He had missed his after-breakfast chats in French while in New Orleans. Henri lifted the porcelain mug to his lips, sipping his coffee as he listened to his daughter vividly speak. Vivienne used her whole body to talk as she told him about picking blueberries, chasing a butterfly, and naming all the barn kittens. Her father was amused by how she'd simply put an accent on the words she hadn't yet learned, but he slowed her down, teaching her the words. He tucked wild red tresses behind her ear, wondering where the tiny baby he'd stayed up with all night had gone. In a blink of his eye, she'd become a nearly three-foot-tall, inquisitive, headstrong charmer. "Ne grandis pas si vite, Vivi."

The toddler wrinkled her ginger brows at his words. She shifted against his chest and kissed his cheek, snuggling into him. "Papa, qu'est-ce que," Vivienne stated, wanting to play their game. She tugged on his arm, making sure his attention was on her. She pointed to her eyes.

"Les yeux. Yeux bleus," Henri answered with a smile. He picked up her hand, kissing her finger. "Qu'est-ce que c'est?"

"Le doigt."

Henri nodded proudly, slipping his arm around her as she moved to sit on the arm of the leather chair. "Sois prudent, mon petit amour," he murmured, taking another sip of his coffee while she wiggled her toes against his thigh. "Les orteils. Les petits orteils," he responded, brushing his fingers across her toes, grinning at her giggles. He glanced at his wife resting against the doorframe.

Kitty watched her husband and daughter, smiling radiantly at how well Vivienne was speaking her father's language.

Vivienne looked up from her freshly bandaged knee. "Le genou. Papa, un autre," she requested, impatiently waiting for him to put his mug down. "Un autre, Papa."

"Patience, Vivienne." He placed the empty cup on the end table. "Deux de plus," he told her, tapping her tummy.

"Ventre."

The Frenchman fixed his eyes on Kitty while he leaned in closely to their daughter's ear, whispering, "Qu'est-ce qu'il y a dans le ventre de maman?" He pointed to the doorway.

Vivienne briefly chewed on her lip. Her eyes lit up with comprehension. She slid off the arm of the chair, bounding to her mother, placing her hand on her mother's belly. "Frère," she amiably crooned.

Kitty smiled at her. They'd told the twins about the baby the night before, keeping the explanation simple and straightforward. Her children had reacted in the way she'd expected. Vivienne had been unimpressed while Alexandre was immediately thrilled. Kitty didn't know what had changed overnight for Vivienne, but her daughter had come into the master suite asking questions about her sibling. She hoped the twins would still feel the same way when their brother or sister arrived in December. "Or sœur."

The two-and-a-half-year-old shook her head. "Papa dit frère."

"Oh, I know what he says," she teased, winking at her husband. "The baby could be a girl, Vivi," she crouched down to her daughter's level, "but we won't know what the baby'll be until December."

"Papa dit frère," Vivienne repeated with a shrug of her petite shoulders, peeking around her mother. "Maréchal," she squealed, springing to the big man as he closed the door behind him. She took his hand, leading him to her mother. "Maman a un frère dans le ventre."

"Parle anglais...s'il vous plaît, Vivienne," Henri instructed the excited moppet. During breakfast, he'd lost track of how many times she'd told everyone about her baby brother except for the lawman. Before dawn, Matt had decided to ride into Baton Rouge to send a wire to Dodge City.

The child grumbled under her breath, aggravated by the switch to English. She craned her neck to look up at the marshal. "Maman has brother in her belly."

Matt let go of his little girl's hand and placed his big hands on his belt buckle, fleetingly glancing at Kitty. He fixed his eyes on Vivienne, noticing the excitement in her blue eyes while she softly patted the swell of Kitty's abdomen. He'd been wrong about how she'd react to the news. "You're gonna be a big sister, Vivi. That's wonderful."

Kitty released a slow breath as she reached the upstairs landing. She'd realized that her young daughter's enthusiasm over a new baby brother or sister had bothered Matt, but she hadn't fully understood why.

She leaned against the doorjamb, folding her arms in front of her chest, sighing at the sight of her former lover reaching under his bed for his carpetbag.

"What'cha doin', Cowboy?" she drawled.

The big man slammed the case onto the bed, opening the mouth of the bag as wide as it could stretch. "What does it look like? I'm packing," he growled, not able to make eye contact with the redhead.

Kitty entered the room, slowly swaying toward the bed with her hands folded underneath her slightly swollen belly. She wrapped her arms around the post of the footboard, studying Matt as he brushed past her to collect his few articles of clothing out of the walnut bureau.

"I thought you didn't have to leave for another week," she nibbled on an imaginary hangnail, peering at him through her ginger lashes. "I thought you wanted to spend as much time with the twins as you could."

Matt's head snapped up, hissing as narrowed his eyes, "You mean as much time as Monsieur Broussard allows me to spend with the twins?! My children?!"

Kitty hurried to the door, her eyes darting back and forth along the length of the hallway, making sure no one had been within earshot of the angry man's proclamation. She closed the door, locking it with a quick flick of her wrist. She turned on her boot heel, her eyes blazing with fury.

"How dare you?" she seethed.

"How dare I?" he bellowed, thrusting his hands upon his hips.

Kitty seemed to move in slow motion as she closed the gap between them. She whispered, staring up at him, "You heard me correctly, Marshal. You should be grateful my husband and I are willing to have you come here for long periods of time to visit the children." She turned her back to him, wrapping her arms around herself. She spoke barely above a whisper, "Children you never wanted in the first place, I may add."

"What did you say?" the big man grasped her shoulders, turning her to face him.

"Children you never wanted," Kitty murmured, staring at his boots.

He lifted her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze, "You mean babies you never told me about."

"I'm not gonna rehash the same argument, Matt," she jerked her head, forcing him to drop his hand.

He hooked his thumbs over his belt as he chewed the inside of his cheek, watching Kitty approach the window that faced the expansive front yard.

She pulled back the Irish lace curtain, smiling as she watched her husband and Doc holding the twins' hands as they walked toward the pond. "Do you remember our first baby, Matt?"

"What?" he shook his head, squinting as if that would help him remember.

She released the curtain and placed one hand over her abdomen, keeping her back to him. "Our first baby…the one I lost when Bayloe shot me."

"Yeah, of course, I remember," Matt mumbled, walking toward her. He gently placed his hands upon her shoulders. "That seems like forever ago…"

The redhead stared at the floor, firmly stating, "It was eleven years ago. Eleven years ago, I was almost killed, and you were saved from having to marry me."

"Kitty!" he turned her around, "How can you say such a thing?!"

"Well, let's see, Matt," she chortled, "I told you I was pregnant when I was about six weeks along, and you proposed immediately. I was shot and lost the child at about twelve weeks," she mockingly tapped her perfectly manicured nail against her chin, pretending to do the math. "Within those six weeks, we hadn't married. And after I told you the baby didn't make it, you never mentioned marrying again."

"Kitty, I—"

She shook her head, opposed to hearing his worn-out excuses. "Don't, Matt. I didn't want to hear it then, and I don't wanna hear it now. Alexandre and Vivi aren't the only babies I never told you about," she glanced at him while the color drained from his face. "Remember when I went to Wichita for a wedding?"

"Yeah, you were gone nearly a month," he apprehensively gulped, recalling how worried he'd been about her since she hadn't returned on schedule.

"I didn't intend to stay there that long, but a miscarriage delayed me a week." She paused, lowering her voice, "I'm lucky I had the strength to survive being held for ransom by that lowlife Grant Shay and his gang. I could have bled to death." She cleared her throat, swiping a tear away before it could fall. "I suppose if I hadn't lost that baby…you'd have been forced to marry me."

The big man lowered his gaze, staring at an imperfection on the floorboard, scrubbing the toe of his boot over it. He swallowed hard, troubled that she hadn't told him. "Kitty, you wouldn't have had to force me."

"Oh, sure," she sarcastically murmured. "Maybe I wouldn't have told you if I hadn't lost that baby. Maybe I would have returned to Dodge, put the Long Branch up for sale, and started over in San Francisco."

"What? Kitty, I would have done right by you."

She arched a critical brow, snickering as she shook her head. "Like with our first baby? You had six weeks to make plans, Matt. You didn't. You didn't choose me. After the loss, you still didn't."

Anger and sadness washed over him. He wanted her to hurt as much as he did, recalling a time when she also hadn't wanted babies. Within the first weeks of meeting the fresh-faced working girl, Bill Pence had informed the young marshal that Miss Kitty wasn't accepting any customers because she was recovering from a terminated pregnancy. He wanted to throw that in her face, but Matt couldn't bring himself to lash out at her. He cleared his throat, staring at his boots as he thought of all the sacrifices she'd made over the years.

"Sometimes, I wonder if I should have left sooner, but no, I stayed…hoping you'd change. You didn't know what I knew about you. I knew you'd be a wonderful husband and father once it happened. You couldn't see it. You couldn't see beyond that damned badge," she finished, lowering herself to sit on the edge of the bed. "Now, you're coming here twice a year being angry and jealous of a man for choosing what you wouldn't."

He walked to her, gripping her upper arms, pulling her to her feet. "Kitty, I should have married you eleven years ago. We wouldn't be here now if I had."

She let her eyes melt into his for a moment before a dry laugh escaped from her throat. "Well, took you long enough to finally realize that, Cowboy."

Matt shrugged one shoulder as a boyish, crooked grin settled on his mouth. "What can I say? I'm slow."

"Ain't that the truth?" she chuckled, resting her forehead on his shoulder.

He pressed his lips to the crown of her head as her cheek rested against his shoulder, hearing her forgiving sigh. Matt slipped his arm around her, opening his mouth to make a bold proposal of having her and the twins come back to Kansas with him. The sensation of her hand rubbing the middle of his chest distracted him.

"Matt, don't stop comin' to see Alexandre and Vivi," she pleaded, tilting her head to meet his astonished eyes.

The big man sucked in a breath. "It shows, huh?"

"Only when you know someone as well as I know you. Matt, I didn't think this arrangement could work, but it is."

He shook his head. "It's not working, Kitty."

"Oh?" she grumbled. "Tell me one good reason why it's not working."

Matt tipped his hat back and lowered his head, softly and tentatively touching his lips to hers. His arms tightened around her since she allowed the kiss. He pressed more firmly against her lips. His breath caught at the feel of her mouth parting, her tongue darting into his mouth, sending his world reeling. He was lost in a kiss that deepened, shaking him to his very core. He held her against him as though he'd never let her go.

"I still love you," he breathed against her lips. He felt hollow and empty as soon as she broke the connection, weakly pushing against his chest as tears filled her eyes. "Pack your things, Kitty. Pack the children's things. Come with me," he whispered, nuzzling his nose against her cheek.

She swallowed hard, releasing a steadying breath. She stepped backward, putting distance between them. "No, Matt. I can't. You know that. Deep down, you know that can't happen."

"We can be a family."

"Life doesn't work like that. I love my husband, and we're having another baby. My life with the twins is here…with Henri."

The big man bowed his head, resuming his packing for his trip home to Kansas. He knocked her hand off his shoulder as she reached out to comfort him. "I'm leavin' on the morning train tomorrow. You've got time to change your mind."

The Frenchman tilted his face in the mirror, inspecting for any spots he might have missed while shaving. He splashed cold water onto his face as he heard his wife's footsteps approaching. Henri set his eyes on her through the mirror, sighing at how her arms were folded over her chest. "Yes, Chérie?"

"Have you heard a word I said?"

He nodded while drying his face with a hand towel.

The redhead had expected a reaction instead of silence from her husband. She thrust her hands upon her hips, arching a brow while disbelievingly peering at him through her lashes. "Well, what did I say?"

"Matthew still loves you."

"You did hear me then." Kitty stepped closer to him, taking the cloth, dipping it into the water basin. She wiped the shaving soap he'd missed from his handsome, sun-kissed face.

"Chérie, I told you I had." Henri turned to face her. "Kathleen, am I supposed to be appalled?"

"You're supposed to be something! Henri, he still loves me.

"I've always known Matthew still loves you," he declared. "You have that effect on men. You cast a strong spell, mon amour. After all, I didn't stop loving you for twenty years and luckily for me, fate stepped in," he murmured, hooking his arm around her to pull her close. Henri kissed the corner of her mouth as she tilted her head back to look into his eyes. He brushed an errant curl from her face, tucking it behind her ear. "Chérie, do you still love him?"

She bit into her bottom lip, gently shaking her head. "Matt will always have a piece of my heart," she admitted, smoothing her hands over her husband's bare chest, "but you already know that. I love Matt, but I'm not in love with him. Henri, I also know what else you're asking. I won't ever leave you. You are my husband and the father of our children. I love you very much."

Henri stared into her eyes, sensing something more lingering behind her sapphire orbs. He pressed his body into hers as he let his hand roam over her hip, gathering the silky material of her nightgown in his fingers, teasingly drawing it up her skin. "Kathleen, did he try to…" he trailed off at the sound of her soft gasp and shake of her head. "That's all I need to know," he whispered.

"He kissed me," she confessed. His dark eyes narrowed, focusing on her mouth. Her breath hitched as he brushed the pad of his thumb across her bottom lip.

"He kissed you," Henri echoed as she shivered under his touch. "Like this?" he softly rumbled, setting his lips on hers, moving his hands up her arms, trailing his fingertips over her freckles until he cupped her neck, parting her lips with his tongue.

Her eyelids fluttered shut as she melted into him, surrendering herself to the sensations coursing through her. Her arms wrapped around his neck, tongue gliding against his, fingers twisting into his hair. She pressed herself fully against him. His large hands roved over her back, holding her tightly. Kitty felt her knees buckle as his hand slid around to span her ribcage, a thumb grazing the underside of her breast. She groaned into his mouth, tugging insistently on the strands of his hair in her fingers, craving more of him. She moaned while he nipped at her bottom lip, sucking the bruised flesh into his mouth.

Within a moment, his lips were against her jaw, brushing across her cheek, his deep voice whispering in her ear, "Did he kiss you like that, Chérie?"

She shook her head, raggedly inhaling, her chest rising and falling with each deep breath.

The lawman groused under his breath as he rounded the corner on his walk from the barn. He'd thrown a saddle on one of the horses and took a midnight ride in an attempt to clear his head. He kept thinking about how warm her lips had felt against his. Matt debated on missing his morning train and finishing his trip, but he knew he had to leave. He couldn't keep on having his heart broken. He spied Kitty's husband while inhaling the distinct scent of the man's Cuban cigar.

Henri leisurely puffed his cigar, stretching out his legs on the cedar swing. He turned his head while he twisted the top-quality cigar between his fingers, intently staring at the U.S. Marshal. "You've upset my wife."

Matt let go of the screen door's handle, releasing a breath. "Oh?"

"She believes you won't return," he stated while noting the change in the giant's stature. The Frenchman shook his head. He believed his wife's intuition was spot on, as usual. "Matthew, you're always welcome."

"Am I?" Matt snapped. He hadn't been able to anger Kitty in order to make her hate him enough to forbid him from coming back to Louisiana. He was sure he could get under Henri's skin. "I kissed her!" he bellowed, marching to the Frenchman. "I kissed Kitty, and she kissed me back!"

Henri slowly nodded his head, blowing smoke into the air. "Kathleen told me. I know she's beautiful and easy to love. I had only a handful of months with her when we were young, and she left me enchanted for twenty years. You had fifteen years with her, Matthew. I can't fault you for still loving her. After all, you're simply a mere mortal man…just as I am."

Matt couldn't believe his ears. "Henri, we kissed. I asked her to come back with me…to pack up the children and come with me, so we could be a family."

"She told me. You won't goad me into a fight. I'm not threatened by you. After all, she wears my ring. But I understand your pain. Honestly, I do."

Matt slumped into a chair, shaking his head in utter disbelief.

"Continue to visit Alexandre and Vivienne."

The marshal shook his head. "I can't. It'll only get harder and harder."

"If you make it that way."

"Alexandre looks just like me, Henri. I can't have people talking about Kitty. I just can't do that to her."

Henri nodded his head in understanding, leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "He does look like you. I'm glad even more now that Kathleen and I fought over Alexandre's name."

"What?" he mumbled, his brow furrowing.

"I believe if a man is blessed with a son, he deserves to have the child named after him. She chose Alexandre for my father, and I chose Matthieu."

Matt scrubbed his hand over his face, blowing out an overwhelmed breath. He always believed Kitty had chosen the name. He glanced at Henri, staring at him in wonder. The Frenchman had unwittingly made his decision slightly easier. "Thank you for that."

"You're welcome, Matthew. You will always be welcome here and at our home in New Orleans."

"Much obliged, but for now I need to do this. I need to get on with my life…and let you and Kitty live yours."

Henri understood the man's need to move on. He puffed his cigar, gently drawing the smoke into his mouth, letting the flavor spread as he considered the man sitting feet away from him. The Frenchman had been down the difficult road Matt had ahead of him, but he couldn't offer advice on how to truly learn to live without Kitty. He never had. Henri felt the buzz from the cigar and focused on the crestfallen lawman.

"I know how you feel. If she could get away from Panacea, Kathleen and I would meet at a fountain in the square. We'd talk for hours about the future. She had so many dreams. One night, she was late. She'd had a fight with Panacea. The future Panacea wanted for Kathleen was immensely different from what Kathleen wanted for herself. It wasn't what I wanted for her, either. I considered proposing to her, but I was afraid to ask. I gave her the money to be free…to go to San Francisco. Kathleen begged me to go with her, but I couldn't. My father was dying. You see, I loved her enough to let her go, but I regretted not asking her to marry me then."

Matt stared at the Frenchman, letting his words sink in. He hadn't realized the sacrifice Henri had made for the love of Kitty.

"But if we'd married then, she wouldn't have met you. We wouldn't have Alexandre and Vivienne. I couldn't imagine my life without that boy and girl. I wish you'd reconsider the visits, Matthew," he finished, stamping his cigar out in a nearby ashtray. He eased out of the swing and stood at the edge of the porch, staring at the blue-black sky littered with stars. "If Kathleen decides she wants you, I won't stop her."

The lawman jerked his head, gaping at the Frenchman. "Henri, she's carryin' your child. You'd let her go?"

He dipped his head. "I would if that would make her happy. I love her that much. I'd only ask you stay close, so I could see the children," he said, letting out a breath, hoping he wasn't wrong in knowing how much his wife was satisfied with her life with him. Henri walked toward the door, stopping at the marshal and dropping his hand on his shoulder. "If she stays with me, Matthew, it'll be her choice…but if years from now, you should get a second chance with Kathleen, take it…even if you are eighty-years-old…you take hold of that second chance, and don't let go."

The marshal snickered with a contrite shake of his head. "I won't live to be eighty, Henri. Not in my line of work. You'll be the one to grow old with her."

Henri bowed his head. "Reconsider the visits. You deserve to see the children grow as much as I do," he earnestly implored. He slipped through the front door, spotting his wife at the base of the staircase.

As she beckoned him by crooking her finger, he wondered how much she'd heard.

Author's Note: Apologies for the emotional damage. AZgirl66 and I wholeheartedly accept the blame since the middle part of this chapter was a joint effort.