As they approached the porch, three young women came down the steps to meet them.

“Hi, I’m Jessie,” the first one said. “We’re sorry about all of this, but there’s no controlling these guys when they get together to harass their father. We couldn’t have gotten them out of here last night if we’d set off a canister of pepper spray in the house. Believe me, I thought about it. So did Kelly and Melissa.”

“I even had one in my purse,” Kelly said. “I bought it when I lived in Houston. Never had a need for it there, thank goodness, but I thought it might come in handy here last night.”

“Too many babies, though,” Melissa added. “I’m talking about the ones in cribs, not the ones we’re married to. You’d think they hadn’t learned to share, the way they’ve been carrying on about meeting the woman who’s stealing their daddy’s affection.”

Janet warmed to the trio of smiling women immediately. They clearly understood what it meant to hook up with an Adams man. “Believe me, I am not out to steal their daddy’s affection or anything else, for that matter.”

“It’s not entirely up to you,” Jessie declared with the kind of clear-thinking logic that cut straight to the heart of Janet’s dilemma. “Our husbands may be the stubbornnest set of men in Texas. Not a one of them knows how to take no for an answer. Who do you guess they learned that from?”

“Hey,” Harlan protested. “Watch your tongue.”

“It’s true, Harlan, and you know it,” Kelly and Melissa chimed in, laughing at his disgruntled expression.

Janet considered the teasing comments to be very discouraging news. Apparently Harlan detected her discomfort, because he slipped her arm through his.

“Come on,” he said. “We might as well get the rest of this over with. Ladies, go tell your husbands to be on their best behavior.”

“Don’t expect us to accomplish what you couldn’t,” Kelly teased.

Jenny rolled her eyes. “I told you, Mom.”

Harlan glanced at her. “What did you tell your mother?”

“That you must not be half so tough as you try to pretend, if your sons walk all over you.”

The sons in question hooted at that.

“Guess she has you pegged, doesn’t she, Daddy?” Cody taunted.

“If her mama’s half as smart, you’re in for it,” Jordan agreed, grinning at Janet as he shook her hand.

Luke crowded in next, a sympathetic glimmer in his eyes. “Don’t let all the fuss scare you to death. We’re not half as intimidating as we sound.”

“A bunch of soft touches?” Janet asked doubtfully.

He nodded. “And Daddy’s the easiest of all.”

“You start giving away all my secrets and that prize bull of mine you want to breed next year won’t get anywhere near those cows of yours,” Harlan warned.