Apparently, he hadn’t prayed hard enough.
He barely registered it when he turned into the long gravel driveway that housed the Circle M ranch. His mother, Alice, a recent widow, lived in the main ranch house, while Jax and Nick held separate residences on the land, smaller cabins that better fit their bachelor status. Slade had moved to the Beckett ranch next door when he’d married Laney.
He pulled up before his cabin, expecting to see Susie’s red AWD parked in front, or worse yet, a courier with more unpleasant papers to sign. He scanned the area for an unfamiliar vehicle but didn’t find one. He’d seen a truck kicking up dust on the road that led to the Circle M, but it hadn’t occurred to him that it might be Susie. He’d seen only the back of the relatively new blue pickup, but now that he thought about it, it had appeared to be exceeding the speed limit on its way out of town.
Great. What was Susie up to, anyway? He was going to be good and angry if she’d pulled him away from the picnic and the nicest day he’d had in—well, he couldn’t remember how long—for no good reason.
Oh, who was he kidding? He was good and angry now.
He hopped out of the cab and hurried around to open up the door for Faith. It wasn’t just that his mama had taught him to be a gentleman. With those ridiculously high heels she was wearing, she was bound to take a digger if she tried to get down by herself. He was having a hard enough day without becoming responsible for the impractically dressed woman twisting her ankle.
She smiled up at him gratefully as he grasped her tiny waist and lifted her from the cab. She reached for his shoulders to maintain her balance, and his hands lingered on her waist.
Their eyes met and held, and her cheeks turned a pretty shade of rose before she cleared her throat and stepped away from him, her gaze shifting from his face to the front of his cabin.
“What a lovely place,” she complimented. “Your cabin looks like it belongs in a magazine.”
He cringed inwardly. It only now occurred to him that he might not want to invite her inside. He couldn’t remember if he’d picked up his laundry or not, and he had a bad habit of leaving his soiled socks where he shed them, not to mention a week’s worth of dirty dishes he had piled in the sink. He didn’t have a dishwasher and usually got to washing the dishes only when he didn’t have anything left to eat on.
He was busy formulating a reasonable explanation for the mess inside when Faith’s eyes widened and her mouth made a perfect O. And she hadn’t even seen his dirty laundry yet.
“Jax?” She whispered his name like a question, her voice sounding like sandpaper, not at all the sweet, high, smooth timbre she’d used earlier in the day.
The warning in her tone sent a ripple of apprehension down his spine. Slowly he turned, afraid to see what had so obviously shaken her. He wouldn’t put anything past Susie at this point.
Oh, dear Lord, no.
His gut clenched as he gasped for air and a proverbial sideswipe to his jaw sent him reeling.
No. It couldn’t be. It could. Not. Be.
Jax blinked and scrubbed a hand down his face.
Were his eyes deceiving him?
Impossible.
Even if he was blind as a bat, and even though his hearing was half what it used to be, there was no mistaking the sound of distinctive, distraught mewling coming from two tiny swaddled infants, bundled into their car seats and blocking the front door of his cabin.
Babies?
He took the steps two at a time and crouched before the baby on his left, gently adjusting the pink blanket covering her and making what he hoped were calming shushing noises. His expertise was horses. He knew zero about babies.
She was incredibly tiny next to his large palm. So vulnerable. So defenseless. He swallowed hard.
How long had they been here, alone, where any number of ills could befall them?
The—babies.
Fury roared and blazed like a wildfire in his chest. Susie had left two helpless infants on his front porch? She was going to answer for this. She’d always been irresponsible and often acted with poor judgment, but this went far beyond the pale even for her.
“Jax?” Faith asked again, her voice faltering. She knelt before the other baby, presumably also a girl, given the identical pink blanket tucked around her, and gently rocked the seat to calm the infant. “Are these...?”
“I don’t—I’m not—” Jax stammered, his head spinning. He considered himself calm and rational. His emotions rarely got the better of him. But right now he was fighting with every ounce of his courage against succumbing to the conflicting feelings pelting him—a lone unarmed man against an army of men with razor-sharp swords and blistering bows and arrows.
Shock. Surprise. Anger. Betrayal. Guilt. Pain.
Wonder.
Were these...? Could it be that these precious little pieces of humanity were...?
His heart welled and tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. He couldn’t lose it now. He just couldn’t.
He stood abruptly, and the baby at his feet protested with a wail. She had a nice, healthy pair of lungs on her, and Jax winced, then crouched back down and rocked the car seat as Faith was doing.
Where was Susie? How could she possibly have just left these babies behind without an explanation? He had a million questions to ask her, and he wanted to tell her exactly what he thought of her inconceivably selfish behavior. He’d never actually throttle a woman, even Susie, but the thought did cross his mind, to shake a little sense into her.
How could she?
How could she keep such an enormous secret from him? If these were, in fact, his daughters...
She’d kept his children from him, kept him from knowing they even existed. They were probably no more than a month old—not that he could guess with any accuracy. She should have told him she was pregnant as soon as she knew she was pregnant. He should have been there when the babies were born.
He was their father. He had rights. Responsibilities. Privileges.
How dare she?
He fished out his phone and punched Susie’s number again, but not surprisingly, it went straight to voice mail. Again. She was avoiding him, as well she might, considering what she’d just done. Was she seriously just dumping a couple of babies on his doorstep and running away?
No. Not just a couple of babies.
His babies.
He didn’t know how he knew they were his children. Given Susie’s actions during the past year, their paternity might well be called into question, but his heart and his gut were telling him there was no doubt that he was the babies’ father. And not just because Susie had dumped them on his doorstep.
Overcoming every other emotion he was feeling, even the most heated ones, amazement and wonder and love warmed his chest, swirling and curling around and filling his heart full to the brim.
He was astounded by how instantly those feelings appeared and how strong they were. He’d woken up this morning a man who had been living practically like a hermit, deliberately isolating himself, mucking through the mire of his own despair.
Alone.
And now—
Now he was a father.
“Should we take them inside, do you think?” Faith asked hesitantly.
“What? Yes.” He’d nearly forgotten Faith was there, but he was grateful she was. He wasn’t even remotely capable of dealing with this crisis on his own, and her question proved it. He didn’t know what to do with one baby, never mind two.
Of course he