Fannin Jefferson only wants a date — albeit the perfect date. Petite, blond and cheerful. But what he got is what he least expected and more than he could have imagined: tall, fiery, redhaired Kelly Stone. Now the vivacious Kelly is heating his blood and tempting him like no other woman ever has. She may be ready to call their night of passion a fling, but when she turns up pregnant — with twins — Fannin knows she's the perfect flame for his hearth and home....

EXCERPT

If music tames the savage beast, then your mother was a full orchestra accompanied by a choir of angels.

- Maverick Jefferson to his sons one winter night when the loneliness became too much

"What I'm saying is feel the romance, Princess," Fannin said. "Smell the breeze. Hear the sigh of the grass. Rejoice in the call of the wild. Entice that bull, Princess, please," he pleaded with his cow to the delight of his three brothers.

"Could you turn it up, Romeo?" Archer asked. "I don't think the people of Union Junction have heard you spout such poetry in all the years you've lived here."

"Do you have to do it this way?" Calhoun complained. "Can't you be normal and use a syringe to get a calf in her?"

"Hey!" Fannin said with a frown. "I know it's not logical. But I want Princess to conceive the natural way."

"Or no way at all," Navarro said. "I see no interest on the part of her suitor."

Indeed, the bull, Bloodthirsty Black, usually such a firebringer of hell and mortification upon hapless cowboys, appeared uninterested in his bride.

"Why don't you tell Bloodthirsty how it's done, Fannin?" Archer asked, gasping with smothered laughter. "After all, you are the expert with women."

Fannin grimaced as his brothers slapped each other on the backs. "I sort of have a date Saturday night," he said, not totally lying.

"A date!" They all leaned forward from their posts on the fence. "Who's the lucky girl?"

Fannin turned away so they couldn't see his face. "I'm taking Helga to the movies. She wants to see a movie in Dallas. And I think it's time our housekeeper got off the ranch for a few hours. You dopes haven't noticed, but Helga's homesick for Germany. She's lonely. So I'm taking her out."

"Helga!" They roared with laughter.

Navarro grinned. "Yeah, I'd like to go out with a battle-ax. That'd be my choice of female companionship."

"That's not very nice," Fannin said with a frown.

"She's been working hard to take care of us. You know, you ought to think about taking her out yourselves. Helga doesn't work at our ranch just to put up with your majestic egos."

They stared at him.

"All I ever go out with is twins," Fannin mimicked in a high voice. "Did you see that pair of twins on Rosie Mayflower?" That was exactly how his brothers would talk - and did talk - about women.

"Now, those are some twins," Archer agreed.

"Navarro, does Rosie have any cousins with the same genetic traits? There has to be some family relations she could introduce us to."

"Breasts aren't everything," Fannin pointed out.

"But they are something," Navarro said, "and they count big-time in my book."

"Anyway," Archer said, "you're not even talking to Princess right, Fannin. A woman doesn't want to be begged or pleaded with for sex. She wants to be told how it's going to be. She wants to be ravaged. Stormed and conquered. If she knows what the game is up-front, then she's happy to play. No wonder you don't have any real dates."

"Well, it is true that the early caveman didn't have any trouble getting a woman," Fannin said. "He just dragged her off by the hair."

"No point in getting rough," Calhoun said. "All we're suggesting is that your way is too subtle to get a woman's attention. Notice we get the women, while you tend to get the sister with the good personality and the insurmountable chastity."

"Because I don't storm the gates," Fannin finished.

"Afraid he's right," Navarro said. "Never let a woman have the upper hand, especially in the sack, or you'll wind up with a Helga running your world. In other words, you'll end up whipped when you should be putting your feet up after a long day, with a very attractive female ready to bring you a beer, serve you your supper in a comfy armchair and then put you to bed with a smile on her face."

"That's what I mean," Fannin said sadly to Princess. "My brothers are all so artificial. They only think of one thing. Don't worry about that stupid bull not wanting you," he told his favorite cow. "He's probably lost all his good genes throwing cowboys around."

"Princess is not a pet," Calhoun said sternly.

"She is to me. And I want a good calf out of her. I'm giving a calf to Mimi's baby when it's born, so her little girl will have money in the bank when she grows up."

"And the calf can't come from a syringe," Navarro said, shaking his head.

"The best things take time," Fannin said briskly.

"And the right moment. Magic."

"And I say you're going to be waiting a helluva long time, you and your Princess." Archer slapped his hat against his leg and hopped off the rail. "I got work to do."

His other brothers murmured something similar, leaving Fannin alone with Princess and her lackluster lover.

"Hey," he said to the bull, "you're supposed to be the hottest thing on hooves. What's your problem? I had to haul you out here in a special trailer so you wouldn't do damage to yourself. Half the county said I was crazed to even let you near Princess. They said, do it the right way, but I said no, natural was better. And look at you over there. You couldn't care less. I believe you're only good for the ring, you old show pony."

NAVARRO OR NOT

A love-'em-and-leave-'em cowboy was not what Nina Cakes wanted when she asked for a muscular man to help move her heirloom bed. After all, it was a cowboy who had gotten her sister into trouble, and no handsome rancher — not even a notorious Jefferson brother named Navarro — would make Nina forget why she'd come to Lonely Hearts Station: to save her sister's good name.

Staid, ordinary, respectable, Nina was a librarian on a mission, and it would take more than sweet talk, teasing grins and world-shaking kisses to tempt her onto the wild side…. She'd settle for nothing less than lassoing his untamed heart!

EXCERPT

Actions speak louder than words. So think your actions over many times.

- Maverick Jefferson when his boys got caught stealing Shoeshine Johnson's bus for a road trip because it was the only vehicle all twelve of them could fit into at once.

"What has to be done," Navarro Jefferson told his twin, Crockett, as they sat in his truck, "is that one of us should go live in Lonely Hearts Station. As a sort-of mole. To keep an eye on Last's pregnancy matter before it gets further out of hand."

Recently, Last, the youngest Jefferson brother and the family philosophe, had managed to get himself into trouble with a gal of questionable reputation from the wrong side of the beautician tracks.

Ever since their elder brother Frisco Joe had courted and married a stylist from the Lonely Hearts Salon - and put the Jefferson brothers in the middle of a duel between the Lonely Hearts beauties and their salon rivals, the Never Lonely Cut-n-Gurls - life had not been going well for any of the boys from Union Junction.

Not for Last, nor for the rest of his brothers.

Navarro had sort of expected more trouble, but lacking condom sense was not supposed to be in the cards.

"How would we do that?" Crockett asked. "I think the Never Lonely Cut-n-Gurls would know we were watching their every move."

"The only one we need to watch is Valentine," Navarro told his twin. "You and I could swap out, take turns, and they'd never know the difference. Tag-team girl-watching."

Crockett blinked. "Why do I find that appealing in a warped kind of way?" He considered the notion, peering out the truck window toward the Never Lonely Cut-n-Gurls salon. "Or possibly, I find it depressing. It's been a long time since I've had a woman."

"Whoa," Navarro said. "Too much info."

"Last says he doesn't remember anything about that night except that he was drinking some exceptional firewater."

"Man, I remember every good night I've had with a lady," Navarro bragged. "Even in my dreams."

"More there than not."

Navarro pulled his hat low over his eyes without comment.

"So how do we invade the landscape without raising suspicions? We need to get on the inside of that salon," Crockett said.

"Yeah. But bed maneuvers are out. I think there's enough trouble in the family tree when it comes to the ladies."

"Mmm." Crockett studied the goings-on of an attractive band of giggling Never Lonely girls as they left the salon. They were all dressed provocatively, which he appreciated. He wouldn't date any of the girls - not his type - but he certainly appreciated the goodness they were lending to the view. "You could dress in drag and become a hairdresser alongside them."

"I think not."

"You could become a client."

"I think they'd suspect my motives." Everyone in town knew that the Jefferson brothers were more likely to be seen at the Lonely Hearts Salon across the street when they needed a trim.

Crockett was silent for a moment. "You could hit on Valentine."

"I'd rather gnaw off my leg. Anyway, that would totally raise suspicions."

"Well, then you'd have to prove that your intentions were honest, in order to get the most info out of her. You'd have to get engaged."

Navarro laughed. "Right."

"We could get engaged. If we tag-team spy, we might as well tag-team engage. No one would notice that we were switching out. And then we'd be on the inside."

"What a novel idea. Why don't we just do something so stupid?"

"I'm serious." Crockett sat up straight. "It's not very heroic, and it's deceitful, but it would get us in a primo position to find out the info we need to save our bro from Valentine's catch-a-cowboy plot."

"We've done a lot worse, but I don't think Fannin would approve, even in the name of family. And when Mason comes home, he'd roast us for sure."

"I say it's easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission."

"I say ... you've got a point." Navarro drummed the steering wheel. "How are we going to figure out which of those lovelies we want to sucker?"

"I don't know. How about the little plus-size gal over there with the pretty smile?"

"I think you may be looking at her chest when you talk 'plus size." We could toss her between us like a doll. She's a little bitty thing - isn't she? - all curves and swerves."

"I like blondes," Crockett mused. "And she's not dressed fakey. She's kind of cute. Personality-wise, of course. Is there any chance we could reconsider sleeping with our girlfriend?"

"Absolutely not!" Navarro exclaimed.

"Rats. I do tend to fall easily to temptation. I really like a nice ripe bottom on a woman. She looks like she's all peach and no pit."

"She's definitely ripe. Hey, she's coming over! Turn your head and act like you're lost!"

"Hey, guys," the blonde said. "Lost?"

"Yes," Crockett said, because Navarro had pulled his hat over his face. "But we want to figure it out ourselves, if you know what I mean."

"Oh. You're adventurous types," she said.

"You could say that," Crockett agreed.

Nina Cakes smiled at the cowboy, realizing at once that here was the answer to her prayers.

"I need a man," she said.

"We've heard that before, sister," the cowboy told her. "And we're always ready to heed the call."

Nina took a step back from his leer. "Uh, cool your jets, cowboy. I said I need a man, not a mistake."

CATCHING CALHOUN

The only good things she'd ever gotten from a cowboy were her daughter and her son. And rodeo gypsy Olivia Spinlove had vowed she'd never again let an elusive, sexy cowboy corral her heart. This single mom had been born racing barrels and had no trouble outrunning love — until Calhoun Jefferson strolled into her arena. Unlike any cowboy she'd ever known, he had artistic vision, concern for her kids — and dark eyes that said, "Hey, pretty lady," even from a distance. He almost made her wild heart want to stop wandering. Because the promise in his kiss said that catching Calhoun might make it worth getting caught — for good.

EXCERPT

The treasure lies within.

— Mason to his sons when they wanted to know if there was such a thing as fairy dust on butterfly wings and a box of Civil War gold in the well on Widow Fancy's farm.

At exactly midnight, as a chilly November turned into a stormy, cold December, Mason Jefferson walked back into the main ranch house at Union Junction, wondering if he was ready to return home after being gone for so many months.

There were ten women in sleeping bags around the fireplace, where the fire had burned nearly to embers. His jaw dropped and he felt a sweat break out along the back of his neck. There were pretty faces, openmouthed faces, snoring faces, faces mashed into pillows.

Clearly nothing had changed around Malfunction Junction. Possibly the situation had worsened.

It gave a man pause about the reason he'd stayed gone so long: Mimi Cannady, his next-door neighbor and wife to another man.

If women were so easily found around his fireplace, if they dropped easily into a man's life like blossoms from a cherry tree, if there were always many unattached females hanging around the Jefferson ranch, then why couldn't he get over the woman he thought he could only love like a meddlesome baby sister?

I came home too soon, Mason thought.

A crash sounded upstairs and a baby wailed. Mason closed his eyes. I stayed gone too long.

And after all his journeys he still had not a single lead on what had happened to Maverick, the father of the twelve Jefferson brothers.

"Hi, Mason." One of the women raised her head. It was Lily of the Union Junction hair salon in Union Junction. He and his brothers had helped her and her co-stylists set up shop in town, after Delilah Honey-cutt had to let them go from the salon in Lonely Hearts Station.

"Hey, Lily," he said. "Go back to sleep. Didn't mean to wake you." He jerked his head toward the ceiling. "Think I'll go scare my brothers and see whose baby they're torturing."

Lily smiled. "Welcome home." She put her head down and Mason saw her eyes close. Sighing, he headed up the stairs.

In the second-floor family room, there were five brothers and a baby. A sweetly chubby baby, maybe a year old, he guessed, from the three tiny blond curls on the back of her head and her consciously erect posture. The brothers were arranged in a semi-circle, all of them flat on their chests staring at her as she stared back at them. It was like a Mexican standoff, and the baby was winning, clearly bemusing her older companions.

It wasn't worth wondering whose baby it was. What mattered was that it seemed nothing had changed around Malfunction Junction. Still fun and games. "Howdy."

His brothers looked up and stared at him. Calhoun was the first to jump to his feet. "Mason!"

Mason tossed his hat onto the sofa. "I wasn't gone long enough for any of you to have a baby."

The other brothers halted, midrise.

"True," Calhoun said. "And this is not our baby, per se."

The baby turned her head to look up at him, and Mason felt his heart stop inside his chest. He would know that baby in a field of children; he could pick her out with ease. Fair, fine blond curls, big blue eyes that were her mother's, the sparkle of mischief in her expression as she'd enjoyed commanding the attention of her covey of "uncles."

"It's Nanette," Bandera said. "We're helping Mimi out 'cause she's been cooking for all of us and the ladies downstairs."

"Heat went out over the salon. Been out for three days," Last said. "Seemed the right thing to do to bring Lily and her crew here."

Crockett nodded. "They stood it as long as they could. We found out they weren't telling us, and had Shoeshine bring them over here in his bus."

Mason ignored his brother's blabbering, bending instead to scoop up Nanette and hold her to him. She didn't cry out at the chill in his fingers. Instead, she touched his face, patting it with curiosity, though he told himself she touched him because she recognized him.

"Been a long time since I held you," he murmured to her, so that his brothers couldn't hear. "You can sit up now. When I last saw you, you were just a tiny potato. I didn't know you would grow so fast," he said, nuzzling her. "You weren't supposed to grow up without me. I missed you." She patted his face again, and his eyes welled up with tears he wouldn't let his brothers see. "I shouldn't have left you."

The softness of her skin and her instant trust of him shattered his barely healed heart. Being gone hadn't solved a damn thing. He still loved Mimi, in a way he knew he should not. And he loved her child, the child he'd helped deliver, as if she were his very own.

In his heart, she was his very own.

Mason gruffly cleared his throat, aware that his brothers were uncomfortably silent. "What else did I miss?" he demanded.

The brothers glanced at each other. Last looked ill.

"How about we talk later?" Calhoun asked.

"We can talk now," Mason said.

"Not really," Calhoun said, glowering. "We've been amusing twelve months of dynamite. We're torn between using pacifiers, sippie cups, back rubs and guitar lullabies as good-luck charms to ward off the displeasure this child seems to feel at being out of her element. She doesn't like us, and quite frankly, we're beginning to wonder why babies aren't stored in pods until they ripen."

"We've had some ripe occasions," Archer said.

"That one, delicate flower that she may be, can put forth some really ripe diapers."

"What we're trying to say, Mason," Bandera said,

"is that we're tired. We're actually ragged. Let's get one thing straight from the start. You left. You took your bad moods and your broken heart and you deserted us. We've handled everything while you were gone. Now, we're of no mind to have you walk in here demanding answers."

"That's right," Crockett said, "we get first shot at Answer Number One."

ARCHER'S ANGELS

She'd traveled to Texas for two things: A real cowboy and a baby…

And her e-mail buddy, Archer Jefferson, fit the bill. From his jeans to his hat to his crooked smile, the man was more cowboy than Australian stuntwoman Clove Penmire had bargained for — perfect for helping a friend make one little baby.

And although she was known as a plain Jane, Clove refused to let her lack of glamour — or the odd twist of her heart when she saw Archer — interfere with her baby-making mission. She'd be the one to love 'em and leave 'em this time…until a makeover and one passionate night changed all her plans!

Cowboys by the Dozen! Let the roundup of those Jefferson bad boys begin!

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

Waldenbooks Bestseller List #7
Bookscan Fiction List #78

EXCERPT

Love at first sight? Yes. Love over time? Yes. But there are no shortcuts to the heart.

— Maverick to his sons one night, after their mother had passed, when they wondered how a man ever knew he'd found the one woman for him.

From: TexasArcher

To: AussieClove

Howdy, AussieClove. What's shaking Down Under? I just got home from riding a bull at the rodeo in Lonely Hearts Station. After the events me and some of my bros decided to drink some of the wildest concoction on the planet. We ended up baying at the moon beside Barmaid's Creek, with some crazy gals for company. You should have seen me ride that bull — if he hadn't come back around to the left, I would have been the first brother in my family to stay on that cursed piece of cowhide, Blood-thirsty Black.

From: AussieClove

To: TexasArcher

G'day, TexasArcher. Nothing shaking here except maybe my head. My older sister, Lucy, is devastated tonight. She and her husband have learned they can probably never have children. So I threw myself into work, hoping to stay positive.

The stunt tonight involved a boat, some fire, a shark and two guys wearing what I would call thongs. I think guys should never wear swim clothes that are smaller than their…well, you know. What do cowboys wear under those Wrangler jeans?

From: TexasArcher

To: AussieClove

Man alive, AussieClove. Sorry to hear about your sister — that's too bad. Around our ranch, we're having a population explosion. We've got babies popping out all over the place. I'm never having kids. In fact, I'm never getting married. Too complicated.

One time, I was stuck in a truck with my twin brother, Ranger, and his now-wife, Hannah, and they griped at each other for days. I finally escaped, but Ranger wasn't so lucky. He rolled down an arroyo and demanded that a medicine man marry him and Hannah because he was convinced he had to get married to live. My twin's weird. By the way, I wear briefs and sometimes nothing. What do Aussie girls wear under their clothes? (I can tell you right now, floss-size drawers would never hold everything of mine.)

From: AussieClove

To: TexasArcher

I'm sure.?

Clove Penmire's heart pounded as she got off the bus in Lonely Hearts Station, Texas, suitcase in hand. For all her fascination with cowboys and the lure of the dusty state she'd read so much about, she had to admit small-town Texas was nothing like her homeland of Australia.

A horse broke free from the barn across the street, walking itself nonchalantly between the two sides of the old-time town. A cowboy sprinted out of the barn and ran up the street after his horse, laughing as he caught up to it.

Clove smiled. From the back she couldn't tell if the man was handsome, but he was dressed in Wrangler jeans and a hat, and, as far as she could tell, the cowboy was the real thing.

That's what she had traveled toTexas for: the real thing.

That sentiment would have sounded shallow, even to Clove, just a month ago. But having learned that her sister, Lucy, could not have a child, Clove's thought processes had taken a new course, one that included fantasies of tossing her brother-in-law into the Australian ocean.

All over the world there were people who couldn't conceive when they wished. They adopted, or pursued other means of happiness. She hadn't been overly worried, until Lucy confessed that she thought her husband might leave her for a woman who could bear children.

Lucy had laughed a little sadly and said that perhaps she was only imagining things. Clove had murmured something reassuring, but inside, fear struck her. Lucy loved her physician husband. He'd always seemed to adore her. Men didn't leave women because they couldn't bear children, did they? Robert was a wonderful man; Clove had been surprised, and distressed, at the turn of events.

So she'd taken drastic measures. She'd come to America for Archer Jefferson.

The cowboy hauled his horse around, leading it back toward the barn. Clove could hear him lightly remonstrating his wayward beast, but the horse didn't seem too concerned.

The cowboy caught her interested gaze, holding it for a second before he looked back at his horse. The man was extremely handsome. Breathtakingly so. Not the cowboy for her, considering her mission, and the fact that she was what people politely referred to as…the girl with the good personality.

The girl everybody loved like a sister.

The girl men liked to be friends with.

And the worst, the Nerdy Penmire.

She sighed. If Lucy had gotten all the beauty, their mother always said with a gentle smile, then Clove had gotten all the bravery. Which was likely how she'd ended up as a stuntwoman.

A stuntwoman with thick glasses.

Had she the face of other Australian exports like Nicole Kidman, for example, she might have been in front of the camera. But instead, she was a stunt double. Lucy said Clove had the life other people dreamed of.

Maybe.