Page 57 of Twin Babies For The Grump

One of the positives of having four naughty dogs in the house is that they spend more time playing with each other than stealing things to have us chase them.

Owen is not much harder to find. If he’s not at the winery or inspecting the fields, he’s at what used to be Thomas’s office.

I stop before the dark wood door, at the sound of Owen’s irritated voice. I can’t make out what he’s saying but it sounds like he’s talking on the phone. Not wanting to eavesdrop, I knock on the door once to let him know I’m here—only I have keys to the estate from when Thomas was in charge—and start toward the living room.

I’ve barely taken any steps when the office door swings open.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Owen

“You’reback.”Ican’thide the relief in my voice.

Tess gives me a sad, guilty smile and opens her mouth to say something, but I don’t let her.

I pull her against my chest and hold her there, planting a kiss on her forehead and then moving down to her cheek until I reach her lips.

She makes no effort to break free from my embrace, the opposite actually. I feel her hands wrap around my waist, pressing her body even closer to mine. We only break free when Beau’s voice from the cell phone in my hand startles us.

“I’ll call you later, okay?” I tell him and hang up before he can respond. Work can wait. “It was Beau,” I explain when she looks up at me with a puzzled expression.

Her eyes go wide. “He saw it too?”

“No, love, our fame has not reached Italy just yet.”

I give her a quick kiss, then explain, “I told him about the news report. Beau has more connections in the area than I do, and he has been taking part in competitions for years; he knows the ins and outs. I want him to ask around and see how the organizers and judges have reacted to the gossip.”

“So you told him that we—”

“Are together? Yes. Before this whole thing happened.” I wrap my arm around her shoulder and lead her inside the office, tugging her along until we reach the armchair. I sit down first and pull her on my lap, her arms wrapping around my neck almost immediately.

As much as I want to make this place my own, I don’t have the heart to change anything in my father’s office yet.

All the stuff from my old office in San Francisco is in the corner of the room, next to the dark walnut bookcase, still in the boxes the moving company put them in.

At least I’ve done a good job adjusting to the rest of the house.

“But we said we’d wait!” she protests although there’s not even a hint of annoyance in her voice. Just worry.

“I’d just learned I was going to be a father, I needed to share the news.” Now that I think of it, a call to my sister about Tess and me is long overdue. I don’t want to learn about us from the news if she hasn’t already. Although if she had, she’d be the one blowing up on my phone for not telling her.

Tess sighs and tries to get up, but I keep her locked in place.

“Where do you think you’re going again?”

“Owen, we need to talk, to figure out what the next step should be.”

“We are talking,” I point out and adjust her on my lap.

“Okay,” she says and takes a deep breath. “I thought about this and—”

“You are not stepping down from your position. I don’t care about the rumors or the contest, and I’m not going to let malicious gossip ruin this for us. Besides, not a single worker here will believe that you got this promotion for any other reason but your hard work. You were doing this before I came here.”

Tess gives me a sweet smile, but it doesn’t really reach her eyes. I hate that these rumors have put her in this position.

“I bumped into Adela earlier, she said the same thing. But, Owen, it’s your father’s legacy. Yours too. You abandoned your old life to be here, to do this. I can’t let you risk—"

This time I don’t bother using words to convince her. My lips press hard on hers, my tongue more demanding than ever. I want to show her what I feel, make her feel it too so the doubt will vanish from her eyes.

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