DADDY BY CHOICE by Paula Detmer Riggs

Author:Paula Detmer Riggs
Language: por
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 11

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Try as he might, Luke couldn't pinpoint the exact moment when he'd actually agreed to play host for the twins' birthday party.

He'd forgotten all about it until Raine had called to tell him how excited her boys were at the idea of riding real horses, And by the way, he had remembered to reserve the picnic area at McMinn's Stables for Saturday afternoon, hadn't he? That had been last Monday. Fortunately Sally McMinn liked him, so he'd been able to arrange things on short notice—after he'd agreed to pay twice the going rate.

Now midway through the festivities he found himself in the saddle with Alex perched in front of him, walking Molly sedately around the exercise ring. Next to him Pax sat astride Sweet Sue with Matthew wriggling like an excited eel and talking a mile a minute. For a guy who'd grown up riding mules in the hills of Kentucky, the man sat a horse damn well. Better than most, Luke admitted to himself, if not to Pax.

Turning his head, Luke searched the picnic area until he spotted Maddy's bright yellow straw hat, the one with the artificial fruit around the band. While he'd been in the barn saddling the mares, Raine and Pax had strung streamers from the trees and blown up about a million balloons.

Maddy had brought Morgana and the boys along later, dressed in tiny denim cowboy vests she'd made herself. She looked breathtakingly young and pretty in a sleeveless cotton top the color of sunshine and perky white shorts that revealed a satisfying amount of smooth tanned thighs. Now that her center of gravity had shifted, her hips tended to sway a little when she walked, and her fanny filled out those shorts to blood-heating perfection. He'd been uptight and on edge ever since.

While the others were playing on the swings or in the sandbox in the playground, she and Morgana were busy picking daisies along the fence line. They looked so right together—the pretty lady and the happy little girl, one so fair, the other dark.

"She's an exceptional woman, Maddy," Pax said quietly. "Reminds me of a nurse I knew in 'Nam, a blueblood from Boston who went into nursing after her Marine-captain husband was killed. Took care of a bunch of orphan kids in her spare time."

Luke grunted something noncommittal. Pax grinned, but beneath the brim of the Aussie hat, his eyes were sympathetic. "It's hell, isn't it? Knowing you messed up and wanting to make things right so damn bad you wake up with a knot in your gut night after night?"

Luke tightened his grip on the reins. If Alex hadn't been perched in front of him, he would have spurred Molly into a dead run straight at the open gate.

"Anybody ever tell you to mind your own business, Paxton?" he grated, instead.

Luke might have figured the insensitive jerk would just laugh. "Just about everyone, Jarrod."

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Morgana Paxton had exquisite bone structure, the shimmering black eyes of a Bedouin princess and the innocent smile of an angel.

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