I Do! I Do!

Was he being selfish? Mason had never asked himself that question before. He asked it a lot that night at the ranch, and the next morning on the two-hour drive to Austin.

All his life, until now, the future and his place in it had spread before him as neatly as the procession of the seasons. He and Rance would grow up to take over the ranch. They would run it together, expand their operations and leave a rich heritage for the next generation.

For years, they’d kept on course. After their father’s death, when Mason was twenty-three and Rance eighteen, the younger brother had taken over the horse-training operation while the elder focused on cattle and oil. Although both preferred working with animals, their finances depended on the pumps that worked with steady efficiency around the range.

Mason didn’t have to question why he did what he did. It was simply there, a force of nature. He was a rancher, he was his father’s son and he was Rance’s brother.

Two months ago, when he received the phone call telling him Rance was dead, he’d desperately turned his attention to saving Amy. Then she, too, had slipped away.

Now he had Daisy and Lily. He needed them more than anything. A man could only rebuild his future if there was a purpose to it.

Was he being fair in asking Gina to come to the ranch with him? For all her skill in the nursery, she looked as delicate as an orchid. How would she cope with a hardened man like him, one who might be gone all day and return exhausted and covered with dirt?

Nevertheless, Gina attracted him more than any woman he’d ever met. He hoped she would say yes, and he didn’t care if he was being selfish.

If she agreed even to a short-term union, there was hope she’d want to stay. Maybe he could win her, despite logic and everything he knew about himself.

Mason wasn’t a man to give up easily. Not with his daughters, and not with the woman he wanted.

At Maitland Maternity, he parked in the visitors’ lot and went inside. The place seemed different—something about the light. Or the dimensions. Or the fact that, after today, he would no longer be a part of its daily goings-on.

“Darn.” He stopped in the lobby. “I forgot to get going-home clothes.” When a grandmotherly woman smiled at him, he realized he’d spoken aloud.

“Try the gift shop,” she said.

“Much obliged.”

He checked inside. There was a refrigerated case full of flowers, along with shelves of paperback books, magazines and stuffed animals, almost as many as he’d already bought for the girls’ room at home. In one corner, he found baby rattles, booties, diapers and some clothing, but if the store carried little dresses, they must be sold out.

He was willing to bet Margaret would arrive with an armload of gowns and bonnets. No doubt she would count it as evidence of her superior parental fitness.

Had she and Stuart already landed in town? Mason hoped not. He wanted to complete the paperwork and whisk the girls back to the ranch before his sister could complicate the situation.

Possession might not be nine-tenths of the law when it came to children, but it would give him an edge. He intended to take any advantage he could find.

It was after eight. Gina would be on duty, fresh and bright as always. Mason speeded his footsteps.

He saw her through the nursery window, feeding one of the girls. The way she bent over the baby on her lap, he couldn’t see her expression.

Then she glanced toward one of the other nurses, and he noted the puffiness under her eyes. She’d been crying.

Chagrin filled him. A woman about to marry the man she adored wouldn’t be crying about it. Gina must have decided to give up the girls, rather than spend even a few months with him.

Mason squared his shoulders. He couldn’t make her love him, but he didn’t intend to take no for an answer. For his daughters’ sake, he had to give it his best shot.

Surely Gina wouldn’t really mind spending time at the ranch, as long as he left her strictly alone. She’d said herself that she loved the girls enough to want to adopt them.

Moving away from the window, he allowed himself a couple of deep breaths. So far, she hadn’t noticed him.

Suppressing his doubts, he assumed a confident air. Before he could talk to her, though, he needed to prepare by handling a few details at the administration office.

Once he cajoled her consent, he didn’t want anything to delay their departure.

GINA HAD SAID GOODBYE to hundreds of babies. Off they would go in their mothers’ arms, and she’d miss them for a few hours, until another newborn arrived. She’d cherish it for a few days or weeks, and then she would say goodbye to it, too.

As she changed the dressing on Daisy’s rapidly healing surgical wound, she wished she could detach herself as readily from the twins as from so many others. “What is it about you that makes you special?” she asked.

Daisy gripped her thumb and gazed intently into Gina’s eyes. A vise squeezed her heart.

How could she let them go? These girls felt like her daughters.

Their first steps. Daisy would clutch Gina’s hand and step out cautiously, her tiny feet making no sound on the floor.

Lily would tear herself from Mason’s loving grasp and plunk forward, arms waving, knees wobbling, until she plopped onto all fours. A second later, she’d be on her feet again, flinging herself into life with joyous abandon.

Before Gina could finish the daydream, a change in the air told her Mason had come into the nursery. Scarcely daring to trust her composure, she peeked at him from beneath lowered lashes.

He wore a gray three-piece suit. Sunday best, she thought. It emphasized the tan richness of his skin and the dark penetration of his gaze.

“Mason…” Her throat caught.

“For you.” He held out a bouquet of red roses. “I’m not sure if they’re allowed in here, so I sneaked them in.”

“Oh!” When she held them to her nose, their summery scent invaded her bloodstream. “They’re beautiful.”

“You should be surrounded by flowers,” he said. “My mother planted a rose garden at the ranch. I’ll make sure you have fresh flowers every day.”

But she wasn’t going to live on the ranch. If there were flowers, they’d be for someone else.

“We need to talk.” She hoped he couldn’t hear the quaver in her voice.

“Sure thing.” His expression warmed as he touched her hair lightly. The brush of his hand warmed Gina’s scalp. Did he have to make it so hard to say no?

“I don’t think there’s anyone in the parents’ lounge. We could talk there.” She was about to lead the way when, through the glass, she spotted Elly Maitland in the corridor. The administrator pointed at Mason and held up a sheaf of papers. “I wonder why she’s in such a hurry about the paperwork.”

He shrugged. “I guess she knows I want to hit the road before my sister shows up.”

“You’re in a hurry?” she asked. “Oh, dear. I have to make some final preparations for the girls.” Remembering her gift, she added, “And I brought a going-away present for them.” From a table, she produced a wrapped package.

He studied it with a bemused expression. “This wouldn’t be something for the girls to wear home, would it?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” she said. “I thought you might forget.”

His rueful grin made her head whirl. How could the man be so endearing?

“I did forget,” he acknowledged, and opened the package. “Gina, these are precious.”

“Thanks. But before you go see Miss Maitland, could we have that talk?”

Elly tapped on the glass and gestured to Mason more urgently. “What is the big deal?” Gina asked.

“I did tell her that I needed to get out as soon as possible. It appears she took me at my word. I’ll come back as fast as I can, okay?” Mason caught her hand. The pressure of his blunt fingers against her palm made her even more light-headed. “Would you put the new dresses on the girls? They’ll be knockouts.”

“Of course.” Gina stood stock-still as he strode from the room. His warmth, his obvious expectation that she would accept, and his gentle caress had made it hard to keep her resolve.

But he wasn’t offering a real marriage. And she could accept nothing less.

MASON WONDERED IF HE’D pushed her too far. Gina didn’t seem to mind when he touched her. It wasn’t part of his plan; he simply hadn’t been able to resist.

As for the flowers, and arranging for Elly Maitland to interrupt, they’d been attempts to forestall Gina from giving him a negative answer. So far, they’d worked.

From here on, he’d have to wing it. He would play on her devotion to the twins, which shouldn’t be too difficult. Her caring shone in her eyes every time she gazed at those babies.

A twinge of guilt threw Mason off stride as he accompanied Elly. It was wrong to manipulate a person who meant so much to him.

But a few months on a ranch wouldn’t harm Gina, and could mean all the difference for Daisy and Lily’s futures. “Any word from my brother-in-law?” he asked.

“He called about six o’clock last evening.” The administrator had a reputation for working fourteen-hour days, so that probably didn’t seem late to her. “When I told him we were releasing the girls today, he sounded more disappointed than angry. He said he and his wife would be here.”

“He didn’t specify a time?”

“No.”

It was almost nine-thirty, by Mason’s watch. If his sister and Stuart had caught an early morning flight, they might arrive soon.

No sense in worrying about it. The best he could do was take care of business as quickly as possible and depart, preferably with Gina.

At the office, an assistant went through a sheaf of papers with him, methodically explaining what each one was for. A hospital survey, and insurance records, and obtaining social security numbers, and on and on.

His restlessness made it hard to concentrate. Only after a while did Mason put his finger on what was bothering him.

It wasn’t just Margaret and Stuart’s impending arrival. It was the observation that Gina had been crying.

She must love those girls almost as much as he did. The situation was tearing her apart.

It tore at him, too. The last thing he wanted was to hurt Gina. Couldn’t she put up with him, even for a few months? She would gain not only more time with Lily and Daisy, but, as he’d promised, regular visitation afterward.

Of course, while they were married, he would keep his distance, especially now that he’d seen from her expression that she had no desire to become his wife. He would respect her reticence completely.

While Mason might be unpolished compared to the doctors at the clinic or to his brother-in-law, Stuart, he possessed an old-fashioned sense of honor. If Gina didn’t already know that, he would simply have to prove it to her.

He was finishing the last document when Elly Maitland returned from an errand. “As I suspected, some of the press has gathered,” she said. “There are a couple of newspaper reporters, and Chelsea Markum from Tattle Today brought a camera crew.”

“This could be awkward.” He’d almost forgotten that the media would be on hand. “I’m not used to giving press conferences.”

“If you like, I’ll ask Dr. Abby to speak to them. With your permission, she could answer questions about the babies’ medical condition.” Abigail Maitland, Elly’s older sister, was chief of obstetrics and gynecology at the clinic and had delivered Lily and Daisy.

“That would be fine,” Mason said distractedly. He’d intended to spend more time with Gina. How was he going to win her over and cope with reporters at the same time?

“I’ll get a couple of volunteers to escort the babies when they’re released,” Elly added.

“Excuse me?”

“We have a policy of not allowing the babies to be carried outside. Just imagine if a parent tripped and dropped one!” she explained. “We arrange for a volunteer to wheel the bassinet out front and wait until the parents bring the car around. Also, we can lend a car seat if they don’t have one.”

He didn’t want a volunteer to assist him. He wanted Gina. “Would you mind if Miss Kennedy was the one who escorted them?” Mason asked. “It would mean a lot to me.”

“What a lovely idea!” the administrator said. “That way, someone’s sure to take her picture with the babies. I know she’s grown fond of them these past few months. I’m sure she’d like to have a souvenir clipping.”

Mason wished he’d come up with the idea of photographing Gina with his daughters. He’d have to make sure he got a copy of whatever ran in the newspaper.

But then, he intended to have plenty of pictures taken. At their wedding.

I’M SORRY. I’ve thought your offer over carefully, but I can’t accept. I do love Lily and Daisy, and I want what’s best for them. But becoming their mother, then having to give them up—well, I’m not sure I could handle it.

No, she didn’t dare give him wiggle room. I can’t handle spending months as Lily and Daisy’s mother, and then leaving and only seeing them on rare occasions. Please, let’s not argue about it. Let’s stay friends.

Gina sighed. She’d been going over and over in her mind what she was going to say to Mason. If only he would hurry back so she could stop torturing herself!

Freshly changed and cute as kittens in their springlike dresses, the two little girls were ready to go. Each was accompanied by an apnea monitor slightly smaller than a VCR.

The Velcro chest belts didn’t need to be attached while the girls were awake, although they should be put in place for the long ride home. Mason had been instructed in their use yesterday afternoon and, unlike some parents, had mastered the correct degree of tautness right away.

As for Bonita, the housekeeper, he’d called her yesterday and she’d promised to come in for CPR training next week. Gina hoped there wouldn’t be any need for emergency resuscitation before then—or ever.

Katie stopped by, holding one of her charges. “What did you decide to do about Mason? I saw the roses on the counter, by the way. They’re gorgeous!”

On the verge of answering, Gina decided it wouldn’t be right to disclose her decision to someone else before she informed Mason. “I’d like to tell him first.”

“You always do things so discreetly!” Katie said. “You’re what people call a real lady. I aspire to be like you, Gina, although I’m not sure I’ll ever make it.”

“Please don’t use me as a shining example of anything!” she protested. At the moment, she felt more like a squashed cabbage leaf than a lady.

Eleanor Maitland’s assistant poked her head into the room. “Nurse Kennedy? They’d like you to wheel the Blackstone babies to the lobby, please.”

Gina froze. The girls were being released already? But Mason hadn’t returned to talk to her!

“She’ll need someone to push the second bassinet,” Katie pointed out. “Oh, good, Susan’s here!” Susan, a nurse assigned to the intermediate nursery, had been delayed by a flat tire. “I’m supposed to assist Dr. Carrington in half an hour, so I can spare the time to push the other one.”

“Thanks.” The assistant ducked out, then stuck her head in again. “By the way, there’s press all over the front steps, and Abby and Megan Maitland are out there, too, so make sure you’ve got lipstick on.”

Press? And Megan Maitland, the family matriarch who had founded Maitland Maternity nearly twenty-five years ago and still served as its CEO? This was getting more and more complicated.

Gina needed help. “Katie, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I need to talk to Mason.”

She was on the brink of confiding her decision to turn down his proposal when Susan bustled over. “So these cuties are leaving us, huh? We’re all going to miss them, not to mention that heartthrob uncle of theirs. How’d you let him slip through your fingers, Gina?”

She didn’t know how to answer, even though the question was meant in jest. Fortunately, Katie intervened. “Don’t make assumptions, Sue!”

“Just stating the obvious.” The nurse bustled off to take care of her own charges.

The possibility of having a private conversation with Katie had vanished, Gina saw, when Elly Maitland appeared outside the glass partition and waved to them to hurry. She would have to figure out what to say to Mason by herself.

Was it possible he assumed he already knew her answer? Last night, Gina recalled, he’d brushed away her objections and insisted that a sham marriage made perfect sense. Perhaps, overnight, he’d convinced himself that his logic was so irrefutable that she couldn’t possibly say no.

The last thing she wanted was a painful public confrontation with Mason. She preferred quiet discussions that preserved everyone’s self-respect. They simply had to find a moment together.

WALKING THROUGH THE LOBBY toward the hospital’s front entrance, Mason saw Dr. Abby standing outside talking to half a dozen reporters and a camera crew. Beside her, beaming, stood the proud figure of Dr. Abby’s mother, Megan, head of Maitland Maternity.

The press gathered around them weren’t nearly as numerous as he’d expected. He hoped they wouldn’t be as obnoxious as he’d feared, either.

“…demonstrate one of the reasons I established this clinic,” Megan was saying. At a well-publicized sixty-two years, she had a vigor and presence that dominated the scene. “Getting babies off to a healthy start is the most important job in the world.”

“Here’s Mr. Blackstone now,” Abby said. “He can tell us about the twins from his perspective.”

The moment he reached Dr. Abby’s side, an attractive woman thrust a microphone toward Mason. He didn’t watch much television, so it took a moment to place her as Chelsea Markum, a local reporter who specialized in gossip and human interest stories.

“Mr. Blackstone, who’s going to take care of the twins while you’re working on the ranch all day?” she demanded.

Did she have to ask that question right off the bat? “I’ve made arrangements for them to be well cared for, and I’ll be spending every possible moment with them,” he said.

“Taken care of by whom?” she asked.

“I’m not at liberty to…”

From the corner of his eye, he noticed a taxi pulling to the curb. The instant the wheels stopped, the doors flew open and two people hurried out.

Even if she hadn’t been his sister, his attention would have gone first to Margaret. She was a striking woman, tall, with vivid dark coloring. Stuart, stockier and blander, could have been cast as a lawyer in the movies, as in real life.

“Just in time!” Marge called, striding toward him. “Where are my little darlings?”

The camera swung toward her. Chelsea Markum frowned. “Who’s this?”

“I’m Margaret Blackstone Waldman, the babies’ aunt.” The knot of reporters parted and his sister marched through their center. Her husband, who had stopped to pay the cabbie, rushed to catch up. “Stuart and I will be taking them home with us to Dallas.”

Mason struggled against a flare of anger. He loved his sister, but right now he could cheerfully have stuffed her into a box and mailed her to Siberia.

Leaning forward, he spoke into Chelsea’s microphone. “I’m afraid you’ve caught us in the middle of a family disagreement. My sister and I are both offering our homes to Lily and Daisy. But as you may be aware, I’ve been the one who’s been supervising their care and bonding with them.”

Margaret snatched the microphone from Chelsea’s hand. Mason could have taken it back, but he was loathe to stage a tug-of-war in public. This entire situation was undignified enough already.

“I’ll give my brother credit for good intentions,” she said. “But babies need a mother as well as a father. Stuart and I can provide both. Not to mention our experience in raising three children of our own.”

A stir among the press and the crunch of small wheels behind him told Mason that the babies had arrived. Turning, he saw Gina standing behind one of the bassinets, staring at Margaret and Stuart. She must have guessed who they were, even if she hadn’t heard their comments.

Her lips parted in dismay. In the sunlight, the translucent clarity of her skin made her look even younger than she was. He wanted her so much, he nearly forgot where they were.

“Mr. Blackstone?” Chelsea pressed, having reclaimed her microphone. “How do you respond to your sister’s points? She tells us she has parenting experience, which I understand you don’t. Furthermore, you never answered my question about who was going to care for the girls while you’re working on the ranch.”

“I’ll tell you who.” Marge, who had worked herself up into what Rance used to call a “bossy fit,” seized the mike again. “He’s got a housekeeper, a perfectly competent woman. She never had children of her own, though, and she’s certainly not the twins’ mother. That’s who’s going to take care of these girls if my brother has his way. Is that the mark of a man who loves his nieces? I’d say he was thinking more of himself than of them.”

The unfairness of this remark brought gasps from several people, including Dr. Abby, who had witnessed Mason’s devotion over the past two months. Megan Maitland glowered. But what could she or anyone else say?

“That’s not true.”

Gina’s sweet voice carried over the crowd with surprising strength. Before anyone else could react, and no doubt before Margaret even figured out who had spoken, Chelsea snatched back her microphone and hurried over. “What makes you say that, Nurse?”

“I’m the one who’s going to take care of Daisy and Lily,” Gina announced. “Mason and I are getting married.”

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