“Thank you for agreeing to come with me.” Dallas put her hand in Lawson’s outstretched one. He was pretty happy about that.

Parked outside the Triple C Ranch, he assisted the beautiful, delicious-smelling woman from the cab of his truck. Dallas looked stunning, as always, in a pretty green dress and those boots that made him want to look at her legs. Any man would be proud to be seen with her.

She was an awesome person too. She had to be to deal so kindly with snarky, moody Madison.

Last night, they’d had an incredible time at his ranch. Dallas had proved to be a fine horsewoman and had even given Madison, a complete greenhorn, a few pointers as they’d ridden slowly to the big pond and back. He’d pointed out the ranch boundaries, his small head of mama cows and the other horses.

She’d seemed impressed, complimenting the place in a way that made him proud of his accomplishments.

Yeah. He definitely hoped this woman stuck around for a while.

When she’d invited him to go with her to meet the rest of the Caldwell clan, he couldn’t have refused if he’d wanted to. Thankfully, he hadn’t wanted to. “They’re fantastic people. You’re going to like them.”

“At least we have a love of horses in common.”

“And probably more than that.”

“But I don’t look like any of them, you said. I’m the outcast, the odd man out, the secret they didn’t know about.”

They’d been over this last night.

He took her hand and squeezed. Sure, it was an excuse, but she needed the calming comfort, and he liked touching her soft skin. He knew she was nervous. He was sorry about that, but convinced she’d feel better after she’d discovered how open-hearted her new family could be.

“They’re not going to judge you, Dallas. I know them.” If they were going to judge anyone, it would have been him after he’d arrested Wyatt’s fiancé and tossed her in jail. Lawson winced. On Christmas day, no less. But they hadn’t. That was the kind of people they were.

“It all seems…overwhelming.” Dallas licked pink lips as they walked up the tall steps to the front door of the Triple C Ranch. “I’m glad they agreed to only dessert and coffee this time, and to save dinner for another night. I’m not ready for that.”

“Understandable. This way if you want to escape, we can simply make our excuses and leave. Just give the signal.”

She stopped at the door and without ringing the bell, shot him another anxious look. “What’s the signal?”

He thought for a second. “If you’re not comfortable saying you’re ready to leave, how about asking me if Madison had a lot of homework tonight?”

“Okay. Sounds good.” She took a deep breath and pushed the bell. Inside, a chime sounded, like a grandfather clock marking time.

He squeezed her hand again and winked. She flashed those blue-green eyes at him, trying to smile. He had the insanely random thought that if they had babies together, the kids would have some amazing blue eyes.

The thought shook him. Dumb. Random. No way that was happening. He liked being a bachelor. Had no time for a family. Just ask the poor kid living on his ranch.

The huge, carved door swung opened, and Wyatt appeared, his usual intensity giving away to a friendly greeting. “Come on in. Glad you could make it. The gang’s in the family room.”

Dallas flicked another anxious glance at Lawson. He gently touched her back, urging her inside the warm, welcoming home.

Leaning close to her ear, he murmured, “Don’t get sick on me again. Defacing private property is a capital offense, and I didn’t bring my handcuffs.”

His silliness made her smile. She nodded, straightened her spine and followed Wyatt into the house.

Dallas knew Lawson had been kidding, but she seriously thought she might throw up. She’d never been this nervous. What if they hated her on sight? What if someone said something really cruel about her mother? About her? What would she do?

She was so glad Lawson was at her side. His strength and humor were exactly what she needed at the moment. It didn’t hurt that under a Wrangler fleece jacket, he looked really handsome in a gray plaid shirt, faded blue jeans and cowboy boots. Nice. Tummy-tingling nice.

They passed through a spotlessly clean living room of dark wood furniture, through an enviable, gleaming kitchen, and toward the voices. Her radio experience picked up the nuances of conversation, the inflections, the innuendoes. So far, so good.

As she entered the room, she saw a sea of faces. Lots of them. Her pulse trembled.

Conversations stopped. Only for a second, but long enough to shoot another jolt of panic through Dallas’s bloodstream. Quickly, the noise returned, this time in greetings as two women rose from a leather couch and came toward her. She recognized them from the photos Wyatt had shown her. Connie and Emily.

Connie, a lovely, mature Latina with shots of silver along the sides of mid-length dark brown hair, stretched out her hands. Dallas, not knowing what else to do, took them. They were as warm as the woman’s smile.

“Welcome,” Connie said, with a Spanish accent. “We have been waiting for you. You are Dallas, no?”

“Yes. Dallas Langley. And you must be Connie.” She looked at the other woman. “And you’re Emily.” My half sister, but she didn’t say that part. She’d let the family make the first moves in that respect.

Lawson held her coat while she slid it off. She could feel him hovering nearby, quietly protective. Though it was a by-product of his career, she was touched, and his appeal rating scooted up another notch.

“I showed her some family photos,” Wyatt said as he took a seat beside his petite fiancé. Try as she might, Dallas couldn’t remember the woman’s name. Her little boy either, but he was cute, snuggled in between his mother and Wyatt.

“Forgive me, please, if I falter. This has been a lot to absorb. But,” she added quickly, “I’m honored to meet all of you.”

From there, she, a woman who made a living talking, didn’t know what to say or do other than take a seat next to Lawson on yet another couch, this one in a cushy Apache print. The large room was packed with couples and kids, along with Connie and Gilbert, who were long-time employees but behaved and were treated like family members. That gave her hope that she could at least be friends with her father’s other children.

Somehow, she carried on conversations over coffee and dark chocolate cake while being amused by the antics of a set of precocious identical twin girls, Sophia and Olivia, and the well-behaved little boy, Braden, son of Wyatt’s fiancé, Marley. She’d picked up the names as she’d listened and watched, but she’d have to work on remembering everyone. If they invited her back. And if she agreed to return.

They were cordial, as Lawson had promised, but she felt an undercurrent of tension. Maybe it was her own insecurities.

Ace, her movie-star gorgeous brother, seemed the most distant, the most watchful. His wife, Marisa kept smoothing a hand over his back as if he needed calming. They made Dallas more nervous than she already was.

She answered their questions and asked a few of her own, though all of them were careful to avoid the main subject—how had she come to exist?

She told them a little about growing up in Texas and her love of horses, knowing this was common ground. She slid in the fact that her mother was a barrel racer of some repute and told them of her own career as a radio announcer. She didn’t tell them about her most recent trouble or the lost job. Some things were too personal to share with family she’d only met today.

The tension in the back of her neck was killing her. Was she making a good impression? Did they hate her? And why did she care so much?

Suddenly, she felt Lawson’s hand taking hers. She glanced at him. His eyes questioned her. Had she had enough? Did she want to leave?

Sweet man. And he was a cop.

She subtly shook her head and tried to relax, an impossible task, but his touch encouraged her.

Trying to move the conversation away from herself, she said, “Tell me more about our father. I wish I could have known him.”

It was the right thing to say.

They filled her in about Clint Caldwell, sharing stories about their father that made him seem almost real. Still, they avoided asking about her mother.

“Once when I was about thirteen and thought I knew everything,” Nate said in his gentle way that fit the teddy-bear image Wyatt had painted for her, “Dad bought a stallion to start a new breeding program. He warned all of us to stay away from the new horse until he’d had time to work with it and make sure it was safe.”

“But Nate didn’t,” Emily added. “He thought he was a real wrangler by then.”

“Sure, I did,” Nate said. “I’d been riding all my life, and we’d owned stallions before.”

Dallas leaned forward a little. “What happened?”

One of the twins lifted her arms, and Nate set her on his knee. She kissed his cheek, and the cowboy smooched the top of her dark head. “I learned a valuable lesson.”

“And nearly got your daddy killed in the process,” Gilbert added, his Native American features wreathed in affectionate annoyance.

“I got the stallion saddled with no problem, led him out into the paddock and climbed aboard.” Nate rubbed his chin and grimaced. “The last thing I remember is seeing dad running out of the barn just as I went flying through the air.”

“I remember. Real good,” Gilbert said. “Connie heard Clint holler and busted out of the house. Clint vaulted the fence into the paddock like an Olympian. By then, the stallion was out of his head, raring, pawing.”

“And Nate was under his hooves.” Connie looked as if she’d never gotten over the fright.

“I don’t remember a thing,” Nate said.

“Because you were unconscious, doofus,” Ace said, his green eyes poking fun at his brother.

“Unconscious,” Gilbert repeated. “Connie was crying and praying in Spanish while Clint stormed that stallion as if he wasn’t dangerous. Stallion’s hooves got him right across the shoulder.”

“Knocked him down, but he got back up. His arm hung to one side.” Connie muttered something in Spanish and shook her head. “I knew it was broken.”

“That’s when you started inside the paddock.” Ace pointed to Gilbert.

“Clint yelled at me to stay out. Boss’s orders.” Gilbert huffed. “Made me plenty mad, so I yelled for the other hands to bring ropes and snuck inside anyway.”

“Clint tried to fire you for disobeying orders.” Connie’s gaze rested on Gilbert, her smile tender. Was there something between the two?

“Yep.” A grin split Gilbert’s dark face. “But I wouldn’t leave. So he unfired me after a few days.”

Dallas was intrigued and touched by the devotion running through this family. Her family. “How did you settle the horse and get your—our father—and Nate to safety?”

“Clint kept on talking and walking toward that wild animal. Told me to get the boy out, so I did. Clint had the stallion’s reins in his good hand by the time the other men arrived. They roped that crazy stallion, front and back, and worked him into the stall.”

“And sold him, not long after,” Emily added. “He was beautiful but too high strung for us.”

“Dad required surgery, was in a cast and a sling for three months.” Nate’s lips thinned, expression somber. “I hated that. Felt even worse because he never punished me, never even said a word except, ‘Is Nate all right?’ But I never disobeyed an order again.”

The story touched her. Would Clint have felt the same about her? Would he have protected her with his life? He sounded liked the kind of man who would have, and believing that soothed a lonely place deep inside. She’d never had that bond, that fatherly protection, and she’d missed it. Missed it still.

“He sounds terrific. I wish…” The useless wish stuck in a throat that had grown full and achy, longing for the impossible.

“Dad had his faults,” Nate said. “He could be tough and too involved in his work, but we knew he loved us. He proved it that day.”

“Were you badly hurt?” Dallas asked.

“Nah. Knocked the breath out of me and gave me a headache. I got my bell rung worse playing football.”

“And jumping out of the barn loft.” Ace’s grin was mischievous.

Nate pointed an index finger at his brother. “That was your fault.”

Both men laughed.

The toddler wiggled down from Nate’s lap and went in search of her sister, who was playing dollies while Braden drove a Hotwheel around in circles, making motor noises.

The conversation went on around her with Lawson chiming in with a story about her brothers’ antics. She enjoyed the tales. They helped her know her siblings better, though it stung a little to have no shared memories.

With the focus and pressure off her, she sipped her coffee. It had cooled, but she didn’t complain. She mostly wanted something to do with her hands anyway.

After a couple of hours, conversation lagged, and she said to Lawson, “We should go. It’s getting late. I don’t want to outstay my welcome.”

“You couldn’t,” Connie said, “But Lawson says you have been sick, and we talk too much. You should rest now.”

“Thank you, Connie. You’ve been so kind. I realize how awkward this must be for everyone.”

“God is good, and He always has a good plan. Si?” Connie clasped her hands in front of her like a prayer.

She could easily learn to love this woman. “I believe that too.”

“Bueno. So, we will be familia.” To Lawson, Connie said. “You bring her back soon. When she is ready. Okay? And bring your niece too. I will make tamal.”

Lawson grinned that charming grin of his. “For your tamales, anything.”

They departed then, the cold night air a jolt after the warm house. Dallas stuck her hands in her coat pockets, glad for Lawson’s hand at her elbow as they traversed the steps to the truck.

She’d survived. And she was relieved to find her new family to be friendly, if cautious. She understood that. She was cautious too. But she still didn’t know how her parents had met.

Lawson guided a shivering Dallas to the dark gray Silverado, his personal vehicle. He was confident Dallas’s shivering had as much to do with nerves as the chilly weather, but he started the engine and cranked up the heater first thing.

When they were on the road, the lights of the Triple C behind them, he glanced at her. She’d clasped her hands tightly in her lap.

“Are you all right?”

She nodded, let out a breath. “It was a good meeting, I thought, even if it was uncomfortable.”

“You were smooth as butter.” But he’d read her body language, knew she’d been anxious and tense the entire time. “They liked you.”

She angled toward him, the seat belt tugging across her shoulder. “You think? I couldn’t tell. They’re nice, but they have to bear some resentment toward me.”

“Why?”

Dallas lifted a palm. “News flash, sheriff. I’m the illegitimate child of their father, who, according to you, was a paragon of virtue, devoted to his wife.”

Lawson frowned. “You happened after his wife died. From your age and the date of Cori’s death, it’s clear Clint was a widower when he and your mother were involved.”

That much was good news. Yet, Clint had also been free to marry and hadn’t. Dallas didn’t want to let that hurt her, but it did.

“Mom’s the only one who can say what really happened, and I’m afraid to tell her that I know.”

“Give yourself some time. This is all still very new. Once you get better acquainted with the Caldwells, I think you won’t question their intentions, and you’ll be proud to talk about them.”

“I hope so. At least they didn’t try to kill me because I’d inherited a lot of their money or land from our mutual father.”

Lawson bit back a snort. “They are pretty wealthy, and the Triple C Ranch is one of the biggest spreads in this part of the state.”

She groaned. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

“But Wyatt is convinced your dad didn’t know about you, so there is no inheritance.”

“Thank goodness.”

This time the snort escaped. “I don’t think anyone has ever felt that way about not inheriting money before.”

“A disputed inheritance is one less thing to worry about.” She rubbed a hand over the back of her neck and squeezed.

“Your head starting to hurt?”

“Neck tension. I get that sometimes when I’m stressed.”

“Which seems to be a lot.”

“Under the current circumstance and adding a couple of things I’ve gone through lately, it’s explainable, but you’re right. I stress too much. God and I are working on it, but I’m not holding up my end of the deal.” She stretched her arms out in front of her, shook them out as if to release tension. “Enough about me. Let’s discuss your niece.”

“Madison?” He shot her a look and then returned his attention to the highway. “Why? What’s to discuss?”

“She needs a woman in her life.”

He groaned. “I know. And she needs her father too, but neither parent seems inclined.”

“Right. Which leads me to an offer.”

“Keep talking.”

“I’m going to stay in Calypso for a week or two to learn more about my father.”

Yes! He almost ran off the road.

“Emily mentioned a nice B and B with better rates than the hotel, plus breakfast, so I may move there.”

What did this have to do with Madison? “The Royal? Nice place. The owner, Countess von Dunenburg, is quirky, but a good sort, and the house is beautiful. On the inside.”

“She’s a real countess?”

“An American who married a European count years ago when she was a student studying abroad. He died a few years back, so she moved here, bought the house, turned it into a swanky bed and breakfast.”

“I’m intrigued.”

“Good.” And he meant that. He wanted her to like the Royal, like Calypso, fall in love with her family and stick around.

And he must be losing his ever-loving mind.

“So what does any of this have to do with Madison?”

“I want to spend time with her, if you’re okay with it.”

Okay with it? His heart was leaping out of his chest. “Why would you do that?”

“Because, behind that wall of self-protection is a girl I like, a girl with huge potential, and she responds well to me, most of the time. Maybe I can help while I’m here.”

While she was here. Right. Settle down heart. Dallas was meant for greener pastures. “To be honest, I’d be grateful.”

“I’m not criticizing you, Lawson. I want to be clear about that. Madison likes and respects you, but you remind her of her dad, and she struggles to trust.”

“She tell you this?”

“Not outright, but I’m good at reading people, taking what they say and filling in the background. Did you know she’s already dealing with a bully at school?”

Lawson clenched the steering wheel. “I’ll kick his tail.”

Dallas snickered. “The bully is a girl in her class who talks trash and gives Madison a hard time. Madison says she could handle it herself, but she’s afraid you’ll get mad and send her to foster care.”

“She said that?”

“Basically.”

“Dumb kid. If she’d just talk to me.”

“She’s scared of rejection.”

“You missed your calling. You know that? You should be a counselor.”

Dallas lifted one shoulder, aching a little for what she’d left back in Bayville. “In a way I am. Or I was. And I loved it.”

“You should do that again, here in Calypso.” He was pathetic. She didn’t belong here, wouldn’t stay. “I mean, until you find something better. Check out the local station and keep up your skills, gain some new fans.”

“I’ll think about it.”

He’d have to be content with that. For now.

They pulled into the hotel parking lot, and he lifted her out of the truck, more as an excuse to hold her than because she needed assistance.

As he slid her to the pavement, he pulled her a little closer than was necessary and held on, his arms sliding around her waist.

A car passed on the adjacent street, but he and Dallas were protected from prying eyes by his tall truck. The streetlights cast long shadows over the parking area and across Dallas’s lovely face. Even in the dark, she glowed with a beauty that took his breath. Inner beauty, outer beauty, Dallas was the complete package.

He was taking no chances tonight. No interruptions, no guests plowing into his romantic moment. No Madison to roll her eyes.

“Before we go inside…” He gazed down into her face. In heels, she was almost as tall as he was. Perfect.

“Yes.” Head tilted, Dallas circled his neck with both arms, her lush lips curved and inviting.

He might be a cautious lawman, but he didn’t resist the subtle invitation.

His mouth closed over hers, and she sighed as if she’d been waiting for this moment all evening long. He’d been waiting too. Maybe forever.

She was beautiful, passionate, warm and wonderful.

A tender ache rose in Lawson’s throat. Strange to feel so much so soon for this woman.

He heard a sound, realized it came from him, a soft, pleased hum. Everything about her called to him.

He tugged her gently closer. As a lawman, he was well disciplined, but Dallas made him feel things. Things that eroded his control. He reined it in, raising his face to gaze into eyes he’d never forget. Not ever.

“Wow,” she whispered, bemused, pleased. Her breath tickled his lips. “I wasn’t expecting…that.”

That explosion of emotion, the exquisite tenderness, the sudden thought that this, this was right. And that it mattered. She mattered.

“Me either,” he whispered, stunned, mesmerized, swamped.

And then Lawson was kissing her again as if only Dallas held the keys to unlock his heart, as if he’d waited for this moment, this woman, all his life.

Man, was he in trouble.