His Little Secret. Maureen Child

Something inside Colt lurched unsteadily. Instantly, memories shifted, his mind filling with images of another hospital, the cold green walls, the grim gray linoleum and the stench of fear and antiseptic flavoring every breath.

      For a second or two, he felt as though there was a weight on his chest, dragging him back into a past he never wanted to visit again. Deliberately, he pushed away from the blackness at the edges of his mind and fought his way back to the present. Pushing one hand through his hair, Colt focused his gaze on Penny’s brother and waited.

      “My sister had an appendectomy yesterday,” Robert told him.

      Relief that it wasn’t something more serious was a small, slim thread winding its way through the tangled mass inside him. “Is she okay?”

      Robert snorted a derisive laugh. “Yeah, she’s fine. Except, you know, for worrying about how she’s going to pay the hospital bill. And worrying about her twins. Your twins.”

      All of the air left the room.

      Colt knew that because he couldn’t draw a breath.

      “My—” He shook his head while he tried to get a grip on what Penny’s younger brother was telling him. But how the hell did you make sense of something like that coming at you out of the blue? What the hell was he supposed to do? Say? Think?

      Colt scrubbed both hands across his face, forced one shaky breath into his lungs and finally managed to say, “Twins? Penny had a baby?”

      “Two,” Robert corrected, and looked from Colt to Connor and back again. “Looks like twins run in your family.”

      “And she didn’t tell him?” Connor sounded as stunned as Colt felt.

      Fury rose up and nearly choked him. She had never said a damn word. She’d been pregnant and hadn’t told him. She’d delivered two children and hadn’t told him.

      He had children?

      That weight was back on his chest again but this time he ignored it.

      “Where are they?” The demand was short and sharp.

      Robert looked at him warily and Colt knew that his expression must have mirrored the anger erupting inside.

      “My fiancée and I have been taking care of them.”

      Them. Colt was the father of twins and he knew nothing about them. How was that even possible? He’d always been careful. But apparently, his mind taunted, not careful enough.

      A small voice in the back of his mind whispered that this might all be a lie. That Penny could have told her brother a lie. That the babies weren’t really his. But even as he considered that possibility, he dismissed it. That would have been too easy, and Colt knew better than most that there was nothing easy about any of this.

      “A boy and a girl, if you’re interested.”

      Colt’s head snapped up and his gaze narrowed on Robert. A boy and a girl. He had two kids. Hell, he didn’t know how he was supposed to feel. The only thing he was sure of at the moment was that his children’s mother had some explaining to do.

      “Damn straight I’m interested. Now tell me what hospital Penny’s in.”

      He got all the information from Robert, including the man’s cell number and his address. When building security arrived, Colt sent them away. He wasn’t going to press charges against Penny’s brother—the guy was pissed and defending his family. Colton would have done the same. But once Robert had left, Colt released some of his fury by kicking his duffel bag across the room.

      Connor leaned against the doorjamb. “So, trip to Sicily is off?”

      Colt was supposed to be in the air right now, heading for Mount Etna to try out a new BASE jumping spot. It’s what he did—searching out the most dangerous, most awe-inspiring sport sites for their ever-growing client list.

      But now, he had a different sort of adrenaline burst waiting for him. Colt slanted his twin a hard look. “Yeah, it’s off.”

      “And you’re a father.”

      “Looks like it.”

      He sounded calm, didn’t he? He wasn’t, though. There were too many emotions, too many thoughts crowding his mind for him to even separate one from the other. A father. There were two babies in the world because of him, and he’d had no idea until a few minutes ago. How was that even possible? Shouldn’t he have felt something? Shouldn’t he have damn well been told that he was a father?

      Colt shook his head, still trying to wrap his mind around it. He couldn’t. Hell, no kid deserved to have him for a father. He knew that. Rubbing the center of his chest to try to ease the ache settled there, Colt blew out a breath. How was he supposed to be feeling? Anger tangled with sheer terror, then twisted into a tight knot that iced over and left him feeling cold to the bone.

      “And you were gonna tell me about this when?”

      Colt gaped at his twin. “Seriously? I just found out myself, remember?”

      “I’m not talking about the twins—I’m talking about their mother.”

      “Nothing to tell.” Lies, he thought. Lies. Truth was, there was plenty to tell, just nothing he wanted to talk about. It was the only time in his life Colt had kept something from his twin. He still couldn’t explain why. Colt shoved one hand through his hair. “It was the convention in Vegas nearly two years ago.”

      “You met her there?”

      Colt stalked across the room and picked up the duffel he’d packed for his now-canceled trip to Sicily. Slinging it over his shoulder, he turned to face his brother. “I don’t want to talk about this now, okay?”

      If he didn’t get out of there in the next ten seconds, he was going to blow. Temper boiling, it was all he could do to hold it together.

      “Too bad,” Connor said shortly. “I just found out I’m an uncle. So tell me about this woman.”

      His twin wasn’t going to let this go and Colt knew it. Hell, if the situation was reversed, he’d be demanding answers, too, so he couldn’t really blame him. Didn’t make this any easier, though.

      “Not much to say,” he ground out, teeth gritted. “I met her at the extreme sports convention. We spent the week together and then—”

      “Then?”

      Colt blew out a breath. “We got married.”

      If he hadn’t been in such a foul mood the look on his twin’s face would have made Colt laugh hysterically. He’d never seen Connor so shocked. Of course, why wouldn’t he be? Colt felt pretty much as if someone had knocked him over the head with a two-by-four, himself.

      “You got married?” Connor pushed away from the doorjamb and stalked into the room. “And you didn’t bother to tell me?”

      “It lasted, like, a minute,” Colt said. Even now he couldn’t believe that he’d surrendered so deeply to the passion he’d found with Penny that he’d actually married her. He hadn’t said anything to Connor because he hadn’t even been able to explain to himself what he’d done.

      Shaking his head, he turned and looked out the window at the ocean beyond the glass. Surfers rode their boards toward shore. Tourists strolled along the beach, snapping pictures as they went, and farther out on the water, sailboats skimmed the surface, bright sails fluttering in the wind.

      The world was going on just as it always had. Everything looked completely normal. Nothing out of place. And yet...for him, nothing would ever be the same again.

      “Colt, it’s been nearly two years, and you never said a word?”

      He glanced over his shoulder at his twin. “Never could find a way to say it. Con, I still don’t know what the hell happened.” Shaking his head again, he huffed out a breath and tamped down the anger still rising