Read Online The Cowboy's Triplets by Tina Leonard - Free Book Online Page B

Darla with any of the brothers and couldn’t come up with one who could elude her gutsy, determined friend. “Who?”
    â€œI’m going to wait five years to tell you, just like you did. Let’s see if I can keep a secret that long,” Darla teased.
    â€œTell me now.”
    Darla shook her head. “Unlike you, my secret crush has no idea I think he’s a total stud. And we’re going to keep it that way, unless I can figure out a spell to get him to notice me.”
    â€œI guess you could always ask Sabrina. She seems to know everything.”
    Darla glanced at her. “She really got to you, didn’t she?”
    Jackie perched on a bar stool at the counter. “She said I was going to be blessed with three children.”
    â€œWow,” Darla said, “that’s better than a home pregnancy test.” She giggled.
    Jackie felt better just mentioning it. “Silly, huh?”
    â€œCompletely weird. Don’t let it bother you.”
    â€œI’m not sure it altogether bothered me.” Jackie looked at Darla, then smiled. “I felt sorry for her.”
    â€œShe tells you you’re going to have three kids, and you feel sorry for her? I’d be feeling sorry for myself.”
    â€œYou don’t want children?”
    â€œIf they were Judah’s children, I’d have all he wanted.” Darla grinned. “I could be a happy, barefoot and pregnant bride if the man involved was Judah Callahan.”
    â€œJudah! I should have known you’d fall for a hard case.”
    â€œI like a challenge, what can I say?” Darla smiled. “But unless it’s with him, I won’t be having children. I’m a career woman. I want to make enough money to buy my own tiny ranch.” Darla looked around her house. “I love it here, but I want a place where I can have horses.”
    Jackie nodded. She understood. A Callahan man, a ranch, horses, children—wouldn’t that just be heaven?
    â€œSo why’d you and Pete break up?” Darla asked. “You look so sad.”
    â€œI don’t really want to talk about it.” Jackie sipped at the ginger ale, feeling another squirm in her stomach. It was strange. She was never sick, never had aches and pains.
    â€œYou may not have a choice,” Darla told her. “You looked sad when you came inside, and now you look like you’ve lost your dog. People will figure it out.”
    Jackie sighed. “We broke up because it wasn’t going anywhere.”
    â€œWhere did you want it to go?”
    â€œSomeplace different than Saturday-night sex.”
    â€œOh. I suppose just asking for additional Monday-night sex was out of the question?”
    Jackie smiled. “I don’t know. We’d been in a routine for so long it had become a rut.”
    Darla looked at her. “How did Pete take the news?”
    She remembered him standing on her porch, staring at her with hungry eyes. “He didn’t say a whole lot.”
    â€œTypical Callahan.”
    Jackie felt another butterfly float across her stomach. “Listen, I think I’m going to head out. What papers do you want me to sign before I go?”
    Darla grinned. “Several papers. And we’ll need to go to the bank on Monday. But,” she said with a teasing smile, “if the fortune-teller’s right and you turn up pregnant, you have to model one of our gowns at your wedding.”
    â€œOh, sure,” Jackie said, “fat chance.”
    But deep inside her heart, Jackie knew she would have loved to have had a child with Pete. “Hey, let’s take a drive.”
    â€œA drive where?” Darla asked.
    â€œOver to the Jenkins’.”
    Darla hesitated before getting up to put her long blond hair into a ponytail. She pulled on a knitted cap and a wool jacket. “I’m ready to ride.”
    â€œYou don’t mind?”
    â€œI totally understand. You’d feel