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Surprise! Surprise!
Tina Leonard
DADDY KNOWS LAST!San Antonio, TexasSeems one Sam Winston returned home today to discover he was a bona fide father… of twins! Was it possible that his bride, Maddie, had taken an unexpected withdrawal from Sam's Maitland Maternity sperm bank deposit? Well, two cooing newborns sure aren't going to lie! Sam's a daddy. And spittin' mad as to why his dear wife didn't let him in on the surprise nine months earlier….
Maitland Maternity Hospital
Is proud to announce the births of two sets of twins,
Born May 2, 2000
Henry and Hayden Winston
To proud
mama Maddie Winston and
surprised papa Sam
And
Lilly and Daisy Blackstone
To astounded uncle Mason and
his soon-to-be-bride, Gina Kennedy
The exciting story is just inside. Don’t miss—
Surprise! Surprise!
Tina Leonard
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Isabel Sites, Georgina Haynes, Leesa Whitson, Olivia Holton, Suzanne Coleburn and Ken Lester, Donita Lawrence, Oleta North, Denise O’Sullivan and Natashya Wilson. Without all of the above-mentioned people, the author Tina Leonard might not exist.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tina Leonard loves to laugh, which is one of the many reasons she loves writing Harlequin American Romance books. In another lifetime, Tina thought she would be single and an East Coast fashion buyer forever. The unexpected happened when Tina met Tim again after many years—she hadn’t seen him since they’d attended school together from first through eighth grade. They married, and now Tina keeps a close eye on her school-age children’s friends! Lisa and Dean keep their mother busy with soccer, gymnastics and horseback riding. They are proud of their mom’s “kissy books” and eagerly help her any way they can. Tina hopes that readers will enjoy the love of family she writes about in her books. Recently a reviewer wrote, “Leonard has a wonderful sense of the ridiculous,” which Tina loved so much, she wants it for her epitaph. Right now, however, she’s focusing on her wonderful life and writing a lot more romance!
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Sam Winston—Went from making business deals to changing babies’ diapers.
Maddie Winston—Got tired of waiting for motherhood!
Henry and Hayden Winston—Twin baby brothers born by a miracle of love.
Virgil and Franny Brady & Severn and Sara Winston—They’d try anything to get their children back together again, especially baby-sit.
Joey Brady—Maddie’s younger brother’s near miss turns out to be a blessing in disguise.
Dr. Abby Maitland—She’s delivered hundreds of babies, but twins are her favorites.
Dr. Mitchell Maitland—He’s helped dozens of couples have the families they’ve always wanted.
Megan Maitland—The founder of Maitland Maternity has a special place in her heart for all the children born here.
Mason and Gina Blackstone—Read about their story in I Do! I Do! coming next month.
Daisy and Lilly Blackstone—Twin baby sisters born prematurely who bring together a lonely rancher and a virginal nurse, in I Do! I Do!
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Chapter One
“Without Maitland Maternity, and Dr. Mitchell Maitland, this miracle wouldn’t have happened.” Maddie Winston swallowed, her eyes glowing with soft happiness as she looked at her precious newborns. Twin boys. She still couldn’t believe it. A grateful sigh tightened her throat but she looked at the newspaper reporters and the local TV crew, forcing herself to keep her voice even so the tears wouldn’t well up and spill over. “Dr. Abby Maitland has my profound thanks for making the birth process a wonderful, spiritual one. A new mother couldn’t ask for anything more.”
“What the devil is going on in here?” a male voice roared suddenly, drying her tears and stiffening her spine. The path of crew and reporters parted to reveal her long-lost husband.
Maddie faced Sam squarely, though the shock of seeing him again after all these months—and today of all days—made her knees slightly weak. “What’s going on is a small media conference, Sam.”
“Small?” He whirled to stare at the reporters, doctors and nurses clogging the room.
“Who’s he?” an intrepid reporter called.
She stared at Sam’s angry expression and cast subtlety to the wind. “The sperm donor,” Maddie said brightly.
“The sper—” His furious eyes glared at her.
“Conference is over,” Abby called, efficiently clearing the room, in command as always. “The parents need some time alone.”
Maddie turned away. The last thing she needed was time alone with Sam. How could he have found out? She’d wanted to tell him in her own way, in her own time. When she’d known for certain everything would be all right with the babies.
The truth was that she’d procrastinated longer than she should have, not wanting to call the man who’d left her to admit she’d made a tiny withdrawal which had certainly paid astonishing dividends.
“How could you have kept this from me?” he demanded once the room emptied.
She put her hands on her hips. “How could I have told you?” Drawing herself up, she faked bravado to cover her racing heart. “You were in France. I was here in Texas. We haven’t talked in nine months. There didn’t seem to be a good time.”
Maybe it was a lame excuse, but it was best to keep the past firmly between them. A barrier neither of them wanted to cross. The marriage was over, no emotions left to feel, no ties to bind—except these two babies.
“So they are mine?” He slung a curious, possibly frightened glance at the twin bassinets. “Your brother didn’t make this up as a sick joke?”
Her stomach curled, tightening against the pain. “Are you saying Joey called you?”
“Yeah.” A tic worked in his jaw. “Why were all these reporters and people in here? Was everybody supposed to know about this except me?”
“Sam, while I’m glad you’re interested in the children—”
“Somehow you’ve made me a father. Didn’t you think I’d be interested?”
Not in loving her, of course. In duty. “I prefer to think of your concern in this to be a minor one. We’re separated. I won’t be the first single mom in history.”
“Just a mother with children she stole.”
“I did not steal them!”
“I’m pretty sure I had some legal rights in this matter. You just can’t take my…my—”
“Yes?” She raised her eyebrows, sensing his discomfort. “Sperm?”
“Stop saying that! It sounds so…clinical.”
She went to the overnight bag she’d been repacking from her stay in the hospital. “It was a clinical procedure. I never thought of it as anything else.” But she’d known he’d be unhappy, when he found out. Eventually, she would have told him.
When she’d found the right words.
“I can’t move back from France right now. We’re in the middle of a start-up project which has taken months to get into place.”
“I don’t remember asking you to return.” She told herself it didn’t hurt that he wasn’t more amazed by the miracle which had happened. She didn’t still love him. Would fight against loving him with everything in her broken heart. “Weekend visitation is all but impossible two continents apart. Don’t worry. These are my children.”
“And you expect me to walk out of their lives?”
A wheelchair was brought in. The nurse helped her into it. “Would you like to hold the babies, Ms. Brady? For the cameras?”
“Forget the cameras! This family is not going to be fodder for Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, or Guinness Book, or whatever publicity stunt you’re pulling. And the last name of those infants is Winston.”
Maddie ignored the growl she remembered so well from the moment their marriage had begun to unravel. She was thirty-eight, and wanted children. He was forty-two, and hadn’t felt the need the way she had. He was happy. She had not been. “Yes, please hand me the boys.”
“Does using your maiden name not embarrass you? For them?” Glancing at the names on the ankle bands, he read, “Henry. Hayden.” He grunted. “As much as I appreciate you at least naming these boys with our fathers’ middle names, my name had better be on the birth certificates.”
She smiled down into her babies’ sleeping faces. “You’re on there, Sam. If you’ll excuse me, we need to return to filming.”
“Filming? You’re a movie star, now that you’ve robbed the bank?”
A stinging retort was on the tip of her tongue, but the nurse thrust the wheelchair handles into Sam’s hands. “Mr. Winston, the reporters said that it would be a great touch if you pushed Ms. Brady out to the curb.”
“Reporters be damned!”
“Interesting French you picked up while you were abroad,” Maddie murmured.
“How do you expect me to feel?” he gritted out.
“Like a happy father?”
“I don’t think so.”
She could practically hear him grinding his teeth as he pushed her past a throng of people, clapping and waving at them as if they had done something special. Of course they had. This whole staff had invested their hopes and future medical hopes on her and her special babies.
“You only have to put up with us until you leave again,” she said to him in a whisper, unable to hide a trace of bitterness.
“Did I say anything about leaving again?”
“I assume you will. Foreign investments and all that.” She waved to a couple of nurses who had showed her how to bathe the tiny babies. And how to feed and care for them, one at a time and sometimes both at once.
“You’ll need help. I don’t see how I can go back for a while.”
