Triple the Fun

by Maureen Child

  Con looked at Dina when she spoke and thought about it for a second or two. He was still angry—he didn’t think that would be going away any time soon—but he had to at least bury that anger long enough to do the right thing. And that meant making sure his children were cared for. How Dina would fit into the future, he didn’t know. But better to keep her close until he figured it all out.

  When she shifted under his steady regard, he finally said, “Truce. For now.”

  A long, high-pitched wail erupted from the other room and in the next couple of seconds, two more voices joined the first until those cries built into a combined sound that ratcheted through Con’s head like a hammered spike. “What the—”

  Dina was already walking and threw back over her shoulder, “You want to be a father? Now’s your chance.”

  Con swallowed back a quick jolt of nervousness and followed her. Hell, the King family had experienced a population explosion in the last few years. Every time the cousins got together, they passed kids from arm to arm, so he wasn’t a stranger to crying babies. The fact that these were his children made the situation a little different, naturally. But he could handle it.

  His babies. His children. Something visceral swamped him and he could finally understand and sympathize with everything his twin had gone through when he’d discovered his own kids. At the time, Connor had listened, sympathized and commiserated, but now he realized just what a life-altering moment this really was. Looked like he owed Colt an apology.

  Yet even though he was twisted up over the circumstances they’d found themselves in, he was male enough to enjoy the view Dina provided as she walked away from him. The woman had a great behind.

  Shaking his head fiercely, Connor told himself to get a grip and followed her. It wasn’t far and yet it felt to him as if he was taking the longest journey of his life. From bachelor to father. From a single man to a family man.

  And he wasn’t sure yet just how he felt about it.

  In the kitchen, he glanced around quickly, noting white walls, black counters and splashes of red in the curtains hanging over the window and the toaster and blender sitting on the counter. But it wasn’t the house he was interested in right now. Instead, everything in him concentrated on the far end of the big, square room. There, behind a series of interlocked child gates, were the triplets.

  One of them, a girl, stood up, wobbling a little, clutching the top rail of the gate and howling like a banshee. When she saw Dina, the tiny girl started stamping her feet as if she were marching in place. Dina swept the baby into her arms, then turned to face Connor.

  “Sadie, meet your daddy.”

  Tears tracked along her cheeks. Wispy black curls framed her face and Connor’s heart expanded so quickly, so completely, he felt a physical ache. A connection he hadn’t really expected leaped to life as he looked at the tiny human being he had helped to create. Her coloring was all King, but the shape of her eyes was just like Elena’s. Like Dina’s. The baby stopped crying as she looked at Connor, and in a blink, she went from tears to a tiny coy smile that tugged at his heart as surely as her little fingers plucked at Dina’s shirt.

  Without another word, Dina handed him the baby girl, then turned to gather up the boys. She straightened with a baby on each hip, clinging to her shoulders. “They need to be changed, and since they’ve already had dinner, it’s bath time, followed by story time and bedtime and then the countless middle-of-the-night cry times.” She tipped her head and looked at him. “You up for this?”

  Sadie slapped both hands against his cheeks, then dropped her head onto his shoulder with a soft sigh. Con was toast and he knew it.

  “I’m up for it.”

  * * *

  Dina had to give it to him.

  She hadn’t expected Connor to know a thing about handling babies. First, because he was a man, and sexist it might be, but in her experience the only thing a man knew about kids was how to hand them off to the nearest woman. Secondly, didn’t the rich hire nannies so they didn’t have to know how to care for a baby?

  But he’d surprised her. Again. The first big surprise of the day had come when he’d shown up at her house unannounced and snarly yet still managing to look edible. Through their uncomfortable first meeting, the anger on both sides and the still simmering distrust, Dina had felt the unmistakable sizzle of desire.

  Oh, it wasn’t a good idea, but what woman wouldn’t feel it? Tall, with broad shoulders, narrow hips and long legs, Connor King was the kind of man who captured attention as easily as he breathed. His black hair was a little too long, hanging over the collar of his white shirt while thick hanks of it fell across his forehead. His eyes were an icy blue and his mouth seemed to be frozen in a grim slash that only occasionally twisted into a half smile that should have been reassuring, yet wasn’t. He had a right to be angry, she knew.

  But he didn’t have the right to be mad at her. She hadn’t known about him until a couple of weeks ago. Okay, maybe she should have contacted him directly rather than going through lawyers, but she hadn’t expected him to care. He had been a sperm donor—an untraditional one, yes, but nothing more.

  Though her sister had never told Dina who the babies’ father was, she had said that he’d made the donation and then disappeared from their lives. That was their story. Of course Elena hadn’t bothered to tell Dina that Connor didn’t know about the children he’d fathered. She winced and silently acknowledged just how complicated this whole thing really was.

  Until she’d read the letter that Jackie left for Connor, Dina had assumed he wasn’t interested in a relationship with his kids. Which was why she had been so furious when she discovered who the babies’ father really was. Because of the secret kept by Jackie and Elena, Dina had been scrambling to take care of the children when it hadn’t been necessary.

  Connor King was so wealthy that providing for the triplets would be easy compared to how Dina’s life was going at the moment. With all the added expense of caring for the three children she was responsible for, she’d had to push her catering business to the max. She was bidding on everything from a ten-year-old’s birthday party to the local bank’s grand opening. Some jobs she got, some she lost.

  And while getting jobs meant staying alive, she was left with the question of who took care of the kids while she worked. Dina’s grandmother was always glad to help out, but the triplets were too much for the older woman to take care of on a regular basis, and paying Jamie to babysit pretty much ate up any profit Dina was lucky enough to make.

  It had been a hard three months, adjusting to life as a single mom, so was it any wonder she’d sued for child support the moment she found out who the babies’ father was?

  A splash of water and a screech of outrage caught her attention. Gladly letting her thoughts slide away to be examined later, Dina stepped over the threshold into the cottage’s one bathroom. The triplets were in the tub, Connor hanging over it, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he tried to deal with all three wet, slippery babies. Puddles gathered on the floor and under the knees of his slacks.

  “Don’t take the ducky from your sister,” he said and relieved one baby of the duck in question.

  A howl of outrage followed and Connor said quickly, “Here, um, which one are you? Sam? Sage? Have a boat.”

  Dina laughed softly, enjoying seeing someone else fight the battle of the bath for a change. Sadie loved the water, Sage spent bath time trying to escape it and Sam would fall asleep sitting up in the warm water if you weren’t careful. Sadie splashed again and laughed in delight when Connor yelped as the water hit his eyes.

  “Okay, little girl, no fair splashing when I’m trying to get hold of your brother.”

  Sadie babbled at him while Sage climbed up Connor’s chest, a wet, wriggling mass eager to be out of the tub. Connor grabbed one towel, wrapped it around the tiny boy, and said, �
��Stay right there.”

  Then he turned his back on Sage to reach for the next baby. Sadie scooted out of reach, so it was Sam who was the next one out and wrapped like a burrito in a soft, dark blue towel.

  Dina just watched. Sure, she could grab the boys and lend Connor a hand, but this was more interesting. She wanted to see how he reacted to the nightly ritual. If he’d fold or rise to the occasion.

  While Connor reached out to grab Sadie, Sage dropped his towel and ran past Dina into the hallway, giggling all the way.

  “Wait! Come back here!” Connor lifted Sadie, wrapped her up and swung around. His gaze met Dina’s and he said, “Well, thanks for the help.” Frowning, he looked past her into the hallway, swinging his hair out of his eyes. “Where’d he go?”

  She shrugged and smiled wider. Couldn’t help herself. “Where he always goes. To the toy box in their room.”

  “Great,” Connor said, holding onto Sadie while she squirmed, trying to get back into the water. Sweeping Sam up into his arms as well, Connor stood and faced her.

  He was dripping wet. His white shirt was soaked through and plastered to what looked like a very impressive chest. Water droplets rolled down his face and clung to his hair. She smiled again. How could she not?

  “Did you enjoy the show?”

  “Oh, a lot,” she assured him, still grinning. “But the show’s not over yet. There are still three naked babies to diaper, put into jammies and settle down for bed.”

  He shifted the two on his hips. “And you think I can’t do it?”

  “I know you can’t,” she said, leaning against the doorjamb, folding her arms across her chest. “Not on your own.”

  Sadie squirmed; Sam grabbed a handful of Connor’s hair and tugged. “Wanna bet?”

  From the other room came Sage’s high-pitched squeals and the sound of a little truck being pushed across the floor. Dina bent down, picked up the discarded towel and tossed it over Connor’s shoulder. He’d had a rough go of it, but he was still standing, and she had to admire him for that. Still, she had the feeling he was about done.

  “Absolutely,” she said, enjoying the harried expression on Connor’s face. She’d known him less than four hours, but she knew that harried wasn’t a look he often wore. This was a man who ruled his world. He was used to people jumping to do his bidding. Now he had to deal with three babies who were used to calling the shots. He was in so much trouble. “What’s the bet?”

  A slow, seductive smile curved his mouth and Dina’s insides shivered in response. Maybe betting with Connor King wasn’t the smartest move she could make.

  He hefted both babies a little higher and then said, “When I win, we sit down with a glass of wine and talk about where we go from here.”

  “And when I win, you write a check and disappear?”

  The smile on his face faded away and Dina thought she’d gone too far. But what did he expect? She’d known him just a few hours and he’d crashed into her home, her family and taken over as if he had the right—which he didn’t. Not from where she was standing.

  He took a step closer and she kept her gaze on his. Still holding the babies close, he said, “It won’t be that easy, Dina. I’m not going anywhere, so you’d better get used to it.”

  “And if I can’t?” she asked.

  “I’m willing to bet you can.”

  Three

  Dina really didn’t want to be impressed, but she was.

  When the triplets first came to live with her, she’d been completely lost and practically hopeless at caring for them. She hadn’t done much babysitting as a kid and none of her friends had children, so she’d had zero experience. But she’d consoled herself with the fact that most first-time moms were as lost as she herself was. Since she didn’t have any choice but to jump in and do the best she could, Dina had learned as she went. She hadn’t so much gotten the babies into a routine as she’d gotten herself into one. She’d had to learn from scratch—and fast—how to take care of three babies, and she’d made too many mistakes to count.

  Then Connor King arrived, jumped into the fray like a natural and handled it all. He’d seemed so darn sure of himself, she’d stood back, prepared to gleefully watch a disaster unfold. Instead, he’d taken charge, as he probably did in every other aspect of his life, and gotten the job done. Sure, he was a little harried, but he’d done it. Babies were bathed and dressed and tucked into their beds with a story read by Connor, complete with sound effects that had them all giggling.

  And honestly, that’s what irritated her the most. The babies liked him. She was here day in and day out and one visit from a handsome stranger and all three of them were won over. What happened to loyalty to good old Aunt Dina, she wanted to know.

  As she watched from the nursery door, she felt a small niggle of worry as Connor moved from crib to crib, smoothing his hand across the babies’ heads, each in turn. He was taking a moment—what he probably thought was a private moment—to really look at the children he’d helped to create. She thought she understood what he might be feeling right then, as she’d had a very similar moment herself when the trips had come to live with her. To her, it had felt like a wild mixture of protectiveness and the realization that her life as she had known it was over.

  She hadn’t planned on having custody, obviously, but now Dina loved those babies with a fierceness she wouldn’t have believed possible. They were her family. Her only real family now, except for her grandmother and a handful of distant cousins. She would do whatever was necessary to take care of the trips and to protect them from being hurt. Even if that meant protecting them from the man who had only wanted to be a part-time father.

  * * *

  By the time the evening was over, Connor was wet, exhausted and wanted nothing more than a cold beer, his bed and complete silence for ten or twelve hours. One out of three, he told himself wryly, wasn’t too bad.

  He took a long drink of the beer Dina’d given him and let the cold froth slide through him, easing away the tension that had had him in its grip for the last couple of hours.

  “So,” Dina said and he heard the grudging respect beneath her words, “you won the bet.”

  He managed to turn his head to look at her. “I always do, honey.”

  Her eyebrows lifted. “Honey?”

  His lips quirked. The offhanded honey had slipped out, but now that he saw how annoyed she was by it, he pushed it a little further, just for the hell of it. “Babe?”

  She inhaled sharply and hissed out a breath. “Dina will do.”

  “Right.” He tipped his head and hid his smile. Connor had only known her for a few hours, but he’d already seen how easy it was to rub her the wrong way. And, for reasons he couldn’t quite identify yet, he really enjoyed pushing her buttons. There was just something about this woman that urged him to push against her boundaries. “I’ll remember that, Dina. Just as you should remember that when I say I’m going to do something, I do it.”

  “Noted.”

  “Good. I’m too tired to say it again.” He leaned his head against the back of the couch and thought about plopping his feet on the footstool, but he was too beat to lift his own legs. “Those three are something else. Just keeping them all in the tub wore me out. I don’t know how you do the whole bath and changing thing every night all alone.”

  “I bathe them one at a time.”

  He looked at her again and noticed a smile tugging at her mouth. Apparently he wasn’t the only one enjoying himself. “And you didn’t think that worth mentioning?”

  “Well, you seemed so confident of your abilities...” She sipped at a glass of wine. “I didn’t want to interfere.”

  “Uh-huh.” He shook his head. “Well played.”

  “Thanks, but you got through it anyway. It was hard, but you did it. I hate to admit it, but I’
m sort of impressed.” She studied her wine, sliding her fingertips up and down the long, delicate crystal stem until Connor had to look away from her before he embarrassed himself. “You don’t strike me as the type to know much about kids.”

  “I didn’t,” he acknowledged. “Until two years ago. My brother Colt discovered he was the father of twins. So watching him, I picked up a lot. But three seems like a lot more than two. Still, I gave him a lot of grief—made jokes about just how demented his life had become,” he mused. “Now I feel bad about that.”

  “Two years?”

  She’d caught that. He looked at her again and sighed. “Yeah. Right after Colt reconnected with his kids, Jackie came to me asking for help.” He paused for another drink of his beer. Maybe he’d been delusional, but at the time, he’d thought it could be fun. Help Jackie and give himself a sort-of family like Colt had, only without all the hassles and the interruptions to the way he wanted to live. “Getting to know my niece and nephew is probably what pushed me into agreeing to this whole deal.”

  “No, that wasn’t it.”

  One eyebrow winged up. “Is that right? Know me so well, do you? After three whole hours?”

  “No,” she said. “I don’t know you. But Jackie did. And she told me all about how tight you guys were. I heard all sorts of stories about you before the wedding.”

  That was disconcerting. He knew next to nothing about Dina. Hell, he barely remembered speaking to her at the wedding. And Connor really didn’t care for being at a disadvantage.

  Warily, he asked, “What kind of stories?”

  She laughed a little and he thought that probably wasn’t a good sign.

  “The one about the redhead comes to mind,” she admitted.

  Surprised, he choked out a laugh. “She was a beauty,” he admitted. “But we made a pact that neither of us would hit on her since we both wanted her.”

  “You cared more for your friendship.”

  He frowned. “Yeah. Back then, anyway. Apparently, things changed when I wasn’t looking.”