Triple the Fun

by Maureen Child

  Anger spat at him again.

  “I didn’t tell you about the pregnancy or the babies because Elena and I wanted them all to ourselves. Yeah, selfish. I can almost hear you thinking it. And maybe it was, I don’t even know. But when you said you wanted to be a part of the babies’ lives, it made both of us realize that you would only confuse things.

  “Wasn’t it enough that they would have two mommies? Did they really need an on-again, off-again daddy, too? Besides, we both know babies aren’t really your thing. Remember how you gave Colt such a hard time over the twins? We named Dina guardian because of the usual sexist reasons.”

  Connor laughed in spite of himself.

  “She’s a girl. Kids need a mommy. Sue me. Give her a chance. You might like her.

  “Con, I didn’t want you to think you had to support them. Or had to do a damn thing. You’d already done enough. You gave us our family and we’re grateful. We gave you your freedom because we thought it was best.

  “But never doubt that we thought of you every day. Every time we looked into the triplets’ faces, there you were. So forgive me if you can—and if you can’t, I understand. I still love you—Jackie.”

  Pain swamped the anger and for the first time in days, Con felt calm. She was wrong to do it, but he understood. He didn’t want to forgive her, but how could he not?

  Holding the letter, he smoothed his fingertip across the boldly slanted writing and murmured, “I love you, too, Jacks.”

  Four

  “Jackie made it clear in her letter that they wanted Dina to have custody,” Colt said quietly when he’d finished reading it. He handed the paper over to Con, who stared at it for a long minute.

  “They’re my kids, Colt. My blood.”

  Con couldn’t get past that one truth, which kept repeating over and over in his mind, and honestly, he didn’t want to. After reading Jackie’s letter the night before, his thoughts hadn’t been able to settle. He hadn’t slept and he was just killing time here at work. God knew there were details of new contracts to work out, but how the hell could he concentrate on that when the bulk of his life was up in the air?

  He hadn’t forgiven Jackie for what she’d done. Did he understand why she did it? A part of him did. The cool, rational, logical voice in his mind could even agree with her. But the reality was, emotion was running the show right now. And he couldn’t get past the fact that he’d lost more than a year of his children’s lives. He’d never get it back. He was a visitor in that house near the beach. A stranger. And that just burned him.

  Behind him, there was a wide window, offering a spectacular view of the beach and the ocean, but it might as well have been a blank wall for all the attention he’d paid it that morning. Sunlight streamed through the tinted glass, painting the office a soft gold that glittered in his twin’s eyes as Colt stared at Connor, waiting.

  Finally, Con spoke again. “You know that Sage hates taking a bath?”

  “What?” Colt frowned at him.

  “Sage. He hates the water. Why? I should know that, but I don’t.” He pushed out of his desk chair and stalked around the perimeter of his office. It was a plush room with thick carpeting, framed photographs of their many adventure sites dotting the walls and comfortable furniture for clients. “Sadie loves taking a bath. She splashes and squeals.” He smiled to himself, remembering. “Sam couldn’t care less either way, but Sage...” He shook his head, then whipped a look at Colt. “Did something happen to him? Did he get scared? Of what? By who?”

  “You’re overreacting, Con,” his twin said. “Kids are wildly unpredictable. Who the hell knows what they’re thinking or why they react to things the way they do? Trust me on this. Like, for instance, right now, Reid won’t wear shoes.” He laughed to himself. “Takes ’em off the minute you put them on him. It’s driving Penny nuts. But maybe it’s because last week he walked through a deep puddle and his sneakers were squishing. I think he hated the sound so much, it creeped him out.”

  “See?” Con jabbed a finger toward his twin as fresh fury erupted inside him. “That’s what I’m saying. Reid has an issue and you know why! Sage hates water, I don’t have a clue.” He threw his hands up in frustration. “I’ve known my own kids for three lousy days. I’m a damn stranger to them, Colt. They’re nuts about Dina and they don’t even know me.”

  “That’ll change,” Colt told him.

  “Damn straight it will.” Con jammed his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. The wheels were in motion now and things should start happening.

  After reading Jackie’s letter, he’d been up all night. And this morning, he’d made his decision. He’d called his lawyers, telling them to put together whatever it was they had to do to get him custody of the triplets. But his lawyer had told him that Dina had good ground to stand on, too. She was the legal guardian. The kids’ aunt. They were settled with her. But it didn’t have to stay that way.

  “You’ve already called Murdoch and Sons in on this, haven’t you?”

  Con shot his brother a sly smile. “Best team of lawyers in the state.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Colt said, standing up to face his brother. “But think about it for a minute. Remember how mad you were when Dina went through a lawyer and sued you instead of just talking to you?”

  “Yeah, I remember.” His scowl deepened. “This is different.”

  “Always is,” Colt muttered, then said more loudly, “You can’t cut Dina Cortez out of this, Con.”

  He shot his twin a hard look. “What makes you think I’m considering it?”

  Colt laughed shortly. “Because I know you? Because when I found out about Penny and the twins, that was my first thought?”

  “Okay.” Con rubbed the back of his neck. Maybe he had thought of it, but he was willing to be reasonable about all this. If she fought him on custody, though, he wouldn’t make any promises.This would all be a lot easier if he didn’t want Dina so much. Every time he saw her it was harder to keep his hands off her—but this was about the kids and he had to keep focused.

  “You think you can pull it off.” Colt shook his head. “Delusional. That usually doesn’t happen until you start losing sleep because of the kids invading your life. But kudos for managing on your own.”

  “Funny.”

  “Seriously, Con, she’s not just their guardian, she’s their aunt. You really think she’s going to just walk away because it would be easier on you?”

  “No.” He sat back and shook his head. “The last thing she wants to do is make anything easy on me.”

  “There you go. This means you’re going to have to find a way to work with her—or around her.”

  Con slanted him a look. “As in...”

  Colt shrugged, “As in, you could try buying her off.”

  Frowning, Connor thought about that for a minute or two.

  He’d seen her house. It was too small and gave every indication that money was tight. According to his lawyer, her catering business was barely above water. He knew she couldn’t afford to take care of the babies on her own, and he wasn’t about to settle for being nothing more than a monthly check in the lives of his kids.

  According to the King family lawyer, the best thing for him to do, as far as a custody hearing went, was to become an everyday part of the children’s lives. To stake a claim, basically. Well, that worked for Con. He just had to figure out the best way to go about it.

  The easiest way, of course, would be to bring the triplets to his place. He already had his housekeeper setting up a temporary nursery in one of the guest rooms. A more permanent room was in the works, too. Their cousins Rafe, Nick and Gavin owned King Construction and Con was going to have them build a full nursery suite for the triplets as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the rest of Con’s house was being babyproofed as well. He’d seen what Colt and
Penny had gone through at their house, making sure everything was safe for a set of curious twins, so he had a good idea of what was needed.

  The obstacle to overcome would be Dina. But he had an idea on that, as well.

  “Whose side are you on in this, anyway?”

  “Yours.” Colt lifted both hands in the classic surrender pose and smiled at his brother. “I’m just saying that if you try to cut Dina out, you’re inviting open war, and once that happens, nobody wins.”

  “I’ll win.”

  “Really?” Colt shook his head and stood up. “She’s their aunt, Con. You cut her out, the kids get hurt. You become enemies and this battle will get uglier and uglier.”

  “That’s the thing though,” Con said. “It is a battle. Or will be as soon as Dina realizes I’m not taking a backseat in all this. Damn it, if Jackie—”

  “Let it go already,” Colt muttered. “Jackie did what she thought she had to and so will you.”

  “Damn right I will.”

  “But you could listen to your older and wiser brother.”

  Con snorted. “Five extra minutes of life makes you the expert?”

  “No,” Colt corrected. “Going through practically the same thing you are and surviving makes me the expert. Penny and I were able to work things out between us—”

  “Yeah, but you were already in love with Penny, you just didn’t want to admit it.”

  “Good point and yeah, I know you don’t love Dina.” Colt gave him a grin. “But you do want her.”

  Did he ever. The desire he’d felt for her from the start had become a need that he really didn’t want to admit to, because it just made everything else that much more convoluted. But just thinking about Dina made him hard and hungry.

  “Mess this up and you’ll never have her.”

  “Fine, fine.” Con waved one hand at his twin. He hated to admit that his brother had a point. “Don’t make her an enemy. Go slow.” He paused. “I don’t like slow.”

  “You’re not used to it, that’s for sure.”

  “True.” He pushed one hand through his hair. “I want to get moving on this but I know I’ve got to make the right steps.”

  “That’s something, anyway,” Colt said wryly.

  “I got the DNA results,” Con said.

  “That was fast.”

  “Money talks.” Ordinarily, it would have taken a week, maybe two, to get the results from the private lab. But with the King family fortune pushing buttons, it had only been days. He paused. “The kids are mine.”

  “You had a doubt?”

  “Of course not. But now it’s legal. It’s ammunition for a custody fight.”

  “Con...”

  “I know, avoid a fight if I can.” He held up one hand to stop his brother before he could get going again. “And I will. But I like knowing I’ve got an ace in the hole.”

  “Okay, clearly you’re going at this full tilt and nothing I say is going to make any difference,” Colt said. “So I’m going to say one more thing.”

  “Naturally.”

  “Go easy on this or you’ll lose.”

  “You’re wrong. I don’t lose.”

  * * *

  “I’m really sorry, Abuela,” Dina said, “but the babysitter canceled on me at the last minute and I have to be at this party.” She unloaded all of the supplies she’d brought for the triplets as her grandmother sat on the floor, playing with the babies.

  “Dina, you don’t have to apologize,” she said, throwing her granddaughter a quick glance over her shoulder. “I love having the children here.”

  “Yeah, but you were going to dinner with your friends.”

  “Pish. I can eat anytime.” She reached out and caught Sage up in a quick hug. “It’s not every day I get snuggles from los niños.”

  Dina smiled as the triplets crawled all over the older woman. At seventy-five, Angelica Cortez was trim, with stylishly cut gray hair that swung at her jawline. Her brown eyes were shrewd and her striking face remained remarkably unlined, which gave Dina hope for her own future.

  Angelica’s English was lightly flavored with her native Mexico; Spanish and English mingled happily in everything she said. She did love seeing the babies and if Dina and the kids were here strictly for a visit, it would be different. Dina would be here, too, taking care of them rather than expecting her grandmother to pick up the slack. But with her babysitter sick, Dina just didn’t have a choice. She was catering an anniversary party tonight and if it went well, there was a chance she’d get more jobs out of it.

  A headache began to blossom behind her eyes and that didn’t bode well for the long night she had ahead of her. Guilt pinged around inside her like a crazed Ping-Pong ball. Guilt for leaving the kids, for making her grandmother change her own plans to watch them—and then there was the guilt for choosing work over the babies. But on the other hand, if she wanted to be able to feed them, she had to get as many jobs as she could.

  Her grandmother’s duplex in Naples was two blocks from the ocean. It was decorated in a blend of Mexican and American styles and was warm and inviting. Furniture was overstuffed; the walls were painted a rich brick red with white crown molding. It should have been dark and depressing, Dina had thought more than once. Instead, it was like being enveloped in a hug. Angelica owned the building and lived in the front apartment while renting the second to one of her best friends. Between the two women, the gardens were so lush and beautiful, they regularly had tourists stopping out front to take pictures.

  Naples was small, and elegant, and there were canals winding through the neighborhood much like its Italian namesake. The Christmas parade through the canals was amazing, with the houses and boats decorated with millions of colored lights. Dina was looking forward to taking the triplets to see the spectacle.

  “So what is the job tonight?”

  “An anniversary party in Newport Beach.”

  Which was about a half hour away, and that meant Dina would have to leave soon to get to the site early enough to set up.

  Not too long ago, Dina had been the owner of a great little food truck. Business had been good enough that she’d decided to move on and open the catering business she’d always wanted. And it had been doing well, too. She’d had more jobs than she could count, her reputation was growing—and then...

  She looked to where the babies were clustered around their great-grandmother. Dina’s world had crashed every bit as much as her sister’s plane had three months ago. When she had taken custody of the trips, Dina had had to cancel a lot of jobs. She simply hadn’t been able to keep up the pace when faced with caring for the three kids. Though her income had been slashed, the bills hadn’t stopped coming. Her rent had gone up, her car broke down, and with the triplets, there were more bills. Doctors, clothes, diapers—the list was never ending, and it was scary being the sole responsible one.

  Now she was having to scramble to get jobs, which meant she was bidding on parties she might have ignored a few months ago. But she needed the work to take care of the babies and make sure they were safe.

  “Don’t worry so much, nieta,” her grandmother said, and Dina had to smile in spite of the anxiety that never quite left her. “Things happen whether you’re ready or not. You simply have to do what you can to keep up.”

  “Yeah,” Dina said, dropping to her knees to gather Sam up into her arms. The tiny boy sagged into her, wrapping his little arms around her neck and smacking her cheek with an openmouthed kiss that left drool behind on her skin and warmth in her heart. She kissed him back, then set him down on the floor beside his brother and sister.

  “You haven’t spoken of their father yet.”

  Dina looked at her grandmother. The unsettled feeling she’d been carrying around for days deepened. Of course, she had told her grandmother about t
he suit for child support and the letter she’d found in Jackie’s things. But she really hadn’t had a chance to talk with her about it since.

  Mainly because what could she say? That Connor was getting too involved for her peace of mind? That she couldn’t seem to think straight when he was near? That she was worried not only about what his presence meant to the triplets—but what it meant to her?

  He was at the forefront of her mind, always, and she hadn’t been prepared for that. It had been a long time since Dina had met a man she was attracted to. And she’d never met one who affected her as Connor King did. It was stupid, she knew, to even indulge in idle daydreams about a man who had the power to take her children away from her. Connor made her want all sorts of things, but at the same time, she knew she should be keeping him at a safe distance. It was as if she were waiting for two shoes to drop. What were his plans for the kids? What were his plans for her?

  “I don’t know, Abuela,” she finally said. “He really enjoys the triplets when he’s with them. Naturally, he’s angry. With Jackie and Elena. And with me.”

  Nodding sagely, the older woman said, “I told Elena what she was doing was wrong, but like you, she was cabeza dura. A hardhead.” She paused, made the sign of the cross and whispered a quick prayer for Elena’s soul, then reached out to pat Dina’s hand. “His anger will pass.”

  “I know.” Dina sighed. No one could hold on to anger forever. It would eventually burn itself out, leaving bitterness behind, and it would be up to Connor if he chose to hang on to it or let that go as well. Right now, she thought it was a toss-up as to which way he’d go. “But what then?”

  “Well, he has a decision to make, doesn’t he?” her grandmother said. “He must decide how involved he wants to be with his children.” Her gaze swept over the three babies playing and babbling together. “I’ve read of the King family. They are not the kind of people to walk away from their children.”

  Dina’s heart sank. Different members of the King family were always in the news or the tabloids or national magazines. And in interview after interview, one thing they all had in common was just how close they were and how important family was. “I know.”