His Unexpected Twins

by Carrie Nichols

  He dropped her hand and started the truck. Although he didn’t say anything else, he glanced at her several times as he drove across town. Clearing his throat, he made the turn into the Coopers’ long driveway.

  “Why are you taking me to your sister’s house?”

  “Meg’s isn’t the only house here.” Liam pulled his truck up to the cottage-style home across the yard from his sister’s house. Putting his truck in Park, he shut off the engine. Jumping out of the pickup, he hustled around to her side.

  “Careful,” he said as he helped her out. “This would have been better in the daylight but I couldn’t wait until tomorrow.”

  She stared up at him, puzzled. “I don’t understand what we’re doing here.”

  He ran his finger under the collar of his jacket. “Like I said... I was picturing our future.”

  Her heart stuttered, then pounded so hard she was surprised it didn’t jump out of her chest. She glanced down, expecting to see it flopping like a fish on the ground.

  He made a sweeping motion with his hand to encompass the large, open yard between this house and his sister’s. “I see kids—our kids and their cousins—running around this yard. Maybe even a dog of our own chasing after them. Baseball games, touch football, along with some hot dogs and burgers on the grill in the summer.”

  He turned so he was standing in front of her and took both her hands in his and cleared his throat. “I love you, Ellie Harding. No matter what. Now and forever. In sickness and in health. Will you marry me and live here with me?”

  Her mouth opened and closed like that fish she’d been imagining a few moments ago. “But...but what about your job? Your house in Boston?”

  “When Chief Harris called me in to tell me I’d made captain, we—”

  “Wait...what?” She took her hand out of his and jabbed him in the shoulder. “You made captain and are just now telling me?”

  He shrugged. “It wasn’t important.”

  “How can you say that? Of course that’s important.”

  “Not as important to me as you and our babies. This right here, with you, is what I want. Chief Harris is always asking me when I was going to sell him my three-decker and yesterday I told him to make me an offer. I tracked down the owner of this one and he’s willing to sell. So whaddaya say, should we make an offer on this place?”

  Overcome with emotion that her dreams were coming true, all she could do was shake her head and choke back a sob. All the color drained from Liam’s face and she realized he’d misunderstood. She threw herself at him and began blubbering incoherently.

  He held her and rubbed her back. Finally she raised her head. “I love you, too,” she choked out.

  He grinned, his eyes suspiciously shiny. “So, that’s a yes?”

  She nodded vigorously.

  “Wait...” He set her away from him. “I was supposed to do this first.”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring. “It was my mother’s. My dad gave it to me today. Will you marry me?”

  “Yes.”

  He slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her. She pulled away first.

  “I haven’t gotten the all clear yet on the biopsy,” she warned.

  “And I don’t have another job yet,” He brushed the hair back from her face and dried her damp cheeks. “We’ll work out all the details.”

  “McBride, are you telling me I just accepted a proposal of marriage from someone who is unemployed?”

  “You’re not going to let a little thing like that stop you, are you?” He frowned, then laughed. “I’m still employed and will have to divide my time for now. While I was waiting for you to get off work, my dad called to let me know the state fire investigator’s office here in Vermont was looking for someone.”

  “Would that kind of work make you happy?”

  He pressed his hand against her stomach. “I have all I need right here with you and these guys to make me happy.”

  “What if I don’t get good news from the biopsy?”

  “Then we’d deal with it together. I’m not going anywhere. Ellie. You’ve got the entire McBride clan with you, for whatever comes along.”

  Epilogue

  Six months later

  “Hey, bud, you didn’t have to make this a competition to see if you could get here before your sister or your cousin,” Liam whispered to his newborn son, Sean, who was staring up at him. He turned to the similar bundle cradled close on his other side. “And you, Miss Bridget, you’ll be keeping all the boys in line, won’t you?”

  His newborn daughter twitched in her sleep and Liam leaned down to press a kiss to the top of her head. He glanced up at Ellie, his precious wife, who, despite the mad dash to the hospital several weeks early, lay smiling at him.

  “You done good, Harding,” he said, blinking back a sudden burning in the back of his eyes. “Or should I say ‘McBride’? You’re one of us now, Ellie.”

  “You didn’t do so bad yourself, McBride,” she whispered and sniffled, her lips quivering.

  He swallowed and his smile faltered as he adjusted his precious bundles in his arms. “I hope both of you heard that, because it might be the last time she says something like that.”

  Ellie wiggled her feet under the covers. “Meg is going to be so jealous I can finally see my feet.”

  Liam shook his head and glanced down at his son. “Looks like the women in this family are just as competitive.”

  “At least now I can put on my own shoes.” Ellie yawned and lay back against the covers. “Good thing you and Riley finished the nursery.”

  Liam nodded in agreement. The last few months had been hectic, what with a wedding, selling one house and buying another, and starting his new job as a state fire investigator. But he wouldn’t have traded one minute of it for anything. Even having to wait for Ellie’s biopsy results had been worth the nerves. And the celebration when the all clear came back had been—he grinned at the babies in his arms—best kept private.

  “What are you grinning about over there?”

  He shifted the babies and stood up. “I was thinking how lucky I am and how I can’t wait to start this phase of our lives.”

  She lifted an eyebrow. “This phase?”

  Coming to stand next to the bed, he gently lowered their son into Ellie’s waiting arms. “Changing diapers, chasing rug rats around the yard, drying tears and retrieving Barbies from toilets.”

  Ellie yawned again as she cuddled her son. “I guess I better rest up. Sounds like I’m going to be busy.”

  Liam leaned over and kissed his wife. “I was talking about us. Ellie, we’re in this together. For today and always. No matter what the future brings it’s you and me together, sharing everything. Partners.”

  “Intimate partners,” she said and laughed.

  As always, her laughter drew him close and filled his heart and world with love.

  * * *

  Don’t miss the previous volumes in

  Carrie Nichols’s Small-Town Sweethearts series:

  The Sergeant’s Unexpected Family

  The Marine’s Secret Daughter

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  Their Last Second Chance

  by Shirley Jump

  Chapter One

  Melanie Cooper told her first lie at the age of five. Or, at least, the first lie she remembered. She’d been playing in the creek a quarter mile away from home—a forbidden destination, but too tempting to avoid. The creek was her favorite place in the entire world, chock-full of crawdads and little minnows that flickered like silver coins.

  She’d heard her mother calling her and had run for the hole in the fence, hoping to sneak in as if she’d never left. Her knee connected with the fence, and by the time she’d scrambled into the yard, the gash had become a geyser. When her mother asked her why she had taken so long to come in, Melanie had made up an elaborate story about a lost puppy and tripping over the curb trying to bring him back to his owner. Her mother had ignored the leaving-the-yard violation and made a big deal about Melanie’s big heart, delivering a rare dose of praise. In that moment, Melanie had learned that lying was the best way to get out of trouble—and win her hypercritical mother’s approval.

  So it stood to reason that she would end up working at City Girl magazine, where lying was part of the job description. She spent her days writing articles about how to lose twenty pounds in ten days, filling them with tips like drink green tea, grab an extra workout, take the stairs at work, and the editor would plop a miracle-promising title on the cover and sell twenty percent more copies to all those people wanting instant weight-loss results.

  As she pulled into Stone Gap, North Carolina, heading down Main Street and across town to her sister Abby’s house, Melanie knew she was going to have to be extra convincing when she lied to Abby. Her older sister wasn’t some gullible reader in the grocery store looking for the untold secret to erasing cellulite. She was smart, and she knew Melanie well. Too well. If Melanie’s story faltered one bit, Abby would see the truth.

  And the last thing she wanted Abby to know was that Melanie’s hard-won perfect life had fallen apart.

  Her throat closed, and she forced herself to take in a deep breath. Another. It would be okay. She’d turn this around, somehow. Plus, she had a job offer waiting for her at a prestigious online news magazine, if she could prove that she had the chops to write about more than just diets and mascara. That’s why she didn’t need to tell Abby—all would be set to rights again soon. Besides, Abby was getting married next weekend, and she had Ma staying with her, which was a herculean task unto itself. The last thing Abby needed to worry about was her little sister’s latest crisis.

  Or crises, plural, considering she’d lost her marriage, her home and her job in relatively quick succession. Melanie’s entire life had become a string of empty promises and false leads, as if working in a fiction-creating world had colored her own reality.

  Melanie took a right, then swung down the tree-lined cul-de-sac and into the driveway of Abby’s bungalow. It was the perfect little house, ringed by red geraniums and decorated with a porch swing that made a lazy arc in the breeze. A blue bicycle leaned in the shade of an oak tree, and a football waited in the sun for a game of catch. The fall air carried a sense of home as foreign to Melanie as a nor’easter to a Floridian. Years ago, she’d thought—

  Well, it didn’t matter. Years ago was done and over.

  Melanie tipped down the mirror, checked her makeup, then straightened her T-shirt and brushed invisible lint off her jeans before she got out of the car and strode up the stairs.

  Jacob came running out of the house first, wearing a Transformers T-shirt in bright yellow that made him look like a minibus. “Aunt Melanie!” He barreled into her legs.

  Melanie let out an oomph, then bent down and swung her five-year-old nephew up and into her arms. “How’s the best Jacob in the world?”

  “I’m playing soccer! Mommy says I’m really good. And Dylan is my coach and we have lots of fun and we won our first game!”

  Melanie laughed. “That’s awesome, buddy. Goodness, you’re getting big.” She lowered him to the ground—her nephew seemed to have grown six inches and added twenty pounds since the last time she saw him two Christmases ago. He slid his little hand into hers and pulled her up the stairs and into the house, talking nonstop the whole time about school, soccer and his new puppy. The simple affection of Jake’s tiny fingers in hers tugged at Melanie’s heartstrings. Emotion choked her throat, but she pushed it away just as she entered the kitchen.

  Abby was pulling something out of the oven. She set the casserole pan on the stove top, then turned, a ready smile on her face. “Melanie! You’re here. How was the drive? I can’t believe you drove all the way from New York.”

  A yellow lab puppy scrambled to his feet and bounded across the kitchen, all feet and tail, before skidding to a stop in front of Melanie. “That’s Dudley,” Jake said. “He’s got a dinosaur name.”

  “A dinosaur name?” The puppy nudged Melanie’s hand, his tail thwapping on the floor.

  “Yup. My dentist, Dr. Corbett, gave me a book ’cause I was so good when I got my teeths cleaned. And the book had Dudley the Dinosaur in it. But he wasn’t a scary dinosaur. He’s not the kind that can bite you. He’s the kind that eats his vegetables. And brushes his teeth.”

  Melanie laughed. “Sounds like a very smart dinosaur and a very good name for a dog.”

  “Dylan got him for us.” Jake hugged the dog’s neck and kissed his forehead.

  “Well, he’s adorable.” Melanie set her purse in an empty chair, then set her phone on the table. No calls, no texts, no miracles on the notification screen. That was okay. Just walking into Abby’s house eased some of the tension in Melanie’s shoulders.

  “He’s trouble is what he is,” Abby said with a laugh. Undoubtedly, she was taking the puppy in stride, as she did everything else. Abby had always had this easy casualness about her, in the way she looked, the way she parented, the way she got through life. Today, her brown hair was back in a loose ponytail, and she was wearing a pale lime V-neck T-shirt with dark blue skinny jeans. A small round diamond sparkled on her left hand. Abby smiled, a genuine glad-to-see-you smile, but Melanie could see the strain in Abby’s eyes, the stress of the last few days since their mother had arrived. “You got the entire fur-and-little-person welcoming committee.”

  “And got to hear all about soccer, the puppy and how much he likes his teacher, just in the walk down the hall.” Melanie ruffled Jacob’s hair. “Sounds like he’s been a busy boy.”

  “Busy should have been his middle name.” Abby opened her arms and drew Melanie into a tight hug. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you, too.” Melanie held on a little longer to Abby than Abby held on to her. A part of Melanie wanted to open up, to let the tears fall, to tell Abby the truth. Maybe she should. Maybe Abby would have just the right words of wisdom. “Oh, and congratulations again. I’m so happy for you.”

  “Thank you. Dylan really is an amazing man. I’m incredibly happy to be marrying him.”

  When Melanie drew back, she caught the joy in Abby’s eyes, matching the spar
kle of the ring on her finger, and Melanie couldn’t do it. All her life, Abby had been the one to protect Melanie, to bandage her wounds when she fell down, to comfort her when a date stood her up, to bail her out when she got in trouble. How could she dim the look in Abby’s eyes? Tell her that her finally well-adjusted, settled little sister had completely upended everything?

  Again.

  Melanie couldn’t bear to see the look of disappointment that would follow. Those eyes that would say here we go again and be followed by constant fretting and advice. She’d thought—they’d both thought—that those times were behind them. The days when Melanie was brought home by the cops for underage drinking or caught skipping school or sneaking home at three in the morning were in the past.

  Back then, Abby had been the one to cover for her sister, to sit Melanie down, time after time, and stress the importance of graduating high school, going to college, getting a job, being responsible. It had taken a couple years for the message to sink in, and even then Melanie had slipped off the path more than once, coming close to ending up in jail and nearly making a decision that would have ruined her life. Slow to grow up was what her mother had called her, and maybe Ma was right. But she really thought she’d done it—that she’d figured out the rule book and been rewarded with success. It had all been perfect...until it wasn’t. Because here Melanie was at twenty-nine, alone, jobless and adrift.

  Not exactly a shoo-in for the Most Successful award at the next high school reunion.

  “So...how’s Ma?” Melanie asked, then lowered her voice. “Driving you nuts?”

  Abby sighed. “She’s retired now and bored, and telling the whole world about how terrible her life is. I love her, Mel, but...”

  “She sucks all the fun out of the room like a social vampire?”

  “Exactly.” Abby laughed. “Anyway, Ma is taking a nap right now. She should be down for dinner.”

  Just as well. That gave Melanie a little more time to avoid the double sister-mother inquisition. Together, they might be able to ferret out the truth. “How’s the wedding planning going? And please don’t tell me you’re one of those brides who is filling tiny Mason jars with homemade jam and sending a dressed-up baby goat down the aisle? Because I wrote a story about that, and I’m just saying, goat wrangler is not part of my maid of honor duties.”