She told herself she was worried about how the two of them would deal with the responsibilities of the girls, but it was more than that. Some of her worry had to do with that slow slide of his gaze down her body and the responding heat she’d felt whenever he looked at her.
“Jake always steps up to do the right thing. Don’t you worry. Now, if you don’t mind I’m going to excuse myself and tend to some packing.”
As Kerri disappeared from the kitchen, Grace fought back a wild sense of panic. If she could heal her shoulder through sheer willpower alone, she would have done it at that very moment sitting at his kitchen table. She looked at the girls playing on the floor and frowned. Her shoulder was still sore enough that she couldn’t even pick up one of her daughters.
She’d tried to call Natalie twice that morning to see if perhaps she could somehow get a ride here and take Grace home and then stay with her or help her find a nurse to hire until Grace’s shoulder was healed enough for her to be on her own.
Unfortunately, Natalie hadn’t answered her phone, and knowing her sister she was probably still in bed despite the fact that it was after ten.
Maybe by tomorrow she’d be well enough to go home, she thought. She experimentally moved her shoulder and gasped at the pain that sliced through her. Okay, maybe not tomorrow, but perhaps the next day she told herself. As soon as possible, that’s all she could promise.
She finished her coffee and carried the cup to the sink. Once she’d rinsed it and placed it in the dishwasher, she decided she’d rather sit in the living room than in the kitchen, which required her moving the girls. She was trying to figure out how to make the transition when Jake and Justin walked in.
Jake looked grim and determined and Justin looked hungover and contrite. “Hey, Grace,” Justin said, but it was the sight of Jake that made Grace’s heart beat a little faster.
“I think it’s time we all sit down and have some sort of a rational talk,” Jake said.
“I was just going to move into the living room,” she replied and looked pointedly at the girls. “If somebody will hand me one of them, I can manage one if you can get the other two.”
Jake picked up Casey and landed her on Grace’s hip on her good side. Then he picked up Bonnie, who snuggled into him with a contented grunt. Justin looked at the last triplet. “Who is that one?” he asked.
“That’s Abby, and she doesn’t have enough teeth to bite hard,” Grace said drily.
Justin paused a moment as if unsure what to do, then he finally picked her up and Abby immediately began to fuss. “Why don’t we go ahead and take them upstairs,” Grace said as she changed her mind. “They’re probably ready for a nap and it will be much easier for all of us to talk if it’s just the adults.” Although in Justin’s case, she thought, she used the term “adult” very loosely.
Minutes later with the girls in their cribs, the three adults returned to the living room. Jake sat next to Grace on the sofa and Justin sat in the chair facing them, still looking slightly green around the gills.
“Look, the first thing I want to do is get something straight. I had nothing to do with the shooting that happened here,” Justin said. “I swear I left here and took Shirley home and then went directly to Elliot’s where I spent the whole day.” He leaned forward, his features pale but earnest as he looked at her. “Grace, I’d never do anything like that. I’d never want to hurt you. Heck, I’d never try to hurt anyone.”
Grace wanted to believe him. No matter what their relationship, no matter what she thought of him personally, he was the father of her children.
Justin shot a glance at his brother and then looked back at Grace. “I don’t know what happened or who took those shots at you, but I had absolutely nothing to do with any of it.” He leaned back in his chair and ran a hand across his forehead, as if he had a hangover headache. “So, where do we go from here?”
“I’d say that’s pretty much up to you,” she replied, not feeling a bit sorry for him. There was a little wicked part of her that hoped his hangover lasted for at least another twenty-four hours. “I mean, right now I’m here, the girls are here, but I’ve been trying to get in touch with my sister to see if maybe she can come and take me back to Wichita.”
“You aren’t in any condition to go home,” Jake protested.
“I figured I could hire a nurse to help me for a couple of days,” she explained. “With Jeffrey and Kerri leaving town, perhaps that would be best for everyone.”
“That’s not necessary,” Jake replied smoothly. “You should be fine in a couple of days, and I’m sure between the three of us we can manage to take care of things here until you’re healed up enough to go back home.”
Grace thought Justin’s face blanched slightly at the prospect of being part of the team for the next few days; but there was such a ring of certainty in Jake’s voice she almost believed that it would be okay.
Besides, no matter how much Grace told herself that Natalie would step up if necessary, she knew from experience her sister was nobody to count on. In that respect she and Jake shared a lot in common.
“I know I’ve acted badly so far,” Justin said to her. “And I want to do the right thing, I really do. I’m just not sure what you expect from me. I mean, I’ve never been in this position before.”
Just love my babies, love your daughters, she thought. It was that easy as far as she was concerned. It was all she really wanted or needed from him. “The first thing I’d like is just for you to get to know the girls while I’m here,” she said aloud.
“I can do that,” he agreed readily. “I still can’t believe there’s three of them, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I mean, with me being a triplet and all.”
“I was definitely surprised when the doctor told me,” Grace said drily. “I had no idea you were a triplet.”
“Yeah, I guess I didn’t mention that the night of the wedding.”
Grace felt her cheeks warm. She didn’t even want to think about that crazy night. There was plenty they hadn’t talked about. “And then before I leave here maybe we could work out some sort of visitation for once I go back to Wichita,” she said.
She wanted so much more than that. She wanted him not just to be a father who occasionally saw his girls on a weekend here and there, but rather she wanted him to be a dad in every loving sense of the word.
“That sounds good,” Justin said agreeably and flashed another quick look at Jake. “So, maybe I should go home and pack a suitcase and plan on moving in here while Kerri and Jeffrey are gone.” He looked at his watch. “I should be able to pack up and be back by the time the girls wake up from their naps.”
“I think that sounds like a perfect idea,” Jake said. Grace was sure he was more than a little bit eager to get out of the middle of this whole mess.
He’d been thrust into this drama through no fault of his own. He’d already told her he had no interest in having a wife or a family, and yet she was sure he’d felt saddled with the weight of her and the triplets for the last couple of days. And unless Justin stepped up, nothing was going to change in the immediate future.
Justin shot out of his chair. “Then I’ll be back here in about an hour or so.” He flashed them both a boyish smile as he flew out the front door.
“Do you really think we’ll see him again today?” Grace asked Jake after Justin had disappeared.
“Who knows? I can only hope he’ll do the right thing.”
She offered him a tentative smile. “That’s the way I feel about my sister. I’ve given up trying to force her to make the right choices and just spend a lot of time hoping she’ll eventually grow up.”
“In any case, we’ll figure things out, and you don’t need to worry about Kerri and Jeffrey leaving. Surely if it comes to that, between the two of us we can easily handle three little girls.”
Three hours later she had a feeling Jake was eating those very words. Kerri and Jeffrey had left for their trip an hour earlier, Justin had never r
eturned and at the moment Jake was on the floor covered with babies.
Bonnie bounced up and down on his chest, Abby had him by the hair and Casey crawled back and forth over his legs as if they were the most fascinating obstacle course she’d ever encountered.
The whole thing had begun with a diaper change that had quickly spiraled out of control as the triplets saw Jake on the floor as a brand-new fun toy.
For the first time in days Grace’s laughter bubbled out of her as Jake wrestled with the girls, and his laughter and their giggles combined to make sweet music to her ears.
He seemed surprisingly at ease with them considering how he’d acted the first time he’d been around them. He tweaked Bonnie’s nose and tickled Abby’s belly and then reached to tousle Casey’s hair as they all laughed.
“Do they always have this much energy?” he asked as he finally managed to extricate himself and get to his feet.
“Mostly in the afternoons right after their naps,” she replied. She thought he’d never looked as sexy as he did now with his dark rich hair mussed, a stain that looked suspiciously like drool on the front of his shirt and a genuine smile of amusement lifting the corners of his mouth.
This was a side of Jake she hadn’t seen before, and it was breathtakingly appealing. Fun-loving and with laughter lighting his eyes, he made a wistful want rise up inside of her. There was a little part of her that warned her not to get caught up in him, not to allow herself to like him so much.
It was at that moment she recognized that she’d arrived here with a little fantasy running in the back of her head—the fantasy that she’d come here, reunite with Justin and they would fall in love and get married and parent their children together and live happily ever after.
From the moment MysteryMom had given her this address, the image of a happily-ever-after had begun to form in her head. She hadn’t consciously built it, but it had been there all the same.
That fantasy had been smashed into pieces the moment she’d had her first encounter with Justin. She warned herself now that no good would come from her falling in love with Jake. It would just be plain stupid and too weird for them to get involved in any way. He was the wrong brother. It would only complicate what was already a complicated situation.
“How about dinner out tonight?” Jake asked an hour later. He felt the need to get them all out of the house that for the last hour had rung with Grace’s laughter, with the giggles of the delightful little girls and with his own.
The girls had been all wiggling warmth as they’d crawled all over him. They’d smelled of baby fresh powder and everything innocent in the world.
God, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed with such abandon. It had felt so good, so right. It had been frightening. He’d had a momentary glimpse of what life might have been in this big house if he allowed himself a future that included others, if he allowed himself a future that included Grace and the girls.
“Oh, Jake, I’m not sure that’s such a great idea. It’s quite a job to get everyone ready and into a restaurant.” Even as she said the words there was a faint wistfulness in her pretty eyes. “I haven’t attempted to go out to eat since they were born.”
“Then I’d say it’s high time you did. Surely between the two of us we can manage it. There’s a pretty good Italian restaurant in Cameron Creek. Actually, it’s the only real restaurant in town, and I have a sudden hankering for some lasagna.”
She ran a hand through her blond-streaked brown hair and looked down at her jeans and T-shirt. Although he thought she looked lovely just the way she was, it was fairly easy to read her mind. “Why don’t I keep an eye on the girls while you go do whatever it is women do before they go out to dinner?”
“Are you sure you really want to attempt this?” she asked hesitantly.
“Positive.”
She smiled at him gratefully. The warmth of her smile coiled a ball of heat in the pit of his stomach. As she raced up the stairs, leaving him in the living room with the girls, he tried to control not just the physical desire she created inside him, but also a nebulous desire for something more.
Dinner out with the triplets would surely staunch any crazy feelings that were brewing inside him. There was no doubt in his mind that the evening would be utter chaos, just what he needed to remind himself of how much he didn’t want this kind of chaos in his life.
When Grace came back down the stairs to go to dinner, all thoughts flew out of his head. She’d changed into a royal-blue dress that clung to her every curve and enhanced the lighter highlights of her hair. Her long legs looked silken and her feet were dainty in dark blue high-heel sandals whose open toes displayed pretty pink polish.
She looked elegant and sexy and nearly stole his breath away. “Wow, you clean up real nice,” he finally managed to say.
Her cheeks grew pink and she ran a hand down the skirt. “Too much? I threw this into my suitcase last minute in case…” She allowed her voice to trail off as her blush darkened.
He knew what she’d been about to say—she’d packed the dress in case Justin decided to take her and the girls out someplace.
He shook his head. “Not at all. Very all right. I’ll just go do a quick change myself and then we’ll get this show on the road.” He hurried upstairs to his own bedroom, trying to still the crazy beat of his heart.
Within a couple of weeks Jeffrey and Kerri would be moved out, Justin would still be living in his pigpen of an apartment and this big house would be all Jake’s. It would resonate with the silence he’d longed for most of his life, and he’d be responsible for nothing more than his own happiness.
All he had to do was be patient, and in a short period of time Grace and the girls would be back to their lives and his brothers would be living theirs elsewhere. Then it would finally be his turn to truly be alone. He had to hang on to that thought, had to remember that it was his dream for himself.
He changed into a pair of dress slacks and a clean shirt, slapped a little cologne on the underside of his jaw and went back downstairs.
“Do you ever dress them all alike?” he asked when he rejoined her in the living room.
“Never. I figure when they’re older if they want to dress alike that will be their choice, but I thought it was important at the very beginning that they each have their own identities. Did your parents dress you all alike?”
“Blue jeans and white T-shirts were our uniform for most of our childhood,” he replied. “Mom and Dad never had any trouble telling us apart. Now, let’s get on the road.”
It took nearly thirty minutes to load up all the car seats and diaper bags and get the girls buckled in safely in the backseat of Jake’s car. It would have been easier to take her car, but Jake insisted they take his. He hadn’t forgotten that somebody had shot at her. He thought it safer to be in his vehicle.
“And that’s why I don’t go out,” Grace said once they were finally settled in the car and headed down the road.
“It is a big job, isn’t it?”
“Especially for one person. Usually by the time I get them all loaded up and ready to go, I’ve forgotten where I intended to go in the first place,” she said with a smile.
“And your sister isn’t a lot of help?”
“My sister helps when it’s convenient for her, which is very rare. Lately she’s been far too busy with a new boyfriend to have much time for me.”
“Nice guy?” He tried not to notice that scent of her, the fragrance that seemed to reach inside him and stir up all kinds of crazy desires.
“She says so, but I haven’t met him yet, which worries me a little bit. If past behavior dictates future behavior, then he’s probably a loser and a user. She doesn’t have a terrific track record when it comes to men.” Grace released a self-deprecating laugh. “Of course, I should talk.” She frowned suddenly. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Let’s make a deal that we won’t talk about Justin for the rest of the night. To be honest,
I’ve had about all the drama I can take where my brother is concerned right now.”
“It’s a deal,” she replied easily.
In the backseat, the little girls gibbered to each other, creating a pleasant white noise that filled the silence that suddenly grew between him and Grace.
“Do you think they know what they’re saying to each other?” he asked.
“Who knows? They say twins sometimes develop a language of their own. They certainly spend a lot of time gabbing to one another.”
“Probably discussing how foolish adults can be,” he said drily, and was rewarded with one of her warm, beautiful laughs.
“They do laugh a lot,” she replied.
It didn’t take long for them to arrive at Maria’s, the only Italian restaurant the small town of Cameron Creek boasted. In fact, it was the only official restaurant in town, although there was a fast-food place, a pizza parlor and a small café, as well.
It took much longer for them to finally get settled at a table with three high chairs the waitstaff had hurried to round up and provide. The triplets garnered plenty of attention from the other diners, but just as quickly the novelty wore off and people got back to focusing on their own meals.
Once the girls were happily settled with sippy cups and crackers and Jake and Grace had ordered their dinners and both had a glass of wine in front of them, Jake leaned back in his chair and began to relax for the first time in days.
“Tell me more about your mother,” he asked, wanting to talk about anything but his own family. He also wanted to focus on something other than how the blue of Grace’s dress contrasted with the beautiful green of her eyes, how the scoop neckline gave him just a glimpse of the top of her creamy breasts.
“She was a very successful interior designer. She owned her own company and had famous clients on both coasts. She went on buying trips all the time to Paris and Italy, and I think I was probably one of the few things she acquired that was disappointing.”
Cowboy's Triplet Trouble Page 8