Callahan Cowboy Triplets

“Oh, Tighe’s fine. Don’t worry about him. When he was a boy—”

River glanced at Ash, who seemed to suddenly have swallowed her words. “When he was a boy, what?”

“I was just going to say that once when we were young, Tighe went off for a while. I was six,” Ash said, “so I remember it well.” She smiled at River. “It’s all right. We’re used to him being independent.”

“If you were six, Tighe was eight when he went on this adventure. How long was he gone?” River was curious as to how he had fared in his childhood. “Five, six hours?”

“Two months,” Ash said softly. “He was gone two months, in the coldest part of the year. Most of us wanted to stay close to the fire at night. Tighe wanted to find out if he could build his own fire and survive on what he found and caught.”

River sucked in her breath. “No parent would allow that.”

“Oh.” Ash shook her head, got up. “No worries about that. Tighe was never really alone, though he doesn’t know that, so don’t tell him. It would totally crush him and blow his wild man conception of himself. But there were always scouts watching him. Not that the scouts would have interfered, unless there’d been severe danger. A test is a test, and Tighe wanted the chance to test himself.” Ash fluffed her silvery-blond, shoulder-length hair, not concerned in the least. “Grandfather said Tighe had the soul of a tiger, and that he would make many kills when he left the tribe. And he did. He was a pretty good sniper. Don’t worry about my pinheaded brother,” she said. “He’s more wolf than man. Tighe’s problem is that is he’s scared, maybe for the first time in his life.”

“Scared of what? Not rattlesnakes, or becoming a dried-out skeleton, with no food or water in the canyons.”

“My guess is,” Ash said, “he’s been a little scared ever since you came here.”

“Me?”

“Maybe. Tighe’s always seen himself as the uncatchable male. Also, I think it’s come to his mind that he might be the hunted one.”

“You know,” River said, looking back out the window, “it could be you, Ash.”

She shook her head. “Not me. But if it is, I hope someone shoots me and puts me out of my misery.”

“Shoots you?” River was horrified. “Who would do that?”

“I’m hoping you,” Ash said softly, looking at her. “You’ve always got your Beretta strapped to your thigh, don’t you?”

“I would never shoot you,” River snapped. “And how do you know about my gun?”

“I know everything,” Ash said, wandering out the door.

“I see,” River muttered, watching Sawyer stretch up to kiss Jace on the cheek on the ground below her second-story window. “Really nice to know I’ve fallen for some kind of hard-core survivalist wolf-man. And that woman is working an angle,” she said of Sawyer, watching her slink off, leaving a seemingly stunned Jace behind. “Don’t fall for it, handsome.”

Jace would probably fall like a ton of bricks. She watched Jace almost strut, all peacocklike, his gaze fastened on Sawyer’s backside. River sighed and got up from her perch. Ash’s wealth of information had unsettled her to some degree. Tighe wasn’t afraid of her—not in the least. That could be ruled out. He was stubborn and opinionated, but not afraid of a woman.

Now the other business...was he the hunted one? Ash was crazy if she thought River was going to shoot her, if it turned out to be her. “The only shooting I’m doing is at bad guys, and there may not be any of those,” River said, watching Jace rub his cheek where Sawyer had pecked him. “Just gullible ones.”

She went to hunt up Tighe, the resident wolf on the loose.

* * *

THE STONE CIRCLE showed few signs of anyone living there, though a small fire flickered, the embers glowing. There were no signs of foul play, but River felt uneasiness in the pit of her stomach. A man with a sore groin and a fractured leg should be right here where she’d left him.

“Hello, beautiful,” she heard someone say, and River turned.

“What are you doing?” she demanded. “Why are you standing up?”

Tighe smiled, feeling very much in control of the situation, obviously, by the devilish light in his eyes. “You were worried about me.”

“No, I wasn’t.” Why add to his already overburdened ego?

“You were.” He stumped forward, resting his weight on a crutch crudely fashioned from the forked limb of a tree. “I’m glad you were worried about me, but I could have told you there was no need.”

“Then I’ll be going.” She didn’t feel like putting up with his macho attitude when he’d worried her half to death for days. “I’ll let your family know you’re fine.”

“I may return with you for a bit. You got room in your ride?”

She’d driven the military jeep, which had plenty of space for cargo. “I suppose.”

He got in without needing assistance and grinned at her. “Unless you want a tour, I’m ready to head back.”

She looked at the cowboy, the man who invaded her dreams and kept her breathless whenever she thought about him. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

“For the moment. That’s how I live—I’m totally in the moment.” He grinned, pleased with his lone-wolf persona.

She gazed at his rangy body, and his long hair, which hadn’t seen much of a brush in the three weeks he’d been gone. He looked as delectable as ever. It was annoying that a man could hunker in the wilderness and not suffer ill effects. “I have to admit I was afraid of what I’d find.”

“You don’t think I can live without Fiona’s cookies.” Tighe laughed. “I miss the comforts of home, but mostly the children, I have to admit.” He caught her hand as she put it on the shift. “Sometimes I even missed you.”

“Did you?” She shifted, moving his hand away. “I didn’t miss you a bit.”

It was a lie, of course, to save face.

“I think you did,” he said cheerfully. “But I understand you want to keep it to yourself. It was sweet of you to come find me. I’m surprised my family didn’t tell you there was nothing to worry about.”

He was so annoying she wanted to dump him out of the jeep. The thing was, everything he was teasing her about was true—she had missed him, and she had worried. Did anything ever get under his skin? “Hey, fun fact,” River said, “I’ve skipped my period.”

Oh, for a photo of Tighe’s expression. He looked...stunned. River kept driving, curious to see what he’d say, pretty pleased that she’d found the one thing that would shut him up for just a moment.

A loud whoop erupted from him. Tighe threw his straw Resistol into the air and laughed out loud, loudly enough to startle birds from trees, if there’d been any around.

Apparently he wasn’t so much the silent type as his siblings had claimed.

“That’s awesome! When will we know for certain? How long do these things take?”

“In a couple of weeks I’ll go to the doctor. I keep telling myself maybe I’m late because of worrying—”

“About me—”

“No. About things at the ranch,” River interrupted, “but I’ve always been completely regular.”

“You cute little thing,” Tighe said. “That night you and my brother and sister were plotting against me, you had your own little plot going.”

“Not hardly.” River was getting mad. “Perhaps you didn’t do a decent job wrapping up.”

“You helped, as I recall,” he said gleefully, “and I remember you seemed to be impressed.”

“Oh, for crying out loud.” River parked the jeep at the house, jumped down. “You can just wait there until one of your siblings finds you. Or Wolf. Right now, I don’t care.”

She went inside, aggravated beyond belief.

“Did you find my brother?” Jace asked.

“I found a jackass. It might have been your brother. You can go out to the jeep and see for yourself.”

With that, she went to check on the twins.

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