Read Online One in a Million by Susan Mallery - Free Book Online

in Fern Hill with his wife, Jill, and their five children." Nash had taken a drink of his iced tea and nearly choked. "Five?" Travis grinned. "We have a lot of kids. I'm mar ried to Elizabeth . We have four girls. Next is Jordan . He's married to Holly. They have three girls."
    “ I'm the youngest boy in the family," Kyle said. "I'm married to Sandy . We have five kids, too. Four girls, one boy. Hannah's our half sister, through our father, so she's your half sister, as well. She's mar ried to Nick. They have two girls." He turned to - Kevin. "You and Haley are staying at the B&B Nick owns with Louise, Hannah's mother." Nash set down his glass. "I'm never going to keep this straight."
    “ It'll get easier with time," Travis said. "There's also Austin Lucas, who isn't officially one of the Haynes men. He's sort of an adopted member of the family. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four kids, three boys and a girl."
    “ Wait until we start telling you which kids are from a previous marriage," Kyle said.
    Kevin held up his hands. "I don't think I want to know." Nash tried to do the math to figure out how many people could show up at the dinner that night, but lost count somewhere after twenty.
    “ That's a lot of family members," he said. "Kevin told me your father doesn't live around here." He shook his head. "I guess he's our father, too. I don't think of him that way yet." Kyle and Travis glanced at each other. "He's in Florida with wife number six or seven," Travis said.
    “ I've lost count. None of us stay in touch with him."
    “Why?" Kevin asked.
    “ He's..." Travis hesitated. "He wasn't a great father to us." Nash leaned forward. "Don't worry about offend ing us with anything you say about him. As far as Kevin and I are concerned, Earl Haynes is just a guy who got a seventeen-year-old virgin pregnant and then walked out on her."
    “ That was Dad's style," Kyle said quietly. "He was chronically unfaithful. He and his brothers believed that if they slept in their own beds at night, that was about as good as it had to get. They didn't worry about details like being true to one woman or giving a damn about their kids."
    “ We wanted to be different," Travis told them. "Each of my brothers and I knew how unhappy we'd been and we were determined to keep history from repeating itself. After three generations of bastards, we wanted to make something of our lives, to get involved with our wives and kids. To be good men." Kyle chuckled. "To have daughters."
    “Why would that matter?" Nash asked.
    The waitress arrived with their burgers. Once they were served, Kyle reached for the mustard in the center of the table.
    “ Until Travis and Elizabeth got married," Kyle said, "there hadn't been a girl born to a Haynes man in four generations."
    “ Not counting Hannah," Travis said. "We didn't know about her." He glanced at Nash.
    “Right. Okay, no girls except for Hannah."
    “ Travis and Elizabeth had a daughter. Then Sandy and me, then Craig and Jill," Kyle said. "Holly and Jordan were next. He's the one who came up with the theory."
    “Which is?" Kevin asked.
    “ Haynes men can only have girls when they're in love with the woman."
    “That's crazy," Nash said.
    “ There's a lot of female Hayneses running around," Travis pointed out. He nodded at Kevin. "Just you wait until you and Haley are having kids." Kevin grinned. "I look forward to our children, whatever their gender."
    “ Good," Kyle said, "Because you're probably going to have a lot of them."

    Chapter Five

    Nash left the diner after lunch and headed back for the B&B. He'd enjoyed meeting his half brothers, although he found the thought of their large families overwhelming. Five kids. That seemed like a lot.
    He'd never much thought about having or not having kids of his own. After marrying Tina, he'd wanted to wait for a while before they started a fam ily. She'd pressured him, but he'd refused to agree. Not until things were more stable between them. He'd