Montana Twins. Charlotte Maclay

at proving himself, she needed to give him some time with the babies. Maybe he’d hate all the inconvenience enough to forget being a father.

      Driving through town, she’d noted Grass Valley didn’t offer a whole lot of options for temporary housing. She hadn’t considered that problem before she left home, and now she had nowhere else to stay except with him and the twins, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to leave them.

      “I think staying here is a fine idea,” she announced.

      They all turned toward her. Eric shook his head. Lizzie said, “I think it’s perfect, too. Would you like us to help bring in your luggage?”

      “No, I’m sure Eric will be more than happy to do that for me.” She gave him her stern schoolmarm look that had been known to wither a whole gang of adolescent boys. Managing one man shouldn’t be all that difficult.

      Lizzie and Kristi appeared pleased they’d accomplished whatever it was they’d set out to do.

      “We’ve got to be running along,” Kristi said.

      “Just wanted to welcome you to Grass Valley,” Lizzie added. “Eric’s a great guy, by the way.”

      Laura smiled weakly. The man had certainly developed a fan club among his sisters-in-law. She wondered what their spouses thought of that. And knew their views wouldn’t sway her about leaving the twins with Eric if she wasn’t one hundred percent convinced it was the right thing to do.

      Given how much she loved the babies, it was hard to imagine she’d ever be willing to do that, despite Amy’s wishes.

      She swallowed hard, telling herself she didn’t know enough yet about Eric to seriously consider handing over the twins’ custody. His worthiness to be their father could take days to determine. Maybe even weeks.

      She nearly groaned aloud. Surely it wouldn’t take that long to discover some fatal crack in his paragon-of-virtue image.

      He managed to escort his sisters-in-law out the door, then returned to the living room.

      “I’m sorry about the misunderstanding. Those two are really great people but they do sometimes jump to conclusions.”

      “It’s all right.” She knelt and draped a light blanket over the two sleeping babies. “The fact is, you’ve jumped to a conclusion, too.”

      “What’s that?”

      Pulling some papers from her briefcase, she handed a copy of Amy’s notarized instructions to Eric.

      “Amy was abused most of her life, not just by the man who fathered the twins. The one thing she asked me to do before I relinquished the babies to you is to make sure you had a wife who could love them like a mother should.”

      He stared at her in disbelief, then quickly read through the papers.

      “This makes you the final arbiter of whether or not I get custody.”

      “That’s true.” The attorney she and Amy had hired had carefully crafted Amy’s last wishes so that the custody decision about the twins would be Laura’s and hers alone.

      “And she wanted me to have a wife.”

      “It was her very strong preference. She had good reasons to—”

      “That’s crazy!”

      “Those were her wishes.” She gestured toward the legal papers in his hand. “This is what she wanted. I intend to fulfill her request as best I can.”

      “Then I guess that makes it you and me against each other.”

      “If that’s how you see it. I see it as doing what’s best for the twins.”

      Chapter Three

      “I’m going to need some sort of a changing table.”

      Sunshine streamed through the window of the designated nursery, but the room itself looked bare, the only furniture the crib Eric had hauled upstairs. There ought to be a border of teddy bear ballerinas dancing along the top of the walls to match the bumper pads and crib sheets Laura had chosen for the twins. An overflowing toy box would fit under the window, a pair of desks in the corner for when they got older, a two-sided easel for painting.

      “Seems to me we’re short one crib, too,” Eric commented, checking that the crib was solidly held together. “They should each have their own.”

      “For now, they’re all right in one. In fact, I think they like it better that way. They seem to want to cuddle as if they were in the womb. When I take them back home—”

      “The way I see it, they are home. Right here.”

      “Yes, well…” For a man who’d only lately learned about the twins, he had certainly developed a possessive streak. Or maybe he was challenging her because he was innately competitive. Given the number of rodeo trophies on the mantel downstairs, he wasn’t one to give up easily. “That’s yet to be determined, isn’t it?”

      “A court might decide my claim has more merit than yours, given my relationship with the twins.”

      “You’re welcome to consult with an attorney.” She and Amy had already done that. In general, the mother’s wishes would prevail.

      “I think I’ll do that tomorrow. Assuming you don’t mind staying with the babies while I drive into Great Falls and back.”

      “If you’re planning to raise the twins, you’d better get used to having to take them with you wherever you go.”

      His brows slammed down into a straight line, narrowing his eyes. “Now you’re telling me I’ll be disqualified as a father if I use a baby-sitter?”

      Laura was sure Eric knew how to smile, but she had yet to see him accomplish the maneuver. But then, her comment had been unreasonable. “Point taken. I’ll stay with the twins while you check with your attorney.”

      Before her accident, Laura had had adolescent dreams of someday finding a man as protective of her as Eric appeared to be of the twins. But as she’d grown older and finally fallen in love, she’d learned the truth. She was damaged goods, a woman no man would want to marry. She couldn’t bear his children.

      She swallowed back the bitter memory. A man as macho as Sheriff Oakes would demand nothing less than perfection.

      “Come to think of it,” Eric said, “who watches the twins when you’re at work?”

      She cut him a sharp look. Fair was fair, she supposed, and he had a right to know what arrangements she’d made for the twins. “My mother will baby-sit the twins during the school year. She lives only a mile from me and adores Mandy and Becky. She loved Amy like her own, and she’s always wanted grandchildren but knew, since my accident—”

      “Does that mean in order to get custody I have to come up with a loving grandmother, too, as well as a wife?”

      “Well, no, I’d never require that of you.” Although Laura’s mother would be heartbroken to lose the only grandchildren she was likely to have.

      He nodded, but his expression didn’t soften much. “Now, you were saying you needed something?”

      She forced her thoughts back to practicalities. “A changing table. If you’ve got a card table or something like that I can use, it will do temporarily.”

      “I haven’t done much decorating of the place, it didn’t seem important.” Until now, he realized. What did a bachelor need with eight rooms filled with furniture? He only used three or four of the rooms himself. But if this was going to be the twins’ home, they needed the right equipment. “Come on, we’re going shopping.”

      “For what?”

      “I saw some oak chests of drawers at the general store. Handmade by an old guy east of town.