would he tell her? That he and his twin sister had helped raise their younger siblings after their mom had left town, left their dad and them? This ranch had been in their family for over one hundred years and keeping it going had put his dad in an early grave. Now he’d lost his sister, and he was determined to find a way to keep the family together, keep them strong, without her.
But no, he wasn’t alone. He had his brothers, Duke and Brody. They had their little sister, Sam. Short for Samantha.
Duke lived in the old family homestead just down the road.
Their little brother, Brody, only came around when he needed a place to heal up after a bad ride on the back of a bull. The rest of the time he stayed with friends in a rented trailer in Stephenville.
Sam had been in boarding school and was now in college. Out of state. That was his idea, after she couldn’t seem to keep her mind off a certain ranch hand. Their dad, Gabe Martin, hadn’t seemed to connect with the thought that his family was falling apart. It had all been on Jake.
The house was dark and cool. He led Breezy through the living room and down the hall to his office.
He flipped the switch, bathing the room in light, and motioned for her to take a seat. He positioned himself behind the massive oak fixture and pulled out a drawer to retrieve papers.
Breezy took the seat on the other side of the desk. With a hand that trembled, she pushed long blond hair back from her face. Lawton had mentioned she sang and played guitar. Something about being a street performer in California. Jake had taken it upon himself to learn more.
“Why didn’t you come back here with Lawton?” Jake asked, pinning her with a look that always made Samantha squirm. He didn’t have kids of his own, probably never would, but he knew all the tricks.
She looked away, her attention on the fireplace.
“Miss Hernandez?”
“Call me Breezy,” she whispered as she refocused, visibly pulling herself together. “I needed time to come to terms with what he’d told me. I didn’t know how to suddenly be the sister he thought I would be. Or could be. And I have a sister in Oklahoma.”
“I understand.” It had come out of nowhere, this new family of hers. “Lawton’s dad kept his skeletons hidden pretty deeply. But as he got older—” he shrugged “—guilt caught up with him.”
“I see.” She bit down on her bottom lip. “I could have been a part of their lives.”
His heart shifted a little. And sympathy was the last thing he wanted to feel.
“Yes, I guess.”
“And Lawton’s wife. She looked very sweet.”
That’s when his own pain slammed him hard. He cleared his throat, cleared the lump of emotion that settled there. He hadn’t yet gotten used to the loss. “Elizabeth was my twin sister.”
She bit down on her bottom lip and closed her eyes, just briefly. “I’m so sorry.”
“So am I.”
“So why am I here?”
“Because Lawton came home from Oklahoma and changed his will.” He brushed a hand over his face, then he reached for the manila envelope on his desk. “He left you his house, money from his dad’s estate, as well as a small percentage of his software and technologies company. He left the twins a larger percentage as well as a trust fund. The business manager, Tyler Randall, also inherited a small percentage of the company.”
“I see.” But she clearly didn’t understand. He was about to make it clear. And he prayed she’d take the out.
“Breezy, Lawton and Elizabeth left us joint custody of their daughters.”
He and this woman were now parents to two little girls.
“No.” Breezy shook her head. This couldn’t be happening. No one would give her custody, even shared custody, of two little girls. “He couldn’t have done that.”
“I’m afraid he did.”
She met his blue gaze, knowing he disliked her. Or at the least, disliked the situation he’d been forced into with her. He knew these little girls. They were the children of his twin sister. Of course he was angry. She was angry, too.
What had made Lawton, a man she barely knew, think this was a good idea? She’d never stayed in one place longer than six months until she moved to Dawson, Oklahoma. She’d never had real family until her sister, Mia, found her. She definitely didn’t know how to raise a child.
“I’m not sure what to say,” she admitted.
“That makes two of us. I never planned on losing my sister and my best friend. And I certainly couldn’t have seen this coming.”
Jake Martin studied her. His blue eyes were sharp; his generous mouth was a straight, unforgiving line.
He shook his head and hit a button on an intercom. A woman answered. “Okay,” he said.
She sat quietly, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with him. The door behind her opened. She didn’t turn, even when he looked past her, smiling at whoever had entered the room. There were footsteps and quiet voices.
Curiosity overrode her desire to hold his gaze, to not feel weak. She glanced back over her shoulder and the room spun in a crazy way that left her fighting tears, trying to focus. Twin girls toddled across the room wearing identical smiles on identical faces.
“These are your nieces.” His voice came from far away.
“Oh.” What else could she say? The toddler girls were smiling as they bypassed her to get to Jake Martin.
“The lovely lady behind them is Marty, their nanny,” he explained, nodding toward the older woman who had remained in the doorway. He leaned down, holding out his arms. The girls ran to him and climbed onto his lap. He hugged them both tight.
“They’re beautiful.” They were dark-haired with blue eyes and big smiles. After all they’d been through, they could still smile. Though she didn’t want to, she attributed that to the man sitting across from her.
“They are.” He kissed the top of each dark head. “And we are their guardians.”
“You should have told me.”
He shrugged and looked at the girls, who had picked up pens and were drawing on the papers on his desk. He moved the envelope out of their reach.
“I think I just did.”
“I meant from the beginning.”
“Really? I should have disclosed this to someone I’ve never met?” He shook his head. “I’ll do whatever I need to do to keep them safe.”
“I get that.” She kept her voice soft, not wanting
