AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Both.”
Smiling, the waitress scribbled and said, “Gravy or sour cream, hon?”
“Both.”
“Anything on the side?”
“Yeah. The fried chicken.” She closed her menu with a snap and handed it back to the waitress, who turned to Caleb, pen poised.
“Um…the salmon?” he ventured.
“Sure thing.” She scribbled and turned to leave; then, turning back, she eyed Maya’s half-empty glass. “More milk?”
Maya nodded. Her tears were gone now, and as soon as the waitress was gone, she faced Caleb squarely. “I did not send you that photograph.”
“That is becoming painfully obvious,” he said. “Frankly, I don’t even care who sent me the photo, Maya. If this baby is mine, I want to take responsibility. That’s all.”
“Then why did you lie about who you were?”
He lowered his head, shook it. “I…had my reasons. What difference does it make, Maya? You know the truth now.”
She pressed her lips together. “Not that I trust anything that comes out of your mouth at this point, Caleb, but if you want to spend one more minute with me, I want you to swear you won’t try to take my babies away from me. Swear on all you hold dear, Caleb, or leave right now.”
“I swear. I’ll put it in writing if you want me to. I can have my…wait a minute.” He frowned then. “Wait just a minute. What did you just say?’’
She bit her lower lip, averted her face.
“Maya, did you just say ‘babies’?”
Slowly, she faced him. Then she drew a breath, blew it out again. “Hell, Caleb, you might as well know. I’m carrying two babies, not one.”
“Two? Twins?”
She nodded. “That’s why the doctor expects me to go early. Twins hardly ever go to term.”
He just sat there, stunned to the bone. A deep tremor worked through him, and his gaze fell to her swollen belly. “Are they both…all right?” he said softly.
“If the way they kick is any indication, they’re fine.”
Those words only made his stomach clench up tighter as his father’s words replayed in his mind. The strong survive, the weak don’t. It’s our legacy, Caleb. And it’s a reminder….
“What…what does your doctor say? Do they have any way of knowing for sure that they’re both…?”
He saw her face then, clouding with worry. And he decided to shut up. She was going through enough without him saying things that would scare her to death. There was no reason to think…. Hell, twins were born healthy every day. They were!
“I go in every week for a checkup,” she told him. “They listen to the heartbeats, and we’ve done ultra-sounds. These kids are huge, for twins. Over five pounds each already. And they’re fine. They’re Brands. They can’t be anything less than fine.”
“They’re not just Brands, they’re Montgomerys, too.”
She shrugged. “So I suppose they’ll have politics in their DNA?”
He smiled at her, liking her slightly lighter tone. “Maybe we should ask them to check for it when they do the blood tests.”
Her expression changed. Lightness fled. Her eyes became…thunderous. He’d never used that term to describe a facial expression before. But it described hers now.
“A blood test? You…mean a paternity test, don’t you? You want my babies to have a paternity test.”
He blinked fast. “Well…isn’t that pretty standard…I mean, in cases where the parents aren’t married?”
