“You should leave,” he told her, as he tried to step closer to her to block her view of the nearly finished space. There were things he wanted to do before she saw it, like clean it and maybe put up some streamers and balloons.
She gasped as her smile faltered. “Leave?”
“Just go away for a little bit,” he urged her. Just long enough for him to make the place look as special as it was to her and to him.
“You don’t want me here?” she asked, her voice cracking slightly.
“Just let me clean up the dust and dirt the contractors left,” he said. “I want you to see your dream come true without any distractions. Well, except maybe for some balloons and streamers.” And a cake. Or cookies. Maybe he should have reached out to Grandma Sadie, so she could have thrown a party for the camp.
“Oh…” Tears glistened in her eyes.
The sight of the tears struck him like a blow, and he dropped the mop to reach out to her. “What did you think I meant?”
“For me to the leave the ranch,” she said.
He shook his head. “No, no, I never want that to happen,” he assured her. “I never want you to leave…”Me. That was what he really wanted to say. And that he loved her. But was that fair? Wasn’t she still vulnerable from her divorce and her pregnancy? The last thing he wanted to do was take advantage of her. Or burden her with feelings that she couldn’t return. That wouldn’t be fair.
But he couldn’t help loving her. “I still can’t believe you were willing to give up your share of the inheritance,” he said. “That you, of all people, would have signed away your share of the ranch.”
“I didn’t want my mother or my ex to get their hands on it,” she said. “That would have destroyed my father.”
“It would have destroyed you, too,” he said. “You love this place so much, Trish.” He touched her stomach through her overalls. “And you want to raise your children here.” He could imagine them running around the place. In his mind, they would look like her, with her wild curls and her pale brown eyes. And the little girl would be leading the way, confident and brave, while her brother trailed behind her.
“It’s safe,” she said. “Nolan said the judge immediately dismissed the claim my mother and Harold tried to make.”
“So they carried through on their threat,” he said. “They really tried to get a piece of it.” She had been so right about them. She had also talked to his brother.
“Yes,” she replied. “But the judge said they had no valid argument to dispute ownership. My mother had signed off the deed years ago, and Harold had no right to my inheritance from my father even when we were married.”
He blew out a breath of relief, grateful to the judge for shutting them down and to his brother for helping her. No matter how Nolan had handled things, he had had Trish’s best interests at heart. He wasn’t the snake that Frankie believed he was. “That’s good,” he said as he squeezed her shoulders. “You’ve got everything you want, Trish.”
“No.”
He stepped back then and gestured around the bunkhouse with its pool table and ping-pong table and long dining table where the kids would eat and do crafts. She’d thought of everything. He just wished he’d had time to finish cleaning and staging it for her.
“No,” she repeated. “I don’t have everything.”
He peered around the space again. “I don’t see anything you missed. The hay wagon is good to go. And Liam has been working with the animals so that they’ll be good with all the kids. I can’t think of anything you don’t have.”
“You,” she said, her voice soft. “You, Brett, I don’t have you.”
His heart seemed to stop beating for a second before it resumed at a frantic pace. Was she saying that she wanted him? Was it possible that she’d fallen for him, too?
* * *
Brett looked asstunned as he had when he’d found out he had an older brother. His mouth was slightly open, and his dark eyes were wide with shock.
“You,” she repeated. “I want you, Brett. But I know we agreed that we wouldn’t make our partnership personal or messy. And I know that you are determined to stay single and focus only on the ranch. But I can’t keep it inside any longer. I can’t not tell you how I feel.” Her love was just too big, too overwhelming for her not to express it. “But I don’t expect you to return my feelings. I know that you have no interest in marriage or children—”
He gasped as if he was just remembering to breathe. “You have me, Trish,” he said. “You had me from the minute I met you after midnight in the driveway. And those babies had me from the minute I saw them on that ultrasound screen, moving around, the little girl kicking while the little boy sucked his thumb. I can’t wait for them to come into the world, intoourworld. I can’t wait to hold them and love them and protect them.”
“Really?” She couldn’t believe it. She wanted to so badly because this was the father she wanted for her children. But she knew that he was telling the truth because Brett Lemmon didn’t lie. And he couldn’t help himself from helping others. He was such a white knight. Her white knight. And he would be a fiercely protective, loving father for their babies.
“I love you,” he said, and he grinned slightly. “I didn’t want to…”
She smiled, too. “I know you really wanted to hate me.”
“You’re not possible to hate,” he said. “You’re too sweet, too genuine, too loving to resist. I couldn’t help but fall for you and for the babies that are so much a part of you, of that enormous heart of yours.”
