “They were all messed up, Hadley, but I can’t spend the rest of my life hating them for who they were.”
Then, like the rodeo rider he was, as if an eight-second bell was about to ring and he had to stay on his bull, Dallas moved fast. His cane dropped to the floor. He stopped less than a foot from Hadley. “Just say you’re glad to see me, will you?”
The words choked out. “God, Dallas, you’ll never know how glad. I missed you…like someone had torn out my…heart.”
Dallas rolled his eyes. “Don’t get mushy on me. A woman in tears, like Clara when I phoned last night, is bad enough.”
Hadley opened his arms and Dallas limped right into them. Where had his brother been all these years? Did he plan to return to the rodeo circuit? Was that even an option, considering the injury he’d suffered? But those questions could wait.
“Hadley, you’re getting my new shirt wet.” Dallas drew back a little, his eyes moist, too. “I’m here now,” he said, holding Hadley’s gaze.
“We’re really okay? You and me?”
“We are. Why not? Those bad years are behind us, and I’m grateful you thought—finally, after twenty-two years—to look at my website. Good sleuthing on your part. By the way, the Maguire name is from my adoptive parents. The first home the state sent me to after you and I parted was theirs. Great people, like your Clara.” He paused. “What do you say? Can I stay a while?”
“As long as you want.” He’d never imagined that he couldn’t find Dallas because his brother had taken a new last name. Or that Dallas couldn’t find him because Hadley moved so much. And all this time his brother had been just fine. He’d never been hurt again but, instead, loved. It was Hadley who’d suffered. His defiance, even temper, had gotten him through those years, protected him, but not completely. Now they were together again. He couldn’t seem to take it in, a Christmas miracle to go with the twins walking for the first time. And the fact that, for once, Hadley had stayed on the McMann ranch instead of heading out in a snowstorm for yet another temporary place.
There was still an empty space inside him that belonged to Jenna, but today was for Dallas. “I understand you’re a big deal rodeo star, and that you knew Cody Jones—”
Dallas scowled. “That weasel? He owes me five hundred bucks I’ll never see.”
Hadley filled him in on Cody’s current whereabouts and why, but he couldn’t bring himself to despise Cody when he’d been the key to finding Dallas. It was too bad the kid was headed for prison, even when he deserved punishment. In a way, Hadley and Cody were alike. In another, they weren’t. Cody was an outlaw; whatever else Hadley might be, he was not. Still, they were two bad boys who needed redemption.
“Cody’s not all bad,” he told Dallas. “After he does his time, I hope to offer him another chance here. The ranch is doing well, and we can always use a good hand.” Hadley turned toward the living room where Luke and Gracie were building up to some demand, which they always did in unison. “Let’s see what the trouble is in there,” he said, taking Dallas’s arm so he didn’t need to rely on the cane. “I’m warning you, those two are like having a dozen kids.”
“Twins,” Dallas murmured. “Huh.”
Just as Hadley’s twins were inseparable, he and Dallas would be close again, too. After all, they were brothers.
* * *
LATER THAT AFTERNOON, Jenna took her seat on one of the white-with-gilt chairs in the new bed-and-breakfast near Farrier. Thankfully, as with the bridal shower, she wouldn’t have to take part in the ceremony that would join her mother and Jack Hancock in holy matrimony. Jack, waiting at the altar, dressed in a dark suit and paisley tie, was an attractive man, if slighter in build than Hadley, who seemed to have become her standard of measurement. She had to believe Jack loved her mom, but Wanda’s warning kept playing in her mind. If you can’t support me, then don’t come to my wedding.
To the strains of a classical piece played by the pianist Jenna and Shadow had hired, their mother stepped from the hallway into the room. There was only one word to describe her: glowing. Jenna blinked back sudden tears.
She had so many memories of Mama in their old house, scurrying to answer Jenna’s father’s commands, always eager to please yet never getting even a thank-you for her efforts—a reminder for Jenna of David, too. Her mother hadn’t deserved so much pain, but then neither had Jenna.
The wedding was relatively small—family and friends. She exchanged a look with Shadow, who sat beside Grey holding baby Zach with Ava between them. On Jenna’s other side, their brother Derek fidgeted with his program. And there was Jack’s uncle, smiling at Jenna, who had begun to decorate his new assisted-living apartment. She’d taken a shine to Bertie.
After weighing her options, Jenna had come alone. What if she’d asked Hadley to escort her, as he had to dinner at Bernice Caldwell’s house? But that wasn’t to be, and Jenna tried not to sink into a fresh spiral of despair for what she’d done regarding Walter Pearson right after Hadley nixed her hopes for their relationship. I’m not the guy you should pick.
In front of the officiate, Wanda and Jack said their simple vows while Jenna prayed at last for her mother’s happiness. When the short service ended with the exchange of rings and a kiss, she did shed a few tears. She sat alone today when years ago, and far more recently, she’d envisioned a better life with a man she loved, the children she’d always yearned for. Was this what she wanted for the rest of her life?
The filet mignon dinner she had helped to plan seemed to last forever. While the champagne toasts went on and on, she couldn’t get her mind off Hadley or the twins. Today was their second Christmas, although they’d been only a month old for their first and not aware of what the holiday entailed. Or had Hadley already left? She imagined the three of them driving down some road, the twins fussing in their car seats until Hadley found a decent motel with a restaurant. Christmas dinner in some strange town rather than the close-knit community of Barren. She pictured Clara wandering around her empty house, certain she’d never see the three of them again. Jenna should stop by to check how she was doing. Could Hadley still be there?
As people rose from the tables, Jenna decided to make her excuses, then edge toward the inn’s door. She wasn’t in the proper frame of mind for a party, especially on Christmas, and in spite of her friends and family, she felt excluded. Tonight, even holding Zach and chatting with Ava hadn’t helped assuage her loneliness.
“Jenna?” Her mother followed her into the hall. In her pretty white dress studded with crystals, her hair done in a knot at the nape of her neck, and with the new wedding ring flanking her engagement diamond, she looked beautiful. But more, she seemed at peace within herself. “You aren’t leaving yet?”
A rush of remorse weakened her resolve. “Mama, I can’t stay, but I hope you’ll have the most wonderful honeymoon. I’m sorry for how I’ve acted. I didn’t support you and Jack, and I was wrong.”
Earlier, he had taken Jenna aside. He’d assured her she needn’t worry about him with her mother. “We’re all family now,” he’d said. “Your mom and I, you and Bertie, too. You’re always welcome in our home, chérie.”
Wanda’s dark eyes softened. “Oh, baby, I understand. I’m glad you came. It’s hard, isn’t it, to witness someone else’s joy when you’re hurting inside?”
Jenna thought for a moment. “You’re right, Mama. I am hurting. Months ago, after Amy died, I realized that seeing Luke and Grace was a joy but also a sorrow. Maybe I focused too much on the latter.”
Wanda took Jenna’s hands in hers, the whisper of her silk and satin dress between them. “Honey, I wish your daddy and I had given you a better life growing up. You didn’t get the example you needed for a good relationship as an adult. But Shadow told me you’ve finally dropped David like a hot rock—that’s a start. Now you’ll have the chance to make that better life with someone else.”
“Hadley,” Jenna murmured. “But we said things, Mama. I lost him. He may be halfway to Montana by now or anywhere else.” Looking for another ranch that needed a good hand for a while.
Wanda gently pushed her away. “You can’t be sure of that. Go,” she said. “I only want what’s best for you, but you’re the only one who knows what that is. Just as I do with Jack. I love you, Jenna.”
“I love you, too, Mama.” Jenna hugged her, wished her mother all the joy she so richly deserved, said the same to Jack, who had come up to them and couldn’t seem to stop smiling. Then Jenna made her goodbyes to everyone else and, with Wanda’s blessing, walked out of the inn into the heavy snowfall.
As she picked her way in heels to her car, she thought of Clara’s cozy living room, the Christmas lights, the ornaments Jenna and Hadley had hung on the tree. The trunk of her car was stuffed with presents for him and Clara, for Luke and Grace, which she’d bought weeks ago. She might reach the McMann ranch only to learn Hadley and the babies were indeed gone, that he’d left after all without repaying the loan. Running from the Pearsons. But what if he was there, at Clara’s house, still sharing Christmas? For the twins, at least, he might have stayed.
If she followed her mother’s advice, as she had listened to Shadow and Annabelle, would she invite more heartache? Yet as she’d told Hadley, Jenna was not the girl who’d fled her parents’ unhappy home only to fly into the wrong man’s arms—the arms of a man who’d never really loved her. She wasn’t the broken woman who’d returned to Barren to be near her family. But then, Hadley wasn’t the same wounded kid he’d once been, or the supposed bad boy he thought he’d become. How wrong he was about that.
If he was at the ranch, what could she say to him? Jenna would have to trust him, risk losing again, as she had with David. Getting hurt once more, as her father had hurt her with his neglect, his anger. Yet if she didn’t try, if she couldn’t convince Hadley to stay, to take that chance on her, on them, this time she’d be losing Luke and Grace, too.
And Jenna remembered what Jack had said earlier. There were different ways to be a family, she realized. Just as Hadley had once told her there could be different ways to have a child. And, of course, she recalled Annabelle’s wise words.
You don’t have to give birth to be a mother.
In her car Jenna called the ranch, but Clara didn’t answer. Instead, she talked briefly to a man whose voice she didn’t recognize. Hadley was putting the kids to bed, he said. She should call later, or he could have Hadley call her.
Jenna didn’t choose either option. He was still there.
She hung up, slipped the car into gear and drove away into the blinding snow.
* * *
HADLEY CAME DOWNSTAIRS after putting the twins to bed. Their nightly ritual had given him comfort tonight, tucking them in, watching them settle in their cribs and giving kisses. He was grateful to be warm and dry, not risking the twins’ safety on the road somewhere as Dallas had risked his last night to get here.
Better to hunker down while the snow kept falling, be here tomorrow morning to clear the driveway and see to the livestock. The horses would need oats and a bran mash as extra fuel to help combat the cold. Without him here, Clara might have been forced eventually to sell the ranch after all. Any other decision would have been the wrong one. His home, she’d said.
At the dining room table, Clara and Dallas were trying to fit pieces into an elaborate jigsaw puzzle. The picture on the box showed a wintry scene from somewhere up north like Montreal with blurred lights along a snowy street flanked by shops. Hadley didn’t join them. A part of him wanted to be alone.
He glanced at Clara, surprised to see a worried expression in her eyes. She said, “Your Christmas wasn’t everything it could be, was it?” No, even with his brother here, the miracle he’d prayed for. He needed another, too, which didn’t seem likely. All day he’d kept thinking of Jenna and how much he’d missed her today.
“I wish Jenna could have come,” Clara went on, noting the stack of toys under the tree as if some were absent. “Or at least drop by for a minute to see Luke and Grace.”
“I guess that would have been awkward—after the guardianship thing. Pearson,” he added. “Besides, today was her mother’s wedding.”
“Of course. Does Jenna know you’re staying?”
“Not yet.” Hadley shook his head. “I haven’t talked to her.”
She paused. “I’m sure she’d like to meet Dallas. And—forgive me if I speak plainly—Jenna is not Amy. That marriage didn’t work for you, which doesn’t mean you and Jenna wouldn’t. I can see you’re miserable—and on such a beautiful night. We’ve had a white Christmas. Why spend it alone?”
“I’m not. You and Dallas are here. The twins.” He drew Clara up from the table and into his arms. Dallas watched them. “Stop poking at me like there’s a cattle prod in your hand. I’ll talk to her, okay? I already planned to, but she’s probably still at her mother’s wedding reception. I wouldn’t want to intrude.” In case she didn’t care to hear whatever he had to say.
Clara sent him a look that practically shouted coward.
Did he really want to spend his life without Jenna? Again, no, not if she’d consider giving him another shot. He couldn’t spend another Christmas day without her sitting on the rug with the twins, helping them open presents, showering them with the gifts she always brought, filling Hadley up inside with the warmth she exuded. Sometimes he craved the feel of her soft mouth under his, her slighter weight in his arms until he ached. Was he the wrong man for Jenna? Why was that his choice to make? She had a mind of her own. If she was willing to put up with him, why not? He’d never expected to make this decision, but there it was. Tomorrow he would try.
But first, there was that something he needed to tell Clara. “If I’m like a son to you, I’d better start living up to that.” Then he all but whispered, “Because you’re my mother, the best mother I could have, Clara, and I… I love you.”
There, that wasn’t so hard to say, especially when he meant the words with all his heart. Hadley had just released her, Clara crying happy tears, when he heard the hush of tires on the snowy drive outside. A second later, through the frosted window, he made out the shape of Jenna’s car. Was she here, as Clara had said, for the babies? Or for him, too? He was about to find out.
* * *
AS SOON AS JENNA reached the top step to the porch, her high heels slipping and sliding in the snow, Hadley opened the front door. “A Christmas wedding would never be my choice,” he said.
She stopped just inside the house, drinking him in because she’d feared she might never see him again. The sheen of his dark hair, the look she couldn’t decipher in those electric-blue eyes, the breadth of his shoulders. Was he still here only because of the bad weather?
“The wedding was lovely,” she said. “But this snow may never end. I thought more than once of turning around, driving back into town, but I have gifts for the twins,” she announced, still uncertain of her welcome with Hadley. Luke and Grace were more familiar territory.
“They’re asleep—I hope.” He drew her into the living room, where Clara greeted her with a Christmas kiss, then introduced a shocked Jenna to Hadley’s brother. The two of them quickly went back to their jigsaw puzzle before Jenna could ask how Hadley had found Dallas. She sent Hadley a searching look he didn’t respond to.
Instead, he said, “There are things I have to say. In private.” He steered her toward the stairs to the second floor, leaving Clara to gaze after them with what appeared to be a satisfied expression. Dallas raised his eyebrows as Hadley and Jenna began to climb the steps. Hadley led her to the nursery but stopped outside, his voice low. “Let’s start with Cody, aka Cory.” At her puzzled look, he said, “Strange subject, but this is about me, too. When I hired him, I didn’t let myself see what he really was. Remember, Grey didn’t press charges against Cody’s two accomplices—including your brother—for cattle rustling. But then, Derek didn’t set Grey’s barn on fire. That was all Cody. Hoping to avoid the law, he ran—sound familiar where I’m concerned?—and it was as dangerous for him to come back as it was for me to stay anywhere years ago. That became the pattern of my life, as you pointed out, in which everything has been temporary. Until now.” His tone was tentative, as if he were asking her some question.
“You’re comparing yourself to a felon?”
“In the way we approached things, I guess I am. I haven’t led my life the way I should have. I did try to love Amy the way she wanted me to, but I always had one foot out the door. Sure, we fought too much and of course her folks were always between us, telling Amy I wasn’t good enough for her, that I was a loser.” He shrugged. “That shouldn’t have bothered me. I’d heard the same message from a lot of foster people.”
Jenna touched his arm. She couldn’t let him believe he was still that bad boy when he wasn’t. “You aren’t like Cody Jones.”
“No,” he agreed, “but maybe Cody’s not as bad as people believe, either. I’m going to speak to Finn about him. I want to help him turn his life in the right direction.”
“Just as you have,” Jenna said. “Maybe you felt you had to run away from those foster homes, but you never left your brother.”
“I guess he’d agree with you.” As if he couldn’t contain himself any longer, Hadley told her about Dallas’s homecoming and how his brother had been adopted, not left in some other terrible situation. “Maybe I did him a favor by stealing that food for him. Jenna,” he said, then reached for her hand. “While I was packing the truck yesterday, Clara told me if I left here I should never come back. Quite the wake-up call, and I remembered that first time she and Cliff took me in, how they saw the best in me. They didn’t just give me a warm bed and the best food I’d ever eaten. Or simply teach me the skills that have supported me as a cowboy. They gave me unconditional love, and what did I do? I left them.”
“You came back, though.”
“Sure. Years later, after I’d already hurt them. Cliff was gone, and Clara was alone here on a broken-down ranch. I wish I’d come sooner, thanked him before he passed on, but you know what? Yesterday I realized that if I left Clara now, I wouldn’t be running from a bad place this time but from a good one.” He glanced away. “Maybe all these years I was the one who couldn’t let myself belong. I was afraid I’d finally found some place to fit in but was too scared that, having found that, it couldn’t last.” In the dark hallway he held her gaze. “That place—my place—is here. It includes you,” he said.
Jenna felt a flash of what could only be hope laced with doubt. “What are you saying, Hadley?” Her voice hitched. “You told me you aren’t looking for someone.”
“I thought I wasn’t, but I’ll try really hard to be what you need, Jenna. If I can find the courage to stay, can you trust that I won’t leave?”
“I trust you,” she said without hesitation. She had to.
Still holding her hand, he eased open the door to the nursery. They went into the room lit only by a night-light and stood between the two cribs, listening to the soft sound of the twins’ breathing. “Clara teases me when I check on them every night to make sure they’re okay and watch them sleep.”
And this man had thought he was a bad person? “That’s sweet, Hadley.”
She imagined his face coloring. “Jenna, I know they’re not your own babies, but does that really matter?” He attempted a smile. “Luke and Gracie are a whole family in themselves.” They’d kept their voices low, but the twins stirred. Luke snuffled into his blanket, and Grace rolled from her tummy onto her back, one arm flung above her head. Their rose-gold hair shone in the low light.
“No, it doesn’t matter in the least.” Jenna squeezed Hadley’s hand. She’d once thought she’d put David behind her yet she really hadn’t until that day on the phone, and she’d never confronted her own infertility. Until now. “I love them as much as I could ever love my own.”
He took a breath. “Good. Because I want much more than a start-up relationship here. This isn’t the most romantic spot, and it’s probably too soon for me to say this, but I want to marry you.”
Her fingers were still laced with his, and Jenna thought I’m ready now to be happy. And this nursery was the perfect place to ask his question. Was he serious?
“I don’t propose to a woman very often,” he said, lifting their joined hands to kiss her knuckles. “But I’m as sure about this—us—as I’ve ever been about anything.” He looked deeply into her eyes. “I love you, Jenna.”
“But you always say you can’t lov—”
“I think I have for quite a while.” He held Jenna’s gaze for a long moment. “For years, I believed I didn’t need, or maybe deserve, a good woman, kids. That I couldn’t love anybody. Of course the twins changed that, and I never would have married Amy if I didn’t love her at all. I think it’s possible I’ve always had a deep-seated wish for a home, a family, that I just refused to recognize.”
And her heart melted as the snow would months from now during spring thaw. From downstairs she heard Clara and Dallas talking, laughing a little. In the hallway a floorboard creaked. And at last, remembering what her mother had said, Jenna knew she could put her father’s neglect behind her, too. Like him, Hadley also had a temper, but he never unleashed it without warning or reason. In spite of any flaws he had, he would be her protector, her safe place in the world. For her, for Luke and Grace. And Jenna would be his. “You’re the best man I’ve ever met. I love you, too, Hadley.”
He smiled in the dark. “Is that you saying yes? We can wait to tie the knot if you want, but—” He broke off. “I don’t want to wait very long.”
His fingers were warm in hers, and she realized how much she wanted to keep holding his hand for the rest of her life. Although she didn’t want to let go for a second, Jenna wrapped her arms around his neck. Standing by the cribs, she drew Hadley’s head down to hers, then kissed him. By the time he raised it to look at her, she knew the tenderness in his eyes must be in hers, too, the love. “My answer is yes,” she murmured, unafraid. “We’ll fight Walter Pearson for the twins. We’ll win.”
“I bet we would have.” He added with a grin, “Won’t be necessary, though. Danielle phoned this morning to ask about the twins’ Christmas extravaganza. She’s convinced Walter to forget the suit. I don’t think she’s speaking to him.”
“He won’t try for custody?”
“Nope, and I said they’re welcome to see the twins whenever they want, stay however long they like, but the terms will be min—ours.” Hadley pulled her closer to the cribs, pointing out Luke’s favorite position, up on his knees with his little bottom in the air. In the corner of his bed the orange-haired doll Grace had gotten for Christmas crowded a bunch of stuffed animals. Grace had turned over again and had one arm around Luke’s yellow truck. Outside the windows, the snow continued to fall in soundless big white flakes, and Jenna hoped that by morning they’d all be shut in. She’d be fine here until New Year’s. Or even better, forever.
Hadley followed her gaze. His incredible blue eyes twinkled. “White Christmas, Clara said. The best kind, and there’ll be more.”
“Tomorrow morning,” Jenna murmured. “I have all those gifts in the car.”
“You always do,” he said. “And by the way—” Hadley drew something from his back pocket “—part of your Christmas present.” He handed her a check. “This is the money to repay the loan you gave me. With hefty interest,” he went on. “I insist, because the twins should get every penny and then some for their education. We’ll need to set up that trust.” Then he turned her, putting her back to his chest. He hadn’t left—he never would, she knew—and of course he hadn’t defaulted on the loan. Jenna tipped her head against his shoulder for another kiss and thought, this is what happiness feels like. She had everything she needed, and so would he. She gazed down at Luke and Grace.
The twins weren’t just his now. They were hers, too.
Wrapped in each other’s arms, she and Hadley watched their babies sleep.
* * * * *