Because Of The Twins.... Carole Halston
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on such short notice. Plus I was too shell-shocked to go out among people and be sociable.”
“That’s understandable.” Once again Holly suppressed the urge to comfort him physically with a squeeze or a pat. It came naturally to her to be a demonstrative type of person. “You said on the phone that you didn’t know you were a father until yesterday,” she prompted.
“No, I didn’t have the first suspicion that Heather had used me for a sperm donor.” His tone was bitter. “Looking back, all the pieces fit. Now it makes sense that she broke off with me so suddenly. She’d accomplished her goal and gotten pregnant.”
“Did she move away from the North Shore?” Otherwise he might have kept tabs on her and known she’d become a mother.
He nodded. “She moved back to Jackson, Mississippi, where she was from. According to her aunt, Heather had given herself a six-month leave from her highly successful interior decorating business. Heather had lied and told me she was from north Louisiana.”
“She didn’t want you to be able to look her up.”
“You got it,” he said flatly.
“I wonder how she happened to pick the North Shore as the place to…” Holly’s voice drifted off.
“The place to find just the right dumb male? I asked Lena Booth about that. She said Heather made trips to New Orleans for business and pleasure and was familiar with the population makeup of the North Shore.”
Holly elaborated for herself, “Lots of well-educated young professionals, making up a good gene pool. Upscale, friendly environment. Where did you meet her?”
“At my health club. She introduced herself to me.”
“Perfect.” It was easy to understand how a woman would notice him working out in gym shorts and a T-shirt.
“Yeah, perfect.”
“Don’t misunderstand me,” Holly hastened to say. “I don’t at all approve of what Heather did. I think it was horribly immoral.” She remembered Ann’s words. On a couple of occasions he brought a very striking woman he was obviously quite infatuated with. “You must have liked her a lot if the two of you became that intimate.”
“I more than ‘liked’ her. I asked her to marry me.”
“Oh, no. You poor guy.” They were standing side by side. Before she could stop herself, Holly impulsively slipped her arm around his waist to give him a consoling hug. He stiffened. “There you go again!” she exclaimed, stung by his reaction. “For heaven’s sake, I was just showing sympathy, not trying to come on to you!”
“I don’t deserve sympathy for being stupid. If I’d had any sense, I’d have taken precautions instead of trusting Heather when she pretended to be on birth-control pills.”
Holly wasn’t about to be sidetracked. She was ready for an explanation of his behavior toward her. “Do I remind you of Heather? Has that been the problem all along?” She ticked off points on her fingers. “Same initials. Both of us interior decorators. Maybe some similarity in looks, too?”
Graham sighed, running his right palm roughly down the back of his neck. “I did a double take the first time I saw you from a distance. For one crazy second I thought you were Heather.” His gaze took in her hair and face and wandered lower, arousing the pleasurable tingles of awareness. “But it’s not just the hair color and eyes and…figure. You’re so much like her in other ways.”
“Could you be more specific?” Holly wasn’t flattered, not after the insight into Heather’s character she’d just gotten.
“No offense, but you’re not exactly shy, and neither was she. The day we met, you asked me out on a date.”
“I liked you. I sensed that the attraction was mutual. You didn’t make the first move.” Holly shrugged. Intuition suddenly struck her. “Heather asked you out on a date when you met her, I’ll bet. And you accepted.”
“Fool that I was, I found her boldness a refreshing change.” His bitterness had resurfaced with recollection.
“Take my word for it. I would never sleep with a guy to get pregnant, and keep him ignorant of the fact. If I ever decide to be a single mother, I’ll go the sperm bank route.”
“If you ‘decide.’ It’s something you’ve considered?”
“Yes,” she admitted. “I love children, but I also love my career.”
“What’s wrong with getting married and having children the old-fashioned way so they have a mother and a father?”
“Great in theory. But marriage is a bigger long shot for me than for your average person. I have a divorce gene on both sides of my family tree. Not only my parents but also all my aunts and uncles are on their third or fourth marriages. I tend to believe a child is better off in a stable home with one parent than being shuttled back and forth.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “Your background is even similar to Heather’s.”
“But I am not devious and manipulative,” Holly stated.
The twins chose that moment to interrupt.
“I’m hungry!” Jennifer announced, running up to Holly.
Justin was close behind his sister. “Me, too! I want a hamburger and French fries!”
“I want chicken nuggets and French fries!
“Let’s check with your daddy,” Holly said, looking to Graham for a response. After all, he was the parent.
“Fast food?” he said, frowning. “Shouldn’t kids their age eat a healthy diet?”
“Most of the time. But fast food occasionally is probably okay, don’t you think?”
The twins were jumping up and down and clamoring for a kiddy’s meal from their favorite franchise.
“Okay. Okay,” Graham said, succumbing to the pressure. “But they’ll drink milk, not cola.”
In the parking lot, Justin climbed up into the minivan ahead of his sister, announcing, “It’s my turn to sit by the window.”
“No it’s not your turn!” Jennifer shouted. She began to wail at the top of her lungs and stubbornly refused to climb up next to him.
He refused to yield his place.
Half-amused, Holly turned to Graham, who looked mortified. “How do we resolve this dispute?”
He lifted his hands in a helpless gesture, then spoke to his son, “Justin, why don’t you let your sister sit there? She’s a little girl.”
“Now wait just a minute,” Holly objected, hands on hips. “That’s very sexist and not fair to Justin. Being a little girl doesn’t mean Jennifer should have her way every time she makes a fuss.”
“You’re right.” He spoke to his daughter, “Jennifer, please get into the van so that we can go and buy our lunch. It’s a short ride.”
“She can sit here,” Justin said, and scooted over. Jennifer’s wails instantly quieted. She promptly seated herself in the place he’d vacated.
“Thank you, Justin,” Graham said.
When it was clear he intended to leave the matter there, Holly spoke up firmly. “When we come out of the restaurant, Justin will sit by the window on the ride home. Is that understood, Jennifer?”
“Come out of the restaurant?” Graham repeated, his tone appalled. “You’re intending to take them inside to eat?”
“Isn’t that what you intended?”
“No, I figured we’d take the food home and contend with the mess there.”
Both children