Read Mackinnon 03 - The Bonus Mom for Free Online Page B

Laughter used to come to him easy as sunshine. As a kid, he’d been prone to a little trouble, couldn’t shake the mischief gene, but marriage had shaped him up. The twins came six months after the wedding. Neither he nor Zoe was ready for marriage, but she’d had an early ultrasound, so they knew about the twins.
    There was no way they could give up two. Or raise two without each other. He was a little mad at first. So was she. Before the babies, they’d both realized that their love affair was more of a lust affair, and the marriage was on precarious ground. But then the girls came. Whit still remembered the first time he’d held his newborn daughters.
    He’d been a goner. That fast. That completely. He never knew he had a daddy streak, much less that he would go head over heels hopeless for the squirts. Neither slept at night. They cried in unison, never a little whine, always screams loud enough to wake the dead. If one didn’t have a messy diaper, the other did.
    The babies had not only terrorized him; they’d terrified him. In spite of that—in spite of everything—the bond kept growing. He’d have given his life for them. Without a qualm.
    Abruptly he heard a noisy attack of giggles coming from the loft. Since they were obviously still awake, he ambled toward the stairs. They were going to love the news that Rosemary was joining them tomorrow.
    Still, just from talking on the phone with her, he felt a goofball smile glued on his face. She had that kind of dry humor, the way she talked total nonsense in such a serious tone.
    Whit might have killed for his daughters...but it had been a long time since he’d felt anything to live for, beyond the girls. He couldn’t remember smiling...just for himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt lighthearted—and he had no idea why or how Rosemary had evoked those forgotten emotions in him.
    But he was glad he was seeing her tomorrow.
    After that...well, he’d just have to see.
    * * *
    Rosemary was trying to pull on thick wool socks and hold the cell phone at the same time. It was not an easy balance act.
    “I swear, Tucker, no one could be more of a pain than a brother—unless both you and Ike were calling me at the same time. Just tell me how the new wife is. And how her pregnancy is going. And how the boys are—”
    “Everybody’s fine.” Tucker would do anything for her and she knew it, but her oldest brother was more stubborn than a mule. “But I still want you to agree to have Christmas with us. You don’t have to see Mom and Dad. You could just—”
    “Tucker! I told you and Ike both that I can’t do that. I don’t want to hurt the parents. I just can’t handle one more conversation about why I canceled the wedding, what George must have done, what I must have done, how I could fix it all if I just called him, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I’ve heard it too many times. I don’t want to miss any of you at Christmas. Even though you’re both total pains, I love you. And your families. I even love Pansy, that damned bloodhound Ike made me babysit for.”
    “But—”
    She wasn’t about to hear him repeat his argument. “But nothing. I told Mom and Dad that I had to work. If anyone in the universe could understand that, it’s them. And it’s not like I won’t catch up with all of you. I already sent heaps of presents to the kids—”
    Tucker, of course, interrupted with different persuasive arguments. Being relentless wasn’t totally his fault. Growing up with absentee parents—and their parents were such terrific surgeons that they were always on call—Tucker had taken on the role of Dad. Being the only girl, Rosemary had tried to play the role of Mom, but since she was the youngest, all she could really do was hand out suckers when the boys were sick. The point, though, was that Tucker thought she needed a caretaker.
    Which she did. But not a brother or a dad or a lover. Not a man at all.
    She needed to be her own