Judy Duarte: His, Hers and...Theirs?

As awkward as he’d felt, as afraid as he was that he’d somehow mess up and do damage to their psyches and scar them for life, he hadn’t been able to get them to the airport fast enough.

But once he’d brought the kids back to the ranch and tried to create some kind of family, he’d been more out of place than ever.

“How about you?” he asked.

“Me?” Eva reached for her milk.

“Have you ever been to New York?”

“I’ve always wanted to go. I’d love to see a Broadway show. But I doubt that I’ll get to travel anytime soon.”

“Why’s that?” he asked, reaching for a fry.

“Because I’m pregnant.”

His hand froze in midreach. “You gotta be kidding.”

She wasn’t, and he soon came to that conclusion.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “but you don’t look…pregnant.”

“I’m only about three months along.”

He paused for the longest time, the French fries long forgotten. “Is that why you were hanging out at the play ground, watching the kids?”

“In a way. I’m not used to being around small children, so I’m intrigued by them.”

“I never would have guessed that. You were so good with Kaylee. If you would have told me that you were a preschool teacher or a mother of three, I wouldn’t have doubted it for a minute.”

Eva couldn’t help but smile. Her sole purpose for being at the park this morning was to learn how to parent and deal with two kids at one time, and here someone assumed she was a natural.

She certainly wouldn’t admit otherwise. But it was nice to know that even after growing up in a dysfunctional family, she had what it took to be a loving mother and that she would have enough TLC to go around.

She lifted her apple juice and took a drink. “I didn’t just chance upon the park today. I went specifically because I’d heard there was going to be an event sponsored by the Parents of Multiples. I was hoping to learn a few tricks in dealing with a set of twins.”

He furrowed his brow, looking even more confused. “You have twins at home?”

“Not yet.”

Before he could respond, little Kaylee ran to the table. “Uncle Dan, Kevin said you’re going to give him a horse and teach him how to be a real live cowboy.”

Dan nodded. “Yep, that’s what I told him.”

“But what about me? I want to ride a horse and be a real live cowboy.”

“I thought you wanted to be a princess,” Dan said.

The child nibbled on her bottom lip, then looked up at him with please-don’t-say-no eyes. “Can I be both?”

Dan chuckled. “Sure. Why not?”

Kaylee broke into a bright-eyed grin. “And can Eva be a cowboy, too?”

“I doubt she’d like that,” Dan said.

“Yes, she would.” Kaylee turned to Eva, placing a small hand upon her knee. “You could ride a horse and everything.”

Eva hadn’t meant to encourage a relationship with the girl, though she could see how Kaylee had jumped to that conclusion. Now she needed to do some serious backpedaling. “I’ll have to pass on becoming a cowboy, but maybe someday, after you learn how to ride, you can show me how it’s done.”

Kaylee quickly turned to her uncle. “Is it okay? Can Eva come to our house and watch me ride?”

“Sure,” Dan said. “She can even invite her husband, if she wants to.”

Apparently, he’d made the natural jump from “pregnant” to “married.”

It seemed important that she set the record straight, so she said, “I don’t have a husband.”

“Sorry. I just assumed…” He shrugged. “Then bring your boyfriend.”

“I don’t have one of those, either.”

Other than a twitch at the corner of his left eye and a slight crunch of the brow, he didn’t respond.

She realized that he might have concluded that she’d had a one-night stand or an indiscriminate affair and, while it was none of his business, she felt compelled to explain. “I had in vitro fertilization.”

Her decision made perfect sense to her. She would soon have her own little family without the involvement of another parent who might not look at things the way she did. But Dan’s brow failed to completely relax until Kevin returned to the table.

A big grin was splashed across the boy’s face. “See, Kaylee? I told you so. I’m going to be a cowboy, just like Hank and Uncle Dan.”

“I get to be one, too,” his twin sister countered. “And Eva gets to come to the ranch and watch me ride.”

Kevin turned to Eva with a whopper of a grin. “Cool. You’re going to really like it at the ranch. We got horses and cows and dogs.”

“Mostly cows,” Dan said. “It’s a cattle ranch. And, of course, you’re welcome to come out and visit anytime.”

“Yeah,” Kevin said. “Come home with us tonight and—”

“Whoa, there, pardner.” Dan’s voice held a dash of humor. “You can’t just pick up people at the park and then ask them to come home with us.”

“And as much as I’d like to see the ranch,” Eva said, “tonight’s not really a good time for me.”

“Yeah, it’ll be too dark.” Kaylee turned to her uncle. “So how about tomorrow?”

Dan let out a little chuckle and turned up his hands in a what’s-a-guy-to-do sort of way.

Eva thought for a moment as she felt her heartstrings being pulled by Kaylee and Kevin. She didn’t have to go to work again until Monday, and she had no real plans for her day off.

She glanced at Dan and caught an intensity in his gaze that seemed to second the child’s invitation.

“Okay,” she said, surprising herself for agreeing so quickly.

Something told her there were a hundred reasons she should steer clear of the little family, but as her heart strummed in the nicest way, she’d be darned if she could wrap her mind around any of them.

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