“I can’t leave little Sarah,” she protested. “She doesn’t feed well unless I hold her.”
“We’ll drive in every day,” Sam promised.
“Two hours?”
“We can do it,” Sam said. “But the other three need their mother, too.”
There was no other way to work it, so that’s what they did. With the army of volunteers and diaper service and every other kind of aid, Sam hoped his wife would be able to relax sometimes.
Yet with three babies at home, relaxing was nearly impossible. Fortunately, they had sisters-in-law—and brothers—with a lot of experience. Sam found himself running his own diaper-and-bottle rodeo with the babies, and still felt they weren’t covering all the bases.
He figured Seton had to be exhausted.
Finally, in late January, Sarah Colleen decided she missed her brother and sisters so much that she convinced the doctors and nurses she, too, was ready to head to Rancho Diablo. Sam and Seton packed her up in the truck, said goodbye to the people who had become their “other” family, and made for home.
The ride was pretty quiet. Sam thought Seton was probably tired—he was whipped himself—so he didn’t say much.
When they’d nearly gotten home, Seton finally spoke.
“Sam?”
“Yeah?” He didn’t take his eyes from the road. Between them, Sarah slept comfortably in her new carrier, positioned backward for safety. It was nice, because he could see her face. Every few moments he’d glance over to check on her, but she never moved, her sweet, shell-shaped eyelids closed in contentment.
“One of your sisters-in-law mentioned that there’d been a slight incident at the ranch, and she thought I should be careful about keeping the bunkhouse door locked when you’re not around.”
Sam pulled into the drive at Rancho Diablo. “It was no big deal. I wouldn’t worry about it. There are so many people in and out of the bunkhouse all day that I know everything is safe as Fort Knox.”
He got out of the truck, went around to the other side to help Seton out, then unbuckled Sarah’s safety seat. “Home sweet home, beautiful,” he told his daughter, and carried her inside.
“Hi,” Corinne said, standing when they walked in with the new arrival. “Oh, isn’t she an angel!”
“She’s the littlest angel,” Sam said proudly, “but she’s a survivor.”
“Of course she is.” Corinne looked at Seton. “Do you want me to stay? The babies are taking their naps. I’m happy to watch them, but I wonder if you would like time to settle in as a new family of six.”
Seton nodded. “Thank you, Aunt Corinne. I think we could use some time to digest being all together for the first time.”
“Then I’ll be off.” Corinne picked up her purse and took one last look at Sarah as Sam lifted her from the car seat and held her against his chest. “Oh, that one’s going to be a daddy’s girl. Bye, you two!”
She went out, closing the door behind her. Sam and Seton sank onto the sofa, with Sarah still happily cuddled against her father’s chest.
“I can hardly believe it,” Seton said. “We’re finally all in one place!”
Sam closed his eyes. “Amazing how one begins to appreciate the small things.” He kept his hand on Sarah’s back, bracing her so she’d feel protected. “You’re a really small thing, Sarah Colleen, and we really appreciate you. We’re certainly glad that you decided to join us.”
“She’s a doll,” Seton said. “I think she looks like you.”
“Don’t say that,” Sam said wryly. “I’m hoping she’ll look like her mother.”
“They’re all dark-haired like you.”
“The nurses said that a lot of babies are born with dark hair and it sometimes comes in lighter later on. I’m hoping for a blonde or two. I like blondes,” Sam said, feeling cheerier just thinking about the possibility of more blondes in his life.
“Sam, why didn’t you tell me about the incident?” Seton said, and he sighed.
“It wasn’t important, honestly, Seton. You’re safe here.”
“I’m not worried about me,” Seton said. “I’m worried about you.”
He heard what sounded like tears starting in her voice, and turned to look at her. “Why would you do that?”
“Because Julie said you got into a fight with some vagrant.” Seton gave him a look guaranteed to make him feel guilty. It worked pretty well, too, as a feeling of remorse slid through him.
“It wasn’t really a fight,” Sam said. “Trust me, I’ve been in fights. It was more like a sit-down with a new acquaintance.”
“Sam!”
“Oh, hell,” he said, wishing Julie had kept her judge mouth closed. Julie was right to be cautious and warn Seton about keeping the door locked, Sam knew, but right now, he was tired. Actually, he wasn’t so much tired as into avoidance. He simply hadn’t wanted Seton to know.
It was a conversation he’d planned to have another day, another time.
“Seton, it was no big deal. You’ve had a lot to handle. It wasn’t important enough to bring up.”
“You don’t think that some thug on our property attacking you isn’t important enough to bring up?” She sounded annoyed as hell now, and the way she’d outlined her question, Sam couldn’t blame her.
“Look, it just didn’t rise to my radar screen with all the running back and forth to Santa Fe. Primarily, my attention has been on the five of you.”
Seton stared at him. “Or ranch matters are not my concern.”
“No, it’s not that.” Sam saw that they were heading into deep, troubled waters, and tried to steady the boat. “My main thought that night was how glad I was that you weren’t the one who came home to find him.”
“Find him?” Seton asked.
“Yeah.” Sam shrugged. “Better me than you. Although I wouldn’t go against you in a brawl, sweetie. After watching you have these babies, I know how tough you are.”
She wasn’t mollified. “How could I have found him? Where was this vagrant?”
Sam swallowed, realizing he’d made two errors. One, Julie had told Seton it was merely a vagrant who’d been on the property. Maybe that’s what Rafe had told Julie; Sam didn’t know. Since Seton had been the one who’d unwittingly brought the hired gun to the house with her digging around in Sam’s family tree, he hadn’t wanted to bring it up at all.
Second mistake: Julie hadn’t told Seton the man was in the bunkhouse and had attacked Sam in this very room. His throat tightened a bit more. Likely his sister-in-law had glossed over the facts, in order to avoid worrying Seton to death. Julie had probably said something like, “The guys found some idiot on the property, and Sam chased him off, but for safety’s sake, you might want to keep the bunkhouse locked when just you and the babies are home.”
He looked at Seton. “What exactly did Julie tell you, honey?”
She shook her head. “I’d rather hear about this from you, thanks. I’m well aware of your ability to edge facts to fit the puzzle, Counselor.”
“Nuts,” Sam said with a sigh. “All right.” He glanced around at all four babies, but they were sleeping peacefully and disinclined to throw him a rope. Why was it they couldn’t poop or need a soothing bottle of breast milk—better yet, a breast—when he needed them to? “Seton, I surprised the guy in this room. Or actually, in the back of the house. I think he might have been either in the nursery or—”
“In here! And you weren’t going to tell me someone had broken into the bunkhouse?” His wife glared at him.
“I would have one day.” That much was the truth. He’d just wanted to open the conversation about the notebook he’d found and the hire all at one time, since they were related topics. He had the logical mind of a lawyer, but right now, his wife’s extralogical mind was lining up facts that weren’t in his favor. “Seton, what was I supposed to do? Scare the hell out of you?”
“Like I wasn’t scared when Julie said you’d been in a fight?”
He shrugged. “As I said, it really was more of a heated conversation.”
“Julie said the man was lucky you didn’t twist his head off.” Seton stated that fact not with pride, but with obvious disapproval of his version of the story.
“Yeah,” Sam said with a weak smile. “Your husband’s got a short fuse at times. Guess I didn’t disclose that up front, huh?”
She shot him an annoyed look. “You could have been hurt!”
“Oh, come on, Seton, I’m not a pansy. I can handle one—”
She reached for one of her infernal lists, which he saw she’d tucked into Sarah’s diaper bag. “Military. Around six foot one. One-eighty. Operative.” Seton looked at him. “Those were a few of the facts I got from Sheriff Cartwright when I inquired about the incident you and Julie were clearly playing down.” Seton gave him another accusing look when Sam didn’t deny anything. “Sam! You’re a lawyer. You don’t lift anything heavier than a saddle. You’ve been a couch potato with me for the past four or five months. What would give you the idea you could take on some kind of military ex-commando?”
“Adrenaline. Anger. I didn’t think about it, to be honest. Rage pretty much ruled my head at that moment. He was in my house where my wife had been. Besides which,” Sam said, perking up as he remembered the fight, “I have five brothers. Don’t count me out, gorgeous. We grew up beating the hell out of each other. Boys use battles to determine the pecking order. And I wasn’t much on getting pecked. Now Jonas, he was the lightweight. But I was the youngest, so I—”
Seton cut off his bragging with an impatient wave. “There will be no fighting in our home. I hope you understand that, Sam.”
“I would never fight with you, Seton,” Sam said, alarmed that she would even think he might have a violent tendency with her.
“I know that! I meant with Bear! You are
not
to teach him to fight.” Seton glared at him. “There will be a hands-off rule, and you will tell Bear that he is never to put his hands on another human in anger.”
“But Seton—”
“No,” she said. “Absolutely no fighting.”
“You don’t understand,” Sam said. “It’s a communication thing with boys. It determines their whole lives. I’m not saying they should be violent people, I’m saying that if we hadn’t wisely adjudicated our battles, we would have been the town sissies. And you have no idea what a curse that would be,” he said, shaking his head. “Even the biggest poindexter in our clan could throw a decent punch. That would be Jonas, in case you couldn’t figure it out,” he said, looking at Seton with hope for forgiveness in his eyes.
She shook her head. “Bear will not fight. There will be no schoolyard brawls.”
Sam sighed. “That leaves his sisters to defend him. The Callahan name will go down in flames.”
Seton rolled her eyes. “You’re incorrigible.”
Probably he was. Sam decided to shelve the topic for another day.
“What I couldn’t get out of the sheriff was what the man was after. And did you have to hurt him?” Seton demanded, returning to the subject. “Sheriff Cartwright said your victim had to have a tooth put back in and a few stitches!”