Her Twin Surprise (Forsaken Sons Book 2) Read online

  “I didn’t either. Until about ten minutes ago.”

  Janus heard Tom shift in his chair, getting serious now. “Okay, so give me the details. I can draw up the paperwork and have it hand delivered. But…is this really what you want to do? I mean, is the mother a bad guardian?”

  “I have no idea,” he growled out. “Her name is Stevie Hunt. I met her a few weeks before the start of the season. She was sweet at first, but as soon as I was injured, she dropped me like a hot potato.”

  Janus could picture Tom nodding. “That name sounds familiar, for some reason.” There was some typing on his keyboard. “Right.” More typing. “We sent Ms. Hunt a letter about four months after your injury. She was calling and showing up at your office, wanting to speak to you.”

  Oh hell! Janus closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Well, I guess I know why now, huh?” He asked, smothering a bark of horrified laughter. But he wasn’t amused. “Okay, so she did try to tell me. But she obviously didn’t try very hard. I still want–”

  Tom interrupted him again. “Let me gather more information on this before you move forward, Janus. Maybe there’s more to this story than we know.”

  Janus thought about that, and nodded. “Fine. Get your people on it. But I want to know what’s going on, so get me something fast.”

  “Will do.”

  After the phone call, Janus picked up the photographs on the desk, staring at the images of the smiling faces. His kids? Could it be true? And what had Tom said about that visit? Stevie had visited him in…January. Yeah, he remembered that now. Had she been trying to tell him that she was pregnant? But why wait so long? Probably so that he couldn’t demand she get an abortion.

  Janus snarled with disgust. He would never do that.

  His thumb moved over the image, but it wasn’t his child. It was just a photo.

  Making a quick decision, he grabbed his jacket and hurried out of his office, stuffing the pictures into his pocket. “Cancel my afternoon meetings. Something’s come up.”

  He didn’t see Mary’s bemused expression as he stormed out of the office. He didn’t see anything except a red haze as he drove out of Seattle towards the address on the envelope. He was going to see his children!

  Chapter 14

  The sleek, black vehicle parked in front of her house was odd, but Stevie had too much on her mind to figure out who might be visiting one of her neighbors. “Halley, quit hitting your brother!”

  Halley stopped, but that only gave Harrison the opportunity to return fire. “Harrison! That didn’t mean you can hit your sister!”

  The pair burst into giggles.

  “No hitting!” she repeated firmly as she pulled into the driveway.

  Glancing in her rearview mirror, she saw the mischievous looks and knew she was in for a long evening. “Okay, we’re home. I want you both to…” Stevie didn’t get a chance to finish. They were already out of the car and halfway up the driveway. Herbie was barking at the window, eager to be let out so that he celebrate their return. Stevie sighed as she grabbed her purse and her tote filled with papers that needed grading, then moved to the back of the car to pick up the first load of groceries. “Hey! Don’t step in that puddle, Harrison!” she called out. “And Halley, your teacher told me that you didn’t finish your classwork today. So no reading until you’ve finished your class work and homework.”

  Stevie knew that her daughter heard her, although Halley was already racing off to the backyard towards their swing set-fort area. She dove head first onto the swing, landing on her belly and started pushing off.

  “Right,” she grumbled. Pulling two of the fabric bags loaded with groceries out of her trunk, she balanced the bags, her purse, her tote and the keys as she walked the four steps up to the back door.

  “Need some help?” a deep voice asked.

  And with those words, spoken in that deep, sexy, familiar voice, everything in her arms hit the porch. Clutching her throat, she turned slowly, knowing who she’d find.

  For a long moment, she couldn’t move. Stevie stared at him and he stared back. And for a brief moment, her heart soared. He’d come back! He’d finally come back to her!

  “Momma!” Halley called out. “Can we…who’s this?”

  That’s when Stevie remembered. Everything! The past five years, her mother’s passing, the funeral, trying to call Janus with no answer, wanting…needing a shoulder to cry on during those first, horrific months. Cleaning out her mother’s clothes, then discovering that she was pregnant. The humiliation of being told that Janus would press charges against her for harassment if she didn’t stop trying to contact him and…well, it was all too much.

  Her anger and fury boiled over, smothering the happy memories. “Get the hell away from me!” she snapped, then turned to unlock the door.

  Unfortunately, she’d stood at the door too long. As soon as the door opened, Herbie bounded out, knocking her down. Stevie felt herself falling backwards and tried to grab the stair railing. But she missed and fell...right into strong arms that cradled her close.

  Stevie opened her eyes, shocked to find Janus holding her. She stared up at him, lost in those mesmerizing silver eyes. Memories flooded her. Memories of Janus holding her after making love, laughing with him, pressing herself against his naked body while she slept, completely sated and madly in love.

  Janus stared back, his arms tightening, almost as if he might be remembering those moments as well.

  Herbie’s huge, pink tongue darted out, leaving a smear of slimy, doggie saliva on Stevie’s cheek.

  Trust Herbie to ruin the moment.

  “Ugh!” Stevie groaned. She pushed away from Janus’ arms and stepped back. Herbie barked, then nudged her hand with his nose. Automatically, Stevie scratched his ears while glaring up at Janus. “Thank you for…catching me. Now, go away.”

  With that, she reached down and collected the bags, stuffing the groceries back in and lugging everything up the stairs.

  Unfortunately, Janus followed. Herbie was out with the kids in the fenced backyard, so Stevie had a moment to confront Janus.

  “Why are you still here?”

  Janus hated to admit it, but Stevie looked even more beautiful now than she’d been before. There was a softness to her, a maturity that made her…more confident? No, that wasn’t really it because she’d been strong and confident before.

  “I’m not leaving.”

  She walked out the door and Janus couldn’t stop his gaze from dropping to her butt.

  Following her, he watched as she unloaded the rest of the groceries. He considered ignoring the rest of the bags of groceries, but his male instincts kicked in, so he took the bags from her. “Give that to me,” he grumbled, taking all six bags into the kitchen in a single trip.

  Janus turned around, but Stevie wasn’t behind him. When he peered outside again, he realized that she was lugging a bag of dog food nearly as big as she was up the stairs.

  “Damn it, Stevie! Let me do that!”

  “I’ve got it!” she snapped right back, trying to move the bag out of his reach. But he hadn’t played decades of football, avoiding massive linebackers, for nothing. He plucked the bag from her arms and hauled it into the kitchen.

  Herbie, obviously realizing that his dinner was in the bag, bounded away from the kids and loped eagerly up the stairs.

  “Down!” Stevie ordered. Herbie obeyed immediately, but stood expectantly, tongue hanging out of his mouth and that long tail demonstrating his happiness by almost knocking a jug of milk off the table.

  “Go outside, Herbie,” she ordered the dog. Herbie looked longingly at the bag of food. “Where’s Halley?” Stevie whispered. Herbie’s ears perked up as he searched for, and found, his charges. A moment later, he launched himself out the kitchen door, racing over to the kids who laughed when Herbie nudged them. Halley grabbed a stick and threw it for him. She was a tiny little thing, and the stick didn’t go very far. But Herbie didn’t mind the game. He picke
d up the stick and danced around Halley who laughed and reached for the stick. The game proceeded until Harrison found a neon tennis ball. Herbie loved balls even more than sticks.

  “Is that a dog or a horse?”

  Stevie turned and Janus was struck all over again by those soft, brown eyes, the luxuriously dark hair that had probably been in a tidy bun this morning, but was a bit mussed now. She looked incredibly sexy and beautiful.

  But he wasn’t here for that. Not anymore!

  “Herbie has some Great Dane in him,” she explained flatly, crossing her arms over her chest. “If you’re going to prosecute me for invading your privacy when you came into my house, uninvited I might add, then I’ll fight you.”

  Janus heard the words and they didn’t make sense for a moment. Then Tom’s words came back to him. “I’m not going to sue you for harassment, Stevie!” He leaned against the countertop. “But if you don’t give me a damn good answer for why you didn’t tell me about my children, then I’m going to sue you for full custody!”

  He watched her eyes, saw the relief for a brief moment, then horror. “Don’t you dare!” she hissed.

  “I can, and I will. So start talking! And this had better be good!”

  Stevie ducked under his arm and moved to the far end of the kitchen. He noticed she stayed by the windows. So she could watch the kids? Reluctantly, he had to give her credit for being vigilant. He’d read too many horror stories about kids stolen from their backyards.

  “I don’t owe you anything, Janus! Get out of my house before I call the police!”

  “You don’t think that you owe me an explanation for why you’ve kept my children from me for four years?” he hissed. “Four years! Do you know how much I’ve missed, Stevie? Their first steps! First words! Hell, their births! I’ve missed everything! And you stole that from me!”

  She shook her head. “Don’t you dare try that ridiculous revisionist history, Janus! I tried to contact you! I called and texted, begging you to meet me. Then, when I didn’t hear anything from you, I even went to your office, only to be escorted out by your security guard. By the time I got home, there was a letter threatening me with prosecution if I didn’t stop trying to contact you!” She took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

  Janus blinked, his thoughts spinning. Had she tried to contact him? Yes, Tom had said something along those lines earlier today. But still, that had been a miserable period in his life and…what if she was telling the truth about the phone calls and texts? Mary had been hired by the football league to help him after the injury and she might have simply deleted the texts. She’d mentioned something about women texting him night and day, offering their solace…among other things.

  And Tom had mentioned sending a letter.

  Rubbing a hand over his face, he shook his head. “Yeah, okay. So…” No, he wasn’t willing to concede that she’d done nothing wrong. “So, why didn’t you send me a letter?”

  She inhaled sharply and glared daggers at him. “Are you kidding me? You threaten me with legal action, with fines and jail time, then ask why I didn’t call your bluff?”

  Okay, she had a point there. Janus hadn’t realized that Tom had threatened jail time.

  “Get out!” she yelled. “Get out and don’t ever come back here!”

  Janus walked over to her, stopping only an inch from where she stood trembling by the fridge. “I’ll leave, but just for now.” He pointed through the kitchen window. “Those are my children.”

  “They are mine!” she yelled back at him.

  He shook his head. “If I remember correctly, it took both of us to create those children out there.” He smiled, but it wasn’t an amused expression. “My father left my mother to raise me all alone. He was a bastard of the first order and I absolutely will not abandon my children the way my father abandoned me! So get used to it, Stevie. I will be in their lives. If you want to take this to the courts, then so be it!”

  And then he was gone. He didn’t slam the door, but Stevie moved over to the window, watching as he went down the steps. He was just about to get into his car, but paused and looked back. That’s when Stevie saw it. The look. The longing. The yearning in his eyes as he stared at his offspring for the first time.

  Stevie knew that look. She understood the miracle that were her two little darlings. Yeah, they could be hellions as well. But she didn’t care. They were her hellions.

  When he finally turned away and headed towards his car, Stevie acknowledged that her little hellions…they were his hellions too.

  Sitting down on one of the kitchen chairs, Stevie imagined how she would feel if her babies had been taken from her. The idea was so horrific, she couldn’t stand the thought.

  And yet, she’s the one that spent all of those terrifying nights when she’d curled up on her bed, praying that her babies would be healthy. That she would survive the birth and wondering who would take care of her little babies if she died in childbirth. The long nights when she was up feeding twins, both crying because she could only hold one at a time. Nursing one, feeding the other with a bottle, then reversing the feedings forty-five minutes later when they woke up for more food. She’d learned to shower in less than three minutes with Halley and Harrison in their bassinet in the bathroom with her. She’d lost so much weight after giving birth that her obstetrician had threatened to put her in the hospital if she didn’t start gaining weight. It wasn’t that she’d didn’t want to eat. Stevie smiled, remembering one night when she’d walked into the kitchen to make herself a bowl of cereal for dinner only to fall asleep on the floor, leaning against the fridge with the box of cereal clutched in her arms like a teddy.

  And then the first time that Harrison had smiled at her. Yeah, that had made everything worthwhile. Of course, Stevie had been changing his diaper and he’d peed straight up into the air. Still, that had been a precious moment. Stevie had laughed and cried, hugging her precious baby boy.

  “Momma!” Halley called from the backyard.

  Stevie jerked her attention back to her children, grinning as Halley and Harrison came running across the backyard, Herbie’s pink tongue flapping as he raced with them. Herbie had impressively long legs for a dog and he could easily outrun her babies. But Herbie was protective of his “siblings” and wouldn’t dare run ahead of them.

  “What’s up?” she asked, opening the door for the three of them.

  Herbie immediately flopped down on the floor – right in the middle of the kitchen. And because that seemed like a good idea, Halley and Harrison flopped down too, using Herbie as a backrest.

  “We’re hungry,” Halley spoke for the trio. “What’s for dinner?”

  “Ah, the perpetual question,” she mocked. “Well, nothing is going to be for dinner with the three of you lying in the way. I can’t even open the fridge to put the groceries away.”

  Harrison and Halley didn’t move, which meant that Herbie was perfectly happy being snuggled between them.

  Fortunately, Stevie knew the big lug’s weakness. “Want some food, Herbie?” she asked.

  Immediately, he lunged to his feet, toppling the twins. Stevie couldn’t help it. She laughed at their stunned expressions as Herbie danced. “Harrison, can you get Herbie some dinner? Halley, get him some fresh water.” She moved over to the table, rescuing the milk and cereal from Herbie’s enthusiastic tail, then started putting the groceries away.

  The twins fed Herbie, who licked them as his thanks for the food. Stevie smiled as she considered dinner options. She loved cooking dinner at night, feeling the tension of the day dwindle as she did. Stevie also love mealtimes, talking and laughing together. She knew that eventually, life would overtake their dinner times, but at four years old, she savored the quiet times when she could sit and talk with Halley and Harrison, hear about their days, talk to them about their friends.

  Stevie pulled out chicken and collected seasonings. After putting the three chicken breasts into the oven, she got out the fresh green beans, cutting off
the ends as she thought about Janus. What was he doing for dinner tonight? Looking over her shoulder, she noticed that Halley and Harrison had already gotten out their “homework” for the night. They had to color and count some objects on a worksheet. The activity wasn’t difficult but it was excellent practice for later on. Stevie appreciated the homework assignments at this early age which taught kids discipline, while maintaining that homework was fun and interesting.

  Unfortunately, she also pictured Janus walking into the house, loosening his tie and kissing Halley and Harrison on top of their heads in greeting. In her fantasy, then he’d walk over to her and take her into his arms, kissing her with a bit more intimacy. She’d laugh. He’d nuzzle her neck. She’d giggle and ask for more. Then he’d reach around her and steal a bite of whatever she was preparing for dinner. He’d walk away and she’d smile as she admired his butt. The guy really did have an amazing butt, she thought.

  Sighing, Stevie dumped the green beans into a container, then set them aside. She’d microwave them later, right before the chicken was finished. She glanced over her shoulder at the twins, her heart aching as she watched Halley whisper in Harrison’s ear. Turning away, she got out the container of strawberries and cut the tops off, putting them into a colorful bowl. With dinner finished, she washed her hands, then went to check out their homework. “This is a really nice drawing, Halley,” she said to her daughter. “Harrison, what’s this?” she asked, pointing to a big, green blob.

  “That’s Halley,” he explained with a grin. “She’s a germ.”

  Halley didn’t like the sound of that and glared at her brother. “I’m not a germ!” she told him firmly.

  And on it went. Stevie watched the twins throughout dinner and, as they argued and laughed, irritated each other and conspired with each other, Stevie knew what she had to do. She didn’t like it, but she knew that it was the right thing to do.