The Texas Ranger's Twins. Tina Leonard

we’ve never seen a man so ready to marry and start a family.”

      Pete was grinning like mad. Dane perked up under the women’s admiring eyes, though his courage wanted to take a major hike. “I plan on settling down in Mexico next year, as a matter of fact.”

      “Oh. Mexico?” Suzy said, sounding surprised, and maybe unpleasantly so.

      “Cost of living’s great,” he explained. “I figure if Pop can live in France and all over the world, I should at least be able to park my boots in a border country.”

      “I guess so,” Suzy said.

      Cricket nodded. “It makes sense.”

      They turned their attention back to Pete, who was grinning at him like a stupid hyena. The three of them, along with the tiny toddlers, one of which was held by Pete and one by Cricket, continued walking along the sidewalk. There wasn’t enough room for him, unless he wanted to walk in the street, which he didn’t, because that would feel as if he wasn’t part of the group—a mere hanger-on pedestrian. Didn’t Pete have some secret agent-spy stuff he needed to attend to? Dane wondered sourly.

      Some chaperone Cricket was turning out to be—more like the fairy matchmaker. Suzy was supposed to be his responsibility, according to Pop’s instructions—those very same instructions he’d cursorily read last June and then shuffled onto an intermediate, he recalled. And then he’d headed off for six months, keeping himself well away from the mother and her twins. Thwarting Pop was great, but he didn’t like Pete weaseling in on his assignment.

      He let himself think up the most impressive thing he could possibly hope to say to a group like this.

      “Let’s go to the rodeo tomorrow,” he suggested, and with Pete gesturing No to him, it was like a comet he could latch on to with joy. “Anybody up for watching cowboys get thrown in Lonely Hearts Station?”

      “That sounds like so much fun!” Suzy exclaimed. Cricket nodded enthusiastically, but Pete’s lips turned down in a tight frown.

      Dane clapped him on the back. “Remember when you wanted to grow up to be a rodeo clown?”

      “At least one of us has achieved clown status,” Pete said.

      “We’d best get back,” Suzy said, “the girls are starting to get a little fussy. And we want to be well rested for the rodeo tomorrow.”

      “What’s the problem?” Dane asked Pete under his breath. “It’s just harmless fun.” Of course, that’s what he’d thought about tonight’s outing, and look where it had gotten him: showboating into another outing with Suzy.

      Not with Suzy—with the group, he told the mocking voice chiding him.

      “If you’re smart,” Pete said as the ladies walked ahead of them, “you’ll figure out what you’re going to do to cure the case of hots scorching your brain.”

      “What do you mean?” Dane demanded, but Pete just shook his head.

      “Knucklehead,” Dane said as Pete galloped off with Sandra on his shoulders, “you just want every woman for yourself.”

      He understood himself well enough to know that the family closeness and brotherly harmony his father dreamed of wasn’t going to happen if he and Pete hit a rough patch because of a woman.

      The best thing he could do was to forget about Suzy and her twins altogether.

      “At least I still have Mexico,” he muttered, and then wondered why the idea of palm trees in January didn’t seem quite as exciting as it once had.