smile on his face.
“With the twins at the park near the house.”
“How the mighty have crashed and burned,” Connor chortled, shaking his head. Only two years ago, his identical twin, Colton, had been single, driven, a wild man who chased down every extreme adventure their company offered to other risk takers around the world.
Then Colton had found out that his ex-wife, Penny, had given birth to twins, a boy and a girl. His world had been thrown into turmoil and he’d been forced to make some real changes and face some hard truths. Though he’d nearly blown the whole thing, Colt had wised up in time to build a new life. Now he had a wife and two kids and was happier than ever before.
That didn’t mean that Connor wouldn’t give him grief at every opportunity, though.
“A playdate,” he repeated with a laugh. “Man...”
“Yeah, yeah,” Colt muttered. “Have your laugh and get it over with. Then we can talk about the Ireland plans. You still flying over there to check things out?”
“That’s the idea,” Connor said, still chuckling. In the last year, King Extreme Adventures had morphed into King Family Adventures. When Colt had finally realized what was most important in his life, he and Connor had reevaluated their business plan. Extreme adventures were risky and dangerous, and the potential client base very limited. On the other hand, by switching the emphasis of their company to family adventures, they’d opened themselves up to a worldwide audience.
Sure, they still ran the extreme adventures for those that wanted it, but since shifting their business focus, the company had grown exponentially.
“I’ll be staying at Ashford Castle and Jefferson’s setting me up with a guide to show me around the area.”
“Amazing,” Colt muttered. “We go from offering black diamond ski runs in the Alps to family tours of Ireland.”
“Things change,” Connor reminded him. “You should know that better than anyone.”
“Not complaining,” his twin said, then in a louder voice called out, “Reid, don’t throw sand at your sister.”
Con chuckled. “Riley can take care of herself.”
“Yeah—there she goes. Sand right back at him.” Colt laughed a little. “Penny’s at home painting their bedroom. I figured taking the dangerous duo to the park was the easier job. Should’ve known better.”
While his brother talked, Connor looked up as their admin, Linda, walked into his office with the mail. She smiled at him, handed the stack of letters over and left the office. Idly, Con picked out a legal-size manila envelope from the rest and threw the others on his desk. Catching the phone between his ear and his shoulder, he ripped open the flap, pulled out the papers and skimmed them. It only took a second for him to say, “What the hell?”
Colt paused, then asked, “What’s wrong?”
“You’re not going to believe this,” Con muttered, straightening in his desk chair, staring at the papers in his hand. The edges of his vision darkened until he was looking at the typeset words as if through a telescope. Despite the legal language designed to make most people feel inadequate to the task of deciphering it, Connor understood enough to know that his world had just taken a major shift.
“What’s going on?”
Colt’s voice in his ear sounded far away, as though the phone had become a tunnel miles long. Connor’s gaze locked on the phrase that had leaped out at him. A heavy band tightened around his chest until drawing a breath seemed a Herculean feat. A ball of ice dropped into the pit of his stomach.
He swallowed hard and made himself say the words. “Apparently, I’m a father.”
* * *
An hour later, Con was standing on the flagstone patio at Colt’s cliff-side home in Dana Point. Staring out at the ocean below them, Con hardly noticed the sailboats, the surfers or the waves pounding against the shore with a regular rhythm that sounded like a heartbeat. If he turned his head to the left, he’d be able to see his own house, not a mile farther down the cliff road.
Colt’s house was modern, with lots of glass and chrome, though Penny had made inroads there, infusing the place with warmth and color over the last couple of years. Con’s place was more traditional, though it clung to the face of the cliff as well.
But he wasn’t thinking about houses, style or the damn sea that relentlessly swept in and out. All he could think was: triplets. He’d outdone his brother by one, though he couldn’t really take credit for it, could he? Sure, it had been his sperm, but it wasn’t as though he’d been involved any further than that.
Hell. He hadn’t even known the babies existed until today. Because a woman he’d trusted—a friend—had lied to him. And that was almost harder to believe than the fact that he was suddenly the father of three.
He had to get to the bottom of this. Find out everything he could before deciding on a plan of action. But there would be a plan. He was sure of that much, at least. What exactly it would entail was still a mystery.
Connor had put the King family lawyers on the case before he left to come to Colt and Penny’s house. He was going to be logical. Rational. He wasn’t giving in to his instinct to do something. Anything. But it wasn’t easy.
So far, all he knew was the name of the woman currently suing him for child support. Dina Cortez. Sister of Elena Cortez, wife of Jackie Francis.
Jackie.
Shaking his head, Con gritted his teeth against a wild rush of anger. Jackie had been Con’s best friend all through high school and college. When he got burned in love, Jackie was the one he turned to. She was the one woman in his life he’d always trusted—mainly because she’d never wanted anything from him. In fact, the only time they’d ever argued was second year of college when they’d both fallen for the same girl. A faint smile briefly twisted his mouth as he remembered that rather than discover which of them the woman might go for, they’d both chosen their friendship over the redhead.
Three years ago, Con had been Jackie’s best man when she married her longtime girlfriend, Elena Cortez. Hell, he’d even taken her to Vegas for a mini bachelorette party before the wedding. He would have bet the King family fortune that Jackie would never lie to him. And yet...
“So stupid,” he muttered, stabbing his fingers through his hair as a cold June wind pushed at him.
“How were you supposed to know?” Penny King stepped up alongside him and gave his arm a pat.
As much as he appreciated the support from his sister-in-law, she simply couldn’t understand the level of betrayal he was feeling. He could hardly grasp it. “I should have checked. When Jackie moved to Northern California, I should have kept in touch. Maybe then...”
“None of this is your fault,” Colt said as he walked up beside his wife and stood staring at his twin.
“My sperm. My babies. My fault.” Con shook his head and tightened his grip on the bottle of beer he didn’t even want. He knew his family was on his side, but the bottom line here was, he hadn’t made a move to keep up with Jackie. He’d
