Surprise! Surprise!. Tina Leonard

college-linebacker brother, Joey, halted in the process of stacking diapers, putting away tiny infant clothes and carefully placing numerous baby gifts, which had been delivered to the hospital, on rectangular window seats around the nursery. “I called him,” Joey confessed. “He knows what Maddie did.”

      “You called Sam in France?” Franny asked with a gasp. “When?”

      “Yesterday. Someone had to tell him about the babies.” Joey’s face was miserable. “I don’t think Maddie could. I think she had good intentions of telling him what she’d done, but as the months wore on, I think she got too scared.”

      “We promised her,” Sara said. “Maddie’s going to be angry. She wanted to tell him herself. She asked us just this once to let her handle her life. Oh, dear,” she moaned. “And yet I do believe you have a point, too, Joey. It did seem as if she never got around to making that call. I do believe in my heart that she was so distressed she simply froze.”

      “Never mind that. There’s a saying about playing the cards you’re dealt. And Sam and Maddie have been dealt a pair of sweethearts.” A pleased grin lit Franny’s face. “No wonder he was in such a hurry. I’d say that’s a good sign.”

      “Nothing to do but sit and wait for the explosion,” Virgil said. “Come here, woman.” He gestured to his wife, and Franny went to sit on his lap.

      Too refined to lap-sit, Sara took the window seat closest to Severn. They sat silently for a long moment, surveying the gentle decor and cheery blue and white train furnishings with pleasure. “Now, this room we did right,” Franny said.

      “I agree.” It was the room Sara had enjoyed redecorating the most.

      “So, how are Sam and Maddie?” Virgil wanted to know. “Did you get to see them together before the boudoir door slammed shut? Did they rush into each other’s arms?” His sun-furrowed skin creased with hopeful expectation. Like his energetic wife, he wore faded, comfortable clothes much like he’d worn on the cotton farm they’d spent their long marriage working. Just as they’d worked the farm, Virgil and Franny were putting every ounce of their effort into seeing that these grandbabies had parents who lived under the same roof—even if they hadn’t been under the same roof for nine months.

      “I don’t think that’s exactly how it went,” Franny said sadly.

      “A bit of tweaking is all they need,” Sara said. “I can tell our son still loves your daughter.”

      “Tweaking is good. Tweaking is important.” Franny screwed up her face. “Maybe we should vacate to our houses so they can tweak.”

      Sara thought about that for a moment before shaking her head. “Let’s just carry on as we planned. Sam left. Sam will have to adjust. If Maddie wants us to leave, that’s different, but she might feel we’ve abandoned her in her hour of need.”

      “I hadn’t thought of it that way!” Franny was aghast. “My daughter did feel deserted when Sam left the country. Although I’m sure he’d rather have stayed if they could have worked matters out. If he’d felt that she wanted him to stay.”

      “For the sake of these precious grandchildren, we must act as if nothing’s changed. Even if everything has changed, from the decor to…well, you know.”

      The two women shared a conspiratorial glance. “Everything could change back,” Franny said thoughtfully. “Maybe we haven’t seen the last of the Brady-Winston miracles!”

      “You said that right before you turned the fountain on,” Sara reminded her. “We rigged that the wrong way.”

      “Well, the second time is supposed to be the charm.” Franny brightened considerably, jade-green eyes identical to her daughter’s glowing with mischievous intent. “This time, the plumbing is sure to work just fine!”

      Chapter Two

      “I feel like I’ve been hit by a two-by-four,” Sam muttered as he stared at the two babies in matching bassinets in the bedroom he had once shared with his wife. “I’m a father!”

      Maddie smiled as she stood beside him. “Aren’t they beautiful?”

      His almost-ex wife was beautiful. The tiny, writhing potato sacks with appendages he could only call astonishing. “I don’t understand how you did this. How could you not have told me?”

      He turned from the babies to the woman he’d been separated from for nine months. Was there a woman on the planet who could make him feel the emotions Maddie made him feel? Love, anger, desire, admiration—they all mixed together when he thought about her.

      Unfortunately, right now anger was high on his emotional thermometer.

      “Dr. Mitchell Maitland called one day to discuss a new, experimental procedure he thought might work well considering my age, and our history,” Maddie told him.

      Her cheeks pinkened a bit, but Sam told himself to ignore that particular trait he’d always found charming.

      “I’m sure it’s not too hard for you to understand that I leaped at the chance. And when I learned the procedure had been successful and that I was expecting, I didn’t want you to come rushing back to America just because I was pregnant.”

      “Rushing back! We tried for five years to have children! Damn right I would have rushed back.”

      Maddie shook her head. “But what if it had just been another disappointment?” She lowered her gaze. “I couldn’t tell you, Sam. I just couldn’t.”

      He could feel his wife’s pain. He’d felt it for months himself. The worst part was wanting a child—and wondering if he was the reason it wouldn’t happen.

      He reached to tip her chin up with a finger. “I would have wanted to be with you.”

      “I know. But anything could have happened, Sam, anything! And I…”

      Her words drifted away, but her meaning did not. Sam took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Maddie,” he said. “I should have called you. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to France.” He hesitated, knowing that wasn’t even the beginning of what needed to be said. “We should never have separated. I think these babies are a sign we should have stayed together.”

      “I don’t know,” Maddie murmured. “I kind of think we needed some time apart.”

      Sam grunted, reaching into a bassinet. The baby boy looking out at him had his blue eyes but Maddie’s hair color, the fiery hue of sunshine-dappled maple wood. When he touched the tiny fisted hand, the baby wrapped its fingers tightly around his, surprising him. A fierce protectiveness rushed into Sam’s chest. “I’m not leaving you again.”

      “Sam.” Maddie’s tone forced him to look at her. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but…I don’t want to be the way we were.”

      He didn’t like the sound of that at all. “Married?”

      She nodded. “I mean, I know that technically we are, because we never actually filed with the court for divorce, but we did live apart for nine months. I feel like we aren’t married anymore.”

      He held up a palm. “Don’t say divorce to me right now.”

      “I’m not. But I don’t want us to live together, either.”

      Shock filled him. “These are my children! You’re my wife! Where else would I live?”

      “I don’t know.” Her eyes filled with pain. “You’re welcome to come by as often as you like, of course.”

      He stared at her, disbelieving. “When were you going to tell me about the babies, Maddie? If your brother hadn’t called me, would I ever have known?”

      “Yes!” Her face was stricken. “I would have told you. I meant to tell you.”

      “I should have been there.