Braden didn’t want to think about her leaving right now. Not when he was just barely getting to know her and had the urge to learn even more. He stole a glance her way and caught her studying him intently.
“Tell me more about the twins,” she said. “I’ve only spent a few hours with them, but they’re cool kids. They’re not only cute, they’re bright and funny, too.”
“The language difference makes it tough for me to get a handle on their personalities, although I’ve figured out that Bela is sweet and motherly, while Beto is inquisitive and loves animals.”
“I’ll work on teaching them English, and before you know it, you’ll be able to communicate with them.” She took another bite of her frozen treat. “What do you know about their life before coming here?”
“Not much.” Braden finished off his Popsicle, then tossed the stick in the trash. “Did they say anything to you about their background?”
“I didn’t quiz them. Do you want me to?”
“Yes, if you’d be sensitive and do it gently. My brother and sister don’t speak Spanish, either—at least not well enough to broach a difficult subject with two kids who lost both their mom and their dad within two years. We’re pretty sure about what’s gone on in their lives in the past six months, but the whole Camilla mystery has all three of us curious.”
“Who’s Camilla?”
“Their mother. Camilla Cruz was an artist who died of breast cancer two years ago.”
“What do you mean by her ‘mystery’?”
“Camilla’s father, Reuben, used to be a foreman on the Leaning R Ranch, but he quit and returned to Mexico about four years ago, telling Granny Rayburn that he had a family emergency to tend to.” Braden raked a hand through his hair. “Camilla had visited the Leaning R, and she and my dad became lovers. But she left Texas without telling him where she was going.”
“Was she pregnant with the twins when she left?”
“Apparently. I’m not sure he knew it, though. I suspect that he only learned about their existence in the past year or so because, six months ago, he hired a private investigative firm to find the kids in Mexico. Then he went with the PI to bring them back to the States, but he and the investigator were both killed in a car accident. So I’m afraid any other details about Beto and Bela died with them, as well as the reason he had placed various pieces of Camilla’s artwork in storage in San Antonio.”
Elena leaned forward and placed her elbows on the table. “How do you know the twins are his?”
“They were born in San Diego, and Charles Rayburn is listed as their father on their birth certificates. Their passports reflect the same thing, and we have reason to believe that once he learned of their existence, he never doubted that they were his.”
“So you don’t think he knew about them until recently?”
“My dad was always financially generous with his kids, and there was no record of him having paid any child support payments for Beto and Bela. So it’s pretty obvious that he’d only recently found out about them and meant to bring them home.”
“How did they get here?” she asked.
“When it was learned that my dad had been working with a private investigator, I wondered what he’d been looking for.”
“He didn’t tell anyone?”
“My dad?” Braden slowly shook his head. “He never shared his personal life with me—or with anyone. Jason worked for Rayburn Enterprises, and even he didn’t know why our old man had left the country or hired a bilingual PI firm.”
“How did you find out about the twins? Did you go through the investigator’s company records?”
“There weren’t many notes that could help. I’d just gotten home from my first and last go round on the rodeo circuit and didn’t have anything else going on at the time. So, to appease my curiosity and to get my mind off the fact that my body was in no shape to pursue a career in bull riding, I took a little trip south of the border to see what I could find out. A week later, I learned that my dad had been looking for twins who’d been placed in an orphanage. Come to find out, they were Camilla’s children, and she’d passed away a couple years earlier.”
“So you were able to bring them back to the States?”
“I would have, but when my grandpa took a turn for the worse, I rushed home to be with him and my mom. So Jason took up the search and found them living with a woman our old man had hired just before the accident.”
Elena seemed to consider everything he’d told her. And he couldn’t blame her. It had been a lot for him—for any of them—to wrap their minds around. But she was a good listener, at least better than the buckle bunnies he’d gotten involved with on the pro rodeo circuit.
“I can see where you’d be curious about their early years,” she said. “I’ll ask a few questions to see what they have to say.”
“Thanks. Jason and his wife made it a point not to discuss the situation in front of them, even though they don’t speak English. So it would be nice if we could get a better understanding of what went down with their mother and our father before we tell them anything.”
“You mean, they don’t know what’s going to become of them?” she asked, her pretty brow furrowed. “Do they know they’re related to you? It could be very unsettling not to know where you’re going to live or who will be taking care of you.”
“Either Jason or Carly will probably become their legal guardian, although we haven’t decided who’s going to do it yet. We’re still trying to deal with the news and to determine what’s best for them.”
“Who took care of them while they were living in Mexico?” she asked.
“For the past six months, it was the woman my dad hired, but she didn’t offer much information.”
“Because of the language barrier?”
Braden blew out a sigh. “That was only part of it. She wasn’t very warm or loving.”
“Did she treat them badly?”
“You might ask them, but they didn’t appear to have been neglected or abused. Apparently, when my dad didn’t return when he said he would, she assumed that he’d abandoned them and cheated her out of the money he owed her. She was just about to return them to the orphanage where they’d been living before my dad found them.”
“That’s so sad.”
“We thought so, too.” Braden tore his gaze away and studied the pattern on the tile floor. His heart went out to the poor kids, and he was determined to be a good big brother. He just wished he would have had one he could emulate. Jason had often avoided him or ignored him while they’d grown up. Not that he’d been eager to make friends, either.
But that was just one more thing he could blame on his father, one more handicap he hoped he’d overcome.
Fortunately, things were better between the half siblings now, which only made him regret the years they could have had. But that was all water under the bridge.
Yet, in spite of his resolve not to stew about the past—or his lovely companion—his thoughts and his gaze drifted off anyway.
* * *
Elena hadn’t meant to stare at the handsome cowboy, but he was so deep in thought that his expression was hard to read, even though a slew of emotions filled his meadow-green eyes like a soft summer rain.
Besides, he intrigued her. His family did, too, especially when she considered the great effort they’d gone to in order to bring the kids to Texas and their determination to provide