A Baby For The Billionaire. Maureen Child

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       Five

      Dina jumped, slapped one hand to her chest and spun around all at the same time. Heart in her throat, she watched Connor stalk across the yard toward her.

      “You scared me to death,” she said, her voice a harsh whisper.

      “Welcome to my world,” he snapped. “I’ve been sitting on your front porch for the last three hours, not knowing where the hell you were.”

      “What? Why?” She looked past him to the porch as if she could see evidence of his vigil.

      “I came to see the kids, but you weren’t here.” He scrubbed both hands across his face, then glared at her. “I didn’t know where you’d gone. For all I knew, you were out and trapped somewhere, or maybe one of the kids was sick. I called your cell and you didn’t answer. Went straight to voice mail.”

      One small niggle of guilt wormed its way through her, but Dina dismissed it fast. How was she supposed to know that he would show up? Just because he’d been dropping by on and off for days was no reason to assume he’d keep doing it. Besides, he was overreacting and that she could hardly believe. He sounded like a worried husband, for heaven’s sake.

      “I always turn my phone off when I’m working,” she said, though that wasn’t true. She’d kept the phone on in case her grandmother needed to reach her. She simply hadn’t answered the phone when she saw it was Connor calling. “And now I’m going to put the triplets to bed. They’re sound asleep in their car seats and if you wake them...”

      Her threat lay open-ended between them, but it did the trick. He took a breath, made an obvious effort to calm himself and said, “Fine. I’ll help. Go unlock the front door.”

      She did it, but only because that’s what she was going to do before he’d ordered her to do it anyway. Muttering under her breath, Dina crossed the yard with hurried strides. It was cold and damp and the moon and stars were blotted out behind a layer of clouds. She opened the door, then turned and headed back to the car, where Con was already unhooking Sam from his car seat. Her heart twisted a bit as the little boy draped himself across Con’s shoulder, arms and legs limp in sleep. Connor kept one hand on the boy’s back and walked to the house without another word to her.

      Good, Dina thought. She was in no mood for his attitude. She was tired, her feet hurt and all she wanted was to sit down, have a glass of wine and then crawl into bed for the few hours’ sleep she’d get before the babies woke up.

      She freed Sadie from her car seat and soothed the baby girl as she snuffled, whimpered and settled down again.

      “I’ll take her,” Connor whispered when he came up behind her.

      “You get Sage,” she said, already walking.

      In what used to be the bungalow’s master bedroom, three cribs were crowded together in the small space. It wouldn’t be long before Dina would have to find somewhere else to live. The babies were going to outgrow this house within the next year or so. But that was a worry for another day.

      “Why the hell didn’t you answer the phone?” Connor’s strained whisper sounded overly loud in the quiet.

      “I was working,” she reminded him. “Then when I wasn’t, I turned the phone off to keep from waking up the babies on the way home.”

      “Okay, then,” he ground out, “what kind of job are you working that you’ve got three babies out until after midnight?”

      She frowned at him as she leaned over the crib and patted Sam’s back until he settled into deep sleep again. “I was catering an anniversary party, and the babies are fine.”

      “They СКАЧАТЬ