Tina Leonard - Surprise! Surprise!

He shook his head. “I think you should kick everyone out of the house, except me. This is time you should spend relaxing.”

“I have privacy in my room, and our moms have decorated it beautifully. I’m supposed to feel like I’m in a jungle, far away from everything, among the natural elements of life.”

“It’s certainly got that primitive feel.”

She shook her head at him. “I must have relaxed when you made me laugh, enough to let down.”

“Glad I’m good for something.”

“Precisely. Because if anyone had told me you’d be the instrument of my relaxation, I would have been very concerned.”

“Stranger things have happened, I guess. Why don’t I diaper that greedy little guy if he’s through, and you three can take a nap?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you being so caring?”

“I was always caring, Maddie. I simply want us to go back to what we had before.” He helped her up and toward the bed, taking the baby from her. “You know, our natural element.”

Tucking Henry next to her body, she said, “Our primitive instincts.”

“Well, yeah. I mean, we’d gotten so calendar-happy. It’s tough to get passionate when you feel like you’re playing beat-the-clock. Not that I’m complaining about having sex. Just the performance thing started to weigh on me.” He glanced at her. “I knew I was letting you down. And when the doctor mentioned my potency, I knew I was holding you back from what you wanted most. That’s not what marriage should be.”

“Oh, Sam.” She stared up at him, feeling regret for everything. “I am sorry about all that.”

“Well.” He finished wiping and diapering Hayden and tucked the infant next to his mother. “Good to see that I wrung out some powerful babies, after all.”

“You did.” A slight smile curved her lips. “Dr. Maitland told me there was a major explosion in the old petri dish.”

Sam nodded at her, not believing a word but enjoying having his vanity soothed. “You know, this is the first time I think I’ve related to you how insecure I’d been.”

“Oh, Sam, I never thought you were the problem. I thought it was me! It’s terrible not to be able to give your husband a child.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “You with your breast milk hang-up and me with performance anxiety. We should do something about our neuroses.”

“We did. It’s called separation.” She closed her eyes sleepily, lulled by Sam’s deep, comforting voice.

Sam looked at his wife and the two content infants hogging the king-size bed, a threesome he wasn’t invited to join. He sighed and went to sit on one of the striped chairs. “So, Sam,” he thought to himself. “Everything’s in good working order now. What next? What’s the opposite of neurotics who separate?” He laid his head back against the chair back, pondering the ceiling. “Secure people who stayed married to each other.”

Maybe. Trouble was, Maddie had already given him a definite no to that suggestion. She was probably right. She was happy now, as she’d said, and more than anything he wanted her to be happy. “Hey, Jane,” he murmured softly, “any room in your jungle for this Tarzan?”

The phone rang, startling him into an upright position. He snatched the china floral phone, answering it so Maddie wouldn’t waken. “Hello?”

“This is Dr. Abby Maitland. May I speak to Maddie Brady, please?”

He resisted the urge to growl Maddie Winston. “She’s asleep.”

“Is this Sam?”

Well, at least Dr. Abby knew the origin of the sperm. “Yes, it is.”

“How’s my patient?”

“Doing fine.”

“How are you doing?”

He frowned at the physician’s interest. “I didn’t just give birth, so I’m not the one you should be concerned about. Maddie is. So if there’s anything you can tell me about how to make this easier on her, that would be appreciated. Any special dos or don’ts?”

“She needs lots of rest and TLC,” Abby said. “A healthy diet, lots of fluids. No lifting except for the babies, of course, and no sexual intercourse for six weeks.”

“Ah.” Six weeks! “I’m so happy I asked.”

“I’ll just bet you are.” Abby laughed. “Don’t hesitate to call me if you have any other questions. Please mention to Maddie when she wakes up that I’d like to speak with her.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

He heard the laughter not concealed by her professional tone, and hung up the phone, highly disgruntled. Maddie turned over on the bed, her legs smooth and gleaming in the afternoon sunshine lighting the room. He bit his lips and drummed on the sides of the chair.

Six weeks! Thank goodness he’d already warned himself that until he and Maddie worked things out, she was hands-off to him. But oh boy. There was no question he was still desperately attracted to her.

Sam was an old-fashioned guy. If any more of his children were destined to be born, they weren’t going to be stirred in a petri dish or shaken in a tube!

The only way future babies were going to be whipped up would be by him and Maddie finally getting together—naked, skin-to-skin and primally synchronized.

Made the old-fashioned way.

Hide in your jungle, Jane, because Tarzan has no intention of being left out again!

“You’re taking care of yourself, Maddie?” Abby asked.

Sam had given Maddie a message to call her doctor after she’d awakened from her nap. He’d been pretty careful not to so much as touch Maddie’s fingers when he handed her the portable phone. She sighed, remembering days when Sam had never avoided her. “Even if I weren’t, there’s an army here to make certain I take care of myself.”

“How is Sam coping?”

“Sam is Sam,” Maddie said, her voice even. “Always the gentleman.”

“Hmm. Annoying, is it?”

Maddie laughed. “Maybe a little. Him being a gentleman makes me feel like a witch. I’ve brought all of this turmoil on myself and him, too, but he’s so nice about it that I’ve got guilt growing like a weed.”

“As your doctor, I must advise you to stop thinking like that, Maddie. It’s not healthy. You can’t relax if you’re letting yourself have it all the time. Sam is trying to help.”

“I know. But I can’t help thinking that if he were just a bit less of a prince, I wouldn’t feel quite so witchy.”

“It’s not normal,” Abby said with a sigh, “for a man to be so much more prince than frog, is it?”

“No! It’s not!” Maddie laughed, thankful for Abby’s insight. “And I don’t like feeling as if I’m the frog in the story. But that’s it. I’m an overweight, warty frog.”

“I suspect that’s very contrary to Sam’s way of thinking. If a man gives a woman all the love and kindness and consideration he can, shouldn’t she be happy? Shouldn’t she feel like a princess?” Laughter colored Abby’s tone. “Mix that with after-pregnancy hormones, and you’ve got a real emotional cocktail for Sam.”

Maddie smiled. “Do you know any man who offers to change diapers? Go grocery shopping?”

“Not many. But maybe—maybe, Maddie—you deserve this handsome prince.”

“We weren’t happy before.”

“Then don’t think about getting back together just yet. Play it by ear. You’ll have no expectations to meet. Goodbye, guilt. Pfft! Just like that.”

“That won’t make Sam happy. He wants a traditional family. And he doesn’t want me hitting the test tubes again,” Maddie said slowly. “He wants to try to have children the, um, coital way.”

“Sometimes the floodgates open after a pregnancy, Maddie.”

Her heart lifted at that piece of good news. “Do they really?”