Wyoming Christmas Surprise. Melissa Senate

she said. “Boy, did you dodge a bullet. Literally.” Ha ha, she thought miserably and then burst into tears, her hands flying up to cover her face.

      He pulled her into his arms and she let him, her stiff muscles releasing against him.

      For months after his “death,” she’d wished she could feel his arms around her. Despite how worried she’d always been about him, Theo had always made her feel so safe. Even at the end, when their marriage was falling apart, he’d hold her and she’d believe all over again. They’d be okay. They’d work it out.

      “Why didn’t you call me? Text me? Something, anything?” she said. “How could you have let me think you were dead when you weren’t? How?” Tears streamed down her face. If she had raccoon tracks, it was fine with her. She’d earned them. She pulled away from him and grabbed tissues from the box on the table.

      The look on his face pierced right through her. “I couldn’t risk it, Allie. I can’t tell you how many times I held a prepaid cell in my hands, burning with need to hear your voice, to tell you. But I couldn’t.”

      She took a breath and dabbed under her eyes with the tissue.

      “We have a lot to catch up on,” he said. “I have a hell of a lot to make up for. But walking away from you was the hardest—the worst—thing I’ve ever had to do.”

      “But you did it,” she whispered.

      He walked over to her and took both her hands in his. “A serial killer made a direct threat against you. All I cared about was keeping you safe. With me—the one witness who could put him away—gone, he had no reason to go after you.”

      She gasped. But then shook her head. She wanted to know everything and didn’t want to know anything. Or maybe just not now.

      He closed his eyes for a moment and then walked toward the window, glancing out. “And, yeah, knowing how miserable I was making you, how I was failing as a husband, I thought the split-second decision I made to fake my death was the right one.”

      There it was. He’d said it, the actual words. He’d faked his death. Fake, fake, fake.

      “It was, at the time,” he added. “I’ll tell you all the gory details if you want to hear them, when you want to hear them. Including the call I got from the FBI agent and US marshal that McBruin was killed early this morning. But right now, I just want to be with you. And I want to see my children.”

      The little faces of her quads floated into her mind. A calm came over her and she found she could breathe normally again. “Two look just like you. One looks like me. And one looks like the both of us. People always comment on it.”

      His eyes lit up. “Boys? Girls?”

      “Three boys and a girl,” she told him.

      “I’m a father,” he whispered. She caught his shoulders slumping in defeat. If there was ever a move that wasn’t Theo Stark, that was it. Defeat wasn’t his thing. In fact, their rocky marriage, his admission of failing in that department, had to be a big part of what had allowed him to walk away and leave her behind. “All this time, I had four babies.” He shook his head, letting his face fall into his hands.

      “They’re amazing,” she said. “Healthy, happy, wonderful little humans.”

      His expression brightened and he managed something of a smile.

      “Theo, where’ve you been all this time?” she asked.

      “A cattle ranch in a remote part of Wyoming.”

      She raised an eyebrow. “You were a cowboy?” Suddenly the clothing made sense.

      He nodded. “I learned fast and worked hard. I can’t tell you the number of cowboys on that spread who were runaways from their lives in some form or another.”

      “That’s sad, Theo.”

      “I know. But I’ll tell you something. Hard, honest work makes a person think. Three quarters of those guys cleaned up their acts.”

      “I’m glad to hear it. I guess you’re among them. You came home the minute you heard the serial killer was dead and that it was safe.” She looked out the window beyond him, then back at Theo. Her husband. “So I suppose you’ll get your job back.”

      “I plan to, if they’ll have me after everything. If things go my way, though, I won’t start back at the PD until after New Year’s. I’d like to focus on us, Allie. On our family. I have four babies I haven’t met.”

      She stared at him. “I didn’t expect you to say that. I figured you were just telling me you’re alive and then be off chasing the bad guys.”

      He shook his head. “My priority right now is you. Us.”

      Tears stung her eyes. “Before that night, you told me that maybe splitting up was what was best.”

      “Maybe it was then. I feel like a different person now, Allie. I can’t explain it. I just know I died for you. Literally and figuratively. That told me how I felt about you, not that I needed to be told. I knew. I also knew I was a terrible husband and everything you never wanted. I was breaking your heart every day.”

      “I remember,” she said. “So now what?”

      “Now, if you’ll allow it, I’d like to come home. Start over.”

      “It’s not going to be like it used to be,” she said. “My life is about a very serious schedule of taking care of four eleven-month-olds. And I work hard, too, Theo. My personal chef business really took off after—People hire me for all kinds of cooking gigs. If I’m not in the nursery, I’m in the kitchen.”

      “And now I’ll be there to help out,” he said.

      So he was just going to move back in? Step right back into their lives? That sounded crazy.

      “Theo, we didn’t work before. You didn’t want to start a family. And now there are babies in the mix. Four babies. What makes you think you’re going to want this life now?”

      “I just know I have a second chance, Allie. And I want to take it. I know I said I never wanted kids. But now that I have kids, that knocks that right out of the water.”

      A second chance. Her own thoughts right before he’d knocked on the door came back to her: because she’d give anything for her old imperfect life back, a second chance.

      “Staying out of obligation started to destroy our marriage,” she reminded him.

      “I’m a father now. I take that responsibility seriously. I have eleven months to make up for, Allie. Not to mention the fact that you went through the pregnancy alone. Under terrible circumstances.”

      He’d barely been able to handle having to be responsible to a wife waiting at home, worried sick about him as he volunteered for the most dangerous task forces to rid Wedlock Creek and surrounding towns of crime. Adding four babies to that? He wouldn’t last a week.

      Maybe they both needed to see that, know that for sure, and then they could go back to their separate lives. Or maybe he’d surprise both of them. She was rooting for the latter.

      She still loved Theo Stark with every bit of her heart. But she didn’t want their old marriage back or him to be unhappy out of obligation to her—and now to his children. So they’d give it a shot. See if he could really become a family man.

      “I guess I’ll just go let the officiant know he can cross me off the list,” she said. “Then we’ll go home.”

      He put the sunglasses and Stetson back on. “Home,” he said, closing his eyes for a moment. “You have no idea how happy that word makes me.”

       Chapter Three

      As