Married...With Twins! Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Excerpt

  Dear Reader

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Books by Jennifer Mikels

  About the Author

  Praise

  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

  Preview

  Copyright

  Lucas and Valerie’s Ultimate Guide To Surprise Parenthood:

  1. Be certain “Daddy” knows that a toddler will not fit into a diaper meant for a newborn-no matter what he tries.

  2. Never turn your back for a second. Your kids will let you know why.

  3. If you want a little private time with your spouse, you should have thought of it before the stork arrived. For ultimate snuggle time, set your alarm clock ahead an hour-or two, or three….

  4. Always have a list of emergency numbers nearby: fire, police, poison control…and most important-the baby-sitter!

  5. Keep in mind, between food fights and 2:00 a.m. screaming fits, that happiness will be your reward. (That, and the fact that your children will eventually have kids of their own.)

  Dear Reader,

  Whether or not it’s back to school-for you or the kidsSpecial Edition this month is the place to return to for romance!

  Our THAT SPECIAL WOMAN!, Serena Fanon, is heading straight for a Montana wedding in Jackie Merritt’s Montana Passion, the second title in Jackie’s MADE IN MONTANA miniseries. But that’s not the only wedding this month-in Christine Flynn’s The Black Sheep’s Bride, another blushing bride joins the family in the latest installment of THE WHITAKER BRIDES. And three little matchmakers scheme to bring their unsuspecting parents back together again in Daddy of the House, book one of Diana Whitney’s new miniseries, PARENTHOOD.

  This month, the special cross-line miniseries DADDY KNOWS LAST comes to Special Edition. In Married…With Twins!, Jennifer Mikels tells the tale of a couple on the brink of a breakup-that is, until they become instant parents to two adorable girls. September brings two Silhouette authors to the Special Edition family for the first time. Shirley Larson’s A Cowboy Is Forever is a reunion ranch story not to be missed, and in Ingrid Weaver’s latest, The Wolf and the Woman’s Touch, a sexy loner agrees to help a woman find her missing niece-but only if she’ll give him one night of passion.

  I hope you enjoy each and every story to come!

  Sincerely,

  Tara Gavin,

  Senior Editor

  Please address questions and book requests to:

  Silhouette Reader Service

  U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

  Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

  Married…With Twins!

  Jennifer Mikels

  This one is for Jessica O’Kelley and Joan Cottrell, with many thanks.

  Special thanks and acknowledgment to Jennifer Mikels for her contribution to the Daddy Knows Last series.

  Books by Jennifer Mikels

  Silhouette Special Edition

  A Sporting Affair #66

  Whirlwind #124

  Remember the Daffodils #478

  Double Identity #521

  Stargazer #574

  Freedom’s Just Another Word #623

  A Real Charmer #694

  A Job for Jack #735

  Your Child, My Child #807

  Denver’s Lady #870

  Jake Ryker’s Back in Town #929

  Sara’s Father #947

  Child of Mine #993

  Expecting: Baby #1023

  *Married…With Twins! #1054

  Silhouette Romance

  Lady of the West #462

  Maverick #487

  Perfect Partners #511

  The Bewitching Hour #551

  *Daddy Knows Last

  JENNIFER MIKELS

  started out an avid fan of historical novels, which eventually led her to contemporary romances, which in turn led her to try her hand at penning her own novels. She quickly found she preferred romance fiction with its happy endings to the technical writing she’d done for a public-relations firm. Between writing and raising two boys, the Phoenix-based author has little time left for hobbies, though she does enjoy crosscountry skiing and antique shopping with her husband.

  Meet The Soon-To-Be Moms of New Hope, Texas!

  “I’ll do anything to have a baby-even if it means going to the sperm bank. Unless sexy cowboy Jake Spencer is willing to be a daddy…the natural way.”

  —Priscilla Barrington, hopeful mom-to-be.

  THE BABY NOTION by Dixie Browning (Desire 7/96)

  “I’m more than willing to help Mitch McCord take care of the baby he found on his doorstep. After all, I’ve been in love with that confirmed bachelor for years.”

  —Jenny Stevens, maternal girl-next-door.

  BABY IN A BASKET by Helen R. Myers (Romance 8196)

  “My soon-to-be ex-husband and I are soon-to-be parents! Can our new arrivals also bless us with a second chance at marriage?”

  —Valerie Kincald, married new mom.

  MARRIED…WITH TWINS! by Jennifer Mikels (Special Edition 9/96)

  “I have vowed to be married by the time I turn thirty. But the only man who interests me is single dad Travis Donovan-and he doesn’t know I’m alive…yet!”

  —Wendy Wilcox, biological-clock-counting bachelorette.

  HOW TO HOOK A HUSBAND (AND A BABY) by Carolyn Zone (Yours Truly 10/96)

  “Everybody wants me to name the father of my baby. But I can’t tell anyone-even the expectant daddy!”

  —Faith Harper, prim, proper-and very pregnant.

  DISCOVERED: DADDY by Marilyn Pappano (Intimate Moments 11/96)

  Chapter One

  “You’re a daddy now,” someone had said to him.

  He couldn’t even remember who’d said the words.

  He’d been reeling from the shock. Unlike other men

  who had nine months to prepare for fatherhood, Lucas Kincaid had become a daddy overnight.

  Fate threw some real curves, he decided, dropping the tailgate on the borrowed truck he’d parked in his driveway. Just as he and his wife were on the verge of divorce, they’d become the guardians of twin twoyear-olds.

  Disbelief still shadowing him, he cradled a Victorian dollhouse in his arms and turned toward the back door of the split-level house that he and Val had bought four years ago.

  From the kitchen, ear-piercing screams drifted to him.

  “Sounds as if Valerie has her hands full, Lucas,” a neighbor yelled out with a wave.

  A sun that promised another warm September day glared in his eyes as he squinted at Kate Whitton ambling toward him.

  “Those twins are sure adorable-looking,” she said in her strong Texas drawl.

  Luke thought so, too. Urchins with blond ponytails, pug noses and quick grins, Brooke and Traci Dawson had kept Val and him on their toes since seven this morning. And more than once had given them an indication of life with toddlers in the terrible two stage.

  “If you need help, let us know.” Kate gestured toward the truck that was loaded with toys and cartons. “They certainly have a lot.”

  Luke merely nodded. For six years, Carrie Dawson had longed for pregnancy. When she’d learned she was expecting, she and Joe had been elated at the news that she was carrying twins.

  “I’ll stop in later and
see if Valerie wants help.”

  To tell Kate no would have caused more of a problem. Luke sidestepped two tricycles and nearly kicked over Val’s clay pot filled with geraniums. He’d always wanted children. He knew a lot of men could care less, but of all the patients he saw, he liked the kids best. They asked the most absurd questions, they lightened his day, they made him remember why he’d decided on a career in medicine.

  After medical school, he’d returned to New Hope, the town he’d been born and raised in, and had opened his practice because he liked personal one-on-one contact with patients. Some viewed him as a confidant, like Agnes, who had an allergy to penicillin and a tough time with widowhood. Some had become relatives, like Edwin, Val’s crusty-mannered grandfather. Others had developed into good friends, the best, like Joe and Carrie Dawson.

  Nearing the back door, he shifted the dollhouse to one arm and reached to open the screen door. A soft breeze fluttered around him as he paused and peered over the top of the dollhouse.

  His gaze went to his wife. A small, slender woman with long legs and hair the color of deep, rich coffee, she had the lithe figure of an athlete or a dancer. Her dark brown eyes were wide and expressive, her face animated as she talked low to the twins. In her hand was the object of the battle, a Raggedy Ann doll.

  Pouting two-year-olds glared up at her until she stretched and grabbed two cookies from an opened package on the counter.

  Traci’s pout lifted first. She crawled onto Val’s lap and curled an arm around her neck. More interested in the cookie than affection, Brooke plopped on the floor to munch away.

  “Cookie.” Traci waved it, then scrambled off Val’s lap.

  At the slam of the screen door behind him, Val angled a look over her shoulder in his direction. Out of necessity, they’d spent more time together this morning than they had in weeks. “Where is this going?” he asked about the dollhouse.

  “Good question,” she said, actually sounding a little amused. She paused in unpacking a carton overflowing with stuffed animals and dolls, and unconsciously raked fingers through her shortcropped, hairstyle. It was a familiar gesture, one he’d seen often when she’d been in his office hunched over the ledgers or seated at the reception desk, greeting patients. “Your den,” she finally answered, and shrugged.

  That wasn’t the response he’d expected, but he didn’t protest. Though she was usually organized, she looked a bit overwhelmed. Luke sensed she had no idea where to put anything except the twins’ clothes.

  “Hi, lion,” Brooke sang out as Val lifted a fuzzy tan animal from the carton of stuffed animals. All morning she’d greeted everything that had been unpacked. As Lucas inched his way around her, her blond head swiveled toward him. “Lu-cas, don’t drop.”

  Amusement rippled through him. He’d had his share of toddlers in his office, but their tendency toward bossiness had eluded him until this up-close and personal encounter. Crossing the living room, he felt resistance on his leg.

  “Can me help?” Brooke asked, still yanking on his jeans.

  Traci suddenly tugged on the other leg. “No.” Her blond ponytail swung with the wag of her head. “Traci help Luke.”

  As Brooke’s fingers tightened on the denim, Luke contemplated another battle. It took no effort to envision each twin grabbing at the dollhouse until it fell from his arms. Only one possibility existed after that. Tears and wails. Holding the dollhouse above their reaching hands, he braced his backside against the short banister of the stairway that led to the second level of the house, and patiently he waited.

  Never more than a step behind the girls, Val predictably popped around the kitchen doorway, her arms hugging stuffed animals.

  Was it good-humored sympathy or something else he read in the dark gaze smiling at him?

  “Me help,” Brooke insisted, her little hand grabbing at the bottom of the dollhouse.

  Luke had seen his wife cool tempers during city council meetings, soothe her sometimes cantankerous grandfather, and quiet patients in the waiting room outside his office who were stressing over medical tests. She possessed a soft voice and the ability to say the right thing at the appropriate time. He hoped that was all true at this moment.

  Letting the stuffed animals tumble from her arms onto the living room carpet, she flashed a quick, amused smile. It tore at him. For months he’d yearned to see her like this. Instead sorrow had haunted her eyes. “Girls, I need help,” she said, offering a hand to each twin.

  With no hesitation, Brooke bounded to her. “Me do it.”

  Just as eager, Traci trailed. “Traci do it.”

  “Round three,” Luke said on a chuckle.

  Val looked his way. For an instant she could almost remember the way they used to be. As he headed for the den, she urged the girls into the kitchen. “Both of you can help.” It took a second of quick thinking to find a job for them. After dumping plastic containers onto the floor with instructions to choose three, she sent them toward the sandbox in the backyard.

  While Traci perched on the edge of the tractor tire,

  Brooke sat inside it, the plastic containers and plastic garden tools strewn across the grass.

  Surprisingly the transition from the home the girls had always known to a new one hadn’t been as difficult as Val had expected. She assumed that was because the twins were comfortable with her and Luke. As godparents, they’d baby-sat often. They’d been there for every birthday and every holiday.

  Turning away from the door, she flicked on the radio before settling on a stool at the breakfast bar to sort through a bag of clothing. Slowly, she lifted a pair of pink tights from it. She still couldn’t believe Joe and Carrie were dead, their fate sealed by a drunk driver. Why? Why them? she wondered.

  Sadness flowed through her for a woman she’d thought of like a sister, for a man who’d been her husband’s boyhood friend, for all they would miss with their daughters.

  At the shuffle of Luke’s sneakers behind her, Val nudged herself from dark thoughts. It did no good to linger over what had happened during the past few weeks. All that mattered now were the twins.

  “Where did the dynamic duo disappear to?” he asked.

  “They’re in the backyard. They love the sandbox,” she said, wanting him to know his efforts were being appreciated. Yesterday he’d moved the tractor tire from Joe and Carrie’s backyard while the twins had been napping. After a trip to the building materials store, he’d filled the tire with a fresh supply of sand. “I’m sure finding it here is helping them adjust,” she added because he’d wandered for a second to the French door as if to see for himself.

  With a brush at her bangs, Val watched him leave. Who are you? she wondered. When they’d met, she’d thought he was the perfect one for her. With his tall, rangy build, dark hair, chiseled features and deep-set, blue eyes, he’d garnered his share of ogling women, but her feelings had gone beyond his good looks. Personable and intelligent, he’d been easy to talk to, easy to laugh with, and wonderful to make love with.

  Then, on a February night, their world had screeched to a halt. There had been months since that night when they couldn’t be around each other, couldn’t stand to see each other’s eyes and the sadness that mirrored their own. She’d withdrawn within herself. He’d drifted away from her, spending more time at his office, volunteering for more night duty in the emergency room of the hospital, growing more silent. They’d stopped talking and laughing. They’d stopped making love. And they’d faced the inevitable weeks ago. Their marriage was over.

  She doubted she’d ever feel comfortable with what she viewed as failure. Looking toward the window, she saw Luke heft the mattresses for the twins’ cribs above his head and, balancing them on it, start for the back door. He wouldn’t ask her for help, but she’d offer it anyway. She met him at the door and opened it. “We could have asked some friends over to unload the truck.”

  “Jake volunteered,” he answered. “So did Mitch.”

  Why he’d refused wasn’t diff
icult to understand. If they’d been around, they might have sensed something was wrong between Luke and her. Val stepped aside, her hands raising to offer support if he needed it. Fielding friends’ concerned questions had obviously bothered him more than a couple of hours sweating and straining muscles.

  As he maneuvered the mattresses past her, Val glanced at the clock. She spent a few moments gathering fixings for lunch before she called the girls.

  While she swiped peanut butter and jelly across slices of bread, then dished out peaches, they sat at their miniature table, talking to their dolls and filling cups with imaginary tea. Did they like peaches? she wondered. Or should she give them bananas? Nothing was simple. She wanted so badly to give them as much normalcy as possible. And she felt so inept.

  “That’s all of it except a few cartons,” Luke said, propping two high chairs against the wall.

  Val wished she could tell him how filled with doubts she was. She wished she could ask him about something as unimportant as what fruit to serve, because everything seemed significant to her now.

  “Where are you going to put all of the stuff from their playroom?” Unexpectedly he stopped beside her and snatched one of the carrot sticks she’d sliced seconds ago.

  As casual as he was, she felt tense with him standing so close. “In here and the dining room-for now.” Val scowled at her prepared lunch. Insecurities rising again, she spoke low to him. “Do you think they like peaches?”

  It was impossible for him not to hear the shadow of concern in her voice. “Peaches-yeah. They like peaches,” he answered as he sensed she was looking for an assurance. Her uncertainty surprised him. She was a strong woman with a mind of her own. “Don’t you remember? Carrie had a thing for peach ice cream, and the twins always helped her eat it.”