she sobbed as she lay there in the specially subdued lighting of the delivery room with one precious dark-haired baby in each arm. ‘They’re identical and they look just like you.’
‘You’re the beautiful one,’ he argued as he stroked her joyful tears away with gentle fingers. ‘You’re amazing, Sara Lomax, and I could never tell you how much I love you in a million years. As for you two,’ he said as he turned his attention to two little boys that were so perfect that any man would be proud to be their father.
He leaned a little closer, and under the cover of the activity still going on around them said, ‘I need to have a word with the two of you for spoiling things. I had big plans for your mother tonight, involving a certain black lacy thong.’
‘You idiot!’ Sara laughed, knowing she’d had some similar plans of her own.
She loved Dan all the more for teaching her to have confidence in herself as an attractive woman, confidence that she’d never developed when she’d always felt herself to be in Zara’s shadow.
‘We’ll just have to remember what we had planned and save it up for later,’ she suggested, her heart so full of love that it felt as if must be overflowing. ‘After all, we’ve got the rest of our lives to love each other.’
Laura Iding
“SLOW down, Ben,” Alyssa Knight called, tightening the red wool scarf around her neck and pulling her black jacket over her pregnant belly in an effort to block the chilly wind as she followed her charge down the path toward the Lake Michigan shoreline. “I can’t move that fast.”
“But I want to see if the water is frozen,” Ben protested, with six-year-old logic.
“The lake is too large to freeze. Ben, I mean it. Stop right there and wait for me,” Alyssa said in a firm, you’d-better-listen tone.
Ben let out a heavy sigh and stopped in the middle of the path. She smiled and shook her head. Ben was Kylie Germaine’s active son, and she’d agreed to watch him for a few hours. Kylie was spending this Saturday afternoon doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, along with a final fitting for her wedding dress, in preparation for her New Year’s Eve wedding to Seth Taylor, one of Cedar Bluff’s Emergency Department physicians.
Kylie would make a beautiful bride, she thought with a pang of envy. The couple radiated happiness. When Alyssa had been young, she’d always wished for a big family. Kylie and Seth were planning to have more kids, and Seth already treated Ben like his own son.
She was glad to help out, even for a couple of hours.
There was an inch of snow covering the ground and she was looking forward to a white Christmas. In spite of the chill in the cold December air, she’d thought a trip to Cedar Bluff Park would be a good way to keep Ben occupied. Much better than sitting around in her small apartment.
An apartment too small for her expanding family.
The dark, heavy clouds overhead indicated more snow might be on the way. She picked up her pace, more so to keep warm than to catch up with Ben.
“When are your babies going to be born?” Ben asked as she met up with him on the path. There was an upper path leading to the top of the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, but they’d taken the lower path leading directly to the lakeshore. Climbing the upper path in her current condition had been too daunting.
“Not for another eight weeks,” she told him, smoothing her hand down over her stomach. At least she hoped she wouldn’t have them too early. With twins, nothing was certain. Not only was she facing the fact she was pregnant with twins, but that she’d need to raise them alone, since their father, an emergency department physician named Jadon Reichert, had vanished in a disappearing act over four months ago.
She’d tried to call him, to let him know she was pregnant, but after the first couple of messages his cell phone had announced the number was out of service. According to Seth, Jadon was on an extended personal leave of absence from Cedar Bluff Hospital. In her opinion, a personal leave of absence was nothing more than a euphemism for gone and never coming back.
Which meant she was on her own. Exactly how she would manage to raise two kids alone was something she hadn’t quite figured out yet. But, no matter what, she was determined to succeed in providing her babies with a secure, loving home.
“Mom says you’re gonna need our help when the babies are born,” Ben said, skipping up the path. He picked up a large stick and poked it into the snow.
She was going to need help all right. And lots of it. Luckily the close-knit, family-like atmosphere of Cedar Bluff, the town and the hospital where she worked as an ED/trauma nurse, meant she was surrounded by friends. People like Kylie and Seth had already offered their support.
Alyssa knew she wasn’t alone. Not really. But having friends who were willing to chip in and help wasn’t exactly the same as having a full-time father for her babies.
Wishing for the impossible was a waste of time, so she quickly pushed thoughts of Jadon aside. She’d gone into the affair knowing it wasn’t going to last, so it was her own fault if her heart had gotten bruised when he’d left. If he didn’t want to be a part of her life, fine. Her focus needed to be on taking care of herself and the babies.
Besides, her favorite holiday of all, Christmas, was only a few weeks away.
The path opened into a small clearing near the lakefront. Ben dashed forward, heading straight for the rocky shore.
“Don’t go near the water,” she warned.
“I won’t,” he hollered over his shoulder.
She told herself not to worry so much. Kylie brought Ben down to the lakefront all the time; surely he would abide by his mother’s limitations. The wind kicked up, blasting frigid air into her face, whipping her long dark hair over her eyes and stealing her breath.
Jiminy Cricket, it was cold.
She turned to face the wind, pushing her hair out of her eyes. She pulled the scarf around her neck a little tighter and looked for Ben. Where had he gone? Impatiently she scanned the area, finding him standing precariously on the rocks above the water.
What part of Don’t go near the water hadn’t he understood?
“Ben? What are you doing?” she called in exasperation. “Get down and come back here.”
He didn’t seem to hear her, poking intently at something between the rocks. She had no idea what he’d found—surely all the marine wildlife was in hibernation by early December. She quickened her step, intent on dragging him back to safety, when suddenly there was a loud crack and a shrill cry. His walking stick had snapped in two, throwing him off balance. His small arms made windmill motions as he hung for mindnumbing seconds poised above the water.
“Ben!” Alyssa broke into a run just
