Stella Bagwell - The Tycoon's Tots

“Just our luck. Maybe you could discuss it with his associate.”

“If I have to, I will. But right now, I’m going to finish the chores at the stable, then drive over to Justine’s. She and Rose need to know someone is trying to take our brother and sister!”

Two hours later and several miles north on the Pardee ranch, Chloe paced around her sister’s living room.

“Chloe, you’re going to have to calm down,” Justine insisted from her seat on the couch. “It’s not like the man tried to physically carry the twins out of the house.”

Chloe looked over at her very pregnant sister. It probably wasn’t good to dump this sort of stress on her. Even though the baby wasn’t due for another eight or ten weeks, Justine had already been suffering false labor pains.

“I guess I shouldn’t have come over here bothering you with this,” Chloe mumbled regretfully. “But I didn’t know what else to do.”

Justine waved away her words. “Chloe, honey, Adam and Anna are my brother and sister, too. I was going to have to know about Wyatt sooner or later. I just find it incredible that Belinda Waller had a brother. Why hadn’t we heard from him before now?”

Chloe threw up her arms in a gesture of helplessness. “I got the impression he didn’t know much about Belinda, or what she’d been up to lately. At least, not the way we knew her,” Chloe added with a shudder. Neither she, Justine, nor their older sister Rose, who’d very nearly been injured by Belinda’s arson, would ever forget the woman.

“Do you think he’s on the up-and-up? Maybe he’s no better than Belinda,” Justine mused aloud. “If that’s the case, there’s no court in the country that would consider giving him custody of the twins.”

With a weary shake of her head, Chloe sat down beside her sister on the couch. “Wyatt Sanders doesn’t appear to be anything like Belinda. He says he’s an oilman. And I tell you, Justine, the man has money. If he doesn’t, he’s doing a good job of faking it.”

Justine glanced at her wristwatch. “Roy is testifying in court now. But he should be through by late this evening. I’ll call and let him know what’s going on. He’ll run a check on Mr. Wyatt Sanders and then we’ll have a better idea what to do.”

Chloe gave her a crooked grin. “You know, it’s rather nice having the sheriff of Lincoln County in the family.”

Justine chuckled and patted her protruding belly. “I definitely think so.”

There was no doubt that Justine was happy now. She and Roy Pardee had married back in July a few weeks after the twins first showed up on the ranch’s front porch. They loved each other passionately. So much so that Chloe sometimes looked at the two of them with awe and envy.

At twenty-four, Chloe was only two years younger than Justine, and four younger than Rose. But she felt she was a lifetime away from having a family of her own—the sort of family that both her sisters had now.

“Maybe you should go to him,” Justine suggested after a stretch of silence. “Tell the man how it is with you and why you want the babies so badly.”

The look Chloe shot Justine said she must be losing her mind. “Never! There’s no way I’d tell that arrogant bast…” She caught herself before the whole word burst from her mouth. “That arrogant man such an intimate detail about myself. Besides, I really doubt he could or would sympathize with my sterile condition. Especially when he looks like he could produce all the babies he wanted!”

Sighing, Justine reached for the cup of decaffeinated coffee sitting on the end table by her elbow. “Chloe, you’re much too sensitive about your condition. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It wasn’t your fault you had an infection and it left you too scarred to have children.”

Chloe frowned at her sister. “Sure. That’s easy for you to say. You’re about to give your husband his second child. I can’t give a man anything.”

Justine rolled her eyes. “That’s ridiculous of you to think such a thing!”

Dropping her head, Chloe looked away from her sister. “Ridiculous or not, I don’t want any man, friend or foe, to know that I’m sterile. You know what happened the last time I tried to be honest and open with a man!”

Her expression full of concern, Justine said, “Richard was a selfish fool. I’m sure he’s realized a thousand times what he lost when he broke your engagement.”

Chloe groaned. “Justine, that was four years ago. You don’t see the man knocking down my door to beg me to come back to him, do you?”

Frowning, Justine waved away her words. “I, for one, thank God, he hasn’t. He wasn’t nearly good enough for you.”

Chloe looked at her sister. “Well, you don’t have to worry about Richard or any man walking me down the aisle. No man wants a woman who is barren.”

Justine shook her head. “You’re wrong, Chloe. Children are a wonderful addition, but they don’t make a marriage.”

Maybe her sister truly believed that, but Chloe knew better. She’d been rejected by a man she’d hoped to marry, culled like a cow that couldn’t calf. She never wanted to go through that sort of pain and humiliation again.

As for Wyatt Sanders, she would never tell the man she couldn’t have children. She’d fight for the twins any way she could, but not that way.

“Wyatt, sugar, I can understand how cute and sweet your sister’s babies are, but I don’t believe you’ve stopped to consider what sort of care and responsibility it would take to raise them to adulthood. Not to mention the expense.”

Wyatt gazed out the Ruidoso motel room window as Sandra’s voice droned in his ear. It had been several hours since his encounter with Ms. Chloe Murdock, and he was still smarting from her high-handed attitude. He’d called Sandra back in Houston, thinking she would understand and commiserate with him. But so far she wasn’t making him feel a bit better.

He’d met her through a mutual friend and had found her blond, blue-eyed looks and classic taste in clothes reminiscent of a young Grace Kelly. He’d dated her a few times and the idea of proposing marriage to her had once crossed his mind. Not because he’d been in love with her. He hadn’t been. In fact, Wyatt was sure he’d never felt the real thing. He wasn’t even sure it existed. But he and Sandra had got on well enough and, though she liked money, she never put any emotional demands on him. Since he’d turned thirty the idea of marrying was starting to appeal to him, and he’d thought they might make a compatible team.

But he’d quickly learned Sandra wasn’t wife material for him or any man. Her career consumed the bigger part of her time, and since Wyatt had started talking about bringing the twins home to live with him, he could see that motherhood was not her forte either. Thank goodness, he and Sandra were no more than good friends now.

“I know babies require a lot of care, Sandra. But I have the money to provide them with a good nanny, and later on a college education. I can give them most anything they’ll need to have a relatively good life. And I think I owe them that much.”

“I can’t see that you owe them anything, Wyatt. Sure, they’re your sister’s kids, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your life for them.”

His brows drew together at her insensitive comment. The idea that all women were born with maternal instincts was a bunch of malarkey. Sandra had just proven it. And then there was his mother, whom he hadn’t heard a word from in the past twenty-six years. Dear Lord, had Belinda been just as uncaring of her twins? No, he didn’t believe it for a minute.

“I’d hardly call it a sacrifice, Sandra. I happen to like babies and children. I’ve always wanted some of my own.”