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Kade sit up a little straighter in his chair. He would have bet Jeb hadn’t noticed—he was too busy being a horse’s ass, but Kade stuck the exchange away in the back of his mind, to be considered later on.
    “What’s this about a job offer?” Angus demanded, stone-faced. To his way of thinking, his sons belonged on the Triple M ranch, and nowhere else. Life might have been simpler for Kade if he hadn’t agreed; he’d probably be practicing law in San Francisco or working for the Pinkerton Agency by now, if it weren’t for his love of the land.
    “I might fill in for John Lewis awhile,” Kade said, glaring at Jeb, warning him with his eyes that there would be a reckoning, and sooner, rather than later.
    “It seems to me, Jeb McKettrick,” Concepcion said when a space opened in the conversation, so she could herd a few words through it, “that you ought to be doing some courting yourself, instead of tormenting your brother.”
    Jeb’s grin broadened, and he shrugged. “It just may be,” he said, smooth as cream rising on new milk, “that I’ve already got a wife.” He held up his left hand and, sure as hell, there was a gold band on the appropriate finger. No doubt he’d used it to keep the brides at bay, back in town.
    The room was so still that if it hadn’t been for a piece of wood crumbling in the belly of the stove, Kade would have sworn he’d gone deaf as a post.

Chapter 5
     
     
    “I f you’ve taken a wife,” Angus challenged his youngest son, being the first to recover, “where is she?” After all, anybody could buy a ring, and Jeb was just crafty enough to do it.
    “Yeah,” Kade echoed. “Where is she?” He hadn’t seen any sign of a bride since he’d hooked up with Jeb down in Tombstone, nor had he caught a glimmer of the wedding band, but that didn’t mean the sidewinder wasn’t hiding a woman away someplace and planning to spring her on them all at the worst possible moment; hell, she might already be breeding.
    Jeb was ruminating on his answer, and enjoying the process a mite too much for Kade’s taste, when the subject fell by the wayside all on its own. A wagon rolled up outside, raising a clamor, and Concepcion left off clipping to stand on tiptoe and peer out the window over the sink.
    “It’s Rafe and Emmeline,” she announced, without turning around. “And they’ve got the little nun with them.”
    Kade closed his eyes, shook his head. He supposed he could tolerate Rafe, and he was out-and-out fond of Emmeline, like the rest of the family, but he had real misgivings about the nun. She wasn’t what she appeared to be, which meant she was living a lie, and Kade had no patience with liars. Besides, she made him jittery.
    There was some stomping on the porch, and then the back door swung open and Emmeline came in, followed by Sister Mandy and, finally, Rafe. He looked even bigger than usual, in contrast to two middling-sized women.
    Emmeline was smiling, her cheeks pink with fresh air and cold, and she made a beeline for Angus, who, besotted, had risen to his feet in honor of her presence. She stretched to kiss his stubbly cheek.
    “Are you happy now, Angus McKettrick?” she demanded with bright affection. “You’ve got all your rascal boys rounded up and roped in.”
    Angus chuckled and kissed her forehead, his big, gaunt hands resting lightly on her shoulders. “It’s you I’ve missed most,” he said shyly. Then he looked past her to Rafe, who’d enjoyed the status of firstborn son, until Holt Cavanagh had turned up, anyhow. He wasn’t quite so sure of himself now, old Rafe, for all that he was first in line to run the ranch and, therefore, Kade’s and Jeb’s lives. “Took you long enough to fetch your wife home where she belongs,” Angus told him, his gaze straying once to the gold glint on Jeb’s ring finger. He wasn’t happy if he wasn’t grousing about something.
    Rafe smiled, but when he linked gazes with first Kade, then Jeb, the expression