# Demanding His Brother's Heirs

Michelle Celmer

Twins mean double the trouble! Only from USA TODAY bestselling author Michelle Celmer!Is Holly Shay seeing a ghost? The man on her doorstep is the spitting image of her baby twins’ late father, but when he explains who he is, she feels relief and attraction…not necessarily in that order.When he hears that his troubled twin brother has died, Jason Cavanaugh rushes in to help his nephews. And if staking his claim on the kids means claiming Holly as his own, he’s game—up to a point. Because there’s a time bomb ticking inside Jason that could blow his chances with Holly right out of the water…

“We can’t deny that there’s chemistry.

“Or maybe I’m misreading the signals?”

“You’re not misreading anything,” Jason said.

Holly looked up at him, putting her mouth mere inches from his. Was she trying to drive him crazy? Or did it just come naturally?

“I think we’ll agree that anything beyond friendship would be a bad idea,” she said, so close he could feel the heat of her breath on his lips.

It took everything in him not to kiss her. To keep his libido in check. The only thing giving him the will to resist was the drowsy child lying limp in his arms. He was a much-needed buffer. “Are you always this brutally honest?”

“If we have any hope of making this work, if the boys and I are going to live under your roof, we have to be honest with each other. Even if the truth hurts a little.”

Holly was still watching him, waiting for a response. If she wanted honesty, that was what he would give her. “The truth is, I really want to kiss you.”

* * *

Demanding His Brother’s Heirs is part of Mills & Boon® Desire™’s No.1 bestselling series, Billionaires and Babies: Powerful men…. wrapped around their babies’ little fingers

Demanding His Brother’s Heirs

Michelle Celmer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MICHELLE CELMER is a bestselling author of more than thirty books. When she’s not writing, she likes to spend time with her husband, kids, grandchildren and a menagerie of animals.

Michelle loves to hear from readers. Like her on Facebook or write her at PO Box 300, Clawson, MI 48017, USA.

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To new beginnings

Contents

Cover

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Extract

Copyright

One

Holly Shay didn’t believe in signs.

But as she tossed Devon’s and Marshall’s dirty clothes on top of the hamper, her wedding band, loose after she’d dropped the last of her baby weight, slipped off her finger and went flying across the room. Two carats of flawless princess-cut diamonds hit the wall at high velocity, leaving a dimple in the paint, and landed with a clunk on the nursery floor.

Maybe someone was trying to tell her something. That it was time to take it off. At this point she didn’t have much choice.

The idea of hocking the ring broke her heart, but she had only a few weeks to find a new apartment. She had no job and not a penny to her name. Only after Jeremy’s death last month had she learned of the considerable debt he’d sunk them into over the course of their ten-month marriage. She would be paying off his debts for many years to come.

But that’s what addicts did, or so she had been told. If she had only known she could have helped him. It still astounded her that she had been so blind. She’d known deep down that something wasn’t quite right with him. She’d assumed it was the stress of having twin infants. A new marriage—especially the shotgun variety—was a challenge in itself, but toss a high-risk pregnancy, then fragile preemies into the mix and things could get dicey. The boys had been born a month early and had had to spend nearly two weeks in the NICU. When they finally had come home it had been with machines to monitor their breathing and heart rate. It had taken a toll on them both.

But it wasn’t until after Jeremy overdosed that she’d put the pieces of the puzzle together. Only then did she recognize the signs. She had been stupidly and irresponsibly blinded by love, by the fantasy of the perfect family she had always dreamed of having. When would she learn that for some people the happily-ever-after would never come? It just wasn’t in the game plan.

It could have been so much worse. Holly had lost both her parents when she was a child, but she had been one of the lucky ones. Orphaned ten-year-olds typically were difficult to place in the foster care system, but she had been taken in by a really nice couple with two other foster kids. There never had been much money, but the essentials always had been covered. She’d had a hot meal every night, decent clothes on her back and someone to help with her homework. And though she and her foster siblings all lived at opposite ends of the country now, and her foster parents had retired to Florida, they still emailed and texted on a semi-regular basis. But it wasn’t the same as having a real family.

The last pinkish whispers of dusk filtered through the blinds as Holly gazed down into the matching cribs at her sleeping sons. An overwhelming feeling of love filled the chambers of her heart. She’d never known it was possible to feel such an intense connection to another person. She would hands down give her life for them.

They would be three months old tomorrow, meaning Jeremy had been gone almost a month now. It broke her heart that they would never know their father. Her marriage to Jeremy hadn’t been perfect, or easy, but the good relationships never were. She just hadn’t realized how imperfect it actually had been.

Was it better that he had died now rather than in a year or two? Had not knowing him spared the twins undue heartache? Or would they go through life with a hole in their hearts that never would be filled?

Could you miss someone you’d never known?

Holly remembered all too well what it had been like after her parents died. She had learned to cope, but it was the sort of thing a person never really got over. It was always in the back of her mind. The unfairness of it. The deep feeling of emptiness. Knowing that she was truly alone. But now that she had the boys, she would never be alone again.

She walked across the room to where the ring had landed and bent over to pick it up. It had always felt clunky and heavy on her hand. Too big and flashy. That was Jeremy’s taste, not hers. She would have been content with one carat or less. He’d refused to tell her what it cost, but it must have been thousands. Tens of thousands, even. Hopefully it was worth at least half that much used.

Instead of sliding the ring back on her finger, she slipped it into the front pocket of her jeans. The landlord had taken pity on her and given her an entire month rent-free to get her affairs in order and find an affordable place. She couldn’t put it off any longer. Tomorrow morning she would load the boys in the stroller and take a trip to the jewelers to see what she could get for the ring. She’d run the scenario through her head a million times, and the outcome was always the same. She needed money, and the ring was the only thing she had left of any worth. She didn’t even own a car. Which made hauling twins around a challenge.

The only question now was, even if she had the money to get a new apartment, would anyone give her a lease? The credit cards Jeremy had opened in her name were all maxed out and in default, and until she could arrange for some sort of child care, getting a job would be next to impossible. She had no family to help her, no friends willing to take on the task of twins full time, and conventional day care for two infants would be astronomically expensive.

In her chest she felt a tightness, a knot of despair that made it hard to breathe. She’d been through difficult times in the past, but never had she felt this hopeless, this sense of impending doom.

She peered into the cribs one last time, smiling when her gaze settled on the boys’ sweet angelic faces. Then she turned on the baby monitor and backed out of the nursery, quietly shutting the door behind her.

She and Jeremy had seriously discussed moving but they’d never gotten the chance. Her morning sickness had been so bad the first four months Holly had spent half her time in bed, and the other half hanging over the commode. In her fifth month, just as she had begun to feel like a human being again, she had gone into premature labor. They’d stopped it just in time, but from that day on she’d been on strict bed rest. It hadn’t been easy, but they’d managed. At least, she’d thought they had.

Jeremy had promised her that after the boys were born they would start looking for a house. He’d thought they would buy a fixer-upper in a small cozy town upstate. A place they could make their own. Now she knew that with all of Jeremy’s debt, no bank ever would have given them a mortgage. Jeremy must have known it, too.

She felt torn between missing him and wanting to sock him in the nose for not being honest with her. Whatever their problems, they could have worked them out. Why hadn’t he just talked to her? It was no secret he’d had trust issues, but they had run deeper than she’d realized. A foster kid himself, Jeremy hadn’t been as lucky. He hadn’t talked about his past much, but she knew he’d been in the system most of his life, bounced around between group homes and foster homes until he’d ventured out on his own at sixteen. Clearly his past had scarred him more than she’d ever imagined. As his wife she should have known. She should have seen what was happening, right? She could have saved him.

The question was had he wanted to be saved?

She stepped into her bedroom and switched on the light. Their neatly made king-size bed mocked her from across the room. She hadn’t slept in it since she’d found Jeremy there. Other than straightening the covers, she hadn’t touched it at all. She’d been avoiding the bedroom in general, only going in to grab her clothes, and only because there was no place else in the apartment to store them. She’d been sleeping on an air mattress that she’d first put in the nursery, and recently moved into the living room next to the sofa.

She looked around the room and sighed. She used to love this apartment. Now she could barely wait to leave. Since his death being here felt...wrong. It never would be a home again without Jeremy. His whole life, everything he’d owned in the world, was in that apartment. She was torn between wanting to keep it all and the need for a fresh start.

She grabbed her pajamas and pulled the door closed behind her as she stepped into the hall. It was barely eight o’clock, but these days she slept when the boys slept. That wouldn’t be possible when she got a job.

She collapsed onto the sofa, letting her head fall back and her eyes slip closed. She must have gone out instantly, and when she roused to the sound of a knock at the door, it was nearly nine-thirty.

She assumed the visitor was her neighbor Sara from across the hall, who often stopped by after work to chat, so Holly didn’t bother checking the peephole. She wasn’t exactly in the mood for company, but it would be rude not to say hello.

She pulled open the door, but it wasn’t Sara, after all. A man stood there, and though he was facing away, looking down the hall toward the stairs, something about him seemed eerily familiar. Something about the tall, solid build and broad shoulders. The thick, coarse black hair that swirled into a cowlick at the left side of his crown, and the stubborn little tuft that wanted to stand up straight. He would always have to use extra gel—

Her breath caught in her lungs and her heart took a downward dive to the pit of her belly. Oh, God. Whoever this man was, from the back he looked exactly like Jeremy. Except for the clothes. He wore a suit, and Holly had worked in retail long enough to recognize a custom fit when she saw one. The closest Jeremy had ever come to wearing a suit, custom or otherwise, had been dress slacks and a blazer, and then only because she’d forbade him from wearing jeans to the wedding of a good friend. And she’d had to go out and buy the stuff for him.

She’d barely completed the thought when the man turned, and as she saw his face, her world shifted violently. Staring back at her were eyes as familiar as her own, and though she could see his lips moving, his voice sounded muffled and distant, as if someone had stuffed cotton in her ears. Her vision blurred around the edges, then folded in on itself.

It couldn’t be, she told herself. Either she was dreaming or having a complete psychotic break. Because this man didn’t just look like her dead husband.

He was Jeremy.

* * *

Before Jason Cavanaugh could inquire as to the identity of the attractive blonde who’d opened the door to the apartment his lawyer claimed had been his brother’s, the color leached from her face. Then her eyes went wide and rolled back into her head. He watched helplessly as she crumpled to the floor, her head barely missing the door frame as she went down.

He sighed and mumbled a curse. His prowess with women was legendary, but even he’d never had one fall to his feet in a dead faint.

As an identical twin, this wouldn’t be the first time someone had mistaken him for his brother. Though he had never gotten this reaction before. Angry words, yes, and once he’d even had a drink thrown in his face. He could only imagine what Jeremy had done to this poor girl. Had he charged up all her credit cards and then bailed on her? Slept with her best friend? Or her mother? Or her best friend’s mother?

When it came to Jeremy the possibilities were endless. But all Jason wanted was to fetch his brother’s belongings, if they hadn’t been disposed of already, and head back upstate. He didn’t know if there was anything worth keeping, and he wasn’t normally the sentimental type, but he had so little left of his brother. Five years ago, after Jeremy had been through another wasted stint in rehab, their father had had enough. He’d disowned Jeremy, disinherited him and purged their home of anything that reminded him of his troubled son. For all the good it had done. And though he knew it was irrational, deep down Jason still blamed himself for Jeremy’s downward spiral. Against his father’s wishes, Jason had even set up a monthly allowance for his brother, who had no means to support himself. Maybe that had been a mistake, too.

Jason knelt beside the woman, whom he was guessing couldn’t be more than twenty-two or three, and touched her cheek. It was warm and it seemed the color was returning to her face. Long brown hair with reddish highlights fanned out around her head and her T-shirt rode up exposing an inch or so of her stomach, making him feel like a voyeur.

“Hey.” He gave her shoulder a gentle nudge and she mumbled incoherently. “Wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered open, big and blue and full of confusion as they focused on his face. “What happened?”

“You passed out,” he said, offering his hand. “Can you sit up?”

“I think so.” She grabbed on, her eyes glued to his face, containing a look caught somewhere between shock and horror. He gave her a gentle boost and though she wobbled a little, squeezing his hand to keep her balance, she managed to stay upright.

“Got it?” he asked.

She nodded and let go, still transfixed. “You look just like him. Except...” She reached up to touch his left brow, grazing it with the tips of her fingers. Her touch was so light it was almost provocative. “No scar.”

“No scar,” he responded.

She blinked several times, then yanked her hand back, as if just realizing that she was touching a total stranger. “I’m sorry. I just...”

“It’s okay.” However or wherever Jeremy had gotten the scar, it must have occurred in the past five years. Since the day they were born, it had been next to impossible to tell them apart. They were truly identical in every way.

Well, almost every way.

“Jeremy never told you that he had an identical twin?”

She shook her head, appearing dazed and very confused. “He told me that he didn’t have any family.”

Jason was living proof that he had.

“He lied to me,” she said, still shaking her head in disbelief. She looked up at Jason, and in her eyes he could see anger and hurt and a whole lot of confusion. “Why would he do that?”

Jason had asked himself that same question a million times. His brother was dead, and Jason was still cleaning up his messes. He would make amends on Jeremy’s behalf. As he had done so many times in the past.

“Maybe I could come in and we could talk,” he said, as it was a little awkward crouched down, half in, half out of the apartment. They clearly needed to get a dialogue going so he could assess the damage. However Jeremy had wronged this woman, Jason would fix it.

“Yes, of course,” she said.

He rose to his feet and held out a hand to help her. “Need a boost?”

She nodded and, clinging firmly to his hand, slowly rose. She was taller than he’d expected. Maybe five-seven or -eight, putting her at his chin level. She was also excessively thin to the point of looking gaunt, with dark hollows under her eyes.

Jason felt a twinge of reservation. Was she strung out and in need of a fix? Had she supplied drugs to his brother, or had it been the other way around?

Whoa. Wait a minute.

He took a mental step back. He didn’t know anything about this woman. It wasn’t fair to assume she was into drugs just because his brother had been. That would be guilt by association, of which he himself had been a victim.

She wobbled slightly and he gripped her forearm with his other hand to steady her. “Take it slow.”

Still dazed and looking pale, she said, “Maybe I should sit down.”

“That’s probably not a bad idea.” She teetered on long slender legs encased in distressed, figure-hugging denim as he helped her to the sofa several feet away. That was when he saw the mostly empty baby bottles on the coffee table.

Jesus. His brother had sunk low enough to prey on a single mother? She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.

The idea made Jason sick to his stomach.

He sat on the edge of the coffee table across from her, close enough to catch her if she passed out again. “Have you known Jeremy long?”

“A little over a year.”

“And you two were...involved?”

She frowned. “He didn’t tell you that he was married?”

Married? Jeremy? That was truly a shock. “No, he didn’t. I haven’t talked to my brother in more than five years. Since our father cut him off.”

“Then you don’t know about the boys.”

“Boys?”

“Our sons. Devon and Marshall.”

Two

If Jason hadn’t already been sitting, the news would have knocked him off his feet. As it was, he felt as if someone had stolen the breath from his lungs.

He’d come here hoping to find a personal memento that would remind him of his brother. An article of clothing, maybe a photograph or two.

Never in his wildest dreams had he expected to find offspring. “My brother had children?”

“Twins.”

“How old?”

“Nearly three months.”

Oh, Jeremy, what have you done? “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

“So the boys have a real family? Aunts and uncles and cousins?”

She looked so hopeful he hated to burst her bubble. From the shadows under her eyes, and her painfully thin appearance, he was guessing life hadn’t been kind to her lately. “We have distant relatives in the UK, but I’m the only one of our immediate family left.”

“Oh. I don’t have family, either, so I thought...” Her obvious disappointment tugged his heartstrings. But then she took a deep breath and forced a smile. Maybe she wasn’t as fragile as she appeared. “But they do have you to tell them about their father. You probably knew Jeremy better than anyone.”

Most of the time he felt as if he hadn’t known Jeremy at all. Not since they’d been kids at least. “What exactly did he tell you about our family?”

“He told me that he had no family. He said he was orphaned as a toddler and grew up in the foster system.”

Foster system? Nothing could have been further from the truth. But that was typical for Jeremy.

Jason tamped down the anger building inside him. “What else did he tell you?”

“That he was sick as a child, and because of his illness no one wanted him.”

Jason’s hackles stood at attention. “Did he say what sort of illness he had?”

“Cancer. He always feared it would come back.”

Jason ground his teeth and tried to keep his cool.

“Jeremy did not have cancer. Nor did he grow up in foster care.”

They had been raised by their biological parents in a penthouse apartment in Manhattan. There was little he and his brother wanted that they hadn’t received. Maybe that had been part of the problem. Jeremy had never had to work for anything.

“He lied to me?” she asked, looking so pale and dumbfounded he worried she might pass out again. “Why?”

“Because that’s what Jeremy does.” He paused and corrected himself. “Or did.”

A flash of pain crossed her face, and he felt like a jerk for being so insensitive. She obviously had cared deeply for his brother. But if their marriage was anything like his brother’s past romantic relationships, this poor woman didn’t know the real Jeremy. “They determined that it was an accidental overdose?”

Teeth wedged into her plump lower lip, she nodded. Her voice was unsteady when she said, “It was a lethal mix of prescription medication.”

Jeremy would ingest just about anything that gave him a buzz, but prescription meds had always been his drugs of choice.

“You don’t look surprised,” she said.

“His addiction was the reason our father cut him off. The arrests, the months he spent in rehab... Nothing helped. He didn’t know what else to do.” Their father had exhausted every connection he had to keep Jeremy out of jail, when incarceration might have been the best thing for him.

“Why didn’t I see it?” she asked, and in her eyes Jason saw a pain, a confusion, that he knew all too well.

“He was good at hiding it.”

“At first I thought he was sleeping.” Her eyes welled and she inhaled sharply, blinking back the tears. “They tried to revive him, but it was too late.”

“There was nothing you could have done. I know it’s difficult, but please don’t blame yourself.”

“That’s easy for you to say.”

“No, it’s not.” The way Jeremy behaved was in fact partly due to Jason, and he would never let himself forget that. Although, parallel with the pain of Jeremy’s death flowed the relief that he would never hurt anyone again. He wouldn’t be around to break his wife’s heart. His children would be spared the pain of watching their father self-destruct. His wife was young and pretty, so it was unlikely she would stay single for long. Though the idea of another man raising his brother’s children burned like a knife in his side. If anyone was going to take on the responsibility of raising Jeremy’s kids, it would be Jason.

He opened his mouth to address her and realized he didn’t even know her name. Nor had he told her his. “In all the excitement we weren’t properly introduced,” he said.

That earned him a cautious smile. “I guess we weren’t. I’m Holly Shay.”

“Jason Cavanaugh.”

He offered his hand and she shook it, hitting him with another confused look. “Cavanaugh? But Jeremy said his last name—” She caught herself, shaking her head in disbelief. “But it wasn’t Shay, was it? That was a lie, too.”

“You’re not the first woman with whom Jeremy—” He hesitated, searching for the least painful explanation “—misrepresented himself.”

“So our relationship, our marriage, it was all one big lie?”

Now she was getting the idea. “Have there been financial repercussions?”

She hesitated, but the brief flash of fear and desperation in her eyes was all the answer he needed. Cheating strangers was one thing, but to con his own wife, the mother of his children? “How much did he take you for?”

She lowered her eyes, and when she didn’t answer he asked, “Did he leave you in debt?”

With her lip wedged firmly between her teeth, she nodded.

“Considerable debt?”

Again, no answer.

“You can tell me the truth. It isn’t going to upset me or hurt my feelings. I accepted a long time ago the sort of man my brother had become. Nothing you can say will shock me.” Sadly, that was the honest truth.

She finally looked him in the eye, chin held high, and said, “I’m devastated financially. The only thing of value that I have left is my wedding ring. If it’s even a real diamond.”

At the mention of a ring Jason sat up straighter. Could it be possible? “Can I see it?”

“I have it right here actually.” She reached into the front pocket of her jeans and pulled out the ring. Jason’s heart skipped a beat. And here he’d thought that was gone forever, too. Traded for cash or drugs or God knew what else. He’d be damned if Jeremy had had a conscience after all.

“It’s definitely real,” he told her.

“How can you tell?”

“Because this ring belonged to my mother.”

* * *

Holly was so screwed.

That ring had been her only hope to claw her way out of this financial abyss, but knowing that it had belonged to Jason’s deceased mother she couldn’t sell it now. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself.

“Jeremy was the oldest by seven minutes, so when our mother died it went to him,” Jason said. “It’s been in our family for generations.”

And that’s where it should stay.

With a heavy heart, she held out the ring to Jason. “You should have this back.”

“You’re Jeremy’s wife,” he said. “The mother of his children. It belongs to you now.”

If only that were true. She may have been his wife, but she obviously hadn’t had a clue who he was. “Please, just take it.”

Looking uncertain, Jason took the ring. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

The thick platinum band and enormous stones looked so small in his big hand. “Honestly, I figured Jeremy had probably sold it years ago. I never thought I would see it again.”

He slipped it into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. With it went all of her hopes and dreams of a decent start for her and her boys. What would she do now? File bankruptcy? Go on public assistance? Live in a shelter? Or on the street in a cardboard box?

Jason must have sensed her distress. His brow furrowed with concern, he asked, “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” she said, pasting on a good face, the way she had for Jeremy, who’d never questioned the sincerity of her words. He’d believed anything she’d told him if it meant keeping the peace. Especially near the end.

Jason was clearly not at all like his brother.

“You don’t look fine,” he said, studying her, his eyes and his face, even his expression, so much like Jeremy’s, but different somehow. “If it’s money you’re worried about, don’t.”

Someone had to. And talk of her dismal finances was making her uncomfortable.

“My money issues are really not your problem,” she said, letting him off the hook, thinking that would end the conversation.

“I’m making them my problem,” he said firmly.

Whoa. His look said he wasn’t playing around, but neither was she. “That’s not necessary, but I appreciate the offer.”

It was as if he hadn’t even heard her. “I’ll take care of your debt and give you whatever you need to get back on your feet.”

Nope, not gonna happen. From the time she’d left her foster home until she’d married Jeremy, she’d survived completely on her own. It hadn’t always been easy, but she’d managed. It was clear now that trusting Jeremy with their finances had been a terrible mistake. One she wouldn’t be making again with anyone else. For all she knew Jason could be like his brother. He seemed genuine, but so had Jeremy. “I can’t let you do that.”

He watched her intently for several seconds, as if he were trying to decide if he could change her mind. Apparently he didn’t think so. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is.” She would get by somehow. She always had. Of course, back then, she hadn’t had twin infants to consider.

“At least allow me to cover the funeral costs,” he said. “I owe Jeremy that much. And his children.”

If she let him it would shave off a fair chunk of her current financial responsibility. And maybe it would bring Jason closure. Everyone deserved that, right?

She shoved her pride aside long enough to say, “That would be okay.”

He looked both sad and relieved. He was extremely attractive, but of course she would think that since he looked just like her husband, whose chiseled features and long lean physique had caught her eye the instant he’d walked into the party where they’d met. She’d never slept with a man on the first date, but she had gone home with him that night.

The sex itself hadn’t been mind-blowing, but it had been nice. What she’d really liked, even more than the physical part, was just being near him. She’d liked the way his lips moved when he spoke, the inquisitive arch of his right brow. She’d loved the feel of her hand in his. He’d made her feel safe.

At first.

Unfortunately, as her pregnancy had progressed and her condition had become more fragile, he hadn’t been able to cope. Instead of taking care of her, assuring her that everything would be okay, she had been the one constantly soothing his anxieties and fears.

She’d convinced herself that once the boys were born, things would go back to normal. But even after the twins were home from the hospital and out of danger, Jeremy’s temperament had continued to deteriorate until she’d felt as if she had three children and no husband. Some days he hadn’t even gotten out of bed, and he’d begun to resent the twins for taking up all of her time. He’d even accused her of loving the children more than she loved him.

She’d kept waiting for things to change, for him to go back to being the sweet, sensitive and attentive man she’d married. How could she have known that that man had never existed?

“If you hadn’t talked to Jeremy in so long, how did you know he’d died?” she asked Jason.

“I got a call from my attorney. For the first time in five years his allowance went untouched for over a month. I knew something had to be wrong.”

Holly’s jaw fell and her heart broke all over again. “He had an allowance?”

“You didn’t know,” he said, and she shook her head, feeling sick all the way to her soul.

She was beginning to wonder if Jeremy had told her the truth about anything.

“I apologize if I’m getting too personal,” Jason said. “But where did you think the money was coming from? Did he have a job?”

“He told me that he had been in a terrible car accident when he was a teenager that permanently damaged his back. He claimed the money was from a lawsuit settlement. But there was no accident, was there? And no settlement.”

Jason actually cringed, as if it pained him to admit the truth. “Not that I know of.”

Had any of it been real? Had Jeremy honestly loved her and the boys? Had he even been capable of that kind of love?

“Will you be staying here, in the city?” Jason asked.

The idea of how and where she would find an affordable apartment without a job or money filled her heart with dread. “I—I don’t know. Yet.”

“I’d like the chance to get to know my nephews. They are the only family I have left.”

“Of course. I would love that. I’m just... Suffice it to say that things are a little up in the air right now. But as soon as we’re settled I’ll let you know.”

Though she tried to put on a good face, Jason’s look of skepticism said he wasn’t buying it. He studied her with the same stormy blue eyes as his brother. So alike, yet not. “You have nowhere to go, do you?”

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, saying with a confidence she was nowhere close to feeling, “I’ll find something.”

“You mentioned selling the ring. Do you have any other resources? Was there life insurance?”

If only. But that wasn’t his problem. “We’ll get by.”

“I’ll take that as a no.” He sighed and shook his head, mumbling under his breath. “He left you with nothing, didn’t he?”

No, he’d left her with something. A big old pile of debt and two very hungry mouths to feed. She lowered her gaze, clasping her hands in her lap so he wouldn’t see that they were trembling. “We’ll manage.”

“How?”

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

“How will you manage? What’s your plan?”

Good question. “Well... I haven’t figured everything out yet, but I will.”

When she’d met Jeremy she had just moved to New York and had been staying with the brother of a friend back home in Florida, where she’d been raised. At the time, meeting Jeremy had felt like destiny. But now, with her life in shambles, if it wasn’t for her precious boys, she might have wished she’d never met him.

* * *

Though her tone conveyed the utmost confidence, Holly’s eyes told an entirely different tale. Jason could see that deep down she was scared—terrified even—at the prospect of supporting herself and his nephews. But she was clearly in no position to support herself, much less twin infants. And he was in the perfect position to help her. If she would only let him.

His biggest hurdle would be her pride, which she seemed to possess in excess. But he had learned long ago that there was a very fine line between pride and irresponsibility.

He heard the wail of an infant and realized it was coming from the baby monitor on the coffee table. Then a pair of wails, like baby stereo.

Holly sighed, looking exhausted and overwhelmed, and Jason wondered how long it had been since she’d had a decent night’s sleep. He could only imagine how difficult life had been for her lately, being a recent widow with twins. And then along he’d come to tell her that everything she knew about her husband was a lie.

Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.

“Would you like to meet your nephews?” she asked.

His heart jumped in his chest at the prospect of meeting twins who were now his only family. “Of course I would.”

She pushed herself up from the couch, wobbling slightly before she caught her balance. She flashed him a weak smile and said, “Still a little woozy, I guess.”

And who could blame her? He rose, prepared to catch her if she fell over or, God forbid, lost consciousness again, as he didn’t have the first clue what to do with a screaming infant. Let alone two screaming infants. He followed closely behind her, and as she opened the bedroom door, it was obvious that both his nephews had healthy lungs. He never would have imagined that anything so small could make such a racket.

She switched on the light and Jason held his breath as he peeked over her shoulder into the cribs at his nephews. There was no doubt they took after his side of the family. It was like looking at photos of himself and his brother at that age.

Holly lifted one wailing infant and then turned to Jason and held the little boy out to him. “Jason, meet Devon,” she said.

Jason just stood there, unsure of what to do.

“He won’t bite,” Holly said.

Jason took the infant under the arms and he quieted instantly. He looked so tiny and fragile wrapped in Jason’s big hands, his blue eyes wide. And he hardly weighed anything.

“This little complainer is Marshall,” she said, lifting him from the other crib. She propped him on her shoulder and patted his back, which did nothing to stop his wailing. He must have been the feistier of the two.

“Marshall was our grandfather’s name,” Jason told her.

Holly turned to him, saw the way he was holding her son and smiled. “You know, he won’t break.”

“I’ve never held a child this small,” Jason admitted, feeling completely out of his element. In business he’d dealt with some of the most powerful people in the country, yet he had no idea what to do with this tiny, harmless human being. “He looks so fragile. What if I drop him?”

“You won’t,” she said, and he hoped her confidence wasn’t misplaced.

Noting the way Holly held Marshall over her shoulder, he set Devon against his chest, placing one hand under his diapered behind and the other on his back to steady him. But he realized as Devon lifted his little head off Jason’s shoulder to stare at him, blue eyes wide and inquisitive, he wasn’t as fragile as he looked.

Jason watched Holly as she laid Marshall, who was still howling, on the changing table and deftly changed his diaper, cooing and talking to him in a quiet, soothing voice, her smile so full of love and affection Jason kind of wished she would smile at him that way.

She’s your sister-in-law, he reminded himself. But damn, she was pretty. In an unspoiled, wholesome way.

Women, as he saw it, were split between two categories. There were the ones who wanted the traditional life of marriage and babies, and those who balked at the mention of commitment. He preferred the latter. For some people, marriage and family just weren’t in the cards.

Holly turned to Jason, held out her son and said, “Switch.”

It was an awkward handover, and Marshall hollered the entire time Jason held him. It was hard not to take it personally.

“Would you like to help me feed them?”

“I don’t know how.”

“There’s nothing to it,” she assured him with a smile. After all she had been through, the fact that she still could smile was remarkable.

Feeling completely out of his element, Jason sat on the couch while his nephew sucked hungrily on a bottle and stared up at him.

Although not by choice, children had never been a part of his life plan, so he usually did what he could to avoid them. But if he was going to be a good uncle, he supposed he should at least try to learn to care for them. If, God forbid, something were to happen to Holly, they would be his sole responsibility. And then, if something were to happen to him, if his illness were to return, who would take them?

The idea was both humbling and terrifying.

This was the absolute last place he had expected to end up when he’d left home today.

Their bottoms dry and their bellies full, the boys fell sound sleep, and Jason helped her put them in their cribs.

“How often do you have to do that?” he asked Holly as she stood at the sink rinsing the empty bottles.

“Every three hours. Sometimes more, sometimes less. They’ve never slept more than a four-hour stretch.”

That would be an average of eight times a day. Two babies, all by herself.

He had a sudden newfound respect for single mothers.

“How do you manage it alone?”

Her tone nonchalant, she said, “I’ve learned to multitask.”

He had the feeling it was a bit more complicated than that. How was she supposed to get a job with the boys to care for? Day care, he supposed. Call him old-fashioned, but he wanted to see his nephews raised by their mother, the way he and his brother had been raised by theirs. He had nothing but fond memories of his early childhood. Life had been close to perfect back then.

Until it hadn’t been anymore.

She finished the bottles and wiped her hands on a dish towel. “Thanks for the help.”

“Anytime,” he said, and he meant it. “In fact, I’ll be back in the city next week and I was hoping I could spend some time with the boys.”

“You don’t live in New York?”

“After our father died I moved upstate.” The lake house had been in their family for generations and had been his favorite retreat as a child.

“Jeremy used to talk about us moving upstate, getting a house in a small town. A fixer-upper that we could make ours. With a big yard and a swing set for the boys. I can’t help thinking that was probably a lie, too.”

Sadly, it probably was. Jeremy had preferred the anonymity of living in a big city. Not to mention the ease with which he could support his drug habit. Something told Jason that wouldn’t have changed.

Jason always had been the one who’d strived for a slower-paced lifestyle. Ten years of working for his father had landed him on the business fast track, but his heart had never really been in it. Only after his father’s death had he started living the life he’d wanted.

“You and the boys should come and visit me,” he told her, surprised and hopeful when her eyes lit.

“I’d like that. But are you sure you have the space? I don’t want to put you out.”

At first he thought she was joking, and then he remembered that she knew virtually nothing about their family. Or their finances. Maybe for right now it would be better if he didn’t bring up the fact that her sons stood to inherit millions someday. It might be too much to take all in one night. And though Jeremy had been disinherited years ago, he would see that Holly and the boys were well cared for.

“I have space,” he assured her. Maybe once he got her there, once she saw how much room he had and how good life would be there for them, he could convince her to stay, giving him the chance to right the last wrong his brother would ever commit. He owed it to his nephews.

And to himself.

Three

Jason sat at the bar of The Trapper Tavern, the town watering hole, nursing an imported beer with his best friend and attorney Lewis Pennington.

“Are you sure you can trust her?” Lewis asked him after he explained the situation with his sister-in-law and nephews. “I don’t have to tell you the sort of people with whom your brother kept company. She could be conning you.”

Jason didn’t think so. “Lewis, she was so freaked out she actually fainted when she saw me, and she seemed to genuinely have no clue who Jeremy really was.”

“Or she’s as good an actor as your brother.”

“Or she’s an innocent victim.”

“With your flesh and blood involved, is that a chance you really want to take?”

Of course not. The day his brother died was the day the twins’ happiness and well-being had become Jason’s responsibility. “That’s why, when she’s here, I’m going to ask her to stay with me. Until she’s back on her feet financially.”

He’d left Holly his phone number and told her to call if she needed anything. She’d called the next morning sounding tired and exasperated, asking to take him up on his offer to visit, saying she needed a few days away from the city. In the background he could hear his nephews howling. He admired the fact that she wasn’t afraid to admit she needed help. And he was more than happy to supply it. That and so much more.

“My point is that you know nothing about this woman,” Lewis said. “Don’t let the fact that she’s the mother of your nephews cloud your judgment.”

“With a brother like Jeremy, I’ve learned to be a pretty good judge of character.”

“Maybe so, but I’d hide the good china, just in case.”

Jason shot him a look.

“At least let me run a background check, search for a criminal history.”

“If you insist, but I doubt you’ll find anything.”

“When is her train due in?”

Jason glanced at his watch. “An hour.”

He’d offered to drive to the city and pick up her and the boys at her apartment, but she’d insisted they take the train. And when he’d tried to talk her out of it, she’d only dug her heels in deeper. Though he barely knew her, he could see that persuading her to do something she didn’t want to do was going to be difficult, if not impossible.

“If she’s so destitute, why not just pay her debt and set her up in her own place in town? What woman wouldn’t go for that?”

The kind who was too proud for her own good. And as much as it annoyed him, he couldn’t help but respect that. “I offered to pay all the debt Jeremy left her with and help her get a fresh start.”

“And?”

He took a long swallow of his beer, then set the bottle down on the bar. “She wouldn’t take a penny.”

Lewis’s brows rose in surprise. “Seriously?”

“She wouldn’t budge.”

“She’s independent?”

That was putting it mildly. “You have no idea.”

“Attractive?”

Immensely. “That’s irrelevant.”

Lewis grinned. “Are you attracted to her?”

Hell yes, he was. Who wouldn’t be? “She’s my sister-in-law. My feelings are irrelevant.”

“Not if you plan to live under the same roof with her. Feelings have a way of happening whether we want them to or not.”

“My only concern is for my nephews.”

“What if you ask her to stay with you and she refuses?”

“Obviously I can’t force her.”

“That’s not necessarily true.”

Jason frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You have leverage.”

“Leverage?”

“Your nephews. You could threaten to sue her for custody.”

“On what grounds? She seems perfectly competent to me.” Not to mention the damage it would cause the twins, first losing their father, then being ripped away from their mother.

“If she’s as destitute as you claim, the last thing she’ll want is a legal battle. The threat of one could make her more likely to cooperate.”

Or put her right over the edge. He did worry that getting her cooperation would be difficult, but he couldn’t imagine ever taking it to that extreme. However, if there was any validity to Lewis’s suspicions, Jason could be downright ruthless if it meant keeping his nephews safe. But there was no need to jump the gun. Unlike his father, who had been quick to judge and considered anyone he didn’t know well a potential threat, Jason preferred to grant people the benefit of the doubt. Innocent until proven guilty. But he knew he could never convince Lewis that she was telling the truth, so he didn’t even try.

“How is Miranda?” he asked his friend.

Lewis sighed and rolled his eyes. “All whacked out on hormones again.”

Lewis and his wife had been trying unsuccessfully to conceive a baby over the course of their three-year marriage. They had tried every method, be it Western medicine or holistic, with no success. They were now on their third IVF attempt in nine months, and it had been emotionally taxing on them both. Though more so on Miranda, Jason imagined. Lewis had a teenage son from a former relationship, someone to carry on his legacy.

Jason found it ironic that Jeremy, who’d lacked the integrity to care for his own sons, had had no problem at all conceiving a child, while good people such as Lewis and Miranda, who had everything to offer a son or daughter, were helpless to make it happen.

“When is the next procedure?” Jason asked.

“Next Friday,” Lewis said, eyes on the thirty-year-old scotch that he swirled in his glass. “And regardless of the outcome, it will be our last.”

“What?” Jason set down his bottle a little harder than he’d meant to. “You’re just going to give up?”

“After three years the perpetual disappointment is taking a toll on us both. We’ve begun to look into foreign adoption instead.”

“Another time-consuming process,” Jason said and Lewis nodded.

“But when we’re approved, at least there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.”

“Have you considered a surrogate?”

“Only to have her change her mind after the baby is born? It would destroy Miranda.”

Yes, it probably would. “I’m sorry, Lewis. I wish there was something I could do.”

“We’ll get through this.”

Jason didn’t envy their situation. Though it had taken years of introspection and soul searching, he’d come to terms with the fact that he would never have a family of his own. Now it would seem he’d earned one by default.

* * *

Longest. Trip. Ever.

Despite Holly’s hope that the twins would sleep most of the five-hour train ride, they had fussed and complained, sleeping in fits and bursts, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. By the time Holly got them in the stroller and ready to depart the train, she’d expended the last of her energy and was running on pure adrenaline, wishing she had taken Jason up on his offer to give them a ride. But now as she sat in Jason’s black luxury SUV, the boys buckled safely in the back, that adrenaline was wearing thin.

After today it was abundantly clear that if Holly was going to make it as a single mom of twins, she was going to have to sock away her pride and learn to accept help a little more often. For the twins’ sake. They were a handful now, but what about when they began to crawl and walk and get into things? Just the idea made her weary. She knew she should be in New York looking for a job and a place to live, and taking this vacation was irresponsible and selfish, but her sanity depended on it.

While Jason loaded their bags in the back, she looked over her shoulder into the backseat, peering into the boy’s car seats. They were both out cold. She would have wept with relief, but she didn’t have the energy.

“Rough trip?” Jason asked as he opened the driver’s side door and climbed in, flashing her a smile. One she felt from the ends of her hair to the tips of her toes and everywhere in between.

Whoa. Where the heck had that come from? She turned away, pretending to look out the window at the station, hoping he wouldn’t notice her conspicuously rosy cheeks. It wasn’t helping matters that he smelled absolutely delicious, like some manly musk drifting on a warm spring breeze.

She tried to fight it, but it was hopeless. Ribbons of heat twisted through her veins, making her skin flush. Making her feel restless and aroused.

In all the time she had been with Jeremy, Holly had never experienced this intense physical reaction from a simple smile. To be fair, she hadn’t had sex in over six months, though it felt more like a year. Or five.

Her cheeks burned hotter. She really shouldn’t be thinking about sex right now. But the harder she tried not to think about it, the further her mind strayed.

“Everyone buckled and ready to go?” Jason asked her as the engine roared to life. She could feel his eyes on her; she had no choice but to face him. The alternative was to act rudely.

Willing away the heat rushing to her face, she turned to him, her gaze instantly locking on his stormy eyes. Though it was wildly bizarre, she didn’t look at Jason and see Jeremy anymore. They may have been identical in looks, but his personality and disposition set Jason apart from his brother.

His brow wrinkled. “Are you feeling okay? You’re flushed.”

Aw, hell. “I’m fine. Really. Just tired.”

Concern etching the corners of his eyes, Jason reached up to touch her burning hot cheek with his cool, surprisingly rough fingers, then frowned and pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, the way her mom had when Holly was a little girl. “You’re warm.”

No kidding. She was surprised her face hadn’t melted off. And the fact that he kept touching her wasn’t helping matters.

He was dressed much more casually today, in dark slacks and a white polo shirt that contrasted sharply with his deeply tanned face. Considering it was only the first week of June, she was guessing he spent a considerable amount of time outdoors. If she lived near a lake, she probably would, too. As a young teen one of her favorite pastimes had been going fishing with her foster dad and siblings. She had always hoped someday she would be able to share those experiences with her own children.

“We have to go through town to get to my place,” Jason told her as he pulled out of the lot. “Do you need to stop for anything or would you prefer to go straight to the house?”

“House, please. How far is it from town?”

“Ten minutes, give or take. I’m on the far side of the lake.”

Trapper Cove, which was indeed tucked back into a cove off Trapper Lake, was just as she always pictured a small upstate New York town to look. Quaint and clean and undeniably upscale. She rolled her window down and took a deep breath of fresh lake air. So different from the city.

As they headed down Main Street into the heart of the town, Jason gave her a brief history lesson on the various shops and businesses. They passed a marina and boat launch, and a members’ only yacht club. On the water she counted at least a dozen of what her foster brother, Tyler, would have called “big ass” boats. He also would have commented on the luxury import cars lining the pristine streets. She wondered if the area had been this posh when Jason and Jeremy were kids. When Jeremy supposedly had been living on the streets and begging for food.

Just thinking his name made her heart hurt. It still astounded her how many lies he’d told, and how she had been married to a man she didn’t even know. Looking back, which she had been doing an awful lot since she’d met Jason, she realized that life with Jeremy had never been a fantastic love story. They’d met and started to date, and three months later she’d found herself pregnant. When Jeremy had insisted on marrying her she’d thought the true love part would come later, when they got to know one another better. Clearly she had been wrong. She hadn’t known him at all. The man she thought she’d fallen in love with didn’t even exist.

Never in her life had she felt so betrayed.

As they drove slowly through the center of town, people stopped to wave and shout hello to Jason, and she received more than a few curious glances.

“It’s a beautiful town,” she told him. “You seem to know a lot about it. And a lot of people.”

“Jeremy and I spent every summer here as kids with our mom and grandparents. Our dad came up on weekends when he could get away from work.”

She couldn’t imagine a more ideal setting to spend her summers. Or her winters. Or springs and falls, as well. “So you live here year round now?”

“I do.”

“Are you close to the lake?”

“About as close as you can get without living in a house boat.”

She blinked with surprise. “You live on the lake?”

“Straight across from town.”

She peered out the car window across the lake. She could barely make out the silhouette of homes tucked back against the thick forest bordering the shore; at this distance she could see very little detail. Among them, nearly hidden behind a row of towering pine trees, stood what appeared to be some sort of enormous and rustic-looking wood structure. Maybe a hotel or hunting lodge. It was too huge to be someone’s home.

“Can you see your house from here?” she asked him, as they passed the Trapper Drugstore and The Trapper Inn. Beside that sat the Trapper Tavern.

“Barely,” he said. “I’ll point it out to you the next time we’re in town.”

He left Main Street and the town behind and turned onto a densely wooded two-lane road that circled the lake. Mottled sunshine danced across the windshield through breaks in the trees, and every so often she could see snippets of clear blue lake. The earthy scents of the forest filled the car. It was so dark and quiet and peaceful. She closed her eyes and breathed in deep, and like magic she could feel the knots in her muscles releasing, her frayed nerves mending. For the first time since Jeremy died she was giving herself permission to relax.

It felt strange, but in a good way.

After several minutes Jason steered the vehicle down a long and bumpy dirt road. “There’s something you don’t see in the city,” Jason said, pointing to a family of deer foraging just off the road. They were almost close enough to reach out the car window and touch.

The trees opened up to a small clearing, and towering over them stood what she had assumed was a lodge, so deeply tucked into the surrounding forest, the dark wood exterior seemed to blend in with the vegetation. But as they pulled up to the front entrance, she could see that this was no lodge. This was a house. A really huge house.

She took a deep breath and willed herself not to freak out. She should have known. Most people of modest means did not spend their summers at the lake house. That in itself should have been her first clue that Jason’s family was well-to-do. But she never would have guessed that they had done this well.

The summers that Jeremy had claimed he’d spent living on the street, begging for food, he’d actually been here, in a mansion?

Holly felt sick all the way to her bones. Any lingering traces of love or respect for her dead husband fizzled away. She had never been more deeply saddened or utterly disappointed in anyone.

Jason parked close to the door, cut the engine and turned to her, watching expectantly when he said, “Home sweet home.”