Daddy's Double Duty. Stella Bagwell

little babies of yours home and in your arms.”

      Vanessa thanked the woman for her kind thoughts and then Conall ushered her out to a shiny black pickup truck with the Diamond D brand emblazoned on the doors.

      After he’d helped her into the cab and they were barreling past a fenced paddock filled with a row of busy mechanical horse walkers, he said, “You gave me a fright back there when you fainted. Are you sure you’re okay?”

      He was staring straight ahead and Vanessa could read little from his granite-etched profile. For the most part, she’d always thought of him as an unfeeling man, but maybe that was because he didn’t allow his feelings to show on his face. He was certainly going out of his way to help her. Which created an even bigger question in her mind. Why? Even if she was his one and only secretary, her personal problems were none of his responsibility.

      “I’m okay, Conall. Really. I just feel… silly for causing you and your family so much trouble.” Her gaze turned toward the passenger window as they curved away from the Donovan ranch house. The structure’s stalwart appearance hadn’t changed since she’d left the Hondo Valley more than fifteen years ago. And she liked to think the big Irish family that lived inside hadn’t changed, either—that if she stepped inside, she’d still feel like Cinderella visiting the castle.

      “Forget it,” he practically snapped.

      She looked at him. “But you—”

      He interrupted before she could say more. “Let it rest, Vanessa.”

      Sighing, she smoothed the hem of her skirt over her knees and stared ahead. One minute everything had been going along fine. As fine as it could be for a divorced woman with her family split in all directions and an aging father too debilitated from a stroke to leave the nursing home. Yet those problems seemed small in comparison to what she was facing now.

      Still, Vanessa realized she couldn’t give in to the overwhelming shock. She had to straighten her shoulders and take up the reins of her life again. But taking them out of Conall’s hands was not going to be an easy task. He was a man who was all about using his power to bend operations to his liking. And she was all about independence. She didn’t want to be beholden to anyone and that included her boss. Yet this was one time that agreeing to a little help might be the sensible thing for her to do. Especially for the babies’ sake.

      “You don’t like accepting help from anyone, do you?” he asked as he steered the truck off Diamond D ranch land and onto the main highway.

      The man must be a mind reader, she thought. “I like taking care of myself,” she answered truthfully, then realizing how ungrateful that probably sounded to him, she glanced over and added, “But this is one time I can’t take care of things entirely on my own. And I am grateful to you, Conall. Please know that.”

      He didn’t say anything for a while and she was wondering if she’d offended him, when he said, “You can tell me if I’m getting too personal, Vanessa, but what about your brothers? If I remember right, you had four of them. Are any of them close enough to help you with the babies?”

      Vanessa choked back a mocking laugh. Her brothers couldn’t care for themselves, much less two needy babies. “My brothers all moved far away from here. They conveniently forgot their parents and only sister. And that’s fine with me, ‘cause I wouldn’t ask them for the time of day,” she said flatly.

      “That’s too bad.”

      She heaved out a heavy breath. “It’s probably for the best, Conall. None of them have ever made much effort to become responsible men. The only one who comes close to it is Michael—the one your age. And he’s hardly in the running for sainthood,” she added.

      He didn’t make any sort of reply to that and Vanessa figured he was thinking badly of her. The Donovan family had always been a strong unit. They lived together, worked and played together, and stuck close even when life’s problems crashed in unexpectedly. He probably couldn’t understand why she and her brothers lacked the love and devotion it took to keep the Valdez family bonded. But then, she’d never understood it herself.

      “Sorry,” she said quietly. “I didn’t mean to sound so… judgmental. But believe me when I say there are no relatives around to help. Not with the babies, my father, the home place, anything.”

      In other words, she had her hands full, Conall thought grimly. As he’d suspected, the Valdez brothers had left Lincoln County. He’d not seen any of them in years and even when they had still been around, Conall hadn’t associated with any of them. He’d never been into strutting around in black leather and begging for scrapes with the law. Some time back, he’d heard the eldest son had served time for distributing drugs over in El Paso, but as far as he knew, no gossip had ever surfaced about the remaining three.

      Conall cast a brief glance at her. What had her life been like these past years she’d been away from the valley? She’d certainly climbed the workforce ladder. But in spite of her having more financial security, she was more or less alone in life. Like him.

      Which only proved that riches didn’t always come in the form of money, he thought.

      Ten minutes later, on a five-acre tract of land near the tiny settlement of Tinnie, Conall pulled the truck to a stop in front of a rickety picket fence. Beyond the whitewashed barrier was a small stucco house of faded turquoise. One mesquite tree shaded the front entrance, while a short rock walkway crossed a bare dirt yard. A brown-and-white nanny goat stood on the porch as she reared on her hind legs and nipped at a hanging pot of red geraniums.

      Even though he’d not been by the homestead recently, the Valdez home looked pretty much as it always had. Seeing the family’s modest existence normally wouldn’t have affected Conall one way or the other. Rich and poor was a fact of life. Not just in the New Mexico mountains, but everywhere. Yet now that he was beginning to know Vanessa, he was struck by the stark simplicity of the place. She’d left a very high-paying job to return to this, he thought incredibly. All because her father had needed her. How many women would do such a thing?

      As she collected her handbag and jacket, Conall walked around to the passenger door to help her to the ground.

      “I’ll walk with you to the door,” he told her. “Just in case your knees get spongy.”

      With his hand at her back, they walked through a sagging gate and down the rough walkway. To the east, far beyond the house, clouds had gathered over the Capitan Mountains, blotting out the sun and hinting at an oncoming rainstorm.

      When they reached the porch, the goat ignored them as they stepped up to the door. “Would you like to come in?” she asked.

      He smiled. “Some other time,” he assured her. “If we’re going to leave in the morning, I have a hundred things to tend to before we go. Richardson is coming about the pool at three. I need to be there to see what sort of ideas he has. And to get his estimates for the cost.”

      The idea of discussing plans to enlarge the swimming pool for Diamond D racehorses, while Vanessa was worrying how she was going to house two needy infants, made him feel rather small and out of touch. But it was hardly his fault that their worlds were so different.

      “Sure,” she said, then suddenly looked up at him. Her features were taut with stress. “Could you let me know about our flight time? Since my vehicle is still at the ranch, I suppose I’ll need someone to pick me up and take me to the airport.”

      Placing his forefinger beneath her chin, he passed the pad of his thumb slowly along her jaw line. “Relax,” he said softly. “I’ll take care of everything, Vanessa. Just pack your bags and let me do the rest.”

      She nodded and then her gaze skittered shyly away from his and on to the closed door behind her shoulder. Conall told himself it was time to drop his hand and back away. But something about the tender line of her cheek, the warm scent emanating from her hair, made him bend his head and press a kiss to her temple.

      For one moment her small hand fluttered to a stop against the middle of his