Triple treat (20 page)

"I'm fine," she said warmly, leaning up to kiss him. "Better than fine. I feel wonderful. I—I was just thinking about—-" She paused and gulped for breath. She didn't want any secrets between them. "About Ian."

"Ian wouldn't begrudge you getting on with your life, Carrie," Tyler said quickly. He was not going to lose Carrie to Ian Wilcox's ghost, not now! "From what I've heard about him, he would want you to—love me."

Carrie nodded. Ian had been a generous young man who definitely would have wanted his wife to love again. An ironic little smile curved her lips. She suspected, however,

that Ian would've wanted the man she loved to return her love in full measure. To hold back nothing and not choke on the words.

It was nearly nine o'clock on Sunday night when the group returned to the city, their weekend idyll ended. The children were asleep in their car seats, and Carrie and Tyler glanced back at them, then at each other.

"I don't want it to be over," Carrie said wistfully. "Back to having you in one house, me in another."

Tyler frowned. The arrangement sounded intolerable to him, too. "There's really no reason why I can't spend the night with you tonight. I'll get up a little earlier in the morning than usual and go back to my place to—"

He was interrupted by an abrupt, hard rap on the windshield. Alexa stood outside the car, gesturing to them, her blue eyes wide. Tyler swiftly rolled down the window. "What's up?" he asked, trying not to groan, for behind Alexa came Ben, sauntering down the walk. It appeared that it would be a while before he had Carrie all to himself again.

"Alexa, what's going on?" Carrie asked worriedly. She hadn't expected to find her sister and brother here; they knew she'd been away with Tyler.

"Mom and Dad are hare, Carrie," Alexa whispered. "They arrived this morning from Germany, and they're—"

She didn't have a chance to finish. Colonel and Mrs. Shaw were hurrying toward them. Startled, Carrie hopped out of the car and rushed to meet her parents. Tyler climbed out and leaned against the side of the car, watching her.

"It's so good to see you!" Carrie exclaimed, hugging first her mother, then her father. "But what are you doing here?" She couldn't imagine what, if anything, could be wrong since everyone was present and appeared to be in the bloom of health, but she asked, anyway. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, except we missed you and our precious babies terribly, Carrie," her mother said tearfully. "Oh, I have to see them! Alexa, Ben, help me get them out of their car seats."

Tyler thought of his and Carrie's plans to carefully spirit each sleeping child from car to crib without awakening them, thus giving themselves a quiet, private evening alone together. With the additional cast of characters, who were now holding the very wide-awake toddlers, the sexy evening he had anticipated was currently outside the realm of possibility. Tyler heaved a quiet sigh of regret.

The fond grandmother, Alexa and Ben quickly disappeared inside the house with the triplets, leaving Carrie and lyier alone with Colonel Shaw. Tyler studied the older man, who was tall, fair and blue-eyed and maintained the erect posture and carriage of a military officer.

"We missed you, Carrie." The colonel hugged his daughter affectionately, his voice warm. "Your mom and I have been—"

"Daddy, I want you to meet a—uh—a good friend of mine," Carrie cut in quickly, her eyes connecting with Tyler's. "This is Tyler Tremaine," she said, leaving her father's embrace to extend her hand to Tyler. She didn't get close enough to reach him. The colonel put his arm around her shoulders and kept her in place by his side. Carrie merely smiled. "Tyler, this is my father, Colonel Shaw. I'd've introduced you to my mother but she seems to have disappeared."

"She couldn't wait to get her hands on our grandbabies again," the colonel explained indulgently. He glanced briefly at Tyler. "I believe you're Carrie's next-door neighbor, hmm? Alexa mentioned you. You drove Carrie and the children to the shore this weekend, I hear."

Tyler frowned. Stated like that, his ties to Carrie and the triplets sounded tenuous and so very casual. A neighbor who'd driven them to the shore? Clearly, the colonel wasn't

getting the true picture here. Tyler cleared his throat. "Yes, but we've— "

"I want to thank you for being such a good neighbor to my daughter and my grandchildren," Colonel Shaw cut in, his tone unmistakably commanding. "But it's a role you will no longer have to play. My wife and I are here to take Carrie and the children back to Germany with us."

"What?" Carrie and Tyler chorused together.

Colonel Shaw turned away from Tyler, focusing his attention on his daughter. "Carrie, my dear, I realize that I made a terrible mistake, encouraging you to stay alone here in the city with the babies. I thought I was acting in your best interests but—"

"I know you were, Dad," Carrie interjected and earned a disapproving frown from her father for the interruption.

"Carrie, I was wrong," he insisted. "And when I'm wrong, I prefer to admit it rather than continue to support a fallacious decision. Your mother and I have both been so worried about you and the children, with the two of us so far away and unable to help you. It's intolerable! We're taking you all back with us."

"Daddy, we're fine!" Carrie said exasperatedly. "Honestly, you have no reason to worry about us."

"Your hours at the hospital are long and exhausting, and then you have to come home to three toddlers who demand your constant care and attention," Colonel Shaw intoned firmly. "I know what I said about you working, but again, I was wrong. It's more important for you to spend your time and energy on your children, Carrie."

"I know the hours are long, but I've been handling it, Dad," Carrie insisted. "And the kids are fine when I'm gone. Alexa stays with them and—"

"Which brings us to another point that has your mother worried sick," the colonel boomed. "Your sister has become a recluse. From what we've gleaned, Alexa has no social life whatsoever. She spends every single weekend taking

care of your children and hiding from the world in general."

"Daddy!" Carrie protested impatiently,

"All right, we won't get into that now. We'll get back to the main issue at hand, and that is you and your children. I firmly believe that they need you—their mother!—with them full-time."

"We agree on that point, Colonel Shaw," Tyler said, nodding his affirmation.

The colonel glanced at Tyler, as if surprised to still see him there. "Interesting," he said, polite but brisk. "Feel free to leave at any time, Mr. Tremaine. Fm sure you're eager to be on your way. This is really no concern of yours, after all. Mrs. Shaw and I will carry on from here."

Tyler gaped at the colonel. He'd been dismissed! Ordered to leave like a low-ranking young airman sent off to KP duty or whatever low-ranking young airmen were ordered to do by their superior officers.

Colonel Shaw, his arm firmly around Carrie's shoulders, was hurrying her toward the house, talking all the way. "We have a four-bedroom house on base, Carrie, with one of the bedrooms plenty big enough for the triplets and all their things. And since we're right on the base, it'll be easy for you to get out with the children. The three of them are getting older now, Carrie, and it's important to get them out and about, to see new things and meet new people. Mom and I are hoping to talk Alexa into coming over and living with us, too. She needs a change of scene or she'll never get out of the rut she's fallen into. I happen to have several very fine young pilots in my squadron, and I'm looking forward to introducing them to both you and your sister..."

They disappeared into the house, and the front door banged shut. Tyler stood alone in the front yard, staring at the closed door, the colonel's resonant tones still ringing in his ears.

He was confused, almost disoriented. Everything had happened with such speed, he was still having trouble pro-: cessing it all. Moments before, he had been planning to spend the night with his lover. Now she'd been whisked away from him by her father— who planned to take her and the babies to live in Germany!

Just for a moment, Tyler allowed himself to consider his life with Carrie and the children no longer in it. He found himself facing a dark abyss of loneliness that was so terrible and so soul-shattering that he immediately rebelled against it.

He stormed to the front door and started pounding on it.

"Door's open! Come in!" Mrs. Shaw called cheerfully.

Tyler accepted the invitation and strode into the kitchen where the colonel and his wife and both sets of triplets, adult and children, were gathered.

"Carrie, I want to talk to you," Tyler said forcefully, every bit the executive heir apparent. "And you, too, Colonel," he added, his tone making it clear that he was no junior featherweight to be fobbed off.

He snatched Carrie's hand and half dragged her into the living room. Colonel Shaw followed a few paces behind, his expression enigmatic.

"Colonel Shaw, first of all, I want you to know that I'm not merely a neighbor of your daughter's," Tyler declared, meeting the older man's eyes challengingly. He pulled Carrie back against him, wrapping his arms around her and locking his hands to rest possessively on her stomach.

"Carrie, we owe it to your father to be honest with him And before anything else is said, before things get even more out of hand, I'm telling you that you are not going to Germany with your parents."

"Well now, Mr. Tremaine, that's a bit presumptuous of you, isn't it?" Colonel Shaw drawled. "I think that's a decision that Carrie has to make herself. She has to consider her options, her children being her first priority."

Carrie looked hard at her father. There was something in his tone, something in his eyes.. .something undefinable that someone who didn't know the colonel as well as she did

would miss completely. Something was going on here

When she saw Ben lurking beyond the threshold, she was certain of it. Her brows narrowed. "Daddy, what are you and-"

"Carrie, I—I—I love you," Tyler burst out, knocking her conspiracy theory right out of her mind. "I will not let you go halfway around the world, and I won't let you take the kids away. They're my kids, too, Carrie! I love them and they love me—they're mine in every way that counts, and so are you. You belong to me, Carrie, and you know it as well as I do. We're—" He paused and drew a deep breath. "We're going to get married—as soon as possible."

The moment he said the words, he realized just how much he meant them. Marrying Carrie, raising the triplets, was exactly what he wanted to do. He just hadn't let himself think that far ahead before. Now that he had, he was chomping at the bit to begin his new life with them.

"Well," Colonel Shaw smiled broadly. "That certainly puts this matter in an entirely different perspective." He turned and found himself face-to-face with an exultant Ben, who'd been shamelessly eavesdropping. "I think we'll give Carrie and Tyler some time alone, son. Let's give Mom and Alexa a hand with the little ones." Ben let out an exuberant cheer, and the colonel swiftly hustled him out.

Tyler turned Carrie in his arms. His own smile was as wide as Ben's and his green eyes were glittering with triumph. Carrie and the children were his! He couldn't ever remember feeling this happy—not even when he was named executive vice-president, the position that put him on the track to the company presidency. This was a kind of euphoria he had never known, an all-consuming joy that touched his heart and soul and sent his spirit soaring.

He bent his head, eager to claim a kiss from his wife-to-be, but when his mouth sought hers, it collided instead with her fingers, which she'd placed against his lips. "Tyler, I can't let you go through with this," she said, her blue eyes bright with unshed tears. "You—you don't have to marry me to keep me from taking the kids to Germany. Before you came in, I'd already told my parents that I had no intention of leaving. We're staying here."

"Carrie, I asked you to marry me," Tyler said urgently. It suddenly occurred to him that she hadn't accepted his proposal—the first marriage proposal he'd ever made to anyone. "You love me, Carrie. You and I both know it. And I love you." It was easier to say the second time. So easy that he said it again. "I love you, and we both know that, too. I want to marry you and adopt the kids. I want the five of us to be a family."

"Tyler, you don't understand," Carrie whispered, trying to swallow the emotional sob welling up within her. "I'm afraid you were tricked into proposing to me. They haven't confirmed it yet, but I'm willing to bet that Ben had something to do with getting Mom and Dad over here. I don't know what he told them, but I'm positive that this visit and their sudden insistence on taking the babies and me to Germany has something to do with wringing a commitment out of you."

"And it worked!" Tyler broke into laughter. He was too happy to do anything else. "It seems I've seriously underestimated your brother Ben. He has the savvy and the skills and creative killer instinct that Tremaine Incorporated looks for in advertising. I'll have to look over his ideas, maybe offer him a job—after our wedding, of course."

"Oh, Tyler!" Tears of joy streamed down Carrie's cheeks. She linked her arms around his neck and gazed up at him, all her love shining in her beautiful blue eyes. "I love you so and I want to marry you, but I don't want you to ever feel you've been manipulated."

Tyler groaned impatiently. "Are you going to say you'll marry me, or am I going to have to get down on bended knee and propose the old-fashioned way? Because I'll do whatever it takes to convince you that I want you to be my wife, Carrie. I want you more than anything in the world."

His lips touched hers, lightly at first, then with increasing, erotic pressure. "And if you're willing to brave another pregnancy, I'd love to have a child with you."

"According to our family history, there is every chance that a child might be twins or even another set of triplets," she warned.

"Hey, Pm game if you are. We'll talk about it again in a few years, when the triple treat are approaching school age, okay?"