Cowboy's Triplet Trouble

Jake Johnson instantly knew he’d said the wrong thing. Her pretty cheeks filled with color as her green eyes narrowed dangerously. “The last thing I expected from you was a denial of even meeting me,” she replied, her voice icy with an edge of contempt. “Surely you remember being at the wedding.”

“Please, come inside where we can talk more comfortably.” Jake grabbed one end of the stroller to pull it up the stairs and into the house. As he gazed at the sleeping girls, there was no doubt in his mind that they were Johnsons. Their little heads were covered with dark curly hair and the shape of their faces reminded him of baby photos he’d seen of himself.

And there was no doubt in his mind of exactly who was responsible for this woman being on his porch with three babies. His stomach knotted with a touch of anger. This was one mess that wasn’t going to just go away. Jake wouldn’t be able to pay a ticket, take care of a fine or do some fast talking to make this one disappear.

Once they had the stroller inside the living room, he gestured her to the sofa. As she lowered herself down, he sat in the overstuffed chair opposite her.

He couldn’t help but notice that Grace Sinclair was a gorgeous woman. Her long brown hair held shiny blond highlights, and her legs seemed to go on forever beneath the navy slacks she wore. At the moment her beautiful green eyes were filled with anger, and her lush lips were compressed tightly together as she glared at him.

“I didn’t exactly think you’d jump for joy at the unexpected news that you were a father, especially a father of three,” she said. “I know it was only one night, but we were together for a long time at the reception.”

“I should explain that….” he began.

“Of course, maybe you make it a habit of sleeping with lots of women and don’t always remember them when you meet them again out of a bed,” she continued, cutting him off midsentence. “Allow me to remind you again—Sally’s wedding in Wichita?”

“I wasn’t—”

“Look, if you’re worried that I want something from you, that I might need anything from you, then don’t. I just thought you had a right to know that you are a father.”

“I’m not saying that—”

“I’ll gladly have a DNA test done if that’s what you want.” She sat up straighter on the sofa and tucked a strand of her shiny hair behind her ear. “I know for sure that you’re the father because I hadn’t been with anyone for a long time before you and I wasn’t with anyone after you. But I would understand if you have doubts considering the circumstances.”

Once again her cheeks became a charming shade of red. “You don’t really know me. You don’t know what kind of a woman I am, and I can understand how the fact that I fell into bed with you so easily that night might make you think I do that all the time—which couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve never done anything like that before. My only excuse is that night for the first time in my life, I drank too much.”

Jake didn’t even try to say anything. He sensed she wasn’t finished yet, and in any case wouldn’t let him get a word in edgewise. The anger he’d felt moments before had passed, and instead a weary resignation had set in.

It was obvious what had happened—a wedding party, a night of too much booze and unprotected sex. Now somebody was going to have to step up and do the right thing. Jake knew for certain it wasn’t going to be him.

Sometimes he felt as if he’d spent every day of his thirty-five years doing what was right for everyone else. Now it was his turn to do what was right for him, and there was no way he intended to get caught up in this drama.

Yet, even as he thought it, he knew there was no way he wouldn’t be sucked into the mess. The precious little girls asleep in the stroller would ensure that he became a part of it in some way.

“I don’t need any child support from you. I just thought you might want to be a dad to the girls. Girls need fathers in their lives.”

There was a wealth of emotion in her voice, then she finally took a breath and stared at him expectantly. At that moment Jake’s brother appeared in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen.

Grace’s mouth formed a perfect O as she looked from one man to the other. Just then one of the little girls woke up with a cry, as if protesting the fact that her mother had no idea when it came to the question of who was the daddy.

Chapter 2

Grace looked from one man to the other, astonished as she realized they were obviously identical twins. No wonder the man seated across from her had insisted he didn’t know her. He didn’t know her.

She dug Abby’s sippy cup out of the diaper bag and handed it to her, an action that immediately stopped Abby’s tears and brought a happy smile to her face. Twins, for crying out loud. How was she supposed to know that the man she’d slept with had a twin?

At that moment a woman appeared behind the man in the doorway. She was a plump, pretty blonde. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Honey, what’s going on?” she asked. She took one look at the stroller and clapped her hands together. “Oh my goodness, aren’t they precious?”

Grace’s heart sank to the ground. If the man seated on the chair opposite her wasn’t the girls’ father, then the man in the doorway must be. A look at his hand showed her he was wearing a gold wedding ring that matched the one on the woman’s finger.

Married. Oh, God, had he been married on the night they’d slept together? Had he ditched his wedding band for a quick fling while out of town? The very idea horrified her. The last thing Grace would ever do was get involved in any way with a married man.

“I think maybe introductions are in order,” the man in the chair said. “I’m Jake Johnson, and that’s my brother Jeffrey and his wife, Kerri.”

“I’m so sorry. I’ve obviously made some sort of mistake,” Grace said as she rose to her feet. Jeffrey … Justin … maybe she’d gotten his name wrong at the wedding. Certainly coming here had been a terrible mistake.

She didn’t want to screw up a marriage. This had suddenly become an awful nightmare and all she wanted to do was escape from it all. “I’ll just take the girls and we’ll be on our way.”

“Grace—may I call you Grace?” Jake asked. She nodded and he motioned her back to the sofa. “Please sit down. Jeffrey isn’t the father of your daughters either.”

“Heavens, no!” Jeffrey replied. “I’d eventually like to have children, but I definitely want to do that with my wife.” He looped an arm around Kerri’s shoulder and smiled at her lovingly.

“I think you’re looking for our brother,” Jake said.

“There’s more of you?” Grace felt as if she’d entered either a comedy of errors or the Twilight Zone.

Jake gave her a tight smile. “One more. Justin. We’re triplets.”

Grace breathed a sigh of relief, although she was more than a little embarrassed that she’d just given Jake Johnson far more personal information than she’d ever want him to know. “Is Justin here?”

“He isn’t,” Jake replied.

“But he almost always shows up around dinnertime,” Kerri said as she approached the stroller. “May I?” She gestured to Abby, who raised her hands to get out of her confinement.

Grace nodded and checked her wristwatch. It was just after noon. “Could you contact Justin and see if maybe he could come by earlier? Otherwise I’ll just take the girls to the motel room where I’d planned to stay for the night and he can contact me there.”

“Nonsense,” Kerri said briskly. “I’ve got lunch ready and of course you and the girls will stay and eat with us.” She laughed as Abby grabbed her nose with a giggle.

“I don’t want to impose,” Grace protested. The whole thing felt awkward. At that moment the other two girls woke up and suddenly chaos reigned.

“We definitely need introductions to these sweet girls,” Kerri said as her husband pulled Bonnie from the stroller and Grace got Casey.

“You have Abby, Jeffrey has Bonnie and I have Casey,” Grace said. Each of the girls grinned as they heard their names. “And as you can see, they haven’t met anyone they don’t like yet. Although Casey here is definitely the most shy.” She frowned. “Maybe it would be best if I just go to the motel and you can tell Justin to meet me there.”

“You’re here now,” Jake said rather curtly. “You might as well stay for lunch and I’ll see if I can get Justin on his cell phone.” As he left the room Grace felt some of the tension that had coiled in her belly ease. At least Jeffrey hadn’t been in the room when she’d told Jake that she’d been nothing more than a drunken one-night stand with Justin. Gosh, how utterly embarrassing.

“Jeffrey, why don’t you go out to the shed and bring in the old high chairs,” Kerri said, obviously a woman accustomed to being in command. “And while you do that, Grace and I will go into the kitchen and get to know each other a little better.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jeffrey replied agreeably. He set Bonnie on her bottom at his feet and headed toward the door.

Grace felt as if everything was quickly spinning out of control and she didn’t quite know how to get any control back. At that moment Jake returned to the room. “Justin didn’t answer, but I left him a message to come here as soon as he can,” he said.

“We were just about to take the girls into the kitchen,” Kerri said. “But we seem to be short one pair of hands.”

“The story of my life,” Grace muttered beneath her breath.

Jake bent down and picked up Bonnie. He carried her away from his body, as if he’d never carried a baby before and wasn’t sure he liked it. At that moment Grace decided she wasn’t at all sure she liked him very much.

The kitchen was enormous, filled with sunshine from the floor-to-ceiling windows that created one wall. A heavy wooden table big enough to comfortably seat eight held place settings for three and a steaming casserole dish that smelled of chicken.