From what he’d been told, prior to their parents’ deaths, Ruby and Violet had been social little girls seemingly afraid of very little. They’d been adventurous. Willing, eager even, to try new things. And would carry on conversations with adults as though they were capable of holding their own. As long as their parents, or people they knew and trusted, were around.

  He had to preserve those outgoing little personalities. Not let his own lack of clarity lock them in a world that they’d be afraid to leave.

  The bell rang, calling him, before he got as far as making any online purchases. And by the time he’d finished for the day, he was rethinking the filling the room with toys portion of his plan. The girls already had two rooms worth of toys. In boxes at Mia’s place.

  And he’d already asked Ruby and Violet’s biological mother to go through their things with him. To see what they owned. What they liked. What they might need immediately, and what might be better packed away for a while.

  The little ballet shoes were definitely a wait item. At least until they were back in New York. No point in getting the girls all worked up and wanting to dance without an avenue planned for them to do so.

  He could still bring the boxes to his suite.

  Would Mia be willing to take a couple of days of vacation and stay at the hotel? Maybe watch the girls during the day so he didn’t have to transition them to a stranger babysitter while he worked? He could get her a suite on the same floor.

  All expenses paid by him, of course.

  She could take the girls to the resort’s huge outdoor pool. And maybe to the children’s museum Mariah O’Connell had talked about. Assuming they hadn’t just recently been there with their parents...

  As much as she loathed leaving Shelter Valley, he was pretty certain she’d comply. For the girls.

  Decision made, Jordon booked the suite. Figured it was meant to be when he was able to get one just two doors down from his. The girls could spend time in both suites, though Mia’s only had the one bedroom so they’d be staying with him.

  He was on a roll. Finally getting things done.

  And set off for Shelter Valley with a smile on his face.

  * * *

  Mia was lying in a chaise watching the activities in the shallow end of the pool when her phone rang.

  Jordon.

  It wasn’t even four yet. He had to be calling to let her know he’d be late. Or maybe not make it at all that night.

  Part of her hoping it was the latter, she answered, “Hello?”

  “I’m letting you know I’m pulling in,” he said.

  She sat up straight. “Here?”

  When a couple of the guest parents and the instructor in the pool looked over at her, she sat back, and more quietly asked, “You’re at the ranch?”

  “Yeah.” No explanation. Which told her more was coming.

  Dread filled her. Had he found someone who wanted to adopt the girls? Was he going to take them?

  She thought about the cabin she’d reserved for him.

  And hadn’t yet told him about.

  Because she wasn’t sure she trusted herself to have him around that much.

  “We...um...aren’t up there,” she said, watching as first Ruby and then Violet, both wearing their new water wing vests, put their faces in the water and pulled them back up laughing.

  She’d missed the picture. And blamed Jordon.

  A shameful second.

  She’d had a few of them where he was concerned. And after her cry the night before, was over herself.

  “We’re at the pool,” she said, looking around for her wrap. “The girls met a couple of kids staying in the cabins,” she said. “When they were with Macy this morning,” she quickly added, realizing she should never have taken the twins to the pool without letting Jordon know. “They had so much fun, I thought... I brought them to swim lessons,” she admitted.

  “Swim lessons?” His tone didn’t bode so horribly. He sounded more perplexed than anything.

  “It’s all part of the dude ranch,” she told him. “Afternoon swim lessons for anyone eight or younger who wants them. It’s just beginning stuff, and we sell water wings at the pool and the girls are both securely strapped into theirs.”

  “What pool?”

  “It’s down by the cabins.”

  “You have a pool?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You didn’t mention it.”

  Hadn’t seemed pertinent. Not like swimming lessons were.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t text, Jordon. I should have made sure you were okay with them being in the pool.”

  “I didn’t know you had a pool.” He seemed lost in that particular piece of minutia.

  “With swim lessons,” she added inanely.

  “Down by the cabins.”

  Had he been drinking? She’d never known Jordon to over-imbibe. To the contrary, he’d always been designated driver when he’d gone out with friends.

  “Yeah,” she said, pulling a towel up to her chest in lieu of the wrap she couldn’t immediately locate.

  “I’m on my way down now.”

  “Um...we can meet you up there,” she blurted, standing. “I’ll get the girls out of the pool and...”

  “I’m already here.”

  Her gaze met his across the length of the water as he hung up and let himself inside the gated pool enclosure.

  She could feel his look as though he was touching her, though he was the one gaining attention from everyone else—mostly mothers of little ones—in the area. He was the only one fully dressed. The only one on the entire ranch in business clothes.

  And he was gorgeous.

  She, on the other hand, was not dressed. Wrapping her towel around her waist, pushing a hand through her always-messy short blond hair, she straightened her shoulders and took pride in her tightly muscled feminine form.

  He’d seen it all before.

  Ten years hadn’t changed much.

  As he drew closer, and her nipples tightened with desire, she dragged her mind out of the gutter—out of her past—and focused fully back on the two four-year-old blondes listening to the eighteen-year-old teacher in the pool.

  And then, on the count of three, drawing in breath and putting their faces in the water again.

  “They’re not afraid of the water.” Jordon’s voice beside her sent electrical shivers through Mia. She needed to step away from him.

  Didn’t know how to do so without being obvious. He couldn’t know she was still attracted to him. She couldn’t give him that edge.

  Or mess up things that could come back on the girls.

  “They’re like two little commodores,” she said. “Whether it’s climbing up a ladder and sliding onto a horse’s back or jumping into a pool, they’re game to give it a try.” If he heard the pride in her voice, he didn’t call her on it.

  She couldn’t take back the words.

  Wasn’t even sure she wanted to.

  Those two little warriors were not her legal children, but they were each half of her. Whatever genes carried grit, determination...and blond hair. And Violet had her eyes.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t let you know I was bringing them down here.” Truth was, she hadn’t even thought about letting Jordon know. She had been focused on blocking out all thoughts of Jordon since her breakdown in the tub the night before.

  “I need to have them spend the night under the same roof as me.”

  The statement was bald.

  And wasn’t a suggestion.

  “I have a cabin available for you starting Saturday,” she blurted. Out there by the pool, underneath the blinding and beautiful hot Arizona sun, she felt safer. As though nothing could hurt as badly as she’d thought she’d been hurting the night before.

  “A cabin.” He looked over at her and she made herself hold that gaze. And nod.

  Then said, “I figured you’d want to stay with them.”

  With a cock of his head, he studied her, looked as though he was weighing words, and then Ruby squealed, and they both looked instantly back at the water.

  “I did it!” Ruby’s voice carried to them. “I swimmed!”

  She was standing two or three feet from where she’d been. And when those vivid blue eyes turned toward Mia, she was grinning, and clapping, feeling as though her heart might burst.

  Until Ruby turned back to the instructor, and Mia’s gaze collided with Jordon’s.

  “Until you know where they’re going, I figured you’d want them to stay in therapy with Macy,” she said. “I added the swim lessons as a whim, mostly because they seemed to have fun with the other little kids this morning. I explained that the kids are only here for the week, and then new kids would be coming. I thought it might help them to adjust to having new people come and go from their lives, while Macy was a constant. Anyway...it’s all up to you, of course.”

  And that was the bottom line. The decision was rightfully Jordon’s.

  And until the court gave her some rights, if the court acknowledged her maternity at all, she had to acquiesce to whatever Jordon thought was best.

  He glanced out to the pool, watching as Violet took her turn “swimming” and then glanced over at them, grinning, as she came up for air. “Did you see that, Mama Mia?” she called.

  Mia nodded, immediately cringing over the fact that Jordon wasn’t also acknowledged, and unable to stop the huge smile that spread across her face, or the tears that swam in her eyes for a second as she called out, “Good job!” to Violet.

  “Good job!” Jordon called out as an echo, but Violet had already turned back to her instructor.

  “It’s just because I’m with them all day, from the time they get up,” she said then. “If you stay at the cabin, and you’re the one getting them up and feeding them in the morning, all the routine stuff of living, they’ll look to you, too.”

  “I’m not bothered that they’re turning to you, Mia,” he said, his tone almost gentle. “I just need to know them better. I need to see them in their own environment. It’s the only way I can make decisions that are in their best interests.”

  “Okay.”

  But it wasn’t. Not for her.

  She knew it before he said, “I’m planning to take them with me back to the city.”

  “When?”

  “Tomorrow. That’ll give me two full days to get acclimated with them before I have to work again.”

  And knew, too, that when the words came, all she could do was nod.

  Because she had no rights.

  * * *

  “Daddy’s goned with Mommy and he’s not coming back.” Brown Eyes, expression wide and solemn, said as Jordon, sitting at the end of the queen-size bed in Mia’s house, turned the page on a book about animals saying good-night.

  Did he nod and keep reading?

  Seemed like the chicken’s way out. And kind of heartless, too.

  “I know, sweetie.” And he thought of what Mariah O’Connell, the child life specialist, had said. “But you know how you got a happy feeling, and seemed all warm inside when he hugged you?”

  Both girls nodded.

  “That doesn’t ever go away. It’s called love and Mommy and Daddy will always love you.”

  “I think Mama Mia loves us,” Ruby said then.

  And Violet shook her head. “She hasn’t seen us be bad, yet. Mommy said when you love someone you love them even when they’re bad. ’Member?” Such wisdom coming from a tiny voice with w sounds where there should be r’s.

  Ruby’s nod was exaggerated, her blue eyes wide. “We got water on the floor! That was bad.”

  “And we spilled our chocolate on the ground,” Violet said slowly, turning her gaze from her sister to stare straight at Jordon. “Do you think that means she could love us?”

  Emotion strangling him, Jordon had no words. No wisdom. No answers.

  And, in the next moment, when he could breathe, he said, “I’m sure it does.”

  Might be the wrong thing. To let those children know that they were loved by someone else from whom they were going to be taken away.

  But the alternative? To tell them that they weren’t loved? Most particularly when he knew for certain that they were?

  And if he kept the girls, Mia wouldn’t be gone from their lives. She’d be a part of them forever.

  And the ranch...the twins could come for summers...kids went to camp...

  And he wouldn’t need to worry about a full-time nanny. They’d be in school during the year when they were with him, and summering with Mia...

  And, and, and...

  Was he really thinking about keeping them?

  His mind went blank—just as it had when he’d seen way too much of Mia in that sleek black suit, earlier.

  And try as he might, Jordon just couldn’t get past the blind spots inside of him to find his answers.

  Chapter Twelve

  As soon as the girls had exited the pool, while they were still wrapped, dripping in their towels, Jordon had announced that he was taking them out to dinner.

  He’d invited Mia to go.

  Still reeling from his announcement—he was moving the girls to his suite in the city the very next day—she’d declined.

  Had eaten leftover vegetable soup and crackers at her desk with her social media family. Seeking the distance she’d known she needed.

  Jordon was completely within his rights to take the girls. For all she knew, it was best that he do so. She had no valid case to be angry with him.

  But she was.

  And as she heard him enter the house with the girls just in time for baths and bed, she knew why.

  It wasn’t because he was taking the girls. That part had been inevitable. It was because he was taking her heart with him. Again.

  Taking the children she’d fallen head over heels in love with.

  The past was repeating itself.

  And there was nothing she could do about it.

  Except...do what she did. Live her life.

  He’d broken her ten years before.

  But she wasn’t a kid anymore. She knew how to cope.

  And had Jordon to thank for that.

  Still, knowing and feeling were different things.

  She’d heard from her lawyer that morning. Her request for visitation had been filed with the court. Jordon would be served notice and have twenty-five days to respond before any further steps would be taken.

  Jordon. Jordon. Jordon.

  So much rested on Jordon.

  When she’d promised herself that she’d never open her heart up to him again.

  Staring at her blinking cursor, waiting to hear the front door close behind him so she could breathe freely again—and maybe go peek in on the girls—Mia jumped when her phone binged a text.

  You have a minute?

  Jordon.

  Wanting more of her.

  Her first instinct, to ignore him, gave way to the second. Tell him no.

  She waited for the third.

  Of course, she texted back. And then, not wanting to be closed in her house with him, added, On the porch?

  She’d changed back into her shorts and tank top as soon as she’d returned from the pool and in spite of the still-one-hundred-degree heat outside, wanted to pull on a sweater.

  Maybe even a coat.

  Except she’d have to remember which spare closet she’d stored it in when she’d returned from a family ski trip up north four years before.

  Jordon was already seated in one of the wooden rockers on her porch. Looking all successful and confident and way too good in his business pants, shirt and shoes.

  And too...comfortable...on the porch that had once hosted him regularly. Even the baby monitor sitting upright on the arm of the love seat beside him seemed to fit right in to the cozy picture.

  He’d asked for a minute. Looked like he was planning to stay much longer than that.

  As though reading her mind, he leaned forward as soon as she approached. Both feet flat on the ground, his elbows on his knees, he said, “I wanted to speak with you about moving the girls.”

  Nope. “No need.” She had to cut him off at the quick. Didn’t trust herself to be fair to him. Stood there, arms crossed as though she was cold, facing him.

  “Could you have a seat?”

  She could if she wanted to. She didn’t want to.

  But after a few seconds, thinking only of Ruby and Violet, she sat. She was a mother now. What she felt absolutely did not come first.

  Oddly, she didn’t even want it to. Putting the girls first felt natural. It was something she didn’t just need to do. She wanted to do it.

  Steepling his fingers, Jordon looked at them long enough that Mia felt a twinge of compassion for him. The man hadn’t asked for any of what was happening to them. But he’d stepped up completely. Taking on an overwhelming responsibility with the same focus and effort he’d once given to her.

  Jordon had always given one thousand percent. He’d always tried.

  He just hadn’t listened...

  Glancing up at her, he opened his mouth. Closed it again. Took a breath. “I...rented a suite for you, too.”

  She heard him. Could repeat the words. Couldn’t understand them.

  “Before you go off on me, hear me out,” he said while she was still staring, open-mouthed, frozen in place.

  Elation warring with dread.

  He was doing it again. Thinking if he could just get her to leave Shelter Valley everything would work out fine.

  Ten years ago, it had been for him. For them.

  And now...for their daughters?

  She was going. No question about that. For Violet and Ruby, she’d move to the moon in a clown suit.

  Even knowing that it was only temporary. That when he found a permanent family for the girls, she could possibly never see them again.