did.”
“Why the hell would you do that?” he bellowed. “The Pruitt boy wouldn’t have been my first choice, but you made that decision when you conceived your girls. Now he’s here, ready to do his duty and you tell him no?”
“I am so bloody sick of the word duty!” Sadie shouted it and almost enjoyed seeing the shock written on her father’s expression.
“I’ll thank you not to raise your voice to me,” Robert said coolly.
“It’s the only way you’ll ever hear me, Dad,” she snapped. “I am no one’s duty. I won’t be forced into marriage. Not again.”
This time, her father at least had the grace to look abashed. After all, it had been he who had forced her to marry Taylor. The man who had shown Sadie up close and personal just how humiliating a life could get.
“You owe it to your children—”
“That’s right, Dad,” she interrupted him and felt a rush of power inside her. She’d never stood up to him before and at that moment, she couldn’t for the life of her fathom why not. “The girls are my children. Not yours. I’ll make the decisions concerning them and I don’t need any help. Not from you. Not from Rick Pruitt.”
“You’re obviously overwrought,” Robert said.
“No, Dad,” she countered, “I’m not overwrought. I’m pissed.” She deliberately used a word she knew her father would find distasteful and felt another wash of freedom sweep through her.
“Sadie,” her father said, his voice softer now, his eyes filled with concern.
No doubt, she told herself, he was convinced that she’d had a nervous breakdown. One padded room, coming up.
“I’m not crazy,” she said. “I don’t need to lie down. And I don’t need you telling me what to do. Not anymore.”
He opened and closed his mouth several times, but not a sound came out. For the first time in Sadie’s memory, she was seeing her ever-so-perfect father speechless.
Sadie looked up at him and realized that the man who had run her life … the man whose approval she had sought for so long … no longer worried her. She was an adult now. A mother. And she didn’t owe her father or any other damn person in Royal an explanation for anything she did.
“As for what happens with my girls, that’s between me and Rick,” she added. “Frankly, Dad, it’s none of your business.”
“Sadie!”
“Oh,” she said, since she was on a roll and why stop now, “I’ll be finding a place of my own. The girls and I can’t stay here, Dad. I appreciate the interim help but it’s time I stood on my own two feet again.”
Deliberately, she peeled his fingers off the car door, opened it and slipped inside. She fired up the engine, rolled down her window and said, “I’m going to collect my daughters. I’ll talk to you later.”
And fatigue forgotten, she stepped on the gas until her tires squealed a protest as she peeled out of the driveway. A quick glance in her rearview mirror showed her that her father was still staring after her, clearly thunderstruck.
She smiled grimly.
He wouldn’t be the last man she had it out with tonight.
Rick was ready for her.
He had been waiting for this confrontation since bringing the girls home to the ranch a few hours ago. Rick had to admit that without Sadie’s housekeeper Hannah’s cooperation, he never would have gotten away with it. Thankfully, though, the older woman was on his side in this mess. Also thankfully, Hannah had been with the Price family so long, was so much a mother to Sadie, that she wasn’t worried about the possibility of losing her job for helping him.
It had been good, having his kids here for the afternoon. They had explored the stable, petted horses and fed carrots to the two ponies. They visited John Henry’s golden retriever, who just happened to have given birth to a litter of pups the week before. The twins had been delighted with those puppies and were already busy claiming all eight of them.
Rick smiled, in spite of the battle that was looming in his immediate future. He was being sucked into a world filled with puppies, ponies and little girls’ laughter.
And he loved it.
No way was he going to lose it.
When Sadie brought her car to a screeching halt out front, Rick opened the door and stood on the threshold, arms crossed over his chest, feet braced in a fighting stance. He knew she wouldn’t listen to reason, so he had decided to try different ammunition in their private little war.
Looked like he had gotten her attention.
Sadie slammed the car door and shouted, “Where are they?”
“Right here,” he said. “Where they belong.”
She came around the front of the car like an avenging angel. He wouldn’t have been surprised to see sparks flying off the top of her head, she was so furious.
Well, she should join the club because he was pretty mad himself. And he was fed up. Not a good combination.
“The girls belong with their mother.”
“Wrong,” Rick said as she closed on him, fury obviously firing every step she took. “They belong with their parents. Both of us.”
She actually growled and threw her hands in the air helplessly. “We are not together! Damn it, Rick …”
“Hey, I tried to be reasonable. I tried to do the right thing. You don’t want to hear it.”
Her eyes widened and both blond eyebrows shot high on her forehead. “And you think this is the way to convince me to marry you? Kidnapping my daughters?”
He snorted derisively. “I didn’t kidnap anybody. Those girls are just as much mine as yours.”
She stomped up the front steps, stepping into the light thrown from the entryway. Illuminated against the backdrop of night, she looked even more beautiful than ever, he thought. Her long blond hair was loose around her shoulders. Her green T-shirt was wrinkled, her blue jeans were faded and soft and the heeled sandals she wore displayed toenails painted a deep crimson.
He wanted her so badly he could hardly breathe.
She pulled in a deep breath that did wonders for that T-shirt, then she lifted her chin and glared at him with all the freezing power of the ice princess he had once thought her to be.
“I want to see my daughters. Now.”
“All you had to do was ask,” he said.
“Why should I have to ask to see my own kids?” she snapped.
“Huh. Exactly what I’ve been asking myself,” he told her.
Her mouth tightened up and he knew she was gritting her teeth in pure frustration. Good to see she was feeling a little of what he’d been dealing with lately.
“Are you going to let me pass?” she finally managed to grind out.
“Absolutely,” he said and stepped to one side, allowing her to slip past him and into the house.
“Where are they?”
“In their room,” he told her, following her as she headed for the wide staircase. “They’re perfectly happy. Elena made them dinner, they’ve had a bath and now they’re playing before bedtime.”
“Their beds are at home.”
“This is their home.”
The wall along the stairwell was lined with dozens of framed photos. Of Rick’s family, going back generations. This was the