The Maverick's Return Read online

  “I didn’t find out the truth till much later. That they’d made it quite clear that they might have to take in Bella and me—since they managed to get the other girls adopted—but the three of you who were eighteen or older could fend for yourselves somewhere else. They all but told you, Luke and Bailey to leave town, so you really had no choice but to go.”

  Daniel could remember the day so clearly, though it had happened twelve years ago.

  “But I didn’t know at the time that they had said that to you,” Jamie said. “All I knew was that my parents were dead and my big brothers had abandoned me just when I felt that I needed them the most.” Jamie shook his head, trying to block the painful feeling those memories aroused. “I was really angry at you for a long time.”

  Dan made no effort to attempt to deflect the blame. However, the way Jamie had welcomed him was not the greeting of a man who still held a grudge.

  “But you’re not anymore?” Dan asked, wanting to be perfectly clear just where they stood in relation to one another.

  “No, I’m not,” Jamie readily confirmed.

  Relief swamped him. Dan knew he should just accept that and be happy. He was aware that he was pushing his luck, but he had to know. “What changed your mind?”

  Jamie laughed. “Simple. I found out that life’s too short to carry around all this anger and bitterness. And the triplets came into my life. Nothing like being responsible for three tiny, helpless souls to make you get over yourself—fast,” Jamie emphasized. “Once I stopped being so angry about everything, I left myself open for the good stuff, like love,” he told Dan with a wide grin. “And that’s when I fell in love with Fallon O’Reilly. After that, my whole world changed for the better—and now I couldn’t be happier.”

  As if suddenly hearing himself, Jamie stopped right in the middle of his narrative, embarrassed. “Hell, I’m sorry.”

  “About what?” Dan asked, confused.

  “Well, I’m doing all the talking here.”

  Dan shook his head. “That’s okay. I think it’s great. I haven’t heard your voice in so long,” he told Jamie. “Just keep talking.”

  But Jamie was not about to get sidetracked again. He had questions for his older brother.

  “No, first tell me what made you suddenly turn up on my doorstep now, after twelve long years.” Fresh fears suddenly surfaced in his mind. “Did something happen?” he wanted to know. “Has something suddenly changed? You’re not dying, are you?” he asked, alarmed.

  “No, I’m not dying,” Dan assured his brother. “What happened was that I was in my cabin—”

  Jamie cut in, surprised. “You have a cabin?”

  “Yes,” Dan answered. He didn’t want to get into all that right now. That was for later. “Long story,” he said, waving it away.

  Jamie was starved for any and all information concerning Dan, not to mention the rest of his family, except for his sister Bella, who was still in Rust Creek Falls, and other sister Dana, who had recently been found.

  “Go ahead, I’m all ears,” Jamie told him.

  Dan wanted to tell him about this part first, because it was what led to his coming back to Rust Creek Falls and to his seeking out Jamie. “I’ll tell you about that once I finish answering your first question.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Jamie said, then coaxed, “Go ahead, I’m listening.”

  “All right, then.” Taking a breath, Dan began again. “I’d just put in an extra-hard day. Walking into my cabin, I turned on the TV for some company—”

  “So you live alone?”

  Alone.

  Each time Dan heard it, the word burned more and more of a hole in his gut. “Yeah, I do.”

  “You never married?” Jamie asked.

  Dan shook his head. “Nope.”

  How could he marry? His heart was not his to give to anyone. It was already spoken for—even if the woman who it belonged to had no use for it.

  When he hesitated, Jamie apologized.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to pry,” he told Dan. “Go on. You walked in, turned on the TV for company and then what?”

  When he heard Jamie summarize the events he’d just told him, the words had this incredibly lonely ring to them. He knew he’d felt the same thing time and again, but he’d talked himself into living with it. He’d made himself believe that his life wasn’t as soul-draining as it really was. But now he knew the truth. That he was exceedingly lonely—and that he had made the right decision in coming home.

  At least for now.

  “And then I heard this voice,” Dan said, continuing with his narrative, “this voice that was filled with pride and love, talking about his triplets.”

  “Wait,” Jamie said, stopping his brother. “You heard me on TV? You caught that program that Travis Dalton taped in town? You actually saw The Great Roundup?”

  Dan smiled at the eager disbelief he heard in his brother’s voice. “I did.”

  “But that segment was on more than a month ago.”

  Dan merely nodded and said, “I know.”

  “You’ve been here in Rust Creek Falls all this time?”

  “No, I just got here,” Dan corrected. He wanted his brother to understand that it had been his cold feet that had kept him from coming. “You’re my first stop. Possibly my only stop because I don’t know where everyone else is, or even if they’re still in Montana.”

  But Jamie was still having a hard time making sense out of what he was hearing. The brother he remembered, the one he had idolized, had never been someone to drag his feet.

  “I don’t understand. If the show was on over a month ago, what took you so long to get here?”

  Dan wasn’t about to lie or make up excuses. “It took me a month to get up the nerve to come and see you. I wasn’t sure if you’d even let me come in your front door, or if you’d take one look at me, slam the door in my face and tell me to go to hell.”

  Jamie stared at him, an incredulous smile widening on his lips.

  “You were afraid I’d reject you?” he asked.

  Dan nodded. “Something like that.”

  The idea was so outlandish it almost made Jamie laugh out loud. “You were afraid of your little brother?” he asked, unable to believe that Danny could be afraid of anyone, least of all him.

  Dan made no attempt at excuses, or to brazen the situation out. He was long past that sort of thing as far as he was concerned.

  “Yes,” Dan admitted, “I was. Because, as far as you were concerned, Luke, Bailey and I had run out on you and the girls. Left you at the mercy of a couple of cranky grandparents, neither of whom was ever going to be up for grandparent of the year. Left you and never tried to get in contact with you,” Dan concluded with a sigh.

  For a moment, the stark, honest answer left Jamie speechless. And then he said, “Well, at least you’re not trying to sugarcoat any of it, I’ll give you that.”

  “I can’t sugarcoat it,” Dan admitted. “I want you to know that I wanted to see you and the girls, wanted to get in contact with you.” He put a hand on his brother’s shoulder, anchoring him with the sincere look in his eyes. “Not a day went by in those years when I didn’t think about you.”

  Jamie believed him. But he still had questions. “So if you felt that way, why didn’t you get in contact with any of us?”

  “I didn’t want to disrupt your lives any more than they’d already been disrupted,” Dan told him with sincerity.

  “You wouldn’t have disrupted them, you idiot,” Jamie cried. “You would have only made them better.”

  Dan sighed again. “Yeah, well...” His voice trailed off. At the time, he’d been convinced he was doing the right thing.

  And then, of course, there had been the guilt. That had all but paralyzed him. It had d
efinitely kept him from returning.

  Jamie took pity on him. “Water under the bridge,” he told Dan. “Just water under the bridge. What really matters is that you’re here now,” he said, sounding genuinely happy. “Makes my suffering through the taping of that program worth all the agony,” he added with a warm laugh. “Oh damn, where are my manners? Can I offer you something to eat or drink?”

  “No, I’m fine,” Dan told him. “Just seeing you again after all this time is all I need.”

  “Speaking of need,” Jamie said, “I need you to fill me in.”

  “On what?”

  “On what you’ve been doing these last twelve years,” Jamie said.

  Dan blew out a long breath. He knew he owed Jamie that much. Still, going over that ground would bring up memories he wanted left buried and undisturbed.

  He looked at Jamie, wondering where to start. “That, my brother, is a tall order.”

  Chapter Two

  “Well,” Jamie said in response to the unreadable expression on his brother’s face, “think of it as the price you have to pay if you want to get to meet your nephews and niece.”

  The triplets, Dan thought. He’d almost forgotten about them.

  “Okay,” he replied gamely, “if you’re really serious.”

  Jamie managed to keep a straight face for approximately fifteen seconds, and then he finally broke down and laughed.

  “I’m just curious about what you’ve been doing, but if you don’t want to talk about it,” he said more soberly, “that’s okay.”

  Dan appreciated that his brother wasn’t pressuring him for information. The very fact that Jamie wasn’t encouraged him to share.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it, Jamie. I just don’t want to put you to sleep.” The smile on his face was a tad sheepish. “The last twelve years have been pretty boring.”

  The sadness Jamie saw in his brother’s eyes told him that those years weren’t boring so much as they might have left a scar on Dan’s soul. Jamie found himself aching for his brother.

  “Tell me when you’re ready,” Jamie said. “No pressure.”

  Dan was about to say something in response, but just then, a slender, willowy redhead with lively blue eyes and an infectious smile walked into the room, coming from the back of the house. She looked straight at him.

  “I thought I heard you talking to someone,” she said to Jamie.

  Both Jamie and his brother rose to their feet in unison.

  “Danny,” Jamie said, putting his hand out to the woman who had just crossed over to them, “I’d like you to meet the light of my life, my wife, Fallon.” Affectionately wrapping his arm around her waist, Jamie continued the introduction. “Fallon, this is my older brother Danny.”

  Jamie expected a nod of acknowledgment from the pretty young woman. A smile at best. But he quickly discovered that Fallon was just like her husband. Rather than greeting him with a few pleasantries, she left the shelter of her husband’s arm and went straight to him.

  The young woman embraced him, giving him a warm hug that swirled straight into his heart.

  “Danny! It’s so wonderful to finally meet you,” she cried enthusiastically. “Jamie’s told me so much about you!”

  Stunned, still caught up in Fallon’s embrace, Dan looked over her shoulder at his brother. He’d thought that by now, Jamie would have thought of him as a distant memory—if that.

  “Really?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Fallon replied. Releasing her brother-in-law, she stepped back next to her husband. “Can’t get to know the man without getting to know his family. Though I must admit it took a bit of work at first. Jamie wasn’t much of a talker in the beginning,” she confided. “I think he kind of felt overwhelmed, and under the circumstances, who could blame him?” she said, looking at Jamie fondly. “But once I got him going, he told me all about you and Luke and Bailey, as well as your sisters. Bella and Dana, of course, I got to know myself. You’ve all had a rough life,” she readily acknowledged, “but it can only get better from here on in.”

  Before Dan could ask about either Bella or Dana, Jamie told him, “Bella’s still in Rust Creek Falls. She’s married now. And Dana came for a while late last year. Turns out she’s living in Portland, Oregon with a nice family who had adopted her. No word on Liza yet, but we’re still looking.” He smiled broadly at Danny. “Bella and Dana will both be thrilled to know that you’re actually alive.”

  The revelation stunned Dan. He stared at his brother. “You didn’t think I was alive?” he asked Jamie incredulously.

  “Well, I didn’t hear from you for twelve years. The thought had crossed my mind,” Jamie said. “Anyway, it was Fallon who encouraged me to start looking, not just for you but for all the lost sheep of our family,” he said. He paused to press a kiss to his wife’s temple. “I don’t mind telling you that this woman saved my life.”

  Fallon put her hand on her husband’s chest. “Now, don’t get all melodramatic on your brother, Jamie,” Fallon chided.

  “No melodrama,” Jamie responded. “Just the plain truth. I was in a really bad way after Paula died,” he told Dan.

  “Paula?” Dan asked. It occurred to him that he knew next to nothing about what Jamie had gone through in the last twelve years, just what he had gotten from the TV program.

  A pang twisted his gut. He should have been here. Somehow, even though his grandparents had all but thrown him and his older brothers out, he should have found a way to be there for Jamie and his sisters. A way to get over his all-but-soul-crushing guilt, a way to keep them all together as a family.

  “His first wife,” Fallon interjected.

  The fact that Jamie had been married to someone else first didn’t seem to bother her, Dan observed. She seemed to take it all in stride. Jamie had really lucked out with Fallon, Dan thought. He was genuinely happy for his brother. At least one of them had found happiness, despite the fact that the odds had felt as if they were against all of them.

  “The triplets were born prematurely,” Jamie explained, continuing to fill his brother in. “Paula died shortly after that from complications caused by the C-section. For a long while, I felt it was all my fault.”

  Confused, Dan wondered how that could possibly be his brother’s fault.

  “Paula didn’t want kids. I did.” A semi-sad smile played on his lips. “I guess I missed the sounds of a big family.”

  Fallon took over her husband’s narrative. It was clear that she didn’t want him to dwell on what she felt were his unfounded feelings of guilt.

  “The whole town pitched in to help Jamie out when Paula passed on. A bunch of us took turns volunteering to take care of the triplets so that he could regain his foothold.”

  “I wouldn’t have made it without you,” Jamie told her.

  “Without us,” Fallon corrected. “Like I said,” she told Dan, “the whole town pitched in.”

  Deftly, Fallon changed the subject, asking Dan, “So, have you come back to Rust Creek Falls to stay?”

  “Not to sound as pushy as this redhead,” Jamie interjected, “but have you?”

  Dan was still trying to make his mind up about that. “I’m not sure yet.”

  Fallon didn’t hesitate. “Well, you’re staying with us while Jamie helps you to make up your mind,” she told Dan. Her tone, warm and friendly, left no room for argument.

  Still, Dan felt he had to at least offer a protest. “I can’t impose.”

  “Family never imposes,” Jamie insisted. “End of discussion. You’re staying,” he said with finality. Then he got back to his initial question. “So where have you been all this time?”

  That was simple enough to answer. “The last ten years I’ve been in Colorado.”

  “Colorado?” Jamie repeated. “I can�
�t picture you in Colorado.”

  Dan understood where Jamie was coming from on that. Colorado brought up images of big cities and he was a country boy at heart.

  “I’ve been booking dude ranch vacations for city dwellers who fancy themselves cowboys,” Dan told his brother and Fallon. “It’s not a bad living,” he was quick to add. “And I get to spend most of my time on horseback.”

  “Now, that I can picture,” Jamie told him. “You said you’ve been in Colorado for the last ten years, but you’ve been gone from Rust Creek Falls for twelve. Where did you go before then?”

  “Cheyenne,” Dan answered. “I worked as a ranch hand there—along with Luke and Bailey. But they didn’t much care for it,” he confessed with a sad smile. “They got restless and then, one night, they just took off.” He paused, trying to deal with an unexpected wave of sadness that washed over him. Suppressing a sigh, he told Jamie, “I haven’t seen them since.”

  Fallon leaned forward and put her hand up on her brother-in-law’s shoulder. “We’ll find them,” she promised.

  “Isn’t she amazing?” Jamie asked him. There was pride in his eyes. “She just keeps spreading optimism wherever she goes, no matter what.”

  A light pink hue rose to Fallon’s cheeks as she pointedly ignored her husband’s compliment. Rerouting the conversation again, she asked Dan, “Would you like to meet our kids?”

  He could think of nothing that he would like better. “I’d love to,” Dan responded.

  “Then come this way. You can come too, Jamie,” she added playfully, as if it was an afterthought. “Now, brace yourself,” she told Dan. “These are not your typical year-and-a-half-old babies. They could use Jared, Henry and Kate in caffeine commercials,” she confided.

  “By the way, Kate’s the one with a bow on her head,” Jamie told him as they walked to the bedroom that the triplets occupied when they were downstairs.

  He explained that the official nursery was upstairs, but because they wanted the triplets near them as much as possible, they’d created a second room for the babies downstairs where they could take their naps.