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  “I love you, Erika McCormick soon to be Nesbit.” Their lips met in a soft, tender kiss that held the promise of tomorrow. When Riki’s arms twined around Jason’s neck, the kiss turned hot and hungry. His tongue plunged into her mouth the same instant his hands cupped her bottom and brought her hard against his arousal.

  He heard her groan and swung her up into his arms. “Do you think all the kids are asleep?”

  “After a day like today, I’m sure they are.” She ran her tongue up his jaw and nipped at his ear. She felt him shudder and added, “How would you like to walk up the steps instead of climbing a tree?”

  With a chuckle Jason declared he was feeling kind of animalistic. With Riki still cradled in his arms he walked out of the room. He’d just bent his head for another kiss when a sound stopped him in his tracks.

  “Oh, yuck!”

  “They’re kissing again. Told you.”

  “They’re allowed. They said they’re getting married.”

  “Does that make Jason our dad?”

  There on the stairs sat all seven children, grinning as they peered through the railing. Riki stared at the children and started to laugh. “I guess the peanut gallery approves. Shall we take a vote? All those in favor of Jason becoming their dad and me becoming Charlie’s mom say ‘aye.’ ”

  When the noise level threatened to wake the neighbors, Jason whistled loudly to regain some order. With a reluctant sigh he released Riki until she was standing on her own two feet. He bent and whispered in her ear, “Whatever you do, darlin’, don’t shut that window tonight.”

  Epilogue

  Riki quietly walked past the kitchen, afraid to break the unusual silence of the house. With the six older children is school and Billy-Jo attending her weekly ’Teaching for Tots’ class, Jason was sure to be in the study. She couldn’t figure out why he worked so hard on his requests. The school board would grant him anything he asked. He had single-handedly stopped three kids from dropping out of school, and it was only October. His home improvement company was flourishing. Senior citizens were lining up to get work done by the Half Day Construction Company.

  As the study doors loomed in front of her, she wondered how good Jason’s sense of humor was. In the past five months of marriage, she’d noticed his humor always came before any signs of temper. Nothing seemed to rattle him. Well, there always was a first time.

  Maybe she was making too big a deal out of it. Jason obviously knew the risk when he stopped using contraceptives on their wedding night. At her questioning glance, he’d declared he was tired of making love with a raincoat on. Now five months later those tiny rain drops had turned into a full- fledged flood. Two floods, to be exact. When her doctor had told her she was carrying Travis and Trevor, no one had been more shocked than she. Twins didn’t run in either hers or Brad’s families. They thought it was a twist of fate. After the test today to confirm she was once again carrying twins, she guessed the blame was on her shoulders.

  Jason glanced up as Riki entered the study. The first thing he noticed was how she avoided his eyes. She was nervously playing with a tendril of hair and doing an excellent imitation of pacing. He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back in the chair. Maybe she was finally going to tell him. He’d guessed two weeks ago he was going to become a father again, for the eighth time. He just couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t announced it before now.

  He watched her walk from the window to the bookshelves. When she picked up a book and started leafing through it, he decided enough was enough. She was obviously upset and that couldn’t be good for their baby. Maybe he should just tell her he knew, then demand to know why she waited so long to tell him. He was just opening his mouth when she asked, “Jason, do you like children?”

  He couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing. When he got himself under control, he said, “Darlin’, in case you’ve forgotten, we have seven children.”

  “Let me rephrase that. Do you like babies?”

  “Ahhh. Do you mean those tiny little pink things that either seem to cry or sleep? Those little people who always seem to need their diaper changed or to be burped?”

  “Yes, them.”

  “Well, I can’t say that I like them.” At Riki’s look of dismay, he continued, “They don’t have any teeth or manners.”

  Her mouth fell open. When she realized she resembled a big-mouth bass, she snapped it shut. He knew! she thought. And he was baiting her. But she still had one up on him. There was no way he could know it was twins. She and her doctor had just found out an hour ago.

  She walked over to him. He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her. She was the first one to break the kiss before it bloomed into something more. She still had one more thing to do.

  Reaching out, she ran her finger over his bottom lip. “You knew?” At his nod she asked. “How?”

  While he explained all the signs that had given her away, she studied the smile that turned up the corners of his mouth. When he finished she asked, “Are you happy?”

  “I’ve never been happier in my life. Well, maybe on our wedding night, but this is definitely second best. I love babies, especially ours.” He cupped her gently rounded tummy. “Good lord, eight kids. That’s a nice even number, don’t you think?” She mumbled something into his neck. “I have two favors to ask,” he continued. “One is I want extra help for the house, at least until the baby is old enough. The second is if it’s a girl can we please name her something that sounds like a girl?”

  “I’ll think about it.” She playfully bit his earlobe. “Do you want to see a picture of our baby?”

  He chuckled. “Sure. An eight-by-ten glossy would be nice.”

  “You have to settle for a black-and-white Polaroid.” At his bemused expression, she reached into the back pocket of her jeans and withdrew a small snapshot. She handed it to Jason, who stared at the different shapes of pale gray to dark gray. He glanced from Riki back to the picture in his hand. “Jason dear, have you ever heard of ultrasound?” “Yeah, sure.”

  “This picture was taken an hour ago at General Hospital. Pretty good likeness, don’t you think?” “Why?”

  “Well, you are the father. It would be strange if the child didn’t even look like me or you.”

  “Riki, why was this picture taken? Is this a normal practice or is something wrong?” He stopped looking at the picture and devoted his whole attention to his wife. Something wasn’t right. He could feel it deep within. She should have told him weeks ago she was pregnant. Was something wrong with the baby? Was Riki in danger?

  She correctly read the concern in his eyes. “No, dear, everything and everyone is just fine. We’re in perfect A-l shape.” She turned the picture upside down from the way he’d been holding it. “You see this cute little gray blob? That’s our baby.”

  He studied the picture and grinned. “I don’t think our child will like being called a blob, cute or otherwise.”

  “Yes, but that’s neither here nor there. Now you see that cute little gray blob?” She pointed to an identical marking not far from the first. “That’s our baby too.”

  His eyes widened and Riki held her breath. He tore his gaze from the picture to her face. When he read the truth there he dropped his gaze to her stomach. Two! My lord, there are two!

  “Twins?” When all he received in answer was a serene smile, he looked at the picture again. “Are there any more cute little gray blobs?”

  “No, Jason, just those two.”

  “Twins.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Shouldn’t you be off your feet?”

  She giggled. “I am off my feet, in case you haven’t noticed.” She swung her sneaker-clad feet in the air. His arms instinctively tightened around her. “Shouldn’t you be in bed or something?”

  She brushed her mouth against his. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  When she started to unbutton his shirt he muttered, “Are you sure we can do this?”

  “We’d better do it now, because in ab
out five to six months we won’t be able to.”

  She ran her tongue over his lower lip. With a groan of desire, he stood with her in his arms and headed for the stairs.

  “Twins,” he said once more. “How did we ever do that?”

  “That’s what happens when you go out into the rain without your raincoat on.”

  Table of Contents

  Marcia Evanick

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Epilogue