His Twin Baby Surprise

by Patricia Forsythe

  He never wanted to put down roots

  Former football star Ben McAdams is constantly traveling, looking for new investment opportunities and supporting charities. Becoming a father was never part of his plan. But then Lisa tells him he’s going to be a dad...and she doesn’t want his help. And somehow that makes him need to step in.

  Lisa Thomas has always wanted to save the world, on her own terms. Carrying twins was never part of her plan, which now includes working a full-time job and stepping in as temp mayor of their small Oklahoma town. So what if she’s falling for Ben? He’s only going to leave in the end...because that’s what Ben does.

  “Is something wrong?” Lisa asked, but the ultrasound technician was gone.

  Ben took her hand and this time, she didn’t resist. “If she’s not back in two minutes I’ll go find her,” he promised. “Along with the doctor.”

  “What...what do you think is wrong?”

  “Probably nothing. Let’s wait and see.”

  The technician brought the doctor back quickly. He was an older man whose white hair and smiling demeanor inspired confidence.

  “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas. I’m Dr. Harber and I just want to check something here.”

  Neither Lisa nor Ben corrected him on their names, but watched as he moved the wand slowly across her belly. After a minute, he said, “You’re probably wondering what we’re seeing. It takes a little practice to distinguish it exactly.” He pointed to the screen. “Right here, we have a head, and over here is another head.”

  Lisa’s voice squeaked as she squeezed Ben’s hand and asked, “I’m having a two-headed baby?”

  Dr. Harber chuckled. “No, of course not. There are also four arms, four legs, and two bodies. You’re having twins.”

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome back to Reston, Oklahoma. If this is your first visit, I hope you enjoy this quirky small town and its colorful characters. His Twin Baby Surprise is the third book in the Oklahoma Girls miniseries and features Lisa Thomas and Ben McAdams who grew up together, but who have very different goals in life. Lisa is a hardworking, focused Realtor who wants to bring jobs and prosperity to her hometown. She leaves nothing to chance. Ben is a former professional football player who now has charities and businesses all over the world. He is charming and laid-back and has no intention of putting down roots anywhere. Their plans are derailed when they meet unexpectedly far from Reston—a meeting that will have unexpected consequences for them both.

  I hope that Lisa and Ben’s journey to love and accept each other is one you will love.

  Happy reading!

  Patricia

  His Twin Baby Surprise

  USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  Patricia Forsythe

  Patricia Forsythe is the author of many romance novels and is proud to have received her twenty-five-book pin from Harlequin. She hopes there are many more books to come. A native Arizonan, Patricia loves setting books in areas where she has spent time, like the beautiful Kiamichi Mountains of Oklahoma. She has held a number of jobs, including teaching school, working as a librarian and as a secretary, and operating a care home for developmentally disabled children. Her favorite occupation, though, is writing novels in which the characters get into challenging situations and then work their way out. Each situation and set of characters is different, so sometimes the finished book is as much of a surprise to her as it is to the readers.

  Books by Patricia Forsythe

  Harlequin Heartwarming

  Oklahoma Girls

  The Husband She Can’t Forget

  At Odds with the Midwife

  Her Lone Cowboy

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

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  This book is dedicated to my granddaughters—Ashley, Alicia, Madison, Tamsin, Fiona and Eleanor. May life always bring you joy.

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  EXCERPT FROM WITH NO RESERVATIONS BY LAURIE TOMLINSON

  PROLOGUE

  INSIDE THE RESTON COUNTY sheriff’s station, Fred Jepson was wondering about the wisdom of having eaten a whole meat pie for lunch.

  Mary Alice made them down at the café and he couldn’t resist them. They were huge—flaky pastry stuffed with meat and potatoes. Enough for two people, but he always ate the whole thing. Why let it go to waste? Why hurt Mary Alice’s feelings? And that chocolate cake she made? It was enough to make a grown man weep. He’d had to have a piece of that.

  What Fred didn’t doubt was the wisdom of bringing in the McAdams boy. Ben was in the holding cell in the next room, eating the sandwich Fred had brought back for him. The cell had a cot, a sink, a toilet and nothing else. Worked out fine for the usual lawbreakers and the drunks who didn’t need to be on the road on a Saturday night. A little stark and scary for a twelve-year-old, but the kid had to learn a lesson about hurting other people, about obeying the law. Better to have him here overnight now for shooting Mrs. Crabtree in the butt with a stone from his slingshot than in jail for months or years down the road for a felony.

  As the sheriff, duly elected by the citizens of Reston County, he felt an obligation to set the boy on the right path.

  Fred snorted. Who gave their kids a slingshot anymore? Jim and Helen were pushovers. That kid of theirs got everything he wanted just by grinning and showing his dimples.

  He leaned back in his chair and loosened his belt. That was a little better. He glanced around to make sure he was alone, though he knew that all but one of his deputies was on patrol or at lunch. Deputy Earl Flake was out back, tinkering with the engine on an old cruiser, sure he could make it run again.

  The office receptionist, Anita Sturm, had decided the refrigerator in the break room was disgusting and was cleaning it out. When he’d peeked in earlier, she’d been half wedged inside the freezer, scrubbing to her heart’s content. Fred knew better than to get in her way when she was in a cleaning mood. He’d thoughtfully closed the door to the break room so she could work in peace and could say as many angry things as she needed to about the unsanitary habits of certain men she knew. He’d told her he’d answer the phone if it rang, but he didn’t expect any calls. The town was pretty quiet at lunchtime.

  He unsnapped his pants and slid down the zipper just to give his gut room to breathe for a few minutes. He’d fasten himself up again as soon as he heard someone at the outer door.

  He’d gained weight in the past few months. He knew it and he was going to do something about it soon, probably tomorrow. If he had to chase down a runner, he’d be screwed. His uniform was too tight and he could barely fasten his belt, even on the last notch, but he refused to buy a larger size. He was going to lose weight and get back in shape soon.

  He returned to thinking abo
ut Ben. The boy was in the sixth grade now, big for his age and eager to play football. Football was a religion in Reston. Jim McAdams, Fred’s old high school rival, had been its deity during his school days. He wanted the same for his son.

  Jim would have that if Ben didn’t end up in juvenile detention first. The family didn’t realize it, but Fred was doing them a favor by scaring some sense into their boy right now.

  He was still considering that when the door to the outer office was thrown open, reverberating against the wall. Startled, Fred jerked upright. No one came in, but he craned his neck to see five kids scuffling in the dirt, fighting, clawing and kicking. Their howls echoed into the jail as they shrieked and tumbled.

  Fred pushed his chair back and lumbered to his feet, forgetting about his pants as the weight of his utility belt dragged them down and they started to slip.

  His horrified attention was on the kids. There was something wrong with their faces. Their features seemed to be smashed in. It was several seconds before he realized they were all wearing stockings over their heads. One kid had a pair of pantyhose over his, the legs tied up in a kind of crazy ponytail that bobbed on top of his head. Or her head. Fred couldn’t tell.

  “Hey, what’s going on here? Stop that right now. You can’t be fighting like that.”

  They ignored him, continuing to punch and kick as they howled and screamed, kicking up dust and knocking over a trash can. They banged up against the side of the building as they called each other names, the yelling so loud and crazy he couldn’t make sense of what they were saying.

  “Stop! Stop!” Fred bellowed. He started around the side of the desk, forgetting about his pants, which immediately fell to his knees, hobbling him. He tripped and went down like two hundred and fifty pounds of wet cement, face-first. Instantly the fighting outside paused and he heard footsteps running toward him.

  “Sorry, Sheriff Jepson,” one of them growled in an obvious effort to disguise his voice. “Just...just stay down, okay?”

  “What? Stop. What are you doing?” Fred couldn’t get up and he couldn’t turn over because of the way his pants had twisted around his knees.

  “Get the key! Get the key!” the kids were shouting in unison from where they crowded around the door.

  He could hear one of them scrambling through the items on his desk, opening drawers and riffling through.

  “I got it!” the kid shrieked.

  Fred couldn’t tell who it was—who any of them were. He groaned when one of them crouched on his back to keep him down. Blackness was closing in on him. Mary Alice’s meat pie threatened to make a second appearance.

  He managed to turn his head to the side enough to see one of the kids run toward the other room. He heard the rattle of the key in the lock of the holding cell. A moment later that same kid ran past with Ben in tow.

  The boy was yelling, “Are you crazy? My dad woulda got me out.”

  The kid who was pulling him responded, “Shut up and come on. We’re heading for the border. My uncle Lester’s been in jail for years and Grandpa says he’ll never get out.”

  “I’m not your uncle Lester. How come you think you’re the boss of everybody?”

  “I’m standing up for my friend,” the kid insisted. “You gotta think about your future. You don’t want to be a criminal.”

  “I ain’t a criminal, and you didn’t let me finish my sandwich.”

  “Oh, quit thinking about your stomach.”

  “I don’t need you to—” Ben started to say but the other kid jerked him out the door.

  Fred heard feet running away, and the one sitting on his back jumped up, freeing him. Pushing himself up onto his elbows, he cursed.

  His prisoner was in the wind.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Twenty years later

  LISA THOMAS STARED at the row of pregnancy tests—six of them—lined up on the table in front of her like crestfallen soldiers who had let their leader go down in defeat.

  “They’re all positive.” Gemma Whitmire, one of her best friends since childhood, sat beside her. Carly Joslin, her other best friend, sat, too, and scooted her chair in closer.

  They were in one of the examination rooms of the Sunshine Birthing Center, which Gemma had founded for the benefit of the women of Reston County. The walls were painted a soothing pale green, but the color did nothing to calm Lisa’s distress.

  Her eyes full of tears, and her lips trembling, she asked, “You don’t think they could be lying?”

  Gemma gave her a gentle smile, her eyes sympathetic. “What would be their motive? They’re inanimate objects. They would have no reason to lie. I’ve been a midwife for a long time, Lisa, so I can tell you that pregnancy tests, especially six of them done at the same time, are going to be truthful.”

  Panic fluttered in Lisa’s throat as she looked around. “But we’re in your birthing center. Don’t you have a...another test I can take?”

  “The ones here at the Sunshine Birthing Center aren’t any different than those you bought at the pharmacy.”

  In desperation Lisa turned to clutch at Gemma’s hands, holding them with her shaking fingers. She knew her hair was frazzled and messy because she’d been sitting and holding her head in her hands while she’d waited for the test results—which she now had. “But what if I did another—”

  “Doing another test won’t change the results,” added Carly.

  White-faced, Lisa looked at them. “Pregnant. How? How could this have happened?”

  Carly raised a dark eyebrow. “Oh, I think it happened in the usual way.”

  “I can give you a clinical description,” Gemma added, “but I think you know how it happened.”

  “I...I do know. But I’m thirty-three years old. It’s not like I’m a silly teenager with her first boyfriend...and we...we used protection.”

  “No protection is one hundred percent reliable.”

  “I know that—however, I didn’t think—”

  “Did you suspect you were pregnant? Has anything been different?”

  “I’ve been a little light-headed, though not really faint, for a couple of months. I thought I was just working too hard, what with the plans coming together for the resort out on the lake—”

  “You always work too hard,” Gemma pointed out. “And I’m not quite sure you have to be the point person on the resort project.”

  “Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how many jobs this will bring to Reston County? And besides, I’m not really heading it up. Mayor Morton is.”

  Gemma held up her hand. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have become sidetracked. What other symptoms have you had?”

  Lisa wrinkled her nose. “Things smell odd. Stronger. I had to take all the scented candles out of my home and office because they were overwhelming, and they’ve never bothered me before.”

  “Those are all symptoms of hormonal changes.”

  “I’ve felt sick every day for two weeks and I’ve thrown up every day, too. I thought it was some kind of flu bug or—something I ate.”

  “Every day for two weeks?” Carly asked. “Denial much?”

  “You didn’t say anything about feeling sick,” Gemma put in, sending Carly a quelling look.

  “My period’s been off for months, but I thought maybe things change when you’re in your thirties, you know?” She groaned and continued, “And they should. A person is supposed to have sense enough to not get unexpectedly pregnant at the age of thirty-three.”

  Gemma said, “Some hormonal changes are normal—”

  “But a complete abandonment of common sense?” Lisa asked desperately. “I don’t think so.”

  They all fell silent. Lisa knew they were waiting for her to deal with this the way she did most things—head down, moving forward, plans set.

>   She couldn’t do that, though, because she’d been distracted and daydreamy for the past month. She had difficulty concentrating, and odd, random thoughts and memories had popped up like jack-in-the-boxes when she tried to focus on work. She was sure Gemma was right—it was probably hormonal.

  And now shock had paralyzed her brain even more. She could barely form a coherent thought, except for one—that this didn’t seem real. Or possible. “I’m going to have a baby.”

  “That’s right,” Gemma said. “In about seven months.”

  “So...in September?”

  Lisa frowned. “So, nine months from the end of December—”

  “Nine months isn’t accurate. Pregnancy is actually supposed to be forty weeks, a little more or less depending on the mother—and the baby. Multiples often come earlier.”

  Lisa gulped as her eyes widened. “Multiples?”

  “Um, sorry. I gave you too much information right there. Professional hazard.” Gemma cleared her throat. “Back on track. Be forewarned, being pregnant in this Oklahoma heat and humidity won’t be easy.”

  “Nothing about this will be easy.” Lisa looked up. “And I feel sick all the time.”

  “That should ease up in a few weeks. We need to make an appointment for you to see Nathan. He can prescribe something to help with the morning sickness if you want. In the meantime, there are herbal supplements you can take.”

  Lisa nodded, then dropped her head forward. “I can’t believe I’ll be the first one of us to have a baby. At least you two are married.”

  Carly waved that away. “That just means you’ll have two ready-made babysitters—until we have kids. Even then, we’ll work something out.”

  Gemma got up and took a bottle of water from the small fridge in the examination room where she had brought Lisa to wait for the test results. She twisted off the cap and handed it to her.

  Shakily, Lisa took a big drink, then held the cold plastic bottle against her cheek and closed her eyes. She had to get a grip on this, but all she wanted to do was to fold up into a ball and cry.