The Matchmaking Twins
DOUBLE THE TROUBLEParenting is hard enough when Dad has to be a mom, but widower Luke Gregson has twins–boy twins, Aiden and Caden. As a Navy SEAL, Luke saw plenty of action, but nothing could prepare him for trying to raise two eight-year-olds alone. Parenthood is not for sissies. Maybe that's why the boys have set their eyes on a certain new candidate for mommy . . .Officer Carmen Delgado seems tough enough to handle anything–including Aiden and Caden! She adores the rascals. Her feelings for their heroic father, however, are complicated, and her tragic past has her heart on a seemingly permanent lockdown. Could two mischievous, persistent boys and their overwhelmed sexy daddy be the ones to finally set Carmen free?
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âThey really respond well to you,â Luke said.
âTheyâre good boys. They have good hearts.â
He wanted to tell her that he had a good heart, as well. But so what? Other than that, he didnât have much to offer a woman.
âTheyâve gotten really close to you,â he said.
âI know.â She sighed. Was that a good sigh or a bad sigh? Luke couldnât tell. âI worry that maybe weâve gotten too attached to each other.â
âWe? You mean you and me?â
âActually, I was talking about me and the kids,â she said, making his chest sink like the toy anchor at the bottom of the hot tub. âListen, Luke. I really need to tell you something. To explain whyââ
âHold that thought,â Luke interrupted, seeing his mom waving at him from the doorway. âThe boys are sleeping in the RV with my parents tonight and I need to get them out and dried off before Mom and Dad change their minds.â
She held her mouth in a tiny O of surprise. And if he wasnât sure where her conversation had been headed, he wouldâve been tempted to kiss the surprise right off her lips. But he really did need to get his kids out of here before Carmen delivered her big thanks-but-no-thanks speech, which would end up breaking more than one Gregson heart.
Sugar Falls, Idaho:
Your destination for true love!
CHRISTY JEFFRIES graduated from the University of California, Irvine, with a degree in criminology, and received her Juris Doctor from California Western School of Law. But drafting court documents and working in law enforcement was merely an apprenticeship for her current career in the dynamic field of mummyhood and romance writing. She lives in Southern California with her patient husband, two energetic sons and one sassy grandmother. Follow her online at www.christyjeffries.com.
To my great-aunt, Mary Jane Templeton. Thank you for providing me with so much characterization for this story, and thank you for providing me with so much love and acceptance as a child. I miss our shopping trips, our beauty parlor visits and our lunches out. Iâm sure Heaven has a lot more gold-painted pinecones, Pepsi-Cola and Grand Ole Opry episodes now that youâre there.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Officer Maria Carmen Delgado had once come under heavy fire while guarding some of the most remote military encampments in the world before leaving the Marine Corps to become a cop, patrolling the roughest gang neighborhoods in Las Vegas. But eight-year-old twins Aiden and Caden Gregson of Sugar Falls, Idaho, were certainly going to be the death of her.
âBoys,â she said as she unlocked the driverâs-side door to her squad car. âI told you that if you were going to ride along with me, you had to promise to stay in the backseat of the Explorer.â
âSorry, Officer Carmen,â Aiden said, looking anything but remorseful. âChief Cooper was calling you on the radio, and we had to tell him that you were ten-seven âcause you were taking a leak. We couldnât figure out the secret code for the leak part.â
When sheâd volunteered for the after-school mentorship program at Sugar Falls Elementary, sheâd expected to get assigned as a quasi-big-sister to some disadvantaged young girl. She hadnât expected the director to pair her up with a couple of identical little boys with a penchant for mischief and a knack for speaking their overly bright minds.
Normally she only hung out with the Gregson twins when she was off duty. But the officer scheduled to relieve her had come down with the flu and the small-town police department was still new and slightly understaffed, so sheâd volunteered to stay late and cover his shift. Since Carmen didnât like letting anyone down, sheâd gotten special permission to pick the boys up from school in her patrol vehicle and bring them back to the station. It would only be for an hour, sheâd told herself. What trouble could they possibly get into in that amount of time?
She shouldâve known better.
So far, theyâd already locked themselves inside a jail holding cell, lost a weekâs worth of their allowance money by betting the dispatcher she couldnât finish their math homework and got kicked out of the local Gas Nâ Mart.
And now theyâd just told her boss that sheâd been taking a leak. Actually, Carmen wished it was just that simple to use the restroom while wearing all her tactical gear along with her police uniformâespecially since she went more frequently following her surgery.
Because she couldnât very well take the boys inside the ladiesâ room with her, sheâd told them to stay put inside her cruiser and asked Scooter Deets, one of the older volunteer firefighters who was parked nearby, to keep an eye on the twins. Apparently, olâ Scooter was no better at maintaining control than she was.
