“Look at her closely.”
My parents gasped as I picked up the two boys. Most babies sort of look the same if you glance at them casually. When you have one of your own, though, you can pick your child out of a field of a hundred babies without even trying. The only difference between the two boys and Coby was that they had curls in their hair. The little girl had dark hair and brown eyes, but she looked just like my son in almost all her other features.
“Hey!” I exclaimed to get their attention.
My deep voice seemed to distract them, and the boys both looked at me with tears still in their eyes.
“Are these …?” Dad asked.
“I think they are,” I said.
◊◊◊
Chapter 29 – You’re Both 100% Sure? Friday October 21
My mom was of two minds. The first had me going to the vet with Duke and us both getting fixed. I was sure Duke wasn’t on board with that idea. The second was reveling in the possibility that she had a little granddaughter in her arms. I figured the little girl couldn’t be mine. Dawsons only had boys. The only reason we had a little girl in the family was that Greg had adopted Mac.
I spotted Ashley Kincaid and Scarlet White, the two girls I suspected were the mothers of these children. These two beautiful and elegantly dressed Southern belles, one blonde and one with silky black hair, were walking towards me with sober, expectant looks on their faces. I also felt Brook’s presence at my side as she somehow knew she needed to find me.
Every teenaged male’s worst nightmare had tripled with the three little ones. Then I thought of Brook standing next to me. Make that quadrupled.
Every guy on the face of this Earth probably has had two or three ‘oh, shit!’ moments in his life where he can’t help but think, ‘What have I done?’
I was having one of those moments.
Both Ashley and Scarlet hesitated when they saw my mom holding the little girl and me holding the two boys. Two young men behind them bumped into them when they stopped. Another woman, whom from her looks I assumed was Ashley’s mom, managed to skirt the four without mishap.
Scarlet’s nervousness was plain to see, but she gulped and came up to me with a look of determination.
“I see you’ve met my little girl, Carol,” she said, finally looking at her child. Then she indicated the two boys. “Dawson and Allen are Ashley’s boys.”
They were named after my mom and me. It was a shrewd move because something like that pulled at your heartstrings. My dad cast an obviously troubled look at Scarlet.
“I hate to ask …” Dad started.
“David is listed as the father on the birth certificates,” Scarlet answered.
“And you are?” Mom asked, clearly not knowing what to think.
“Scarlet White,” she replied and took the little girl from my mom.
You could see by the little girl’s fine black hair that she was Scarlet’s daughter, just as you knew Ashley was the mother of the two blond-haired little boys.
“Ashley Kincaid,” she answered as she took one of the little boys from me.
My teammates, their families, Cassidy, and Fritz all stood behind my parents, obviously listening intently.
I looked over at a small commotion to see two men my dad’s age slowly and deliberately step around the rest of their party. Each of them wore the ‘righteously pissed-off daddy’ look as if it had been tailored for them.
“Is this the boy who knocked up my little girl?” asked the dark-haired man I guessed was Scarlet’s dad.
Ashley and her parents cringed at what looked to be heading toward a nasty public confrontation. Scarlet, however, took it in stride.
“Yes, he is.”
“We need to have a talk, boy.”
I bristled at the ‘boy’ reference. I only kept from snapping back because I was holding what I suspected were my sons.
“Sir, right now, I need to sit down with your daughter and find out exactly what is going on. Once we’ve sorted that out, we’ll have
One of the two younger guys tried to step between us.
“Oh, I think we all need to be involved in this,” he said, trying to insert himself into the center ring of this circus.
I took the measure of the guy who appeared to be Ashley’s boyfriend. He was a good-looking guy who looked to be a few years older than she was. Something about him put my teeth on edge, so I took a closer look. He seemed to be too well put-together. It was like he had donned a costume to go out and hook up with girls at a bar. I’d seen plenty of his type when I was in LA.
Then it struck me: Ashley’s boyfriend was made up because he was nervous about meeting me. The Alpha Male in me took an interest in his obvious challenge.
“That’s really interesting. Who the hell are you?” I asked to make sure I hadn’t assumed incorrectly.
I could feel my mom’s eyes boring a hole in the back of my head because of my language, but my Alpha Male was marking his territory. Sometimes he was as bad as Mr. Happy at making me do stuff.
“I’m Brett Lyons, Ashley’s fiancé.”
