“The best pancakes are made from scratch anyways,” Autumn said with a smile and then leaned over to speak to Blue. “Sweetie, I thought I told you to wait for me in the bathroom while I grabbed your hairbrush and ponytail holder from your suitcase and a change of clothes.”
“I was hungry.”
“Even so, you shouldn’t be wandering around by yourself.”
“I wasn’t by myself,” she said, looking up at Tucker who stood on her other side. “I was with my daddy.”
A slight frown tugged at Autumn’s lips as she straightened. “Yes, I suppose you were.”
Tucker looked over to find Garrett and Jackson staring at Autumn, mouths agape. And he understood why. They’d known Summer from the rodeo, had known their little brother had been sweet on her that rodeo season. And with Blue calling him daddy he could just imagine what they were thinking. Only they had it all wrong.
Clearing his throat, he said, “Jackson and Garrett, I’d like you to meet Autumn Myers, Summer’s twin sister.”
“Her twin?” Jackson said as if having trouble accepting that this wasn’t the Summer they had once known, standing there.
“Identical twin,” Autumn supplied with a sad smile.
Tucker wanted to explain why his wife wasn’t there and her sister was, but he didn’t want to mention Summer’s passing with his daughter standing there. Her mother’s loss had been traumatic enough for her as it was.
“My mommy’s in heaven,” Blue said sadly.
Tucker’s heart ached for his little girl. No child should ever have to speak those words.
An uncomfortable silence fell over the room.
Clearing the emotion from his throat, Tucker said, “Her aunt Autumn brought Blue here to meet her family.”
“And maybe I’ll get to live here if you want me,” Blue reminded him.
“As I said before, wanting you isn’t an issue,” he replied tenderly. “I do without a doubt. You belong here.”
“Tucker, please,” Autumn warned in a hushed voice beside him. “Don’t get her hopes up. It’s too soon.”
“You have a daughter,” Garrett said disbelievingly.
Tucker nodded. “I do.”
“All these years and you’ve never said anything?” Jackson grumbled, clearly hurt by what he thought had been Tucker’s decision to keep Blue’s existence from them.
“Why don’t Blue and I give you men a few moments of privacy while she gets dressed for the day?” Autumn said, taking her niece by the hand. “Just give me a holler when you’re ready for me to start on those pancakes.”
His brothers parted to let them through.
“Are my uncles mad at my daddy?” Tucker heard Blue ask as Autumn led her away. Any answer her aunt might have given was lost as the two scurried toward the entryway.
Garrett waited a moment and then turned to face him. “I can’t believe you kept this from us.”
Tucker hated the censure he saw in his brother’s eyes.
Jackson crossed the room to grab a couple of coffee cups from the cupboard. “I wouldn’t have expected this from you,” he muttered as he placed them onto the counter and then reached for the coffeepot. “Momma raised us better than that.”
This was going to be even harder than he’d imagined it would be, not that he’d had much time to think about how everything was going to play out. Just one sleepless night in the barn. He took a seat at the table and dragged a hand down over his face, feeling the stubble of his unshaven jaw. “I didn’t know about Blue,” he said, the admission stoking the flames of his resentment toward Summer for keeping his daughter from him. “Not until last evening when Autumn showed up on my doorstep to tell me about Summer’s...passing.” The word caught in his throat.
“I’m sorry,” Garrett said solemnly. “I know how much she meant to you at one time.”
Enough to marry, Tucker thought, his jaw tightening.
Jackson walked over and handed Garrett a steaming mug and then both men settled themselves into the empty chairs across the table from Tucker, disapproval etched into their tanned faces.
“I know what you’re both thinking,” Tucker grumbled. “And you’re wrong.”
“You just told us that Blue is your daughter,” their oldest brother said, pinning Tucker with his gaze.
“She is. Only I didn’t know Summer was carrying my child when she walked away from our marriage.”
Jackson nearly choked on the sip of coffee he’d just taken. “Marriage?”
“You both know I fell pretty hard for her when we met. By the time rodeo season came to an end, I couldn’t imagine leaving her. She felt the same.” At least, he’d thought she had. But if she had, she would have told him about the baby. Would have given him the chance to think about giving up the rodeo life, instead of making the decision herself to end something they had started together. “We both decided to put down roots in Cheyenne, the place where we’d first met. So I bought her a ring and got married at the courthouse.”
“You have something against church weddings?” Garrett asked with a disapproving frown.
“We wanted a quick, small, private wedding.”
“Can’t get more private than a courthouse wedding,” Jackson muttered angrily as he brought his coffee cup to his lips. “You might have at least included your immediate family in something as sacred as the exchanging of your wedding vows.”
Garrett’s downturned mouth pulled tighter. “And to think we all believed you had stayed behind when rodeo season ended to work a job until the next year’s circuit began anew.”
He had found filler work in Cheyenne to help pay the bills. That much was true.
“Did your rushed marriage have something to do with Summer having your baby?”
Tucker pinned his oldest brother with his gaze. “Blue came after the fact. I rushed into a hasty marriage with Summer because I was young and thought love was something it turned out not to be,” he replied, feeling the need to clarify things.
“We all knew you were always one to jump feetfirst into the fire,” Garrett said crossly, “but marriage, Tucker? Never mind the not including us when the nuptials took place, because you and I both know I would have done my best to talk you out of it with you being only twenty-four at the time. But why not tell us about your marriage afterward?”
“Summer and I agreed to take a little time to settle into marriage before telling our families. My family actually,” he amended, “as my wife led me to believe she had none. But things changed. My wife changed.” He went on to tell his brothers everything he knew, but there were still so many unanswered questions he might never get answers to now that she was gone.
Empathy replaced the hurt and anger he’d seen in Garrett’s eyes. His brother released a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. It certainly explains why you’ve avoided any real relationship since that summer. I put it off to your not wanting the distraction while competitively riding. Then after we started up our rodeo stock company I thought it had something to do with your delving hard into that. Never in a million years would I have guessed the truth having anything to do with you being married.”
Jackson sat back against the kitchen chair and shoved a splayed hand back through