Daughter on His Doorstep by Janis Reams Hudson

Author:Janis Reams Hudson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2001-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

The weather on Sunday could not have been more perfect. It was a balmy eighty degrees with a slight breeze and not a cloud in the wide, blue sky. When Trey pulled the Blazer to a halt near the rear of a rambling two-story house, three young boys exploded out the backdoor.

“Uncle Trey, Uncle Trey!” they cried.

Laurie was immediately struck by the boys’ resemblance to Trey, with that coal-black hair and cocky grin. “They’re your brother’s sons?”

“Ace’s, yeah.” Trey killed the ignition and glanced at her. “What’s that look for?”

Laurie shook her head. “Nothing. It’s just that they look enough like you to…well…”

Trey threw back his head and laughed. “To make you wonder, huh? When you meet Ace you’ll see that the boys really don’t look all that much like me.”

She met Ace when he walked around from the far side of the house as she was climbing out of the Blazer. Trey had been right. Ace Wilder was a slightly older version of Trey, but with enough subtle differences, which were mirrored in the faces of his three sons, to have her sighing with relief that Trey hadn’t done something unthinkable with his brother’s wife—three times.

Ace introduced himself to her while on the other side of the truck Trey was introducing the girls to the boys.

Ace’s lips twitched. “We’ll have to see how that goes.” He nodded toward the kids.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, either my boys will be nice to your girls because they know they’re expected to and because I hear your girls are extremely likable, or they’ll turn their noses up simply because they’re girls.”

He led her around the truck and reeled off a string of names. The oldest boy was Jason, age eight. Then came six-year-old Clay, then Grant, the youngest, at four.

A huge white dog came loping and barking from the far side of the house, followed closely by the most striking woman Laurie had ever seen. Not beautiful in the classic sense, but vivid, with slate-gray eyes and short black hair that turned to fire in the sunlight.

“Boys,” the woman yelled. “We’re gonna have dog for supper if you don’t keep him away from the hamburger meat.”

“Come here, Scooter, or Mom’ll get you.” Jason grabbed the animal’s collar.

Laurie braced herself to lunge. The dog was the size of a small sofa, and while the boy was somewhat tall for his age, she feared the dog would merely take off and drag the boy in its wake. But there proved no need for a rescue, as the dog plopped its rear on the ground and gave a sloppy doggy grin.

“Look at him.” The woman, whose voice dripped with disgust, propped her hands on her hips. “Acting like I didn’t just catch him with an empty meat wrapper in his mouth.”

“And that,” Ace said with a grin, “is my sweet, demure wife, Belinda.”

“Hey, it’s the fox,” Trey said, calling her by her nickname.

“Hey, number three,” Belinda called, using his. “You brought them, finally.” She crossed the yard and held out a hand to Laurie.

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