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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
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.
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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
Cover
Back Cover Text
Introduction
Dear Reader
Title Page
About the Author
Dedication
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
Extract
Copyright
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 about 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.
When Lisa opened her eyes, Gemma had seated herself beside her once again. She and Carly were looking at her curiously.
“What?” she asked.
“We’re wondering...” Gemma said. “When you’re going to tell us...”
“Who the father is,” Carly concluded.
Lisa pressed her lips together.
“Oh, come on, Lisa, we’re your best friends. We’re not going to judge you.” Gemma gave her a fond smile.
Lisa looked from one to the other—Gemma, with her practical, no-nonsense approach to life, and Carly, who was strong and businesslike, but who could see a broken-down wooden chair in a junk heap and imagine it as a fun and useful porch swing.
Taking a deep breath, she released it slowly and said, “It’s Ben McAdams.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Carly yelped. “The Reston Rascal? Oklahoma’s answer to Casanova?”
“I thought you weren’t going to judge,” Lisa said drily.
“Um, sorry.”
Astounded, Gemma said, “I didn’t even know that he was back in town, or that you two were dating, or even liked each other.”
“We aren’t and we don’t.” Lisa gazed at them miserably. “We haven’t been friends since we were twelve and his parents banned me from seeing him after I—”
“Masterminded the jailbreak,” Carly interrupted with a grin.
“Yeah. And that hasn’t changed.”
“Lisa, obviously something changed.” Gemma smiled in sympathy. “However you don’t have to tell us and—”
“I want to know what happened,” Carly objected.
“You don’t have to talk about it until you’re ready,” Gemma went on as if Carly hadn’t spoken. She stood and began gathering the test kits for disposal.
Carly settled down and gave an encouraging nod, but Lisa, her eyes full of tears, dropped her face into her hands for a few seconds before she, too, sat back and stared at her friends.
“I feel like my head is floating somewhere off in space.”
“And that will continue for a while,” Gemma said. “But things will settle down. You’ll get used to the idea, and soon you’ll be excited about being a mother.”
“I can’t be a mother,” Lisa said desperately. “I had a terrible mother. I’ve still got a terrible mother. And my grandmother tried, at least when I was little, but she wasn’t much of a model mother, either.”
“You’ll figure it out, Lisa. You’re the smartest and most driven person I know.” Carly gave her a hug.
The warmth of her friend’s arms couldn’t stop the shaking that had suddenly begun.
“I swore I’d never do this,” she said fiercely. “I swore I’d never be careless and get pregnant, and leave my baby—”
“You would never leave your baby,” Gemma objected.
“Lisa, you’re twice as old as Maureen was when she had you and left you with her mom and dad. You’ve got a successful career, a home of your own, a support system. Friends,” Carly said, emphasizing the last word as she gave her another squeeze and stepped back to look at her with an anxious expression.
Lisa took deep breaths and tried to still the quaking that came in waves from her core and moved outward. After a few moments she looked up and tried for a wan smile.
“Right now the question is how are you going to tell Ben?” Carly asked.
“I don’t know, but I’d better do it soon,” Lisa said. “I don’t like putting off unpleasant tasks and this isn’t something that can be hidden indefinitely.”
“No,” Gemma agreed. “And if I know you, you’ll want to have every detail planned well ahead of time.”
Lisa nodded even as she gave her friends a pitiful look. “I can barely form a sentence right now, much less a plan.”
Gemma gripped her hand in sympathy, but Carly looked at her considerately.
“And I had plans,” she went on. She knew she was rambling, but couldn’t seem to stop. “The group of investors from Oklahoma City who are interested in developing a resort on Reston Lake are really making progress on the plans. Can you imagine how many jobs that would bring to this area?”
“So you keep saying.”
“It will be a boost to your business, too, Carly. The resort will need fresh vegetables for their restaurants. If you get the contract, you’ll have to expand your gardens, which means you and Luke will have to hire more employees. As for the rest of the county—between the construction and the running of the resort, it could bring in so much prosperity. I was going to broker the deal if I could convince the current owners to at least consider it.”
Carly frowned. “You can still do all that. You’re having a baby, not giving up your career.”
Lisa barely heard her. “And I didn’t tell you two this, but I’m thinking about running for mayor this year.”
Her friends stared at her. “You’re kidding,” they said in unison.
“It’s true. I would never try to push Harley Morton out of office, but—” she lowered her voice and nodded toward the reception area where Harley’s wife worked “—Brenda wants him to retire and...well, I know I could do the job.”
“Wow,” Gemma said. “Just wow. I had no idea that was even on your mind. Brenda never said a thing to me.”
“We were keeping it quiet.” Lisa put her hands over her belly. “But now...”
“Everything’s changed,” Carly finished for her.
The three of them fell silent for several seconds until Carly cleared her throat. “So you got pregnant two months ago,” she said slowly.
Lisa could see that her friend wasn’t ready to let this go. “Obviously.”
“Ben’s been out of town for months. So how and where? If it was two months ago, it must have been—”
“When I was in Chicago.” Lisa sighed. “At Christmastime. Right after my great-aunt Violet’s funeral.”
“You said you were stuck at the airport during a blizzard,” Gemma added.
“I was, along with a million other people who were trying to get home. By the wildest chance, I ran into Ben. I’d last seen him in September, when he bought Riverbend Ranch and I brokered the deal. He was in Chicago for a Christmas charity event that a bunch of big-name sports figures support. It benefits cancer research. Anyway, he had a room, one of the last ones at a hotel near the airport. He invited me to share the room, and we ended up sharing one of the beds.”
“Oh, honey,” Carly said.
“I never do things like that.” Lisa could feel the tears sliding down her face. “I always think about consequences, about how my actions will affect my future.”
“Whereas Ben McAdams has never needed to. He’s always just taken chances on everything, followed the most fun path to whatever he wanted next,” Gemma said.
“And that night, you were what he wanted,” Carly added.
“It wasn’t really like that,” Lisa told them, resting her head in her palm as exhaustion swamped her. She should have known something was wrong. Besides working too much, she’d thought maybe she’d had a low-grade virus. But it wasn’t. It was a baby. A baby!
Out of the corner of her eye she saw her two best friends exchange a look.
“We wondered why you were so...unlike yourself when you got back from Chicago,” Carly said.
“It seemed to be more than simply your great-aunt’s death,” Gemma added, her face full of compassion. “You didn’t say much about it, but your mother was there, wasn’t she?”
“Yes.” Lisa looked down at her hands, which were now clasping the water bottle. “I tried to talk to her, but she—Maureen—turned away. She seemed very shaken up over Aunt Violet, but I don’t really know how she was feeling. I’ve only seen her half a dozen times in my life, so I don’t know how she would react to anything. She barely talked to me at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s funerals, so—” Her voice choked off and her head dropped forward.
“Oh, that’s rough,” Carly said.
“Maureen didn’t talk much to anyone, except the minister, and then she practically ran from the funeral home. I don’t know where she went. I don’t even know where she lives. What kind of family is this?” she asked fiercely. “I see my own mother only half a dozen times in my life and we don’t have anything to say to each other? How is that even possible?”
“Oh, honey,” Gemma said. “That’s something that started before you were even born and you can’t fix it with one conversation.”
Lisa took another deep breath. Somehow she couldn’t seem to get enough air to blow away the storm of emotions. “You’re right.” She paused, then said, “A little while later, I saw that the weather was closing in, so even though my flight wasn’t until late that night, I said goodbye to my cousins and headed for the airport and got stuck there...or, actually, nearby.”
“With Ben.” Gemma reached for her hand again as Carly gathered her into another hug.
Lisa rested her head on her friend’s arm and glanced up with a rueful look. “You know how he is.”
“Yeah,” Carly said. She and Gemma both sighed wistfully. “Charm in size twelve cowboy boots.”
Lisa nodded miserably. “He was warm, sympathetic and understanding. I was happy to see someone from home, you know? I was so distraught I hardly knew which way to turn, and the thought of spending the night at the airport was more than I could handle. I know I could have called my cousins for help, but the roads were already closed and they had enough to deal with. Then I saw Ben. He took care of everything.”
“Short-term responsibility has always been his strong point.”
“I...I know. I needed someone to lean on right then, but it got way out of hand. I never meant for this to happen,” she said yet again. “And now I’m going to have a baby.”
“Which I’ll be happy to deliver when the time comes, if you want me to,” Gemma assured her. “The good news is that you’re healthy, things look fine, and you’ve got some time to come to terms with this.”
Lisa nodded and leaned into the hug. She had time, but not much.
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