LITMIR.BIZ

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she said briskly. “They stay with me.”

      “But you’re exhausted! You’d sleep better with them upstairs.”

      She gave him a wicked smile. “You said you’d help me. I’m assuming that also means with the babies. We’ll be just fine.”

      With a regal nod, she dismissed Nelly and the other help. Three crying babies wiggled on the king-size bed, all wanting some thing. He had no idea what.

      “Here now,” she cooed. Swiftly, she let down her nightgown top and lifted a baby to her breast.

      Cold prickles ran over the back of Alex’s neck as he watched the baby latch on to the rose-colored nipple. His mouth dried out. Whoa. Out of my element with that one. Shifting from boot to boot, he wondered what he should do with the other two squalling babies.

      “You can hold them and rock them in that chair,” Daphne instructed. “They’ll calm down long enough for me to feed this one.”

      With trepidation, he went to pick up one baby, very delicately. She fit into his arm like a well-wrapped package, instantly quieting at being picked up. With some difficulty, he hoisted the other one and fit her into the other arm as he sat. With his boot, he set the rocker to moving, but the babies seemed more interested in sticking their fists in their mouths. “I kind of like this,” he said, pride growing in him.

      “Good. If you’re going to help me for two weeks, you’d better.”

      “Now, wait a minute. I said I wanted the chance to convince you that our marriage was worth saving. I didn’t say I wanted to be a—”

      “Father?” Daphne supplied. “Maybe you don’t.”

      “I do,” he cried, stung. “It’s just that maybe you’re deliberately going about this the hard way!”

      She bristled before his eyes. “Meaning?”

      “Meaning that the babies could be upstairs with the proper help they need, and we could get on with working our marriage out!” He glowered at her.

      “I’m sorry, Alex. But I’m not going to have these babies and then toss them aside for someone else to raise. I know your definition of saving our marriage probably meant getting back into my bed, but as you can see, it is occupied. And will stay that way until the babies are older.”

      “How much older?” he demanded, frowning.

      “I don’t know how long I’ll be able to nurse,” she said honestly. “Though it’s going very smoothly for me now, I’ve been told that the more tired I get, the more difficult it is, particularly with three. The milk supply may not be enough for what the babies need. They’re so new right now, they don’t need much, mainly just the comfort of suckling. I’ll have to see.”

      He obviously wasn’t going to be allowed that same comfort, Alex realized, with Daphne’s bed full of his off spring. Despite the generous size of the bed, that left very little room for his six-two frame. Making love wasn’t what he had in mind. But he did want to hold his wife, lie with her, be able to reach out in the night to assure himself she was where she belonged.

      He had a sneaking suspicion Daphne didn’t want him there, though. Briefly, he wondered if she’d insist on nursing just long enough to get past the two weeks they’d agreed upon.

      A knock sounded peremptorily at the door. “Your mother has arrived, Miss Daphne,” Sinclair said. “Where shall I put her suit cases?”

      Great. Alex braced himself and his load by putting a boot against the bed rail and settled down as com fort ably as possible with the babies waiting for their turn to nurse. Three babies, a wife who didn’t want to be married to him and a mother-in-law in residence.

      Bad odds for a man who’d drawn a supposedly lucky three of a kind.

      Chapter Three

      “Hello, Mrs. Way,” Alex said congenially.

      Daphne could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t pleased her mother had come to stay. But she needed her help, needed someone on her side.

      “Hello, Alex,” Danita Way replied warily.

      “Put Mother’s things in the room down the hall, please, Sinclair,” she instructed.

      He nodded and left the room. Daphne continued to nurse, trying to stay relaxed so her milk would flow. Her mother reached to take one of the babies from Alex and sat down, cooing to it.

      “I think I’m ready to switch,” Daphne told Alex. She handed him a nicely soothed baby, noting how swift he was to hand off the agitated, hungry child.

      “Is there enough left for the other two?” Alex asked.

      Daphne smiled tightly. “For now, yes. In the next couple of days, we’ll know.”

      “Daphne’s gotta be relaxed,” Danita Way stated, with a meaningful look at him. “She needs six full weeks to recover just from having the babies, and then probably a whole year to get back up to strength. She doesn’t need to be upset.”

      “Mother,” Daphne protested mildly.

      “I don’t want to upset her, Mrs. Way,” Alex began.

      “Danita,” she informed him. “I’m here to help. We can all work together if need be. But last I heard you and Daphne was getting a divorce. Don’t think much of ’em myself, but if that’s what you want to do, it ain’t none of my business. However, these babies are, and I won’t have you up set ting my daughter. Or my grandbabies.”

      “Mrs. Way!” Alex’s boot slid from the bed rail to the floor. The baby in his arms, who had been so nicely soothed, flailed her fists momentarily and peered at him.

      “Danita,” she reminded him.

      “Danita, the last thing I want is to upset your daughter. In fact, I don’t even want to divorce her. I want to stay married. The divorce is her idea. At this point, I’m going along with whatever Daphne thinks is best, but I’m definitely not trying to upset her, even though I intensely dislike the idea of not being married to her.”

      “He telling the truth?” Danita speared her daughter with a stare.

      Daphne stirred un com fort ably, holding a baby against her as if she were a shield. “It isn’t the way he makes it sound.”

      “So how is it?”

      Daphne shrugged helplessly, refusing to meet Alex’s gaze. “We can’t stay married.”

      “Why can’t we?” Alex demanded.

      “Because of the babies.” She could hardly bear to look at him, sitting in the rocker holding her child so gently. Why did he have to be so difficult? She couldn’t stand knowing that she couldn’t give him what he wanted. A woman wanted to be everything to her man. She couldn’t be his dream come true.

      “I was happy when I discovered we were having a child, Daphne. A bit sooner than we’d planned, and the fact that there were three did surprise me, but who can plan these things? I just always wanted you here with me.”

      “So what’s the problem, Daphne?” Her mother eyed her suspiciously. “The man sounds serious to me.”

      “You don’t under stand,” Daphne protested weakly. “He… Alexander Senior bought Daddy’s live stock at a highly inflated price to help him out financially. It was a dowry. An expensive, twentieth-century dowry. Alexander Senior thought he was getting a good deal, Mother. Genes, basically. I can’t bear staying married knowing it.”

      “Whoa, Daphne,” Alex protested. “You’ve got this all wrong.”

      She shook her head at him. “No, I don’t. I heard you talking to your father the day I came to tell you I was pregnant. You said then you weren’t sure if the marriage would last.”

      “Did

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