His valentine triplets, p.16
His Valentine Triplets, page 16
Jonas and Rafe looked at him. Sam cleared his throat.
“My suggestion, acting as legal counsel for Rancho Diablo, is that we countersue Bode.”
“Nuts,” Rafe said. “That won’t go over well with my wife.” He could think of nothing worse.
“What are you thinking, Sam?” Jonas asked.
“Bode’s got a team of lawyers who spend their lives drawing this thing out. It’s motion after motion. The problem is that, even with me heading up our legal team, it’s running into some stiff money. As you know, Bode will never be convinced that he didn’t best Fiona financially. He thinks he caught her square in his net.”
“Are we planning to reveal that the mineral rights are not part of our ranch?” Jonas asked.
“If Rafe hasn’t told Julie—”
“I haven’t,” Rafe snapped at Sam. “The last thing I want to do is remind my wife why she hates me so much.”
“Then I suggest at the first of the year we drop the bomb on Bode,” Sam said. “To try to convince him that we’re tired of monkeying around with him, and hopefully, to get this suit wound up.”
Rafe blinked. “On what grounds?”
“Harassment, for starters. Think of how many times he’s come over here threatening us,” Sam stated. “We should file that his claims are unsubstantiated, and that the State can’t take property that is a family dwelling. Many dwellings now, in fact. The State never wanted this ranch until Bode egged his buddies on to take it.” Sam drew a deep breath. “Contrary to his lawsuit trying to take our ranch, I suggest we sue for his. I discovered, for one thing, that his fence line is ten feet over on our side.”
“Crap,” Rafe said. Sam was really sharpening the ax.
“Aerial snapshots also reveal that his livestock regularly encroach on our land. They’re clearly marked, and we don’t have the type of steers he has, anyway.” Sam held up some photographs. “We’ll also claim that since he hasn’t paid his taxes for the past five years, his property should go into default.”
Rafe sat up. “Sam, you have to be wrong about that.”
“Nope.” His brother shook his head. “Discovered it when I was looking through some tax liens.”
“I wouldn’t think anyone could file a lawsuit against someone’s property if they’re in arrears on their own taxes. He can’t have a lawsuit pending if he’s currently in debt to Uncle Sam, can he?” Jonas asked.
“He can if his lawyers don’t know, and if his daughter’s a well-respected judge,” Sam said.
“Oh, no,” Rafe moaned. “You’re sticking pins in my marriage.”
“We have to do whatever it takes to save Rancho Diablo,” Jonas said. “We fight fire with fire.”
“I just don’t believe Julie would be that unethical,” Rafe argued, “even for her father’s sake.”
“I didn’t say she knew he was behind in his taxes.” Sam held up some papers. “I didn’t get these from Seton, by the way.”
“You did!” Jonas said. “What the hell?”
“I didn’t,” Sam insisted. “I don’t know where she is right now. Which is your fault,” he told Rafe.
“Not really,” Rafe said. “Continue.”
“These are his tax bills, and what he’s behind on.” Sam shrugged. “According to tax lawyers I consulted, anyone who’s that far behind on taxes and hasn’t lost their property has friends in high places. I say we force the issue.”
“This is bad.” Rafe took a giant swig of his brandy and coughed when it went down the wrong way. “I think I’m going to have to recuse myself from this conversation.”
“You can’t,” Jonas said. “You’re one-sixth of the ranch. You’re married now, and have three kids on the way. That means your part of the ranch will come out of trust and be fully yours.”
“She’s never going to forgive me.” Rafe looked from Sam to Jonas. “Do we have to do this? Can we wait until after the babies are born? I mean, you don’t know the little judge. She’s going to throw me out for good.”
“When’s the due date?” Sam demanded.
“I think May. I don’t know. By the size of her, I’d say tomorrow.” He groaned. “My angel is going to roast me alive.”
“I heard she got rid of Corinne and Nadine and Mavis,” Sam said.
“What?” Rafe shot straight up. “How do you know this?”
“I have my sources,” Sam said, his face serious.
Rafe was astounded. “She didn’t say a word to me. Did they tell you why she did that?”
Sam nodded. “Corinne said that Julie was uncomfortable having them around because Seton and Sabrina are Corinne’s nieces. And they were all Fiona’s best friends.”
“I don’t know how she thinks she’s going to take care of herself,” Rafe said, not liking that decisions were being made without him concerning the welfare of his children.
“She hired a girl from the county to help her.” Sam shook his head. “Only at night, though.”
Rafe’s blood pressure felt as if it might shoot through his head. “I’ll be glad when the babies are born.”
Jonas frowned. “What does the doc say?”
“That if she doesn’t stay still, he’s going to give her some kind of IV to keep the babies in.” Rafe gulped. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’m caught square in the middle.”
“Yeah,” Sam said, “you’d best figure out a way to get your wife on your side.”
“Right,” Rafe said, “and chickens are going to fly out of my butt.” He took his snifter and went to the kitchen to dig around for some of Nadine’s fudge.
Julie was sitting at home by herself, wanting fudge.
He wanted his family.
She’d thrown him out.
He had three daughters on the way who deserved their rightful heritage.
“Crap.” Rafe put the fudge down and stared out the window. “It’s going to get ugly around here fast.”
ON VALENTINE’S DAY, Bode handed his daughter three pink teddy bears. “You look well, daughter.”
Julie took the bears. “Nice of you to finally visit, Dad.”
“Well, a father worries about his girl, you know.” Bode looked at her. “I miss you being in my house, Julie, but I shouldn’t have thrown such a tantrum about it. I hope you can forgive me.”
She was glad he was here to put the angry words behind them. “There was really nothing to forgive. So much happened so fast that everyone was a little unsettled.”
“Yes.” Bode nodded. “I’m afraid I didn’t act my best when I found out Seton was a plant. I’d grown very fond of her. No one likes to find out that someone they care about doesn’t care about them in return.”
“No, they don’t,” Julie murmured.
“Of course, I was also upset that you’d decided to move out. I knew that as soon as you did, Callahan would start hanging around, twisting your mind with lies about me.”
“He didn’t, Dad.” Julie could say that with complete honesty. “We rarely talked about you.”
“Well, the Callahans are more subtle than that,” Bode said. “He got you pregnant, and that was how he beat me.”
Julie looked at her father. “That thought never crossed Rafe’s mind.”
He laughed. “Trust me, it would cross any man’s mind. You’re a rare jewel, Julie, a prize. Any man who got you away from me was going to feel like he’d won the jackpot.”
Rafe had called their daughters a jackpot. Julie’s skin chilled. “I haven’t seen Rafe in a month and a half.”
Bode looked at her, not registering surprise. “Is that so?”
She sighed. “Who have you had watching my house?” Just from his tone, and his sudden visit, she knew someone had reported to her father that Rafe hadn’t been around. What he didn’t know was that she’d kicked Rafe out. Rafe called every day, and every day she told him she didn’t want to see him.
She’d been shocked that he’d stayed away. It would be different after his daughters were born. He probably had an army of lawyers teed up, waiting to help him claim custodial rights.
The thought made her mad. “Dad, you need to stay out of my business. Rafe needs to stay out of my business. I love you both, but my life is my life.”
“You don’t love him,” Bode said. “Honey, you don’t know what love is. Love is what your mother and I had.”
Julie nodded. “I know you loved Mom, Dad.”
“I still love her. And I’d have her today if the Callahans—”
“Dad!” Julie couldn’t go on hearing another poisonous word. She felt as if she were caught in a tunnel that never seemed to end. “Listen, Dad, I really need to rest. Do you mind going now? It’s been great seeing you, but I’m not supposed to have visitors.”
Bode jumped to his feet. “Do you need anything?”
Rafe, Julie wanted to say. “No, thanks.”
“I’ll let myself out.”
“Thank you. And take the spy off my house. Rafe’s a part of my life you’ll have to accept.”
Her father gave her a long look.
“If I find out that you don’t remove them, you won’t see your granddaughters,” Julie told him.
She shut her eyes, relieved when she heard the front door close. It was never going to end. Her father’s suffering was a terminal thing, something he’d had for so long he couldn’t let it go.
Pain sliced across Julie’s abdomen, making her gasp.
She waited for the cramping to go away, closing her eyes and willing herself to relax.
The pangs got worse.
An hour later, realizing the pain was becoming more intense, Julie picked up the phone.
Chapter Sixteen
The astonishing thing to Rafe was that three little humans could come out of his beautiful wife. He couldn’t believe his eyes as one, two, three daughters were taken from his wife’s stomach in an emergency cesarean procedure.
He wasn’t allowed to do much. He could watch, and comfort Julie. The babies were born early enough to still be considered high risk, so they were whisked away.
But they were healthy, and viable, and Rafe thanked God for that. “You’re amazing,” he told his wife.
She didn’t say anything. He reached for her hand, heartened that she seemed to accept his fingers holding hers. Her skin was so cold it scared him. “I think she’s cold,” he told the delivering doctor and anesthesiologist and the army of nurses doing their jobs.
He himself felt warm as toast. Too warm, in fact.
“We’re taking good care of her, Mr. Callahan,” he was advised, and Rafe focused on holding Julie’s hand. He’d never felt so helpless in his life.
What could he do for her?
Did she even want his help? She’d called him to take her to the doctor, and then the hospital, so he tried to take comfort from that. But it was hard when she’d been distant since around Christmas.
Maybe now that their daughters were born, everything would be different. He prayed so.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he said softly, “how are you feeling?”
Julie didn’t answer. She turned to look at him, her steady gaze melting him. Then she closed her big brown eyes in exhaustion.
Rafe reminded himself to not ask any more stupid questions.
WHEN JULIE AWAKENED THE next day, her life went into overdrive. The nurses wanted her to try to express breast milk. This was harder than it sounded, because she was sore from the stitches in her abdomen, and more tired than she’d ever been. Rafe left the room in a hurry every time nurses came in after that, the breast milk thing obviously throwing him for a loop.
She worried constantly about the babies. “They weren’t supposed to come so early,” she told a nurse.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” the nurse responded cheerfully. “There are roses outside your door, which are about to be delivered. Your husband’s quite the romantic.”
“I know.” Julie wrinkled her nose. She didn’t want roses from Rafe. At the moment, she didn’t know what she wanted, but it wasn’t romance.
“He keeps going down to the nursery and staring at them. And asking what their names are.” The nurse smiled. “He doesn’t like that their bassinets say Jenkins/Callahan #1, #2, #3.”
Julie shook her head. “We haven’t discussed names.”
The nurse looked at her. “You have a lactation consultant coming this afternoon to help you learn some techniques for breast-feeding triplets. And do you want a baby name book?”
“No, thank you.” Julie was too tired to think about names right now. She felt guilty about it, but Rafe was the father. He deserved some share in the naming of their daughters.
The fact that she’d kept him away from her for the past six weeks had postponed the discussion. Or debate, as the case usually went. “I gained sixty pounds,” she told the nurse.
The small, dark-haired woman laughed. “Count yourself lucky.”
“He keeps calling me gorgeous. I don’t feel gorgeous. I feel enormous.”
“Don’t burst his bubble.” The nurse left the room, and Rafe arrived just as the flowers were being carried in.
Three bouquets of lovely pink roses. Julie looked at him. “This wasn’t necessary.”
Rafe pulled a chair close to her bed. “It was. And I’ve been snapping photos of our daughters. They look a little scary right now, very extraterrestrial, with all the tubes and stuff. But they look healthy to me.” He smiled, his face tired. “Can I get you anything?”
“No, thanks.” Julie sneaked a look at him, wondering how the most handsome, rugged man in Diablo had ended up at her bedside, when she was the most rumpled, overweight woman in town. “Perhaps a new body.”
He patted her hand. “I bet you’ll feel better in a few months. It probably takes a while for everything to acclimatize.”
Julie sniffed. “I guess so. Rafe, listen. I want to apologize for—”
He squeezed her fingers, then kissed them. “Don’t apologize for anything. Just rest.”
“But I want you to know that you can see your daughters whenever you like. I shouldn’t have kicked you out before.” Julie looked at her hand, which was held in Rafe’s. She’d missed him so much. “The whole situation has been so confusing.”
“It doesn’t matter. We have our daughters, and that’s going to be our focus from now on.”
Julie didn’t know what to say. He didn’t really understand that with the birth of the babies, the divorce could be filed anytime. The small connection holding them together was over.
“You’re thinking too hard, Judge,” Rafe said. “I’m ordering you to rest. Or name your daughters. One or the other, but stop sitting there borrowing trouble. I can feel the vibes.”
Julie looked at him. “Naming is your job.”
He shook his head. “Nope. I want no part of it. Whatever I pick they’ll hate later on, and blame it on me.”
Julie smiled. “So you want me to be the bad guy?”
“You have more experience with what girls like,” he said.
“I wouldn’t necessarily agree,” Julie said, glancing around at the beautiful roses in her room. “I’ll do first names, you do middle names.”
“I’ll try.” He sounded doubtful. “I don’t even name the horses at our ranch.”
“Well, this time you can’t pass the buck.” Julie thought about her mother, and said, “Janet.”
“I like that.” Rafe looked at her. “Let’s see. We have, in order of appearance, Fiona, Molly and Elizabeth. Those are Jackie and Pete’s. Then we have Joy Patrice, who is Creed and Aberdeen’s little one, and the new one she’s expecting around the middle of March. Creed hits singles,” Rafe said, bragging just a touch. “That baby will be named Grace Marie, according to Aberdeen. Of course, we must count in Aberdeen’s sister Diane’s young’uns, who live at the ranch, which are Ashley, Suzanne and Lincoln Rose.” Rafe squinted. “And Judah and Darla’s are Jennifer Belle and Molly Mavis. That last one is named for my mother, and then Darla’s mother is Mavis Night. Mavis had Darla very late in life—almost a miracle, she always said. Unlike Corinne, whose daughter was born much earlier. She married early, and moved up north. Corinne was enjoying having her nieces, Seton and Sabrina, around, not that she got to see them much because they were always helping out at your place.” Rafe puzzled over all the names he’d mentioned, looking at Julie. “That’s a lot of females in our town, isn’t it?”
The mention of Seton and Sabrina had put a scowl on her face. In fact, all the names he’d just thrown out annoyed Julie. It was typical in the small town of Diablo to know everybody’s business and think of everyone as family, but she didn’t like it.
In fact, she was jealous. She frowned, looking at her big husband. She was so jealous she wanted to crab all over Rafe, who was staring at her innocently, unaware that he’d just stirred up a cauldron of anxiety inside her.
She wasn’t supposed to be jealous. She was supposed to be mad at him for hiring plants. Not that he’d done it himself, but he’d probably been aware of his aunt’s perfidy. Julie pressed her lips together. “Now that you’ve gone through the roll call, did you think of anything?”
“I’m working on it,” he said. “I don’t think as quickly as you do.”
“If I’d been thinking quickly, I would never have allowed you to—”
Rafe blinked as she cut off her words. “Allowed me to what?”
She shook her head. “Don’t mind me. All kinds of toads are trying to fly out of my mouth today.”
“You’re angry with me.” Rafe nodded. “I can understand that. But, Julie, they’re beautiful little girls. We can’t let bitterness color our lives with them in it.”
