Kat Brookes - The Cowboy's Little Girl

His brothers’ eyes widened in unison at the unexpected interruption before they pivoted on booted heels to look down at Blue. For the first time since Tucker could remember, his big brothers were rendered utterly speechless.

“Come on into the kitchen, sweetheart,” he told his daughter, whose gaze was still fixed on her suddenly mute uncles.

Jackson and Garrett parted to let her through, their attention doing a slingshot in his direction as she passed by with a sleepy smile.

“Morning, Daddy,” she said in the sweetest little singsong voice he’d ever heard. Her words grabbed at his heart. He was somebody’s daddy, something he’d never expected to be after Summer had run out on their marriage. Not only had he been too hurt to think about trusting in love again, but also his still being legally wed to Summer had been keeping him from giving another relationship a chance.

Tucker returned his baby girl’s smile, an unfamiliar warmth seeping into his heart as he did so. Then he placed his hands on her tiny shoulders and slowly turned her to face his brothers. “Blue Belle Wade, these two hulking giants who don’t seem to be able to pick their jaws up from the kitchen floor are your uncles. That’s your uncle Jackson on the left and your uncle Garrett on the right.” He glanced down at his daughter, recalling she was only four. “Do you know what left and right are?”

She held out her hand, making and L shape with her fingers. “This is my left because left starts with L .”

“Very good,” he praised. He didn’t know enough about children to say for sure, but something told him Blue was an extremely bright child.

“Uncles?” Jackson muttered in confusion as he stared at Blue.

Tucker looked up at his brother with an answering nod.

Garrett attempted to process what he’d just heard. “Blue Belle Wade?” he repeated slowly, his gaze fixed on Blue with her bright smile and reddish-brown curls.

“My daughter,” Tucker said, still trying to come to grips with it all himself.

Garrett’s wide-eyed gaze snapped up to Tucker. “Your what?”

“His daughter,” Blue announced proudly, her tiny chin lifting.

“Daughter?” Jackson repeated, understandably confused by Blue’s announcement.

“Who’s hungry?” Tucker said with forced calm. He didn’t want his brothers’ raised voices to startle his daughter. “We can talk more about this while we eat. I’m making bacon and eggs.”

Blue’s gleeful expression fell. “But Aunt Autumn always makes me pancakes.”

“I’m making pancakes, too,” Tucker promptly amended, causing his brother’s gazes to swing sharply in his direction.

Jackson snorted. “Since when do you make pancakes?”

“He’s not,” another female voice chimed in. “I am.”

His brothers stepped aside as Autumn made her way past them into the kitchen to stand beside him and Blue.

This wasn’t how he’d envisioned this moment to go. He hadn’t even had a chance to prepare his brothers for the shock of finding out they were uncles. “I don’t have a pancake mix,” Tucker admitted guiltily.

“The best pancakes are made from scratch anyways,” Autumn said with a smile and then leaned over to speak to Blue. “Sweetie, I thought I told you to wait for me in the bathroom while I grabbed your hairbrush and ponytail holder from your suitcase and a change of clothes.”

“I was hungry.”

“Even so, you shouldn’t be wandering around by yourself.”

“I wasn’t by myself,” she said, looking up at Tucker who stood on her other side. “I was with my daddy.”

A slight frown tugged at Autumn’s lips as she straightened. “Yes, I suppose you were.”

Tucker looked over to find Garrett and Jackson staring at Autumn, mouths agape. And he understood why. They’d known Summer from the rodeo, had known their little brother had been sweet on her that rodeo season. And with Blue calling him daddy he could just imagine what they were thinking. Only they had it all wrong.

Clearing his throat, he said, “Jackson and Garrett, I’d like you to meet Autumn Myers, Summer’s twin sister.”

“Her twin?” Jackson said as if having trouble accepting that this wasn’t the Summer they had once known, standing there.

“Identical twin,” Autumn supplied with a sad smile.

Tucker wanted to explain why his wife wasn’t there and her sister was, but he didn’t want to mention Summer’s passing with his daughter standing there. Her mother’s loss had been traumatic enough for her as it was.

“My mommy’s in heaven,” Blue said sadly.

Tucker’s heart ached for his little girl. No child should ever have to speak those words.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room.

Clearing the emotion from his throat, Tucker said, “Her aunt Autumn brought Blue here to meet her family.”

“And maybe I’ll get to live here if you want me,” Blue reminded him.

“As I said before, wanting you isn’t an issue,” he replied tenderly. “I do without a doubt. You belong here.”

“Tucker, please,” Autumn warned in a hushed voice beside him. “Don’t get her hopes up. It’s too soon.”

“ You have a daughter,” Garrett said disbelievingly.

Tucker nodded. “I do.”

“All these years and you’ve never said anything?” Jackson grumbled, clearly hurt by what he thought had been Tucker’s decision to keep Blue’s existence from them.

“Why don’t Blue and I give you men a few moments of privacy while she gets dressed for the day?” Autumn said, taking her niece by the hand. “Just give me a holler when you’re ready for me to start on those pancakes.”

His brothers parted to let them through.

“Are my uncles mad at my daddy?” Tucker heard Blue ask as Autumn led her away. Any answer her aunt might have given was lost as the two scurried toward the entryway.

Garrett waited a moment and then turned to face him. “I can’t believe you kept this from us.”

Tucker hated the censure he saw in his brother’s eyes.

Jackson crossed the room to grab a couple of coffee cups from the cupboard. “I wouldn’t have expected this from you,” he muttered as he placed them onto the counter and then reached for the coffeepot. “Momma raised us better than that.”

This was going to be even harder than he’d imagined it would be, not that he’d had much time to think about how everything was going to play out. Just one sleepless night in the barn. He took a seat at the table and dragged a hand down over his face, feeling the stubble of his unshaven jaw. “I didn’t know about Blue,” he said, the admission stoking the flames of his resentment toward Summer for keeping his daughter from him. “Not until last evening when Autumn showed up on my doorstep to tell me about Summer’s...passing.” The word caught in his throat.

“I’m sorry,” Garrett said solemnly. “I know how much she meant to you at one time.”

Enough to marry , Tucker thought, his jaw tightening.

Jackson walked over and handed Garrett a steaming mug and then both men settled themselves into the empty chairs across the table from Tucker, disapproval etched into their tanned faces.

“I know what you’re both thinking,” Tucker grumbled. “And you’re wrong.”

“You just told us that Blue is your daughter,” their oldest brother said, pinning Tucker with his gaze.

“She is. Only I didn’t know Summer was carrying my child when she walked away from our marriage.”

Jackson nearly choked on the sip of coffee he’d just taken. “Marriage?”

“You both know I fell pretty hard for her when we met. By the time rodeo season came to an end, I couldn’t imagine leaving her. She felt the same.” At least, he’d thought she had. But if she had, she would have told him about the baby. Would have given him the chance to think about giving up the rodeo life, instead of making the decision herself to end something they had started together. “We both decided to put down roots in Cheyenne, the place where we’d first met. So I bought her a ring and got married at the courthouse.”