Sweet Callahan Homecoming. Tina Leonard

      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 the doctors expect him to make a full recovery. And this is Valor,” she said, gently patting her last son. “It was touch and go for him for a while, and I really thought I might lose him. All of them were underweight, of course, so there was a lot of time in the hospital. They’ve only been home with me for about three weeks. Valor became stronger and stronger, and now I really believe he’s going to be a warrior like Running Bear. I can feel him listening to the world around him, and I know he’s taking it all in.”

      “When were they born?”

      “October 15. Cesarean section. Briar came home first, then Valor. Thorn and Skye came home together the day before Thanksgiving, so I felt very blessed. Mallory’s been a rock. I couldn’t have done it without her.”

      Xav got up, stalked to the window. “I wish I’d been here. I should have been here.”

      “I wish things could have been different. But everything changed when I shot my uncle. It set things in motion I had no control over. And since you’ve spent the last several years working at Rancho Diablo, you know that as well as anyone.”

      Chapter Three

      Briar, Thorn, Skye and Valor—all strong names. Xav looked at his children with amazement and some lingering shock. How had this happened? How had he become a father of four, as easily as if a Fiona-style fairy godmother had waved her magic wand at him, gifting him with a full-blown family?

      God, he couldn’t blame this on Fiona or even a fairy godmother, even though Fiona had totally and not too subtly plotted to enlarge her Callahan family tree. All the Callahans, every last one of them, had fallen to Fiona’s legendary and epic lures and chicanery to see her family with families of their own, but Ash won the prize for secret babypalooza. He stared in shock at his four offspring, trying to figure out how his world had changed when he wasn’t paying attention.

      The “magic” had simply been an old-fashioned condom malfunction and his own raging desire to have the blonde sylph currently sitting on the sofa every which way from Sunday any chance he could reel her in.

      She’d not been as reelable as he would have liked, and consequently, he’d spent most of his years with a serious case of unrequited longing. And every time he’d thought he’d had Ash, she’d disappeared again, leaving him satisfied for the moment but drained emotionally because who knew how long he’d have to wait until the next time she showed up in the canyons wearing a smile that made him virtually her love captive?

      Undaunted, he’d played a waiting game, slightly uncomfortable because he felt guilty luring the sister of the men whom he considered good friends and employers. So he had to wait for Ash to come to him to lessen his guilt, when he really wanted to ride off with her into the canyons and drown himself in her for days.

      “I left the middle names for you,” Ash said, snapping him out of his tangled thoughts. “I thought you’d want to have some say in naming your children.”

      So Ash had eventually planned to tell him. He felt a little better. “How did four happen?”

      She shrugged. “I wanted them, and they wanted me.”

      What kind of an answer was that? Coming from Ash, it was almost reasonable, but he needed more grounding. “I’m not sure I understand.”

      “I asked the spirits for a big family. I always wanted four children. I didn’t realize I’d get them all at once, but I feel really blessed.” She smiled, and she was the most beautiful woman in the world to his Ashlyn-starved