Her Twin Surprise (Forsaken Sons Book 2) by Elizabeth Lennox (web ebook reader txt) 📗

“You didn’t because…” she sniffed.  “Because I didn’t call you that weekend.  Am I right?”

Janus didn’t want to answer that.  Looking back, his reaction seemed petulant and spoiled.  But that was pretty much what he’d been back then.  “Yeah,” he finally admitted.  “I was furious and hurt that you ‘abandoned’ me when I needed you most.”  He rubbed a hand down her back.  “I didn’t know that your mother had passed the same day.”  He kissed her temple.  “It was a pretty miserable time period for both of us.”

“I should have tried harder,” she whispered.

“It’s in the past, Stevie.”

She twisted on his lap so she could look him in the eye.

“It’s not in the past, Janus,” she said.  “It’s actually…” she sniffed and stood up, pacing in front of him.  “It’s the reason I keep pulling away every time you try to kiss me.”  She turned and looked at him.  “I thought we were just…new toys for you,” she admitted.  “I’ve been guarding myself from falling in love with you again because I didn’t want to get hurt again.  I didn’t want to deal with the pain of losing you when you grew bored with me again.”

He leapt to his feet.  “I was never bored, Stevie!  Never!”

“I know that now.”  She stared up at him with those milk chocolate eyes.  “I’m so tired of being scared,” she admitted.  “I’m so tired of trying to resist you.  Of pushing you away and fighting my feelings for you.”

“What does that mean?” Janus demanded, praying he knew what she meant.

She closed her eyes.  “It means that I’ve fallen in love with you again. I’m not entirely sure I ever stopped loving you.  And I’m so scared that you’re going to leave us again!”

“I’m will never leave you, Stevie!” he vowed, reaching for her hand.  “I was so angry you hadn’t visited me in the hospital, but before you, no woman had ever mattered to me beyond the moment I was with her.  Then I walked into that bar and you smiled at me.  It was all over from that point forward.”

She laughed disbelievingly, but Janus didn’t care.  He knew the truth.  “I loved you even then, Stevie.  But I was too much of an ass to understand.”

“And you were in so much pain!  I read the articles about your injuries.”  She leaned her cheek to his chest and Janus wrapped his arms around her.  “I can’t believe what you endured!  And in front of thousands of fans!  It must have been horrible.”

“I was pretty much finished with football by that point.”

She pulled away enough to look up at him.  “You were going to retire anyway?”

He chuckled.  He needed to explain, needed her to understand.  “Maybe not that year.  But I was tired of being tackled.  I was sick of the relentless pressure.  And by that point, I was already making money in my restaurant business.  It had started out as a fluke.  A hobby, I guess.  Soon though, I realized that I enjoyed turning restaurants and bars around, getting them back to profitability.  It was more satisfying that winning football games.”  He laughed.  “And it hurt a lot less.”

She looked at him, her eyes still brimming with tears.  “Do you think we could…start over?  Try again?”

He shook his head, his expression solemn.  “No,” he replied.  “We can’t start over.”

Her chin trembled.  “Why not?”

“Because I love you, Stevie.  Every time I see you, I fall a little more in love with you. I don’t want to get rid of our past and start over.  Everything we’ve gone through has led us here, to this moment.”

“Oh!”

Janus shifted their bodies, aligning hers more perfectly with his own.  “That’s all you can say?  Just ‘oh’?”

Stevie’s eyes sparkled.  “Well, maybe…um…I love you too,” she whispered.

“And that scares the hell out of you, doesn’t it?”

She shrugged.  “It’s a bit less scary now.”

He laughed.  “Why?”

“Because now I know why you didn’t return my calls five years ago.  And you said you love me.”  She slid her hands up his chest, looping her arms around his neck.  “And because I love you.  The twins love you.  Even Herbie adores you.”

Janus groaned, rolling his eyes.  “What possessed you to get such a huge dog when you live in a tiny house?” he teased.

She laughed and the sound made his heart pound.

“I asked the woman at the rescue place for a small dog.  She promised that the puppy that she placed in my hands would be a small dog, maybe twenty-five pounds at the most.”

“And you ended up with a pony.”

Stevie laughed again.  “Don’t even try it, Janus.  You love him just as much as we do.”

“I admit nothing.  Especially when he drools on my shoes.”

She cringed.  “Yeah, he loves you too.”

“And drooling is his way of showing it?”

Stevie shrugged.  “You know how cats have those oil glands in their chin?”

“No, I don’t think I did.”

“Well, they do.  And cats rub on furniture and things as their way to put their scent on their territory, so that other cats are warned away.”

He looked down at her with horror.  “Are you trying to tell me that Herbie’s drool is his way of putting his scent on things?”

“Yeah.  That’s my theory.  And look at it this way,” she paused to smile, “it could be worse. Some dogs pee on things.”

Janus’s look of horror made her crack up.  He tightened his arms around her marveling at how perfectly she fit against him.  Of not pulling away from him.  It was…miraculous.

“So, will you marry me?”

That got rid of her laughter. “Marriage?”

“Yeah,” he replied, leading her to the couch where they sat, side by side.

“We don’t need to get married, Janus.”

“Yes.  We do.  I want my ring on your finger.