Her Secret Sons

by Tina Leonard

  “Did we call it a Man Catch?” Pansy asked Helen.

  “I believe we might have,” she replied innocently.

  Luke scowled but didn’t say anything.

  “Luke, can I talk to you?” Pepper asked. When he nodded, she said, “Excuse me. I’ll be right back, ladies.”

  “Take your time,” Pansy said. “We’re going to try a new kind of frosting on some cookies for next weekend. They’re fish shaped, but we’re not sure if we like the texture.”

  Pepper barely heard them as she followed Luke outside. He was so breathtakingly handsome, she found it hard to believe that the two of them had created children. The more time he spent in Tulips, the less continental and the more Western he became, a very sexy look for him. Gazing up into his dark eyes, she told herself to be brave. “The boys mentioned something to me I hadn’t considered before.”

  Luke raised his brows, his eyes glittering. “Such as?”

  This was difficult, Pepper told herself. No one could help her with this question; in the interest of keeping their family matters private, she’d decided to talk to Luke and only Luke about the boys’ request. “The twins asked me last night about…”

  She couldn’t say it. Giving her children his last name would be forever sharing them with Luke. As long as they had her name, they seemed to be hers, and hers alone, just as they’d been for thirteen years. “They were wondering about your last name.”

  He waited, his gaze still.

  “Your last name and them,” she said, feeling awkward. “I didn’t know how you’d feel about that. I told them I’d mention it to you, but I understand—”

  She stopped stumbling over words when his hand closed on her wrist. Then a trembling started that deep breathing couldn’t subside. It’s discussing the boys that’s making me nervous—not Luke, she told herself.

  “Pepper, you’re so knotted up you’re making me jumpy. Are you saying they want to be McGarretts?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered, tugging her arm away.

  “Well.” He scratched his chin, thinking. “There’s only two ways for that to happen. One, we get married. Two, I’m sure there’s legal paperwork to be filed for a name change. I’m sure your brother Duke knows. Or someone around this den of conspirators does. They’ve probably already looked it up.”

  She felt a need to explain. “It’s just that with school starting in the fall—”

  “You don’t need to go into it,” Luke said. “It’s perfectly natural, and in fact, better for them. Unless you have an objection.”

  Too quickly, she shook her head, denying herself the painful emotions racing through her. “It will be hard not to think of them as Toby and Josh Forrester. But I do understand.” She looked at Luke. “And part of me is glad.”

  “Part?” He cupped her chin. “This is hard for you, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Pepper admitted, “and I’m ashamed of that.”

  “Don’t be,” he said, pulling her into his arms for a close, nonthreatening hug. “You’re being very brave.”

  She didn’t feel brave. Pepper put her face against Luke’s chest, fighting to get a grip on the wild feelings surging through her—and caught the scent of his skin, the smell of the laundry detergent he used and the heat of his body. It was like standing still in a place she’d never been, only realizing it felt strangely, wonderfully familiar.

  Like home.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “I should have been there for you,” Luke said. “I have responsibility in this, too.” He wasn’t proud that he’d made love to Pepper and then left town without even a goodbye. A man couldn’t blame that on teenage mistakes. He wouldn’t want his teenagers to use that excuse, or behave that way.

  Toby and Josh were only four years younger now than Luke and Pepper had been when they created them. It was time to start facing his life if he really wanted to present a good role model for his sons to follow.

  He wanted that more than anything.

  “I’m sorry I left you behind,” he told Pepper, pulling away from her. They began to walk down the street in the direction he’d seen the boys and dog joyfully heading. “Pepper, I should’ve phoned you. At the very least I should have called to see if you were all right.” He took a deep breath, glad that he was finally making this confession. “I’m sorry I didn’t. It was a jerky thing to do.”

  “It’s probably turned out better this way. No regrets. At least I never had any.”

  He wondered about that. How could a young girl not be afraid of facing motherhood alone? “I don’t know. I think you’re giving me the light version of the story.” He had a feeling she must have been very scared, not to even tell her brothers. Or Pansy and Helen. Pepper seemed pretty close to those two. “We should start over,” he said.

  “We are,” she murmured.

  “Yeah. I guess so.” They walked half a block before he spoke again. “You’re even more beautiful than you were before.”

  She laughed. “I was never beautiful. Other girls in the class, yes. Me? No.”

  “The most beautiful bookworm I ever saw. I always admired your intelligence. I still do.”

  When she glanced up at him, he shrugged. “I haven’t done anything with my life that requires great concentration and brains, not like getting a medical degree or raising twins.”

  “The boys were wondering what you do for a living,” Pepper said. “I didn’t know what to tell them.”

  “My last job was working as a bodyguard for three beautiful women,” Luke said, “but that’s not a good answer for my young sons.”

  Pepper stopped, staring up at him. “A bodyguard?”

  He shrugged. “It was an accidental job that worked out.”

  “I can’t see you standing outside dressing rooms while women try on clothes, or watching while they eat.”

  He grinned. “It was more of a terrorism gig. I kept an eye on a general and his family.”

  “His beautiful family.”

  “Uh-huh.” He tugged at her hair. “That’s the same tone I used when I heard you were going out in a boat with a strange guy for the Man Catch. This is a crazy idea Pansy and Helen have cooked up, by the way.”

  “I think it’s wonderful,” Pepper said, “but I didn’t envision myself participating.” She frowned. “So, what are we going to tell Toby and Josh?”

  “About the name change?” Luke couldn’t help smiling as he thought about their request. “That they’ve made their pop proud.”

  He could feel Pepper’s intense scrutiny and decided his life was turning out very well—except for one piece. “The easiest thing on everyone would be if we get married,” he said, “but I’m not asking you twice.”

  “Pretty chicken attitude for a brave bodyguard type.”

  “Really?”

  After a moment she stopped walking and reached up to slide her arms around his neck, pulling his face down toward hers in full view of the Tulips Saloon, the jail and every other conceivable place eyeballs were probably glued to them at this moment. She kissed Luke smack on the lips and said, “I’m game for the altar if you are.”

  His heart beat hard inside his chest. “Do you consider that a proposal, Dr. Forrester?”

  “It’s the best I can do, Bodyguard McGarrett. Take it or leave it.”

  “I heard you were the long shot in town.”

  “Funny,” she whispered, “that’s exactly what I heard about you.”

  “Are we doing this for the kids?” he asked, stealing another kiss from her.

  “Yes,” she said. “Fighting it is getting me nowhere.”

  “Except on a boat in the middle of a lake,” Luke teased, and Pepper shuddered. “We’ll work on a better seating chart,” he suggested.

  “We’ll work on a better sleeping chart,” Pepper retorted, which made him grin like crazy until she added, “This is just for the sake of the children, because it’s a small town and because they’ll be happier.”

  A fake marriage? Preten
ding to be something he wasn’t? “I accept your proposal,” he said, “and the conditions.”

  For now. He was winning the mother of his children—he could just feel it.

  He was still lucky.

  But it was going to take more than luck to pull off keeping Pepper married—she’d turned into more of a commitment-phobe than he’d ever been. “Let’s make it soon,” he said. Before you get a case of cold feet that can’t be cured.

  “I’M GETTING MARRIED,” Pepper told Duke and Zach the next day as they sat around the table at the ranch. Liberty and Jessica played with the kids and Molly ran around, happy to have children at the ranch. Toby and Josh, who had taken the news with delighted grins, were enjoying playing with their cousins.

  “Married?” Duke said.

  “Married?” Zach repeated.

  “You act like you’ve never heard the word in this house,” Pepper said defensively.

  “Not said by you,” Duke said. “Can we assume the lucky guy is Luke?”

  “Yes.” She felt good about this decision. “We’re eloping this weekend.”

  Duke and Zach sat there quietly dumbfounded. Pepper loved the fact that she’d caught them off guard for a change.

  “Eloping,” Duke repeated. “The gang will not be happy.”

  “That’s okay,” Pepper said. “It’s my life.”

  “True,” Zach said, “but I warn you, they’ll make you do it again if you don’t satisfy their need for a full-blown wedding.”

  “So, where’s the happy groom?” Duke demanded. “Shouldn’t he be part of this wedding announcement?”

  “He had a thousand chores to do with his dad,” she said airily. “But he sent his regards.”

  Duke frowned. “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.” Pepper stood. “The boys are thrilled.”

  Pansy and Helen and Hiram and Bug and Holt would be thrilled. Bill McGarrett would be thrilled. Everyone would be happy that she and Luke had worked everything out for the sake of their sons.

  She went off to join Liberty and Jessica and the children, and it struck her that she fit in, at last.

  Nobody would ever know that it was just a facade, a picture of married happiness, not the real thing.

  PEPPER AND LUKE GOT married at a tiny chapel in Las Vegas. It was the same one where Jessica and Zach had gotten married, because they said that would be lucky, and Luke had jumped on the idea. Pepper was so nervous she almost felt like a real bride instead of a participant in a mock wedding.

  “I’m glad you talked me into this,” Luke whispered as the organist readied her sheet music and the pastor cleared his throat.

  “The second proposal did the trick,” Pepper said.

  He nodded, patting her hand. “You’re a beautiful bride.”

  “You’re a handsome groom.”

  Luke wished the minister—or whatever he was—would hurry up. If someone didn’t say I do and You’re married soon, he was pretty certain the bride next to him would disappear in a puff of bridal nerves. She was trembling, for heaven’s sake, as if it was real and mattered. The moment women and men waited for all their lives—that special, magical instant when two people became one.

  He was feeling pretty darn sentimental about the whole thing. Of course, he was planning on forever, so that skewed his appreciation of the ceremony. Pepper was looking for instant gratification and no sentiment. It’s the doctor in her, he told himself. Everything is always procedural.

  He didn’t care. He was almost wed to the mother of his children, and marriage for appearances or not, she was going to be his.

  The ceremony ended after a few perfunctory “I do’s.” Lacking a wave of a wand and a pronouncement of happily ever after, Luke kissed the hell out of Pepper and scooped her up to carry her down the chapel steps. “Hello, Mrs. Pepper McGarrett. Dr. Pepper McGarrett, I should say.”

  Her lips curved with amusement. He set her down so he could kiss her again, but she pulled away faster than he liked.

  “You make me sound like a soda pop,” she said. “Just Pepper McGarrett will be fine.”

  He laughed. “You and the boys—I got all of you named McGarrett with one simple ‘I do.’ Pretty cool, in my opinion.”

  “Very efficient of you.”

  “Speaking of efficiency, I’ve rigged the Man Catch. You’re sitting with me.”

  She smiled. “You saved me.”

  “The boys want to go fishing with us. We’re breaking the spirit of the fish-off, but family first, I always say.”

  “That’s one thing we agree on.”

  “Yes. Now, the honeymoon begins.” He squinted up at the hotels surrounding them. “Can I talk you into a heart-shaped tub? They probably have those here.”

  Pepper shook her head. “No bathing suit.”

  Luke grinned. “None required.”

  To his surprise, his brand-new bride blushed practically strawberry. “Okay,” he suggested, “let’s go get some ice cream instead. Would you like that?”

  “Yes,” she said, losing some of the pink, and he reminded himself to slow down. The hard part was over.

  They had the rest of their lives for him to lure her into heart-shaped bathtubs.

  PEPPER WAS THRILLED to be married, and it wasn’t just for Toby and Josh, who were ecstatic to have the family they’d always dreamed of and a father who loved them. Secretly, she had developed a craving for her husband she didn’t dare admit.

  She realized the craving had probably begun when he’d told the boys his name was theirs if they wanted it. When he’d made another nonserious marriage proposal, Pepper had jumped on it. When did a woman get another chance at a man who understood the needs of young boys’ hearts?

  She’d always been crazy about Luke McGarrett. Nothing had changed over the years, though she wouldn’t have confessed that to a soul.

  Luke moved into her house. Immediately, he began making changes, while she worked in her clinic. One night she came home and the boys had beds. Not just any beds, but ones with headboards and complete sets of dark brown bedding with gold cording—Ralph Lauren masculine. On the wall were framed black-and-white pictures of the boys three-wheeling with Luke.

  Another night she came home and found a basketball hoop drying in cement near the driveway. Perfect for b-ball, Luke had told her. Did she want to play one-on-one with the three of them?

  She couldn’t figure out that math, so passed, content to spy on them from the kitchen window.

  He was having a great time with the twins, and they in turn thrived under Luke’s attention. A lump formed in her throat as she watched them try to outwit each other.

  She didn’t think she could ever get enough of watching him interact with her sons. Our sons, she reminded herself.

  As for beds, she and Luke slept in the same one, though he never touched her. The marriage was for appearances only, as they’d agreed. For the three nights they’d been married, Pepper didn’t think she’d slept a wink. She could feel Luke’s heat and his strong body calling to her, and there was nothing she would have loved more than to curl up with him.

  I want to make love with him.

  The longing had been consuming her for days. It was beginning to obliterate the sane reasons she had agreed to the marriage. The dizzying roller-coaster ride of their relationship threatened to plunge her into sexual desire so intense she could barely think. So at night, she lay awake listening to his even breathing, imagining his bare chest rising and falling.

  It was four o’clock in the morning now, and all she could do was want her husband.

  “Mom,” Toby whispered, from the door of the bedroom she shared with Luke.

  “What is it, son?” Raising up, she peered through in the darkness.

  “Josh doesn’t feel well.”

  “All right. I’ll be right there.” She moved to the side of the bed and reached for her robe, shocked to feel Luke’s hand close over her arm.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Josh
is sick.”

  “I’ll go.” He got up, and before she could say anything, he left the room.

  But I’m the doctor. The protest died on her lips as she realized how completely Luke intended to be a father to his children.

  So she waited to be called.

  “It’s all right,” he said, coming back into the room and sliding into bed. She glimpsed a flash of bare chest and pajama bottoms, and caught her breath. “He had a bad dream. A glass of water and some guy talk chased it away.”

  “What was it about?”

  Luke patted the bed. “Lie down and rest. He can tell you in the morning. We didn’t talk about it.”

  “Why not?” Pepper felt that talking about the dream would have probably helped her son.

  “He just needed to go back to sleep,” Luke said. “No point in reliving it and keeping him up over it. I gave him a glass of water, rubbed his back and told him to call us if he needed us.”

  Pepper lay in the dark, silently admiring the brisk way men dealt with their feelings. “Thank you,” she murmured.

  “No thanks needed,” he said, sounding surprised. He rolled over to stare down at her. She could feel his heat, oh, so tantalizingly close to her. “Pepper, just because you and I have a funky marriage agreement thing going on doesn’t mean I intend to short-circuit my dad duties.”

  “I know,” she said softly.

  “All right, then. Quit acting like every small thing I do for the boys is a miracle. They’re mine. I love them. Relax, babe.”

  He rolled away and she missed his nearness immediately.

  Relax.

  Impossible.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The day of the Man Catch was beautiful, with blue skies and not-too-hot temperatures. “A perfect day for fishing,” Pepper told the boys, hustling them into their swim trunks and water shoes.

  “Is Luke coming?” Josh asked.

  “Of course. He’s changing.” She left their bedroom every day when he showered and changed, too afraid of the intimacy. It would make their marriage seem real, and she didn’t want to risk that.