His Twin Baby Surprise. Patricia Forsythe

Friends,” Carly said, emphasizing the last word as she gave her another squeeze and stepped back to look at her with an anxious expression.

      Lisa took deep breaths and tried to still the quaking that came in waves from her core and moved outward. After a few moments she looked up and tried for a wan smile.

      “Right now the question is how are you going to tell Ben?” Carly asked.

      “I don’t know, but I’d better do it soon,” Lisa said. “I don’t like putting off unpleasant tasks and this isn’t something that can be hidden indefinitely.”

      “No,” Gemma agreed. “And if I know you, you’ll want to have every detail planned well ahead of time.”

      Lisa nodded even as she gave her friends a pitiful look. “I can barely form a sentence right now, much less a plan.”

      Gemma gripped her hand in sympathy, but Carly looked at her considerately.

      “And I had plans,” she went on. She knew she was rambling, but couldn’t seem to stop. “The group of investors from Oklahoma City who are interested in developing a resort on Reston Lake are really making progress on the plans. Can you imagine how many jobs that would bring to this area?”

      “So you keep saying.”

      “It will be a boost to your business, too, Carly. The resort will need fresh vegetables for their restaurants. If you get the contract, you’ll have to expand your gardens, which means you and Luke will have to hire more employees. As for the rest of the county—between the construction and the running of the resort, it could bring in so much prosperity. I was going to broker the deal if I could convince the current owners to at least consider it.”

      Carly frowned. “You can still do all that. You’re having a baby, not giving up your career.”

      Lisa barely heard her. “And I didn’t tell you two this, but I’m thinking about running for mayor this year.”

      Her friends stared at her. “You’re kidding,” they said in unison.

      “It’s true. I would never try to push Harley Morton out of office, but—” she lowered her voice and nodded toward the reception area where Harley’s wife worked “—Brenda wants him to retire and...well, I know I could do the job.”

      “Wow,” Gemma said. “Just wow. I had no idea that was even on your mind. Brenda never said a thing to me.”

      “We were keeping it quiet.” Lisa put her hands over her belly. “But now...”

      “Everything’s changed,” Carly finished for her.

      The three of them fell silent for several seconds until Carly cleared her throat. “So you got pregnant two months ago,” she said slowly.

      Lisa could see that her friend wasn’t ready to let this go. “Obviously.”

      “Ben’s been out of town for months. So how and where? If it was two months ago, it must have been—”

      “When I was in Chicago.” Lisa sighed. “At Christmastime. Right after my great-aunt Violet’s funeral.”

      “You said you were stuck at the airport during a blizzard,” Gemma added.

      “I was, along with a million other people who were trying to get home. By the wildest chance, I ran into Ben. I’d last seen him in September, when he bought Riverbend Ranch and I brokered the deal. He was in Chicago for a Christmas charity event that a bunch of big-name sports figures support. It benefits cancer research. Anyway, he had a room, one of the last ones at a hotel near the airport. He invited me to share the room, and we ended up sharing one of the beds.”

      “Oh, honey,” Carly said.

      “I never do things like that.” Lisa could feel the tears sliding down her face. “I always think about consequences, about how my actions will affect my future.”

      “Whereas Ben McAdams has never needed to. He’s always just taken chances on everything, followed the most fun path to whatever he wanted next,” Gemma said.

      “And that night, you were what he wanted,” Carly added.

      “It wasn’t really like that,” Lisa told them, resting her head in her palm as exhaustion swamped her. She should have known something was wrong. Besides working too much, she’d thought maybe she’d had a low-grade virus. But it wasn’t. It was a baby. A baby!

      Out of the corner of her eye she saw her two best friends exchange a look.

      “We wondered why you were so...unlike yourself when you got back from Chicago,” Carly said.

      “It seemed to be more than simply your great-aunt’s death,” Gemma added, her face full of compassion. “You didn’t say much about it, but your mother was there, wasn’t she?”

      “Yes.” Lisa looked down at her hands, which were now clasping the water bottle. “I tried to talk to her, but she—Maureen—turned away. She seemed very shaken up over Aunt Violet, but I don’t really know how she was feeling. I’ve only seen her half a dozen times in my life, so I don’t know how she would react to anything. She barely talked to me at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s funerals, so—” Her voice choked off and her head dropped forward.

      “Oh, that’s rough,” Carly said.

      “Maureen didn’t talk much to anyone, except the minister, and then she practically ran from the funeral home. I don’t know where she went. I don’t even know where she lives. What kind of family is this?” she asked fiercely. “I see my own mother only half a dozen times in my life and we don’t have anything to say to each other? How is that even possible?”

      “Oh, honey,” Gemma said. “That’s something that started before you were even born and you can’t fix it with one conversation.”

      Lisa took another deep breath. Somehow she couldn’t seem to get enough air to blow away the storm of emotions. “You’re right.” She paused, then said, “A little while later, I saw that the weather was closing in, so even though my flight wasn’t until late that night, I said goodbye to my cousins and headed for the airport and got stuck there...or, actually, nearby.”

      “With Ben.” Gemma reached for her hand again as Carly gathered her into another hug.

      Lisa rested her head on her friend’s arm and glanced up with a rueful look. “You know how he is.”

      “Yeah,” Carly said. She and Gemma both sighed wistfully. “Charm in size twelve cowboy boots.”

      Lisa nodded miserably. “He was warm, sympathetic and understanding. I was happy to see someone from home, you know? I was so distraught I hardly knew which way to turn, and the thought of spending the night at the airport was more than I could handle. I know I could have called my cousins for help, but the roads were already closed and they had enough to deal with. Then I saw Ben. He took care of everything.”

      “Short-term responsibility has always been his strong point.”

      “I...I know. I needed someone to lean on right then, but it got way out of hand. I never meant for this to happen,” she said yet again. “And now I’m going to have a baby.”

      “Which I’ll be happy to deliver when the time comes, if you want me to,” Gemma assured her. “The good news is that you’re healthy, things look fine, and you’ve got some time to come to terms with this.”

      Lisa nodded and leaned into the hug. She had time, but not much.

       CHAPTER TWO

      MAUREEN THOMAS SAT in her car across the street from Reston Realty and watched the front door, trying to build up the courage to go in and talk to Lisa, the daughter she had no right to call her own.

      She had returned