Page 12 of Silver Fox's Twin Babies

“Yes.” My blunt acknowledgment surprised me.

“Evan Montgomery?” Her eyes narrowed farther. “Their father?” she hissed.

My hands covered my face before tears welled up. She had to sense the conflict inside my chest. How could she not? I had just slept with the father of my children, and he didn’t even know they existed.

“Oh, Amber…I get it now.” Shelby stood and scooted her chair around to the side of the table next to me. Her hand rested on my back, rubbing in a circle the way my mom always did. “I’m here. I honestly don’t know what to say.”

I let my tears flow freely before realizing I was just feeling sorry for myself. I’d been the one to let this happen. I made a decision a long time ago which I thought was meant to help Evan. Jacob always told me that revealing the twins to himwould only force him to grow up faster, but I knew he’d rush home. Evan needed that time in Europe to build his branch of the company, and I knew how excited he was. He’d even told me it was his shot at proving to Jacob that he wasn’t irresponsible. How could I have stopped that?

“Maybe this is the universe’s way of bringing you two back together? You could rekindle the magic…”

I wiped the tears off my cheeks and smiled at the shout of joy Parker let out. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but hearing him cheer and be happy made me happy. My children were my cornerstone. I’d do anything for them. Keeping them safely tucked away in my own heart was something I’d done for seven full years now. I just wasn’t ready to expose them to the fact that I wasn’t the woman they thought I was.

“I can’t do that, Shelby.” My hand reached for my tea and I sipped it. “He’d just be angry that I kept that secret for so long.”

She sat thoughtfully for a few seconds. “Then don’t tell him. Just chase the magic…He never really has to know, does he? He’d end up either accepting your life as is or move on anyway. That way you’d know if he was doing it for you or just out of obligation.”

While that sounded logical, I knew I could never do it. “But the guilt…” I mumbled. “I could never live with it. Besides, Jacob knows. I swore him to secrecy and he’s always been upset by that.”

Parker and Nicky jumped up and high-fived each other and since it was getting later already, I knew I had to stop them from getting another game started. Sitting here talking with Shelby felt good, but it wasn’t going to solve my problems. I stood and wrapped my arms around her and hugged her.

“Please, don’t tell anyone. I just have a lot of thinking to do.”

“Of course,” she said, patting my hand. “I’m gonna get Nicky out of here so you can get the twins to bed.”

I watched as she stood and walked over to the kids, and while I did, I finished my tea. The bitter taste it left in my mouth to tell my secret so easily didn’t leave.

I had refused to accept Jacob’s advice to come clean for years. So long, in fact, that he stopped telling me. Even Jacob gave up on Evan ever returning with his full heart. Jacob never shared information about his brother after admitting that Evan was dating someone else; I asked him not to. And I trusted that he was also keeping my private life private too. Unless Evan showed up on my doorstep and asked, I wanted my privacy.

But he had.

And now my privacy was threatened.

I knew I should tell him, but the guilt and shame were too heavy. I just had to stick it out and try to resist the temptation to reach for him again. Jacob would recover and Evan would return to R&D in Crescent Springs, and I would put this all behind me.

I just had to keep my distance. Which meant changes for the structure of work, but I could manage that.

8

EVAN

Ilanded one hard blow then another, and Decker danced out of the way. He had his hands up, gloves on, protecting his face and head, and I was on fire.

“Looks like you’re losing steam, old man.” My razzing him seemed to get him going harder, but there was no way he was beating me today. I was on top and rising. The energy in my body felt like I was twenty years old again.

The gym hummed with energy too. People gathered around the ring as I sparred with my good friend, though he hadn’t landed a single blow today. Normally he bested me in a fair fight, which told me my positive mood the past few days was contributing to my dominance right now.

“Keep talkin’ trash, Evan, and I’ll lay you out.” Decker took another stab, then another. I backed away and dodged. When I sidestepped and spun around, he moved past me and I shoved him into the ropes.

The cheer that went up only egged me on. We never drew a crowd for our sparring, but today it started with a few teens who joined the gym last month. They watched every move we made.It was my habit to do a bit of sparring a few times a week, and this week felt amazing.

“Seems like you’re on a losing streak here, Decker. You better go home to Mommy.” I taunted and circled him, and when he stepped forward with a right hook, I nabbed him with a left jab, crossing my fist over his jaw. The helmet and pads protected him but he went down hard, probably seeing stars.

Cheers erupted around us again, and I raised my hands in victory and absorbed the praise for a moment. Then I helped Decker up by offering him a hand. He jumped up and bumped fists with me before spitting out his mouthguard.

“Dang, you’re on fire today.” He grinned at me as he shucked his sparring gloves and ripped the Velcro on his helmet open. I followed him to the edge of the ring, removing my sparring equipment at the same time, and we climbed out to let the next set of contenders have the space.

“Yeah, sort of…” I knew I had a dumb cheesy grin on my face, but I couldn’t help it. I’d felt like I was on cloud nine ever since Monday evening in my office. Things with Amber weren’t exactly fluid, and I had a lot of questions, but I loved working side by side with her. We hadn’t even spoken about the sex yet. It was awkward at times too. Still, she was a professional and we managed to muddle through the past few days without major incident.

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