Allie Pleiter - The Rancher's Texas Twins

Double Trouble

Rancher Gabe Everett will do whatever it takes to keep Avery Culpepper in Texas until the end of the month. Even if it means inviting the beautiful single mom and her mischievous twin girls to stay on his property. Avery holds the key to saving Haven’s boys ranch, but Gabe won’t let his interest go beyond business. He’s not a family man, and Avery needs someone who will be there for her and her daughters. Yet as the girls overrun his orderly ranch with their tea parties and girlie cuteness, Gabe finds himself softening just a little. Could a family to love be exactly what this solitary rancher needs?

“I know I’m gruff with them most of the time…”

Gabe cleared his throat. “And they are all kinds of noisy, but...I have to say... Well, the little pink things have grown on me.”

Once he had spoken the first words, it seemed as if Gabe must spit them all out before he came to his senses. “They steal my time, they invade my study, they run down my hallways, and yet I went crazy thinking about Debbie being hurt. And still, I know the minute she can, Debbie will be right back out on that swing fixing to break the other arm.” He looked up at Avery as though she were a puzzle to solve. “How do you do it?”

Explain parenthood to a bachelor cowboy? She could gather every word in Texas and still not have enough. “You just...do.”

Gabe was trying so hard not to care.

He was failing at it, and in a way that stole her heart no matter what she deemed best for her or the girls.

* * *

Lone Star Cowboy League: Boys Ranch

Bighearted ranchers in small-town Texas

The Rancher’s Texas Match by Brenda Minton

October 2016

The Ranger’s Texas Proposal by Jessica Keller

November 2016

The Nanny’s Texas Christmas by Lee Tobin McClain

December 2016

The Cowboy’s Texas Family by Margaret Daley

January 2017

The Doctor’s Texas Baby by Deb Kastner

February 2017

The Rancher’s Texas Twins by Allie Pleiter

March 2017

ALLIE PLEITER, an award-winning author and RITA® Award finalist, writes both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion for knitting shows up in many of her books and all over her life. Entirely too fond of French macarons and lemon meringue pie, Allie spends her days writing books and avoiding housework. Allie grew up in Connecticut, holds a BS in speech from Northwestern University and lives near Chicago, Illinois.

Dear Reader,

Just when we think we’ve got our plans worked out, God goes ahead and throws a huge wrench into them. That’s always for the best, but we rarely see it that way at the time. Gabe thinks he is incapable of the kind of love Avery and her girls need, but the truth is he is more than capable when he breaks the shackles of his past. Avery thinks her heart can’t trust the speed at which it awakens to Gabe, but it’s God’s perfect timing in a place she’d never expect.

I hope this story leads you to look for God’s gifts in unexpected places. I’d love to hear from you! You can reach me on my website alliepleiter.com, via email at allie@alliepleiter.comor good old-fashioned paper mail at P.O. Box 7026, Villa Park, IL 60181. You can also find me on Twitter @alliepleiteror on my Facebook Author Page. Drop me a line!

The Rancher’s Texas Twins

Allie Pleiter

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Rejoice before Him—His name is the Lord. A father to the fatherless…is God in His holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, He leads out the prisoners with singing.

—Psalms 68:4–6

For Kelly

A mom with grace and humor

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Dear Reader

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Extract

Chapter One

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?”