LITMIR.BIZ

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“As in, you could try buying her off.”

      Frowning, Connor thought about that for a minute or two.

      He’d seen her house. It was too small and gave every indication that money was tight. According to his lawyer, her catering business was barely above water. He knew she couldn’t afford to take care of the babies on her own, and he wasn’t about to settle for being nothing more than a monthly check in the lives of his kids.

      According to the King family lawyer, the best thing for him to do, as far as a custody hearing went, was to become an everyday part of the children’s lives. To stake a claim, basically. Well, that worked for Con. He just had to figure out the best way to go about it.

      The easiest way, of course, would be to bring the triplets to his place. He already had his housekeeper setting up a temporary nursery in one of the guest rooms. A more permanent room was in the works, too. Their cousins Rafe, Nick and Gavin owned King Construction and Con was going to have them build a full nursery suite for the triplets as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the rest of Con’s house was being babyproofed as well. He’d seen what Colt and Penny had gone through at their house, making sure everything was safe for a set of curious twins, so he had a good idea of what was needed.

      The obstacle to overcome would be Dina. But he had an idea on that, as well.

      “Whose side are you on in this, anyway?”

      “Yours.” Colt lifted both hands in the classic surrender pose and smiled at his brother. “I’m just saying that if you try to cut Dina out, you’re inviting open war, and once that happens, nobody wins.”

      “I’ll win.”

      “Really?” Colt shook his head and stood up. “She’s their aunt, Con. You cut her out, the kids get hurt. You become enemies and this battle will get uglier and uglier.”

      “That’s the thing though,” Con said. “It is a battle. Or will be as soon as Dina realizes I’m not taking a backseat in all this. Damn it, if Jackie—”

      “Let it go already,” Colt muttered. “Jackie did what she thought she had to and so will you.”

      “Damn right I will.”

      “But you could listen to your older and wiser brother.”

      Con snorted. “Five extra minutes of life makes you the expert?”

      “No,” Colt corrected. “Going through practically the same thing you are and surviving makes me the expert. Penny and I were able to work things out between us—”

      “Yeah, but you were already in love with Penny, you just didn’t want to admit it.”

      “Good point and yeah, I know you don’t love Dina.” Colt gave him a grin. “But you do want her.”

      Did he ever. The desire he’d felt for her from the start had become a need that he really didn’t want to admit to, because it just made everything else that much more convoluted. But just thinking about Dina made him hard and hungry.

      “Mess this up and you’ll never have her.”

      “Fine, fine.” Con waved one hand at his twin. He hated to admit that his brother had a point. “Don’t make her an enemy. Go slow.” He paused. “I don’t like slow.”

      “You’re not used to it, that’s for sure.”

      “True.” He pushed one hand through his hair. “I want to get moving on this but I know I’ve got to make the right steps.”

      “That’s something, anyway,” Colt said wryly.

      “I got the DNA results,” Con said.

      “That was fast.”

      “Money talks.” Ordinarily, it would have taken a week, maybe two, to get the results from the private lab. But with the King family fortune pushing buttons, it had only been days. He paused. “The kids are mine.”

      “You had a doubt?”

      “Of course not. But now it’s legal. It’s ammunition for a custody fight.”

      “Con...”

      “I know, avoid a fight if I can.” He held up one hand to stop his brother before he could get going again. “And I will. But I like knowing I’ve got an ace in the hole.”

      “Okay, clearly you’re going at this full tilt and nothing I say is going to make any difference,” Colt said. “So I’m going to say one more thing.”

      “Naturally.”

      “Go easy on this or you’ll lose.”

      “You’re wrong. I don’t lose.”

      * * *

      “I’m really sorry, Abuela,” Dina said, “but the babysitter canceled on me at the last minute and I have to be at this party.” She unloaded all of the supplies she’d brought for the triplets as her grandmother sat on the floor, playing with the babies.

      “Dina, you don’t have to apologize,” she said, throwing her granddaughter a quick glance over her shoulder. “I love having the children here.”

      “Yeah, but you were going to dinner with your friends.”

      “Pish. I can eat anytime.” She reached out and caught Sage up in a quick hug. “It’s not every day I get snuggles from los niños.”

      Dina smiled as the triplets crawled all over the older woman. At seventy-five, Angelica Cortez was trim, with stylishly cut gray hair that swung at her jawline. Her brown eyes were shrewd and her striking face remained remarkably unlined, which gave Dina hope for her own future.

      Angelica’s English was lightly flavored with her native Mexico; Spanish and English mingled happily in everything she said. She did love seeing the babies and if Dina and the kids were here strictly for a visit, it would be different. Dina would be here, too, taking care of them rather than expecting her grandmother to pick up the slack. But with her babysitter sick, Dina just didn’t have a choice. She was catering an anniversary party tonight and if it went well, there was a chance she’d get more jobs out of it.

      A headache began to blossom behind her eyes and that didn’t bode well for the long night she had ahead of her. Guilt pinged around inside her like a crazed Ping-Pong ball. Guilt for leaving the kids, for making her grandmother change her own plans to watch them—and then there was the guilt for choosing work over the babies. But on the other hand, if she wanted to be able to feed them, she had to get as many jobs as she could.

      Her grandmother’s duplex in Naples was two blocks from the ocean. It was decorated in a blend of Mexican and American styles and was warm and inviting. Furniture was overstuffed; the walls were painted a rich brick red with white crown molding. It should have been dark and depressing, Dina had thought more than once. Instead, it was like being enveloped in a hug. Angelica owned the building and lived in the front apartment while renting the second to one of her best friends. Between the two women, the gardens were so lush and beautiful, they regularly had tourists stopping out front to take pictures.

      Naples was small, and elegant, and there were canals winding through the neighborhood much like its Italian namesake. The Christmas parade through the canals was amazing, with the houses and boats decorated with millions of colored lights. Dina was looking forward to taking the triplets to see the spectacle.

      “So what is the job tonight?”

      “An anniversary party in Newport Beach.”

      Which was about a half hour away, and that meant Dina would have to leave soon to get to the site early enough to set up.

      Not too long ago, Dina had been the owner of a great little food truck. Business had been good enough that she’d decided to move on and open the catering business she’d always wanted. And it had been doing well, too. She’d had more jobs than she could count, her reputation

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