then?”
Sighing, Dina said, “There was a letter to you in their papers. I read it.”
His eyebrows lifted.
She saw it and shrugged. “If you’re waiting on an apology, there isn’t one coming.”
Reluctantly, he felt a flash of admiration for her. She was tough. He could appreciate that. She was gorgeous and he really appreciated that. Lust still had him by the throat and it was a wonder he could talk at all. Hard to keep his mind on what was happening when his body was urging him to think about something else entirely.
That compact yet curvy body, her dusky olive-toned skin and the wary glitter in her eyes all came together to make Connor grateful to be a man. She smelled good, too. But none of that was important right now.
“Fine,” he finally managed to say. “How about a few answers, then?”
Nodding, she walked into the living room and he followed. The house was small and old, like every other bungalow in this section of Huntington Beach. Yards were narrow, houses were practically on top of each other and parking was hard to come by.
He’d noticed when he arrived that her yard was so ratty it looked like she kept goats. The driveway had more potholes than asphalt and the roof needed replacing. The whole place could use a coat of paint and he’d been half-afraid what the inside might look like.
But here he was surprised. The house was old but clean. Clearly, Dina put whatever time and money she had into maintaining the inside rather than the outside. The hardwood floors were scarred but polished. The walls had been painted a soft gold and boasted framed photographs of family and nature. The furniture looked comfortable and though the house was small, it was welcoming.
A hallway spilled from the living room and led, he guessed, to the bedrooms. There was a small dining room attached to the living area and beyond that, the kitchen. A happy squeal erupted and Con flinched. The triplets were back there. His children.
He scrubbed one hand across his face in a futile attempt to clear his mind. Shaking his head, he ground out, “My lawyer did some checking after I got your lawsuit papers this morning.”
She frowned a little, but he didn’t care if she was having second thoughts about suing him now.
“He says Jackie and Elena died three months ago?”
All of the air seemed to leave her. Dina slumped and dropped into the closest chair. “Elena was taking flying lessons.” A smile curved her mouth briefly. “She wanted to be able to come down here to visit me and our grandmother whenever she wanted to.”
Con’s stomach clutched.
“Anyway, she got her license and to celebrate, she and Jackie went on a weekend trip to San Francisco.”
“Without the kids?”
She nodded. “Thank God, as it turned out. One of their friends stayed at the house with the triplets. Anyway, on their way home, there was some kind of engine trouble. Elena wasn’t experienced enough to compensate for it and they went down in a field.”
Pain slapped at him as Connor’s mind filled with memories of Jackie. Of the years they’d spent together, of the laughs, of all the good times. He hated knowing she was dead. Hated thinking how scared she must have been at the end. Hated that she wasn’t here for him to yell at. Getting past his own racing thoughts, he looked at Dina and saw the misery in her eyes before she could mask it. And he was forced to remember that she’d lost her sister in that crash.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “About Elena.”
“Thank you,” she said, taking a breath as she stood up to face him. “And I’m sorry about suing you without talking to you first.”
A snort of laughter shot from his throat. “Aren’t we polite all of a sudden.”
“Probably won’t last,” she mused.
Con thought of all that had to be settled between them—of the triplets and their welfare, of his still simmering rage at having been lied to for two years—and he had to agree. “Probably not.”
Nodding, Dina accepted that and asked, “So where does that put us right now?”
“Opposite sides of a fence,” Connor answered.
“That’s honest, anyway.”
“I prefer honest. Lies always end up getting...messy.” He didn’t say it, but judging by Dina’s expression, she heard the implication. That it was her sister and Jackie’s lies that had brought them here, tangling the two of them up in a situation that was only going to get more chaotic.
Connor was here to claim his children. To do the right thing no matter who got in his way. That included Dina Cortez.
His stomach clenched as he heard a squeal of laughter soaring from the other room.
God, he was a father, and the ramifications of that hadn’t sunk in yet. He’d only had a few hours to try to wrap his head around the fact that everything he knew had changed with the simple act of opening that envelope from Dina’s lawyer.
He’d helped Jackie and Elena because he wanted to. And, he remembered, because he thought it might be fun to be on the periphery of a child’s life—more as a benevolent uncle than a father. But things were different now and they’d all have to adjust.
“So, is this a truce?”
Con looked at Dina when she spoke and thought about it for a second or two. He was still angry—he didn’t think that would be going away any time soon—but he had to at least bury that anger long enough to do the right thing. And that meant making sure his children were cared for. How Dina would fit into the future, he didn’t know. But better to keep her close until he figured it all out.
When she shifted under his steady regard, he finally said, “Truce. For now.”
A long, high-pitched wail erupted from the other room and in the next couple of seconds, two more voices joined the first until those cries built into a combined sound that ratcheted through Con’s head like a hammered spike. “What the—”
Dina was already walking and threw back over her shoulder, “You want to be a father? Now’s your chance.”
Con swallowed back a quick jolt of nervousness and followed her. Hell, the King family had experienced a population explosion in the last few years. Every time the cousins got together, they passed kids from arm to arm, so he wasn’t a stranger to crying babies. The fact that these were his children made the situation a little different, naturally. But he could handle it.
His babies. His children. Something visceral swamped him and he could finally understand and sympathize with everything his twin had gone through when he’d discovered his own kids. At the time, Connor had listened, sympathized and commiserated, but now he realized just what a life-altering moment this really was. Looked like he owed Colt an apology.
Yet even though he was twisted up over the circumstances they’d found themselves in, he was male enough to enjoy the view Dina provided as she walked away from him. The woman had a great behind.
Shaking his head fiercely, Connor told himself to get a grip and followed her. It wasn’t far and yet it felt to him as if he was taking the longest journey of his life. From bachelor to father. From a single man to a family man.
And he wasn’t sure yet just how he felt about it.
In the kitchen, he glanced around quickly, noting white walls, black counters and splashes of red in the curtains hanging over the window and the toaster and blender sitting on the counter. But it wasn’t the house he was interested in right now. Instead, everything in him concentrated on the far end of the big, square room. There, behind a series of interlocked child gates, were the triplets.
One of them, a girl, stood up, wobbling a little, clutching the top rail of the gate and howling like a banshee. When she