The Tycoon's Tots by Stella Bagwell Page A

careful with the children.”
    He hadn’t been thinking only of the twins’ safety. He’d been thinking of her, too. Thank goodness, she didn’t know that. The last thing he needed was for Chloe Murdock believing she’d gotten under his skin.

Chapter Five
    â€œT his is totally unnecessary,” Chloe said to her sisters the next evening as they both attempted to shoo her out of the stable.
    â€œWe’ll finish up here,” Rose assured her. “You go on to the house and get ready for your dinner guest.”
    â€œDinner guest. Hell’s bells, Rose! Belinda Waller’s brother isn’t my dinner guest!”
    Justine rolled her eyes. “Well, the man is coming to supper, Chloe. What else would you call him?”
    Chloe could think of several choice words, but she knew her sisters, especially Rose, wouldn’t appreciate hearing them.
    Turning to Justine, she said, “You shouldn’t even be down here. Roy will have a fit if he finds out!”
    â€œRoy knows exactly where I am and what I’m doing. The doctor wants me to get exercise and I won’t lift anything I shouldn’t. Rose will make sure of that.”
    Seeing she couldn’t argue with either of them, Chloe threw up her hands and headed out of the stable.
    â€œChloe, please hold on to your temper and be nice to the man,” Rose called after her.
    â€œRemember,” Justine added, “sugar catches more flies than vinegar.”
    â€œWho’s going to be doing any fly catching? I just want to make the man see he’s wasting his time here.”
    Up at the house Chloe found Kitty already busy in the kitchen. When she spotted several New York strips lying on the butcher block, she asked in a scandalized voice, “You’re not going to fix these, are you? These are the ranch’s best steaks! We only eat these on special occasions.”
    Kitty shrugged as she cut shortening into a bowl of flour. “This is a special occasion. The twins’ uncle is coming for dinner.”
    Just hearing Kitty say the word uncle chilled her. “You make it sound like he’s already a part of the family!”
    Kitty pointed the pastry blender at her niece. “Chloe, I think you need to face the fact that Wyatt Sanders will always be Adam and Anna’s uncle. No matter what.”
    â€œI can live with that as long as he stays in Houston and the twins stay here,” she said.
    With a helpless shake of her head, Kitty turned back to her pastry bowl. “Do you mean to tell me that you’d like it if the twins never saw him?”
    Sighing, Chloe walked over to the refrigerator and pushed a glass under the water dispenser on the door. “Would that be so bad?”
    â€œChloe, I’d be the first one to put up a fight if Wyatt tried to take the twins from this ranch. I don’t think he should even consider trying to do such a thing. But I also believe it would be wrong of us to try to cut him totally out of their lives. He has a right to his family. Just like we do.”
    And the twins were the only family Wyatt had now, Chloe couldn’t help thinking. For his sake, she regrettedthat. Everybody needed family. Including Wyatt Sanders. But he was a young, handsome man. He could marry and have children of his own. Chloe couldn’t As far as she was concerned that was the gist of the matter.
    â€œYou’re probably right, Aunt Kitty. And don’t worry, I’m going to politely invite Wyatt to be the twins’ uncle. But not their father!”
    She drained the glass of water and left the kitchen before Kitty could say more.
    By seven that evening, Chloe was dressed in a pair of black silk pants and a red mohair sweater. Her hair was brushed loosely on her shoulders and tucked behind her ears, to which she’d clipped rhinestone teardrops.
    She was still trying to decide if she was overdressed when she heard Wyatt’s car pull up in front of the