Twins Under His Tree Read Online Free PDF

features, she let the question pop into her head. Are you just here out of duty or do you care? Instead she replied, “I am asking. But you’re not telling me much.”
    â€œAnd why is this suddenly important?”
    That was a good question. “I’m not sure. I guess talking about Ellie, thinking about how I’m going to raise the twins— It just made me wonder, that’s all. At least give me something to think about while I rest and twiddle my thumbs.”
    â€œCrochet,” he pointed out.
    â€œSame difference.”
    The silence in the living room enveloped them for a few moments until Mitch said, “Your background and mine are very different.”
    â€œHow do you know about mine?”
    â€œTroy shared some of it when we played pool.”
    Lily’s husband and Mitch had gone out and shared an evening of guy stuff now and then, the same way she shared time with her friends.
    â€œJust what did he tell you?”
    Mitch’s shrug told her he was attempting to make the conversation casual. “That your father was a respected scientist and professor at Stanford. That your mother was a pharmacist who developed her own line of cosmetics and did quite well with them. Something about after your father died, she sold the formula to provide you with a college education.”
    â€œYes, she did,” Lily murmured, mind-traveling back to a time that was filled with bittersweet memories. “Daddy died of a massive coronary when I was in high school. My mom died of breast cancer when I was incollege. Losing them both made me want to find a profession that gave life.”
    â€œIf your father taught at Stanford, how did you end up here? ”
    â€œMy mom had a friend who lived in Lubbock, so we moved here. But she and my dad had always planned I’d go to their alma mater. I was at Stanford when she got sick. I flew home as often as I could, but then took off a semester when we called in hospice.”
    â€œYou’ve had a lot of loss.”
    â€œThe people I love leave me.” She stared at her hands when she said it, but then she raised her gaze to his. “I know. I know. I shouldn’t believe that. If nothing else, I should think positive to change the pattern. But this negative pattern is awfully fresh again and it’s hard not to wonder.”
    â€œYou have two little girls now to love.”
    â€œI do. And you can bet, I will be an overprotective mom.”
    â€œI don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
    Somehow the conversation had rolled back to Lily again. Mitch was so good at deflecting. Why had she never realized that? But she was also determined to delve below the surface.
    Hiking herself up higher against the sofa arm, she nodded toward the space at the end of the couch where her feet had been. “Tell me how you grew up.”
    He looked as reluctant to sit on her couch as she was to have him sleep there tonight. But in the end, he decided she wouldn’t rest until he gave her something. So he sat on the sofa, his thigh brushing one of her stockinged feet. He looked terrifically uncomfortable. “There’s not much to it.”
    She waited, her gaze on his rugged profile.
    With a grimace, he finally said, “My father married my mother because she was pregnant when they were both eighteen.”
    She knew Mitch was probably going to need some prompting, so she asked, “Did it last?”
    Mitch’s brows drew together as he, obviously reluctant, answered, “He stuck around for a year, then took off on his motorcycle and bailed. She went to business school and became a medical transcriber, but she couldn’t always find work. Other times she held two jobs, cleaned offices at night and saved for when times were thin again. I was determined to make life better for both of us.”
    â€œDid you always want to be a doctor?”
    â€œDo you mean was it a lifelong wish from