Maureen Child – A Baby For The Billionaire: Triple the Fun / What the Prince Wants / The Blackstone Heir (страница 11)

“Well, he has a decision to make, doesn’t he?” her grandmother said. “He must decide how involved he wants to be with his children.” Her gaze swept over the three babies playing and babbling together. “I’ve read of the King family. They are not the kind of people to walk away from their children.”

Dina’s heart sank. Different members of the King family were always in the news or the tabloids or national magazines. And in interview after interview, one thing they all had in common was just how close they were and how important family was. “I know.”

Her grandmother heard the disappointment and worry in Dina’s voice and laughed. “That’s a good thing, querida. He’s their father. They’ll need him.”

“And what about me?” She shook her head and watched as Sadie and Sam had a tug-of-war over a stuffed bunny. The thought of losing the triplets made her chest hurt. Yes, they were a lot of work, and yes, her life had been turned upside down at their arrival, but now she couldn’t imagine living without them.

“The Kings are also really rich,” she pointed out, more to herself than to her grandmother. “If he wants to take the babies from me, I won’t be able to afford to fight him. He can hire a fleet of lawyers and I’ll be down at Legal Aid with my fingers crossed.”

Her grandmother laughed, handed a baby doll to Sadie and smiled as she watched Sam chew on the stuffed bunny’s ear. “Wealthy doesn’t mean evil, Dina.”

“No, but it does mean powerful,” she argued as worry nibbled at her insides. “No judge is going to pick a struggling caterer over a member of the King family when it comes to custody.”

“Worrying won’t change that,” her grandmother warned.

“No, but I’m so good at it.”

The older woman laughed. “Yes, you are. But just this once, you should try not to excel at something.”

Dina sighed, shook her head and dropped one arm around her grandmother’s shoulders, pulling her close for a brief, hard hug. “I’ll try. Really.”

Giving Dina another pat, her grandmother said, “This is a good thing, for you and for the babies.”

“It doesn’t feel that way,” she said, though her hormones might have disagreed.

“Dina, you can’t care for them on your own. You’re making yourself crazy by trying.”

“I can do it,” she said stubbornly. “I’m getting a routine and—”

“And wearing yourself to the bone trying to be all things to all people,” her grandmother told her quietly, almost as though she were hoping to keep the triplets from hearing—though they wouldn’t have understood her anyway. “Their father is here now. Share the work as well as the joy.”

“It’s not that easy, Abuela,” Dina said with a sigh. “He’s one of the richest men in the country and he’s furious at being lied to.”

“You didn’t lie to him.”

“I don’t think he cares,” she said thoughtfully. “If he decides to, he could take the babies from me and no judge would ever choose me over him.”

“It doesn’t have to come to that.”

“Maybe not, but I think it will,” Dina said, remembering the look on his face the night before. He was bonding with his children and digging himself deeper into all of their lives. Connor King wasn’t going to back off. It wasn’t in his nature.

She’d done some checking on him. Granted, it had been on the internet and she knew you couldn’t believe everything you read there. But she had no other options.

He and his twin, Colton, had built their own business outside of the family fortune. They were rich in their own right now, after spending years providing risk to thrill seekers. A little less than two years ago, the twins had shifted their business model to family vacations and hadn’t missed a step. According to financial websites, King Family Adventures was even bigger than its precursor, which made sense, since their potential client base was so much bigger.

From everything she’d read, Connor was a hard, cold-eyed negotiator and didn’t tolerate mistakes. He was the kind of man who laid down the rules and expected everyone else to fall into line. Since Dina didn’t take orders well, she couldn’t see any way this situation was going to have a happy ending.

“I see another problem on the horizon as well,” Angelica said softly.

“Great. Just what we need.” She blew out a breath. “What problem?”

“You like him.” Her grandmother smiled knowingly.

“Please.” Dina laughed and ducked her head to keep her too-knowing grandmother from reading her eyes. She grabbed Sadie as the baby toddled past and plopped the tiny girl onto her lap. “You’re wrong, Abuela. I don’t like him.”

“So you didn’t lie to him, only to me,” the older woman said, “and to yourself.”

Reluctantly, Dina lifted her gaze to her grandmother’s. It was pointless to keep avoiding this particular truth anyway. “Fine. I admit to being...intrigued. He’s so different from every other man I know. But—”

“Different is good, mija,” she said, scooping Sadie off Dina’s lap and onto her own. “And who knows? Maybe this man’s arrival in your life is a good thing.”

Dina wouldn’t go that far.

* * *

A little after midnight, Dina pulled into her driveway with three sleeping babies in the backseat. Glancing at the house, she muttered a soft curse because she’d forgotten to leave the porch light on.

With a sigh, she climbed out of the car and then as quietly as possible closed the door behind her. The street was silent, houses dark, with families tucked in for the night. It was so quiet, it was as if the whole world had taken a breath and held it.

And then she heard a voice.

“Where the hell have you been?”

Five

Dina jumped, slapped one hand to her chest and spun around all at the same time. Heart in her throat, she watched Connor stalk across the yard toward her.

“You scared me to death,” she said, her voice a harsh whisper.

“Welcome to my world,” he snapped. “I’ve been sitting on your front porch for the last three hours, not knowing where the hell you were.”

“What? Why?” She looked past him to the porch as if she could see evidence of his vigil.

“I came to see the kids, but you weren’t here.” He scrubbed both hands across his face, then glared at her. “I didn’t know where you’d gone. For all I knew, you were out and trapped somewhere, or maybe one of the kids was sick. I called your cell and you didn’t answer. Went straight to voice mail.”

One small niggle of guilt wormed its way through her, but Dina dismissed it fast. How was she supposed to know that he would show up? Just because he’d been dropping by on and off for days was no reason to assume he’d keep doing it. Besides, he was overreacting and that she could hardly believe. He sounded like a worried husband, for heaven’s sake.

“I always turn my phone off when I’m working,” she said, though that wasn’t true. She’d kept the phone on in case her grandmother needed to reach her. She simply hadn’t answered the phone when she saw it was Connor calling. “And now I’m going to put the triplets to bed. They’re sound asleep in their car seats and if you wake them...”

Her threat lay open-ended between them, but it did the trick. He took a breath, made an obvious effort to calm himself and said, “Fine. I’ll help. Go unlock the front door.”

She did it, but only because that’s what she was going to do before he’d ordered her to do it anyway. Muttering under her breath, Dina crossed the yard with hurried strides. It was cold and damp and the moon and stars were blotted out behind a layer of clouds. She opened the door, then turned and headed back to the car, where Con was already unhooking Sam from his car seat. Her heart twisted a bit as the little boy draped himself across Con’s shoulder, arms and legs limp in sleep. Connor kept one hand on the boy’s back and walked to the house without another word to her.

Good, Dina thought. She was in no mood for his attitude. She was tired, her feet hurt and all she wanted was to sit down, have a glass of wine and then crawl into bed for the few hours’ sleep she’d get before the babies woke up.

She freed Sadie from her car seat and soothed the baby girl as she snuffled, whimpered and settled down again.

“I’ll take her,” Connor whispered when he came up behind her.

“You get Sage,” she said, already walking.

In what used to be the bungalow’s master bedroom, three cribs were crowded together in the small space. It wouldn’t be long before Dina would have to find somewhere else to live. The babies were going to outgrow this house within the next year or so. But that was a worry for another day.

“Why the hell didn’t you answer the phone?” Connor’s strained whisper sounded overly loud in the quiet.

“I was working,” she reminded him. “Then when I wasn’t, I turned the phone off to keep from waking up the babies on the way home.”

“Okay, then,” he ground out, “what kind of job are you working that you’ve got three babies out until after midnight?”

She frowned at him as she leaned over the crib and patted Sam’s back until he settled into deep sleep again. “I was catering an anniversary party, and the babies are fine.”

“They should have been home,” he said, that strained whisper somehow even more strained now.

Dina swallowed her impatience. “Not that it’s any of your business, but my babysitter got sick at the last minute, so my grandmother watched them for me.”