He heard the wail of an infant and realized it was coming from the baby monitor on the coffee table. Then a pair of wails, like baby stereo.
Holly sighed, looking exhausted and overwhelmed, and Jason wondered how long it had been since she’d had a decent night’s sleep. He could only imagine how difficult life had been for her lately, being a recent widow with twins. And then along he’d come to tell her that everything she knew about her husband was a lie.
Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.
“Would you like to meet your nephews?” she asked.
His heart jumped in his chest at the prospect of meeting twins who were now his only family. “Of course I would.”
She pushed herself up from the couch, wobbling slightly before she caught her balance. She flashed him a weak smile and said, “Still a little woozy, I guess.”
And who could blame her? He rose, prepared to catch her if she fell over or, God forbid, lost consciousness again, as he didn’t have the first clue what to do with a screaming infant. Let alone two screaming infants. He followed closely behind her, and as she opened the bedroom door, it was obvious that both his nephews had healthy lungs. He never would have imagined that anything so small could make such a racket.
She switched on the light and Jason held his breath as he peeked over her shoulder into the cribs at his nephews. There was no doubt they took after his side of the family. It was like looking at photos of himself and his brother at that age.
Holly lifted one wailing infant and then turned to Jason and held the little boy out to him. “Jason, meet Devon,” she said.
Jason just stood there, unsure of what to do.
“He won’t bite,” Holly said.
Jason took the infant under the arms and he quieted instantly. He looked so tiny and fragile wrapped in Jason’s big hands, his blue eyes wide. And he hardly weighed anything.
“This little complainer is Marshall,” she said, lifting him from the other crib. She propped him on her shoulder and patted his back, which did nothing to stop his wailing. He must have been the feistier of the two.
“Marshall was our grandfather’s name,” Jason told her.
Holly turned to him, saw the way he was holding her son and smiled. “You know, he won’t break.”
“I’ve never held a child this small,” Jason admitted, feeling completely out of his element. In business he’d dealt with some of the most powerful people in the country, yet he had no idea what to do with this tiny, harmless human being. “He looks so fragile. What if I drop him?”
“You won’t,” she said, and he hoped her confidence wasn’t misplaced.
Noting the way Holly held Marshall over her shoulder, he set Devon against his chest, placing one hand under his diapered behind and the other on his back to steady him. But he realized as Devon lifted his little head off Jason’s shoulder to stare at him, blue eyes wide and inquisitive, he wasn’t as fragile as he looked.
Jason watched Holly as she laid Marshall, who was still howling, on the changing table and deftly changed his diaper, cooing and talking to him in a quiet, soothing voice, her smile so full of love and affection Jason kind of wished she would smile at him that way.
She’s your sister-in-law, he reminded himself. But damn, she was pretty. In an unspoiled, wholesome way.
Women, as he saw it, were split between two categories. There were the ones who wanted the traditional life of marriage and babies, and those who balked at the mention of commitment. He preferred the latter. For some people, marriage and family just weren’t in the cards.
Holly turned to Jason, held out her son and said, “Switch.”
It was an awkward handover, and Marshall hollered the entire time Jason held him. It was hard not to take it personally.
“Would you like to help me feed them?”
“I don’t know how.”
“There’s nothing to it,” she assured him with a smile. After all she had been through, the fact that she still could smile was remarkable.
Feeling completely out of his element, Jason sat on the couch while his nephew sucked hungrily on a bottle and stared up at him.
Although not by choice, children had never been a part of his life plan, so he usually did what he could to avoid them. But if he was going to be a good uncle, he supposed he should at least try to learn to care for them. If, God forbid, something were to happen to Holly, they would be his sole responsibility. And then, if something were to happen to him, if his illness were to return, who would take them?
The idea was both humbling and terrifying.
This was the absolute last place he had expected to end up when he’d left home today.
Their bottoms dry and their bellies full, the boys fell sound sleep, and Jason helped her put them in their cribs.
“How often do you have to do that?” he asked Holly as she stood at the sink rinsing the empty bottles.
“Every three hours. Sometimes more, sometimes less. They’ve never slept more than a four-hour stretch.”
That would be an average of eight times a day. Two babies, all by herself.
He had a sudden newfound respect for single mothers.
“How do you manage it alone?”
Her tone nonchalant, she said, “I’ve learned to multitask.”
He had the feeling it was a bit more complicated than that. How was she supposed to get a job with the boys to care for? Day care, he supposed. Call him old-fashioned, but he wanted to see his nephews raised by their mother, the way he and his brother had been raised by theirs. He had nothing but fond memories of his early childhood. Life had been close to perfect back then.
Until it hadn’t been anymore.
She finished the bottles and wiped her hands on a dish towel. “Thanks for the help.”
“Anytime,” he said, and he meant it. “In fact, I’ll be back in the city next week and I was hoping I could spend some time with the boys.”
“You don’t live in New York?”
“After our father died I moved upstate.” The lake house had been in their family for generations and had been his favorite retreat as a child.
“Jeremy used to talk about us moving upstate, getting a house in a small town. A fixer-upper that we could make ours. With a big yard and a swing set for the boys. I can’t help thinking that was probably a lie, too.”
Sadly, it probably was. Jeremy had preferred the anonymity of living in a big city. Not to mention the ease with which he could support his drug habit. Something told Jason that wouldn’t have changed.
Jason always had been the one who’d strived for a slower-paced lifestyle. Ten years of working for his father had landed him on the business fast track, but his heart had never really been in it. Only after his father’s death had he started living the life he’d wanted.
“You and the boys should come and visit me,” he told her, surprised and hopeful when her eyes lit.
“I’d like that. But are you sure you have the space? I don’t want to put you out.”
At first he thought she was joking, and then he remembered that she knew virtually nothing about their family. Or their finances. Maybe for right now it would be better if he didn’t bring up the fact that her sons stood to inherit millions someday. It might be too much to take all in one night. And though Jeremy had been disinherited years ago, he would see that Holly and the boys were well cared for.
“I have space,” he assured her. Maybe once he got her there, once she saw how much room he had and how good life would be there for them, he could convince her to stay, giving him the chance to right the last wrong his brother would ever commit. He owed it to his nephews.
And to himself.
Three
Jason sat at the bar of The Trapper Tavern, the town watering hole, nursing an imported beer wi
th his best friend and attorney Lewis Pennington.
“Are you sure you can trust her?” Lewis asked him after he explained the situation with his sister-in-law and nephews. “I don’t have to tell you the sort of people with whom your brother kept company. She could be conning you.”
Jason didn’t think so. “Lewis, she was so freaked out she actually fainted when she saw me, and she seemed to genuinely have no clue who Jeremy really was.”
“Or she’s as good an actor as your brother.”
“Or she’s an innocent victim.”
“With your flesh and blood involved, is that a chance you really want to take?”
Of course not. The day his brother died was the day the twins’ happiness and well-being had become Jason’s responsibility. “That’s why, when she’s here, I’m going to ask her to stay with me. Until she’s back on her feet financially.”
He’d left Holly his phone number and told her to call if she needed anything. She’d called the next morning sounding tired and exasperated, asking to take him up on his offer to visit, saying she needed a few days away from the city. In the background he could hear his nephews howling. He admired the fact that she wasn’t afraid to admit she needed help. And he was more than happy to supply it. That and so much more.
“My point is that you know nothing about this woman,” Lewis said. “Don’t let the fact that she’s the mother of your nephews cloud your judgment.”
“With a brother like Jeremy, I’ve learned to be a pretty good judge of character.”
“Maybe so, but I’d hide the good china, just in case.”
Jason shot him a look.
“At least let me run a background check, search for a criminal history.”
“If you insist, but I doubt you’ll find anything.”
“When is her train due in?”
Jason glanced at his watch. “An hour.”
He’d offered to drive to the city and pick up her and the boys at her apartment, but she’d insisted they take the train. And when he’d tried to talk her out of it, she’d only dug her heels in deeper. Though he barely knew her, he could see that persuading her to do something she didn’t want to do was going to be difficult, if not impossible.
“If she’s so destitute, why not just pay her debt and set her up in her own place in town? What woman wouldn’t go for that?”
The kind who was too proud for her own good. And as much as it annoyed him, he couldn’t help but respect that. “I offered to pay all the debt Jeremy left her with and help her get a fresh start.”
“And?”
He took a long swallow of his beer, then set the bottle down on the bar. “She wouldn’t take a penny.”
Lewis’s brows rose in surprise. “Seriously?”
“She wouldn’t budge.”
“She’s independent?”
That was putting it mildly. “You have no idea.”
“Attractive?”
Immensely. “That’s irrelevant.”
Lewis grinned. “Are you attracted to her?”
Hell yes, he was. Who wouldn’t be? “She’s my sister-in-law. My feelings are irrelevant.”
“Not if you plan to live under the same roof with her. Feelings have a way of happening whether we want them to or not.”
“My only concern is for my nephews.”
“What if you ask her to stay with you and she refuses?”
“Obviously I can’t force her.”
“That’s not necessarily true.”
Jason frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You have leverage.”
“Leverage?”
“Your nephews. You could threaten to sue her for custody.”
“On what grounds? She seems perfectly competent to me.” Not to mention the damage it would cause the twins, first losing their father, then being ripped away from their mother.
“If she’s as destitute as you claim, the last thing she’ll want is a legal battle. The threat of one could make her more likely to cooperate.”
Or put her right over the edge. He did worry that getting her cooperation would be difficult, but he couldn’t imagine ever taking it to that extreme. However, if there was any validity to Lewis’s suspicions, Jason could be downright ruthless if it meant keeping his nephews safe. But there was no need to jump the gun. Unlike his father, who had been quick to judge and considered anyone he didn’t know well a potential threat, Jason preferred to grant people the benefit of the doubt. Innocent until proven guilty. But he knew he could never convince Lewis that she was telling the truth, so he didn’t even try.
“How is Miranda?” he asked his friend.
Lewis sighed and rolled his eyes. “All whacked out on hormones again.”
Lewis and his wife had been trying unsuccessfully to conceive a baby over the course of their three-year marriage. They had tried every method, be it Western medicine or holistic, with no success. They were now on their third IVF attempt in nine months, and it had been emotionally taxing on them both. Though more so on Miranda, Jason imagined. Lewis had a teenage son from a former relationship, someone to carry on his legacy.
Jason found it ironic that Jeremy, who’d lacked the integrity to care for his own sons, had had no problem at all conceiving a child, while good people such as Lewis and Miranda, who had everything to offer a son or daughter, were helpless to make it happen.
“When is the next procedure?” Jason asked.
“Next Friday,” Lewis said, eyes on the thirty-year-old scotch that he swirled in his glass. “And regardless of the outcome, it will be our last.”
“What?” Jason set down his bottle a little harder than he’d meant to. “You’re just going to give up?”
“After three years the perpetual disappointment is taking a toll on us both. We’ve begun to look into foreign adoption instead.”
“Another time-consuming process,” Jason said and Lewis nodded.
“But when we’re approved, at least there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Have you considered a surrogate?”
“Only to have her change her mind after the baby is born? It would destroy Miranda.”
Yes, it probably would. “I’m sorry, Lewis. I wish there was something I could do.”
“We’ll get through this.”
Jason didn’t envy their situation. Though it had taken years of introspection and soul searching, he’d come to terms with the fact that he would never have a family of his own. Now it would seem he’d earned one by default.
* * *
Longest. Trip. Ever.
Despite Holly’s hope that the twins would sleep most of the five-hour train ride, they had fussed and complained, sleeping in fits and bursts, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. By the time Holly got them in the stroller and ready to depart the train, she’d expended the last of her energy and was running on pure adrenaline, wishing she had taken Jason up on his offer to give them a ride. But now as she sat in Jason’s black luxury SUV, the boys buckled safely in the back, that adrenaline was wearing thin.
After today it was abundantly clear that if Holly was going to make it as a single mom of twins, she was going to have to sock away her pride and learn to accept help a little more often. For the twins’ sake. They were a handful now, but what about when they began to crawl and walk and get into things? Just the idea made her weary. She knew she should be in New York looking for a job and a place to live, and taking this vacation was irresponsible and selfish, but her sanity depended on it.
While Jason loaded their bags in the back, she looked over her shoulder into the backseat, peering into the boy’s car seats. They were both out cold. She would have wept with relief, but she didn’t have the energy.
“Rough trip?” Jason asked a
s he opened the driver’s side door and climbed in, flashing her a smile. One she felt from the ends of her hair to the tips of her toes and everywhere in between.
Whoa. Where the heck had that come from? She turned away, pretending to look out the window at the station, hoping he wouldn’t notice her conspicuously rosy cheeks. It wasn’t helping matters that he smelled absolutely delicious, like some manly musk drifting on a warm spring breeze.
She tried to fight it, but it was hopeless. Ribbons of heat twisted through her veins, making her skin flush. Making her feel restless and aroused.
In all the time she had been with Jeremy, Holly had never experienced this intense physical reaction from a simple smile. To be fair, she hadn’t had sex in over six months, though it felt more like a year. Or five.
Her cheeks burned hotter. She really shouldn’t be thinking about sex right now. But the harder she tried not to think about it, the further her mind strayed.
“Everyone buckled and ready to go?” Jason asked her as the engine roared to life. She could feel his eyes on her; she had no choice but to face him. The alternative was to act rudely.
Willing away the heat rushing to her face, she turned to him, her gaze instantly locking on his stormy eyes. Though it was wildly bizarre, she didn’t look at Jason and see Jeremy anymore. They may have been identical in looks, but his personality and disposition set Jason apart from his brother.
His brow wrinkled. “Are you feeling okay? You’re flushed.”
Aw, hell. “I’m fine. Really. Just tired.”
Concern etching the corners of his eyes, Jason reached up to touch her burning hot cheek with his cool, surprisingly rough fingers, then frowned and pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, the way her mom had when Holly was a little girl. “You’re warm.”
No kidding. She was surprised her face hadn’t melted off. And the fact that he kept touching her wasn’t helping matters.
He was dressed much more casually today, in dark slacks and a white polo shirt that contrasted sharply with his deeply tanned face. Considering it was only the first week of June, she was guessing he spent a considerable amount of time outdoors. If she lived near a lake, she probably would, too. As a young teen one of her favorite pastimes had been going fishing with her foster dad and siblings. She had always hoped someday she would be able to share those experiences with her own children.
Demanding His Brother's Heirs Page 3
