and the father won’t step up. They’ll drag him to the altar for sure. And it won’t be pretty. Your brothers can be tough when crossed, you know that.”
Mallory bustled in with some cake and tea on a wicker tray. She handed Xav a cup and looked at him directly. “So, when’s the wedding?”
“Mallory,” Ash said, and Xav said, “As soon as I can convince Ash that getting married is the right thing to do.”
“I should think so,” Mallory said as she leaned over to pick up one of the girls. “After all, I would have thought you’d have been here for the birth. Ash said you’d never find her, but I had a feeling you would. A man belongs with his family.”
Xav’s gaze landed on her. She glared at Mallory, wishing her friend would cease with the barrage of information. “Mallory, Xav and I haven’t really had a chance to talk things out.”
“Oh, pooh,” Mallory told the baby she’d picked up. “If we wait on your mother to talk things out, you’ll never have a father. Xav, meet your daughter Skye.” She handed him the baby, which he took, and not as gingerly as Ash might have wanted. “And this is Valor,” Mallory continued, pointing to the last baby in his white bassinet, “and that little fellow being held by his mother is Thorn. This little angel is Briar. Children, meet your father. Please help yourself to the cake, Xav. You’d better eat while you can. Once these little babies get tuned up, they tend to want everything at once. It’s quite the diaper rodeo.”
Mallory left the room, pleased with herself. Ash could barely meet Xav’s eyes, but she made herself look at him.
He looked the way she’d known he would—thunderstruck. Astonished. Maybe even a little angry.
“I’m the big, dumb, ornery cowboy?”
She nodded. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have phrased it quite that way.” The moment had come upon her so unexpectedly that she hadn’t handled any of it well. “I wish I’d found a different way to tell you, Xav.”
“These are my babies?” He sounded absolutely incredulous, rocked. Dumbfounded.
She nodded, words seeming inadequate.
He hesitated, stared at the baby in his arms. “I don’t understand. You’ve been gone a long time. When did this happen? When were you going to tell me?”
So many questions, so few answers. He wasn’t going to be happy with any answer she gave him, and she couldn’t blame him. “The night I shot Uncle Wolf,” she began, faltering a little at the expression in his eyes. He still looked angry. “The night I shot Wolf, I was going to tell you I’d just learned I was pregnant,” she rushed out.
The baby in his arms began a snuffling sort of wail, which startled the baby she was nursing. Which got the other two going, and suddenly there was no time to explain more.
An hour later, they collapsed on the sofa, worn out, all babies fed, changed and asleep in their bassinets.
“They’re down for twenty minutes,” Ash said. “You should probably go, while you still can.”
He looked at her. “We’ve got a thousand things to talk about, and a lot you have to tell me. But you can’t stay here. You can’t keep these babies from their family, from Rancho Diablo. You can’t keep them from Fiona.” He looked so serious, so very serious, that the automatic no died on her lips. “Can you imagine how her Christmas would explode with joy—times four? You can’t cheat her of Christmas with her whole family, not to mention you can’t deny your grandfather, Running Bear, knowing the next generation of his great-grandchildren.” He reached out to touch her hand. “These babies will never know their grandparents, Ash. You can’t keep them from their great-grandfather. The chief’s one of the finest men I’ve ever known.”
Tears jumped into her eyes. “Grandfather is one of the finest men to ever walk the planet,” Ash said. “Thank you for respecting him.”
“Respect him, hell. I want to be him.”
She smiled. “We all do.”
“Anyway,” Xav said, “in these babies flows Callahan blood. You’ve got to take them home, tell your family the truth of why you left.”
“I didn’t leave because I was pregnant. I left because I knew I’d brought trouble to Rancho Diablo and my family when I disobeyed Grandfather by killing Wolf. You don’t understand what it’s like to bring a curse upon your own family.”
“No, but I do understand you have a bigger problem, beautiful, which is what your brothers are going to do to you when they find out you had four little Callahans and kept them out of the whole process. You shared in all their pregnancies, the joy, the misery, all of it.” He shook his head.
“You’re not telling me anything I don’t know. I didn’t make the decision to leave lightly. You were there, you know I went against Grandfather’s teachings.”
He shrugged. “Your brothers are still going to be hot with you about this. Not as hot as I am, but they’re going to be awfully let down.”
“I couldn’t tell you,” Ash said. “You’d have followed me anywhere I went if you’d known I was pregnant.”
“I followed you anyway. Babies didn’t figure into my equation, but I wasn’t about to let the trail go cold.” He looked at her and shook his head again. “You little devil. When were you going to tell me?”
That was the question she had asked herself many times: When should she tell Xav he was a father?
There had been no good answers. If she’d told him where she was, she’d have to tell all the family—hardly a way to keep them safe. “Xav, you don’t understand. I know you think you’re a Callahan now, but you’re not. You didn’t grow up understanding that some things just can’t be explained. Spiritual and mystical things.”
“The ghosts at Rancho Diablo aren’t any worse than the ones at the Phillips compound, I assure you.”
She shook her head impatiently. “I don’t mean secrets, I’m talking about spirits. We live our lives by the spirits. And there are evil spirits in the world. One of them is Uncle Wolf. I wasn’t about to bring tragedy on my children by exposing them to him.”
“It makes sense, but it also sounds like you don’t think I can protect you or my own flesh and blood. I assure you I can, and I will.”
It was so true what Xav said. Somehow she’d known he’d find her eventually. Their paths were meant to cross again.
She’d just thought it would be further in the future. Past the holidays, away from sentiment and the longing for home at Christmas that had come over her lately. “Like Mallory said, this is Briar,” she said, pointing to her firstborn, “and her sister is Skye. Skye’s my special one.” She reached a gentle finger to stroke Skye’s back. The baby slept on, undisturbed. “Skye is a Down’s syndrome baby, and my happiest spirit. She rarely fusses, just really wants to snuggle. Skye has Grandfather Running Bear’s spirit. It’s strong in her. Briar is strong physically. She always keeps her head turned toward her sister. I think she’s determined to protect her.” She looked at Xav. He was smiling, his eyes peaceful as he listened, so she continued. “This is Thorn. He was born second, and had some lung issues for a while. But
