Chapter One

“Are you our mom?”

Not the question Kate Taylor had expected to be asked upon her arrival at the Rocking M Ranch in Laramie County, on the Monday morning before Thanksgiving.

Never mind by four adorable little cowboys standing on the front porch of the sprawling prairie-style ranch house. Although not identical, they were all pretty much the same height, with similarly cute faces, sea-blue eyes, and curly dark hair. Quadruplets, she presumed, as the fluffy gray and white sheepdog accompanying them strode closer, too, as if wanting her answer.

Guessing the boys’ ages to be about five or so, she moved away from the driver side of her shiny red pickup truck, smiled at them kindly and said, “No. I’m not.”

Before she could introduce herself further, they peered at her suspiciously. The leader of the group stepped closer, followed quickly by his little comrades. “Are you sure?” He fingered both plastic water pistols holstered at his side.

The others did the same with their bright orange toy water guns. She could see, from the moisture dripping from the toys, that she had interrupted what was about to be an epic water fight.

“Cause our mom probably could be coming to see us right now,” another child added.

All of them frowned, in the gloomy autumn light. The scent of impending rain hung in the air. Washing over them.

“Yeah, maybe you just forgot us,” a third added, as they all narrowed their gazes even more.

“And just now remembered we was here, on the ranch,” the fourth stated soberly.

Wondering how anyone could apparently abandon such darling boys, Kate smiled kindly at them. “I’m sure I would remember if you were my children,” she said, stepping curiously closer. How long could it have been, since parent and children had seen each other, if these cute little boys mistook her for their mom? Her heart going out to them, she asked, “Is your mom supposed to come and see you today?”

“If we knew, we would be in trouble,” the leader of the group told her, “because then we would be eavesdropping and we are not allowed to do that.”

“Who are you anyway?” the most extroverted kiddo, asked. Striding closer, his western boots clicked on the stone porch that spread across the front of the elegant prairie-style ranch home.

“I’m Kate Taylor. And I’m here to see Alex McCabe, who I assume is your dad…?” At least she hoped so!

“Yep!”

“He sure is!”

Another suspicious squint. “How come you want to see him?”

“He’s looking for someone to cook for the cowboys in the bunkhouse,” Kate explained as the front door opened and a gorgeous man strode out to join his sons. At six foot four inches tall, he had the same sturdy build, short dark brown hair and ocean blue eyes as his sons. His chiseled features, square jaw and strong nose were even more familiar.

Hauntingly, amazingly so…

OMG. Could fate have brought them together again? Could it really be…?

Looking just as stunned as she felt, he came to an abrupt halt, just short of her. He gave his head a slight shake and squinted. “Kate…?” he said hoarsely, as if unable to believe she was there. On what was apparently his ranch. With his sons.

“Alex?” Kate croaked back, her knees suddenly trembling as badly as the rest of her.

She hadn’t seen the handsome cowboy since Hurricane Inga, eight years prior. A familiar thrill swept through her, followed by knee-buckling shock. This really was a blast from the past! She stared at him, too. “I had no idea your last name was McCabe.” Or that he was one of the legendary Texas McCabes.

Volunteers had been on a first name only basis at the Houston shelter where they had labored for three intensely long days and nights. Working side by side to assist all those who had been displaced by the category four storm.

He nodded in the affirmative. Adding ruefully, “And I didn’t know you were the Kate Taylor who owned Chuck Wagon Catering!”

That made sense, she guessed.

After all, they had only communicated through e-mail about the job that had brought her to the Rocking M Ranch.

“Wow…” he murmured. “And here I thought we would never see each other again.”

Kate had figured the same. With good reason, she recalled. They had both been engaged to others when they had met before. Both fighting the chemistry simmering between them, as they worked for seventy-two long hours, helping hurricane evacuees. Determined to stay honorable, they hadn’t talked about exchanging phone numbers or e-mails when the storm passed. They simply stated how much they had enjoyed being on the same rescue team, said a properly platonic good-bye and returned to their normal lives.

And that had been it.

Except for all the times when she had remembered him and wished they had met at a time when both were unattached…so they could have seen if there was something to those sparks she was certain both of them had felt.

Another silence fell. This one fraught with long-repressed emotion. And that made her wonder—was he still feeling the same now? Pondering about what might have been, too? Had their circumstances been different, of course…

Clearly, their previous relationships hadn’t worked out all that great for either of them. Otherwise, she would not still be single without the husband and kids she had always wanted. And his precious little boys would not be on the lookout for a mom they weren’t sure they were going to recognize.

Alex broke the silence, the personable charm she remembered in evidence. “It’s so good to see you!” he stated sincerely. He stepped even closer, wrapping his arms around her and giving her a hug she couldn’t help but return in kind.

Damn he felt as good as she had always imagined he would. Big. Strong. Capable. And he smelled wonderful, too, like brisk soap and shaving cream.

Kate drew a breath, hardly able to believe they were here together now, holding each other. Talk about Christmas coming early! “You, too,” she murmured, her feelings swirling crazily with lust. Need. Hope.

When he finally released her, their gazes meshed again. And the magic was back, simmering between them, more potent than ever.

*

Alex had thought his morning couldn’t get any crazier. First, the boys had been hard as heck to get ready for school. Then, before he could wrangle all four of them into the Navigator, to take them to kindergarten, the phone had rung and it was Tiffany calling, of all people. With an ask that was as outrageous as her behavior had been since their children had been born.

And now, the chuck wagon cook he’d been planning to interview—Kate Taylor—was here. Early. Unexpectedly turning out to be a real blast from his past. Looking pretty as could be in a pair of boots, figure-hugging jeans and a dark brown turtleneck sweater that brought out the amber of her eyes.

He’d always been attracted to the honey-blond beauty.

However, for a lot of reasons that no longer applied, at least on his part, he had always considered her off limits.

Was she still…?

He didn’t see any kind of ring on her left hand that would have signaled a romantic commitment. Kate drew a breath, stepped back.

“I see you’ve already met my quadruplets.” He moved away, too, still taking in her full lips and beautiful smile, fit athletic body.

She nodded. “Yes. I have.”

Sensing something highly unusual going on, his boys all crowded closer. “Aren’t you going to tell the lady our names, Daddy, so we can shake her hand?”

Where were his manners? Alex wondered. The fact Kate was just as stunning as she had been the last time he had seen her was no excuse.

“Ah, boys, this is Kate Taylor. She’s an old friend.”

“Is that why you were hugging her?” Michael asked.

“Um, yes.”

Not sure whether Kate was amused or taken aback, he continued with the introductions. “Kate, this is Michael.” Alex pointed to the most studious one of the bunch. “And Max…” Who, as always, had a mischievous smile and a twinkle in his eyes. “Marty…” The most boisterous and athletic one. “And Matthew…” Who was charming and charismatic.

Unlike himself these days…

“It’s good to meet you.” Kate went down the line, offering her hand to each child. They clasped it dutifully. Then she stopped and turned back to him.

“Daddy!” Michael chided.

“Manners!” Max said.

Wincing inwardly, Alex stuck out his hand. Kate’s fingers were as soft and delicate as they looked. She shook his hand warmly, looking him straight in the eye.

He felt a wave of heat, similar to the one he’d experienced when they had hugged hello. Another unexpected tingle of awareness.

“I’m sorry for all the chaos this morning,” he began. “But we’re going to have to…”

He stopped as the sound of a vehicle speeding quickly up the lane roared behind him. He turned to see a white BMW Z4 sports car zipping up the circular drive, finally coming to a screeching halt behind Kate’s fire engine red pickup truck that was parked in front of the ranch house.

His ex-wife wasn’t alone.

As she had indicated on the phone, her new husband had come with her. And was getting out of the sports car, too.

He was a good half decade younger than Tiffany. Midtwenties maybe. Italian. Very debonair and sophisticated, in that slicked back black hair, European playboy kind of way. He wore expensive loafers, no socks, tight pants, a partially unbuttoned silky shirt and fitted blazer.

His boys gaped at their new stepdad like he was an alien who had just landed from Mars.

And in Laramie County, where they resided, he kind of was.

“Everyone, meet Paolo Delucca,” Tiffany said.

Although the boys had been eager to shake hands with Kate, they kept their arms at their sides. So tense and wary, Alex’s heart went out to them. Since they hadn’t seen her in over four and a half years, or had any contact at all, and hence, wouldn’t recognize her now.

“Is this lady our mom?” Max demanded curiously.

“Yeah, the lady you were calling Tiffany on the phone!” Marty added.

Alex looked at his boys and gave a brief nod. Instinctively, they seemed to shrink back even further. He could hardly blame them. His ex was not the least bit maternal. Which was why they needed to get a few things straight before any further potentially damaging interactions ensued. “Boys, why don’t you go inside with Reckless and give the grownups a few minutes to talk, and then you can come back out in a few minutes,” he said.

Not surprisingly, his ex didn’t dispute the vanquishing of their sons. Nor, he noted, with renewed disappointment, did she seem the least bit interested in personally greeting or getting reacquainted with any of them.

His boys didn’t need to be asked a second time. They called for their sheepdog to go with them and hurried inside. Slamming the glass-paned door after them.

Tiffany turned to Kate. “You look awfully familiar for some reason.” She squinted suspiciously. “Have we met?”

Kate froze, as if bracing for an attack.

“Don’t tell me you’re Alex’s latest lady friend,” his ex-wife snarled.

Alex had to credit Kate.

Though she paused momentarily, giving Tiffany an odd look he couldn’t quite decipher, she quickly backed up and smiled the way waitstaff did when confronted with a difficult client who could easily get them fired. “I’m Kate, the owner of Chuck Wagon Catering. Just here to speak to Alex about a job. But since I can see this isn’t a good time for that, perhaps I’ll just leave and come back another time.” She started to go.

“No,” Alex said firmly, holding an arm out to waylay her. “That won’t be necessary.” They needed to get that contract signed so she could begin today.

He turned to Tiffany, his temper rising the way it always did when his ex created havoc in his life. “As I told you on the phone, you can’t just show up here without warning,” he told her grimly. “Not. Anymore.”

*

Kate had dodged trouble when Tiffany had failed to recognize her. Although, unfortunately, she remembered the mean-spirited Houston socialite all too well. She just hadn’t known that Alex McCabe was the wealthy rancher who had been Tiffany’s first husband. The one that viper trash-talked all the time to their mutual private school alumni.

And she certainly hadn’t been aware that Tiffany had had quadruplet sons!

Especially since Kate couldn’t recall a time when the woman hadn’t been rail thin, with a super model’s pampered glow and an oil heiress’s elegant attire.

Even now, Tiffany had a glamour that was newly European in nature, with her sleek, straight, ebony hair cut in a Cleopatra style, her makeup perfectly applied, from her kohl lined eyes to her ruby red lips.

Gone was the southern belle vibe that she’d had when Kate had seen her last.

Over a decade before…

“You can’t keep me from seeing my sons, Alex!” Tiffany insisted.

He folded his arms and glared at her, looking about as movable as a brick wall. Grimly, he reminded his ex, “You waived all discussions of possession and physical custody of our sons when we divorced.”

Wow, Kate thought.

That was hard to understand, especially given how adorable the boys were.

Still focused solely on Alex, Tiffany nodded. She stepped closer, leaving a waft of expensive perfume in her wake. “Because,” she tilted her face up to Alex’s, as she reminded him, “our attorneys told the court that because I was going to be traveling abroad for an unspecified amount of time, that it wasn’t going to be appropriate to set up a formal custody and visitation schedule dictated by the court, at the time our marriage dissolved. When we knew at the outset I would not be able to honor the terms. Instead, you and I promised the judge that we would work together to parent our children by agreement, according to their best interests. Until such time, as things changed.” She shrugged, elegant as ever. “If they changed.”

Like now? Kate wondered. Still feeling like there was a helluva lot more to this than Tiffany wanted Alex, or anyone else, to think….at least at the moment.

His handsome jaw set, Alex harrumphed. “Right. Only problem with that, Tiffany, is that you were a no-show. The entire time. Nor did you even call or email or text even once, to see how the kids were doing.”

Talk about bad mothering, Kate thought.

“For four and a half years,” Alex added grimly, for emphasis.

Tiffany shrugged, as self-centered and unapologetic as Kate recalled her being way back when.

Her old nemesis flashed a sweet smile that did not quite reach her eyes. “That was then. This is now. I’ve grown older, wiser, and changed my mind.” She stepped even closer to Alex, while her new husband lingered at the edge of the porch. Looking as if he wanted to be a part of this as much as Kate did, which was not at all.

“The holidays are coming up, after all.” She waved a lecturing finger at her ex. Adding smugly, “And before you try to tell me no, that I can’t have what I want, remember I still have joint legal custody of the boys. Just as you do.”

Uh oh, Kate thought.

“Which gives me equal input into every detail of our boys’ lives,” Tiffany concluded complacently, “including where—and with whom—they spend their holidays!”

*

Tiffany was right, Alex admitted reluctantly. As it stood right now, she had the same amount of say in where the kids lived, and went to school, or what they wore and ate, and the time they went to bed at night, as he did. But only because, Alex thought, his ex had refused to voluntarily give up her parental rights to the kids when they split up and he hadn’t wanted an ugly public fight. So he had given her what she wanted. A no-strings divorce. Her freedom. And the money to travel and live abroad. With no expectation she would ever have to take physical custody, or care for the boys.

For a while, he had left the door open.

Thinking with time Tiffany might change her mind about having a relationship with the children. Or at least come to see them now and then. Try and bond with them emotionally.

When she hadn’t, he had realized the separation was for the best. And as for the boys, they hadn’t missed what they could not remember…and had never had. A mother’s love.

“And because there are no court orders in place, you can’t keep me from seeing them,” Tiffany continued triumphantly.

His brother Gabe, who was also his attorney, had warned him about this. When there were no court orders in place, there were no rules for visitation, and both parents had equal rights to the children.

Neither parent could force visitation to happen, if the other parent did not agree. Unless they went to family court. Would she do that? File a petition and try and force the issue? There was no way to know.

“So I want to see them for the holidays,” she continued firmly.

If he thought she had their sons’ best interests at heart, it would be one thing. He didn’t. “Thanksgiving is in four days,” he reminded calmly, still trying to do what was best for everyone. And she and the boys were complete strangers to each other! Add too much holiday stress, and their reunion could be a disaster. Which would benefit no one.

Tiffany scoffed and waved off the information. “I’m not talking about that.”

Recognition dawned. Finally, he saw where this was going. “Well, you are not taking them for Christmas,” he shot back wearily.

“I don’t see why not,” Tiffany returned carelessly. “When I’m here to give you plenty of advance notice of my plans!”

*

Kate could see plenty of reasons why not.

Judging from the set of Alex’s jaw, the handsome rancher was of the same mindset.

Holidays were really for kids.

Parents…good ones anyway….had an obligation to do their best to make the celebrations good, for their children.

Whereas Tiffany was all about her own happiness. Needs. And wants. And that selfish, self-centered attitude could be disastrous for her and Alex’s sweet little boys.

A fact which made Kate sad.

Although, she reminded herself sternly, this wasn’t really any of her business. So, she should just stay out of it. The way Paolo seemed to be…

“You’ve had them for the last four Christmases,” Tiffany continued, even more aggressively.

Alex’s eyes were filled with a resentment Kate could easily understand. “That was your choice, if you remember,” he shot back at his ex.

“Which makes it my turn now!” Tiffany grew even more petulant. “I want to reconnect! And spend the holidays with my boys! And if you were any kind of father at all, you would support that and let me have them with me for Christmas!”

Didn’t really seem like she wanted to be with the kids, Kate thought. It appeared more like she wanted to use them to get under Alex’s skin. Which she was doing very well!

His fury growing, Alex stared at his ex.

Tiffany stared right back.

Kate would never know what the Houston socialite was going to say next, because the four boys and their dog chose that very second to burst out of the front door, yelling wildly, water pistols spraying.

Their target?

Their mother. And her new husband.

That quickly, Tiffany was soaked from head to toe. Her cashmere dress, makeup and hair ruined. Paolo’s clothes were splattered with water, too.

It seemed eight water toys, activated all at once, could do quite a bit of damage. “We’re not going with you!” Michael shouted belligerently.

“Yeah, that’s not what we’re doing for Christmas!” Marty said.

“We’re staying here with our dad!” Matthew declared.

“So you just need to go away!” Max hollered. “Right now!”

“Boys…” Alex warned. Not about to tolerate his sons’ out-of-control behavior any more than he was his ex-wife’s. “Apologize!” he told them all sternly. “Now!”

“Nooo!” they all screeched in unison. Then they turned and ran inside the house, once again slamming the door behind them.

Paolo—who had managed not to get nearly as drenched—went up to Tiffany. He took off his jacket and gallantly put it over her shoulders. “Darling,” he murmured softly, “I am so sorry.”

Tiffany turned back to Alex with an accusing look on her face. Clearly blaming him for the melee.

“If you had given me time to prepare the boys, for your visit, this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

“Somehow I doubt that,” his ex-wife snarked. “In any case, you have not heard the last of this, Alex McCabe! One way or another, I am going to lay claim to my boys. And there isn’t a darn thing you or anyone else can do to stop me!”

She turned on her heel and headed for the low-slung sports car. This time Paolo got behind the wheel. Alex moved to stand next to Kate as they drove off. His tall body tense. Lips compressed. “Sorry you had to witness that,” he muttered.

Kate nodded mutely, equally sorry it had happened.

The holidays were almost upon them.

And it looked as if nothing but trouble lay ahead for Alex and his sweet little boys.

Then she turned so they were standing toe to toe. “No worries,” she murmured back, tilting her face up to his. “I’m here for whatever you need. At least for the next three days.”