Falling for the Wrong Brother

by Michelle Major

  Dani nodded as she finished spooning yogurt into bowls. “Audrey lived just long enough to tell me about you, to ask me to try to contact you to take the twins.”

  “Because I’m their father?”

  The guy seemed tough as nails until he said that, and Dani heard an underlying note in his voice, clueing her in to how dumbfounded and unsettled he really was by the prospect.

  “She told me that she knew she was pregnant when she broke up with you but there was something about a phone call when she hadn’t been able to talk to you for months? Whatever you said to her made her know that was how it would always be?”

  “I’m Force Recon... Reconnaissance... That’s US Marine Special Forces. When I’m on a mission I’m out of touch. I can’t be reached. That’s how it had been for a while before I had the chance to call her, after we’d seen each other the last time. It’s how every mission is, how my next mission was going to be. And I never know how long a mission will take. Plus I couldn’t ever tell her where I was or what I was doing either. She couldn’t know anything,” he explained. “No one can.”

  “Well, I guess that conversation, learning that, convinced her that she didn’t want a relationship anymore with someone who wasn’t available to her. She’d found out that she was having twins. She’d met Owen and he wanted her to marry him. He was even willing to claim the babies as his own. Owen’s name is on the birth certificates as Evie and Grady’s dad.” Dani said that last part gently because she also had no idea how it might affect him.

  He scowled but she wasn’t sure whether that was out of anger or hurt or what. But since he didn’t say anything, she went on answering his initial question about who she was.

  “Anyway, Audrey told me that you—not Owen—are the twins’ father. She knew she wasn’t going to make it and neither Audrey nor Owen had any family to turn to for the kids. She said you were all they would have left and that I needed to let you know about them. To try to contact you through the marines...”

  He was still just frowning, saying nothing, so she merely continued.

  “There wasn’t even a guardian named in their wills, so when Audrey passed, Evie and Grady became wards of the state. But I just couldn’t see them go into foster care. I sent you that message right away and talked to Owen’s attorney so he could approach the court to ask that I be named the twins’ temporary guardian. I told the judge what Audrey had confessed about you, and that I’d sent you word, and asked that they let me do whatever needed to be done so Evie and Grady could at least stay at home, with a familiar face, until this gets sorted through. So that’s who I am—formerly their nanny, now their guardian.”

  “We’re ready,” Evie called.

  “I’ll be right back,” Dani said, taking a tray with the bowls of yogurt and the glasses of milk across the kitchen to the stairs that led to the children’s portion of the house. It was four steps down from the main floor and devoted to the twins’ bedrooms and a nanny’s suite she was using. There was also a play area and a living room complete with the kids’ own entertainment center.

  “Is that man still here?” Grady whispered as she got them set up to watch the animated shows they were allowed before bed.

  “He is. We’re talking in the kitchen if you need me.”

  “He’s kinda scary,” Evie whispered, too.

  “You don’t need to be scared of him. Remember he was a friend of your mom’s. She wouldn’t have been friends with him if there was anything to be scared about, would she?”

  There was no answer, so Dani said, “She wouldn’t have been. I think he’s just a little sad that she’s gone—like we all are.”

  Their expressions were skeptical but they were more interested in getting to the cartoons, so she started those and left them to watch while she returned to the kitchen and Liam Madison standing where she’d left him.

  “So...” she said when she got there, hoping to prompt him to say something.

  “It’s been over five years. Not a word, not a hint that I have kids...” he said.

  “Yeah...” Dani debated whether or not to address that. Then she decided that he needed the whole story so she said, “Audrey told me that she’d planned never to tell you. She said when she met Owen he was at a time in his life when he regretted that he’d put everything into his career and didn’t have any family. She said you weren’t in a position to be a dad, and she had been afraid to raise kids on her own. She said Owen could be there for them all, that he could take care of the three of them, and that was something she needed. Something she wanted—to be taken care of...”

  “That sounds like her,” he acknowledged. “She wasn’t the most strong or independent person.”

  And there he was, as strong as they came and exuding the ability to protect. Knowing the kind of woman Audrey had been, Dani could see how she would have been drawn to that. Until she’d had to face the fact that he wouldn’t be around for long periods of time to fill that role.

  Dani watched the marine take a deep breath and exhale slowly. “When I got your message I called my older brother. He’s here, in Denver. He got me a lawyer. The lawyer says the first thing that needs to be done is to prove that I am the father. There needs to be a DNA test.”

  “The court will need that, too, or they won’t even consider giving you custody... If custody is what you want...”

  He didn’t confirm that was what he wanted.

  Instead, in a clipped, just-stating-the-facts voice, he said, “The timing tracks. I know it’s possible that I fathered Audrey’s kids. I don’t know that anything would have ever worked out between Audrey and me—there weren’t any plans, and we were just having fun—but if those kids are mine...”

  There was resignation in that, but he wasn’t jumping for joy at the possibility.

  “I’ll do what’s right,” he ultimately admitted.

  “And what’s right might just be finding them a good, loving home with people who want them...” She felt the need to say it. After all, she was there to make sure the kids ended up in the best home possible, and she wasn’t convinced that even a biological father was the right choice if that man wasn’t thrilled with being a parent to them.

  “I’ve thought about it, though,” he went on. “And even if they aren’t mine... Well, I considered Audrey a friend—”

  A friend with benefits, apparently, Dani thought. But she didn’t say it.

  “—and I know she didn’t have anyone. So even if her kids aren’t mine, I want to make sure that they’re taken care of in the best way possible. That they aren’t just left in a bad situation.”

  That was commendable.

  “And if they are mine,” he continued, “I should get to know them.”

  “That’s probably a good idea,” she agreed. Especially since Audrey hadn’t seemed to have any doubt whatsoever that the twins were his.

  “So... I don’t know... What would you say to me maybe coming here to stay with the three of you? That way I could help out with them, too, learn some of the ropes, just in case...” His dark eyebrows arched suddenly, showing how baffled he was by this whole thing. “This place is huge and I can bunk anywhere you’d be comfortable with... If you would be comfortable with sharing a place with a complete stranger.”

  Dani had to think about that. He was right. She would be agreeing to share a house with a complete stranger. A big, muscular, handsome-as-all-get-out stranger. None of which told her that he was a person she could trust.

  On the other hand, Audrey really hadn’t left any question that he was the twins’ father. He’d come from who knew where the minute he’d learned that he might have kids. And while he was obviously shaken by the news, he was still willing to take responsibility whether or not the kids were his, to make sure they were well taken care of.

  None of those things spoke of character she shouldn’t—or couldn’t—trust. At le
ast enough to put him in one of the rooms on the upper levels of the house.

  And she did think that it would be good for the kids to get to know him. It would be a good idea for her to check him out, too, in case it came to handing Evie and Grady over to him.

  “I think it would probably be okay,” she said then. “I’m staying in a room downstairs near the kids, but there are four empty bedrooms up another floor from here, and a guest suite that’s in that sort of box that sits a level higher than that—”

  “I wondered what that was. It looks like a tower for an air traffic controller.”

  “I know. It’s nice, though. Plush. Plus the view is something to see and there’s a deck to go out onto. The kids and I went up there to watch the city’s fireworks display last summer and it was like being in the sky at eye level with them. Unless you don’t like heights...”

  “I’m fine with heights,” he informed her as if there shouldn’t have been any question.

  “There’s also an elevator up to it if you don’t want to climb all the stairs,” Dani added.

  “I think I’ll be fine with the stairs, too,” he said in the same way he’d said he didn’t have a problem with heights.

  And of course he would be all right with the stairs with thighs the size of tree trunks inside those uniform pants, she thought.

  But what she said was, “Do you want to stay tonight?”

  “My brother and his fiancée are expecting me tonight. I haven’t seen any of my family in over ten months, so I need to check in. But tomorrow—”

  “Sure, you can just move in whenever you’re ready.”

  He switched gears then. “According to my lawyer we can go to a doctor or to a lab for the DNA tests—it’s just a couple of mouth swabs—but it has to go through channels in order for the court to accept it. The twins must have a doctor, right? I was thinking that if their doctor would do it—somebody they know—they might not be scared. If something like that would scare them... I don’t know.”

  But he was thinking of them, of how to make things easiest on them, and Dani appreciated that. “I can call their pediatrician first thing in the morning and set it up. I’ll try for an appointment tomorrow so we can get it in the works,” she offered.

  “Good,” he said with a nod and the return of those arched eyebrows that seemed to give away whenever the possible reality of being a dad struck and rattled him. “I got a cell phone when I hit the States. Let me give you the number.”

  He did and Dani gave him hers, assuring him that she would let him know if they could get into the doctor the next day.

  “Otherwise, what’s a good time for me to move in tomorrow?”

  “The kids’ preschool is closed for spring break this coming week and next so I’ll let them sleep until they wake up on their own—eight o’clock at best. After that tomorrow is pretty open.”

  “So maybe we’ll just play it by ear?”

  “Sure.”

  He nodded, keeping his focus on her so that Dani again remembered how weird she looked and wished she didn’t.

  But he still didn’t remark on it or question her about it. Instead, after seeming to apply her appearance to memory, he said, “I’ll take off then, get to my brother’s.” He glanced in the direction of the lower level and said, “Should I say goodbye or something?”

  Dani almost smiled at the confusion in his voice that said he was at a complete loss of what to do with kids.

  “It’s up to you. If you want to. But they get pretty engrossed in their cartoons at wind-down and I wouldn’t expect too much from them.”

  “I like that you just said I’m a friend of their mother’s, though. I wasn’t sure who to say I am...”

  “Yeah, let’s just start there. They’ve had a lot to deal with since the accident. Keeping things as simple as possible seems to work best.”

  “And if I am their father...we’ll figure out how to say that?”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  “If we come to it.”

  So he had some doubts. She supposed he was entitled to that after Audrey kept him in the dark.

  Dani walked him to the front door, opening it for him and realizing only then that there was a big, black rented SUV parked in the drive just outside the dance studio, so he must have seen what was going on in there when he arrived.

  And thinking about how she just cut loose during dance parties with the kids—all while her hair was in the state it was in tonight—was a little disheartening and a whole lot embarrassing.

  But she decided against saying anything and only said good-night.

  Then she watched him walk out to his rental, unable not to notice that his backside was as good as his front.

  But it didn’t matter. The guy had a lot to deal with, and she was only there to care for, advocate for and protect the twins.

  And once that was taken care of, she had decisions of her own to make. Big ones.

  So the way he looked didn’t make any difference.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Texas Cowboy’s Quadruplets by Cathy Gillen Thacker.

  Copyright © 2018 by Victoria Pade

  Life, Love and Family

  COMING NEXT MONTH!

  Cathy Gillen Thacker

  debuts her heartfelt series Texas Legends: The McCabes

  in Harlequin Special Edition.

  Don’t miss

  The Texas Cowboy’s Quadruplets

  Available October 2018

  Read the first two books in the

  Texas Legends: The McCabes series from Harlequin Western Romance:

  The Texas Cowboy’s Baby Rescue

  The Texas Cowboy’s Triplets

  www.Harlequin.com

  The Texas Cowboy’s Quadruplets

  by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Chapter One

  “So,” the way-too-handsome Chase McCabe drawled in a low, sexy voice, “the boot is finally on the other foot.”

  Mitzy Martin stared at the indomitable CEO standing on the other side of her front door, looking more rancher than businessman, in nice-fitting jeans, boots and tan Western shirt. Ignoring the sudden skittering of her heart, she heaved a dramatic sigh meant to convey just how unwelcome he was. “What’s your point, cowboy?” she demanded impatiently.

  Mischief gleaming in his smoky-blue eyes, Chase poked the brim of his hat back and looked her up and down in a way that made her insides flutter all the more. “Just that you’ve been a social worker for Laramie County Department of Children and Family Services for what...ten years now?”

  Electricity sparked between them with all the danger and unpredictability of a downed power line. “Eleven,” Mitzy corrected, doing her best to ignore the impressive amount of testosterone and take-charge attitude he exuded beneath his amiable demeanor.

  And it had been slightly less than that since she had abruptly ended their engagement...

  “And in all that time, my guess is, very few people have been happy to see you coming up their front walk. Now you seem to be feeling the very same disinclination,” he continued with an ornery grin, angling a thumb at the center of his masculine chest, “seeing me at your door.”

  Leave him to point out the almost unbearable irony in that! Mitzy drew a breath, ignoring the considerable physical awareness that never failed to materialize between them. No matter how vigilantly she worked to avoid him.

  She remained in the portal, blocking his entrance. And gave him a long level look that let him know he was not going to get to her...no matter how hard he tried. Even if his square jaw and chiseled features, thick, short sandy-brown hair and incredibly buff physique were permanently imprinted on her brain. “There’s a difference, Chase.” She smiled sweetly, tipping her head up to accommodate his six-foot-three-inch frame. “When people get to know me an
d realize I’m there to help, they usually become quite warm and friendly.”

  “Well, what do you know!” He surveyed her pleasantly in return. “That’s exactly what I hope will happen between you and me. Now that we’re older and wiser, that is.”

  Twins Bridgett and Bess Monroe, there to assist with her two-month-old quadruplets, appeared behind her. “Hey, Chase.” Bridgett grinned.

  “Here to talk business, I bet?” Bess added, a matchmaker’s gleam in her eye.

  He nodded, ornery as ever. “I am.”

  Mitzy glared. She and Chase had crashed and burned once—spectacularly. There was no way she was doing it again. She folded her arms in front of her militantly. “Well, I’m not.”

  He stepped closer, deliberately invading her personal space, inundating her with his wildly intoxicating masculine scent. “Mitzy, come on. You’ve been ducking my calls and messages for weeks now.”

  So what? She gave him her most unwelcoming glance. “I know it’s hard for a carefree bachelor like you to understand, but I’ve been ‘a little busy’ since giving birth to four boys.”

  He shrugged right back, meeting her word for cavalier word. “Word around town is you’ve had plenty of volunteer help. Plus the high-end nannies your mother sent from Dallas.”

  Mitzy groaned and clapped a hand across her forehead. “Don’t remind me,” she muttered miserably.

  The sympathy on his face matched his low, commiserating tone. “Didn’t work out?”

  “No,” she bit out, “they didn’t.” Mostly because they had been even more ostentatious—and intrusive—than her mom. Telling her how things should be, instead of asking her how she wanted them to be. “Just like this lobbying effort on your part won’t work, either.”

  “I know you’d rather not do business with me, Mitzy,” he said, even more gently. “But at least hear me out.”

  Silence fell between them, as fragile as the still-shattered pieces of her heart. He rocked forward on his toes and lowered his face to hers. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it were crucial.”