Chapter One

      Spencer McBride parked in the lot at the Buttonwood Baby Clinic with a feeling of unease. He’d found an odd message from his mom on his voice mail when he returned to the office shortly before five that afternoon.

      Spence, honey, this is Mom. Come to the clinic ASAP. Something important has come up. Hurry!

      As executive administrator of the clinic, Rose McBride was in charge of the business affairs there. Maybe some nutcase was threatening to sue the clinic. Or bomb it. Who knew what people would do nowadays?

      However, her tone had indicated the matter was exciting rather than threatening. So maybe it wasn’t bad news.

      Stretching his shoulders and covering a yawn, he headed toward the attractive building. It had been a hard day. He’d spent most of it in court, arguing a case in which the judge had decided against his client in a mineral-lease claim.

      The client wanted to appeal. Spence had advised the rancher that his chances of overturning the lease agreement signed by the previous owner were slim. The mining company wasn’t going to give up a lucrative deal without a fight.

      He smiled absently at the receptionist when he entered the clinic, skirted the information area and strode into his mother’s office. The secretary, Marci Bonn, was locking up.

      “Oh, hi. You’re just in time,” she said, adding to the sense of mystery surrounding the message.

      Her bright smile indicated male-female interest. He ignored it as he had each time he’d been in the office during the few months since he’d moved back to Buttonwood and gone into law practice with Johnny Winterhawk, a friend from high-school days.

      “Your mom said I was to bring you right down,” Marci continued.

      “She isn’t in her office?”

      “No. She’s, uh, waiting somewhere else.”

      The smile grew more mysterious as she checked the lock on the file cabinet, grabbed her purse and dashed for the door. Spence gave an exasperated snort as he followed the young woman out of the office.

      He hoped his mom wasn’t on one of her match-making kicks. She’d been trying to tie him up with various women for years. At thirty-two, he was a confirmed bachelor.

      Or maybe he just hadn’t met the one, as his mom insisted.

      The secretary led the way down one of the clinic’s four main corridors, which smelled of cinnamon and…pizza, he decided. It was dinnertime. His stomach was reminding him he’d missed lunch.

      “In there.” She pointed toward a patient room, all the while beaming at him as if something momentous was happening, or was going to happen now that he was here. A chill of foreboding slid down his neck.

      “My mom’s in there?” he questioned, just to make sure they were on the same track. A new worry attacked him. “Is she okay?”

      “She’s fine. Go on in.” Walking a couple of steps backward, Marci waved and smiled some more, then turned and retreated toward the reception area.

      Totally mystified, Spence called “Thanks” and went into the room a bit cautiously, not sure what he would find. It wasn’t his birthday or anything like that—

      “Spence, you’re just in time,” his mom said, appearing at the door. She grabbed his arm and tugged him inside.

      His first impression was one of lots of people. Four women, plus the usual hospital paraphernalia, were jammed into the small room. One female was a patient, in bed and quite obviously pregnant. And totally unknown to him.

      He fell back a step, confused by the situation. The room felt crowded and filled with a complexity he couldn’t describe. Perhaps this was a paternity case, and the young woman needed help. “Mom, maybe we’d better step outside—”

      “Spence!” another female exclaimed, turning from the woman lying on the bed and leaning past his mother’s shoulder to smile at him in delight.

      A funny feeling raced over his skin, an electric tingle that started a thrum of response someplace deep inside him. He’d recognize that sexy bow-drawn-over-a-rusty-saw voice anywhere, anytime.

      Ally Henderson McBride. His brother’s widow.

      Once she’d been his best friend. Years ago. Like his law partner, Ally belonged to high-school days and sweet memories of the past….

      “What’s happening?” he asked in a professional manner. Lawyers, like cops, ran into all kinds of situations. A person learned to take them in stride.

      “This is a birthing room,” a voice snapped with military precision as if his question had been the utmost in stupidity.

      He recognized Maryanne Winters, who had graduated high school three years ahead of him. She’d gone into the army, then returned to Buttonwood as a nurse. He thought she should have been a drill sergeant.

      “Your niece and nephew are about to be born,” his mom told him, still holding his arm. “I’m glad you got here. I was afraid you were going to miss the big event.”

      “Isn’t it wonderful?” Ally added, throwing her own hundred-watt smile his way. “Here, let me introduce you to the birth mother, Taylor Fletcher. Taylor, this is Spence McBride, Rose’s younger son. Jack’s brother.”

      For a second, Spence saw a shadow flash through Ally’s eyes as she mentioned her deceased husband. Jack had been killed in a construction accident just before Christmas. It had been a hard time for all of them.

      That was when he’d decided to move back to Buttonwood and take up Johnny’s offer of a partnership. His mom had been so distraught after Jack’s death, especially since it followed his dad’s by less than a year.

      “I’m glad…to meet you,” the young woman on the bed welcomed him with a hitch in her voice.

      “Glad to meet you, too.” He didn’t offer to shake hands. He wasn’t sure of the protocol in this situation.

      He had, of course, known about the twins and Ally’s plans to adopt them, but never in his wildest dreams had he thought of being present when they were born. Whether Ally was the one having them or not, that honor belonged to her husband.

      The birth mother couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen, twenty at the most. Her long blond hair was gathered at the back of her neck. Her face, pretty, young and very serious, was scrubbed clean of makeup. Something about her earnestness reminded him of Ally when she’d been eighteen and filled with plans for the future.

      “We’ve decided to name the twins Hannah and Nicholas,” Ally continued. “What do you think?”

      Spence thought he should get the hell out of there. “Uh, that sounds fine. I’ll, uh, wait in the hall or…or somewhere.”