Scandalous Heroes Box Set (122 page)

She coughed and met his gaze. Thankfully there was no disgust, only curiosity, which made it easier to swallow with the small ball of humiliation lodged in her throat. “Yes…er, yes they are twins and I dated both of them.”

“At the same time?” he asked with a bit of incredulity in his voice.

“During the same timeframe, not on joint dates or anything like that.”

“And they went for that? I mean they had to know since they're brothers.”

Exhaling, she reined in her memories from the past and the long discussions she'd had with her lovers regarding their dating arrangements. “Yes…yes, we all knew and agreed that I would date each one.” For someone who didn’t want to discuss his father, her son had delved into the heart of the matter rather quickly. If this was a normal talk, she would tease him about it.

He stared at her.

Clasping both hands tightly in her lap she waited for him to say something. Seconds ticked by before he spoke. “They just showed up? Today? Why? What happened?”

Trembling with relief, she shrugged. “I’m not sure, I bumped into them at the library and they came with me here.”

“What were they doing at the library?” he asked, frowning.

The question stumped her. “I don’t know. I was so surprised to see them I didn’t ask and then I rushed here to see about you.” Desperately needing a reprieve, she waved down his next question. “I want to get you home, plus I only want to explain all of this once. And that will be with you and Abe, so hold your questions… and comments for later.”

“But Mom –”

She held up her hand. “I said later.” Standing, she looked around the small space for the jacket he had worn that morning. Spying it in the corner, she picked it up and cringed at the large rip surrounded by blood. She must have stared at it too long because Adam sought to comfort her.

“It looks worse than it was, Mom. I’m okay. For real. Just bruised a bit. Did you love them? Both of them?”

The question hadn’t fully settled into her mind before her heart answered. “Yes, very much.”

Chapter 8

Blaine paced in front of the window of the huge hotel suite they'd secured for this visit. Initially, Red had balked and insisted they stay at his place as they always did, but Donald refused the invitation, stating they may need a place to talk freely about the situation. Good thing he did. While Blaine loved his sister-in-law, Denise, he wasn’t ready to explain why he didn’t know about his son. Or Donald’s son. And she would dig and dig until she discovered everything Red knew. And their younger brother was a pushover for his wife.

“You reach him?” he asked Donald, who sat cross-legged on the large brown leather sofa.

“No… not yet. Mum says he’s out at the pub. Says she will tell him to call me when he gets in.”

Blaine stopped mid-stride as an incredibly wicked idea struck him.

“What? Why are you smiling like that?” Donald asked, sitting forward.

Blaine met his gaze. “Mum.”

Donald’s brow rose. “Mum? What about her?”

As the idea twisted and formed in his mind, Blaine’s smile grew. He grabbed his cell from his pocket and punched the number that would connect him to his mother. When she answered, his smile widened. He nor Donald could physically hurt their father for his actions, but Allie O’Connor could.

“Hello, Mum?” He softened his voice and injected just a bit of sorrow into it.

“Blaine my boy, are you alright?” she asked with concern.

Blaine winked at the slow grin that filled Donald’s face. “No Mom, I just…” He inhaled and released his breath for effect. Donald crossed his arms and nodded in agreement with his actions.

“I just discovered I have a son. And Donald has a son.” He pulled the phone away from his ear at her scream.

“You what? Who is the mother? No…not as important as where are my grandsons? How old are they and why are you just finding out?”

Blaine nodded, pleased with her response. He sat on the matching loveseat and told her the story of their relationship with Belinda, ending it with Adam’s refusal to accept them as parents. Her silence was damning.

“I remember the falling out you had with your brother over this young woman. It was hard to see the two of you at odds, but harder seeing you so depressed after. Are you sure the boys are yours?”

“Mum, Adam has your eyes and looks like me when I was younger.”

She hmpfed. “Which means he looks like Donald as well, seeing as the two of you are peas in a pod. What a mess… a real pot of gump. I have two grandsons who will have nothing to do with me because of … so much wasted time. It seems I am always setting things to right in this family. First the wedding for Red and Denise. Then someone kidnaps Brenda from Roark. And now I must come there to correct this mistake.”

Blaine jerked upright, his face on fire. “No Mum, it’s not necessary for you to come, we are going to talk to the boys and straighten the matter. I just wanted you to know you have grandsons,” he said, backtracking and hoping she would listen for once.

“That’s the problem there is nothing you could say that would convince those boys of your good-hearted character. They don’t know you, and their mother has reason not to trust you, thanks to your da’s meddling,” she said in a hard tone. “I will talk to him for sure about his actions, but I am more concerned that there are O’Connors walking about without the O’Connor name.”

Blaine closed his eyes in defeat. In his rush to get back at his dad, he forgot his mother and Denise were similar in personality. “Mum… please let me and Donald handle this. We need to meet our boys on our own and talk to them. I appreciate your offer to help, but…we need to do this, to make amends.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone, and then, “I give you two days to work on things, not because I don’t understand. I do. But what you are forgetting is this. The only reason your son rejected you is because his grandfather rejected his mother. That has to be addressed and you are not the one to make amends for that. You understand? I must make sure Belinda and my grandsons understand we accept them in our family.”

Blaine met Donald’s glare as he nodded. “I understand Mum. Can I call you and let you know how things are going?” He watched Donald throw up his arms as he lay back on the sofa.

“You can, but I will be arriving in Michigan tomorrow. I miss my granddaughters and want to see them again. Denise and I were talking about me visiting the end of the month, but I have an urge to see my precious princesses now.”

He closed his eyes, unable to call her out on her blatant meddling. “I didn’t call you so you could fix this, Mum. We're capable of doing that on our own. I wish you would leave this alone for now.”

“I am not coming to fix anything, Blaine. But I will not be leaving until I meet my grandsons. I expect you and Donald to make that happen. I owe them all an apology and I will do that. I don’t require your permission for that or anything else.”

He cringed at the stubbornness in her tone. “Thank you, Mum.” There was nothing more to be said, he had overplayed his hand and now he would pay for it.

“You are welcome, son. Does Donald still want his da to call him later?”

“No…no, it’s okay. We wanted to know why he did what he did, but right now it doesn’t matter.” He met Donald’s hard gaze and acknowledged his anger at the turn of events.

“Oh, I plan to ask him that in a few minutes. I am on my way to the pub to get him. Sean O’Connor will explain himself to me this night.”

Blaine perked up. Something had gone right. His father would feel his mother’s wrath and that made things a lot better. “Drive safe Mum. I will talk with you soon.” He disconnected with a smile.

“What are you smiling about? Mum’s coming, she’s worse than Denise.” Donald snorted.

“Mum’s driving to the pub to pick him up.”

Donald’s brow rose with a smile. “Yes!” He pumped his fist in the air. “I wish I could be there to see that sight. I don’t like mum being involved, but I am glad da will feel some discomfort behind his actions.”

“Think she’ll tear into him at the pub or wait til they reach the house?” Blaine asked as he watched a vision of the fallout in his mind. No doubt his brother was envisioning the confrontation as well.

“Depends on how he responds to seeing her in the pub and how mad she is at missing all these years of the boys' lives,” Donald said thoughtfully. “We have sons…one of them wants nothing to do with us. I hope Abe is more understanding,” he added.

Blaine took exception to what he considered criticism of Adam. “All things considered, I thought he handled the matter well. I’m not sure how understanding I would be if I was laid up in a hospital bed in pain and two strangers claimed to be my dad.”

Donald glanced at him and then nodded. “You’re right. I keep hearing Adam’s words and forget about the circumstances he spoke under. At least Lindy doesn’t seem to hate us, it couldn’t have been easy for her. One child is expensive; two had to all but break her budget.”

Blaine nodded. “Yeah, but she seemed okay, even when she told us to take a cab back home since she had to put Adam in her car. It'll be interesting to see what we can work out when we meet for lunch tomorrow. I hope she brings the boys with her.”

“She said she’d try but wouldn’t force them to come. They aren’t identical…it’s…it’s possible that we each fathered one,” Donald said. “I read a case in the paper about a woman who had twins from different fathers. The long fancy name for it is heteropaternal superfecundation.” He chuckled. “When I read that article I remember feeling sorry for the kids, wondered how a family worked through that and the legal challenges. Now it’s possible I’m in the same boat, hoping it’s true.”

Blaine had thought of that, and had prayed that would be the fallout. For Donald to have two sons and him none…it might break him. “Yeah, I’ve heard of that happening, something about two eggs, each being fertilized within a few days of each other.”

“How would we know for sure? Should we talk to her about getting some type of testing for paternity?”

He gazed at Donald for a moment longer. “I don’t know if I want to take it that far. There is no question in my mind that Adam is an O’Connor and belongs to one of us. I am sure Abe is as well. That is good for me. Either one can be mine.”

For a moment neither spoke. Blaine knew his brother was carefully processing what he said and didn’t speak.

A few seconds later Donald nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving Blaine’s. “I agree. In fact, tomorrow when we meet with Lindy, we should allow her to handle the parentage issue, put the ball in her court. That way it doesn’t look as though we are choosing one son over the other or that it matters to us either way. The most important thing is that we are acknowledged as their father—”

“She already did that.”

Donald nodded. “I know, I was talking about Adam and Abe. I need them to acknowledge our paternity and some rights.”

“Rights?”

“Yeah, I want to be involved in their lives. I may not have known about them before but now that I do, I want to spend time with them both.”

Understanding, Blaine nodded. “I agree. But that is not on Lindy. She already said we had to work out our own relationships with the boys, she’s not getting involved. Supposedly they are having a big discussion about us tonight.”

“Yeah, I heard when she said that, she didn’t look too happy.”

Blaine leaned back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling. “Would you be if you had to explain dating two brothers at the same time and getting pregnant from them? Plus, she really doesn’t know who the father is, just that it’s one or both of us. That’s not going to go over well with two randy teenagers she’s probably been teaching who knows what about sex and responsibility.”

Donald nodded. “Ouch. I see your point. My memories of that time never take into account how different our relationship was compared to others. I wanted Lindy…and never considered not being with her. Sharing… sharing her with you, bothered me, but not to the point I would let her go. Plus it was you. I would’ve hurt any other dude sniffing around her.”

Blaine knew exactly where his twin was coming from. “I loved her too, man. She broke my heart when she disappeared. Seeing her again…it’s bringing back a lot of memories.” He paused and swallowed. “And stirred up those feelings again. Not the same intensity…more like a warmth settling on my shoulders, easing me.” He shook his head in frustration. “I can’t really explain it…but I know I’m still attracted to her, I still want to be with her. You?”

“Yeah. Hit me in the gut and twisted me in knots when she walked past us at that library. This one woman always had that effect on me. Time’s supposed to heal everything, make things better, but this burning in my chest…it’s the same damn thing as before, when I was a damn teenager.” The sound of Donald’s fist hitting wood filled the room.

Blaine nodded in understanding. They were back at stage one. Back at the point they had been all those years ago. “She said she had a date, think that’s serious?” He voiced the question that had been nagging him all day.

Silence filled the room.

“I hope not. The only thing that would stop me from going after Belinda Moore is a wedding ring on her finger.” Donald paused. “At least I hope that would stop me.”

Blaine understood. “I agree. So how do we make sure this time is not like the last? We share a house and servants, but we each have our own private floors. If Lindy is interested, how do we make this work?” He didn’t need to watch his brother pace nearby, the sound of his footsteps were enough.

Neither spoke.

“We discuss a polyamorous relationship with her, make sure she understands it’s just between the three of us, that we’ll live as a family, just different. I am not willing to allow her or our sons slip through our fingers again. Not for any reason… or anyone,” Donald said into the silence.

“What do you think she will say about the servants?”

“You mean our lifestyle, don’t you?”

Blaine nodded. “Yes. We weren’t into it back then.” He paused as he thought back. “Well, not full blown anyway. I always spanked her and pinned her down, she seemed to like that.”