Forever His Bride by LISA CHILDS Page A

nodded. “Sure, we’ll go to the park.” He tightened his grip around each boy’s hand as he stepped outside. “We have to stop someplace first, though, and it’s probably a good idea to have you both along.”
    Brenna wondered at Dr. Jameson’s cryptic comment. But then the boys jerked free of his grasp and turned back to her. “Bye, Brenna,” they shouted.
    Her heart warmed. “See you both later.” She wasn’t so sure about Nick, and wondered if he would survive the adventure at the park. She leaned over and pressed a kiss to each twin’s cheek.
    “Remember to call,” Nick beseeched her.
    She nodded, then joined Josh on the porch, where he waved to his sons and his friend. “He was really going to watch them while you were on your honeymoon?” she asked, amazed that the other doctor would have agreed. “How did you convince him?”
    Josh’s broad shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Even though he won’t admit it, he actually enjoys spending time with them. When Amy left me, he helped a lot with them. Too bad he’s sworn off marriage and kids.”
    “Too bad,” she agreed, remembering the way Colleen had stared up at Nick when she’d danced with him the night before. Brenna would have to warn her young friend to protect her heart, as well.
    “Yeah, too bad.” Josh sighed. “He’d make a good husband and father.”
    “He’s some loyal friend,” Brenna mused. Usually the people who made friends like that were friends like that themselves, loyal and supportive.
    “Yeah, Nick and I go way back.”
    Just as she and Molly did. She should be unconditionally supportive of Molly, as Nick was of Josh. Yet while she was concerned about Molly, she was also confused. How could her friend have been so careless with Josh’s feelings, with his heart? “You two have a ‘from the cradle to the grave’ kind of friendship?”
    “That’s what Nick’s afraid of,” Josh said. “That he’s going to be putting me in the grave.”
    “What?”
    “I heard him, asking you to keep an eye on me for him, when he realized there wasn’t room for him to stay here.” Josh snorted. “Hell, I’m surprised he didn’t bring in a sleeping bag so he could sack out on the floor next to me in the parlor.”
    “Well, that goes beyond friendship and qualifies as obsession,” she observed, leaning over the rail to catch a glimpse of Nick with the boys as they disappeared down the sidewalk. “Are you sure you should let him take your sons?”
    Josh nodded. “He’s fine with Buzz and TJ. I’m the one he’s driving crazy.”
    “Why’s he so worried about you?” she asked, wondering if she needed to be worried, too.
    “He’s got me on suicide watch.”
    Brenna’s heart skipped a beat. “Suicide watch?”
    “Yeah.” Josh nodded. “He’s worried I’m going to do something stupid.”
    “So he said,” she admitted. “But he wouldn’t tell me what he considered stupid.”
    “He thinks he has reason to be worried,” Josh admitted.
    “Oh, my God!” Realization dawned. “When your wife left you, did you do something?”
    “No!” Josh assured her. “I never even considered it, not even for a second. My sons depend solely on me.”
    “I can’t imagine what kind of woman would leave her children.”
    “Marriage, motherhood…She was overwhelmed.”
    “You must have been, too,” she pointed out.
    “Things were crazy for a while,” Josh admitted, rubbing a hand across the stubble on his chin. His razor had disappeared from his overnight bag, and he hoped Buzz hadn’t gotten a hold of it again. The kid would need more stitches, if he cut his hair any shorter. “But I never got crazy.”
    She held up the card he’d seen Nick press into her hand. “I don’t need this?”
    He shook his head. “No. Nick’s overly sensitive.”
    She rolled her eyes.
    “He’s overly sensitive about this.” He grimaced, remembering and reliving his friend’s pain. “When his older brother’s wife left him, the guy fell