Demanding His Brother's Heirs

She’d kept waiting for things to change, for him to go back to being the sweet, sensitive and attentive man she’d married. How could she have known that that man had never existed?

“If you hadn’t talked to Jeremy in so long, how did you know he’d died?” she asked Jason.

“I got a call from my attorney. For the first time in five years his allowance went untouched for over a month. I knew something had to be wrong.”

Holly’s jaw fell and her heart broke all over again. “He had an allowance?”

“You didn’t know,” he said, and she shook her head, feeling sick all the way to her soul.

She was beginning to wonder if Jeremy had told her the truth about anything.

“I apologize if I’m getting too personal,” Jason said. “But where did you think the money was coming from? Did he have a job?”

“He told me that he had been in a terrible car accident when he was a teenager that permanently damaged his back. He claimed the money was from a lawsuit settlement. But there was no accident, was there? And no settlement.”

Jason actually cringed, as if it pained him to admit the truth. “Not that I know of.”

Had any of it been real? Had Jeremy honestly loved her and the boys? Had he even been capable of that kind of love?

“Will you be staying here, in the city?” Jason asked.

The idea of how and where she would find an affordable apartment without a job or money filled her heart with dread. “I—I don’t know. Yet.”

“I’d like the chance to get to know my nephews. They are the only family I have left.”

“Of course. I would love that. I’m just... Suffice it to say that things are a little up in the air right now. But as soon as we’re settled I’ll let you know.”

Though she tried to put on a good face, Jason’s look of skepticism said he wasn’t buying it. He studied her with the same stormy blue eyes as his brother. So alike, yet not. “You have nowhere to go, do you?”

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, saying with a confidence she was nowhere close to feeling, “I’ll find something.”

“You mentioned selling the ring. Do you have any other resources? Was there life insurance?”

If only. But that wasn’t his problem. “We’ll get by.”

“I’ll take that as a no.” He sighed and shook his head, mumbling under his breath. “He left you with nothing, didn’t he?”

No, he’d left her with something. A big old pile of debt and two very hungry mouths to feed. She lowered her gaze, clasping her hands in her lap so he wouldn’t see that they were trembling. “We’ll manage.”

“How?”

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

“How will you manage? What’s your plan?”

Good question. “Well... I haven’t figured everything out yet, but I will.”

When she’d met Jeremy she had just moved to New York and had been staying with the brother of a friend back home in Florida, where she’d been raised. At the time, meeting Jeremy had felt like destiny. But now, with her life in shambles, if it wasn’t for her precious boys, she might have wished she’d never met him.

* * *

Though her tone conveyed the utmost confidence, Holly’s eyes told an entirely different tale. Jason could see that deep down she was scared—terrified even—at the prospect of supporting herself and his nephews. But she was clearly in no position to support herself, much less twin infants. And he was in the perfect position to help her. If she would only let him.

His biggest hurdle would be her pride, which she seemed to possess in excess. But he had learned long ago that there was a very fine line between pride and irresponsibility.

He heard the wail of an infant and realized it was coming from the baby monitor on the coffee table. Then a pair of wails, like baby stereo.

Holly sighed, looking exhausted and overwhelmed, and Jason wondered how long it had been since she’d had a decent night’s sleep. He could only imagine how difficult life had been for her lately, being a recent widow with twins. And then along he’d come to tell her that everything she knew about her husband was a lie.

Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.

“Would you like to meet your nephews?” she asked.

His heart jumped in his chest at the prospect of meeting twins who were now his only family. “Of course I would.”

She pushed herself up from the couch, wobbling slightly before she caught her balance. She flashed him a weak smile and said, “Still a little woozy, I guess.”

And who could blame her? He rose, prepared to catch her if she fell over or, God forbid, lost consciousness again, as he didn’t have the first clue what to do with a screaming infant. Let alone two screaming infants. He followed closely behind her, and as she opened the bedroom door, it was obvious that both his nephews had healthy lungs. He never would have imagined that anything so small could make such a racket.

She switched on the light and Jason held his breath as he peeked over her shoulder into the cribs at his nephews. There was no doubt they took after his side of the family. It was like looking at photos of himself and his brother at that age.

Holly lifted one wailing infant and then turned to Jason and held the little boy out to him. “Jason, meet Devon,” she said.

Jason just stood there, unsure of what to do.

“He won’t bite,” Holly said.

Jason took the infant under the arms and he quieted instantly. He looked so tiny and fragile wrapped in Jason’s big hands, his blue eyes wide. And he hardly weighed anything.

“This little complainer is Marshall,” she said, lifting him from the other crib. She propped him on her shoulder and patted his back, which did nothing to stop his wailing. He must have been the feistier of the two.

“Marshall was our grandfather’s name,” Jason told her.

Holly turned to him, saw the way he was holding her son and smiled. “You know, he won’t break.”

“I’ve never held a child this small,” Jason admitted, feeling completely out of his element. In business he’d dealt with some of the most powerful people in the country, yet he had no idea what to do with this tiny, harmless human being. “He looks so fragile. What if I drop him?”

“You won’t,” she said, and he hoped her confidence wasn’t misplaced.

Noting the way Holly held Marshall over her shoulder, he set Devon against his chest, placing one hand under his diapered behind and the other on his back to steady him. But he realized as Devon lifted his little head off Jason’s shoulder to stare at him, blue eyes wide and inquisitive, he wasn’t as fragile as he looked.

Jason watched Holly as she laid Marshall, who was still howling, on the changing table and deftly changed his diaper, cooing and talking to him in a quiet, soothing voice, her smile so full of love and affection Jason kind of wished she would smile at him that way.

She’s your sister-in-law, he reminded himself. But damn, she was pretty. In an unspoiled, wholesome way.

Women, as he saw it, were split between two categories. There were the ones who wanted the traditional life of marriage and babies, and those who balked at the mention of commitment. He preferred the latter. For some people, marriage and family just weren’t in the cards.

Holly turned to Jason, held out her son and said, “Switch.”