скачать книгу бесплатно
Jake Johnson instantly knew he’d said the wrong thing. Her pretty cheeks filled with color as her green eyes narrowed dangerously. “The last thing I expected from you was a denial of even meeting me,” she replied, her voice icy with an edge of contempt. “Surely you remember being at the wedding.”
“Please, come inside where we can talk more comfortably.” Jake grabbed one end of the stroller to pull it up the stairs and into the house. As he gazed at the sleeping girls, there was no doubt in his mind that they were Johnsons. Their little heads were covered with dark curly hair and the shape of their faces reminded him of baby photos he’d seen of himself.
And there was no doubt in his mind of exactly who was responsible for this woman being on his porch with three babies. His stomach knotted with a touch of anger. This was one mess that wasn’t going to just go away. Jake wouldn’t be able to pay a ticket, take care of a fine or do some fast talking to make this one disappear.
Once they had the stroller inside the living room, he gestured her to the sofa. As she lowered herself down, he sat in the overstuffed chair opposite her.
He couldn’t help but notice that Grace Sinclair was a gorgeous woman. Her long brown hair held shiny blond highlights, and her legs seemed to go on forever beneath the navy slacks she wore. At the moment her beautiful green eyes were filled with anger, and her lush lips were compressed tightly together as she glared at him.
“I didn’t exactly think you’d jump for joy at the unexpected news that you were a father, especially a father of three,” she said. “I know it was only one night, but we were together for a long time at the reception.”
“I should explain that….” he began.
“Of course, maybe you make it a habit of sleeping with lots of women and don’t always remember them when you meet them again out of a bed,” she continued, cutting him off midsentence. “Allow me to remind you again—Sally’s wedding in Wichita?”
“I wasn’t—”
“Look, if you’re worried that I want something from you, that I might need anything from you, then don’t. I just thought you had a right to know that you are a father.”
“I’m not saying that—”
“I’ll gladly have a DNA test done if that’s what you want.” She sat up straighter on the sofa and tucked a strand of her shiny hair behind her ear. “I know for sure that you’re the father because I hadn’t been with anyone for a long time before you and I wasn’t with anyone after you. But I would understand if you have doubts considering the circumstances.”
Once again her cheeks became a charming shade of red. “You don’t really know me. You don’t know what kind of a woman I am, and I can understand how the fact that I fell into bed with you so easily that night might make you think I do that all the time—which couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve never done anything like that before. My only excuse is that night for the first time in my life, I drank too much.”
Jake didn’t even try to say anything. He sensed she wasn’t finished yet, and in any case wouldn’t let him get a word in edgewise. The anger he’d felt moments before had passed, and instead a weary resignation had set in.
It was obvious what had happened—a wedding party, a night of too much booze and unprotected sex. Now somebody was going to have to step up and do the right thing. Jake knew for certain it wasn’t going to be him.
Sometimes he felt as if he’d spent every day of his thirty-five years doing what was right for everyone else. Now it was his turn to do what was right for him, and there was no way he intended to get caught up in this drama.
Yet, even as he thought it, he knew there was no way he wouldn’t be sucked into the mess. The precious little girls asleep in the stroller would ensure that he became a part of it in some way.
“I don’t need any child support from you. I just thought you might want to be a dad to the girls. Girls need fathers in their lives.”
There was a wealth of emotion in her voice, then she finally took a breath and stared at him expectantly. At that moment Jake’s brother appeared in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen.
Grace’s mouth formed a perfect O as she looked from one man to the other. Just then one of the little girls woke up with a cry, as if protesting the fact that her mother had no idea when it came to the question of who was the daddy.
Chapter 2
Grace looked from one man to the other, astonished as she realized they were obviously identical twins. No wonder the man seated across from her had insisted he didn’t know her. He didn’t know her.
She dug Abby’s sippy cup out of the diaper bag and handed it to her, an action that immediately stopped Abby’s tears and brought a happy smile to her face. Twins, for crying out loud. How was she supposed to know that the man she’d slept with had a twin?
At that moment a woman appeared behind the man in the doorway. She was a plump, pretty blonde. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Honey, what’s going on?” she asked. She took one look at the stroller and clapped her hands together. “Oh my goodness, aren’t they precious?”
Grace’s heart sank to the ground. If the man seated on the chair opposite her wasn’t the girls’ father, then the man in the doorway must be. A look at his hand showed her he was wearing a gold wedding ring that matched the one on the woman’s finger.
Married. Oh, God, had he been married on the night they’d slept together? Had he ditched his wedding band for a quick fling while out of town? The very idea horrified her. The last thing Grace would ever do was get involved in any way with a married man.
“I think maybe introductions are in order,” the man in the chair said. “I’m Jake Johnson, and that’s my brother Jeffrey and his wife, Kerri.”
“I’m so sorry. I’ve obviously made some sort of mistake,” Grace said as she rose to her feet. Jeffrey … Justin … maybe she’d gotten his name wrong at the wedding. Certainly coming here had been a terrible mistake.
She didn’t want to screw up a marriage. This had suddenly become an awful nightmare and all she wanted to do was escape from it all. “I’ll just take the girls and we’ll be on our way.”
“Grace—may I call you Grace?” Jake asked. She nodded and he motioned her back to the sofa. “Please sit down. Jeffrey isn’t the father of your daughters either.”
“Heavens, no!” Jeffrey replied. “I’d eventually like to have children, but I definitely want to do that with my wife.” He looped an arm around Kerri’s shoulder and smiled at her lovingly.
“I think you’re looking for our brother,” Jake said.
“There’s more of you?” Grace felt as if she’d entered either a comedy of errors or the Twilight Zone.
Jake gave her a tight smile. “One more. Justin. We’re triplets.”
Grace breathed a sigh of relief, although she was more than a little embarrassed that she’d just given Jake Johnson far more personal information than she’d ever want him to know. “Is Justin here?”
“He isn’t,” Jake replied.
“But he almost always shows up around dinnertime,” Kerri said as she approached the stroller. “May I?” She gestured to Abby, who raised her hands to get out of her confinement.
Grace nodded and checked her wristwatch. It was just after noon. “Could you contact Justin and see if maybe he could come by earlier? Otherwise I’ll just take the girls to the motel room where I’d planned to stay for the night and he can contact me there.”
“Nonsense,” Kerri said briskly. “I’ve got lunch ready and of course you and the girls will stay and eat with us.” She laughed as Abby grabbed her nose with a giggle.
“I don’t want to impose,” Grace protested. The whole thing felt awkward. At that moment the other two girls woke up and suddenly chaos reigned.
“We definitely need introductions to these sweet girls,” Kerri said as her husband pulled Bonnie from the stroller and Grace got Casey.
“You have Abby, Jeffrey has Bonnie and I have Casey,” Grace said. Each of the girls grinned as they heard their names. “And as you can see, they haven’t met anyone they don’t like yet. Although Casey here is definitely the most shy.” She frowned. “Maybe it would be best if I just go to the motel and you can tell Justin to meet me there.”
“You’re here now,” Jake said rather curtly. “You might as well stay for lunch and I’ll see if I can get Justin on his cell phone.” As he left the room Grace felt some of the tension that had coiled in her belly ease. At least Jeffrey hadn’t been in the room when she’d told Jake that she’d been nothing more than a drunken one-night stand with Justin. Gosh, how utterly embarrassing.
“Jeffrey, why don’t you go out to the shed and bring in the old high chairs,” Kerri said, obviously a woman accustomed to being in command. “And while you do that, Grace and I will go into the kitchen and get to know each other a little better.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jeffrey replied agreeably. He set Bonnie on her bottom at his feet and headed toward the door.
Grace felt as if everything was quickly spinning out of control and she didn’t quite know how to get any control back. At that moment Jake returned to the room. “Justin didn’t answer, but I left him a message to come here as soon as he can,” he said.
“We were just about to take the girls into the kitchen,” Kerri said. “But we seem to be short one pair of hands.”
“The story of my life,” Grace muttered beneath her breath.
Jake bent down and picked up Bonnie. He carried her away from his body, as if he’d never carried a baby before and wasn’t sure he liked it. At that moment Grace decided she wasn’t at all sure she liked him very much.
The kitchen was enormous, filled with sunshine from the floor-to-ceiling windows that created one wall. A heavy wooden table big enough to comfortably seat eight held place settings for three and a steaming casserole dish that smelled of chicken.
“Let’s put the girls here on the floor,” Kerri said. “I’ll get them some plastic containers to occupy them while I finish getting lunch on the table and you and I can have a nice chat.” She smiled at Grace, a friendly gesture that took some of the sharp edge off Grace’s tension.
At least Natalie had been wrong about the person living here being a fifty-year-old pervert. “Where did Jeffrey go?” Jake asked as he gingerly set Bonnie on the red-and-white throw rug on the floor.
“I told him to see about the old high chairs in the shed,” Kerri replied.
“I’ll go see if he needs help.” He escaped out the back door, taking with him much of the energy in the room.
Within minutes the girls were all on the rug with a variety of plastic spoons, bowls and lids to keep them happy. Grace sat at the table while Kerri bustled around the kitchen to finish preparing the meal and laid another place setting.
“How on earth do you tell them apart?” Kerri asked as she placed bread and butter on the table.
“Even though at first glance they look identical, there are subtle differences. Bonnie wrinkles her nose when she laughs and Casey’s hair is just a shade lighter. To make it easier on everyone else, I just dress them in different colors. Abby is pink, Bonnie is blue and Casey is yellow.”
“It’s the same with Jake, Jeffrey and Justin,” Kerri said. “Most people insist they can’t tell them apart, but there are definite differences. Jake is definitely the alpha dog and his eyes are slightly darker than his brothers. My Jeffrey is thinner than the other two and sweeter tempered.” Her voice held a wealth of love. “And you know Justin.”
That was the whole problem. Grace didn’t know Justin at all. She was ashamed to admit that she barely remembered being intimate with him. What she did remember from that night was how good the champagne had tasted and how Justin made sure her glass remained full and his flirting attention remained solely on her. “Do you all live here?” she asked.
Kerri placed a large salad on the table and then eased down in the chair next to Grace. “This was the family homestead but their parents died twelve years ago when they were all twenty-two. Jake took over running the ranch.”
She laughed. “But that’s not what you asked. To answer your question, Justin lives in an apartment in Cameron Creek and Jeffrey and I are only living here for another couple of weeks or so. We have a house being built on the property. And once we get moved in I want one of those.” She pointed to the girls, who were gibbering and playing, perfectly content at the moment.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Grace said with a smile. “I always wanted a son or a daughter. Apparently that triplet gene is strong, and despite how well they’re doing now, they don’t always stay all in the same place.”
At that moment Jeffrey and Jake returned, carrying high chairs that looked as if they were from another era. “They’re old,” Jeffrey said, “but we cleaned them up and they will still serve their purpose. Thank goodness that old shed hasn’t been cleaned out in years.”
“Perfect timing,” Kerri said as she jumped up from the table.
She helped Grace get the girls settled in the high chairs and then they all sat down to eat. The little girls had bowls with a bit of the casserole and green beans. Grace had retrieved their cups from the diaper bag and they dug into their meal with their usual enthusiasm.
“You didn’t mention where you’re from,” Jake said as he passed her the bowl of green beans.
There was something about the directness of his gaze that she found more than a bit unsettling. Kerri was right. Now that Grace had spent a little time with him she couldn’t imagine how she’d initially thought he was the man who had fathered her girls.
The cowboy she’d met at the wedding had been fun and flirty, with a bit of wildness in his blue eyes. Jake looked harder, his eyes a midnight-blue. He definitely looked as if he’d never lose control enough to drink too much, let alone wind up in a bed with a woman he barely knew.
“Wichita,” she replied.
“Nice place,” Jeffrey said as he buttered a slice of bread. “What do you do there?”
“I’m a third-grade teacher.”
Grace was grateful when the conversation changed from her to the ranch and the work being completed on Jeffrey and Kerri’s house. As the meal and talk progressed it became evident to Grace that Bonnie was flirting with Jake.
Her high chair was next to his chair at the table, and she fluttered her long, thick eyelashes as she cast him one toothy grin after another. He didn’t pay attention until she managed to grab his arm, grin and offer him a slightly smooshed green bean.
Kerri laughed. “Looks as though you have a little admirer, Jake.”
He eyed the green bean as if it was something he’d never seen before in his life and was highly suspicious of where it might have come from. Bonnie gibbered to him and pressed the bean closer.
“Uh … thanks,” he said as he finally took the bean from her and placed it gingerly on the edge of his plate.
Bonnie clapped her hands together in happiness, her button nose wrinkling as she smiled, then fluttered her eyes, making her long dark lashes dance.
Jake focused back on his plate and Grace was thankful he wasn’t the father. He obviously had no interest in children and didn’t appear to have any softness inside him. She definitely wanted more than somebody like him to be a part of her girls’ lives.
She wanted a man who would be unable to resist the flutter of Bonnie’s lashes, the sweetness of Casey’s smiles and Abby’s infectious giggles. She wanted a man who would be unable to resist loving them with all his heart.
The food was good and the conversation was light and easy with Kerri filling most of the awkward silences with friendly chatter. Still, Grace decided if Justin hadn’t shown up by the time lunch was over and she helped with the cleanup, she’d go on to the motel and get settled in there for the night.
She’d intruded enough on these people. Granted they were Abby, Bonnie and Casey’s aunt and uncles, but there was no way to know what part they’d play in each other’s lives until she spoke to Justin.
In the best of worlds, no matter what happened with Justin, these people would want to stay involved with the little girls. But Grace was realistic enough to know that life didn’t always work that way. In fact, in her experience life rarely worked out the way it was supposed to.
The meal was just about finished when Grace’s cell phone rang. It was in the opposite pocket from the gun in her blazer. She recognized the number of the caller and excused herself from the table.
“Natalie,” she said as she answered. “I’m so sorry. I forgot to call when I got here.”
“So, what’s happening? Are you at the right place? Is he wearing a dirty undershirt and tighty whities?”
Grace laughed. “Yes and no. Yes, I’m at the right place, but I’m still waiting to meet with Justin.” She quickly explained about the men being triplets and that she was waiting for the father of the girls to show up at the house. Promising to stay in touch, she ended the call and hurried back into the kitchen.
“I’m so sorry,” she said to the others still seated at the table. “That was my younger sister. I’d promised to call her the minute I arrived here and then promptly forgot to do so. She was worried.”
“You only have the one sister?” Kerri asked.
Grace sat back down in her chair. “Thankfully yes,” she said with a touch of humor. “Natalie is twenty-four, almost ten years younger than me, and some days it feels like I have four children instead of three.”
“What about your parents?” Jeffrey asked.
“We were raised by a single mother and she passed away nine months ago,” Grace replied. She was acutely aware of Jake’s gaze on her. Dark and unreadable, the intensity made her slightly uncomfortable.
“Jake, what’s up?” A familiar deep male voice called from the living room.
Grace’s stomach clenched tight as she realized Justin had arrived. Certainly the friendliness toward her and the children by the people around the table had given her hope, and that hope now surged up inside her.
She wasn’t expecting instant happiness from Justin, but what she was hoping for was some sort of acceptance of the situation and the happiness would come later.
He came into the kitchen. In that first instant of seeing Justin again, Grace couldn’t imagine how she’d mistaken Jake for him. Justin looked younger and his hair was longer and slightly wild with curls.
His blue eyes widened at the sight of her, and then he looked at the three girls in the high chairs. “Oh, hell no!” he exclaimed and then turned and ran out of the kitchen.
Jake watched Grace’s lovely face pale as she jumped up from her chair. “Please excuse me,” she said, her voice trembling as she left the kitchen, obviously in pursuit of Justin.
There was a long moment of silence around the table.
“Mama?” Bonnie said, but didn’t seem upset by Grace’s absence.
“She seems really nice,” Kerri said.
